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Stumbled across this thread by accident, but sure am glad I did...
Still remember vividly...
Driving to work to meet my carpool at 6:30AM...the news of the first plane broke just as I left Greeley...at first the news was vague...since it was radio, all I had to rely on were the words, and no one was saying anything other than "accident", etc....
Then once I got on the interstate...that's when I heard about the 2nd plane, and everything changed. Lots of cars heading to Denver were pulled over, or going up on overpasses to turn around.
Met up with the carpool group, and two of them decided they were going home - too scared to drive to Denver. Only two of us went to Denver...got there as the Pentagon attack broke, and I remember the bomb at one of the federal buildings being reported in D.C. (later turned out to be false, but that day, so much was happening, anything was possible)....my carpool partner and I were very scared driving by downtown - who knew how widespread this was!? Then we realized there were NO planes at all in the air that we could see.
Got to work...those that showed up weren't doing anything other than trying to find radios and websites to track what was going on. My wife called in hysterics as the first tower fell....we watched the 2nd on the internet. CEO called down and told all of us to go home, and pray.
LONG drive home. Bizarre gas station stop...everyone in tears...lots of panicked looks. Got home and received an email that one of my LXA brothers from the UNC colony was a NYFD firefighter, and no one had heard from him....turns out he was in training, but got sent to the WTC after the towers fell...another friend of mine had gotten a job at the WTC...and was leaving his office (not in one of the towers but another building in the complex) when plane #2 hit...got out safe. Another friend of mine books musicians to play in the NYC area from Julliard...he was trying to find a harp player due to play at an event at the WTC that morning. She called asking if she should go down and get the harp back (no kidding!). He spent several days trying to find places for Julliard students to live - the dorms were hi-rise and closed.
At home...lots of hugs...got the kids from school...lots went home early - they were 3rd and 1st graders at the time, and were confused. We put a large sign on our garage door that stayed for months - "We shall never forget, we shall never forgive"
9/13/01 - called the Navy recruiter (I'm a veteran) and re-activated my application for OCS. First time ever in my life I was told that I was too OLD to do something. Me-angry, wife-relieved.
Never forget. This was not a tragedy. It was not an accident. It also was not a crime. It was an act of war.
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