911 The Attack On America, We Remember
By Henry on Sep 11, 2008 in 911 Remembered
Here we are now 7 years later after our country suffered the worst attack ever on out own soil. Many people have been affected by the 911 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC. Today as our nation stops to remember and honor those who died and those who served to rescue and aid in the recovery and rebuilding after the 911 attacks, I wanted to take time and remember and honor them as well.
I remember the morning at my office where I worked in Becker, Minnesota as the I.T. Manager for a large furniture retailer. Our company server room was next to my office and I had a TV monitor on a shelf in the server room that I could see from my desk. In those days that TV was usually turned off. Early that morning a lady in the accounting office near my office rushed in saying that someone had just phoned her to tell her about an airplane that had just flown into one of the World Trade Center Twin Towers.
I quickly turned on the TV as most of the staff in our area of the building rushed into my office to watch FOX News. We were watching for maybe 6-7 minutes when all of a sudden the second tower of the World Trade Center complex burst into flames. We could not understand or believe what we were watching.
A little later reports were coming in about other possible planes piloted by more terrorists flying toward other locations. There was one reporter saying that an airplane might be headed towards the Sears Tower in Chicago but that proved to be falsh.
Then all of a sudden video switched from New York City to the Pentagon in Washington DC where a third airplane had now just slammed into the side of the Pentagon. Flames were shooting up into the air and people were running out of the building.
At the time of these attacks I was serving as a volunteer emergency amateur radio operator and as a volunteer with the Air Force Civil Air Patrol. As a volunteer “Ham” radio operator I had worked in several emergency drills for various terrorist attack and weather related emergency scenarios. Nothing in my training had prepared me for the level of disaster that I was watching that morning on September 11, 2001.
Just before noon my Civil Air Patrol commander phoned me to ask me to go to our squadron hanger in Anoka, Minnesota and get on our emergency radio net. Civil Air Patrol along with all the major US government agencies and the military organizations still operate and train on a High Frequency Emergency Radio system that can connect agencies, command centers, emergency operations centers and other served organizations of our government around the world. On September 11, 2001 this nations emergency radio network was activated… and it was not a drill.
I know that I was affected for days after the attacks on 911. Like many others that I talked with, I was waiting for something else to happen. The question in my mind was… where next and would it be Minneapolis or somewhere else that would directly affect me.
To those who have served to rescue and help others after 911 and to our men and women who served and are still serving in our nations military I want to say Thank You and God Bless You. May we never forget that our country has enemies that wish to destroy us and our way of life. We need to pray for and support those who have sworn to protect and defend our country. We also need to pray that our leaders will always do what is best for our nation and keep it strong and secure.
I invite you to comment on this blog posting today or in the next couple days and share your story about where you were, what you were doing and how your were affected by the events of 911. Did you know people that were there in New York or Washington DC? Perhaps you or your family was directly affected by the loss of a loved one. Please take time to reflect and remember.
6 Comment(s)
By Adam on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply
I was living in St. Louis attending college. I had an apartment that was on the 11th floor overlooking the campus. I got woken up by a phone call from a friend of mine who lived in Illinois and she asked if classes were canceled for the day.
I sat up and looked out my window to a beautiful blue sky with the sun shining. I asked her what they hell she was was talking about. She said “You haven’t been watching what is happening?”
I said no and asked what she was talking about. She said to turn on the tv. I asked what channel and she said all of them. It was one of the most surreal phone call I have ever had.
I turned on the tv about 3 minutes before the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I was speechless. I told her I had no idea about classes for the day and that I would let her know if I heard anything and hung up the phone.
I sat there for at least 3 hours just completely glued to the tv and answering phone calls. After about 3 hours of watching tv with people in my apartment complex I decided to walk over to campus.
Classes weren’t canceled that day but I don’t think any attendance records were set either. It seamed like the whole student body was just wandering around campus in a total daze. Here we were 2000 miles away from what happened and still it felt like we were right there.
There were a lot of people on campus that had families living in NYC and they were just beside themselves. We all just sat in the quad all day and talked about lots of things.
It was one of those days where it doesn’t seem like anything is real. No once had any clue what to expect or to do.
The rest of the week all classes were centered around what happened on that day. How could we go on with normal classes when something like that had just taken place?
All my instructors really struggled with how to organize the classes with all the chaos going on in the world. It was one of the greatest weeks of classes I have ever had the pleasure to take part in.
We discussed what happened in so many different fashions depending on the course. It was amazing to see how it could tie into courses ranging from calculus, philosophy, econ, public speaking and accounting.
This is the first time I have ever actually put down on paper what I was doing on that day. I have discussed it on many occasions. It is a totally different experience putting your thoughts about something that life changing down for others to read.
Wow! Who knew that typing that was going to have that type of effect.
God bless everyone who was affected by the events of that terrible day. You are in my thoughts and prayers.
By Bruce Porter on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply
I was preparing to take my son to the airport on 9-11, when the first reports came in of the attack. Our family spent nearly the entire day watching the news. Shock and sorrow overwhelmed us.
By that evening, I knew I had to go to New York and help. A volunteer firefighter and department chaplain at the time, I knew my training and counseling skills would be useful.
Six days later I boarded one of the first flights allowed by the FAA and flew to New York City to begin weeks of intensive work at the “pile” as we called it. I worked with SAR personnel, police, and firefighters. I spent a week in the makeshift morgue on West and Vessy St., comforting workers there as they sought to identify the fragmentary remains coming into the tent. At night I would spend hours at local fire houses sharing meals with surviving firefighters who lost scores of friends on the morning shift on 9-11.
Later, I came back to NYC after a two-week break to bring financial relief to firefighter families who lost husbands and fathers. As I was leaving NYC at Kennedy Airport in early Nov., the aircraft directly in front of ours took off and crashed in Rockaway Beach. My flight was cancelled, and I spent the remainder of the day out at the crash site. Later in the evening I worked with grief counselors back at JFK as family members were being given official notifications of the death of their loved ones in the crash.
9-11, and the subsequent events, changed my life forever. I live uneasily with the constant memory of what I experienced, saw, heard, and smelled. Only by the grace of God have I managed to maintain my mental stability and sense of security. May God help those who lost loved ones in those attacks, and may we be wise enough and vigilant enough to prevent another such attack.
By Ryan on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply
I remember not learning about the incident until late in the evening as I spent some time with friends in the local pub.
What a devastating event I thought to myself. Although I have no friends out n New York you could feel the fear and concern of all of the people here in the U.S.
I have never been in the military or known of war except fr those programs on T.V.
I felt ill and angry wondering what all the fuss and confusion was about. Why did this happen, who would do such a thing.
Then the real kicker was why what prompted this, why are we under attack and who was the evil mastermind to tread upon our sacred land?
Over the coming days, and weeks the aftermath, the pain and suffering combined with raging tempers flared all over the country.
All in all the wide spread panic had put our country in a spin and the only ones who knew about it were the untouchables.
Still to this very day I feel the sorrow that the families and friends grieve on for their losses.
I pray for their strength, we send them our compassion and loving thoughts wishing them the best that life has to offer.
Here are to the brave who selflessly sacrificed themselves to save those trapped in hells fury. Here’s to America to stay strong and fight in the face of adversity. Stand together, unite, continue to pledge our freedom.
Amen
By Henry on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply
Adam, thanks for sharing your story. I too found it helpful to think about this day and write about it.
Bruce, thank you for being there and doing what I could not do to help those in need. The company that I worked for was planning to send me to New Jersey 2 weeks after 9/11/08 for a conference. On the Saturday night of the conference they planned a dinner at the restaurant on top of one of the towers. In 2002 I did attend that conference, which was canceled in 2001, and later spent a day in NYC visiting ground zero and the church where the workers served from.
Ryan, the feelings that you had were shared by many. It was very hard to continue to work for days after this. As a volunteer who was unable at that time to leave and go and provide help it was hard on me.
I want to thank my friend Grant Holmes for sharing this link to a song he wrote last year about the Shield of America. You can listen to a demo of it from his link: http://www.grantholmes.com/shield/
Henry
By Willie Crawford on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply
I was on my way to work at Eglin AFB, Florida when I heard the news on the radio. My entire section of about 100 people spent much of the day drifting in and out of a conference room where we had CNN on a large screen television.
Our former commander was working at the Penatagn when the aircraft hit it. He wasn’t injured but we were all concerned. It was at that point that I realized just how close this unit was. Everyone felt like family.
As the reality of the attacks sank in, we gradually got back to work realizing that our world had just changed radically.
A a flyer, I had frequently gone to places where groups carried out attacked for various reasons. This drove home the fact that it was now very much on American soil too.
Willie
By Sue Weigel on Sep 11, 2008 | Reply
My husband, Dave, and I were in Honolulu,
Hawaii, celebrating our 23rd anniversary and the honeymoon we never got 23 years before this. Our son, Sam, who is now a pilot for was doing an internship for TWA (no longer in existence) and he had stand-by tickets for us to use. He encouraged us to go to Hawaii, where he had previously gone and camped. So, we had 2 days to fly there and back and three actual days there. We were planning on coming home 9-11-01 to our 5 children, left behind. We had no cell phone reception where we camped down the hill, but as we came up the hill to go eat breakfast,we had a message from Sam who told us what he knew, which wasn’t that much at that time, except two planes had crashed into the towers; it wasn’t known that it was terrorists; since we were standby he told us we probably wouldn’t get out for at least 1-2 weeks; we couldn’t believe what had happened. Three of our children were with another family, because they were too young to stay home; they were quite upset that we were so far away at this traumatic time in American History. We went and ate at a local restaurant; there was no TV so we didn’t see it, but we read the paper. Long story made short, we only saw what happened on TV once in Hawaii. Our feelings were very mixed during this time; wanting to be home with our children yet not being able to get home; we had gone and saw the museum on the bombing of Pearl Harbor before 9-11 happened; that and what 9-11 was reality that an attack could easily happen in Hawaii and we had nowhere to escape. We ended up in Honolulu one week longer than we had planned because the planes were grounded for 3 days and then all the paid passengers got out first. We had a lot of time to pray for those who needed comfort during this time. We got more minutes on our cell phone and called our children often. I was very afraid of flying before this happened. I flew but didn’t like it and was constantly praying, but also out of rest and worried. When we finally got to go home, the plane was very empty and it was a long flight back to St. Louis, MO. and then to Minneapolis/
St. Paul.You would think with all that happened with planes crashing into the towers and the Pentagon I would be deathly afraid of going home, but I was so glad to be going home and I said to myself very shortly after taking off,” If I die, I die; I have a relationship with Jesus Christ and I will go be with Him; what is so bad about that? This is totally out of my control and there is nothing I can do.” I have never been afraid to fly since that time and we have flown a lot. We came home and I watched what happened on TV a few times but it was so heart breaking, I saw no reason to keep watching it and put fear in me. We have two sons who serve in the military. One has been in training, in Iraq and debriefing, for a total of 18 months, in 2003-2004; he has now been home for 3 1/2 years, but he would go back in a moment to defend our country; our other son did his boot camp between his junior and senior year, graduated this year and is doing his military police training right now in Fort Leonard Wood, MO. He, too, knows that he will probably go to Iraq or somewhere and is ok with that. I am proud of those who serve in whatever way, to keep America safe. I am thankful and proud of those who went to New York or wherever it was needed and served. Dave, our daughter Rachel, and I went to New York last year and saw ground zero, the church where a lot of people were comforted and served, etc and it was very emotional.