As our country reflects on 9/11 this week, like many others, I have spent time thinking about where I was and what I was doing when I first realized we were under attack. Eleven years have passed, but it seemed like only days as my mind began to go back to that day of infamy over a decade ago. As a sophomore in high school I remember being a little nervous. As a self-proclaimed history buff I knew full well the accounts of the Greatest Generation that dealt a fatal blow to Hitler’s tyranny, just after responding to the only other attack on US soil following Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor. This was also on the heels of the War to End All Wars, another decisive victory and display of American military strength. But I also knew of the more recent missions into Korea and Vietnam; these were campaigns that we did not technically lose, but still made us wonder if our military had not taken a step backwards*. Desert Storm, the only war in my lifetime up to that point, was short and ...