Thoughts of 9/11

It was a Tuesday morning eight years ago today. I had arrived at work in Greensboro after my daily hour plus commute. At the time I was employed by Lucent Government Operations and I worked for the group that managed the Video Teleconference gear for the US Government, primarily the US Dept. of Defense.

I booted the PC, logged in and left to go to the drink machine in order to pick up a cold can of Coke as was my usual custom. Arriving back at my desk I brought up CNN to check the news and was shocked to read a "breaking news" headline that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I immediately checked the weather for the New York area and saw clear conditions. "A small plane", I told myself.

A minute later a picture was on the CNN front page. The damage to the building was enormous and it was clear a large plane had struck the WTC. The CNN front page had a typo calling the hole in the building a "gas" instead of a "gash". Funny the details that stick with you.

We all know how the story goes from here. A second plane struck the other tower and it was clear we were under attack. I watched the towers fall, the Pentagon on fire and heard many confusing stories about what was happening with Flight 93 which would later go down in Pennsylvania.

Cell phone and public phone systems crashed. Some people in the office thought some kind of cyberattack was underway against the phone system but we techies explained to them about oversubscription and this was a natural part of so many people trying to get on the phone at the same time.

As luck would have it we had some serious HAM radio operators, old school guys and they had a club in the company itself. In a small room near the back the techie group gathered as the old masters fired up the shortwave radios. This is where I was when the Pentagon was hit. One guy was operating the Morse code paddle while another transcribed what was being clicked across the airwaves so we non-HAMs could understand what was going on. Few facts and a lot of rumors, but it was still nice to hear the raw first-hand reports from various locations.

Work ended that day for me around 4. On the way home I pulled over to fill up my tank. Across from me a young black man pumped gas into his car. Both our heads hung low and he asked "how you doin?" "Not good" I responded. "Naw man, me either but we'll get through it" he said. "Yes, you're right, we will" I said and we both finished fill our tanks in silence. I gave the man a slight wave as I put the cap back on and drove home.

That was was spent with Kelly in front of the TV watching video of the towers collapsing over and over, the second plane striking the tower from a thousand angles and all the other terrible footage. Our Congress men and women walked out on the steps where a speech was read and a spontaneous rendition of God Bless America was sung.

The rest of the week was s a blur. I only remember the next morning I saw the first plane striking the tower. Reports came in about causalities, heavy losses of fire fighters and civilians. Kelly and I left town that weekend with the dog and tent and headed to the woods of Virginia. I just remember wanting to get away.

Now, eight years later, I'm still learning what happened that day. Today, for instance, I learned I had lost a co-worker from a former company in one of the towers. She left behind two children and a husband. No remains were ever located. Another employee from then Concord Communications was lost on one of the airplanes, someone I may well have met during one of my many trips to visit the company to test new releases.

As long as I live I will never forget that day and I assume that is the same for most people.