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Ten years ago Sunday was my first day back on the job after a tranquil vacation in the San Juan Islands.

There was no time to leisurely peruse my more than 100 email messages that had accumulated while I was gone. My editors sent me out on the street immediately to report on how South Sound residents were coping with the most deadly foreign attack on U.S. soil in the country’s 225-year history.

I started at the Olympia Fire Department’s downtown headquarters station. Grim-faced firefighters answered my questions patiently, but in a distracted way. Their thoughts and prayers were with what turned out to be 343 fallen brethren in New York City.