<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<item xmlns="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5" itemId="5405" public="1" featured="0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd" uri="https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/5405?output=omeka-xml" accessDate="2026-04-09T14:46:49-04:00">
  <collection collectionId="23">
    <elementSetContainer>
      <elementSet elementSetId="1">
        <name>Dublin Core</name>
        <description>The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.</description>
        <elementContainer>
          <element elementId="50">
            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="54151">
                <text>September 11 Digital Archive Stories</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
          <element elementId="41">
            <name>Description</name>
            <description>An account of the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="54152">
                <text>This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. </text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
        </elementContainer>
      </elementSet>
    </elementSetContainer>
  </collection>
  <itemType itemTypeId="25">
    <name>911DA Story</name>
    <description/>
    <elementContainer>
      <element elementId="98">
        <name>911DA Story: Story</name>
        <description>Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story:</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="76844">
            <text>As a tenth grader, I was taking the state-mandated, standardized test (ISTEP), along with my fellow sophomores.  Being that the tests began at 8:00 a.m. in Indiana (9:00 a.m. in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania), as the news was breaking throughout the world, the gymnasium, in which the tests were administered, knew nothing about it.  As we finished our last test at approximately 11:00 (noon in the east), our Counselor of Attendence, James Wagner, got on the microphone, dismissing us, and ending with one line:  "Today is a day that will change your life forever."

For myself, along with much of my class, we saw that statement as an end to our ISTEP testing, and another milestone towards graduation (State laws requires that tenth pass the test, a Graduation Qualifying Exam, in order to graduate).  But as most of us soon found out, the statement had another meaning.

I proceeded on to lunch, sitting with some of cross country teammates.  Two of my teammates--Ross Green and Nicholas Dailey--were talking about planes hitting the World Trade Centers, buildings collapsing, and other chaotic things.  My first impression and question was, "What book are you guys reading?"  When I asked them, I found out that it was no fictional story, or made-for-TV movie; rather, I was learning about the worst terrorist attack in American history.

As time progressed, and more people had learned of the attacks, an eerie silence blanket R. Nelson Snider High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana--a silence not prone to a public school of 2,100 kids.

At approximately noon, Indiana time (1 p.m. in the east), Dr. Thomas Fowler-Finn, then-Superintendent of Fort Wayne Community Schools, came over the district's email system, saying that no class in FWCS is to watch coverage of the attacks, with the exception of Social Studies and Government classes.  I, unfortunately, was not able to watch the coverage--coverage I had yet to see.

As the day continued, anxiety within me grew, as I waited, wanting to go home to be with my family, and see, first hand, on television, what had happened.  Finally, after 2 90-minute classes, and a 2-hour cross country practice, I finally got home, to see the events of the day.

I remember the first thing I saw were the collapses of both Towers and people running through the streets.  Then I saw the tape of White House Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, telling President Bush about the second plane hitting the second Tower, while the President visited a Florida elementary school.  The expression on President Bush's face, following his hearing of the news, will be etched in my memory forever.  That single moment, at the time, the United States of America knew so little, but we knew that with a face like that on our leader, something was terribly, terribly wrong.

I'll never forget 9/11, nor where I was.  As September 11th's will continue to come and go, the day 9/11 will be known as a single day in our nation's history that we hope to never see again, while at the same we hope that we never forget.

May God Bless America.



Eric Kenneth Dutkiewicz
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Born:  07/07/1985</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
    </elementContainer>
  </itemType>
  <elementSetContainer>
    <elementSet elementSetId="1">
      <name>Dublin Core</name>
      <description>The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.</description>
      <elementContainer>
        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76845">
              <text>story10120.xml</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
    </elementSet>
    <elementSet elementSetId="4">
      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
      <elementContainer>
        <element elementId="52">
          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76846">
              <text>approved</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="53">
          <name>Consent</name>
          <description>Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76847">
              <text>full</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="54">
          <name>Posting</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76848">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="55">
          <name>Copyright</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76849">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76850">
              <text>born-digital</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="57">
          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76851">
              <text>story</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="59">
          <name>Created by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the author created this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76852">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="60">
          <name>Described by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76853">
              <text>no</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="61">
          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76854">
              <text>2003-09-18</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="62">
          <name>IP Address</name>
          <description>The IP address of the device used to submit the item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="76855">
              <text>68.53.237.53</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
    </elementSet>
  </elementSetContainer>
</item>
