Remembering 9/11: a view from the heartland
posted at 2:58 pm on September 11, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
I’m not sure that I’ve ever written about my own experiences on 9/11, mainly because I wasn’t in New York City or Washington DC at the time. Allahpundit gave a lyrical recounting of his very personal experiences (and losses) on Twitter last night, recompiled by Andy Levy in the Green Room; I highly recommend it. Jim Geraghty was on the ground in Washington DC, as was Brian Faughnan, but I wasn’t. At that time, I was two years from posting my first blog anywhere and was hard at work for my burglary/fire alarm company in the Twin Cities, running the call center that monitored alarm systems from all over the country.
As usual, I had arrived early to work and had breakfast and coffee in my office as I reviewed e-mail and data from my staff. By 7 am CT, I had more or less fully engaged and started calling clients on the East Coast for follow-ups on incidents and doing a little management by walking around. In early to mid-September, we kept our eyes on weather patterns, especially in the Southeast, to make sure nothing developed that would impact our customers (almost all retailers) from opening their stores. Tuesday looked like a clear day across the country, though, and we expected no problems outside of the normal issues of employees tripping alarms accidentally as they opened for business.
The first hint that the day would turn bad came from my wife, who had been listening to the television. She told me that a plane had struck the World Trade Center and that there had been an explosion. At first, I assumed it was a private aircraft, as the taller buildings on Manhattan had been hit before by smaller planes. By the time I got to a television, however, the second plane had hit the south tower. As soon as I said that, I turned to a co-worker and said, “This is a terrorist attack. We’re at war.”
Some people may not recall that the WTC complex had a significant retail shopping area, and we had several customers in the plaza. I directed my staff to determine their status and found that none had turned off their alarm systems yet, which meant those employees were not likely on site. The call center found them at home and directed them not to go to the buildings (instructions that they didn’t really need) while I called their home offices to make sure they knew we accounted for them.
And then, like so many Americans, I waited in front of television sets to find out what else was happening. The news that day came in contradictory bursts; rumors made it onto television instead of facts, which confused the picture incredibly. We heard about attacks on the Sears Tower in Chicago and rings of hijackers discovered on West Coast flights, none of which turned out to be true. It took days and weeks for the facts to be pulled from the chaff of rumors, but we knew one thing: someone had decided to attack America and kill a lot of us, and had succeeded.
And we prayed. And we cried. And we told our families how much we loved them, thinking of those awful moments suffered by the victims as their lives were snuffed out by lunatics. We all became New Yorkers and Washingtonians that day, and all other hurts and bruised feelings got forgotten.
I don’t know if I immediately thought of Osama bin Laden at the time, but I did think about al-Qaeda and Islamist terrorists when we started speculating in the office about the attacks that day. The culprits came as no surprise to me; I had been following the attacks on other American assets closely, and this kind of coordination suggested a nation or a strong network with a lot of resources.
While New York City and Washington DC (and Shanksville, PA) are far removed from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, that really only mattered in our sense of impotence as the towers collapsed and the Pentagon burned. We knew that the terrorists didn’t attack New York City for being New York City, or Washington DC for being Washington DC. They had attacked America for being America — and that made it all local and personal.
The anger in me continued to gnaw in the weeks and months ahead. At first, I considered enlisting in the military, but that didn’t seem practical for a 38-year-old with a disabled wife and a son (and soon, a granddaughter). I considered a civilian support job with the military, but that seemed impractical in the Twin Cities as well. It took two years for me to find any kind of outlet at all, and when I did, it turned out to be blogging. I needed something that related to the American identity that the terrorists had attacked, which is self-determination, self-government, and the freedom to dissent peacefully in politics. Blogging seemed at the time to be one way to show that Americans would not get intimidated into silence and dhimmitude, and it has been all of that and more ever since.
None of this story is particularly remarkable, and to be honest, the reason I wrote it is because I literally could not concentrate on anything else today until I wrote this as a catharsis of sorts. I presume that many, many people could tell almost the exact same story about 9/11, but maybe it helps to actually tell it, even once.
Blowback
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Hey, you’re welcome, but don’t thank me. Thank the firefighters, cops, soldiers and sailors who are in the front line, risking their lives for all of us.
They are the ones who deserve praise.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 5:38 PM
Ed,
I’ll never forget. I was just entering my office building at a large insurance carrier in St Paul when someone had mentioned that a plane hit WTC. At that time, we thought it was a small commuter plane. In the 5 minutes it took to arrive upstairs to my office, we had turned the TV on and began witnessing people jumping from the WTC. Immediately my phone started ringing with requests and questions. I was stunned. After the towers came down we closed the office and headed home.
The images, experience, and the day will be forever etched in my mind.
jbh45 on September 11, 2009 at 5:50 PM
Ed and/or Allah:
Any chance we’re gonna get a special 9/12 thread as a place to channel reports and communiques from and to HA members attending the DC event and others throughout the land?
I know a number of requests have been made for same, but no one has heard back, far as I know.
Thanks.
TXUS on September 11, 2009 at 5:53 PM
I can’t help it, but it amazes me today
The prez could go for a “date” to NYC
But didn’t have time to go to ground hero today
Any bets his minions/handlers will justify his not going to all the 3 tragedy sites with a ‘Bush’ excuse ?
And BTW, was Michelle Obama @ the pentagon ceremony ?
macncheez on September 11, 2009 at 5:55 PM
He’s too busy whitewashing.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 5:58 PM
Reject this as a “day of service”!! This IS, and will be, a “DAY OF REMEMBRANCE”!
Don’t allow Obama to turn it into a different message!
hopefloats on September 11, 2009 at 6:03 PM
I was getting ready that morning to go to school. I was taking classes for what turned out to be my second degree. I still remember which class it was for which I was intending to spend some time reading that morning: Java Programming. My husband was already at Naval Station Ingleside, TX (which closes this month), with the ships he used to attend to. He was a Port Engineer there.
I noticed a blurb on the National Review Online site while I drank my orange juice. “Plane Hit World Trade Center.” Then, I checked Drudge. WTC was on the headlines. I immediately was going to other Web sites for more info, when the phone rang. It was my husband. “Turn the TV on, RIGHT NOW!”
“If it’s about the plane that hit the Twin Towers, I’m already watching on the Internet…”
“You better turn the TV on right now.”
I went to the living room and turned on the TV. What I saw was horrifying. I saw both Towers on fire. Then, a second screen showed the Pentagon hit as well. My jaw dropped. My college training was on International Relations (in the New York area, believe it or not), so my initial gut feeling was as certain as it was terrifying. I knew it was Islamists who did it from the second I saw those images on TV. You didn’t have to tell me about Al-Qaeda, nor about Bin Laden. There was no need for names. I knew then, as a Christian, that Satan was having his best day in a long, long time. I also knew then, “This is War.”
I watched all as it unfolded on TV, even when the buildings came down. I also knew that my brother was somewhere in Manhattan that morning, working. (He has been in the NYPD since 1992.) But I wasn’t sure about where in that island. I also knew I had a cousin or two working in that same area, but I wasn’t sure where.
The base was on Code Delta. My husband returned home as soon as he could. All we could do, as soon as he entered out house, was to hold each other and cry our hearts out. New York was a huge part of our lives, even though we now live far away from it. We had met in the New York area. He was a graduating midshipman at Kings Point. I was a freshman in college then. We had dates in Manhattan. We went on an outing at Ellis Island, and even watched fireworks at South Street Seaport. We were quite close to the WTC, but never went in. On the day of our wedding at Kings Point years before, as we sat at our table for pictures, the unmistakable silhouette of the Twin Towers stood on our background. He had been in that area as a Mariner so many times. I was just someone who spent time in New York because of college and because I had relatives there.
Therefore, my shock turned to fear. “Where is my brother?” “Oh, God! If something happened to him, my mother…” But I had to go to college that afternoon. My husband drove me there. I arrived to my Java class. There was little talk, all lab time. No one was in the mood for work. Then, our instructor began to talk. He was a Vietnam Vet, that we all knew. But we didn’t know until that moment was that his whole unit was gunned down in one day. Only he remained. He said the same shock he had when that happened, which he thought he had repressed through the years, returned that day. I left early.
I was still worried about my brother. One guy I knew from a former class and who worked at the business department looked at me, concerned. He knew I was worried. All I had to say was, “My brother… NYPD.” His reaction (if you can call it a nerd’s reaction) was one of sympathy more than anything else, and then, he left.
Fortunately, my brother was OK. My brother was in Mid-town that morning: he had called my mom to let her know he was all right, but the next working days were going to be traumatic for him. He wasn’t wrong. One of his friends from the force went into the Towers and never got out alive.
One of my cousins worked at a financial services firm at the Twin Towers. She was in Jersey that day. The rest of her co-workers… well… were not in Jersey.
A friend of my brother’s was buying a new pair of shoes that morning, before walking into her office at the WTC, when the planes went in. She ran as fast as she could to safety, but she saw a man being impaled with debris glass from the buildings. Sliced in half. Needless to say, she was in physical and psychological counseling for a long time.
We have not been to the site of the WTC since that day. We returned to NYC twice since then. We never went to “Ground Zero.” We probably never will… unless the Twin Towers are rebuilt, exactly as they were before.
My husband and I cried for days, and even nights. My anger just built. I was thankful that all of my blood family had survived. But I knew someone tried to harm them. That angered me more than anything else. I knew that they had to pay for the evil they had inflicted upon so many people. I knew then the reason why the existence of an eternal Hell is a real necessity: without choice and the eternal concept of Justice, it could not exist.
Hell is where those who perpetrated this are.
Too many people call what happened that day a “tragedy.” It was not. The tragedy was that too many people died. What happened that day was an act of mass murder, an act of war, for which there was no other recourse but to fight back, and no other way to assure no one that day lost their lives in vain but victory over those who killed them in cold blood because of their obedience to their infernal god. Those who ignore this fight do so at their peril.
Are you listening, Europe? Asia? Have you forgotten, America? Do you even care, Politically Correct Elites? Fortunately, those in the Heartland do care. Still.
RIP
newton on September 11, 2009 at 6:03 PM
Ed and/or Allah:
Any chance we’re gonna get a special 9/12 thread as a place to channel reports and communiques from and to HA members attending the DC event and others throughout the land?
I know a number of requests have been made for same, but no one has heard back, far as I know.
Thanks.
TXUS on September 11, 2009 at 5:53 PM
Hey, I’m for that!!!
hopefloats on September 11, 2009 at 6:05 PM
AMEN!
fbcmusicman on September 11, 2009 at 6:06 PM
Ditto that!
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 6:06 PM
I was in my English class, the principal came over the intercom and told all of the teachers to turn on the TVs. We thought we were going to have some kind of announcement, what came on was the first tower burning. We were all horrified and then I heard one of the boys say “Is that another plane?” and then the second tower was hit. Then “What’s coming out of the towers. Oh my god are those people jumping?”
One of my friends was panicking because she had family in the military, one of whom worked in the pentagon. She tried to call her father but some teacher took her cell phone away.
I had my aunt and uncle, and two young cousins in New York at the time. I was in school and I didn’t have my cell phone so I couldn’t call. I found out when I got home that my aunt had gotten them and taken them out of town, they saw the towers collapse from a distance.
I can’t forget this. These actions are what caused some of my close friends and even family to enlist. This caused them to go to war.
One of my husband’s friends who is a marine said he had to enlist because he was ready and he’d rather go in then someone who wasn’t ready.
A few years after I was watching a music channel and “New York, New York” by Ryan Adams came on. I froze, it had been filmed on September 7, 2001, and there perfectly framed in every shot of him singing were the twin towers.
I cried. It was so beautiful and so sad at the same time.
“Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.”
God Bless all of those who lost their lives, God Bless all of those willing to give their lives, God Bless America.
Ingenue on September 11, 2009 at 6:07 PM
My cousin, who is a scientist working for the US Navy, was working in a building right near the Pentagon that morning. She was one of the first responders, setting up air-monitoring equipment, and saw all the pieces of the plane, including some pieces with the American Airlines livery clearly visible.
However, when I mentioned this anecdote on another forum, a Troofer confidently assured me that what she saw never happened. Because no plane hit the building.
BTW she was that day celebrating her second wedding anniversary. She married a JAG, and I was at their wedding on 9/11/99, which was held…just up the hill from the Pentagon.
PS, happy 10th anniversary, cuz!
Del Dolemonte on September 11, 2009 at 6:09 PM
Damn straight. Millions still care, and to hell with those who don’t.
Eight years. And there’s still a hole in the ground where great buildings once stood. Politicians and pettiness and political correctness, run amuck.
Sickens me almost as bad as what the terrorists did that day. No, maybe more.
TXUS on September 11, 2009 at 6:17 PM
Thanks for sharing your story, Ed. I think sharing stories like that help bring the event down to a personal level that’s easier to relate to.
I’ve long thought that it was a disservice to the victims that news organizations quickly moved to stop showing video of the Sept. 11 attacks. Working in Blacksburg, VA, I’m aware of the need to be sensitive to victim’s families (I still hear from some peopel who are angry that the “Cho Manifesto was shown on NBC news, though it wasn’t shown on the local NBC station). But that situation was different. The people ultimately responsible for 9/11 are still out there, and we need to be reminded daily of that fact.
After Pearl Harbor, did we hide images of the burning battleships, because it was “too graphic”? No, we used them as motivation to pursue the complete destruction of the group responsible for the attack.
hawksruleva on September 11, 2009 at 6:30 PM
While we mourn the victims, the Obamas remember the perps on 9-11
What a shame
The heroes on Flight 93 died saving the ungrateful thankful morons in DC
macncheez on September 11, 2009 at 6:37 PM
Well said. Too many reports today failed to describe the terrorists. They weren’t Christian terrorists, or eco-terrorists, or right-wing terrorists, or Aryan terrorists. They were MUSLIM terrorists.
hawksruleva on September 11, 2009 at 6:40 PM
Sorry, I am don’t mean to do random thoughts but I can’t help myself. Sec. Rumsfeld helping remove the injured from the Pentagon. Pretty astounding.
Cindy Munford on September 11, 2009 at 6:41 PM
My girlfriend and I were on day 3 of an Alaskan Cruise. had docked that morning in Juneau harbor. I remember telling her I didn’t think cell phones would work up there, because of inability to connect to a network. I was wrong (microwave towers).
She got up early to call her mom from the outside deck. Her mom told her of the first plane hitting the WTC. She came running down to our cabin in near hysterics. We watched TV from our cabin and watched the second plane hit Tower 2. At that point, I said, ‘This changes everything’.
Many passengers were from NYC area. The Captain came on the speakers to advise all what instructions he was getting. As all airline traffic was stopped, he said they could not see making provisions for an early deboarding, as wherever they let us off, you would be stranded. So, on we sailed for the next few days.
The Alaskan politicians got a waiver to allow the bush planes to start flying again, earlier than other US aviation. The hunting season had just started up in Alaska, and many hunters were out in the bush. Not knowing anything of the events, when their scheduled bush plane pickup date came and went for several days, the fear was the hunters would start to walk out however many miles they would have to. Smart move by the government on that one.
There were fears and rumors that a 747 was overdue coming into Anchorage, and that it was being hijacked, and would crash into the Anchorage petroleum storage tanks. I’m sure every city had their own version of the hell that was about to hit them.
I remember telling her I think we’re safe from a terrorist threat. I doubt an Alskan cruise ship made it to the top ten terrorist targets for the day.
Every port call after that, our ship was inspected by underwater divers for bombs.
I must give Princess Cruises many kudos for being as professional, considerate, and caring as possible. They are a class outfit. We’ve taken many other cruises with them around the world, and never have been unsatisfied.
We were lucky on our trip ending. When we de-boarded in Seward, the airline stand down was still in force. We had planned an additional 7 days of ‘winging it’ with a Ford Explorer, and no itinerary, as we weren’t sure what the weather would be that late in the season (gorgeous, no bugs (all frosted out), clear skies at Denali, and the Northern Lights were out in force – Sept is the month to go to Alaska.
So, at the end of our additional 7 day land safari, we got back to Anchorage a day after they started flying again.
My girl still works in the Library Tower in LA, on the 21st floor. She says they continue to get threats in the building all the time from a variety of sources. We didn’t know at the time of the serious threat against that building in LA from KSM, but am forever grateful for George Bush, Dick Cheney, and all who stopped the second attack.
Jimmy Doolittle on September 11, 2009 at 6:55 PM
Just found this in my inbox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlFwVjaP8Zg
macncheez on September 11, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Thank you for sharing your story, Ed. It is a tiny consolation to me that at least one small bit of good (I’m sure, many more than one) came from that awful day: Captain’s Quarters. Your voice has been a force for good, never doubt that.
Rosmerta on September 11, 2009 at 7:23 PM
Never forget… to hate-America 1st;
/comments thread open
Terp Mole on September 11, 2009 at 8:28 PM
Thx Ed…
Khun Joe on September 11, 2009 at 8:35 PM
I live in Ottawa, Canada, and September 11th, 2001 was my 4th day of my freshman year at University. I woke up to the radio reports of the first tower burning. By the time I had dressed, the second tower had been hit.
On the bus to campus, it was eerily quiet. No one spoke until the South tower collapsed and those listening to the radio told the rest of us. I think everyone cursed softly under their breath. I remember that I started to cry a little… I spent the rest of the day huddled around a radio with some friends, trying desperately to understand.
My experience that day was undoubtedly nowhere near as visceral as any American’s reaction, but I still felt shocked, numb, and angry. I knew that this had changed everything, and would likely by the defining moment in my life for years to come.
We are all the richer for your blogging Ed, but I wish it had been under different circumstances. I’m still searching for MY outlet, but each year I find it easier to talk about it, to understand it, and to mourn it.
May the dead rest in peace, their families know solace, and their murderers be brought to justice.
Canucker on September 11, 2009 at 8:50 PM
Not to pick nits, but I think it is important that people realize that the Pentagon is in Virginia and NOT DC.
BierManVA on September 11, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Never forget… we need more Gitmo “witch hunts“!
/comments thread open
Terp Mole on September 11, 2009 at 9:07 PM
I live in BFE, TX, so was merely horrified by the events of that day, as I knew them at the moment. At that time, we had no internet at work so only heard what I heard over the radio. My child was in her first year of college, was excused from class around 10:30 and came and sat quietly with me at work until lunchtime. By then, a whole lot was clear. That was the day I switched from FM to AM on the radio and have never gone back.
My little brother’s best friend, Bob, worked at the Pentagon and I tried all night to get him on the phone – he virtually grew up “in the house” with us, and he was one of the ones I was worried about. He finally called me back late that night; he had a regularly scheduled day off that day, but the moment he heard about the Pentagon he went back to help. Told me he was fine, but the bodies were everywhere. Bob remembers.
My SIL, Tracey, worked at a daycare in Nashua, NH at the time and was pregnant with my nephew. A four year old from her daycare was on her way to Disneyland with her parents on American Flight 11. She nearly miscarried my nephew when they got the news. Tracey remembers.
My beloved Mom was still working for civil service on 9/11, supposed to retire that Friday. When our beloved President Bush landed at BAFB, she said a calm came over the whole base – the man is loved, like y’all didn’t know it! – but the base went into a lockdown that didn’t let up for some time. Moma didn’t get to retire until year-end. Dubya is loved by the military. And Moma remembers.
I will never Forget. I cry to this day. Thank you, Ed.
thebookkeeper on September 11, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Here in New Mexico things were much the same as what you all experienced. But being in a newsroom full of lefties when the towers fell, I was also forced to listen to a whole host of America/Bush bashing assertions. And those began mere minutes into the horrors of that day.
By that evening I had heard at least two people in the office say, while putting on a face that was supposed to be regretful and serious, “I don’t want to say it, but… You know this would be a perfect way for Bush to get people’s minds off the economy…”
Within a month I’d heard over and over again how America had always been committing terrorist actions itself and how wrong it was for us to be going after anyone for doing “what we’ve done all along.”
And on the commencement of the attack on Afghanistan the main terror apologist in the office, a woman who is in the U.S. on a green card, told me “I’m so ashamed of this country. This is just so wrong.”
I spent many of those months angry and attempting to keep my mouth shut. Not long after, however, I wrote a series of opinion pieces for the newspaper here and became the whipping gal. And when I made the mistake of putting my support behind the president when we went into Iraq, I was seen as even worse.
I had members of the public coming into the office shoving copies of A Soldier’s Prayer into my hands, telling me how dare I support a president who wasn’t even elected sending our troops into harm’s way for “no good reason.” They wrote me letters informing me that I “obviously” had no one in MY life who would put their life on the line for war because I couldn’t believe in it were that the case. Of course none of them realized that my husband was to retire that fall after 20 years service in the USAF. And they knew NOTHING of the sacrifice and tears I and my children had made so that my husband could keep aircraft flying to help keep us all safe.
9/11 was a wake up call for everyone. For those of us who value freedom, it told us our own was in danger and we must wake up and protect ourselves. It also gave us the chance to see what sort of folks reside in our neighborhoods and communities. It has given us a chance to really SEE these people and to learn just who they are and what they believe. And I believe THAT was a huge wake up call in and of itself.
Their ignorance and unwillingness to stand up for freedom and their vicious desire to keep anyone else from doing so either has become VERY apparent. Thank God for our military and all our first responders. And thank God for President Bush, VP Cheney and all those who worked so hard to keep us safe over the last eight years. Too bad BO Boy and the Chicago Thugs have undone all that hard work.
Mad Mad Monica on September 12, 2009 at 6:01 AM
Wow. I’d be mad, too.
I guess I was lucky; I was surrounded by folks who, like me, had worked for the Navy for years. I’m sure we have our share of lefties – there are some 3000 employees in our facility alone – but we generally don’t engage in political shouting matches. And, on 9/11, even the most vehemently left among them were as shocked and stunned and angry. If we have any “troofers” among us, they keep it to themselves.
uncivilized on September 12, 2009 at 6:59 AM
I was attending a business meeting out of state – in Auburn AL at the university as a matter of fact – when the attacks happened. Most vivid memories of that day: my wife called my cell phone to say “I just need to hear your voice”; my thoughts as I watched the first Tower collapse of how we are paying for 8 years of Clinton’s distracted handling of our national interests; President Bush’s speech to the nation that evening. We were in a restaurant not two blocks from the campus of Auburn University, and when the President began his speech, you could hear a pin drop. 100 or so people stood and applauded as one that night. Tears flowed, anger was expressed, resolve was steeled. We were all Americans.
Proud Texan on September 12, 2009 at 12:35 PM
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