Five years ago today I was onboard a US Navy Destroyer heading for Bahrain, a small island just north of Qatar in the Arabian (Persian) Gulf.  How time flies and lives change.  Through the broken images coming through over our satellite tv connection my friend, Andy, and I found out what the words I had heard a few hours earlier actually looked like.  I had been on watch earlier in the day when someone in another part of the ship called up and said, "Hey, a plane just flew into the World Trade Center."  I remember what came to mind...a small Cessna whose pilot had made a terrible mistake, clipping one of the towers and falling to the streets below.  A terrible image...one that unfortunately fell far short of reality.  You all remember where you were...what you were doing.  I was on my way home, via Bahrain, the Seychelles, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Hawaii.  We never made it to Bahrain, nor any of the other ports, except for Hawaii.  I can't believe how much has happened in my own life over the past five years.  So much has changed, and the days and years keep passing.

I'm not trying to be overly dramatic here...I actually just looked at my calendar a few minutes ago and saw the date, 9-11, and started thinking back on things.  I've been off the ship for coming up on two and a half years now but it seems like an eternity has passed since then.  I'm glad to be done with that part of my life, but I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything.  God blessed in hardship...something I hope I will come to understand more fully in the coming five years, and those to follow.