story114.xml

story114.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-03-02

Recently retired in July. This was to be our first big vacation trip, three weeks, over 4000 miles. We had left Jacksonville, and were listening to the a local radio morning drive time program, when they started to report what they had seen on television. First one building and then the other. We did not really get to see the video reports until we arrived at our night time destination. Being also retired military were had reservations at Fort Bragg, NC of all places.

It was somewhat surreal to arrive at the base and find that it was in a full security lockdown mode. Serpentine entrance barriers, and fully armed guards. Each vehicle and its occupants were fully checked. Once inside the base it gave us an unusal sense of security. I guess we were in the best place to be if things got any worse.

After all of this, the rest of our vacation was somewhat subdued. We visited with friends and relatives all over the eastern seaboard and all were taken aback by the events of that day. Our daughter who was in Houston was on the cell phone almost every day making sure we were OK, and anxiously awaiting our return. She felt somewhat insecure thur it all.

Reflecting on these events after all this time still makes me wonder how it all came about and where will it all end.

Only time will tell.