09/11/2026
September 11th has never been just another remembrance day for me.
On September 11, 2001, I was a young Airman who had arrived at my first duty station only a couple of months earlier. I was at the very beginning of my military career when, in a matter of hours, the world we thought we knew changed.
Those of us serving at the time understood very quickly that our service had just taken on a different meaning.
The attacks of 9/11 would shape the next two decades of our country. They shaped the military I served in. They eventually took me to Iraq in support of OEF/OIF. And like so many veterans of that generation, the events of that day and everything that followed became woven into the story of my life.
So when we do a tribute workout today at CrossFit Crumville, it means something deeply personal to me.
We aren’t working out because suffering in a gym could ever compare to what happened that day. It can’t.
We do it because remembrance should cost us something.
For a little while, we willingly carry something heavy. We keep moving when we’re tired. We stand beside one another. And we remember the nearly 3,000 people who started an ordinary Tuesday morning and never came home. We remember the first responders who ran toward something everyone else was trying to escape. We remember the families left behind. And we remember the servicemen and women who answered what came next.
Twenty-five years later, there are adults alive today who weren’t even born when the towers fell. That makes remembering even more important.
Today, we remember what happened.
We remember who we lost.
We remember those who answered the call.
And we never forget.
9.11.2001 🇺🇸
