story1251.xml

story1251.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

In 2001 I was a graduate student and teaching assistant at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, I was off on September 11th and had a dentist's appointment at 11:30am that day. I had slept in until I woke on my own around 9:30am. My radio in my room was set to 106.7 WJFK out of Fairfax, VA and Howard Stern was on. Nothing interesting was happening, and not being a fan of Stern's show I turned it off and went back to sleep for a bit. About 9:45am the phone rang, it was my mom who was working at the Damascus, MD Community Library. She had said a plane had hit the World Trade Center and wanted me to turn on the TV to see what was going on. I turned on the Today show and saw one of the towers smoking heavily. The newsreader said it had been a small plane that had hit the tower and I related it to my mom, along with the comment that a plane had hit the Empire State Building and my thoughts that this was just an unfortunate accident.
After I hung up the phone, I went back to the living room and watched the Today Show. It was then that I saw the second plane hit. I was shocked. I'm not sure if I said or thought "Oh S---", but it was there. Immediately I called the History Department at UMBC, they had a TV on and Carla the secretary told me she had seen it too. She asked if I was ok and I said I was. We talked a bit more and then I called my mom again. She had just heard the news as well. I was upset almost crying but not quite.
I kept watching and then turned to CNN, at about 10 the news broke of the plane hitting the Pentagon. It was almost like being punched, I called Mom and Carla again, Mom didn't know about the Pentagon and neither did Carla. After talking for a bit, I hung up the phone. About the same time I saw the first tower collapse. I was enraged. I was thinking about the people in the building and the rescuers who came to save them and I began screaming at the TV about how whoever had done this didn't give the victims a chance to survive. Sobbing, I went outside to our flagpole in the front yard and lowered our American flag to 1/2 mast and wept. I went back inside and sat down and cried again. I was completely emotionally drained.
By the time my dentist appointment came around I knew I was going to be late. I decided to go anyway. Almost out of defiance in order to show that I could live my own life. I got to the dentist and sat down. Everyone looked shell-shocked. After a wait I sat down in the chair and just listened to the radio. The office was going to have to close early since the schools in Montgomery County were closing and folks had to get their kids. After a brief cleaning I heard lots of helicopters and the roar of jets. I had to excuse myself and go outside and look. Ther flying over the town were 3 UH-1 Huey's a blackhawk and an MH-53. I didn't see the jets, but I certainly heard them. They were all heading northwest, towards NW Frederick County and I supose the Raven Rock Bunker complex. Indeed later on it turned out that was exactly where they were going and the passengers in the helicopters were members of the Congressional Leadership.
After leaving the dentist's office, I went back home. About 1/2way home I pulled off the road and saw the 3 hueys heading back towards DC. Back at home at around 1pm my dad, who came home after Montgomery County's offices were closed, and I saw the two jets and the remaining helicopters bringing the congressional leaders back to DC. It was surreal.