Twenty-two years ago, the tragic event of 9/11 occurred. At Brandon High School, we have many personal stories about where and what they were doing when the Twin Towers fell. Sharon Roth, a history teacher at BHS, had a fascinating story to tell. Mrs. Roth remembers being pregnant with her daughter while running errands in Tupelo. This year, particularly, she had not been teaching. She had just dropped her oldest off at “Mom’s Day Out,” a program her church held. Mrs. Roth remembers seeing the disaster on television and watching the second plane hit. Walking outside, she looked at the sky, almost as if anticipating something to happen. Then, Mrs. Roth shifted to think about Mississippi’s areas that could be attacked. Finally, she picked up her phone to call her loved ones.

This story portrays the mixed emotions many felt on this day. The terror, anxiety, and distress that could all occur. Yet, Mrs. Roth wasn’t finished with her story. She then spoke of her friend, Lieutenant Colonel Triplett, who had been in the Pentagon the day of the attack and how he had heroically helped to pull people out of the rubble. He was a part of the internal command center, helping to make decisions about the situation. At the time in America, most of the terrorist attacks had been international, except for a few bombing attempts; 9/11 was the first full-blown successful attack on American soil.

Lieutenant Colonel Triplett is a retired green beret who chased around terrorists for a living. At Mrs. Roth’s former school, she would have Colonel and his wife visit the classroom to share their 9/11 experiences and describe the events, emotions, and aftermath of the attack. Today, take time to show respect to the many who lost their lives on 9/11 and support the U.S. military so that we may never live through another event like 9/11.