Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: File Photo--The Battalion [Click to enlarge]

Most of us weren't in College Station to hear the snap. We weren't there when the flashing sirens pulled onto the field. We didn't see the fallen logs tumbled upon one another, the praying students in huddles or the families as they mourned. Some of us do not even know the entire story of that awful morning. And while it is a day marked with tragedy, it is a story that needs to continually be told.

As Aggies it is our duty to do more than just wear maroon at Kyle Field or to put a penny at Sully's feet. Just like we teach incoming Aggies yells and how to "pass it back," it is imperative that we tell future Aggies what happened that morning. The 99'-Stack did not just fall and kill any 12 people. They were 12 of us, students who had dreams of becoming doctors, students who were great daughters and sons, students who saved others, and students who stood shoulder to shoulder with their best friends to sing the "Aggie War Hymn." Just like us.

At the Bonfire Memorial, their voices echo, bouncing off the portal walls. The trek to the Memorial is long, and the gravel crunches beneath our footsteps. It is a haunting sound as we near the glowing circle. Our job as Aggies is to remember not only what happened that day, but also what these students meant to this University. Each stood for tradition, for spirit, for excellence and for loyalty. We can never forget that.

But the story doesn't end there. In the aftermath, students, families and others gathered to honor the Aggie family's fallen. Aggie rings, notes and flowers dotted the area, and the nation looked wide-eyed at a University that stepped up from the tragedy.

It is a story that is not easy to hear, but requires remembrance. And so 10 years later, we remember this tragedy, this tradition.

In one night the towering Stack became more than an image of a football rivalry. The flames from Aggie Bonfire may never tear into the College Station night sky again, crackling and flaring hues of reds and yellows. But this spirit will live on as long as we decide it will.

We don't understand everything about Bonfire, but once a year it's 2:42 a.m. on Nov. 18 again, and we're bowing our heads and we're remembering those lives, that night, a spirit. In 10 years, this University has changed, but at the core is the same resounding spirit present in 1999. It is our duty to ensure that spirit continues to embrace this campus for another 10, 20, 100 years.

As important as history is to this University, we as students don't always take note of the past. Many of us have never even been out to the memorial or visited once before forgetting it existed. This is a story that cannot be forgotten or dismissed or left to disappear in aging photographs and old headlines. This is a story that we probably did not hear as 9 and 10-year-olds because it's not a bedtime tale, it doesn't have the happy ending we would have expected. But it's true, it's real, and it's ours, Aggies. It's our story of camaraderie and spirit to tell.

Ten years from now, the Aggie rings fitted around our fingers will be a testament to our time spent in College Station. We may not remember all the yells or come back to Kyle Field every football season, but we will still be Aggies, and we will still have a story to tell.

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