Fifteen Years Ago Today...

Fifteen years ago today, I was standing in the front lobby of the Pacific Air Forces Head Quarters building, Hickam AFB, HI. With me stood two gentlemen. We had just finished walking around the memorial hall and looking at all the black and white photos that captured the history of the day. There were hangers in shambles, tar mats and flight lines with chunks blown out of them, buildings with smoke pouring out from the openings that had not been their the day before.

One of the men told me about how he had been sitting in the dining hall (which was still running as a small café in the building) eating his breakfast when the whole building began to shake. The other man had awoke to the building being hit. In the center of the hall was a vacuum-sealed glass case that displayed the 6x8 ft US flag that had flown that day. It was torn and there were holes in it, but the seams held tightly together. One of the men commented that it was just like our country…it took the blows and still held together. I watched as a single tear rolled down this man’s cheek and disappeared into the smile that lit up his face.

I felt a sense of honor just being between them both. Their memories and pride filling the energies of that often solemnly quiet room. After they left, I never quite felt the same about that room, or the whole building. There were still several pockmarks on the outside of the building, the men that fixed it after the attack saw fit to leave just a slight reminder. You could not approach that building without seeing at least one.

That building, that now housed the Head Quarters, was the barracks that morning. Some men were still asleep in their beds and never awoke. Some became trapped in a center hall as the floor above collapsed on them…that hall was sealed off and became their tomb, a small brass marker is there today. You can still walk down the halls of that building and hear, see and feel the residents of that barracks moving about.

Later that afternoon, a handful of my friends and I took the short, quiet ride out to the Arizona Memorial with a ferry full of Veterans. There was a special feel to it that day, unlike the other times I had been out there. No one spoke a word, but we were all thinking and feeling the same thing. One of the Veterans pulled an old bugle out of his shoulder bag and started to play Taps. Every one there that day naturally came to a position of attention and saluted. On the way back to shore, one of the Veterans thanked the small group of us "young troops" that had gone out with them. He gave each of us a patch memorializing the 50th anniversary of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor.

I still have that patch, packed away in a safe place, but its memories are fresh in my mind today. Fifteen years later, fewer of the Veterans that were there that day are with us. Each of them is precious to our country and holds a special place in my heart.

Here’s a tear down the cheek, a vow of remembrance and a moment of silence honoring my fellow Veterans. As I promised them that day, I WILL NOT FORGET! Thank-You!

Lillian M Meadows

(Sgt Lillian M Thompson)

Veteran of Desert Storm

15th Security Police Squadron

PACAF Elite Guard Unit