Where were you at 9/11/01?

[DeltAlum]

I guess it's like any other really extrordinary event. I remember where I was when I heard about the JFK (high school PA room) and RFK (College and Union streets in Athens, Ohio) assasinations, the Challenger explosion (the chief engineers office next to mine at a NBC Owned TV station) -- even Columbine (at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas) since that is so close to home.

In this case, I was in Lincoln, NE on business. I had been at the UNL Delt Shelter the night before, and attended a very nice initiation. When I came down from my hotel room the next morning, the coverage was on TV. I went to an appointment at Nebraska Public Television.

Obviously, I couldn't fly home, so I was watching the coverage, and since I spent many years as a TV director/manager doing live news and sports, I felt like the proverbial retired fire house horse who hears the alarm bell and can't do anything. When the president landed at Offutt (Sp?) Air Force Base -- about 30 minutes from Lincoln -- I called and actually got in touch with a friend who is Senior Director for NBC News and volunteered to head over there. He said that would be a great idea and he would get back to me. Of course Bush didn't stay there, so I ended up doing nothing in Lincoln for four days and then catching a bus to Denver.

Having a lot of friends in the networks and other jobs in New York, I was pretty worried about their safety. In addition, my former company had a TV facility right across from The Battery, very close to the WTC. It took a couple of days to find out that everyone there was OK -- although the facility was shut down. I had visited there many times, and we sometimes stayed at the Marriott which is no more.

I fervently hope that this is the last event in my lifetime where I will remember where I was when I hear the news. But, unfortunatley, I wouldn't count on it.