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2002-06-10

The Attack!

Tuesday, September 11,2001 seemed to be like any other normal school day. The morning routine was getting up, getting dressed and ready for school then going to school for the days work and schedule. There was a little catch this morning though. That is the morning "it" happened. We all went to second period, which was my global studies period and we received a phone call. Mrs. Capen answered the phone and had a strange look on her face. She hung up the phone and turned on the television and told us that we had some breaking news. When she did get a news station on it all seemed as it was a dream or even a movie! The first thing I saw on the television was one of the two American Twin Towers was in the process of being in gulped in flames. After about 5 minutes later, another plane was flying low to the ground; lower than usual and seemed as if it was going to miss the second Twin Tower. Then at the last minute the plane turned and crashed right into the last standing tower! A few seconds later the first twin tower exploded and the second started on fire. All you could see were the flames gulping up the two twin towers and the people running and screaming for help! I was in so much shock that it just seemed like another movie or anything besides reality. I got to witness this tragedy live on television as others suffered through it. The real reason for me thinking that it was not real is because Mrs. Capen was just teaching us about Afghanistan, the Taliban and terrorism. The whole class thought that it was just a set up, but I hate to say that is was reality.
After Global Studies I went to gym. It was a normal gym day for us, because, well, it was gym. By the time I got to English the first twin tower had collapsed to the ground!
About five to ten minutes after third period, another "lost" plane crashed into the Pentagon. The plane that crashed into the pentagon was really meant for the white house and did not make it that far. President Bush was not even located in Washington D.C. he was in Florida and watching the news and was very socked by the news. Then after a few minutes after the outlook of the crash in D.C. another one of the "lost" planes crashed into a field in Somerset Pennsylvania. As soon as I sat down in my seat the second tower collapsed. In the matter of seconds what took many years to build and a lot of money was gone! It all looked as if a volcano just erupted and all the smoke was still flooding out of the top of the buildings. The whole block plus more was covered in soot! There were papers all over the streets and pieces of our all American symbol were covering the streets. Have you ever watched an old fashion movie that was all done in black and white? Well, if you have then that is what it looked like but the people were covered in this black and white too!
All day in all of our classes we got to watched the news. People were crying, thinking, wondering and even worried. Our school had a lock down. No one could leave the building and no one could come in!

Later into that evening and all that month, the friends and family that had loved ones on those planes and in the World Trade Center came to Ground Zero. The site was named Ground Zero because it was the point of no return, and it was where the once highest buildings in America stood it are only a bunch of rubble. So many innocent lives were taken and people were killed that shouldn't have been. Every single hospital was empty and waiting for people to come to the hospital so that they could help them stay alive and the only problem with that is that all of the people were dying and that way the people were not making it into the hospitals. The National Guard and any other emergency personnel had to report to New York City to help with the recovery of the Twin Towers. They sent New York State firemen, volunteers, and doctors to New York City to help the injured and help dig for people through the massive destruction. Battle ships and subs were sent to the east coast to protect the United States from another invasion. They had all the power plants and nuclear plants have extra security and extra security guards around.
A few weeks to a month into the investigation, the government researched cell phone bills to see when the last call was, whom it was to, and what the name of the recipient was. They had found that many people that were on board of the hijacked planes had called one of their loved ones and told them that there was going to be a change of plans and they would not be arriving into the airport. Others just called their close friends and family to say good-bye and tell them they loved them and would never forget them. They figured that there were at least six to eight terrorists that were acting on board.

Earlier in the year the President started to get bomb threats and threats of all sorts but nothing ever happened. When this threat came they ignored it and did absolutely nothing about it. The President thought that it was another mad American and that it was just a threat and that the whole thing would blow over and it was really nothing to worry about. Well this time the President was wrong. He should have treated it as if it was going to happen and all of the New York City main buildings should have been evacuated. But instead the day kept going as a regular workday and for some it was their last workday.