story20787.xml
Title
story20787.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2006-09-12
911DA Story: Story
On September 11th, 2001, I was on a layover in Burbank, CA. I am a flight attendant, and to awake to such a horrific story was overwhelming. Although five years have passed, I find that as we remember this infamous day today, September 11, 2006, that those feelings still feel "fresh", especially when recalling the horrible events of that morning.
At the time this tragedy occurred, I was our chair for AFA, The Association of Flight Attendants, at Alaska Airlines for our Critical Incident Response Program (CIRP). In this role, I spent month's of follow-up with our flight attendants~~tending to their emotional needs with referrals, CIRP debriefing's and diffusings, and in some cases, crying with my peers.
Our peer CIRP team reached out to our fellow crewmembers at United (same union) and American. As crew, we share feelings and fears with our peers that are sometimes difficult to explain to "civilians". To this day, I can only begin to imagine what those crews went through when they realized they were being used as "human weapons" in an aluminum tube!
The devastation, the loss, and the thousands of Americans that lost loved ones can never be replaced; however, my hope would be that American would continue to show their resolve and honor those lost on 9/11 with carrying on in the courageous manner each and every man, woman, and child did that fateful morning.
As I continue to put on my uniform and step on that plane, trip after trip, there is a brief moment of reflection on my part, of all four crews from 9/11. With the continued security threats made to our country, we have revamped our security protocal in the aviation airplane as we now know an enemy that we had never "met" before. With this in mind, I am honored to serve in a workforce that produced "heroes" in their own way, on the morning of September 11th, 2001.
My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to every family member, friend and coworker of someone lost that day. WE WILL NEVER FORGET and will be FOREVER GRATEFUL!
Respectfully,
Melody Respeto
Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant
At the time this tragedy occurred, I was our chair for AFA, The Association of Flight Attendants, at Alaska Airlines for our Critical Incident Response Program (CIRP). In this role, I spent month's of follow-up with our flight attendants~~tending to their emotional needs with referrals, CIRP debriefing's and diffusings, and in some cases, crying with my peers.
Our peer CIRP team reached out to our fellow crewmembers at United (same union) and American. As crew, we share feelings and fears with our peers that are sometimes difficult to explain to "civilians". To this day, I can only begin to imagine what those crews went through when they realized they were being used as "human weapons" in an aluminum tube!
The devastation, the loss, and the thousands of Americans that lost loved ones can never be replaced; however, my hope would be that American would continue to show their resolve and honor those lost on 9/11 with carrying on in the courageous manner each and every man, woman, and child did that fateful morning.
As I continue to put on my uniform and step on that plane, trip after trip, there is a brief moment of reflection on my part, of all four crews from 9/11. With the continued security threats made to our country, we have revamped our security protocal in the aviation airplane as we now know an enemy that we had never "met" before. With this in mind, I am honored to serve in a workforce that produced "heroes" in their own way, on the morning of September 11th, 2001.
My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to every family member, friend and coworker of someone lost that day. WE WILL NEVER FORGET and will be FOREVER GRATEFUL!
Respectfully,
Melody Respeto
Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant
Collection
Citation
“story20787.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 27, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/13352.