Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan -- An Army contracting officer re-enlisted on Patriot Day while deployed here.
Sgt. 1st Class Samantha Brown, contracting officer and team leader for the Armed Security Guards Contracting Team, Regional Contracting Center-East, raised her right hand on Sept. 11. Lt. Col. Scott McKee, 904th Contracting Battalion commander and chief, RCC-East, rendered the oath of enlistment from Guard Tower 29 as Soldiers, civilians and contractors looked on.
After the ceremony Brown shared her reasons for re-enlisting on Patriot Day, beginning with where she was during the attacks on the World Trade Center, Flight 93 and the Pentagon.
"On Sept. 11, 2001, I was attending advanced individual training at Fort Gordon, Georgia," said Brown. "The television was rolled in and we all saw the second tower fall.
"I have dedicated over 14 years of my life and my family's lives to this country, I want to finish what I started 14 years ago and retire knowing that I served my country to the best of my abilities" she said. "It would be a great accomplishment to complete 20 years of service."
Brown said 9/11 was a pivotal turning point for the military.
"It changed the course I might have taken within the military in various ways" she added. "Because of those events I have seen places and experienced things that have changed my life. These experiences gave me a new outlook on life in general."
As part of her contracting duties, Brown supports security operations around the facility.
"The towers and the guards around Bagram Air Field are my efforts to support the warfighter and those (who) support the military within the walls and on the outside of the walls of Bagram Air Field. The towers was a kind of symbolism that Twin Towers may have been destroyed, but our dedication and commitment to our country and our way of life still stands."
The 904th Contracting Battalion, normally stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, is deployed as part of ECC-Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel.
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