SCHINNEN, Netherlands - Sgt. 1st Class Matt Eggers was working the MP desk at Fort Richardson, Alaska when the phone calls started coming in, frantically reporting the Twin Towers attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "We didn't think the first call was credible," he remembers, "but suddenly, that day went from a normal morning to a day when all of us in the military knew our career would be changed forever."
Since then, Eggers has deployed twice to Iraq and Afghanistan. He now serves as the Operations Sergeant with USAG Schinnen's Military Police in the Netherlands. On Saturday, he and three other USAG Schinnen Military Police ran 9.11 miles in remembrance of the 9/11 victims.
Hosted by USAG Benelux, the 9/11 Mile Freedom Run took place on SHAPE in Mons, Belgium, and attracted more than 250 runners from around the Benelux. Similar Freedom Runs also took place in four other locations around the world, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Eskan Village, Saudi Arabia.
The event, which started at exactly 9:11 a.m., was memorable for Sgt. Craig Kosobucki, one of Schinnen's Military Police Investigators, who completed the run in about 50 minutes.
"The time it took me to finish the run was about the same amount of time that passed between the attack and the fall of the first tower, so it really made me think about the events of that day and how our world completely changed in such a short period of time," Kosobucki said.
Staff Sgt. Brandon Elliott and Spc. Floyd Cryderman from USAG Schinnen also completed the run.
"It's important that we remember what happened on 9/11 but also the losses that we've incurred after 9/11 too," Eggers said. "A lot of us have lost friends on deployments that came as a result of 9/11."
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