It seems like it was just yesterday that I was sitting in my office in Texas, and a message popped up that a plane had hit one of the towers in NYC. I hopped online to verify my friends statement but could not get ANYTHING to pull up, the internet was crawling. We pulled the TV out of the break room to see if the local news was reporting something about this accident.

Turned out it was on every single channel we could almost see… there was no Cable in the break room so we were making due with the Spanish local news. We sat there for what seemed like hours, watching the smoke billow out of the side of the tower… wondering who hit the tower and why this had happened. It HAD to have been an accident… no one would ram a plane into a building like this intentionally… would they?

Then there came our concrete proof that this WAS no accident. Out of the corner of the screen, a second plane darted from out of nowhere and impacted the second tower. We were dumfounded… glued to the floor, unsure if we woke up this morning in a movie plot or a practical joke. I don’t think the reality of the situation struck many of us until we had seen it replayed over 50 times.

I called my wife, who was still asleep at home to tell her what was happening and that I would be coming home within the hour to be with my family and try to make sense of all of this. About that time, reports came in of an impact at the Pentagon and rumors of more planes that had supposedly lost radio contact. (at the time I recall people speculating that as many as 8 planes were hijacked)

My boss decided right then that family was more important than our job duties that day, and demanded that we all head home for the day.

To the 2,996 people who died that day, innocent bystanders… family… loved ones and heroes… I will never forget and I sincerely hope that We the People will never forget either.

Please take a moment out of your day to remember the lives of those lost on that day 7 years ago in New York, the Pentagon and on United Airlines Flight 93 that went down in Shanksville, PA.

I would also ask that your prayers go out to our brave men and women who continue to this day in our armed services, to fight for their country… Thank You!

Where were you when your country was attacked?

I was working at my desk when I got an IM from Casey to the tune of “OMG, a plane just hit one of the WTC towers!” Like most people not watching the news I was skeptical so I hopped online to see if I could find something to corroborate the story. NONE of the websites for any of the major news agencies would load up… odd. So I went into my boss’ office and asked him if he had heard anything… NOPE.

So I wandered into the break room and wheeled out the TV. The only channel I could get was some Spanish language channel news report, but sure enough there was a chilling image of one of the WTC towers dumping out smoke into the air. I stood there with about 7 other people in complete shock at this supposed accident that had just happened. We didn’t see the plane hit so that is really all we could assume at the time. The camera panned out a bit and as if to smack it home even deeper, there was a second plane aimed for the other tower. We stood there as if glued to our positions and watched as it smashed into the second tower, and I heard one older man (and Vietnam vet) shout out “That ain’t no damned accident, we’re under attack!”

We watched the events unfold that morning and as we got word that the Pentagon had been hit I called my 6 month pregnant wife who was asleep at home to see if she knew what was going on… she was too tired to notice much so I just let her go back to bed.

I recall news reports of up to 12 aircraft having been hijacked but those reports never did pan out to anything short of rumor but I have to tell you, that day was the closest I’ve ever come to being pissed off, terrified, sad and confused all at the same time. It wasn’t a good feeling and I honestly never want to forget it.

Where were you?