Today is September 11th and the 8th anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers, the Pentagon and the unknown target saved by the passengers of UA flight 93. I will never forget that day.
I was in Seattle, on my way to work, very early in the morning that day. I heard about the first plane on the radio and then turned on the news before I left. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was such a tragic “plane accident” as we all initially thought. I was listening to the radio, on my way to work, when the 2nd tower was hit. I immediately called my mom in Chicago. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When I arrived at work, I ran to my office as quickly as possible so I wouldn’t miss more than seconds of the radio broadcast. I was the first person in the office. When the 2nd person came in, he asked if I had a radio. I did and had it on. Over the next 2 hours, I had my entire department was sitting around my desk. We were watching the radio like it was a television. As time went on, we all settled in to our desks and tried to work, but really, no one could concentrate.
Somewhere around Noon, we all left our offices and went home. All planes were grounded and I lived in Boeing’s flight path in between Everett, WA and Renton, WA. The silence at home was erie. I lived in a townhouse community and all of the neighbors were outside. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves and we couldn’t hear more about what had happened on the news. That’s all that was on. Then, all of a sudden, we hear a bzzzzzzzzzz overhead. I looked up and a little plane was flying above my house. We all looked at each other and I asked if he should have been up there. About 30 seconds later 2 fighter planes were flanked on each side of him. It was crazy.
The entire day was surreal. We knew it happened, but it was all so unbelievable. I will always remember those people – who just got up that morning to go to work… Just like I had done that day.
More tomorrow!!
