Monday, September 20, 2021
9/11/2021
Its a strange thing to think back on a day 21 years ago, my freshman year in college. I remember waking up to go to an early morning class and waiting quite some time. No one else was coming and I wondered what was going on until one of the other students came in and explained that something was going on in New York. When I asked what had happened she said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
I stared at her in disbelief, and she turned on a nearby Television. Sure enough, there was one of the towers covered in smoke. I think by that point, the second tower had been hit, though I didn't see it at the time. I rushed back to my dorm. Almost everyone else was up and awake, gathered around the TV in our common room. The usually jovial and often animal house nature of the dorm was dead serious and silent. I watched the footage of the plane hitting the second tower and went into my own room to wake my roommate.
"Roberto, you got to get up." I hissed, shaking him. He stared up at me bleary eyed. I never disturbed him ever.
"Roberto, you got to get up." I hissed, shaking him. He stared up at me bleary eyed. I never disturbed him ever.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Dude you gotta get up, we're under attack, it's like Pearl Harbor dude."
That equation to Pearl Harbor came easy that day to most of us. We spent the better part of the day watching the horrific pantomime of events as they played over and over. There was still one plane un-accounted for at the time, and we were afraid that it might be heading our way since there was a Department of Defense headquarters near our university located on the old Fort Ord.
That equation to Pearl Harbor came easy that day to most of us. We spent the better part of the day watching the horrific pantomime of events as they played over and over. There was still one plane un-accounted for at the time, and we were afraid that it might be heading our way since there was a Department of Defense headquarters near our university located on the old Fort Ord.
Someone else must have had that thought, because a moment later we heard tank treads and saw a huge anti-aircraft battery roll by our dorm and head up the hill to the DOD building. It stayed there for the next year.
Watching the collapse we all remarked how uniform it was, and some of us speculated about planned explosion, a theory that remains to some today. I thought at the time that it was meant to save other buildings from the towers collapse. Today, I have no idea, I am no engineer. What I do know was that it was horrific to watch. Though the events of that day were on the other side of the country, we lived that day as if we were there.
There were other things, people jumping from buildings, the struggle of flight 93. The strike on the Pentagon was terrifying because I thought if any place should be protected it was Washington DC. Apparently not. Above all else, I remember the ash, covering buildings, streets and people. It was like snow, plooming down in a cloud of death. It consumed all, like a hungry beast. That brings me to today, two weeks after he 20th anniversary of 9/11. Many other anniversaries have come and gone, and I was surprised how much the years had dulled my memory until I sat down and watched the footage again. I forgot how horrific it was. It made me queasy and sick. I've listened to the kids at work, and I've seen a book on 9/11 in a classroom. I wondered how they reflected on something that happened before they were born. Of course, they had no concept of it beyond it was a very bad thing that happened, just like I had when thinking of Pearl Harbor. Its strange to see a history I lived through now become the history that is taught. I'm not sure what to think about that. For me, each 9/11 from here on will be a display of terror and ash, of the feelings of a young man just starting his life away from home watching his country under attack. It will be the hope of a nearly 40 year old man and counting hoping no future generation never has to endure what I or others did that day. |
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