The year was 2001; it was the 11th day of September. The weather was temperate and it was nearly cloudless in New York City. And then the unthinkable, unfathomable and unforgettable happened.

But for some junior Sailors, the day's events aren't connected to anything but stories they've been told and the teachings they've received in history class. They were too young to comprehend what happened.

Machinist's Mate Fireman Fitzroy Daniels, a Caribbean native, was born in 1997 and was only 4 years old when the U.S. was attacked that day.

Daniels came to the United States when he was 7 years old and had no knowledge of the 9/11 attacks prior to arriving. He was in the fourth grade when he first learned about what happened that morning.

"They showed us the videos, and reactions of people that were there and that were affected," said Daniels. "It was like a documentary."

Daniels expressed how surprised he was to see the things he saw on that video. He recalled taking a field trip years later to where the 9/11 monuments stand and how strange it felt to be standing where once two skyscrapers had fallen.

"As I got older I remember taking moments of silence every year in New York," said Daniels. "Now I know the whole story and I know how that attack impacted our country. I know how many heroes lost their lives, and how many heroes helped save lives."

As the years pass, 2001 moves deeper into our memories and further into our history books.

Gas Turbine Systems Technician (Mechanical) 3rd Class Jerome Ancheta, a Philippine native raised in Las Vegas, was born in 1995 and was only 6 years old when the attack occurred.

"The first time I remember hearing about the attack on 9/11, I was in the third grade," said Ancheta. "I was born in the Philippines and my first years of school I don't recall being taught about the terrorist attack on New York City. We read about it and talked about several articles presented to us in class."

As children, the introduction to what happened on 9/11 can't all be encompassed and understood in one grade school lecture.

"I was in the fifth grade the first time I saw videos from 9/11," said Ancheta. "Before then I had only seen stuff like that in the movies and it was still hard to believe it was real."

For a significant proportion of the country the date 9/11 evokes a great deal of emotion and memories of what they were doing that day, and how their lives would never be the same.

Americans, whether old enough to have lived through the tragedy or so young that their first lessons of the attack started in a classroom, will never forget.

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