Remembrance 2004 for September 11 2001

Remembrance
of
The Darkest Day in America
September 11, 2001
The Day America was under attack.
And it is not over yet.

"The proud warriors of the Baker Company
wanted to do something to pay tribute to our fallen comrades.
So since we are part of the only Marine Infantry Battalion left in Iraq
the one way that we could think of doing that is by taking a picture
of Baker Company saying the way we feel.
It would be awesome if you could find a way to share this with our fellow countrymen.
I was wondering if there was any way to get this into your papers to let the world know that
"WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN"
and are proud to serve our country."
Semper Fi
1st Sgt. Dave Jobe

God give us courage!

Let us not forget all lives that were lost in this tragic event.

Between the field where the flag is planted there are 9+ miles of flower fields that go all the way to the ocean.
The flowers are grown by seed companies. It's a beautiful place close to Vandenberg AFB.
Checkout the dimensions of the flag.
The 2002 Floral Flag is 740 feet long and 390 feet wide and
maintains the proper Flag dimensions as described in Executive Order #10834.
This Flag is 6.65 acres and is the first Floral Flag to be planted with 5 pointed Stars comprised of White Larkspur. Each Star is 24 feet in diameter; Each Stripe is 30 feet wide.
This Flag is estimated to contain more than 400,000 Larkspur plants with 4-5 flower stems each
for a total of more than 2 million flowers.
You can drive by this flag on V Street south of Ocean Ave. in Lompoc, CA.

Aerial photo courtesy of Bill Morson Soldiers' Prayer

"President Bush's precious gift to my daughter."
Editorial by CK Rairden
May 10, 2004

It started out as a fluke.
Lynn Faulkner had been offered an extra ticket to a Bush campaign event by his neighbor Linda Prince. Mr. Faulkner decided to offer it to his 15-year old daughter Ashley who he expected would decline,
as she would have to miss some school to attend. But his daughter surprised him.
Ashley reminded her dad how four years ago they attended a similar event when then
Texas Governor George W. Bush visited the same spot on the campaign trail.

Ashley remembered attending that event with both her father and her mother Wendy Faulkner.
It was raining that day and they all stood in the rain awaiting Governor Bush "eating Triscuit crackers" enjoying the time together and hoping to get a glimpse of the would-be president.
Ashley recalled holding her mothers hand as they waited.
So she decided to go again this year, but this time her mother could not attend.
Wendy Faulkner was murdered on 9/11/01 in the south tower of the World Trade Center.
She was there on the 104th floor for a one-day meeting.
Ashley decided to miss school in honor and remembrance of her mother and attend the event.

So the trip was on.
Linda Prince, along with Lynn and Ashley Faulkner, were off to the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, Ohio for the event. The group arrived early and got a spot close to the front.
As the event wound down, the president worked the line in full campaign mode shaking hands and signing autographs. As the president passed the group, Mr. Faulkner got an autograph, and the president continued on until Linda Prince spoke up, "This girl lost her mother on 9/11," Prince told the president.

Then everything changed.

"The president's entire expression transformed," Mr. Faulkner told me on Sunday.
"He turned and came back against the flow and his eyes locked on Ashley's.
His face showed a man who was no longer the president, he was a father and a husband."
President Bush made his way back to Ashley and he embraced the 15-yeal old young woman.
"She snuggled in with the president just like she did when she was a little girl with her dad," Mr. Faulkner said.
"I know it's hard," Mr. Faulkner heard the president tell his daughter.
"I'm okay," Ashley told the president. The embrace continued.

Mr. Faulkner had his Kodak digital camera with him and debated on invading this very private moment
between his daughter and the leader of the free world.
"For 20-30 seconds the president belonged exclusively to Ashley," Lynn Faulkner told me.
So he decided to capture the moment without invading Ashley and the president's privacy.
He held up his digital camera, not even aiming with his eye and with one click snapped just one picture.
It showed in detail the face of a compassionate man who just happens to be the president
comforting a young woman who lost her mother in the 9/11 attacks on America.

Mr. Faulkner told me that he saw tears in his daughter's eyes,
and saw emotion that he hadn't seen from his daughter in 2 ½ years.
Ashley told her dad, "The way he was holding me, with my head against his chest,
it felt like he was trying to protect me, he wanted to make sure that I was safe."
That feeling is captured in a very clear way in this moving unscripted photo.
It's the only photo of this special embrace as the press corps had already been ushered back on the bus.
And the photo was never meant for publication.
All Mr. Faulkner did when he returned home from the event was e-mail it to 15 friends and family.
But by the middle of last week, I had received the photo from eight different people.
Others were also receiving the photo and forwarding it along.
It became an Internet phenomenon, as it was e-mailed around America.

Mr. Faulkner called the embrace "President Bush's precious gift to my daughter."
And with his small act of e-mailing that photo to friends and family,
the picture can now become a gift to the American people.

And as sad as the story is the release and publication is a good thing.
Disgusting photos coming out of Iraq for the past 10 days have shocked Americans, as they should have.
But no longer are the terrible images of 9/11 shown.
While the Iraq prison photos have been picked up by the elite media and shown time and again,
this touching photo has gone largely ignored by the mainstream media.
But the alternative media has made this touching powerful photo one of the most e-mailed photos of last week.
The Internet once again took over where the elite media failed.
Matt Drudge ran it on May 7th, as did the Page 2 Politics journal, and hundreds of other blogs.
Millions have now seen it, but millions more need to.
It gives a stark reminder why America is at war with radical Islam and other terrorists around the world
that are determined to cause this kind of pain to other American families.

The images of 9/11 have faded in the minds of far too many Americans.
This picture and this family's riveting story give a stark reminder of why America is at war.
Each day around the globe our soldiers are fighting in an attempt to prevent any other event as terrible as the murders that took place on 9/11. Look hard at this picture.
See the compassion and sadness on the president's face.
Look at this young woman, see her grief and listen her father's words.
Ashley and her sister Loren just spent their third Mother's Day without their mother,
as did thousands of other children who lost their mothers on 9/11 at the hands of ruthless uncaring terrorists. Imagine yourself in that position.