09/12/02]”It is 11 September, about 0800 here. About the same time of day it was back in the MVD offices one year ago, when someone stuck their head in my door and first told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and that it was on the TV down the hall. I remember that Jim Merritt and I walked down to Mr. Logue’s office and were watching when the second plane struck.

Until that point, like most, I suppose, I thought some pilot had made a tragically horrible mistake in navigation. But when I saw the second plane hit, I knew. I knew, even then, that America would retaliate, and the chance was good that I would be putting on a military uniform for the second time in less than a year and going to some far-flung place to serve my country.

On this one-year anniversary of that galling attack, as I sit at my desk in Kabul, Afghanistan, I wanted to tell you that those of us here are doing everything we can to ensure that Americans never again have to experience the death, shock, anger, pain, fear and loss that we all did on this day, one year ago. If my being here means that I don’t have to ever again hear the anguish in my mother’s voice that day (she was 18 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and remembers), then it will have been worth all the disruption to my life and my work.

I never again want to witness the greatest nation in the world, hiding its president and commander-in-chief, utterly paralyzed, waiting for terror to strike it from anywhere at anytime. So, today, when I walked out of the schoolhouse on my way to the office this morning and saw the U.S. and Afghan flags fluttering together at half staff on the flagpoles in our compound, I realized that nothing in this world is more important than our freedom and continued existence as a nation.

If I have any part in ensuring that continuation, then I am honored to be here. May God bless America and keep Her safe.

Trish Morris