story5616.xml

story5616.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

My name is Daina Riecken. On September 11, 2001 I was 8.5 months pregnant with my first child. I had just dropped my husband, who is in the Army, stationed in Ft. Carson, Co, off at work. I came home and wanted to catch a couple more hours of needed sleep before I had to go to work myself. At 7:30 in the morning my co-worker called me and told me to turn on the t.v. and she asked me what part of New York my husbands family lived in. When I turned on the t.v. it didn't matter what channel it was everywhere. I didn't know if it was real at first and then I really didn't know what to think or say. The only real thing I could do was get on my knee's and pray. When I walked out the door to go to work the whole world was quiet. It felt like the world had stopped. There wasn't even any sound. Everything was so still. Work ended soon after I got there. My boss and I were too scared to stay at work. We live in Colorado Springs, Co and since we didn't know what or if something was going to be hit next, we wanted to be with our families incase it turned out to be Norad. When I got a hold of my husband at the base he didn't even know what had happened, no one did until he turned on the radio. The rest of the day went so slow. I had a million things running through my mind. I didn't even know what was going to happen with my husband yet. I think that the one thing that scared me the most is that I could not get a hold of my husbands family who I knew went to Lower Manhattan often.
As the day ended I got to go to the base to take my husband and another soilder dinner. I couldn't help but cry when I saw Cheynne Mountain (Norad) in front of me. I had never seen so much security on the base. It was really scary and unsettling. When I got home I went to bed, I didn't sleep. The only thought I pondered over was, "how was I going to explain this day to my unborn daughter." To this day, a year later, I still can't put it into words. All I can say is that I pray every day for those who lost their loved ones and how proud I am to be an American, and a military wife. My husband is my hero.