Seven Years Ago

Seven years ago today, my son was in his final weeks of Marine Corps basic training at Parris Island.

Seven years ago today, my daughter was at the University of Massachusetts studying to be a Music Educator.

Seven years ago today, I was in my classroom at a middle school in Morris County, New Jersey teaching sixth graders how to use the computer. I was within ear shot of Interstate 80 and US Highway 46.

Seven years ago today, Terry went to work at the US EPA offices in the federal building a few blocks north of the World Trade Center.

Early that morning she was called into another's office to look at the unbelievable accident that had just occurred. What she saw was one of the Twin Towers emitting smoke and flame. As they watched, a second plane crashed into the other tower. As she and her coworkers looked on in disbelief, an announcement came over the PA to evacuate the building and it was then they realized they might be within a target rich environment.

As I taught my sixth graders, with the windows open for some fresh air on that sunny September morning, I heard the sound of sirens out on the highway. This wasn't an unusual occurrence for there were always accidents to which emergency personnel needed to respond. But it soon became apparent to me that this was not a normal highway accident or fire. The sound of sirens continued for much to long and there were far too many for this to be normal. Near the end of the class, one of the office persons came to my room and told me that there had been an attack on the World Trade Center and that I should expect individual students to be called out of class and, indeed, school in the next hour or so as news spread. When class ended, I immediately went to the internet to get more information.

Terry and her coworkers didn't need the PA to tell them to leave. Some were heading fro the doors as the announcement was being made. When she go to the street, she realized there was no way she could make her normal way home via the Path system which ran under the Trade Center so she started northward on Broadway with thousands and thousands of others heading for Penn Station with the hope of getting a train back to New Jersey. Behind them smoke and flame billowed from the Twin Towers. She had gone perhaps ten blocks when everyone around her stopped and she looked back to see the first tower collapse.

I watched the news unfold on the internet as reports on the news sites were updated minute by minute. I learned of the collapse of the towers and the soot, ash and dust that swept the southern tip of Manhattan and wondered where Terry was, hoping she was safe. I learned of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and another that went down in a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its target in Washington, DC. I learned that all air traffic had been grounded. That the sirens I had heard of were of fire trucks and ambulances heading to New York from all across northern New Jersey and that there were more from throughout the state heading to Manhattan. I saw video clips of the crashes and of people falling/jumping from windows of the Towers. Like everyone that morning I was shocked and angered that someone would/could do this to my homeland.

Terry did make it to Grand Central Station and caught one of if not the last train to New Jersey. It happened to take her to her parents' home town. She managed to call her Dad and tell him she was okay and on her way to their home and she managed to call the school at which I worked to let me know she was fine and where she was heading.

For weeks after we all walked on eggshells waiting to see if there were further attacks on the horizon.

A day or so later we got a call from Rick down in Parris Island. he wanted to know if we were alright and if his Mom had been anywhere near Ground Zero. The Marines, in an unprecedented act, had actually pulled all the guys and gals who came from the NYC metro area out of their final week of training--The Crucible--to let them make this call. Graduation was scheduled for 21 September but it was still unclear as to whether civilians (including parents) would be allowed on base to witness this, the first post 9/11 class become Marines in a very different world. (They did permit immediate family on the base but every vehicle was given a thorough inspection at a checkpoint far removed from any where. With air traffic still an uncertainty, Terry and I drove down but my daughter was able to get a flight to Savannah and join us in seeing her brother become a Marine reservist.)

The roll of those missing in the tower collapse shrank steadily as folks got in touch with their relatives, friends and employers but the final tally was/is still much too high. There were several persons from the towns in which I lived and in which I taught who lost their lives that day. There were one or two former students of mine who never made it out of the Towers. I think of them from time to time. I think of all of those who lost their lives that day.

And it angers me.

It also angers me that some here in this country seem to have forgotten what happened that day and are willing to shrug it off. Or worse blame the US for the actions of the jihadists.

Never forget. Never forgive.

UPDATE:
I was directed to this excellent essay by Jim Lileks about 9/11 while perusing Glenn Reynolds’site. It’s a great read and provides amble food for thought. It was written, as far as I can tell on the second anniversary of 9/11/01 but the content is timeless.
GO. READ. NOW.

UPDATE: