"I will never forget "
"I will never forget "
"I will never forget "
Across the Fredericksburg region, you remember.
Many of you were in the Pentagon, or close to it. Some had relatives working in the building.
Others were involved in daily routines far removed from global politics--taking the children to day care, sitting in class, planning birthday parties.
Some were traveling, landing to find a nightmare of closed skies and no way home.
Five years ago, the unthinkable happened. Four airplanes, driving into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington and a grassy meadow in Pennsylvania, shattered more than buildings.
In the space of an hour, Americans' assumptions about who we are and our place in the world changed irrevocably.
Like other iconic events in contemporary American history--Pearl Harbor, JFK's assassination--those of us who lived through Sept. 11, 2001, will never forget that day. Where we were, how we heard.
The Free Lance-Star and fredericks burg.com asked readers and Web site visitors to share memories with us. You responded.
"I cried for days," wrote Stacy Horne of Fredericksburg.
"My mind takes me back to 9/11 each day," wrote Scott Lee of Spotsylvania County.
We present 15 of the e-mails, representative of all those we received. Some have been edited for length because of space limitations. All 68 responses have been posted in their entirety on fredericks burg.com.
scott lee Estates of Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania CountyOn 9/11, I was in the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building. I knew from a telephone call from my wife that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Center towers. A co-worker came in during staff call and he told me that the second tower had been struck. I found this even more hard to believe and hesitated telling my boss and other co-workers.
A very loud bang caught my attention. It seemed odd, out of place, and my first thought was that they had finally crashed a widget (little cargo truck) into the walls of Corridor 6. They ran these up and down the corridor and I always found them to be an accident waiting to happen.
I was brought back to reality by the most horrific noise and pressure that I have ever witnessed in my life. The metallic-concrete screeching noise came from my right (where the plane had hit) and rushed by me to the left.
I remember closing my eyes tight. I remember the sensation of being hit in the chest and in the head by the pressure resulting from the impact. I remember the noise drilling down my ears into my head and the pressure that built up and filled my ears.
I honestly remember believing that I was going to die, but I found comfort in that thought, and hoped for it, as long as it took the pressure and noise away.
The pressure began to run back from my left to my right and my ears cleared up, I caught my breath, and opened my eyes.
It seemed minutes, but probably was not long, when my boss and others with experience in the field artillery mentioned that what we had felt was overpressure from an explosion.
We got up and decided to evacuate the office. We opened the door to find C Ring shrouded in thick, gray smoke. I thought of getting down on my knees, but decided to just breathe normally and walk down the C Ring to Corridor 6 following the others.
We got there and the smoke cleared. I looked to my right to AE Drive and saw heavy smoke and fire. It was nearly 5 hours before I could talk to my wife and my mother. I broke into tears at the sound of my mother's voice.
My mind takes me back to 9/11 each day--a terrible and sad day for our country.
hope mahnken Vista Woods, Stafford CountyI was working at the School Board Office and had just talked to my husband on the phone about an upcoming trip when a co-worker came in and told us that he had heard about a plane in the air space over New York so we turned the TV on in the office.
I picked up the phone to call my husband who was working at the Pentagon, and that is when we saw the second plane hit. I kept trying to call him with no success, and when I heard about the plane hitting the Pentagon I had to sit down to keep from fainting. At that time, my friend, Pam Hill, and I prayed.
I kept calling my husband's work number and his cell phone, but little did I know that both phones were ashes.
Then the reports started coming in that the plane had hit near the helipad, and I thought for sure that my husband was dead. My only thought was to go get my children out of school before they found out from someone else.
My daughter, Amanda, was attending A.G. Wright Middle School and being Daddy's girl, it was going to be difficult to explain things.
When I picked her up I asked her if she had heard anything. She said that she had heard there was a "bad accident" but that was all she knew. As we were walking on the sidewalk I started to tell her, and to this day I will forever remember the piercing scream and her grabbing me tight.
I assured her that we had not heard for sure whether he was involved, but that we would turn the TV on and watch together from home.
What we saw was not reassuring; the big burning gap made us cry and cling together. The phones went unanswered.
Hours later I spoke to my mother-in-law and she said that my husband, Carl, had called her and that he was OK.
At 4 p.m., he was given a ride home, and he walked in with blood on his suit pants, no tie or coat and a golf [ball]-size bump on his forehead.
He had been knocked out, had crawled out of the rubble. He had spent several hours loading stretchers and helping on the ground.
We spent the next hour just looking into his eyes and trying to comprehend what had transpired and why!
tanya m. richey Leeland Station, StaffordI am an artist living in Fredericksburg, and on Sept. 11, 2001, I was returning from teaching a painting class on the Yangtze River. Traveling on Air China about an hour out of San Francisco, a voice came over the intercom that all U.S. airports were closed and we were being diverted to Vancouver.
We had been in China nearly a month and were used to translation errors, so thought the coast must be fogged in.
The man seated next to me said there was an F-15 flying along beside us. Another man on the other side of the plane said there was also one (F-15) on his side of the plane.
Ironically, in this age of instant communication, we finally got a report about the Trade Center on a small transistor radio a passenger had. Another passenger was repeating the story and it echoed through the plane with responding cries of disbelief.
We heard of 37 planes stacked on the tarmac at Vancouver Airport where we were headed, and that hotels were full , that people were taking in stranded passengers.
When we landed, we spent seven hours on the plane before disembarking.
After finding a cab and being driven through the night to a hotel an hour away, we went to our rooms and devoured the information we got from CNN.
It felt very surreal sitting in a hotel room in a place I couldn't even show you on a map, and being told we could not enter the United States, we could not rent a car and drive home or catch a train or another plane. We were locked out of our country and did not know when we would be able to return.
liz morris Grafton Village, Stafford
I am a teacher and it was my very first week of classes with a brand new group of children.
Our custodian first shared the news that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade towers. My brother-in-law worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, so I immediately became concerned. I asked him to please keep me up-to-date on the situation.
He soon came back to my classroom and told me to go to the church office where a television was on. He simply said that I needed to go now, not sharing anything else.
As I walked into the office there was a small group of women gathered together. I watched in horror as the towers crumbled down and time stood still for me.
After recovering as best I could with the help of those women, I knew I needed to return to my classroom. The contrast of just being in that office and witnessing what I saw on television and then walking back into my room filled with wonderful, happy, and innocent children will never leave my memory.
My brother-in-law--my sons' uncle, godfather and friend--died that day.
So much loss, so much pain and such sadness on that day. We must never forget.
courtney thompson Oakland Park, King GeorgeHey, my name is Courtney. I am 15 and I can remember 9/11 so perfectly.
I was in the second week of 5th grade and I was in Mrs. Lefeave's class doing English things and the principal came in and told us we were on a DEAR drill (drop everything and read) and then they started to dismiss us and I didn't know what happened.
My teacher wouldn't tell me what was going on so I asked my bus driver. She wouldn't tell me either. She said it's up to your parents.
So I go to my nanny's house cuz I wasn't allowed to stay home alone. So I asked my nanny and she told me that the Trade Center in N.Y. was hit and the Pentagon was also hit by hijacked airplanes and even though I had no clue what either of those places were it was just the thought of everyone dying that made me sad and then I worried about my mom because she worked on Dahlgren base. But they let her out early.
And then my nanny told me about how Osama bin Laden had planned this and stuff. So I was scared to go on our vacation to Orlando because I thought there might be a terrorist on our plane. But there wasn't.
I remember feeling so bad for all the families who lost people and all the babies who would grow up without a mommy or a daddy. And then I remember hearing all these patriotic things. And I thought it was weird how it took one major event to make us all so patriotic.
michael snow Snell, SpotsylvaniaI was in the National Guard, Fredericksburg (229th) at the time and the day before (9/10/01) had returned from an overseas trip for three weeks in Germany on a training mission.
We were released from duty, and I returned to work the following day (9/11/01).
I was sitting in my work truck preparing to go into a meeting when reports of the first plane crash were on the radio, then the second plane hit and that's when pandemonium ensued.
A few hours later I received the call-up and was back in uniform doing security details and ended up as airport security for the next months.
joy shelton North StaffordI was home on maternity leave with my first-born child on September 11, 2001. My daughter was just 4 months old and I remember crying while I was holding her thinking of the kind of world I had brought her into. I was also thinking of the countless mothers and fathers who died that day who would never hold their children again.
bob stokes Sumerduck, Fauquier CountyI had been working for several years [on] the Pentagon renovation. On Sept. 11, 2001, I was attending a seminar in Crystal City, at the Doubletree Inn, just a stone's throw from the Pentagon itself.
[On our first break we found] people milling about in the hotel lobby in front of several large-screen television sets. We were seeing breaking news coverage of the impact of the first of the two jetliners to strike the World Trade Center's twin towers.
I remember thinking what a terrible tragedy this accident was. Then, as if to drive home the terrible realization that this was no accident, but a purposeful act of hateful terrorism, the second airliner hit the other tower.
[Back in our conference room] I felt rather than heard a terrible impact that had to be close by. It felt like a small, brief earthquake. [I knew] that the Pentagon had just been attacked.
Several of us ran back into the lobby, and I looked up to the skylights. Dense black clouds of smoke were streaming by overhead, driven by a strong wind. Then, the odor of burning jet fuel, much like diesel oil, filled the hotel lobby.
I was to learn that an airliner had slammed into the nearly fully renovated Wedge 1 of the Pentagon, where I would have been that morning had it not been for the seminar that I was attending.
Later, I encountered one of my co-workers who had not been at the seminar. His pants were torn and bloodied, as were his hands. He had been walking along outside the Pentagon and saw the hijacked airliner coming in low towards the building. He barely managed to make a running dive to avoid being struck by the engine on the right wing of the plane as it struck the Pentagon.
danielle goldstein Salem Fields, SpotsylvaniaOn 9/11, I was at work at the Armed Forces Identification Laboratory in Rockville, Md.
A co-worker came in and told me about the plane hitting the Pentagon. I took off running for my cell phone to try to contact my husband, who worked in the Pentagon at the time. I didn't hear from him for about an hour and a half--the longest hour and a half of my life.
He finally called me when I was driving home on the beltway.
I was so thankful to hear his voice but was so sad thinking about all the people who were hoping for a phone call like that who were never going to get one.
For weeks and months after
To this day neither my husband nor I can bring ourselves to watch a program on 9/11 or really spend too much time rehashing the day, as we both get extremely emotional. We have both written our points of view of the day down for our children, so that they will understand what it was like.
My heart breaks for those who did lose loved ones. I hope they know that we will never forget.
virginia johnson FredericksburgWe were on the beltway, driving back from Johns Hopkins.
As it happened we were in two cars. I had turned on the radio. I believe it was Dan Rather announcing that the airplanes had hit the twin towers. Then he was interrupted and came back on to say that the Pentagon had been hit.
We were about 15 miles from D.C. The message boards read, "Avoid Washington."
I phoned my husband, and we pulled over to convene a quick family conference. We were at a gas station, and there was absolutely no panic. Intensity and efficiency, but no panic. I was somewhat in awe of everyone's calm. It was the exact opposite of the situation that movies portray.
We chose to go home via [U.S.] 301 to [State] Route 3 east, making occasional stops, and, yes, I will confess to a few butterflies as we crossed the bridge at Dahlgren.
In all, it took us about six hours to get home that day, and we were greatly relieved to see everyone.
scott perry Lee's Hill, SpotsylvaniaI was at work in the Navy Annex, the building on the hill overlooking the Pentagon. My office was on the third floor with a sweeping view from the Arlington Cemetery to the Capitol.
Soon after I learned the first airplane hit the WTC, I joined a group of officers watching the various news feeds in an adjoining room. We all saw the second aircraft strike the WTC--and moved into a different mode.
Roaring overhead with a sound I can still hear in my mind today, I looked up to watch the third plane scream into the Pentagon. The time on my watch said 0937.
Two other things stand out in my mind. The shock wave after the airplane hit the Pentagon was as if God's fist smashed the ground.
The other item I recall was, after we evacuated into the Cemetery, was how perfect the day was, seeing Old Glory waving in a gentle breeze from the southwest framed against a perfect sky smudged by the ugly smoke roiling out of the Pentagon.
I can go on and on the rumors running like wildfire through the crowd, our attempts to reach our families when all of the cell phone networks were clogged, the eerie ride down I-95 to Fredericksburg five to six hours later when they finally let us get to our cars--seeing no one on the road for the entire 50 miles was like a scene from the twilight zone. The day still haunts me.
frank sanford Pelhams Crossing, SpotsylvaniaI, along with two business associates, was on a flight to Lexington, Ky., when the planes hit the World Trade Center. We knew nothing of the hijacked planes until we were at the car rental desk and started to see bits of information on a TV there. Military personnel were already streaming through the airport and confusion and fear were the order of the day.
The unknown was the most disturbing factor for me. What was happening? Was it an isolated incident or were more attacks going to happen?
After our next day's meeting we were unable to make flight reservations, and we were forced to drive back to Fredericksburg.
I think that having been in the air when the attacks occurred made us feel closer to what had happened, and we all realized how lucky we were that our flight was not commandeered.
amanda guyton FredericksburgI arrived to teach an art history class at Germanna Community College (Fredericksburg campus). I had heard on the radio that there had been an accident, with a plane flying into a building. When I arrived, someone said the Pentagon had been hit; this was no accident.
I was asked to teach a regular lesson, even if there were few students--give everyone something else to think about. It was very surreal--talking about ancient Mesopotamian kingship, when the world was going crazy just outside the door.
kathy prescott SpotsylvaniaI was sitting in my office with my co-workers when our phone lines all lit up at the same time. Our office did not open until after 9:00 a.m. and I knew something was wrong when all of our lines started to ring at the same time.
Our families were all calling us to tell us what was happening.
I could not believe what he was telling me over the phone.
When I saw it on television, I began to cry. I stood there in total shock. In all my years of volunteering with the Spotsylvania County rescue squad I had never been so shocked.
When I came home from work I remember hugging my husband, my son and my daughter and thanking the good Lord that they were here with me and we were all OK. I remember praying for all those families that were forever going to have their lives changed by September 11th.
I remember sitting on the couch, watching the TV, crying hour after hour for my [rescue personnel] brothers and sisters who died trying to save innocent people in the Twin Towers.
charter wells jr. Lake Wilderness, SpotsylvaniaThat morning, as is my custom, I started the coffee and tuned the radio to a classical music station.
I was startled by a loud "We interrupt this broadcast " announcement that reported that a passenger plane had accidentally crashed into one of the Trade Center towers.
Quickly, I turned on the TV. As the talking heads commented on the "accident," I spilled hot coffee as I saw another plane crash through the South Tower.
I've yet to find words to describe my feelings that morning.
To reach LUCIA ANDERSON:
Email: landerson@freelancestar.com
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