I was sitting in my office, and was browsing the net. I went to CNN, and read a story about a "small plane" hitting one of the towers. I called my wife at home, and asked her to turn on the TV, because the hole in the building was obviously from a huge aircraft. She called back just a couple minutes later, as she had just witnessed the 2nd plane hitting the towers live on tv. I was too stunned to think clearly. I loved those towers. It was too much - too much to be a conspiracy - we couldn't be so vulnerable. The 2nd pilot had to be some yahoo that came too close when gawking and had a rubber-necker type of accident. I was worried that since they held 60,000 workers, that hundred were gone and was thinking maybe 20,000 were above the impact points, and wouldn't get home for perhaps days. I never thought the towers would fall, and was wondering how long it would take to fix them. My neighbor came into my office right after the plane hit the Pentagon, asking if I'd heard about that 3rd one. I hadn't - it wasn't online yet. That was the first time it really hit me that we were under attack. I sent everyone home, and closed the office. However, I stayed there, not willing or not able to belief all I was seeing and hearing.
A while after closing the office, I called Sally was in her office at FAU. That's when I found out the first tower had collapsed. I went back to CNN and saw the remanats. I saw part of a wall standing, and though maybe the top half of the tower had toppled over. I said something to her about half the tower still standing (thinking they's just build back the upper half). She immediately picked up that I was in complete denial, that I couldn't accept what was happening. She calmly and as soothingly as possible told me the tower didn't topple, but collapsed down on itself; that the entire thing was gone. I spent the next several hours getting updates online.
I received a call from my daughter, then 10, that he school was closed. I'll never forget the ride home, the fear she had forced me into reality. I had to reassure her that she was safe, as some of the teachers had gone into a panic, and others were simply crying. When they closed FAU, my wife brought home several of her students. They wanted to go home, but didn't have a nearby home to go to. There we about 20 of them, but we never had to worry about where they'd all sleep. They eventually fell asleep on the chairs and sitting up on the sofas, with some laying on the floor. But first, we all sat around watching TVs, trying to understand what happened. I'll never forget the cheers that went up when they showed rockets being fired into Afghanistan. We all assumed it was our Navy rather than the Northern Alliance. It was disappointing that it turned out to be the Northern Alliance, but we were glad the somebody was standing up.
I've been impacted by some events that have proven significant to me for one reason or another. Since the Florida crash in DC, 14 seconds after takeoff, I've probably flown somewhere near 500 times. On each one, I still count off 14 seconds after take off. For me, the most lingering impact of 9/11 iand the resulting war on terror is that March 4, 2002, we lost seven soldiers, two from Florida, in a helicopter accident. I heard the story on the radio as I was driving to an FAU baseball game. Starting that day, and for every time since then, whenever I look at our flag, and our anthem is played, I always think of those particular soldiers. In a patriotic gesture, I purchased what has become one of my favorite possession. I bough a brass golf ball mark repair tool. It has a magnet at the end, which hold an ball marker. The ball marker is a waving flag set on a gold background.
