Ten years ago, the most tragic attack on US soil from outside our borders happened. If you were alive today and able to remember, you have a story. You know where you were and what you were doing at those exact times. A plane crashes in to the World Trade Center building. News goes on everywhere about it. People are talking about it. What kind of fool could have flown in to the buildings? It had to be some sort of mistake. A computer failure. At the time it didn't matter the reason. It was one of the rare times people weren't focused on whodunnit, but the what happened and what was happening. All eyes were on the tower. The gaping holes with the smoke billowing out. Thinking of all the lives on that plane, thinking of all the lives in that building.
Then the second plane hit like a missile in the second building. Shock, fear, outrage happened. People started realizing this wasn't a mistake. Someone was doing this intentionally. During these times and shortly after we start hearing other reports. A plane crashes down somewhere in a field. A plane flies in to the Pentagon. OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE HEADQUARTERS. An attempted hijacking thwarted. Our nation realizes we are under attack.
Meanwhile back in NYC at the trade centers, our firemen, our police, our emergency units are trying their best. Trying their hardest to do what they do. To see if there is any way they can save the lives of the people in these buildings. Knowing they face eminent danger and the chances for survival for the victims or the first responders are slim and getting worse by the minute, they still do their job. Several enter the buildings and start clearing out what people they can. The nation watches in horror at the smoke billowing out of these two buildings that stand so tall in our town. Our state. Our NATION. Cameras from news crews, local press, spectators on the street are zoomed in on this horrible sight. People are freaking out because the poor souls trapped inside this building are jumping to their deaths. People had to make the tragic decision: be burned alive, suffocate from the smoke and flame inhalation, or jump to my death...
Then the inevitable happens. The first building crumbles to the ground. The smoke, the debris, the dust and ashes and bits of building shower the city. People run in fear and terror. An eery silence. People start to come out to see the damage, see what's left, see if anyone is still alive. As the dust starts to move out, the second building collapses. Again people flee for their lives as ton upon ton of steel and concrete fall to the ground.
Reports come across the air waves that all flights have been grounded. The military has scrambled fighter jets with orders to shoot down our own people if they do not respond to landing orders or deviate from their flight path. The United States sits...speechless...in horror...glued to the TV or Radio or what have you. The trainwreck that you can't look away from has happened. And it happened to us.
Me, it was a Tuesday morning for me. I was up, playing a computer game and munching on some breakfast. My wife who was pregnant with our son was sleeping peacefully. I get a call from a friend who's at the laundromat and he's watching the TV. He tells me to turn the TV on, that a plane just flew in to the World Trade Center. I'm not much of a news watcher but I turned on the TV and found a station that was reporting on it. I stood and watched for a few minutes as this reporter was standing on a hill on the outskirts of the city with the smoking building and it's twin in the background with a good view of the smoke rising. Just a few moments later, a second plane flew in and hit the second building. The reporter stops, touches his earpiece, turns around and stares in disbelief for a moment as the sound finally travels far enough for him to hear and the microphone to pick up the boom. The reporter turns back and look at the camera. Speechless. Slowly he says "ladies and gentlemen we've just witnessed live, a second plane flying in to the second World Trade Center building".
I stood there watching. Trying to process what I just saw. I knew I saw it but I still couldn't believe it. I decided to go wake Jennifer. "Honey, you need to wake up. Someone has flown two planes in to the World Trade Center buildings". Even to this day that's still such a strange thing coming out of my mouth.
I turned the TV on in the bedroom and by this time it was on every news station, every local channel, and several cable channels had interrupted their normal programs to bring this on. She woke up and started watching as they showed replays of the second hit. Then later on reports came in of a crashed plane in a wooded area. Then later reports and footage came in on a plane crashing in to the Pentagon. All I could do was stand there and hold my pregnant wife who weeped. What could we do? Nothing. One of the few times in my life I felt completely useless, helpless and worthless. There was nothing I could do.
The days events unfolded, almost every single TV channel was on this event now. I had to go to work that day. I got in my car and left, not really wanting to do anything. Thinking of everything. I remember Rick and Bubba, a morning show Radio program, staying on all day covering this and talking about it between news updates. There was not a single radio station playing music here in Birmingham. Everyone was talking about it. The city was so quiet while I was driving to work. There were not many vehicles on the road for a Tuesday afternoon. I generally went in to work as people were starting to get off and make their way homes but I remember it almost feeling like a ghost town.
I got to work that day. I worked in a call center for Capital One. They had turned the TVs on in the call floor area, wheeled in a TV as well. The floor was scarce. A lot of people either had left to be with families, or called in. I remember seeing one of the day shift ladies sitting there crying. I'd never noticed this lady before. Calls were still coming in, but barely, and most people were being re-routed due to phone lines being busy or down in the Northern area. One of my co-workers told me about one of our friends who was on the phone with someone who was in the World Trade Center when the planes hit and she was crying and begging for the Cap One associate to stay on the line with her. My friend told me that the call went dead and the associate was crying and had asked to leave for the day. My God I can't imagine having to be her sitting on the phone listening to someone dying. I am amazed at how compassionate she must have been to be able to stay there and talk to this victim. This person who was trapped. This person who had no idea she'd go to work and die today.
For the next week or so it was like being in another world. Things still seemed to be quiet. I remember breaks from the President coming on as we found out it was a terrorist attack. I remember everyone banding together. Everyone was being nice to each other Everyone wanted to help in some way. We had a lot of patriotic days where we wore patriotic clothing to work. Everyone either handed out flags or already had flags. We were United. We were One. We were Strong against others. We remembered those who were lost on that horrible day.
Ten years later, we still remember. Ten years later we still feel the pain. Ten years later we still have a remembrance day, a memorial day for our loss. Politicians and Political Correctness parties are trying their best for whatever reason to screw it up, but we still remember. Mayor Bloomberg has decreed to not have Clergy and First responders at the Ground Zero ten year memorial service. I'm sure he has his reasons, I just hope they are good reasons.
I'm sitting here now, remembering my time lines. Remembering MY story. Watching the clock as the time draws near to the time that ten years ago today changed our world. Part of healing is remembering. Sharing. Everyone needs to heal. Nobody needs to forget. As you go through your day, your new week, your LIFE, remember what happened that changed our world. Remember the tragic thing that happened in YOUR life on that day. Share it with others. If you have children, make sure they know more than just what a jaded history book tells them.
Take the time to thank a first responder for what they do. Firemen, Police, EMT's...so many of them are out there doing what they do for us.
It's summed up best by a documentary we watched yesterday called "7 Days in September". Independent filmography people got together and shared their films and memories. One guy filming was asking a fireman who was suiting up if he was going in to the building. The Fireman said he'd already been in there once. The cameraman asked if he was going back in in a shocked sounding voice. The fireman looked directly at the camera and said, "That's my job", as he grabbed his tank and walked towards the smoking building.
Thank you.
