9/11

Rinnnnng Rinnnng Rinnnnng....That was the noise I woke up to on 9/11/01.

It was 6:45 in the am and I picked up my phone to hear the voice of my best friend Mac. He said Heidi Get up there is a recall and we have 10 minutes to get to work. Mind you I was in the Military at this time stationed at Travis AFB and working at David Grant Hospital. He said 2 planes have hit the Twin Towers and and they think it is a terrorist attack.

My heart sank!

My head was lost and my eyes could not see straight.

I threw on my BDU's, brushed my teeth, and that I remember because I can recall looking at myself in the mirror with total terror that I was gonna have to be deployed. I jumped in my car and only to arrive at work 3 min later to an alarm going off, the base had been shut down and there was 4 tanks that pulled out in front of the base so not even the people who lived on base could get on. The SP's (base cops) were in all gear and had M16's pointed in every direction.

When I walked into the hospital people were running all over the place and over the loud speaker all you could hear was (ALARM BLACK ALARM BLACK TAKE COVER)
Granted we were in California however Travis is the last stop for the Air Force between the US and Over Seas to refuel!

I wanted to cry I have never been so scared.

After the hospital released us to go to our clinics, I walked up to Pediatrics which at that time I worked in Ped Immunizations. I walked in and the TV's in the waiting room were on and the first thing I saw was one of the Towers falling, I will never forget the feeling in my body. It was like I was completely paralyzed with fear and sadness and confusion and loss......

We were all given a schedule to go back to our dorms and homes to get our bag so that we could have them checked to make sure we would be ready to deploy at any moment!
TERRIFIED WAS I!!!!!

We could not even make a phone call to our families which I might add was the hardest thing about it all!!!

This routine happened for the next two weeks, alarms, fear, threat of being deployed, no patients, no contact for a week with the outside!

I swear I slept for maybe 4 days during this time, I was overwhelmed with fear and sadness!

I had a friend who was in the towers who by some miracle managed to survive, long long story so I'm not going to go there!

Well not to sure where to go from here with this moment in my life, my next several months went into a total downward spiral and within 6 months I was in treatment for the first time and 4 months later I was discharged from the military for my eating disorder!

I want anyone and everyone who may read this to know the total and complete sadness I have in my heart for all that may have went through a similar situation or who may have lost friends and family in this tragic moment in time. I still have friends in Iraq who are fighting for us day in and day out and still have more who are scheduled to leave for year long tours.
With saying this I want to thank all of you who are away from your loved ones fighting for us! My heart goes out to you and my love is with all of you my military brothers and sisters!