nmah4917.xml

nmah4917.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-13

I am a surgical assistant for a veterinarian who specializes in orthopedics. We work within the ten mile radius of Three Mile Island neuclear power plant. My boss's wife came upstairs from grooming dogs, and told us that a plane was just flown into the WTC, we changed our radio station to an all news station and continued to work. We were getting a yellow lab. named Kasey, ready for triple pelvic osteotmy surgery, then we heard that the other tower was hit with a commercial airplane,thats when we knew it was terrorists attacking the U.S. One of my co-workers turned on a television in the doctors office, but I wanted to scrub in for this surgery, I had to keep busy, because I started getting alot of anxiety about TMI being a target. I was making a plan as to which one of of us takes which pet with them if we have to evacuate. Everyone else seemed much more calm than me, so I tried to fake it(that is probably what they were doing to). Then we heard about the attack at the Pentagon, I could not believe that they could touch a government/millitary building!
Everyone was in the office watching the television when I heard on the radio that a plane crashed in a feild, a few hundred miles west of us heading our way, I was sure that the pilots crshed it to save many on the ground, we also talked about the fact that it may have been shot down, But my anxiety was getting worse that they were going for TMI, I called where my daughter works to tell her I love her, she was outside but her boss said he would tell her, he told me it would take a plane to hit straight down into TMI, because of the way it is built, for it to do anything, wether itwas true or not, it made me feel better. Then i called my son to tell him I loved him.
Finally we got to work, when surgery was over on Kasey,that was the first time I went to look at the television, and I will never forget what I saw, it was images of the burning towers with debre falling everywhere, it looked so strange,thats when the commentator said they were people jumping out of the building. I could not believe what I was seeing. That had to be the most awful choise anyone would have to make.
I was so glad when it was time to come home,not that it changed anything but your own house always lets you feel safest. I also felt safer when they said all planes were out of the skies, except our military.
Another thing I will never forget is during the next days not seeing ant planes in the sky, there is a flight pattern high above where we live for Harrisburg Int. Airport, it was very strange and ery to go outside and look up and not see any jet streams.

I am more suspiciuos of people now. We were scheduled to fly to Cancun for a vacation on Sep. 14th 2001. I was glad that the planes were still grounded, because I was not ready for a vacation. It had been rescheduled for Oct. 10th. but I still wasn't ready to fly. When we got to the airport it was so strange and scary to see all these young men walking around with machine guns, it made me feel safe and scared at the same time,if something would have happened, I was glad the gaurds were there, but on the other hand, how accurate can you be in a crowded airport with a machine gun?
When we got on the plane there was a man who may have been middle eastern,and I couldn't stop watching him. I felt predjudice toward people who probably had all the same fears that I did on Sep.11th. And a year later I can't help but feel that way when I see someone from middle eastern decent. I don't like that feeling.

That we -the U.S.A.- is the strongest country in the world! and we let our gaurd down. We as citizens think that our goverment agencies are handling evrything,we need to report suspicious activities, even if it turns out to be nothing, at least we did our part to do "what we can do for our country"

Yes, and I will always fly a flag at my house. When i was young my grandma always had a flag flying, I don't know how we all lost some of our patriatism, maybe with the media always joking about our own government,whatever the reason, I now as an adult saw first hand how our country can pull together when needed, and that is what I feel when I look at the American flag.