Marine Recalls the Morning of 9/11

Jonathan Hagy sat at a military base in South Carolina watching "SportsCenter" when breaking news interrupted highlights.

That news came on Sept. 11, 2001.

The 1999 Linden graduate watched as heard that planes had collided with the Twin Towers.

He was a little shocked, as was the rest of the base, he said.

He said the base went on the highest level of alert and went on lockdown, meaning no one could get in or out. He added everyone was trying to figure out what was happening and who had led the attacks.

“We didn’t know if there were going to be more attacks, if it was premeditated by another country or how deep the operation went,” Hagy said. “No one knew what was going on, but there was a feeling of patriotism, mixed with anger.”

Hagy said most of the information received by the soldiers came from CNN, and they didn’t received a lot of news from inside the base

“In the aftermath, when I realized it wasn’t an armed state, I figured someone was going to have to pay.”

Hagy, who served Lance Corporal in the Marines, didn’t have ship out right away because a unit was already on his assigned aircraft carrier in the area, but he watched many friends leave quickly.

“They needed a lot of military policemen to deal with the prisoners of war,” Hagy said. “A lot of people did that temporarily.”