I will never forget that morning on September 11, 2001. I was driving Linda and Mary to school at St. Mary's in West Chicago. We were listening to Big John on US 99 radio station. The announcement came that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I Called Tom to tell him. He was at Sonny Acres and he was not aware of the crash. He told me he was going into his Mother's house to watch the news. Big John was reporting that they were not sure if it was an accident. We arrived at St. Mary's, I went into the School and I saw the second plane crash into the 2nd tower. It was unreal, the news reporter announced we are under attack! I was horrified, so many things went through my mind. Do I take the girls home? What should I do?! I immediately called my parents, my father gave me reassurance we would be fine. I talked to Linda and Mary. Linda was clearly worried and scared. Mary's response was "we better not go to School today because they might fly a plane into St. Mary's." Yep, thats my Mary, anything to get out of going to School!!! I left the girls at school went home, called Brandie to make sure she was ok. We just kept telling each other "I can't believe this is happening"! I was glued to the television all day. The other very vivid memory I have is how eerily quiet it was outside. No planes in the sky. It was unreal!!
Here we are 10 years later and I still get that sick feeling. I continue to pray for all the people who lost loved ones on that dreadful day.
I was stationed in Korea and it was 3:30 am on Sept 12. We were awoken just like wake us for any other alert...there were signs on the wall, kinda like in high school, that said the world trade center had been hit. My first thought was that is some sick trick to get us to really do these alerts faster...as i proceeded down the stairs to the dayroom there it was replaying on television. Totally unreal we watched for 5 mins and then we were on our way to prepare for war. I got in all my gear..locked and loaded with live ammo and went to guard a wall. Yup a wall because they were afraid North Korea would attack South Korea. I was told to call home and when I did Mom and Kenny bombarded me with questions like I had all the answers when truthfully I did not know the full extent of what was going on I just knew my mission and what I was told to do. We stayed that way for two months prepared to fight.
ReplyDelete10 years later and I still do not watch or want to really know. I just pray for the families and all the people that were here in America on that day!