nmah182.xml

nmah182.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I was in a class, an HTML class to be exact at the University of Alabama Huntsville. I did not witness the first plane hit the tower, but was watching when the 2nd plane hit, instantly I knew we were under attack. I work for the Government, a Logistics Engineer. The Class was dismissed at that time, I hurried back to work, to be available for what ever was needed. By the time I returned to work, I found out the Pentagon was hit also. I was fearful for 4 of my co-workers that had recently been assigned their on temporary duty. I was also worried about 3 people from my office that were traveling that day or had already traveled and how would they get home. We received calls from all workers except one. I will call him the lucky one. We finally received a call from his wife, she had heard from him. He was in that section that was hit, but had left the building 20 mins before to get his wife a birthday card. When he came out of the Mall, which is close to the Pentagon, he saw the damage, tried to help as much as he could. He lost 2 co-workers he had just started working with. The lucky one has definitely been changed by this. The travelers from our office took almost 4 days afterwards to get back home, some hitched rides, some had rental cars they drove back home. 1 took a train, another a bus.

My perspective on this was 2 fold. 1. I hate to say this, because it naws at my soul, but as an engineer I was intrigued by the terrorist method, using the planes as weapons. Not a bomb, not a gun attack, but using the planes and their fuel. I knew when they hit those towers, the towers would fall. I knew the burning temp of the fuel, I knew the metal in the support structures would weaken and collapse. I was angry that the US airlines had not re-enforced their cockpit doors. Most European and Israel airlines had this capability. I wondered why the passengers of the planes had not fought back, when as it was reported on the news that the terrorist had been brutal cutting, slashing stewardess and passengers. I was proud of the Passengers that fought back, sad that they plane crashed in Penn. In all Honesty, I look at those individuals as hero's, and I only hope I would have done the same. My 2nd thought was this, whom ever, where ever those responsible for this, we needed to hunt down and kill publically if possible. In other words I was angry.

My Prayers go out to those individuals, minus those Damn terrorist of course, that died on that day. To those that who worked tirelessly to try and rescue those injured.

How has my life changed. I was always cautious when I flew looking over as many as possible, to watch for the crazies. I am even more diligent, I watch all bags, all people for anything that would raise concern. I know one thing, if someone were to try anything, I would be one of the first to confront attack stop them. I had previously mentioned that I work for the Gov, DOD, US Army, civilian, I have wait lines to enter our organization of up to 30 mins to an hour. I work our Emergency Operations Center, I do my small part in supporting our sons and daughters, our soldiers fighting this evil enemy. I pray for their safe return and mourn when we loose someone. I hope we our citizens of the United States of America, do not Waiver, do not become complacent.

As a Country and the people of this great nation: We should remember the act of terrorism that was low down and dirty. We need to come out of our shells and come to grips with the idea of we are the big dog on the block and others will come gunning for us. We need to realize that others use the USA as a tool to rally their insane and uneducated pawns. To have these organizations they must have something to hate and despise, we the US are the thing to Hate. I see a parallel in this use. Hitler did this with the jews, the gays, the gypses, to all others that did not fall into his grand plan. He used this to rally the German People. The US does not fall into these terroist grand plan, we are the great evil. Since we are seen as this, we must protect ourselves from their attempts to bring us down. We can only protect ourselves if we the citizens realize we can not leave it up to just the police the military, we must all do our part, we much watch others, become curious as to what is going on in the next apartment. We must get off our lazy butts and be vigilant. Do not be afraid to report something suspicious, if it is nothing, then you will not need to worry about it anymore. But then again, you might just stop some terrorist from blowing up your childs school.

From a personal viewpoint I feel that we should remember the
loss of human life. The selfless acts of the fireman and policeman that tried to save others and died trying to do this. The pain and suffering the families went through trying to find out news of their loved ones. To those that lost someone. The deep deep sorrow and the pain they felt.

We should remember that this cowardly act, was an act of war, and we should support this war with everything we have.

Yes I stood in line for 2 hours to get a large Flag, the small one I had to me didnt cut it. I flew the Flag and I still do. I am DAMN Proud to be an American.

My feelings about the American flag have changed greatly. I only flew the flag on the normal everday holidays. Now it is up on my house each and ever day. I will do this for the rest of my life.