story1542.xml

story1542.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-29

I was at work thinking how lucky I was that I did not have to attend the second day of our conference in DC. It would give me a full day to do some catch up work. My daughter who works for the Red Cross in Rosslyn called and asked me if I had my computer on and saw the airplane go into the WTC. I said no but I would turn it on thinking it was the work of a very bad pilot or some serious mal functioning of an airplane. She called back and said a second plane just hit the world trade center and several planes had been hijacked. My youngest daughter called and told me that her office was closing down because another plane had hit the Pentagon. I tried for about an hour to call downtown to the conference and tell them they needed to leave the city but I never got through. Phones were a thing of the past and we would have had better luck with old fashion smoke signals or wires tied to a tin can. My daughter picked me up and we started home. Traffic was the worst I have ever encountered. Everyone had the same idea -get home and gather your familly together. As a child my mother use to tell me about the day she heard about Pearl Harbor and this was the same. Never in my life time did I think someone would attack my country. Did it make me mad Hell yes! The next few weeks brought about things I thought I would never see. Police all over DC with guns. Yellow tape around government building. Soldiers patroling the Nation's capitol. At night I would hear miltary airplanes flying overhead but during the day no airplanes. The first time, I heard a plane go over my house and work, it made me nervous. The airplane that flew into the Pentagon came from Dulles and airport is not more than 10 miles from where I work and probably flew over the building. Do I think that I am over my reaction? No. When I hear lots of sirens go off, when I see a plane flying too low I remember and pray to God it never happens again. But in the deepest part of my heart, I know they are just waiting. The three things I did like was the turning to God in our time of need, the demonstations of support for our country and the victims and the wonderful emails I got with patriotic pictures. I hope you are able to get some of these.