story10658.xml
Title
story10658.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2004-06-17
911DA Story: Story
Where was I? I was in a meeting at Knightdale, NC Town Hall. Our staff meeting was finishing up and Shiela, at her desk, said, ?Rick called and said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center?.
My first thought was that a small propeller plane was off course, of course, had hit the building. Then, immediately, expecting that it was a joke, or sick rumor, I asked if she if she was serious. Was she certain it was the World Trade Center in New York?
?Yes, New York??she was on the phone now to Rick, ?He says it looks bad ? smoke coming out of the top of the building??.
I tried to get online, to one of the news sources online, CNN, WRAL?nothing. New York Times, Hartford Courant, Washington Post, nothing?I couldn?t get any information, the internet was already jammed.
I called John?had he heard that the World Trade Center had been hit by an airplane?
No, he hadn?t.
?Do you have a TV??
?Yeah, hold on.?
?What do you see??
A moment and silence, then, ?Wow. There?s a big hole in the building. It looks like a smoke stack.?
John sounds like he can?t believe what he?s seeing. I?m anxious now?I want to see too?what happened? I think?a horrific air disaster is my first thought.
I call over to Shiela to listen on the speakerphone.
?What do you see, John? Shiela?s here.?
He returns with his observation that the building looks like a smokestack. ?I can?t believe it. This is really happening. We were up there.?
Vivian, and Quentin, off to a meeting, pay scarce attention.
Sheila and I look at each other and know we want more information.
?Thanks, John? I say, prepared to hang up,
?Wow, it looks terrible,? he says,
?I got to go?
?I talk to you soon. I love you.?
There?s a TV in the Town Hall Board Room?we try, but it?s not connected to an antenna.
Shiela says the Finance Department has a small TV and we head there.
There is, (thank goodness?), and we gather to watch the building with the gapping hole and it does, I think, like John said, looks like a huge smokestack.
Gathered now around that tiny black and white TV, it?s incredibly quiet, except for a few ?oh my Gods?.
About 15 minutes after Shiela first said that something had hit the World Trade Center I see something that looks like a bird, albeit a big bird, fly across the screen from right to left, and then the second tower of the World Trade Center explodes.
I look over at Shiela but I don?t know that she?s seen it. We all know that something?s exploded because the news people are screaming. ?Something?s exploded; there?s been another explosion at the World Trade Center!!!?
The next few minutes fade into disbelief and astonishment; is this an accident? Is this an accident?!
CNN reports one of the planes is an American Airlines flight from Boston.
I feel sick. I go back upstairs to call my brothers. My brothers? Peter and Paul both travel weekly from Boston. Paul, especially, travels to New York. I can?t reach them.
I tried my cell phone again, and I reach my parents on Connecticut. Dad answers.
He and Mom, veterans of the Great Depression and World War 2, are watching on TV; they know what?s happening. I ask my Dad if he knows if Paul and Peter are travelling today.
As if in a dream, I hear my Mom crying in the background.
My Dad, whom I imagine from the tone of his voice is pale, says, "they think Peter is flying today to Los Angeles from Boston.? Then, he says, "and Paul is traveling to San Francisco."
I was actually relieved. I can?t imagine that the flights are destined for California and innocently assumed that the flights have crashed into the World Trade Center were headed to New York.
I tell my Dad that I will find out what I can as the thought of Pearl Harbor crosses my mind, and I say ?I love you? like I?ve never say it before, and hang up the phone.
I turn to Shiela and say, my Dad says that my brothers are flying out of Boston for Los Angeles and San Francisco but we don?t know for sure. I think I remember saying, ?Those flights from Boston were headed to New York, so it?s probably OK??
I?m not at all sure.
Shiela says that the Pentagon is on fire and the White House is being evacuated.
We run back downstairs to watch the small television. There?s a report of a fire on the Mall ? and that the State Department has been bombed. I think of George Washington University and the campus I love so much being in flames. I can?t image what Joe and Tony are experiencing but I am immediately grateful that I live in Raleigh.
I take a break and go outside to smoke a cigarette.
In retrospect, it?s certainly an understatement, but I think, ?What a fucking morning??
I look up at a beautiful blue cloudless sky and imagine that hijacked planes are everywhere looking for targets.
I polish off the cigarette and head inside to the join the numbers of people gathered around the tiny TV to hear CNN report that people are trying to figure out what is exactly going on; that ?several incidents have occurred? and that a ?major terrorist attack has occurred?. Within an hour of the first attack, utterly unbelievably, the country comes to a halt.
Progressively, like a deck of cards, airports across the country, from Boston to San Francisco close and 4000 passenger planes are ordered to land immediately at the closest air field.
CNN reports, ?All airports across the country and all bridges and tunnels into Manhattan are closed.?
Now, we watch as the TV reports that the State Department, the Treasury Building and the Capitol are all on fire.
June 1, 2004
Almost three years after the day. Since 9/11/01 the country continues to suffer from economic problems, security insecurities, and personal upheavals. It?s fair to say that the world as we knew it no longer exists. Perhaps the most likely explanation is that we, the US, were ill-prepared to deal with the demise of the Soviet Union. In retrospect, the counterbalance the Soviet Union afforded us had an almost calming effect on the state of world affairs. Circumstances being what they are, I could never have imagined that we would be here, today, from the perspective of a young student in Washington, DC in 1987.
When, and if, we are ever able to reflect personally and collectively upon 9/11/01 and the Iraq War of 2003 ? 2004, will we be able to find comfort?
My first thought was that a small propeller plane was off course, of course, had hit the building. Then, immediately, expecting that it was a joke, or sick rumor, I asked if she if she was serious. Was she certain it was the World Trade Center in New York?
?Yes, New York??she was on the phone now to Rick, ?He says it looks bad ? smoke coming out of the top of the building??.
I tried to get online, to one of the news sources online, CNN, WRAL?nothing. New York Times, Hartford Courant, Washington Post, nothing?I couldn?t get any information, the internet was already jammed.
I called John?had he heard that the World Trade Center had been hit by an airplane?
No, he hadn?t.
?Do you have a TV??
?Yeah, hold on.?
?What do you see??
A moment and silence, then, ?Wow. There?s a big hole in the building. It looks like a smoke stack.?
John sounds like he can?t believe what he?s seeing. I?m anxious now?I want to see too?what happened? I think?a horrific air disaster is my first thought.
I call over to Shiela to listen on the speakerphone.
?What do you see, John? Shiela?s here.?
He returns with his observation that the building looks like a smokestack. ?I can?t believe it. This is really happening. We were up there.?
Vivian, and Quentin, off to a meeting, pay scarce attention.
Sheila and I look at each other and know we want more information.
?Thanks, John? I say, prepared to hang up,
?Wow, it looks terrible,? he says,
?I got to go?
?I talk to you soon. I love you.?
There?s a TV in the Town Hall Board Room?we try, but it?s not connected to an antenna.
Shiela says the Finance Department has a small TV and we head there.
There is, (thank goodness?), and we gather to watch the building with the gapping hole and it does, I think, like John said, looks like a huge smokestack.
Gathered now around that tiny black and white TV, it?s incredibly quiet, except for a few ?oh my Gods?.
About 15 minutes after Shiela first said that something had hit the World Trade Center I see something that looks like a bird, albeit a big bird, fly across the screen from right to left, and then the second tower of the World Trade Center explodes.
I look over at Shiela but I don?t know that she?s seen it. We all know that something?s exploded because the news people are screaming. ?Something?s exploded; there?s been another explosion at the World Trade Center!!!?
The next few minutes fade into disbelief and astonishment; is this an accident? Is this an accident?!
CNN reports one of the planes is an American Airlines flight from Boston.
I feel sick. I go back upstairs to call my brothers. My brothers? Peter and Paul both travel weekly from Boston. Paul, especially, travels to New York. I can?t reach them.
I tried my cell phone again, and I reach my parents on Connecticut. Dad answers.
He and Mom, veterans of the Great Depression and World War 2, are watching on TV; they know what?s happening. I ask my Dad if he knows if Paul and Peter are travelling today.
As if in a dream, I hear my Mom crying in the background.
My Dad, whom I imagine from the tone of his voice is pale, says, "they think Peter is flying today to Los Angeles from Boston.? Then, he says, "and Paul is traveling to San Francisco."
I was actually relieved. I can?t imagine that the flights are destined for California and innocently assumed that the flights have crashed into the World Trade Center were headed to New York.
I tell my Dad that I will find out what I can as the thought of Pearl Harbor crosses my mind, and I say ?I love you? like I?ve never say it before, and hang up the phone.
I turn to Shiela and say, my Dad says that my brothers are flying out of Boston for Los Angeles and San Francisco but we don?t know for sure. I think I remember saying, ?Those flights from Boston were headed to New York, so it?s probably OK??
I?m not at all sure.
Shiela says that the Pentagon is on fire and the White House is being evacuated.
We run back downstairs to watch the small television. There?s a report of a fire on the Mall ? and that the State Department has been bombed. I think of George Washington University and the campus I love so much being in flames. I can?t image what Joe and Tony are experiencing but I am immediately grateful that I live in Raleigh.
I take a break and go outside to smoke a cigarette.
In retrospect, it?s certainly an understatement, but I think, ?What a fucking morning??
I look up at a beautiful blue cloudless sky and imagine that hijacked planes are everywhere looking for targets.
I polish off the cigarette and head inside to the join the numbers of people gathered around the tiny TV to hear CNN report that people are trying to figure out what is exactly going on; that ?several incidents have occurred? and that a ?major terrorist attack has occurred?. Within an hour of the first attack, utterly unbelievably, the country comes to a halt.
Progressively, like a deck of cards, airports across the country, from Boston to San Francisco close and 4000 passenger planes are ordered to land immediately at the closest air field.
CNN reports, ?All airports across the country and all bridges and tunnels into Manhattan are closed.?
Now, we watch as the TV reports that the State Department, the Treasury Building and the Capitol are all on fire.
June 1, 2004
Almost three years after the day. Since 9/11/01 the country continues to suffer from economic problems, security insecurities, and personal upheavals. It?s fair to say that the world as we knew it no longer exists. Perhaps the most likely explanation is that we, the US, were ill-prepared to deal with the demise of the Soviet Union. In retrospect, the counterbalance the Soviet Union afforded us had an almost calming effect on the state of world affairs. Circumstances being what they are, I could never have imagined that we would be here, today, from the perspective of a young student in Washington, DC in 1987.
When, and if, we are ever able to reflect personally and collectively upon 9/11/01 and the Iraq War of 2003 ? 2004, will we be able to find comfort?
Collection
Citation
“story10658.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 10, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/18530.