story1204.xml
Title
story1204.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-08-19
911DA Story: Story
I left the town I live in on the 10th to go down and see my daughter for the last time before she and her mother moved to South Carolina. I was staying in a local motel room in town and had went out the night before with some friends so I slept in a bit. As I got up around 8:30 or so CST I looked up at the TV I had left on all night before and had The Weather Channel on. They had a blurb on the bottom of the page that said the FCC had shut down all flights in the US so I figured something had happened to the radar network. Well I decided as I normally do to turn it to CNN. Both towers had already collapsed and the sign on the bottom of the screen announced "Attack On America". I was numb. They then showed all the footage of what had happened and such to get people up to date if they were tuning in. I bolted out of the room and went over to my daughter's house where my ex-brother-in-law happens to be in the Army and as I was also in the Army I made sure he ws out of bed and getting his gear together for possible call up since he is a reservist. He was up.
I sat and watched in stunned silence at what was going on in the U.S. on all the networks and settled in on CBS as I have always cared for Dan Rather. It then popped into my head that I could help too so I went to the local Red Cross. They did not have anyone there yet but just a few getting things together so instead of spending the day with my daughter I spent the day there managing people giving blood. Then they got a call for people to go to Lincoln NE and man a crisis phone center. I went without thinking twice. I will not recall the phone calls I got cause that is a private matter for the families that shared their grief with me and myself. For those family members that might be reading this and I may have taken your call my deepest sympathies and wishes go to those families. Of all the people that called and asked for the whereabouts of loved ones....we found 2 out of 487 in the span of 48 hours.
I arrived back in Columbus on the morning of the 13th and then had to head back to the town I live in cause I had to be back to work on the 14th. I had to travel 5 hours so I left it on A.M. radio. The news media had let the networks back to their regular programming. I listened to a few of the shows and they were taking calls of survivors and such. That was a long and dark ride home as it was completely dark by the time I had set out. I still cry when seeing the images of that day and what memories of the phone calls come back to me and probably will for the rest of my life. I now have 2 tribute posters in my living room with an American Flag in the middle of them for my little bit of rememberance and tribute to what happened. Life will go on but not the same for all of us.
I sat and watched in stunned silence at what was going on in the U.S. on all the networks and settled in on CBS as I have always cared for Dan Rather. It then popped into my head that I could help too so I went to the local Red Cross. They did not have anyone there yet but just a few getting things together so instead of spending the day with my daughter I spent the day there managing people giving blood. Then they got a call for people to go to Lincoln NE and man a crisis phone center. I went without thinking twice. I will not recall the phone calls I got cause that is a private matter for the families that shared their grief with me and myself. For those family members that might be reading this and I may have taken your call my deepest sympathies and wishes go to those families. Of all the people that called and asked for the whereabouts of loved ones....we found 2 out of 487 in the span of 48 hours.
I arrived back in Columbus on the morning of the 13th and then had to head back to the town I live in cause I had to be back to work on the 14th. I had to travel 5 hours so I left it on A.M. radio. The news media had let the networks back to their regular programming. I listened to a few of the shows and they were taking calls of survivors and such. That was a long and dark ride home as it was completely dark by the time I had set out. I still cry when seeing the images of that day and what memories of the phone calls come back to me and probably will for the rest of my life. I now have 2 tribute posters in my living room with an American Flag in the middle of them for my little bit of rememberance and tribute to what happened. Life will go on but not the same for all of us.
Collection
Citation
“story1204.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed May 2, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/19784.