Mission Accomplished

Nealy a decade ago, a friend and I were sitting in Sociology class at Arkansas Northeasern College when word came that the college was closing due to a national catastrophe. As we walked out of the class and into the cafeteria, the televisions were showing the planes crashing into the World Trade Center.

At that time, as a young man barely out of high school, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know that over the next few years, several of my friends and peers from high school would don the camouflage and head overseas to take part in this decade long battle.

As time went on, I watched as our nation bonded together, closer than it had been in years. We became more aware of one another and we realized that we are all joined together in some form or fashion.

Over time, we kind of fell back a little bit, but the bug has always been in our minds, buried deep down in the back.

Tonight (May 1, 2011), as my wife was flipping through channels looking for something for my son to watch, I noticed that something was going on as she flipped through a news channel.

I picked up my laptop, and began to check the national news sites. The headlines proclaimed that President Barack Obama was about to announce that Osama bin Laden was dead. Sure enough, within a half hour, Obama was at a podium, proclaiming that a special ops team had shot and killed bin Laden.

I hate to sound like a sadist, but upon hearing the news, I smiled. I was happy to hear it. The man who was responsible for robbing our nation of so much--family, friends, safety, security, privacy, and more--was dead. And I was happy to hear it.

To those who lost loved ones in the attacks of 9-11 and the "War on Terror," I say I'm sorry.

To my friends and peers and those who I do not even know who were a part of the "War on Terror," I say thank you, and job well done.

To quote a friend's Facebook post, "Mission Accomplished! Thank you Troops, lets come home!"