Lee Greenwood Unites a Nation at 9/11 Memorial Service [VIDEO]

There were plenty of tears at the 9/11 Memorial Service in Yankee Stadium less than two weeks after the attacks. But when Lee Greenwood got up to sing, people smiled through their tears and found renewed patriotism.

When people ask me what my best day on the radio was, I'm hard-pressed to pick a singular day. But when asked what my worst day was, the answer is easy - September 11th, 2001. I was in a meeting when we heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Like many, we thought it must have been a small plane that had lost its way and we hoped that no one in the building was hurt.

But by the time I went on the air, the second plane had hit, and the truth became all too apparent. We stopped playing music. Allison Bankston worked feverishly in the news room, gathering and confirming all the information as it poured in. Bob Duchesne joined me in the studio, and we talked about what was happening, we speculated on what it meant, and we expressed our own shock. There was no time for grief, in that moment. The important thing was to get the information out and keep people informed. We fielded phone calls and listened to people cry.

In our business, you learn to have a certain amount of detachment when bad things happen. There's no time to feel, only to relay what's happening. That is the responsibility of our profession. The tears came later, when we left the airwaves. When we were headed home in our cars, or when Alan Jackson sang out our emotions with his incredible song.

Over the next few days and then weeks, our shock and grief turned to anger and then to pride in our nation. People displayed flags at their homes and attached them to their car antennas. Patriotic songs brought smiles that showed through the tears.

And on September 23rd, when New Yorkers gathered in Yankee Stadium with the likes of Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former President Bill Clinton to remember and honor the fallen, one song expressed it all. Lee Greenwood said it best and had the entire crowd singing along.

I will never forget September 11th, 2001. I will never forget the people who died or the way that day changed me forever. I am Proud to be an American. God Bless the U.S.A.