 It is Tuesday morning, the 11th of September, and you will not forget this date. So I actually, I had no idea it was going on until later that day. My parents, my mother put me on the bus, my dad was working, I was in school, like every other normal day, a bunch of kids were getting pulled from class, and my mother explained to us what happened, something bad happened in the city, and she told myself, my older brother, that our dad wasn't coming home. My father and uncle were both killed in that day, dad was a police officer, and my uncle was a New York City firefighter. I think it prepared me a lot for the world. So we always knew that they were bad guys, but to us they were just people my dad arrested. We never really thought that anything that bad would happen, and the evil in this world would be, you know, terrorism and all that stuff, because as a little kid, you don't realize what terrorism actually is, play army marines in the backyard, you don't know what you're actually doing, and then when that happened we realized, like, oh, not just a game, this is actually like life and death. One of my father's regrets was that he never joined the marines, and after college I was like, well, I'll do it now or don't ever do it, and I didn't want to have any regrets, so here I am. I honestly do love the Marine Corps. There are some days where I don't love it as much as others, but I still do love it. I got a great group of guys, good NCO Corps, great Officer Corps, and I love being here. Who would have thought the USS New York, the ship that I saw in New York back in 2007 would be the ship I'd be deployed on? Of all ships to go on, I'm happy it was that one. So the USS New York is actually made out of steel from the World Trade Center. There's memorabilia all around the ship, including subway signs from the World Trade Center, placards with the names and pictures of the firefighters and police officers who were killed that day. Being on the USS New York was a more meaningful experience to myself because I'd walk out of the chow hall and on my way back down to my birthing I had to pass a picture of my dad, so every day I'd get to see my dad. I give the last 18 years for just one more day, and miss him.