Ateneo De Naga high school 1980

Those who do not remember history are bound to live through it again.

Friday, September 11, 2009

The day ground zero was born in New York


September 11, 2009

I clearly remember the morning of September 11, 2001. It was early in the morning and I was preparing myself to go to work. I turned on our kitchen radio hoping to hear the latest traffic conditions on the local freeways. The newscaster that came through the radio sounded like he was in a scene full of chaos. He said that an airline plane crashed on the World Trade Center building. Initially, I thought that the news was one of those prankster news that a bunch of comedians would sometimes pull. When I listened to it some more, I started to realize that the news was real. I turned on our TV and the first image I saw was one of the World Trade Center building was on fire. I woke up my wife and told her what was going on. I checked our wall clock and it told me that I need to leave soon to avoid being late for work. Just then, I saw a ball of fire explode on the mid section of the second World Trade center building. It was then that it dawn on me that this whole thing was not an accident.

There were not a lot of cars on the freeway that morning and I had my car radio on listening to the developments in New York. When I got to my work, my supervisor brought with him a radio and was listening intently to what was going on at the other side of the country. My supervisor was a former U.S. marine sergeant and a crew chief of a marine helicopter during Desert Storm. He was obviously irate because a small band of terrorist was able to create such havoc in the country.

During my shift, I was able to talk to one of our company’s clients in New York over the phone and she told me that she can see the World Trade Center from where she was. She said that the police and fire department did not allow them to leave their building because of the chaos outside. Since she was stuck inside the building, she decided to continue doing the payroll of their company.

During the next few day after the 9/11 terrorist attack, I noticed that whenever a law enforcement officer pulls over a car, the officer would ask the owner of the vehicle to open the car’s trunk to check its contents. Many parents in our area kept their children from going to school because of fear that there will be another attack. The day after the attack, there was a sudden surge of enlistment in the military.

Years after the 9/11 attack, one of my friends went to ground zero for a visit and she told me that she cried during the visit. My old friend, Jeff Grisham, always wore an American flag pin on his shirt the day after 9/11 to show support for the military.

My prayers to the families who lost a love one during the attack.

Taps to the heroes of 911.

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