story7487.xml

story7487.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-15

But, I was asked the previous Friday if I could arrive at work a day early. So off I went to Newark Airport on 9/10 and got on United 93 (which I have flown so many other times as well) and flew oblivious as to what would happen the next day off to San Fran. and then on to Fresno. At 5:50 AM (west coast time) my friend Tim calls me from Boston on my cellphone to tell me a plane has just hit the WTC - he thinks I'm at Newark getting ready to board my San Francisco flight. I explain the bosses request to get there a day early and tell him I'm already on the west coast. While Tim is on the phone (he is in his car) I turn on the news and look on in disbelief at the burning building. I tell him I'll call him back and phone my friend Scott who lives at 21 West Street (which is 2 blocks down from the WTC) with his girlfriend. He has a penthouse that looks directly at the Twin Towers. As the phone rang I look at the TV and see the second plane hit the other tower. What at first was a question in my mind is now obviously all too clear - this is a terrorist attack on our country. Scott is out on his balcony and witnesses the entire event. He runs past the ringing phone and frantically runs down 33 flights of stairs. He is off to look for his girlfriend who was running in the park across the street as she did daily. I watch as the tragedy continues. I call my co-worker (who is still asleep in her hotel room) and tell her of the events that are unfolding - she turns on the TV and cannot believe her eyes. I tell he I will call her back shortly. Tim is now on his way home (he is a reservist and fears the worst)and I call him back on his cellphone. I tell him about the second tower (which he knew about)and suddenly the picture from the Pentagon appears. When I tell him of the attack on the Pentagon he reacts in horror and tells me he has to go. Basically, I sit in disbelief and horror for the next 4 hours. I see the crash site outside of Pittsburgh, Watch over and over the pictures of the Twin Towers crumbling to thier death. The carnage that is occuring across our peaceful country and wonder what animal is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Like many, I fear the worst. I envision 50,000 people trapped in the Twin Towers, think about the subway staition and shops below that I so frequently visited. I think about retailiation. After 4 hours I can't take anymore. I feel sick, depressed and try not to think about all the people I know who work at the WTC. I reach my co-worker and we head out to lunch. We will go to work for a few hours afterwards it is decided. Fixed on the television at the restuarant, we continue to look at the ongoing events. They have now identified the planes that have crashed and advise that most of the other planes flying around the U.S. are down except for a few (which still had me worried). I reached into my pocket to look at my itinerary. Out came my original ticket on Flight 93 for September 11th. I looked at it, handed it to my co-worker and started to cry. By a stroke of luck, I am still here. That moment will forever be engrained in my memory. When I was able to get home 13 days later (our company had a 10 day travel ban - stay where you are until the dust settles)I found out that only 3 people I knew perished in the attacks. The horror of it all continued in the cleanup. I volunteered to work at the Red Cross respite center at the Marriott. A mere month after the attacks, I stood at Ground Zero and looked on in disbelief. The fires were still burning, the pile of rubble, although smaller was still 5-6 stories tall. Underground fires burned everywhere. The smell of burning flesh stained the air. The carnage continued. I cried. I worked at Ground Zero for 2 weekends. It is impossible to describe, unless you are standing 10 feet from where the front door of the North Tower was, what it looked like. Grey dust and rusted metal everywhere. Decimation. Work stops. They have found another body. The surrounding buildings had the faces ripped off as if by a horrible monster. I seek revenge. Now, a year later, the cleanup is done, the bodies accounted for, the quest to rid the world from terrorism continues. It will be a long hard battle but it must be done to insure our safety and the safety of future generations. May God bless all those who perished in these senseless attacks.