I walked outside and made a cell phone call back to the guys at the office to see if they had any more / better news as to what was happening. They were gathered in the conference room watching it on TV, but didn't know any more than we did. Then I tried calling Andrea ... too late. Seems everyone had the same idea and suddenly the cellular system was maxed out and nobody was getting any calls through. I tried for quite awhile, but no-go. I felt terrible that my first call hadn't been to her and of course she's never let me forget it!!
At some point in all this caos - (memory's getting a bit foggy on the particulars), the 3rd plane hit the Pentagon. It's difficult to describe the atmosphere and the cascade of events that occurred at that point, but I can say that it was a pretty awesome thing to be on a Navy Base the moment our nation realized we'd been attacked and were now at war. All hell broke loose around the base. The meetings ended abruptly and we were given a phone number to call in the morning that would inform us as to whether the meetings would continue the following day. Then the entire base went on security lock-down. There were Marines with machine guns everywhere and I was really thankful that our meeting had actually been off-base across the street from the main entrance. Nobody was getting on or off the base without a full search of their car (dogs, mirrors, everything) and the line was already enormous with people coming an going.
Within our own little group, it quickly became apparent that our own leadership wasn't handling the crisis well and wasn't going to be providing leadership anytime soon. I was sharing a rental car with another person and so we got together to decide what we were going to do. My first instinct was to go fill the rental car with gas and buy some non-perishable food items from the local grocery store having no idea what would happen over the next few days. All flights had been grounded within minutes of the Pentagon attack and the airports were shut down indefinitely. It was pretty clear we weren't going to be flying back any time soon. I called the rental agency and was informed that they had waived the usual "one-way" fees and we could drop the cars off anywhere in the country due to the circumstances.
Andrea was around 4 mos pregnant with Daniel at the time and was in an absolute panic back home. She knew only that I was on a trip to DC for a military program meeting. She wasn't even sure whether I was in the Pentagon when it was hit, and now all the lines were locked up well into the late afternoon. Eventually though, I was finally able to get a land-line call though and she was more than a little relieved. We spent the evening glued to the TV in our hotel rooms. It's difficult to describe the boiling mix of uncertainty, fear, frustration, and helplessness we all were feeling ... indeed the entire country was feeling. You could sense it, see it, hear it everywhere. It seemed like EVERYTHING came to a halt and people just clung to their TVs & radios for news. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of it. I felt somewhat sorry for the news anchors who clearly had no script, no new news, and no clue what was happening. So they just kept restating what everyone already knew. Eventually they all started speculating - which was extremely unhelpful - but probably unavoidable too. Later the reports and pictures of all 4 crashes were coming in - eyewitness accounts, amateur videos & pictures, and then even 1st person accounts from downtown New York and Virginia.
Then, as the entire nation watched on TV ... live in many cases ... the first tower collapsed. It just started at near the top, and like a deflating airbag, just rolled down on itself from top to bottom spewing an enormous pile of brown dust and ash. People screamed and ran, and soon most cameras were blotted out by the dust cloud. You could no longer see anything except from extreme long shots where the top of only one tower remained poking above the huge, billowing cloud of dust. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was just gone. Were there still people in there? Yes. Lots. Only moments before, we'd been watching video of them jumping out of windows to their deaths because they were trapped by the fire. I'm sure I wasn't the only one trying to, and trying not to, imagine what they must have gone through in those last moments. How many were there?
Suddenly, the news crews came alive again screaming, expressing their shock, replaying, going for eye-witnesses. People were speculating and worrying about whether the fall, shock, debris, etc. from the first tower might have weakened the second tower. They were discussing whether to evacuate emergency crews and how to get engineers there to assess the damage to the other tower ... and then it went as well. Like an instant replay, it went in nearly identical fashion to the first. Again, the dust boiled, the cloud thickened, and the streets of Manhattan went dark beneath the cloud. The live news feeds showed men and women in business suits that were shredded, some covered in blood, all caked in dust and trying to breathe through shirts or jackets to filter the choking dust. Emergency crews were few and far between being unimaginably overloaded with the magnitude of what was happening, the lack of communication (much less coordination) and now, the loss of huge numbers of their own crews. Firefighters, emergency crews, and rescue workers were on their way from neighboring towns, counties, and even from most of the rest of the United States, but it would be hours, days, even weeks before any kind of organization could be brought to the huge numbers of people that began pouring in to help.
It was late into the evening before I could bring myself to turn off the TV, wipe the tears away, and try to get some rest. Tomorrow would be a long day. But I did sleep ... a little.
Brenda (my rental-car buddy) and I left the next morning after breakfast with our team. I happened to have a laptop with a map program and a GPS with me that we used to navigate the rental car all the way back to Indiana. I chose a route through the deep backwoods of West Virginia to avoid having to go back through the DC area fearing horrible traffic. (It turned out it wouldn't have been that bad, but accurate information about ANYTHING was extremely scarce at the time and we didn't want to get anywhere near D.C.).
We were home surprisingly early and traffic wasn't nearly as bad as we'd worried about. Andrea and my family was extremely relieved and all wanted to hear the tales of our adventure. The entire nation was in shock for weeks / months and we all stayed glued to the TV as events & information unfolded.
Almost immediately an enormous ground swell of both patriotism and crying out to God took place that swept the nation and was apparent EVERYWHERE. Flags were hung from overpasses and flown from vehicles, prayer meetings were being held everywhere, and even newscasters were using the word "GOD" in public (of all things) - covering church services and prayer meetings. It was an amazing and, in some ways, wonderful time in that regard. The liberal, anti-Christian yahoos were strangely silent. They probably felt they would be putting their lives in danger to attempt to speak out about the public displays of Christianity. (And I'm pretty sure they were right!) The nation was crying out to God, showing a completely non-partisan unity, and the most amazing display of patriotism I've seen apart from how the history books depict what things were like during WW-II. Americans took pride in being Americans, again and as the shock and horror turned to resolve, they wanted to know who was responsible. And about 40 million rednecks with guns were ready to go to war on a moment's notice if anyone would have just said, "jump"! And it was wonderful! The daily displays of patriotism, Christianity, and unity were nothing short of amazing. Yet over all of it hung the shock and dark heaviness of what had happened ... and the uncertainty of what would be happening next.
Over the next few weeks, reports were solidifying about how many people were actually lost ... thousands. How could that be possible?! How were the towers not evacuated - at least below the fires - in all that time? But it would be months, even years for all those details to be sorted out. The event was compared to Pearl Harbor early on, but no one thought it could have been THAT bad (in terms of casualties). But soon it was realized ... it was worse. But the worse the news got, the more the country pulled together. Certain images began to circulate that brought people together. The "cross" that appeared in the rubble formed by girders; the 3 firefighters raising the flag over what came to be known as "ground zero"; and of course the skyline with the towers still standing.
Despite the way most people seem to want to remember President G. W. Bush, this was his shining moment. He stepped up to the plate, demonstrated true leadership, and spoke some great words during those dark days. He and New York Major Rudy Giulianni were instantly on-the-ground and in the middle of what was going on. They were THERE. They brought leadership, hope, strength, courage, resolve, and FAITH to the nation and the nation responded in unity and strength to the president's leadership.
I shudder to think how different it would have been if our current administration had been in power at the time. Bush did a great job in an impossible situation and the nation LOVED him for it ... for quite awhile. It's a shame how quickly most have forgotten that. And it's shameful how the subsequent administration has failed to recognize those achievements and the context in which many decisions that have since become unpopular were made. The public in general has always been fickle and fame, as they say, is fleeting. But I remember when Bush was at his most popular - and in my opinion, he deserved every moment of it. Not many men, much less presidents, are handed such a moment ... such a test of character ... when nothing artificial will do - when the whole WORLD looks to you - some out of desperation, some for organization, some just to see what you're made of. The white-hot, penetrating, soul-revealing glare of the eye's of the entire world turning to you and waiting to see what you'll do and what you'll say. THAT's when everyone finds out what you're made of - and no amount of politics, or slick speech writing, or posturing, or blame-shifting will cover for a lack of actual character in that man to whom everyone looks for what they need in that moment. And George W. Bush came through. That is what I remember most about his presidency. And whether that is your most memorable thought about him or not, it is something that you should not forget. His leadership brought loyalty from his citizens, respect from his allies, and fear from his enemies during that time. And that is impressive no matter how you cut it.
Air travel was grounded for a LONG time (don't recall exactly), and it was extremely hard on the nation and really has never recovered. The impact to the airline industry was horrendous and several major airlines went under - even after "government bail out" attempts. The restrictions, procedures, and new regulations that flooded into the air travel industry were extreme and, in my opinion, largely ridiculous ... still are. Up to that point, I'd been flying for business about twice a month and really loved it. I've never enjoyed flying commercial airlines again since. The airline industry could certainly have handled the necessary changes to prevent similar tragedies in the future, but the "take over" by the newly created "Office of Homeland Security" - which I personally consider to be president Bush's greatest (though also most understandable) mistake - has left nothing but scars, failed businesses, overburdensome regulations, and massive unnecessary expenses in its wake. But I digress.
Eleven Years has seen a lot of water go over the dam. And our nation today seems to be to have made it to the complete opposite end of the spectrum during that brief time. We are more divided than I ever remember, we are less patriotic, more skeptical of our place in the world, and certainly more anti-God and anti-Christian than at any time I've even read about much less experienced. We've lost our way, lost our resolve, and lost our respect for God. I attribute this almost entirely to a complete lack of leadership or, worse, leadership in the wrong direction. What a difference a decade can make. If you'd have described to me the state of our nation in 2012 from back in 2002, I'd have never believed it.
I hope this day, September 11, 2012, we all will remember what it was like ten years ago when we were proud to be Americans, proud to state that we were a nation UNDER GOD, and proud of our leadership, and that it will provide us with some guidance - at least a vision - of where and what we can be again. Americans have always been at their best when responding to a challenge. I wouldn't wish for crisis / tragedy / challenges to come upon our country, but boy could we use one about now.
- Tim -
Brings back the memorys of that day. What a day it was. Thanks Tim. (Craig)
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