September 11th marks the fifth anniversary of the day our lives changed. You’ll read piece after piece on what happened and how we were attacked this week. When you back up the microscope, it comes down to the individual families who will never celebrate a birthday or Christmas together ever again. There is grief here that can never properly be put to words so that all can understand.
I just want to write about and dedicate this day to a friend of mine who died five years ago. Mike Horrocks was the First Officer on flight 175 that hit the South Tower at 9:03 that morning. I watched in horror with bowel-shaking earthquakes of emotion as this passenger jet vaporized into the side of the building. In the Airline business, when something like this happens, they lock out the Crew manifest so that the names can’t be released before the next of kin is notified. This time, It didn’t take long before the Marine KC-130 mafia had the names of all the crews involved in the four crashes. There are only about a hundred or so Marine KC-130 pilots out there flying in the system so it didn’t take long to do a tally, and find out if any of our friends were involved.
In this surreal case, unfortunatly it was a pilot I had the privilege of serving with for three years in Cherry Point, North Carolina, while flying with VMGR-252. There are few guys of his caliber; he was one that everyone wishes deep down they could emulate. On the scale of one to ten, he was a 20 in every category!! I mean that in the most sincere expression of deep awe. When you go through life, you meet good people, and then great people, all with faults and certain flaws that don’t allow them to rise above those levels. Then you have the pleasure of knowing men like Mike, who have the ability to be the best at everything and make it look easy, but at the same time humble enough to show you how to improve yourself and not make you look silly while doing it.
Mike, I want you to know that I strive to be the type of man you were. I want to be the father and husband you were, day in and day out. To your family, I say God Bless you. To you, Mike Horrocks, friend to thousands, I say “Semper Fi” and God speed as you fly West.
Semper Fi,
Taco
http://www.michaelroberthorrocks.com/
The SandGram 
September 10, 2006 at 10:25 pm
With tears in my eyes, I read your tribute. I don’t even know what to say.
(((HUGS)))
September 10, 2006 at 10:50 pm
A beautiful tribute to a good man. Bless him, and all those who were lost.
September 10, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Thank you.
September 11, 2006 at 3:09 am
MAJ Bell:
We will never forget them and say a Prayer for their families on 9/11/06.
September 11, 2006 at 3:47 am
A very moving tribute. I will never forget that day.
September 11, 2006 at 1:23 pm
For all the goodness that was stolen from us that day, those of us still here have to strive to fill some awesome shoes.
September 11, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Thank you for sharing that! Bless them all!
September 11, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Wow, Taco, I thought you must have known some of the crewmembers who perished on 9/11! This really brings more than a lump to one’s throat to read your eloquent tribute.
I’d like to offer another tribute to all of you in whatever branch of the military that VOLUNTEERED to go and avenge Mike & the others of 9/11, the USS COLE & Beirut. At the end of a great movie about the Korean War air campaign, THE BRIDGES OF TOKO-RI, the officers on the carrier mourn the loss of the F9F pilot (William Holden) on a suicide mission & men sent to rescue the downed pilot. “Where do we get such men,” the Admiral says. I repeat the statement to all of you heroes who took up the cause of our defense. Greatfully, DevilPup 51
September 11, 2006 at 10:01 pm
I’m having a long moment of silence of grief and gratitude.
September 11, 2006 at 10:48 pm
I remember the horror of that day, too,and wanted to share with you what Taco did. We knew he was safe since he had just returned from a trip. When we were finally able to get in touch with him, we found out, that with the order for all flights to land, the airports were swamped with flights landing wherever they could and planes were all over the place–wherever they could find a spot. Mitchell told us that he just couldn’t stand not doing anything so he returned to DFW and volunteered to ferry planes to get them off the active runways. His actions that day made me proud, for he left home to return to the airport to help them by doing anything that needed doing. And, all that time, he was terrified, as we all were, because his former roommate from flight school was the First Officer on the same AA flight from Boston to LAX. As it turned out, he had been on the same flight, a day earlier.
Taco has always talked about Mike with admiration and I’m just sorry we never had the opportunity to meet him. I agree, the tribute brought tears to my eyes also.
September 12, 2006 at 12:55 am
Mama Taco,,,his actions don’t surprise me one little bit….from getting to “know” Taco through anysoldier and his blog it just goes to prove again what kind of man,what kind of Marine he is. You raised an outstanding son and we all thank you for that.
September 12, 2006 at 2:10 am
Hi Champ,
I read a lot of your extraordinary writings from Iraq and I hope you trust Mike Horrocks would be proud you were and are his friend. I didn’t know this before if you already said so, but now we have even more reasons to thank you.
Our absolute best to you and the beautiful Mrs. Bell, your family.
Ace
September 12, 2006 at 2:52 am
What an absolutely beautiful, moving tribute to your friend Taco. You made me cry.
September 12, 2006 at 3:13 am
My condolences Sir, you penned a beautiful tribute to your friend.
I shall never forget.
September 12, 2006 at 5:13 am
The world is a better place because of people like you. Thank you for all you have done and do for this great country.
September 12, 2006 at 7:30 am
Wow. Given your line of work and your employer, I figured that you knew people who had perished on 9/11. But what an amazing tribute to what appears to be an amazing man. Thank you for sharing him with us.
And Ace said it best – I am sure that Mike is proud that you are his friend.
September 12, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Hi Taco,
What a moving tribute to your friend Mike. I’m not sure why but this 5th Anniversary of 9/11 seemed so much more difficult for me than any of the others. I was in tears the entire day. I lost a work associate/friend who was on the Pentagon plane. She was just an ordinary nice person, wife and Mother on her way to a government meeting, concerned about teaching her oldest daughter to drive a car. There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t think about her and the innocent thousands who were lost on that fateful day. We should NEVER FORGET! Thanks for your beautiful story and for your commitment and dedication to our country. We owe you and all the rest of our Service men and women a huge debt of gratitude. Thank You!
~Judy~
September 14, 2006 at 3:24 am
I know I’m a little late but I wanted to thank you for sharing this and for sharing the link.
I had just moved to Havelock when the attacks happened on 9-11. I’m continually amazed by the great men and women I met while working at Cherry Point and somehow reading that Mr. Horrocks was stationed here at one time, gave me the chills. Reading your words about the character of your friend is such a great reminder of how much we lost that day.
Thanks again.
September 14, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Awesome tribute, Taco! And, you are pretty special yourself!
September 15, 2006 at 12:40 am
Damn, you made me tear up and have to look away from the screen for a minute to gather myself.
Thank you, hon, for that tribute to your friend.
September 17, 2006 at 1:56 am
Afghan/Bible book Lady
What a moving beautiful tribute to a friend, but Taco sells himself short because he is a very special person and touches the lives of many. I took his & Capt. B’s name off the anysoldier and I knew there was going to be something special about them. I wasn’t disappointed. He tells it like it is. I bought a raffle ticket for his boonie and Capt.’s Flag just knowing I never win anything so i forgot about it, well last week a package arrived from Anysoldier still never a clue what was inside and when I opened it I cried for there lay Taco’s boonie. Well I e-mailed him right away and did offer it back to him if it had sentamental value. He said are you seroius? Hell No!! you won it you keep and wear it. Well I don’t do it justice so it proudly hangs on our wall for all to see. I love God, Family ,Country and our Military who keep us strong & safe. They are the best. Semper Fi 9/16/06 9;50 p.m.
September 17, 2006 at 2:08 am
Guys,
I want to thank all of you who bought a raffle ticket for A/S to help out the cause. I can tell you that I have made incredible friends b/c of it and I owe it all to A/S and You all out there. Please turn to your right and give the person next to a pat on the back, then turn left and get yours!!!
S/F
Taco
November 8, 2006 at 10:26 pm
One thing that struck me as odd in the days after 9/11 was Bush saying “We will not tolerate conspiracy theories [regarding 9/11]”. Sure enough there have been some wacky conspiracy theories surrounding the events of that day. The most far-fetched and patently ridiculous one that I’ve ever heard goes like this: Nineteen hijackers who claimed to be devout Muslims but yet were so un-Muslim as to be getting drunk all the time, doing cocaine and frequenting strip clubs decided to hijack four airliners and fly them into buildings in the northeastern U.S., the area of the country that is the most thick with fighter bases. After leaving a Koran on a barstool at a strip bar after getting shitfaced drunk on the night before, then writing a suicide note/inspirational letter that sounded like it was written by someone with next to no knowledge of Islam, they went to bed and got up the next morning hung over and carried out their devious plan. Nevermind the fact that of the four “pilots” among them there was not a one that could handle a Cessna or a Piper Cub let alone fly a jumbo jet, and the one assigned the most difficult task of all, Hani Hanjour, was so laughably incompetent that he was the worst fake “pilot” of the bunch. Nevermind the fact that they received very rudimentary flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, making them more likely to have been C.I.A. assets than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. So on to the airports. These “hijackers” somehow managed to board all four airliners with their tickets, yet not even ONE got his name on any of the flight manifests. So they hijack all four airliners and at this time passengers on United 93 start making a bunch of cell phone calls from 35,000 feet in the air to tell people what was going on. Nevermind the fact that cell phones wouldn’t work very well above 4,000 feet, and wouldn’t work at ALL above 8,000 feet. But the conspiracy theorists won’t let that fact get in the way of a good fantasy. That is one of the little things you “aren’t supposed to think about”. Nevermind that one of the callers called his mom and said his first and last name, more like he was reading from a list than calling his own mom. Anyway, when these airliners each deviated from their flight plan and didn’t respond to ground control, NORAD would any other time have followed standard operating procedure (and did NOT have to be told by F.A.A. that there were hijackings because they were watching the same events unfold on their own radar) which means fighter jets would be scrambled from the nearest base where they were available on standby within a few minutes, just like every other time when airliners stray off course. But of course on 9/11 this didn’t happen, not even close. Somehow these “hijackers” must have used magical powers to cause NORAD to stand down, as ridiculous as this sounds because total inaction from the most high-tech and professional Air Force in the world would be necessary to carry out their tasks. So on the most important day in its history the Air Force was totally worthless. Then they had to make one of the airliners look like a smaller plane, because unknown to them the Naudet brothers had a videocamera to capture the only known footage of the North Tower crash, and this footage shows something that is not at all like a jumbo jet, but didn’t have to bother with the South Tower jet disguising itself because that was the one we were “supposed to see”. Anyway, as for the Pentagon they had to have Hani Hanjour fly his airliner like it was a fighter plane, making a high G-force corkscrew turn that no real airliner can do, in making its descent to strike the Pentagon. But these “hijackers” wanted to make sure Rumsfeld survived so they went out of their way to hit the farthest point in the building from where Rumsfeld and the top brass are located. And this worked out rather well for the military personnel in the Pentagon, since the side that was hit was the part that was under renovation at the time with few military personnel present compared to construction workers. Still more fortuitous for the Pentagon, the side that was hit had just before 9/11 been structurally reinforced to prevent a large fire there from spreading elsewhere in the building. Awful nice of them to pick that part to hit, huh? Then the airliner vaporized itself into nothing but tiny unidentifiable pieces no bigger than a fist, unlike the crash of a real airliner when you will be able to see at least some identifiable parts, like crumpled wings, broken tail section etc. Why, Hani Hanjour the terrible pilot flew that airliner so good that even though he hit the Pentagon on the ground floor the engines didn’t even drag the ground!! Imagine that!! Though the airliner vaporized itself on impact it only made a tiny 16 foot hole in the building. Amazing. Meanwhile, though the planes hitting the Twin Towers caused fires small enough for the firefighters to be heard on their radios saying “We just need 2 hoses and we can knock this fire down” attesting to the small size of it, somehow they must have used magical powers from beyond the grave to make this morph into a raging inferno capable of making the steel on all forty-seven main support columns (not to mention the over 100 smaller support columns) soften and buckle, then all fail at once. Hmmm. Then still more magic was used to make the building totally defy physics as well as common sense in having the uppermost floors pass through the remainder of the building as quickly, meaning as effortlessly, as falling through air, a feat that without magic could only be done with explosives. Then exactly 30 minutes later the North Tower collapses in precisely the same freefall physics-defying manner. Incredible. Not to mention the fact that both collapsed at a uniform rate too, not slowing down, which also defies physics because as the uppermost floors crash into and through each successive floor beneath them they would shed more and more energy each time, thus slowing itself down. Common sense tells you this is not possible without either the hijackers’ magical powers or explosives. To emphasize their telekinetic prowess, later in the day they made a third building, WTC # 7, collapse also at freefall rate though no plane or any major debris hit it. Amazing guys these magical hijackers. But we know it had to be “Muslim hijackers” the conspiracy theorist will tell you because (now don’t laugh) one of their passports was “found” a couple days later near Ground Zero, miraculously “surviving” the fire that we were told incinerated planes, passengers and black boxes, and also “survived” the collapse of the building it was in. When common sense tells you if that were true then they should start making buildings and airliners out of heavy paper and plastic so as to be “indestructable” like that magic passport. The hijackers even used their magical powers to bring at least seven of their number back to life, to appear at american embassies outraged at being blamed for 9/11!! BBC reported on that and it is still online. Nevertheless, they also used magical powers to make the american government look like it was covering something up in the aftermath of this, what with the hasty removal of the steel debris and having it driven to ports in trucks with GPS locators on them, to be shipped overseas to China and India to be melted down. When common sense again tells you that this is paradoxical in that if the steel was so unimportant that they didn’t bother saving some for analysis but so important as to require GPS locators on the trucks with one driver losing his job because he stopped to get lunch. Hmmmm. Further making themselves look guilty, the Bush administration steadfastly refused for over a year to allow a commission to investigate 9/11 to even be formed, only agreeing to it on the conditions that they get to dictate its scope, meaning it was based on the false pretense of the “official story” being true with no other alternatives allowed to be considered, handpicked all its members making sure the ones picked had vested interests in the truth remaining buried, and with Bush and Cheney only “testifying” together, only for an hour, behind closed doors, with their attorneys present and with their “testimonies” not being recorded by tape or even written down in notes. Yes, this whole story smacks of the utmost idiocy and fantastic far-fetched lying, but it is amazingly enough what some people believe. Even now, five years later, the provably false fairy tale of the “nineteen hijackers” is heard repeated again and again, and is accepted without question by so many Americans. Which is itself a testament to the innate psychological cowardice of the American sheeple, i mean people, and their abject willingness to believe something, ANYTHING, no matter how ridiculous in order to avoid facing a scary uncomfortable truth. Time to wake up America.
Debunking Popular Mechanics lies:
http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=6880
someone else debunking Popular Mechanics crap:
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/pop_mech/reply_to_popular_mechanics.htm
still more debunking Poopular Mechanics:
http://letsroll911.org/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5505
and still more debunking of Popular Mechanics:
http://www.reopen911.org/ericreubt.htm
Poopular Mechanics staff replaced just before laughable “debunking” article written:
http://www.reopen911.org/hiddenhand.htm
another neo-con 9/11 hit piece explodes, is retracted:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/180806hitpiece.htm
Professor Steven Jones debunks the N.I.S.T. “report” as well as the F.E.M.A. one and the 9/11 commission “report”:
http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/wtc_buildings_collapse_steven_jones.htm
N.I.S.T. scientist interviewed:
http://www.teamliberty.net/id235.html
F.B.I. says no hard evidence linking Osama bin Laden to 9/11 which is why his wanted poster says nothing about 9/11:
http://forum.afghansite.com/index.php?showtopic=9349
Fire Engineering magazine says important questions about the Twin Tower “collapses” still need to be addressed:http://fe.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=OnlineArticles&SubSection=Display&PUBLICATION_ID=25&ARTICLE_ID
Twin Towers’ construction certifiers say they should have easily withstood it:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2004/121104easilywithstood.htm
USA Today interview with the last man out of the South Tower, pursued by a fireball:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/12/19/usat-escape.htm
Janitor who heard explosions and escaped has testimony ignored by 9/11 whitewash commission:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/ignoring_9-11.html
Janitor starts speaking out about it and his apartment is burglarized, laptop stolen:
http://kurtnimmo.blogspot.com/2005/08/apartment-of-nine-eleven-hero-william_28.html
Firefighters tell of multiple explosions:
http://www.wnbc.com/news/1315651/detail.html
Eyewitnesses tell of explosions:
http://research.amnh.org/users/tyson/essays/TheHorrorTheHorror.html
Interview with another firefighter telling of explosions:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Banaciski_Richard.txt
Firefighter saw “sparkles” (strobe lights on detonators?) before “collapse”:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Fitzpatrick_Tom.txt
Other eyewitnesses talk of seeing/hearing explosions:
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/11/more-proof-911-inside-job-witnesses-to.html
Surviving eyewitnesses talk of multiple explosions there:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/veliz-bombs.htm
Cutter charge explosions clearly visible:
http://www.rense.com/general63/cutt.htm
The pyroclastic wave (that dust cloud that a second before was concrete) and how it wouldn’t be possible without explosives:
http://st12.startlogic.com/~xenonpup/physics/
Detailed description of the demolition of the Twin Towers:
http://gordonssite.tripod.com/id2.html
Freefall rate of “collapses” math:
http://www.911blimp.net/prf_FreeFallPhysics.shtml
More about their freefall rate “collapses”:
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/second_wave.htm
Video footage of the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers:
http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/video%20archive/
Video footage of the controlled demolition of WTC # 7 building:
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html
More
http://www.wtc7.net/
Photos of the Pentagon’s lawn (look at these and see if you can tell me with a straight face that a jumbo jet crashed there):
http://www.911blimp.net/cached/HuntTheBoeing!.htm
More photos of this amazing lawn at the Pentagon:
http://cryptogon.com/docs/Introducing%20the%20amazing%20Penta-Lawn%202000!%20(9-11).htm
Very unconvincing fake “Osama” “confession” tape:
http://welfarestate.com/wtc/faketape/
More about the fake “Osama” tape:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osamatape2.html
Fake “Mohammed Atta” “suicide” letter:
http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/fake-letters.txt
Commercial pilots disagree with “official” 9/11 myth:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/september_11_us_government_accused.htm
More commercial jet pilots say “official” myth is impossible:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2001/10/31/commercial_jet_pilots_analysis_of_the_twin_tower_attack.htm
Impossibility of cell phone calls from United 93:
http://www.physics911.net/cellphoneflight93.htm
More about the impossible cell phone calls:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO408B.html
Experiment proves cell phone calls were NOT possible from anywhere near the altitude the “official” myth has them at:
http://physics911.ca/org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9
Fake Barbara Olson phone call:
http://www.vialls.com/lies911/lies.htm
Where the hell was the Air Force?
http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/af-scramble.txt
More about the Air Force impotence question:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0331-11.htm
Sept. 10th 2001, Pentagon announces it is “missing” $2.3 trillion (now why do you think they picked THAT day to announce it? So it could be buried the next day by 9/11 news):
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0513/p05s01-wosc.html
Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan mentioned:
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/05/19/OutOfAfghanistan
More on Unocal Afghan pipeline:
http://www.newscentralasia.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1031
The attack on Afghanistan was planned in the summer of 2001, months before 9/11:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm
Pentagon deliberately misled 9/11 Commission:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=EGG20060802&articleId=2887
9/11 whitewash Commission and NORAD day:
http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/071204_final_fraud.shtml
The incredible fish tales of the 9/11 Commission examined:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20GR20051213&articleId=1478
Jeb Bush declares state of emergency 4 days before 9/11 for Florida, saying it will help respond to terrorism:
http://www.eionews.addr.com/psyops/news/jebknew.htm
Steel debris removal from Ground Zero, destruction of evidence:
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/cleanup.html
Over two hundred incriminating bits of 9/11 evidence shown in the mainstream media:
http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/911smokingguns.html
Tracking the “hijackers”:
http://www.welfarestate.com/911/
“Hijacker” patsies:
http://911review.org/Wiki/HijackersPatsies.shtml
“Hijackers” receiving flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0208/S00085.htm
No Arabs on Flight 77:
http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/02/article_tro.htm
Flight manifests (tell me if you find any Arabs):
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/AA11.victims.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/AA77.victims.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/ua93.victims.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/ua175.victims.html
Thirty experts say “official” 9/11 myth impossible:
http://911fraud.blogspot.com/2005/06/us-governments-offical-911-story-is.html
“Al Qaeda” website tracks back to Maryland:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/alqmaryland.html
Al Qaeda videos uploaded from U.S. government website:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2004/140704governmentwebsite.htm
Operation: Northwoods, a plan for a false-flag “terror” attack to be blamed on Castro to use it as a pretext for America to invade Cuba, thankfully not approved by Kennedy back in 1962 but was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and sent to his desk:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/us_terror_plan_cuba_invasion_pretext.html
November 9, 2006 at 1:40 am
Can you spell “NutJob”, thanks, next time just email your crap to me and save my readers your BS
Taco