story6559.xml

story6559.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was getting ready for work while my granddaughter, Emma, was watching Sesame Street. I had to be at work at 12:00 pm at Halloween Scene, a seasonal Halloween store in Dover Mall. The Dover Mall decided to close at 1:00 PM that day.(Auralee Productions also had a store in the WTC.) I decided to turn to a different channel to try and catch the weather for the day at 9:00 am. What I saw shocked me. At first, I thought the first tower that had been hit, had some how caught fire. I did not initially know that a plane had hit it. When I heard what had happened, and saw the other plane hit, I sat down and couldn't believe that this was happening. My husband and I are Amateur radio operators, (hams). I immediately got on the radio and reported what was going on. Another operator asked how many souls were aboard, and when I told him what had happened again, he said that was unbelievable. I called my daughter at work and told her to turn the radio onto the local station. When I took my granddaughter next door, she had CNN on, and we watched as both towers fell. When I called my daughter back to tell her, she thought I was kidding. She didn't think anything could bring them down, and I don't think anyone else thought so either. I had set up my vcr's to record on different stations to get different views. I was flabbergasted to find out the Pentagon had also been hit. I couln't believe that there could be so much evil in the world that would do this such destruction. When I heard that a plane went down in Shankville, PA, I couldn't believe that so much turmoil could be going on in America. I think the people on Flight 93 are all heroes, not just a few. Not everyone had an opportunity to fight back, but the ones that did saved, I believe, the Whitehouse. I sat and cried for all the lives lost, and the senselessness of it. I just watched CNN Live yesterday, and cried through several sections of it. I did tape it, because my granddaughter and other granddchildren I may have, will be able to use this footage and news articles in school. I happen to know first hand from my history books in school how some of them can be wrong on historical events. I want them to be able to have first hand accounts of what happened. My sons are former Marines, and one is now in the Army. I know the wives, mothers and grandmothers of military personnel going over to Afghanistan and other Mid-East countries are grieving and praying. My prayers are with them all.

Joy Spence, KB3ETA. Military mother and grandmother.
Smyrna, DE

The Amateur Radio Relay League asked for amateur radio operators to go to the Pentagon and WTC areas to help set up communications, as all communications by phone was impossible. The Amateur Radio community is a big help in national and local disasters. I'm just sorry our help had to be utilized in such a way. Again, my prayers are will everyone who lost someone that tragic day.