Sept. 11, 2001: A Day That Changed the World

It was a typical Tuesday morning for me.

Like millions of other Americans, I was preparing myself for the daily grind of that 9-to-5 job. Never one to read the morning paper or watch the morning news on TV, I was completely oblivious to what was going on in my surroundings.

Little did I know that in less the two hours the entire world would change forever.

At exactly 8:46 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001 (unknown to me at the time), five hijackers who had seized control of American Airlines flight 11 crashed it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York.

As I entered my office a little early, the phone was already ringing. When I answered, the voice on the other end was shouting, “turn on your TV.”

I did so and was immediately glued to a live shot of thick black smoke billowing from one of the towers of the World Trade Center. None of the reporters knew precisely what was going on. Most were saying that some sort of small aircraft had accidentally made the collision.

Within a matter of minutes, total disbelief entered my mind. While watching the smoke rise into the skyline, I saw what appeared to be a tiny black speck enter the left side of the picture frame.

It happened in just seconds but it seemed like an eternity in my mind. As the speck got larger, I could begin to make out the wings and fuselage.

I recall my first thought as being “that plane seems to be flying very low”, and then the unthinkable. I saw a commercial airliner crash into the second tower and burst into a huge fireball.

The question “what is going on” instantly and continuously ran through my mind. The time was 9:03 a.m. and the plane was another hijacked flight, in this instance United Airlines flight 175.

For the next several hours, it was as though the entire world around me had stopped. It was just me and that small TV alone together as I viewed smoke pour from the twin towers.

Then suddenly, the camera switched and I was looking at a completely different picture. Now the TV was showing smoke coming somewhere from a building in Washington D.C. Most likely, the reporters were saying was the Pentagon.

My thoughts changed from “what is going on” to expletives that I cannot repeat on here. It was 9:37 a.m. and American Airlines flight 77 had just crashed into the Pentagon.

After a brief stay in Washington, the cameras returned their focus to . In just a few moments, my brain and body was about to become dazed and in shock. At 9:59 a.m., just 56 minutes after being struck, the top floors of the south tower appeared to tilt slightly and then began to tumble and implode upon itself.

Floor after floor just collapsed under the weight from the debris above. In a matter of seconds, 110 stories of skyscraper had been reduced to rubble.

While all of this tragedy was unfolding, reports began to come in that a fourth plane that was supposedly headed for the White House or Capitol Building had crashed near Shanksville, PA. United Airlines flight 93 had crashed at 10:03 a.m.

We much later learned that passengers had tried to retake the plane forcing the hijackers to crash it.

At 10:28 a.m., the north tower met a similar fate as the south tower and was reduced to rubble in seconds. The attack on America was done, but the impacts were just beginning to surface.

A total of 2,977 lives were lost as a result of the attack, 2,606 in New York, and 125 at the Pentagon, and 44 in Pennsylvania.

For me, several images will always stand out in my mind from that fateful day. First would be the sight of the second plane crashing into the south tower and the huge fireball it made. Then the graphic shots of people actually leaping to their deaths rather than stay in the building and die from flames and smoke.

Next, would be the horror of seeing each of the towers collapse and cripple an entire city. Finally, the look of shock and disbelief on the face of President Bush as he was told of the second crash while he was visiting the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, FL.

America changed that day. Resolve and Patriotism were renewed. American flags began to appear everywhere. Songs like Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” were given a new life and received constant play. Toby Keith seemed to sum it up the best when he sang the words “we’ll put a boot in you’re a_ _, it’s the American way!”

As we honor the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, I would encourage everyone out there to take a few moments to themselves for silent reflection of what transpired that day. “WE WILL NEVER FORGET.”