Sept. 11th, 2001

I never understood growing up the importance several of my teachers tried to impart on us, students, on asking our parents and/or grandparents where they were when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. That was until nine years ago today. Until then I had never experienced a singular event in my life that not only affected me, but the entire country and even the whole world. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not trying to compare the life of a single person, no matter who they are, to those who lost their lives that day or countless lives that were forever changed because of that day. My point is until then I never felt more connected to humanity than merely just another faceless person in the masses. Even though I know that he doesn’t understand now and most likely will not understand for many more years, it is important to me to tell my son where I was, what I remember, and what I felt. I want him to know the impact it had and still has on my life, even though I hope he will never have to truly understand the effects of such an unspeakable event.

What I remember of September 11, 2001.

I remember going to work that morning, I was working at Cessna and as I was climbing out of the forward cabin where I was working for break when one of my co-workers told me that “They had bombed the mall.” I was confused and did understand what he was saying and when I asked which mall, thinking here in Wichita, he told me the National Mall. That scared me to think that somebody would bomb the National Mall. That is when I saw a group of people standing around the Engineer’s desk and the look of shock and horror on their face. I made my way to the group and saw that they were watching news online, and that was when I saw for the first time the first plane crashing in the World Trade Tower and then the second one crashing. The video was set on a loop and it is something I don’t think I will ever forget. I was then told about the plane at the Pentagon, and realized this is what my co-worker was talking about when he said the National Mall had been bombed. Shortly afterwards I found out about the fourth plane and could do nothing but watch the news. I also remember seeing a radar image of U.S. air space and except for one plane was empty.

There was little work if any that was done after that. Everyone was more concerned on getting in touch with their family. I got a hold of my girlfriend and made sure that her and her family was ok, then got in touch with my mom and made sure that the rest of the family was ok. When I got home that night there was the gas shortage scare so my girlfriend and I spent 2 hours in line at a gas station to fill up our car. We spent the time listening to the news on the radio and calling family and friends on the cell phone. After that we went home and spent the evening sitting on the couch watching more of the news coverage. I remember going to bed that night thanking God that everyone I loved was safe and had somebody to hold. It took days for the feelings of confusion and fear to dissipate. The anger of this act took a much longer time.

That is what I remember. I know that it is nothing that will ever make it into the history books, but it is my own personal history. I also know that my words could never convey what I felt. I can truthfully say that I can count one hand the number of days that I remember as well as this one. It is a moment in time that I will forever remember, and I will do my part to make sure that it is a day that will never be forgotten.