September 11 Digital Archive

story2946.xml

Title

story2946.xml

Source

born-digital

Media Type

story

Created by Author

yes

Described by Author

no

Date Entered

2002-09-11

911DA Story: Story

I am from Chicago,but was in Anchorage attending my daughters wedding. Yes, she was married on September 11th!
Time in Anchorage is 3 hours behind the "lower 48", as they say, so we were awakened by the phone ringing. It was my daughter's future sister-in-law, calling from Oregon with the terrible news. We turned on the TV immediately, and sat in shock as picture after picture, and story after story was reported on the news. When, for security reasons, all travel was shut down,I was amazed at how fast the military closed off every means of travel to Alaska. The Canadian border, the planes, trains and cruise ships, besides the huge ocean liners were halted in their tracks.It may have taken about an hour for this to occur, but it felt like 20 minutes! My daughter was so upset, and she ordered the TV turned off! After all, it was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, and all I know, this was something happy to occur on this day.
If you want good stories of where people were, some of the best are out of Alaska. Some bush pilots, for example, were out in the bush with hunters, and had no idea that anything happened. Thus 3 days later, they are flying their customers back to Anchorage, and they are escorted by F-14's! Because of different types of communication gear, they couldn't talk to or hear the fighter pilots......one man said "just keep waving and smiling" I am sure there are a million stories out there, and I hope everyone sends in theirs!
Thank you for this opportunity, and "God Bless America!"
Love and Peace, Nina Scaperdine

Citation

“story2946.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 10, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/6322.