Being from New York that is truly a day i wont forget. I can actually recount every where i've been that day. Even thought i didn't really quite understand what happen i knew it was big i saw the panic in every one else faces. I was lucky i didn't lose any family members or friends. One of my cousins dodged a bullet because he forgot to set his alarm clock the day he was supposed to go for a scheduled interview. I don't live in Manhattan but that doesn't mean that in queens we didn't get some of the shit storm. Despite being evacuated from school and running home and the weird smell that eventually came what i actually remembered the most is being on the top floor of my school looking out the window and seeing a huge cloud. One building was down the other was still standing. Thats something i never want to see again.

What a 9 years it has been

My day began as usual that Tuesday in September. I woke up and got ready for work, and prepared for the drive to the warehouse in Springfield, Ohio, where I was employed. Even before we even climbed in to the Cavalier on that bright summer morning, Diana had heard the news that a jet airliner had flown into the World Trade Center. She then relayed the story to me. “Odd” I thought to myself “Was it an accident?” I asked. Diana replied that she didn’t know. News of the story was just breaking, and the details were not yet available. We tuned in to the radio on the way to drop Casey off for her second day of day care as details continued to emerge.

After we left Precious Gifts daycare and went work, the news of the second airplane hitting the World Trade Center came, and I knew immediately that it was no accident. The media began reporting that the United States was “under attack” and that four airliners had been hijacked, with two of them already having been used as weapons on the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Then, we heard the news that the third ill-fated airliner had hit the Pentagon, and that the fourth hijacked airliner was currently near Cleveland. It was then reported that the fourth airliner was heading back to the east, presumably to hit another target in Washington, D.C. Many news agencies speculated that the most likely target would likely be the White House. Little did I know at the time that I was about to experience my own small part of this horrific history in the making.

Sitting at my desk, I was wondering if I should pick Casey back up and leave town. I decided she was in capable hands at the moment, and only minutes away. It occurred to me that I could use the time more productively to plan my next move, and decided to secure refuge for my family and I, should we need it. My father had always told me to contact him if the shit hit the fan, because he had a friend with a bomb shelter near Cleveland, with enough water and food for 10 to 12 people for 30 days. It always seemed silly when Dad reminded me, but at that moment it was the most reassuring feeling you could imagine. All hell was breaking loose, and I needed a safe haven for my family in the event that we had to leave town.

News of the hijacked airliner reversing course near Cleveland was dominating coverage as the nation sat on the edge of their seats. The media reported that United Airlines Flight 93 was about to cross the Ohio border near Somerset, Pennsylvania. I had been to Somerset a few years earlier attending a sales seminar, and I had a pretty good idea of where it was in relation to me at the time. As I looked out my second floor office window to the southeast, I was thinking that the skies were eerily quiet now that the FAA had grounded all aircraft. Before I could complete the thought, a pair of F-16 fighters took off from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base headed to the north, and then turned right and headed east. I remember thinking that they were sent to intercept Flight 93, and that a military pilot was about to receive the order that no military member ever wants to receive; the order to take innocent lives so that the lives of many others would be spared.

I awaited the solemn news that our own Air Force had to down the fourth hijacked airliner to prevent it from destroying its intended target with the potential loss of additional innocent lives, and I was shocked when it was reported that the airliner went down in Pennsylvania at the hands of the passengers. I was positive that our military would have to take that hijacked airplane down, and that the two F-16s I saw leave Wright-Patterson were in about the right place, and at about the right time, to intercept United Airlines Flight 93. When the media gave us the “Let’s Roll” story, I knew something was wrong, and I mean seriously wrong, with the events as they were being reported. And, I thought it was strange the way our government knew who the perpetrators were, well before the evening news. Then, I saw an interview with then Vice President, Dick Cheney, on “Meet the Press”. I remember thinking that he wasn’t talking about what the government would do on 9/11 about a hijacked airliner full of innocent Americans turning around for Washington, D.C. I remember thinking he was talking about what they actually did.

To be continued…

9 Years. It don't seem like its been that long. I was still in Newark Ohio when it happened. I remember watching the news cast. How it all seemed sureal. I was a flurry of emotions. Confusion into shock. And then shock into rage. I made the final decsion then to sign up. There are words from Pearl Harbor that I feel still fits this situation as well "...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...". I hope the actions we have taken and the actions that I took while in the service helps for those words to hold true. May the souls of the innocent rest in peace.