Reservist remembers September 11, 2001

Published Aug. 19, 2011
By SrA Charles Hutchinson IV
439th AW Public Affairs

WESTOVER, Mass. -- SSgt. Angel Suarez, 439th Security Forces Squadron, was a trooper for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office on Sept. 11, 2001, and at the time he was attached to the 482nd Security Forces Squadron at Homestead Air Force Reserve Base, Fla.

"I was at work; it was early in the morning. I went to talk to my captain; he never turned on the TV, but for some reason, he decided to turn on the TV that day," SSgt. Suarez said. "I was making ... coffee and bringing him a cup. He saw the first time the plane hit the towers. I thought to myself that it was probably a pilot who fell asleep."

SSgt. Suarez said everything about the attacks seemed surreal.

"It was kind of strange," he said. "The second time the second plane hit the tower... all of a sudden he turns around and looks at me and says to me, 'I think that probably they are going to call you in... Your reserve unit is going to call you.'"

SSgt. Suarez said he was feeling "a lot of emotions. I never thought that somebody was going to do something like that to our country... It's like somebody is trying to cut your eyes."

After 10 years, his emotions still run high.

"The threat is always going to be there," he said. "Anything could happen at any time, so that's why we train like we fight -- fight like we train."