story5667.xml

story5667.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at work in my office at First Union bank. I am an Investment Officer and was monitoring the financial news for the day on my computer when the news came across on Reuters that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. That was all...just a sentence. I mentioned it to my colleagues and we thought it must have been a small plane that got off course. I continued to monitor the news and went to the major news web sites to try to get more information. It wasn't long before we realized something terrible was happening. Our concern grew with each report and update. As we became aware of the scope of the crash we realized that some of our First Union colleagues were located in the World Trade Center. Our operations center had moved there only a few months earlier. By this time the rumors were flying and no one was sure what was actually happening. There was a sense of quiet panic. I watched in horror as the buidings collasped and the pentagon burned. For weeks afterward there was a feeling of fear whenever a plane flew overhead. I remembered having dinner at the Top of the World restaurant and the awesome views of New York city and the harbor. The worst part of the attack was all the innocent people who lost their lives by merely showing up for work or getting on an airplane. We received an e-mail from our corporate office that morning saying all of the First Union employees had gotten out of the World Trade Center and were safe. However, this turned out not to be true. We lost 4 colleagues when the buildings collasped. We all lost our feelings of safety and security that day, but we gained a a greater awareness of what is important in our lives and what isn't. The morning of September 11, 2001 changed our nation, the world and our lives forever. I am proud to be an American and proud of the way our nation responded to this attack on our way of life. I hope everyone remembers 9/11 and learns from it and that we do not slip back into complacency and that we never again take our freedoms for granted.