BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) — Like many others, September 11, 2011, is a day retired Navy Commander Andrew Moore will never forget.

Upon witnessing the second Twin Tower collapse while aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Arabian Sea, he realized his deployment was about to change. His ship pivoted and became one of the initial responders for Operation Enduring Freedom.

The ship was wrapping up a six-month deployment that month. 

“We visited several wonderful places,” Moore recalled. “We travelled to England, made our way to Lisbon, Portugal, and also visited France. Our journey included stops in Italy, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and Sicily. It was truly enjoyable.”

The Navy was patrolling the no-fly zone in the southern part of Iraq from the Persian Gulf– following an anti-air missile unit.

“In Iraq, they weren’t supposed to be active, flying planes, or deploying any missile defense systems,” Moore explained. “However, we spent a great deal of time pursuing an anti-air missile unit. Whenever it appeared, they would quickly set up, become operational, and pose a threat before dismantling and relocating. Near the end of our Gulf mission, we finally located it and dispatched a strike force to eliminate it.”

Moore, who was on the night shift in the ship’s intelligence center, awoke just in time to see the second Twin Tower fall on television aboard the ship.

“I contacted the intel center. A colleague from the day shift, who worked under my supervision, answered,” Moore recounted. “He told me it was eerily quiet. ‘We’re all sitting here watching the news, like everyone else,’ he said.”

That quickly changed as the ship turned around and became the first carrier on station.

“Our aircraft wing was the first to reach Afghanistan,” stated Moore. “Leading the mission was the air wing commander himself. Despite his senior rank, he was determined not to miss participating in the initial strikes.”

He and his team had been focused on Iraq instead of Afghanistan ahead of the attacks.

“We had been really focused on Iraq because that was where, you know, the southern Watch was our area when we were in the Persian Gulf. Had not paid a whole lot of attention to Afghanistan or any of that,” Moore said. “We had briefed and we had done research, in general, on the terrorist organizations… we were aware of the Al-Qaeda group and Bin Laden, but before that, there was very little on the horizon for them, for us at the time.”

Until they were relieved, everyone on the ship went into overdrive as Operation Enduring Freedom got underway.

“From September 11th until the first part of October, [we] just got ready, you know, obviously intelligence coming in, making plans, targets were being directed from central command, out of the Persian central command, out of the Persian Gulf,” Moore said. “Making those plans, to send aircraft with loaded with bombs to make those. After the strikes began in October, we were there for a couple of more weeks, almost to the end of October. Then we left, or the Enterprise left, but other carriers had come.”

This is just part of Commander Moore’s time in the Navy. Join us for next week’s Veterans Voices as he shares a profound moment from the night following the attacks and how the lessons learned shaped other parts of his career.