story1449.xml

story1449.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-24

It was my third week of college, as I was a freshman enrolled at the University of Iowa. On Tuesdays, I only have one class, that being my Issues in European Society and Politics, taught by a Mr. Paul Custer, that started at 1:05 in the afternoon. However, for my Elementary German I class, we had a computer program for each chapter that had to be at least completed 50% by the day of the test. Since you could not get the program for your own computer, I had to go to one of the ITC?s (Information Technology Centers, I believe it stands for) to do this. I always went to the Foreign Languages Media Center in Phillips Hall, where my German class met, to do this program. Being I had nothing going on that morning, I went and had breakfast about 7:00 am and them left around 8:00 to go do this, since usually the computers were empty at this time of day. This was how I did this for the rest of the semester. The program took about an hour to complete, so I left Phillips Hall around 9:00 am.
When I got back to Rienow Hall, the dorm I was living in, I had to wait for an elevator, since I lived on the 11th Floor. When the door opened, Erin, a girl I went to high school with, came out and asked my if I was listening to the radio (I was listening to Jimmy Buffet on my CD Walkman). I replied ?NO?, and Erin then asked ?Have you heard the news???
?No, what happened? I asked.
?We?re all going to die, Andy. The World Trade Center, the Pentagon, they?re all gone, We?re all going to die!!? she replied in this hysterical tone. Some of her friends that were with her said ?Erin, calm down!?
While I stood there listening to her, the elevator had closed, and I remarked ?Oh thanks, now I missed my elevator!!? I had seen Erin this way before, and it usually seemed it was little things that caused it, or else she was making it up, so I didn?t think much of it. Anyways, the only thing I could think of was that only a nuclear blast could have done what she just said, but dismissed that since I was sure I would have heard something already. Pretty soon another elevator came down and this other guy and I got on. I remarked to him, ?I?ll have to turn on the T.V. when I get to my room, just to make sure.? The guy replied, ?Yeah, it seems a little unbelievable.?
When I got up to my room, Brett, my roommate, had the T.V. on. I looked at it, and they were showing a map with the World Trade Center marked with red blocks on this map. When I first saw this, my heart almost skipped a beat. It was like on all the 'day after' movies, with the maps on the screen showing the viewers what was no more. All I could think was, ?Oh God, who nuked us?. As I was thinking this, I said in a medium soft tone, ?Ok, I guess she was telling the truth.? Brett informed me that two jetliners had crashed into the buildings, and both had collapsed. Even when he said this, I made some sort of remark that ?Naw, it would have to be missles launched by someone.? Even when they turned to footage of the towers burning, I still thought it was a missle attack. The idea of hijacked airliners being used in that sort of manner didn?t seem possible. Then they showed footage of the second plane going into the tower. It was just like off of a movie, and the image still sticks out in my mind every time I think about it.
I stayed by the T.V. the rest of the morning, with my eyes glued to the scenes of the attacks. It was an awfull lot to take in. I don?t really remember anyone talking about who could have done this sort of thing until later that night. All during the day the news stations were covering what was happening, new orders from the city and government about roads and air traffic being shut down, and so on and so forth.
Along the bottom of the screen of the local station we were watching was a list of places closing for the day and prayer meetings for that night. In Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, the schools were allowing parents to pick up their children if they wanted to. Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids closed, along with other public areas. I was trying to figure out why they were doing this in Iowa, but then I remembered Palo, a town near Cedar Rapids, which housed a Nuclear Power plant. (a few days later there was a rumor, I never heard it confirmed or denied, that on a list of targets found in one of the accused hijacker?s car, Palo was listed as number 8) Brett?s friend Jordan spent a good part of the day in our room watching coverage with us. Brandon, a guy who was then living in temp housing, came by fairly often. Brandon was from Chicago, and said that his mom worked at the Sears Tower, but couldn?t get in contact with her. He also pointed out that his dad was in the Marines and specializes with disasters like this, so that he would be going out there. I didn?t eat lunch that day, I wanted to stay by the T.V. and watch continuing coverage for as long as I could before I had to go.
I left around 12:30 and headed off towards my class. When I got to Schaffer Hall, room 150 there was a sign on the door that read ?Paul Custer?s Issues in European Society and Politics Class will not meet today due to the recent happenings.? I walked as fast as I could back to my dorm room to watch coverage. I tried to call mom on the walk back on the cell phone, but she wasn?t home.
When I got back to the room, Brett had downloaded a Boys-to-Men version of the Star Spangled Banner, and had to play it every time causality figures, video of one of the planes crashing into the buildings, and other footage like that was shown. It was either that or Taps. It got really annoying, and finally both Jordan and I told him to knock it off and that we wanted to listen to the television.
I went to supper that night, but wolfed the food down and came right back. Mom called me that night, and it was nice to talk to her. SHe and Dad had just gotten back from a prayer service our church for the victims. She had a doctor's appointment that day up in Fort Dodge, a 20 minute drive from Dayton. They had heard a plane had crashed into the Trade Center, but wasn't until they got up to the doctors office they found out about everything else.
I was chatting with Steve, a high school friend who was a year behind me, when missile strikes were reported in Afghanastan, but no one could get any confirmation on whether they were US missiles or missiles from the Northern Alliance. Steve commented that he had just registered for selective service, and from what I had read of his posts, seemed concerned about what was going to happen later on. The missiles were later reported to be Northern Alliance ones.
At one point that evening Brett turned the station to something else that wasn?t showing coverage, saying silently as he did so ?eh, I don?t want to watch this anymore.? I could see where he was coming from and certainly understood, but I really wasn?t too happy about it. So when he left to go over to Jordan?s I changed the channel to CNN. I stayed up till about 10:30 or so that night, since I had to wake up for a 7:30 Algebra II class the next morning.
In the Algebra class we went ahead as if nothing happened. There was a weird feeling there, like things weren?t the same like the last time we met, and no one was really talking. In my German class, we took about a quarter of the time period to talk about it. At first we weren?t really going to, like no one really wanted to start the conversation. We went to start learning German, and one of the guys said, ?I know someone that was lucky, I had a friend that had a meeting scheduled in the World Trade Center yesterday afternoon.? That broke the ice and we spent the next fifteen minutes or so discussing the happenings of the day before. Some of the conversation focused around who may have done this. One guy made a remark about Osama Bin Laden not being capable of pulling something like this off, that the only thing he could do was a car bomb. I wanted to make a comment that if history has taught us anything, it is to never say never, however the conversation had moved on before I could make it.
There was discussion on how much money it could take to pull something off like this. The consensus that it could cost a lot, where the hijackers would have to be trained, or be relatively cheap by using already trained pilots. Then talk switched to the weekend?s professional sports events, and even the Iowa-Iowa State game, that was scheduled for that weekend. Everyone, for the most part, thought it was stupid to postpone all of those games. When the discussion quieted down, our instructor, Jim Rion suggested that maybe it was time to work on some German and get our minds off of New York for a while. We all opened up our books, seemingly voluntary as a sign of agreement.
I rushed back to the dorm after the class to catch up on new happenings. When I got back, and saw that only a few bodies had been recovered, I realized that the need for blood that everyone was giving would not be needed, since they were finding very few survivors (but at least, I thought, they could use all this blood for other people needing transfusions. I was going to give blood, but since I had my second Measles vaccine a week before, I wasn?t able to. I however did give money to the Red Cross and different organizations.) While I didn?t watch the T.V. as close this day, I did stay on CNN and kept watch.
On Thursday I had my Issues Class. Mr. Custer gave the whole period to discussing the terrorist attacks. He seemed really devastated by it. He told us that he had been in contact with his friends in England that he met when doing research for his dissertation. When the news first hit there, these guys were let off of work, and went to the local pub to watch coverage. Most of the people in the pub were in tears over what was happening in New York and Washington. Mr. Custer kept making the comment about this event is showing us just how much Britain and the US are friends. He also commented on teachers who didn't give the time of day to the attacks in their classes. He said that the people he talked to about it replied, ?Well, it had nothing to do with our class.? That response really pissed him off, and I don?t blame him, I felt the same way about one of my classes. It was a very involved discussion, and everyone shared their feelings about it. By that you could tell that most of the students in the class hadn?t had the opportunity to talk about it with others like we were then. At the end of the class Mr. Custer told us that he was going to give a twelve-pack of beer to the local fire station as a thanks for the sacrifices they were willing to make for us. That comment, and the class that day, really inspired me, and I went home and typed up a letter to the editor of the Dayton Review, my hometown paper, and how everyone should give the local volunteer firefighters a big thank you.
Even though we didn?t get UPN on cable in the dorms, I was wishing we had, especially on this date. Thursday nights, UPN shows WWF Smackdown. This was the first WWF event since the attacks, and, from what I read, was the first major event and gathering of people at a non-9/11 related event also. WWF.com had a lot of videos from that show. The two videos that sticks out most in my mind was, amid ?U-S-A? chants, all of the WWF and WCW Superstars coming onto the stage, with Vince MacMahon at the head, when Lillian Garcia sang the national anthem. I swear that I saw Stone Cold Steve Austin?s eyes starting to water towards the end. The other was Kurt Angle?s comments. He stated that when he won his gold metals at the Atlanta Olympic Games, he was considered a hero. But in the face of what happened on 9/11, the idea of a hero has suddenly changed.
That weekend was the Civil War reenactment at Usher?s Ferry in Cedar Rapids. There was questions on whether it should be held or not, but it was decided to hold the event, and not to let the terrorist win. Dave, one of my best friends and fellow unit member, bought yellow ribbon and black cotton. The yellow ribbon was for tying around trees and for pinning to our shirts, and the black cotton to wear on our jackets. It was really good for me to be around them that weekend. There was a lot of talk about the happenings. One of our friends in another unit said that we should do to these guys what the Marines did at Tripoli I think it was way back in the 1800?s; wrap them in wet pig skin and let it dry around them. It was a surreal feeling being there in all aspects. One group of guys left Saturday night because of that. One of them made a comment about the battle that ?there was nothing there, we were just going through the motions.?
Both Friday and Saturday night we had a candle lighting around the flag. The Friday candle lighting was for President Bush?s request to the whole country, and that just consisted of seven other people and myself. It was a heart touching moment. The one on Saturday was for other reenactors. One guy was in tears after saying some remarks. This ceremony will stand out in my mind for the rest of my life. Four Hardcore reenactors (guys who try to look, eat, and breathe the part) came by with beeswax candles and lit them, then passed around a pipe. It was like the soldiers of old paying their respects to the victims of this attack. A few people came at a time to pay their respects. The ceremony ended with everyone singing ?God Bless America?.
That was my expierences of the week of September 11. On Monday, I noticed things started getting back to normal, a little bit at a time. The nation, and the University of Iowa, started to heal.