Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

In just a few days, we will recognize the awful thing that happened in our country 19 years ago.

Wow, 19 years. Most days I can’t remember what I had for lunch, but on September 11, every year (and even in the days leading up to it) I remember exactly what I was doing and exactly how I felt.

It is a day that will forever be vivid in my mind and still brings me that feeling of disbelief, shock and sadness. Every. Single. Time.

Most of you probably feel the same way to some degree. We will remember hearing about the thousands of people who were jolted by the news of the day. From those directly involved to those who were struck down when they received the news of a lost loved one.

Each year, events honoring those who were killed after two planes slammed into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., are held around the country. The reading of the names and the ringing of the bells gets me every time.

Our own community lost some pretty special people in that attack and in the events that followed.

On September 11, 2001, Tamara Thurman’s life ended as she worked at the Pentagon as an assistant in the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel.

She had no idea that on that day as she prepared for her routine, that some evil minds were at work planning to end her life and the lives of so many others.

As the war on terrorism was being fought in the years following that awful day, our communities lost two other special people. Staff Sgt. Phillip Travis and Cpl. Christopher Winchester – neither of which had any idea just how short their lives would be cut as they watched with a nation the horrific events of Sept. 11.

Winchester died July 14, 2005 and Travis died on Dec. 2 of the same year.

Each of our three people were doing what they believed they were meant to do – serve America.

For those more than 2,700 people who died in New York, nearly 200 in Washington, D.C., and 40 souls who died in a field in Pennsylvania, this day should be observed as an honor to their deaths.

As we remember all of those who were lost on 9/11/2001 and the years that came after, remember those left behind by those brave soldiers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters and children. Losing a loved-one is not something you can forget.

May God continue to bless America.