9/11 - Never Forget

I have always heard people talk about how they will never forget where they were when certain major events happened in history such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, when John Kennedy was shot and so on. I always thought how weird that was to associated when and where you were until 9/11. I truly will never forget where I was that day or how I felt.

We were living in San Diego at the time and I was working for an environmental remediation company on Naval Air Station North Island. We were civilian contractors on the base. Every morning I went and picked up our mail in our regional office downtown before crossing the Coronado bridge to head to work. At the time, Mr. A's truck didn't have a working radio so I listened to tapes/CD's in the truck vs news or radio stations. I was just getting into the elevator to head to the office when my co-worker said something I will never forget, "We are under attack."

I looked at her like she had just lost her mind, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you listen to the radio?! We are under attack. Something just crashed into the World Trade Center."

We hurried into the office and found a manager who had a small radio in his office. We sat and listened as they announce the second plane had just crashed into the second tower. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I grabbed the mail and headed back to my truck. I immediately grabbed my cell phone and called Art. I told him to turn on the news and get me more information. I was going to attempt to head onto the base.

When I got to the base security was higher than I had ever seen it. It was nuts. I made it to our work trailer and found only two other people there. We logged onto our computers trying to see what was going on. We started getting phone calls from co-workers that they had shut the base down and were not letting non-essential personnel onto the base. We were told to gather computers and files from the offices in case we weren't going to be let back on for awhile.

About that time, we had base security come and order us off the base. We were told we had to leave now. This was a guy we had seen every day patrolling the beach next to our offices with just a small gun in a holster. Now he had a huge automatic weapon of some sort. The three of us loaded up our vehicles with everyone's items and headed to our regional office. As we were leaving the base, there were jeeps and different military vehicles lining the main road in and out of the base all with their guns pointed at the cars attempting to leave the base. Barricades had been set up at the entrance and men and women with huge guns were set up all around. My first thought was "World War III has just begun."

I made it to our offices and unloaded the gear. We were on the 12th floor, the top floor, of an office building in downtown San Diego. We were less than 2 minutes from the airport. Could what happen in New York happen in San Diego? Could a plane hit our office building? We were told we could go home and spend time with our families if we felt like it. I headed home and Mr. A and I planted ourselves in front of the television watching the news footage over and over again for the rest of the day into the evening.

I now understand what people mean when they say do you remember where you were when ____________ happened.
I will never forget how scared I was that day.
I will never forget wondering what was going to happen to the US from that day forward.
I will never forget watching the towers fall.
I will never forget watching people jump out of the buildings prior to the collapse.
I will never forget the men and women who went to work that day and never came home.
I will never forget those brave firefighters who ran into the buildings as many were running out.
I will never forget 9/11.