By Mark Pearson
Everybody who was alive and was old enough to remember each have a vivid image of where they were on the morning of 9/11. For me, it was sitting in a jeweler’s repair shop where I was working at the time. I got a call from my wife informing me that an airplane just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. I immediately thought back to the 1930’s or 40’s when a B25 twin-engine bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in a fog. She said that there was no fog and that it was a jet airliner. It wasn’t long when the news traveled throughout the mall where I worked. A mood of panic could be felt in the other employees and customers to the point that the decision was made to shut down the businesses. I went home and watched the other events that occurred that day on TV just as millions of others did.
Months later, I was in a McDonalds in St. Clair, MI when I noticed a bulletin board commemorating 9/11 and on it was displayed all four verses of our National Anthem. Most people know the first verse as it has been sung at ball games and at other venues throughout our lives. Some folks may know the fourth and last verse as it sums up the song, but fewer people know verse 2 or 3. Verse 2 describes Francis Scot Key’s thoughts as he described his first viewing of our flag the following morning as he saw it still flying over Fort McHenry. Verse 3 was written by someone other than Key and it goes like this.
“Where is that band that so vauntingly swore that the havoc of war and the battles confusion?
a land and a country they would leave us no more, there blood has washed out their foul footsteps pollution.
No refuge can save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave.
And the Star-spangled Banner in triumph still waves over the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
We have all sang the song about the Battle of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, but what really happened that fateful day and the days that led up to it? At this point so far, the war wasn’t going well for this new nation. In fact, we were about to be forced to sue for peace. Negotiations were already being sought at this time to put an end to this struggle. The British army had already landed and was headed for Washington. This was no regular army, no, this was “Wellingtons Invincibles” the same Wellington that had chased and beat Napoleon and his Grand Army in Europe. These soldiers were veterans, hard battle proven campaigners. They went on to burn Washington and defeat militia units that dared to stop them in their quest to finish off this country once and for all.
Baltimore at that time was the third largest city in America with an extensive shipbuilding capacity that was producing ships that were harassing British commerce in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and as far east as the Mediterranean. The plan of attack was for the army to march up the east side of the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore and the navy to sail up the Chesapeake and bombard the fort and have the army attack the city proper simultaneously. It didn’t happen that way. As the British army advanced, an American sniper took out the British commander. As a result of that event, morale plummeted, in fact, a captain believed an unfounded rumor that an American unit had landed behind him and cut off the road to his rear. He ordered a retreat but the British admiral wasn’t notified. When the British fleet reached Fort McHenry there was no land army to attack the city. The rest of that night they shelled the fort to no avail. The next morning, they sailed away with no victory and that large flag was still flying over the fort.
This event took place on a Tuesday on the first of September, just like 9/11 took place on a Tuesday in September.
With all these thoughts kicking around in my head, a bunch of words seemed to come together. I honestly believe that they were God-directed. Here’s why. If we look at the targets on 9/11 and analyze their significance, none were of any real military value. The Pentagon was an office building but it was a symbol of our military might. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were a symbol of our economic might. That brings us to what was the target for that third plane that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Was it the White House or could it have been something else? What if it was the National Cathedral? We may never know but it is a symbol of our spiritual and moral strength, is it not?
Months later they held the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had gone back to college to get an education degree and was in my first semester when the games begin. I watched the opening exercise when a flag was reverently carried into the stadium. The announcer stated that this flag was flying over the towers when they were hit. Three days later this flag was pulled out of the rubble and saved. That comment made by the announcer caused these words to come together and flow out of me. And they are as follows:
“From the bay clearly seen,
stood the two towers tall.
Symbolizing our strength,
and our determination.
Then with evil intent
They were struck, they were rent
and the symbols; (they thought)
were reduced to destruction.
But in three days t’was found
in that smoldering mound
our true symbol of strength
pulled from that hallowed ground.
T’was freedoms bright banner
and yes it still waves,
over the land of the free
and the home of the brave.”
Six months after 9/11, St. Clair County Community College ran a contest and asked students to participate by writing their thoughts about 9/11 and to submit them. I did and I won $50.00. I still have the certificate after 17 years.
What I find more ironic is the fact that during the memorial service held in London, The Star-spangled Banner was sung. When an athlete wins the gold in the Olympics, their country’s National Anthem is played. At this memorial held at St. Paul’s or Westminster, our National Anthem was sung. Think of that, here is a song that portrays in detail how an American fort held out against a superior British army and navy went on to win that war. I still wonder if anyone that was present that day had the same thought.
Who knows, maybe this lyric will end up as the 5th verse to our National Anthem so that the memory of what happened on that day will live on. Pearl Harbor Day is still remembered without hatred toward the Japanese and 9/11 can still be remembered without hating anyone as well. Some people now are calling 9/11 Patriots Day as they remember not only the victims, but the first responders who also died as a result of these tragedies.