Chaplet of Divine Mercy and F-15 Pilot Shares His 9/11 Story

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This hour of The Drew Mariani Show is made possible in part by the Knights of Columbus. Visit kfc.org/relevant.

Drew Mariani (0:25)

Well, good afternoon, and welcome. It's good to be here with you today. Thank you for joining me on this 25th anniversary, September 11th, the day in which we'll remember.

Those who certainly have gone before us, and maybe today's a great day for us to pray for, those who persecute us as well, those who have attacked us, and those who have perpetrated great harm. Maybe you are the victim of tragedy or accident. Maybe you carry a very deep wound. Let's pray that we can find forgiveness deep within our hearts, to forgive those as Christ did on the cross, those who put him there. And I'm gonna pray for you and for all your intentions. Of course, I'm joined just about every day by my colleague, Brooke Taylor, and Brooke, it's great to have you here with us today. Good afternoon.

Brooke Taylor (1:06)

Good afternoon, Drew. Beautiful, powerful program today. Thank you for all you do.

Drew Mariani (1:10)

Yeah, it's an incredible conversation. Some of those testimonies are unbelievable. Where were you on September 11th, do you remember?

Brooke Taylor (1:18)

I do. I was an army wife. My husband stationed at Fort Bragg and he was a paratrooper. And I was nine months heavily pregnant in North Carolina. And I was doing news and traffic in Fayetteville and had gone home to take a nap. I wasn't feeling well and of course, we saw the news and he was on what's called DRF-1, which is mission cycle as a paratrooper.

They are quickly deployable soldiers because they drop in anywhere in the world. And at that time before social media and texting, they had pagers, so they all had pagers. And he was immediately called back and they were on lockdown. So we did not know if he would be deployed. We didn't have family around. And I did, just a few short days later, go into labor, my water broke.

And he was able to come home for that. And I remember the moment that my water broke, I actually heard the door open and I heard boots in the hallway and I screamed because I didn't, I was scared. We all were and I didn't know what was going on. But then our son Gabriel, who then would grow up and become a firefighter in his own right, he was born there at Fort Bragg. So it was a scary time and certainly a time where we were on our knees in prayer.

Drew Mariani (2:35)

That's great. What baby were you carrying at the time? Which one was that?

Brooke Taylor (2:38)

Our first baby, yeah, and it was our first one. We had a miscarriage before and then little Gabriel was born. And it was at that, it was the National Day of Prayer. I don't know if you remember that. I think it was a Friday and the whole nation just stopped and prayed. And I remember being in the hospital room with my newborn baby and just thinking, what nation will he inherit? The flag was at half staff. My hospital window was right where the flag was. I could see.

And thank God every day for our safety. But that's why I'm actually wearing this sweater today. It has hearts on it because exactly three months ago today, our nation was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And you think about this wounded nation and our wounded Lord who pours out every drop for us and just remembering those promises. And thinking of all of our hearts today.

Drew Mariani (3:29)

I know our nation's bishops did that in a united fashion. The day afterwards, His Eminence Cardinal Burke did it in La Crosse, Wisconsin, the national shrine related to Guadalupe.

And I was able to attend that day, too. I really just believe those two days were so powerful. I believe great things are in store for America. I mean, we can reflect on all these horrible attacks, but good always conquers evil. You know, in the end, it always does. And I think America is an anointed nation that has been chosen to lead the world, not just militarily or technologically, as I like to say, or even economically, but spiritually. And I think that's part of what we all do here together every day.

Brooke Taylor (4:07)

Yeah, and you see even today, I think when you're grieving a lot of times if you've lost a loved one or a family member, you just are kind of numb and you see the rest of the world keeps on going and the world keeps spinning and people don't really know. But today, I think collectively, we're feeling that we're grieving together and it just kind of hits you. We knew the anniversary is coming up, but then when you begin to see the footage again and again, the powerful interviews that you were replaying with Cardinal Egan and the reality of it, the gravity of it is definitely powerful and the blessing of being able to stop and pray once again as a nation during this chaplet.