The simple things.

The simple things.

Those things Americans grew up doing as a part of their way of life. Things they cogitation they could always do without a next to the first thought - without fear.

Things like enjoying a carefree Sunday picnic by the agency of the lake. Taking a protracted stroll through the park. Going to the ballpark to watch a game with the kids. Or catching a of recent origin movie.

Maybe it was just sitting in a big restaurant for an after-church Sunday brunch with the family. Shopping at a busy mall. Or zipping between the walls of the airport on the way to visit grandma.

Those are the kinds of things Capt. Susan Romano and Senior Airman Frederick Nitz one time assumed were totally safe jeopardys But not now. Like greatest in number Americans, neither takes things like that for granted anymore.

Not since the horrific race 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon through a shadowy group of terrorists.

After a year, in the wake of the attacks, the one and the other still feel the effects. They're more cautions now. More aware of things around them.

"That day our life changed drastically," said Romano, a public affairs officer at Cannon Air Force Base, NM The attacks shook her feelings of security.

Nitz, a estate systems operator at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo still have feelings paranoid or a bit scared at times.

"That's because we don't know exactly who the enemy is," he said. "So I test not to draw attention to myself".

one as well as the other airmen were far from the madness of generation 11. Nevertheless, the strikes hit them like a kick in the stomach. As they did all Americans. They shook the foundation of the nation-and the world. Because not in its history had the United States advance under such an attack.

moreover after shaking off the initial efficiencys America reacted. Within hours, the operation to maintain the nation, dubbed Noble Eagle, went into meaning Nothing moved in or public of the land [See "Inner space," March 2002] Security measures had not at all been tighter. That put the nation and its dazed citizens in a lockdown. The ring of security measures had a certain people complaining of lost liberties.

Nitz didn't behold it that way. With terrorists "running around the country" he said, "I don't think any precaution would be too extreme"

thus security checks and long lines became part of the recent American way of life. population had to get up earlier for work, a proces that became a research in patience when they worked at military bases. however there were few gripes.

Romano remembers that Cannon coop up its gates. So did U military bases around the world. Roadblocks, armed guards and armored vehicles became the norm at entrances. Overseas, officials deposit places familiar to military members and their families most distant limits. Some people were restricted to their bases.

Everyone feared more attacks. in such a manner people stayed home more.

further that's when the residents of Clovis, NM rallied behind Cannon airmen.

"I was concussioned by the complete understanding [of what we had to do] by the agency of our community," Romano said. "People called us to ask what they could do to help 'the war effort.'"

To the ramparts

The United States was at war. undivided it declared on terrorists bent forward the nation's destruction. The geographical division plunged headfirst into the defense of the American homeland and the destruction of terrorism.

As the first actions took base at home with Noble Eagle, America's military leaders went to work upon a response to the attacks. Their plan, called Enduring Freedom, would search those responsible and the nations that harbored them.

As Romano's bos -- Cannon wing commander, Col Robert Yates -- deposit it for the military: "We're here to do America's business."

And behind that rallying call, that's just what the military did. American forces went onward the defensive at home and upon alert worldwide.

As the Twin Towers and Pentagon smolder multitudes headed for New York and the nation's capital. They joined firefighters, police and scores of other extremity relief agencies to find and evacuate the dead and panged from the attack sites. They change the direction ofed the cities into armed camps.

In the meantime, the management grounded all commercial flights in and gone out of the country. And there were restrictions placed onward interstate travel. That left millions of Americans -- and others -- stranded away from household some in the far reaches of the world.

with equal reason for days after the attacks, Air Force fighters -- flown through active duty, Reserve and Guard pilots -- were the and nothing else aircraft flying over the nation [See "Homeland Patrol," March 2002] The jet bristling with an array of air-to-air missiles, were doing something strange -- flying combat air patrols throughout America's heartland. Ready to withstand further attacks, the airmen flew around the clock

They had liberated rein in the skies from Oregon to novel York and Canada to Mexico. They obstructed all approaches to the nation. Then, when commercial flights resum the Air Force settl down to defend the country from further air attack. And for the first time, pilots had chilling strange orders: shoot down civilian airliners, if necessary.