story7331.xml

story7331.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-14

My dad & I were supposed to go to Ft. Monmouth in Eatontown, NJ that day & were running late. We grabbed breakfast & I started up the car. The radio was tuned to an all news station, WCBS 880 AM, in NYC. I was astounded to hear that a plane had hit the North Tower. I figured that it must?ve been a small plane like a Lear Jet or Piper because it was such a clear day & I thought no big commercial airplane would hit such a massive thing like the WTC. We went down Pine Av. & then onto rt. 35, which overlooks Raritan Bay. I then saw the huge pall of smoke & realized no small aircraft could do THAT kind of damage. Near the turnoff for the Garden State Parkway (GSP), there?s a small bayfront park in Old Bridge, NJ, so I turned into it. Normally at 9 am, there?d be 5-10 folks out jogging or walking their dogs. Today there were nearly 100 folks looking out at the Towers. Even at 25 miles distance, this was the biggest pall of smoke I?d ever seen, covering up 1/4 of the northeastern sky.
We had to go back onto the highway to go to the fort. As we got onto the GSP, we heard that Tower 2 got hit. It was truly shocking at this point. Next, we heard that we were under a terrorist attack, then a few moments later, we heard the Pentagon got attacked. The bulletins came so fast & heavy, they were overlapping one another almost to the point of unintelligibility. Then we heard the announcer?s anguished cry that Tower 2 went crashing down to the ground.
We got over to the fort & it looked like all hell broke loose. The Dept. of Defense police officer at the gate had blocked off the intersection & didn?t let traffic into the fort. Seeing a military license sticker on my dad?s car, he motioned us to come up. He asked us our business there & we asked him where our meeting was & he directed us to the base theater. I asked him what was going on & he said ?Buddy, we?re under attack!? That really scared me. I went to the theater, which, while open, was dark inside. I had to use the restrooms, so I opened the stall door & nearly jumped a foot when I saw what I perceived to be a dead body in the room, but thankfully, it was only a mannequin. I did my business there, turned to leave & then jumped nearly 2 feet when a fully armed MP came in & demanded to know what I was doing there. I stammered out that I was looking for an insurance meeting. He said to go to the base hospital. I asked him what in the world was going on, but he said w/a sad, weary look that my guess was as good as his.
When we got to the hospital, 2 ladies were frantically waving traffic out of the parking lot. They said the meeting had moved to the base chapel & directed us there. I asked them if they knew what was going on, but they both had husbands in Tower 1 & they couldn?t get a hold of them & were really worried about them. Being a born again Christian, I said I?d pray for both of them. At this point, I told my dad I wanted to leave, as the Pentagon had just gotten hit & here we were on a military base 40 miles from the WTC, which also got hit. My dad, ever the trouper, said to drive on.
We got over to an intersection & almost got T-boned by 5 MP cars & trucks. The MP?s jumped out of the vehicles almost before they had stopped & climbed onto a gate which led out onto rt. 35. My dad then said ?Let?s get outta here!? So we got back onto the GSP & went home. We had to go back by the bayfront park again & now there were hundreds of folks there. I stepped out of the car for a moment & saw the smoke plume rise up precipitously & then rapidly fall. I realized later I was seeing Tower 1 fall from 25 miles away. When I got back on the highway moments later, the radio announced that Tower 1 had indeed fallen.
I got home, watched the tragedy on TV for awhile, then went back to the park. Now there were about 1,000 people there. Schools had let out & it seems the whole township of Old Bridge was there. The police & fire depts. set up a staging area there. Folks had their radios on, giving a running commentary on the tragedy. One station broadcasted the sounds of Tower 2 falling & that was chilling.
Though lots of folks were chatting & there was lots of traffic around, one noise that was normally there was strangely absent. The park is directly across from JFK Airport & you normally see & hear 5-6 planes in the sky at any one time. Not today, though- the groundstop had silenced the skies. But a few minutes after noon, an F-16 streaked overhead. The crowd shuddered as one as they saw this. It made me feel as if our country was truly at war & under attack. I then walked over to the flagpole & said the Pledge of Allegiance & sang the Star Spangled Banner. I must?ve looked like a nut singing by myself, but I didn?t care. My country had been thrown in to a war not of its own choosing & I wanted folks to know that I was proud to be an American (& still am).
The smoke had parted & you could see empty blue sky where the towers once had been. Some teens had come to view the event. One girl had a Big Apple t-shirt w/the Twin Towers prominently displayed on it. I told her to treasure that shirt as the Towers were gone. She said, ?No way!? I handed her a pair of binoculars I had brought & told her to take a look. After doing so for a bit, she said w/tears in her eyes that I was right.
At 3 pm, I went to my friend Lorraine?s house nearby. She was having hot dogs & burgers w/her teenage son & so I joined her. Soon my sister Pauline & some other friends from my church (Calvary Chapel, Old Bridge, NJ) who had been dismissed early from work also came. These were single folks w/no family nearby, so they went over Lorraine?s to commiserate & pray together.
At 4:30, I went to South Amboy?s bayfront park, but the view there was partially obscured by Staten Island, but the smoke was still flowing as ferociously as it had all day long. I found out my church was going to have an emergency prayer service that night, so I went.
I was amazed to see about 500 folks show up. My church has 4,000 members & to see so many on a spur of the moment thing was encouraging. We sang & prayed & then my pastor, Lloyd Pulley, announced that out of the 100 of our members who worked in the WTC, not one of them made it into work that day!! That was amazing! But more amazing still was a story he told. He & his pastoral staff visited the Empire State Building the day before, along w/the guest speaker for the next evening?s service, a minister from Israel, who was going to speak on the evils of Islam & the true price of negotiating peace in Israel w/the Palestinians. They all looked over at the Twin Towers & noted that, while they looked strong & majestic, they were very vulnerable to an A-bomb attack. Little did my pastor know how prophetic his words were going to be. The Towers weren?t felled by a nuclear attack, but something just as fiery & powerful.
Also, we had heard that one of our sister churches, 4 Winds Fellowship of Tinton Falls, had lost 10 of its members, including one of their elders, a man named Al Branca, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor. It was reported that he led 50 people in prayer to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord & Savior just as Tower 1 had crumbled.
After the service I went back to the bayfront park for one last look & to invite anyone I talked to out to the next night?s service. Then, around midnight, I went home, watched more TV, prayed & crawled up to bed for a night of tortured sleep.
Next day, I went back to the park in the late afternoon & the smoke was still frightfully heavy. I invited more folks out to my church & at 5:30 pm, I left for church. I was amazed to see more than 1,500 people turn out for the service. We had to seat them in the overflow room, teen center, nursery, hallways, parking lots & even out on the street. They heard a message of hope, the evils of Islam, the truth of what was going on in Israel at the time & about salvation in Jesus Christ. About 200 folks went up & professed new-found faith in Jesus, making Him their Lord & Savior. What a beautiful thing that was! Through the pain & utter sorrow of the event, there was new life beginning. What a joyous occasion this horrible time had become! These people had a real hope now in a time where it had seemed hope was lost. Only a loving, gracious God could do this! I slept a lot more peacefully this night, lost in ferverent prayer.
Looking back over the past year, I have grown a lot, not just in my faith, but in personally standing up for righteousness, truth & peace. I?m more active politically & also more active in my church. I?ve had a pretty rough year physically, as has my family, but I believe that after living through 9/11, God had steeled me for the personal obstacles yet to come. Although not losing any family or friends in the attacks, I really know now how precious life is & that all our lives are in Jesus? holy, nail scarred hands. And that, dear reader, is the best place to be.