story2502.xml
Title
story2502.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-09-11
911DA Story: Story
September 11, 2001 began like any other day. I awoke around 6:00 AM, showered, dressed, ate breakfast and drove to work (0.5 miles).
I am a Documentation Manager for DBT Inc. A colleague of mine always had his radio on while working. Around 8:50 Am that morning he announced that a private plane had hit the World Trade Center. About 10 of us gathered around his radio to listen as history unfolded that day. A little while later we head that a second plane had hit the other Trade Center building. Then we heard they were 767 commercial planes.
I went home that day for lunch and turned on CNN. What I witnessed was an unbelievable event. Watching CNN, I saw people jumping out of window from the 80th or 90th floors. It was very hard to believe such an event had occurred and had occurred here in the USA. As the news unfolded that day I heard a plane had hit the Pentagon and that I had crashed in Somerset County, right here in Pennsylvania.
How could this be happening, I asked my self. What terrorist's group would commit suicide to further their strength?
Although I was not directly involved in this tragedy, those events of 9-11-01 have affected all our lives. The stocks fell, airlines were in deep financial situations and America will never quite be the same.
I travel frequently on my job and have discovered that getting on a plane now is quite different than it was two-years ago. The way of life that we (Americans) had become to know had changed and will probably never be the same again.
I had planned to retire in the next few years, now I believe I may never know or enjoy retirement.
God Bless America
Terry Ryan, Documentation Manger
DBT Inc.
I am a Documentation Manager for DBT Inc. A colleague of mine always had his radio on while working. Around 8:50 Am that morning he announced that a private plane had hit the World Trade Center. About 10 of us gathered around his radio to listen as history unfolded that day. A little while later we head that a second plane had hit the other Trade Center building. Then we heard they were 767 commercial planes.
I went home that day for lunch and turned on CNN. What I witnessed was an unbelievable event. Watching CNN, I saw people jumping out of window from the 80th or 90th floors. It was very hard to believe such an event had occurred and had occurred here in the USA. As the news unfolded that day I heard a plane had hit the Pentagon and that I had crashed in Somerset County, right here in Pennsylvania.
How could this be happening, I asked my self. What terrorist's group would commit suicide to further their strength?
Although I was not directly involved in this tragedy, those events of 9-11-01 have affected all our lives. The stocks fell, airlines were in deep financial situations and America will never quite be the same.
I travel frequently on my job and have discovered that getting on a plane now is quite different than it was two-years ago. The way of life that we (Americans) had become to know had changed and will probably never be the same again.
I had planned to retire in the next few years, now I believe I may never know or enjoy retirement.
God Bless America
Terry Ryan, Documentation Manger
DBT Inc.
Collection
Citation
“story2502.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 15, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/6966.