9/11 Attack (Repost)
NOTE: The below was the 23rd of my 195 newsletter issues, so I reposted it (with little re-editing) for late newcomers. It was published on September 11, 2023.
December 7, 1941, May 11, 1944, November 22, 1963, September 11, 2001
These dates are the ones that I will not forget for the rest of my life.
May 11, 1944, is only for the children of my dad’s 85th Division. At 11 p.m. on May 11 (Italian time), our fathers got their first taste of war in Italy.
On September 11, I lived in Sykesville, Maryland, and worked as a Car Prep for Enterprise Rent-A-Car's Westminister (MD) branch. (I got this job temporarily while looking for a suitable job.) My 10-year-old Daughter was in her mother's 12 miles away.
The previous day (Monday, September 10), we were experiencing 3-H weather (hazy, hot, and humid). After checking tomorrow's inventory, I asked my supervisor if I could come to work at noon instead of 8 a.m. because no vehicle was available. She quickly accepted my request.
The following morning of September 11, it dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States.
The Opening Paragraph of the 9/11 Commission Report reads, “Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the Twin Towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. Others went to Arlington, Virginia, to the Pentagon. Across the Potomac River, the United States Congress was back in session. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, people began to line up for a White House tour. In Sarasota, Florida, President George W. Bush went for an early morning run.”
After my morning jog, I turned on an IBM PCjr and a small television on a desk. While watching “Good Morning America” on TV, I looked at the TV screen, which showed smoke at the World Trade Center’s North Tower, and the ABC announcer believed it was a minor plane accident.
Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center’s South Tower on the live television under my eyes!
It shook the world and caused global panic (with few exceptions of people, as you know.)
All of you already know about the September 11 Attack.
Then, I dialed my work office several times and finally reached it. My supervisor asked me not to come to work.
A few hours later, I called my Daughter's mother. She replied that she had my Daughter. When the Daughter was during my visitation time later, she told me that she was puzzled about why she and other students were forced to go home under the glorious, low, humid weather! (Several days later, she, her hubby, and I set an emergency plan for taking Daughter in the future plan.)
I had one relative living in NYC and reached her via AIM (AOL Instant Messenger); she replied Okay.
Then I got glued to the TV news all week, as we did after the JFK Assassination in 1963.
With airports closed, the car rental industry faced a surge in the one-way rental business, as several people affected by the grounding of the nation's aination'sortation system attempted to drive instead of fly. So my branch had no vehicles available for a few days.
When I returned to work, one male staffer considered joining the military to fight back after the Attack.
All 22 deaf and hard-of-hearing employees working in these Towers survived, thanks to AOL Mobile Communicator, which functioned while other devices were down. The pagers led several deaf employees to walk together down the stair exits to escape.
There are thousands of stories about the Attack, so I encourage you to read “How The Tiny Canadian Town Of Gander Came To The Rescue Of 6,500 Stranded Passengers On 9/11.”
Like most children of the WWII soldiers, I did not ask my father about the Attack. But I did ask my mother. She said Dad told her he did NOT want to see bombs on our land.
"You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy."—Former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Glad to know all the non-hearing people in the towers survived.