Remember, reflect on 9/11 Published Sept. 11, 2006 By Col. Steve Arquiette 60th Air Mobility Wing commander TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- As we approach the fifth year anniversary 9/11, it's appropriate to pause for a moment and reflect. Ask anyone what they were doing on September 11th 2001 and most will be able to clearly recall the events of that day in their lives and how they first learned of the terrorist attack. It's important to never let those powerful memories of that day slip away or be diminished in any way. As a squadron commander at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington DC on 9/11, I recall watching the President return home early in the evening--Air Force One flew down final approach escorted by two fighter jets on each wing and two fighter jets in trail. It was a very surreal to think that we were under attack in our own country. Nearly one year later, I flew a mission supporting a White House advance team to La Guardia airport in New York City - the team was heading to the World Trade Center site at Ground Zero in preparation for the President's speech. Our flight path that morning into New York City had us flying very low altitude up the Hudson River; the Statue of Liberty stood proudly in the morning sun just off to the left side of the cockpit. A minute later looking out the right window, I could see directly down onto Ground Zero...there was no debris, just many acres of flat brown dirt, a big square that looked all too sterile as if a major catastrophe that took 3,000 innocent lives had never happened there. At that very moment I thought "will the memories of the dust clouds and twisted steel remains of the collapsed Twin Towers be erased from the minds of Americans now that the Ground Zero site was cleaned up?" The answer to that question is a resounding NO! This became very clear last Tuesday night during a Fairfield City Hall meeting as a local resident, Ms. Nichole Fairchild, presented me two scrapbooks containing hundreds of notes and letters from our local community members. These powerful notes and letters say thank you to all of the men and women serving in the armed services. Ms. Fairchild volunteered her time to gather all of these notes throughout our local community. Our Team Travis flying crews will hand carry and deliver these scrapbooks to the men and women currently in Iraq and Afghanistan and will let them know that America has not forgotten 9/11. Communities all across America, just like our great local community, truly appreciate the sacrifices that are ongoing by the military members and their families. Those of us currently serving in uniform at Travis can not forget that the stakes are extremely high in this Global War on Terror. As we recently witnessed with the arrests in London surrounding a plot to use liquid explosives on airliners to create another mass causality event, there are still many extremists out there whose daily focus is to destroy everything America and the Free World stands for. Each and every one of us here at Team Travis must be personally and professionally focused to safely and effectively perform our duties in the best possible manner. We must maintain top physical conditioning as many of our future deployed duty locations will be extremely demanding. We must not forget why we in Air Mobility Command have been extremely busy over the past five years...our children's future and their children's future depends on the sacrifices we are making today and for the foreseeable future. Know that what you do is extremely important and that I am extremely proud to serve along side of you. Thank you for your service and sacrifices. We must always remember... BE PROUD! BE SAFE!