. . . this one line stopped me for a while, taking me back to where I was then:
... I can't think of anyone who didn't have a lump in his or her throat while weighing the situation ...

A lump?

I was pulling CQ (Change of Quarters) in the barracks at Camp Darby, Italy, the morning it started. My entry in the log:

The bombs have started falling on Iraq.

Then I signed off shift and went home. I had been up all night, but still turned on CNN to catch the latest. 3 days later, still awake, I answered the door, with CNN going in the background. I recall my supervisor, Jim Chambers, stopping in to see if I was "alright". I told him I was fine, not a problem. 2 days later, I went to bed. I got up about 20 hours later, took my shower, and headed in to work. Jim greeted me, saying I looked a lot better. I asked what he meant by that, and he mentioned stopping in to see me a couple days ago. I argued that it was last night.

A person comes off CQ, they get the next day off, since the duty generally racks up a full 24 hour period. I was checking calendars for a few days after that, because I knew what happened. I had phased out. I was literally "gone" for days.

I recalled the piece Gregory Peck did in "Twelve O'Clock High", where he phases out when his squadron departs for Germany without him, sitting for hours in that chair, doing nothing. Then, the planes are heard returning, he takes a breath, and stands up like nothing at all happened.

This ex-Infantry soldier was with them,
Dan