Kinda a 'you had to have been there to really understand.'
But the biggest thing I remember....
Being at my father's squadron bar with the other moms, wives, and their kids after the attack on the WTC.
The mothers sat together around the tv, watching CNN and listening to what was going on over in Iraq with our guys. The kids were a little ways away sitting with each other silent.
The CNN reporter shouted "I hear jets flying over me right now!" And we all knew who were up there.
That was the good and bad of honesty... My father was wingman to the commander leading all the jets over Iraq, and there was horrible anti-air craft coming from the what we heard on the radio. (on the radio we could hear what all was going on inside the cockpit.) I remember looking into the eyes of the others, man, they were filled with fright... Next day Bush announced that we were at war with Iraq. Then of course, the trauma of the attack on WTC stuck for a long time. That all took my father away from me for a really long time. I hate how pictures and videos of things can burn into your memory...