9/11 Twenty Years On: A Sister Speaks

[Geee]

American Greatness

An open letter from Debra Burlingame, sister of Capt. Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame, pilot, American flight 77, who died in the attack on the Pentagon, September 11, 2001.

have spent the last 20 years remembering my brother and the 2,977 people who were brutally murdered in an act of war carried out by Sunni extremists—jihadist terrorists who seek to impose their cruel form of Sharia law on all the world.

This was a wake-up call for most Americans. And some five million of them answered that call. They left their jobs, they interrupted their college studies, and they said goodbye to their families to defend and protect their country under the colors of their flag. They went to war.

Some of those who served in combat were only children on 9/11 and some were the children of those brave and valiant firefighters and cops who died in the Twin Towers. These people have been my inspiration. They and their families restored my hope, and affirmed my belief in the goodness of my fellow human beings. I will never forget them, because they never forgot 9/11 and my brother, his passengers and crew, and all those who died that terrible day.

 

This year, this Saturday, as I stand at the Pentagon just a few yards away from where American flight 77 struck the building, I will be remembering the bravehearts of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and all the other post-9/11 military operations where they were sent, not to engage in a “forever war” but to secure “forever peace“—the phrase a British MP, NATO ally, and Afghanistan combat veteran used so effectively in a speech to his peers in Parliament.

This anniversary, another American president will address the nation. But it will be a bitter day. Because this is a president who has betrayed his troops and his country.

 

[Geee]

Would You Have Stormed The Cockpit?

As we near another anniversary of that dark September day, don't just remember the heroes of Flight 93. Strive to be like them.