story1342.xml

story1342.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-20

I will never forget September 11 as long as I live. On that faithful morning I was on duty on my secular job as a maintenance supervisor at Confort Suites in Newport, Kentucky. On that morning I was doing a room renovation in a room that had a mold & mildew problem. I had the television on for noise,mostly. All the sudden as I had my back to the TV, I heard we interupt the broadcast for a special bulletin. As I turned around I had the images immediately burned into my memory.The images of planes crashing into the towers in New York City. Then the faces of fear and death as cameras panned over the crowd.Immediately,my pager began to go off several with call from my wife and my churchmembers.Everyone, including myself could hardly speak without geting chocked up. Everyone,in the hotel was buzzing around and spoke to each other in spirits of fear.Later that afternoon,I was sent to the greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport to pick up crews of Pilots and Flight Attendants since all flights had been cancelled. Upon arriving, I was asked to step out of the company van while a bomb sbiffing dog was taken through it (this was after sitting in a line of traffic for over an hour just to get close to the terminal).When, I finally got to the Terminal, I saw hundreds of tear stained faces and others who stood in states of shock. For days, weeks, and months afterwards everyday the talk centered around the events of 9/11. The travel industry fell off to next to nothing.Although, travel has picked back up over time and time has begun to heal wounds.I still cant look at a statue of a fallen fireman or policeman (due to 9/11) without a tear trickling down my cheeck. I can truly say that Im even more proud to be an American today after 9/11 than I ever have been before. As my great hero, Dr.Martin Luther King said in his speech, I Have A Dream, "Let Freedom Reign"!