Where Were You When.......?

I think every generation has one of these moments. My parents had The Kennedy assassination and I have 9-11. The difference is they had one very important person killed in a shocking manner in front of the world, I, we had thousands die infront of us that day, each important in their own way. They were NOT soldiers fighting a war, they were men women, and children going about their day to day life. I often wonder what I would have done if I had found myself on a plane destined for a target such as the White House, the Pentagon, or the Twin Towers. Would I have the courage to do what those brave passengers aboard the flight that crashed in that field in Pennsylvania, to see my actions as the only choice available.

Where where you? I was at work on what I thought was a normal day. Jeremy and I got the boat and sampling equipment loaded up at went to fuel the boat and truck. When I went into the store to pay I got, "Did you hear someone flew a plane into one of the twin towers?" My first thought was of the bomber that crashed into The Empire State building back in the 30s or 40s. Just then the announcer on the radio in the store started yelling that another plane crashed into the other tower. That confirmed it for us this was a terrorist attack.

I got in the truck completely stunned an d numb with the news. I told Jeremy and he had trouble swallowing it, like many of us. We went about our task for the day, what else could we do? We listened to the radio as we drove to the southern end of Lake Greenwood and launched the boat and took the water samples as quickly as possible. We didn't want to say away from the radio too long. As we pulled out to drive to the next station we met some fishermen that had not heard the tragic news. I don't remember the exact words, but the gist of what they said was that someone will pay.

The day is a blur to me now, but the feelings, the emotions are still very vivid in my mind. The reports as the towers were burning were horrible, horrendous, no, no word can truly describe this, people were jumping from the building! At some point as we were between sample locations or on the way back to the office, the first tower fell. Then the second with thousands expected dead. Then the news of the pentagon being hit by another plane and a fourth plane missing. It was all too much.

We made it back to the office, parked the boat, and unloaded the samples. We rushed though our paperwork. Back in the conference room the TV was on the news and everyone was huddled around it. Images of the planes crashing and the towers falling played over and over for days. As I drove home still numb I noticed a strip club that always has a packed parkinglot was strangely quiet, no cars, no people. No one in the mood to dance, no one in the mood to watch.

I come home to a wife in tears. My daughter then two asks me what is happening. How do you explain something like this to a two year old!! That night I held my wife as she cried herself to sleep.

Days after the country was united in it's grief. "Those responsible will be brought to justice", was what President Bush had said and everyone nodded in agreement. Bumper stickers saying Never Forget appear on cars and trucks. As a country we were pissed and looking for some payback. What now? Five years later we whine about Iraq. I hear people say,"Why shouldn't Iran have a nuclear power plant"? Some people have already forgotten.

Two years ago a lady in my wife's book club shared her story of where she was on 9-11. She was in New York and told in horrific detail her experience, of running from the cloud of dust and debris, and of the kindness of the strangers that jerked he into a store just before the cloud caught her. Yes I shed a tear as I read her story. I shed a tear for the children lost, for the parents who grief, for husband who has come home to an empty house because some don't like Americans.

I WILL NEVER FORGET!