Richmond, Va. –
In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation Public Affairs Office is running a week-long series Sept. 6-11 telling the stories of DLA Aviation employees who remember where they were and what they were doing that fateful day.
Name: Juan Carlos Gachet
Organization: DLA Aviation, Richmond, Virginia
What is your job title, and what do you do, specifically? I’m a contract specialist. I work with the Electronic Business Enterprise system to manage long-term contracts, to develop acquisition strategy involving previous history, market conditions and specifications or technical data packages and to review sourcing strategy recommendations, determine contract type, method of solicitation, options determination, and sources to be solicited, and to create supporting documentation for solicitation.
Please tell where you were and what you were doing on Sept. 11, 2001. I was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, at the time and we were in company accountability formation when the first sergeant informed us that there had been an attack going on in our soil on the East Coast. The company conducted physical training and I drove home to pick up a few things and eat breakfast. When I got home, all the national media outlets were broadcasting the unfolding events of New York City where the first plane had crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Immediately afterwards, Fort Hood was placed on locked down and military police were posted at all entrances checking ID cards. Needless to say, getting back on base that day was tough. The line of cars trying to get on base was very long. As soon as I finally got back to the company for the second accountability formation, we were put on alert status. Our lives changed forever after that day.
What can we do to ensure future generations never forget that fateful day? Tell our experiences to our kids, grandkids and future generations of that fateful day that many people died in New York City, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon. We had to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq for the War on Terror and many of our soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We will never forget our fallen!