A Day In Infamy Remembered

Above, by Archie Waugh.

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Above, the World Trade Center under attack.

This generation's Pearl Harbor occurred ten years ago this coming Sunday. The memory of that day is forever etched into the minds of those alive that day, just as the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 and the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963 with earlier generations.

The day started out routinely. I was working for a security patrol company and as a temp at Farmers Insurance Company. I was working the two jobs as I was about to make my first trip to Japan in October. I had purchased my passport only days before September 11, 2001. 

On the morning of September 11, I was getting ready for work at Farmers while I perused the Dave Schutz Adventures of Superman message board. On the board, I noticed some postings about some sort of incident in New York. Reading further, I found that airplanes hit the World Trade Center. I then went over to Newsmax.com and saw multiple bulletins posted. While reading, I turned on my Sony Watchman television set that sat on my computer printer. It was then I saw the horror unfold. I watched for several minutes until I had to drive to work. 

I was heading out of the house when my mom called me to tell me about the attacks. Following the telephone call, I grabbed my police scanner and headed out the door. Through the scanner, I was able to pick up radio broadcasts. I had the scanner turned on all day on my desk at work. 

At Farmers, two televisions were rolled out and were kept on all day. One of the workers had a cousin in New York who worked at the World Trade Center. As the day went on, he became more frantic as his cousin hadn't been heard from. Eventually, a family member heard from her. She reported that she left the WTC minutes before the first plane hit to go to the bank. When she returned, she saw the damage to the building and pieces of body parts scattered on the ground. She wasn't allowed back in the building. She spent the rest of the day trying to get home.

Above, the Pentagon under attack as shown by a security camera.

 

 As the day progressed, the news got even worse. Reports came in that the Pentagon was also attacked and a plane crashed in Pennsylvania (it was bound for Washington, D.C.) 

Jessica, my roomie, told me the other day that she was living in the Bronx (roughly 30 miles away) at the time of the attacks. From there, she could see and smell the smoke from the WTC. 

Almost two months later, I took my first trip to Japan. When I arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on October 31, National Guardsmen were still stationed in the airport terminals. We are still feeling the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Airport security has been greatly tightened (often bordering on civil rights issues) as have security in government and private industry facilities. 

Thankfully, we have not been attacked again due to the work of our servicemen and servicewomen as well as out intelligence agencies. Although we have not been attacked since, to lower our guard would be folly. It can happen again.