mouse_chalk wrote:
I think that everybody remembers where they were and what they were doing that day when the news broke...
Isn't it amazing how people remember just where they were and what they were doing?
Art had visited his mom up in New Hampshire and arrived home on the bus in D.C. about 2 am that morning. We were living on Andrews AFB - and I was supposed to go out and merchandise that morning - but I was putzing around -just couldn't seem to get motivated to get my rear out the door. I told Art, "I'm gonna have a cup of coffee to get me going..." and we listened to the radio as the coffee brewed in the kitchen. I heard about the first plane hitting and told Art about it - mentioning that I wondered if it was terrorists. When the second plane hit (while I was having my coffee) - I said, 'That's it...I'm staying home today.' and I was sure glad I did as I heard later that cars were backed up outside the front gate for 6 hours or so - trying to get back onto the base.
The interesting thing is that our cable was down - we'd had a bad lightening strike a few days earlier and the tv had gone off...I'd never turned it back on....so we weren't able to watch the tv - only read on the internet and listen to the radio. In some ways, I'm really really happy for that though - I think it would have been really hard to see those images again and again.
We had two people in our church who worked at the Pentagon...one woman was due to be in a meeting in that area that got hit...but she got to work...got violently ill in the parking lot (throwing up) - and turned around and went home.
Someone else she worked with - also due to be in a meeting or something in that area - wore new shoes to work that day...but realized while partly there that they were too uncomfortable - so he turned around and went back home to change his shoes. The meeting wasn't scheduled till after the plane hit - but he still would've been in the same general vicinity while he waited/prepared for the meeting.
One thing I really remember from that time - was hearing the planes take off from the base all the time - the fighters that were in the sky to protect us. A friend from our Bible study (an older woman) mentioned how much it scared her to hear those fighters ... and she said she got a new perspective of it when I said that I found it comforting to know that it was OUR planes in the air - at all times - watching out for us.
What happened in NYC was really really devastating - but for me - as a military wife - the fact that the Pentagon was hit really shook me up even worse. Somehow - the Pentagon always seemed "safe" to me - like it was unable to be attacked. Its strength represented safety...somehow. Its hard to explain. So that attack was probably more devastating for me personally than the others.
For a while after the attacks - we couldn't get our mail on base - nor packages from UPS, Fed Ex, etc. I remember because we were waiting to receive tickets for a train trip to Chicago and they did not come in time for the trip thanks to the tightened security on base.
For reasons I can't go into here - I still believe in my heart of hearts that Andrews AFB was also a target....I think we lived in the closest house to the flightline and....well....I'll just always believe that we might've been a target had there been another plane. I know that originally I think there was some speculation that perhaps we were a target.
Anyway - I will never forget 9/11. I think our world (here in the U.S.) really changed that day.
I also want to say that to those who were in Canada and overseas - I'm so happy for the support we received and the comfort we received at the time. I remember hearing about flights being diverted to Canada I think - and how the people welcomed the Americans and tried to make them comfortable.
