story2878.xml

story2878.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I had just gotten back to Boca Raton on Monday Sept. 10 from working an event in Clearwater Beach. I was going to leave Boca Raton on Tuesday morning to drive back to my home in Naples, Florida. Tuesday morning I was fast asleep when I heard my buddy David whom I was staying with come in the door screaming, I immediately got up to find out why he was screaming a plane hit the World Trade Center. David was hysterical and I was confused, we went downstairs to find the TV on and a picture of the WTC smoking from the top of the building. The news anchor was saying that a commercial jet liner had slammed into the WTC. As we watched in disbelief, a second plane hit the other tower, it was surreal, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. I remember changing the channel to see if maybe it wasn't real, but each channel was showing the same thing. At that point the media started to speculate it was a terrorist attack by Osama bin Laden's group. I remember watching that TV for the next 6 or 7 hours, I couldn't move. I tried to call my family overseas, but the phones were jammed. Finally my Mother got through and assured me that she and my Dad were ok, but told me to stay put, not to travel anywhere. My college roommate is a United States Marshall in Manhattan, so immediately I tried to call him to make sure he was safe, but I could only get his voicemail. He was safe, about 5 blocks away from Ground Zero when the attacks happened. I remember talking to him a day or two later and he told me that he had over 150 voicemails from concerned family and friends. The rest of the day I remember watching the coverage and hearing about the plane hitting the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in PA. Here in Florida, the roads were closed, the airports were closed and even Disney closed. I remember the feeling of desperation of not knowing what was happening. I was afraid that, that day was going to mark the beginning of WW3. That night, President Bush addressed the nation and declared war on the terrorists that had perpetrated the attacks. Being the son of an Air Force Officer, I felt a great deal of patriotism from the way America reacted to the events of September 11, 2001. I am proud to be an American!!