nmah332.xml

nmah332.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-20

I work the overnight shift for a large airline in the mid-west. I had been home a few minutes and decided to run some errands. When I returned, I turned on the television to one of the cable news stations and thought I was watching something from a movie promo. I turned it up and was horrified. I woke up my wife and we stared in awe as the second aircraft hit the towers. Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all that day. I just sat there staring at the televised and video taped broadcasts as the news personalities tried to cope wih the events along with the rest of us. The things I remember most about those days were going to work at night with no inbound flights and our ramp literally full of airplanes from every carrier you could think of. I also remember the silence. There were no aircraft flying! I was 37 years old then and I have never lived more than 20 miles from an airport. All of my life I heard jet engines in the background. The silence was deafening!

I have to have a security background check to do my job now. Our service has been cut by around 20%. We have retired several fleets of aircraft prematurely. Whan you walk in our hangar there is one wall covered with pictures and stories about coworkers family members involved in the war against terrorism. There are also the flags of all four branches of the United States Military flying in our hangar. Most of us served our country in our time and were proud of our family members that are doing so now.

I think that most importantly we should remember that it was an unprovoked act of war and that it was waged against inocent civilians and defenseless firefighters. The timing of the 2nd aircraft into the Trade Center was designed to take out rescuers as well as bring down the tower and kill more civilians. It was a barbarous and cunning attack.

I did fly my flag after the attacks and I flew in until the Taliban were ran out of Afghanistan. I have served my country in the United States Army. I', proud of my Flag and my Country and September 11, 2001 didn't alter that one bit.