Doctor's Log

September 11, 2004

The 9/11 ceremony was today. It was very nice. Someone shot an old cannon off at the hours the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon were hit. There was also a shot for the plane that went down in Pennsylvania.

We flew the flag at half mast today. There was a twelve gun salute when it was raised up on the pole. Someone played taps after the salute. Everyone was dressed in their dress uniforms as well. Even Snake Eyes and Jinx, they didn't wear their ninjitsu clothing. Beach Head and Gung Ho managed to get theirs on despite the casts. General Hawk gave a short speech.

After that, there was a parade of military vehicles, and jets flew in formation overhead. Rock N' Roll had managed to paint one tank and three Humvees. Stalker had the Greenshirts march in formation. Wild Bill borrowed a few horses and a carriage from somewhere. The top ranking officers rode in it. Beach Head and Gung Ho had also "dressed up" their wheel chairs with miniature flags.

After this everyone ate lunch, courtesy of Roadblock and his helpers. It was excellent. Barbecued ribs, potato salad, apple pie, you name it.

The concert started at 7:00 pm. Beach Head opened it up by singing the "Star Spangled Banner." Many of the Joes were skeptical when they saw who was going to be singing it. But after he was done, there were quite a few misty eyes in the audience. After that, Wild Bill sang "America the Beautiful" and Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?" Beach Head then sang Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)." He even dedicated the song to his dad, who'd been a soldier too. After that, he sang the "Ballad of the Green Berets." Then Wild Bill sang Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA."

After this, he and Wild Bill sang a few duets. They sang "Beer for My Horses", which was a song by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson. They also sang Toby Keith's "American Soldier" and "The Taliban Song." It was pretty funny. I looked up the lyrics later, here's one of the verses.

"But you know someday soon we're going to both saddle up
And it'll be ride camel ride
My old lady, she'll be here with me
Just smilin' right by my side
We should do just fine out around Palestine
Or maybe Turkmenistan
We'll bid a fair adieu and flip the finger to
The Taliban."

Everyone in the audience then sang every military and patriotic song we knew, including "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and each song for every branch of the military, like the "Marine Corps. Hymn."

After that, the national anthem was sung again for the closing, but this time everyone joined in. Everyone also was holding candles that we lit during the song. Then when the song was over, someone set fireworks off.

It was awesome.

After the concert, Beach Head tried to make a quick escape. He'd done his part and had ended up putting a tear in that mask of his, to his dismay. He did get caught though because several people came up and complemented him. Even Shipwreck told him he did a good job. I think I remember seeing the Greenshirts staring at him with open mouths. I guess it never occurred to them that the Sergeant Major from Hell could sing like that. (Actually, pretty much everyone had that opinion.)

Everyone got along today, but I'm sure tomorrow will be back to normal.

Author's Note: Today's entry really doesn't have much humor in it, but I figured that on 9/11, everyone would be focused on other things than antagonizing each other.