Remembering 9/11/2001

 

Two days before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we visited the memorial at the Pentagon, where Dave was stationed from 1989 to 1992.



Jane knew of only one person who died that day: a retired Army master sergeant named Max Beilke, with whom she had once served on a joint DoD committee on military benefits.  Max was the Army representative to that committee, and Jane represented the Office of the Actuary.
 

Coincidentally, we met a woman sitting in a wheelchair at Max's memorial bench.  We introduced ourselves and learned that this woman is Max's widow.  Her daughter explained that her mother had had a stroke and now had difficulty with verbal communications.  However, Jane certainly made an emotional connection as she told how much she enjoyed working with Max.

 P.S.  Max was the last soldier to leave the U.S. embassy in Saigon the day that Vietnam fell.  It is ironic that he survived the last day of that distant war, only to be a victim on the first day of another war.