story3579.xml

story3579.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was at work when they started saying the towers had been hit. We have access to CNN so we went to look and it was like watching a movie, showing the first tower being hit. Then the 2nd plane came and we all just looked in disbelief, I don't think any of us thought it was real. The base called there threatcon and at that point all the reality hit. We at that point had no access outside, everything was locked down. I really remember the Airman who had family that worked at the towers or lived near them and could not make contact with them. They were crying in disbelief just not knowing if the people they knew were there that day, and then the Red Cross started calling with good and bad news. They sent several people home to pack because at that point it was decided we were going to support the operation. No one knew were they were going or for how long or if they would be back. That was also the day we started 12 hour shifts and learned at that point stop loss was going to take effect. That meant those of us who had served there time and there contract was up could not seperate from the Air Force. It was a devistating time for everyone and I just wanted to be home with all my family, just to know that they were safe and couldn't be.