story1004.xml

story1004.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-12

I was at work in my office, just another normal day at
work. I think it was around 9:15 or so when I was walking to
an adjacent office to use the fax machine. I saw my boss standing there talking to a fellow co-worker, telling him
that he just heard that 2 planes had crashed into the
World Trade Center. I briefly joined the conversation asking what happened. No one knew anything more at the time.

My first thoughts were that the planes were of a small
Piper Cub-type, the type you see at smaller airports. I don't know why that came to mind. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that I remember hearing that
along time ago, a small plane had crashed into the Empire
State building due to fog or bad weather.

After sending out my fax, I walked back to my office. As
I was walking back I started to think more about the planes
...and what were the chances of 2 planes crashing in such
a short amount of time. Wanting to know more details, I quickly went onto AOL which I have on my computer at work.
Soon I learned all the details . I then turned on my radio
to see if I could get some live reports. A local Danbury
AM radio station was actually transmitting live, the feed
fom CNN, and I remember hearing Aaron Brown talking about the events as they unfolded.

I sat at my desk stunned and in total disbelief as I listened to what was going on, and much of this live as it was actually happening. The crash of the plane at the Pentagon,the plane crashing in Pennsylvania, Aaron Brown breaking in to describe the South tower as it collapsed, then a short time later the North Tower. I was going back and forth between my radio and the computer to get the latest news. I recall Aaron saying somewhere that "one of the towers is completely gone". and at some point as I was looking at pictures that were finally starting to come up on the computer, there I saw...with my own eyes..one tower
standing..one tower left amid a huge plume of smoke created
when the first tower collapsed. It had not sunk in to my head yet that one of the towers had completely collapsed until I saw that image of the one tower left.

By now, perhaps an hour had gone by, I could not work.The phones had stopped ringing as I'm sure most people were doing the same thing I was doing listening or watching.

My wife who had just taken a job with a new company was
out of town that day for training. and of all days, unavailable because she was in a classroom. I tried her on her cell phone but she had it turned off. She was only 30 minutes away,but I just wanted to hear her voice. I wouldn't end up talking to her until almost 11:00 AM By then
her company, like many other companies were sending
people home for fear that this might be a much larger attack. The schools were also letting out...Kids were were
being picked up by their parents.

My three kids were all in school that day (2 in 6th grade,
1 in 2nd grade) My wife after leaving work went to pick them
up from school. I told her to just get home with the kids as quickly as possible..I just wanted everyone to be at home.

I guess by noon time, It appeared that there were no more
hikacked planes in the air. I could do little more that day than to talk to my wife and kids after they got home. I felt very very sad that day. It was such an extraordinary
day weather wise too. To think that this could happen to us.
and where Danbury is...just 60 miles north of New York City

As I was driving home that afternoon after work. I felt like a robot just putting my car into drive and going home. I remember looking around at the other drivers on the highway with me, their expressions spoke volumes..I saw many
weeping as they were driving.

When I finally got home, I gave my wife and kids a long,very satisfying hug. It had been a brutal day.