I will never, ever forget how terrifying and sad that day was.
It started out a regular day for me, as it did for thousands of other people. I grumbled that I had to get up early for work. I showered and got ready like every other day, and got in my car. On my way to work, I heard on the radio that a tower had been hit with a plane. I thought some n00b in a Cessna went blind or something, and figured the pilot probably died, but thought nothing more. Then I heard another plane hit, a jet. I felt the blood in my face go white as I turned around and somehow got myself home to be with my family. We were glued to the television when we saw that another aircraft had hit the Pentagon. It was at that point that we became terrified - we were under attack - what was going to be next? They were telling us that there was another aircraft unaccounted for, still in the air. We all sat with baited breath, wondering what the next target was going to be. We learned later on that the passengers onboard that aircraft had spared disaster and took control of their aircraft.
My whole family was glued to the television that day, watching in utter disbelief. Watching the people jump from the buildings, watching people run from the smoke and debris, watching that building just gracefully crumble to the ground. It was hard to believe that thousands of people were trapped inside those buildings, riding their way down to their deaths.
That day, I decided to become a commercial airline pilot. Let them try and break into my cockpit. Let them try.
I moved to New York City the year after the terrorist attacks, and I lived right up the block from the terrible, gaping hole. On 9/11 of that year, we had a candlelight vigil where we walked from my school past one of the fire stations who had lost so many men that day, down to the WTC site. We looked at the plaques of names, so many names. Looked at the cross formed by the building structure, looked at the crater in the ground where two majestic buildings once stood, and looked at eachother. Men, women, children, black, white, arab - we all cried.
I will never forget that day. I will never forget the incredible fear and sadness, and the determination that this will never happen again.
God bless each person who died, each person who helped, and each person who came together on that day.
2004-09-11, 09:56 AM
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