story20420.xml

story20420.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-11

It was a regular Tuesday morning during the second week of school. I go to my first period class (Gym) with Mr. Hughes and everything seems to be normal. Once class ends, I begin to walk to my Tech class with Mr. Hatcher. I had already been to my locker so I had everything I needed that day. Even though I had everything, I was not ready for one thing that day. Mr. Powell, the shop teacher in the classroom over rushes in but still seemed calm told Mr. Hatcher that a plane hit the World Trade Center. I didn't understand. I was confused. How could a plane hit a giant building? Mr. Powell, I could tell, got increasingly more worried. He pulled out his cell phone and ran off. We stayed put in the classroom while Mr. Hatcher turned on his television to the news when we all saw the second plane crash in to the other tower. There was no explaining how this could happen. The first plane may have been a mistake, a miscalculation. But two? Then it hit me. This was intentional. It was an attack. A start of a new battle for survival. A few seconds after the second plane hit, I could feel a tear running down the right side of my face. I didn't even know it until it dripped from my chin to the table. It was at that point, it got so much worse.
My father was in the Air Force as a computer programmer and had retired in Feb. of 2001. He had worked in the Pentagon for 3 years until his retirement. He was now working for a company by the name of AB Floyd located in Alexandria, Virginia. He had still been doing work for the Pentagon. AB Floyd was in charge of writing software for the military. He had been in the building a few times for the past few weeks. I don't know if he was going there on that fateful Tuesday morning.
We were all watching CNN closer and closer in Mr. Hatcher's class and then the anchor said, "This report just in, another plane has struck the Pentagon in Washington D.C. It didn't hit me at first that my father was working there for a while now and whether or not he was there at the time. The bell had rang but no one left their seats. We stayed there, quietly, watching in horror. Mr. Hatcher told us to go to the next class so I proceeded to English with Mrs. Thrall. I got inside and the news was already on with a video of the World Trade Center Towers. That was when the most horrifying moment of my life happened. When those two gigantic symbols of American strength, freedom, endurance, and will, collapsed in front of my eyes. It was terrible. That was when the announcement came over the PA system. The principal announced that anyone that had a cell phone could use it to call home to make sure everyone was okay. I had never seen so many phones in my life. I had called home to make sure everything was alright but my mother said she hadn't gotten a hold of my father. I was scared. I asked for his phone number and she toldme and I tried for about 45 minutes to get a hold of him. No answer. I called the front desk office of the company and asked where he was and they assured me that he was in a meeting and he was alright. I thanked God that he was still alive. But there were other people at my school that were less fortunate. I prayed to God that they would all be alright and that we would be able to overcome the terrible day.