Remembering 9/11/2001

Seven years ago to the day, I was scheduled to fly to Germany mid-morning. I was going to visit an old friend of mine and was so excited. I had looked forward to my return to Deutschland for quite some time. I was driving to work when I heard the news break on the radio of the first plane going into the World Trade Center tower. No one knew if it was an accident, terrorist, what. Shortly after, the second plane flew into the building - this time I knew something was up.

I grew up in Germany in the 80's. Every other day we had bomb threats at the high school, where we would go through the drill of evacuating the building and hiking the mile or so away to a shelter. We had bomb threats on the post we lived, where we were under lockdown and couldn't leave the post. I had friends that died in the terrorist plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. So I'm pretty familiar with terrorism. I never imagined that a terrorist attack would happen literally so close to home in my lifetime.

As I came closer to work, I had a weird feeling that DC was going to be hit next. It just made sense - it's the capitol and houses the country's leaders. Upon arriving into the parking lot at work, I saw a friend of mine who informed me that the DC area was on high alert and everyone was told to go home. That sealed the deal for me, I headed straight to Arlington. My mom was in training at Belvoir and my brother worked in Tyson's, so I knew they were safe. Fortunately my father, who normally would have been at the Pentagon that day, was on travel that week. My sister, however, worked in a high rise directly across from the Pentagon. I figured if something happened, she would need someone there with her. When I called her to let her know I was heading her way, she was hysterical. She thought there was an earthquake or something - they didn't know what was going on. I told her I would be there as soon as possible.

I drove like a bat out of hell on the beltway at a speed of approximately 115 mph. I was exiting the beltway onto I395 when my sister called me crying. "Mindy, it was a plane. A plane went into the side of the Pentagon!" I couldn't believe it. The Pentagon?! The fortress which houses the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard?! How is that possible?!

I arrived in Arlington a few minutes later, maybe 5 miles from my sister's office, when I ran into a roadblock. The police were clearing out the northbound lanes so that the mass exodus could take place from DC. I devised a plan to take side roads and called my sister. They were being forced out of the building; since she lived 2 blocks from her office, she decided to go to her house and wait for me there.

The scene along the way was just unimaginable. From every angle you could see the smoke rising up into the sky. Jets were crisscrossing the sky - I Air Force planes ready to attack any additional threats. It was as if our Armed Forces were preparing for World War III. The mass exodus from DC and Arlington was beginning; ashen and shocked faced people were walking along roads where pedestrians are not normally seen. At first it was just a sprinkling of people, but then it turned into what appeared to be a marathon - wave upon wave of walkers. And the eerie thing was the silence. Normally if you see that many people, and especially under these conditions, you would expect a ton of noise, crying, hysterics and maybe even the occasional scream. However, on this day, I only heard the sound of footsteps and the sound of soft murmuring into cell phones, letting their loved ones know they were okay.

It took me about an hour to drive the five miles to my sister's place. The closer I got, the more intense the burning smell became. It was a smell I will never forget - a mix of burning plastic, metal and fuel. And the debris - it was coming down like a light snow, covering trees, the sidewalk and cars. We were glued to the television, wanting to know the updates of the Pentagon crash. That's when we learned of a third plane that had headed toward DC but turned towards Pennsylvania and crashed - that was United Flight 93. We kept asking ourselves, "What's next?!"

My sister's roommate wanted to try to help out the victims at the Pentagon. She decided to grab her first aid kit and walk over - mind you, the first aid kit contained maybe one roll of gauze, some band aids and alcohol wipes. Not the stuff to conduct sutures and bandage up massive abrasions. Nor was the roommate a member of the medical community; she was a research assistant at my sister's office. However, I commend her for wanting to help, we all did, but my sister and I knew we'd be more of a hindrance than help. Twenty minutes later, the roommate was back - she had been told to turn around and to return back to the place from which she came.

After a few hours, my sister and I decided to get the hell out of Arlington and go to parent’s house 30 miles south. From my sister’s you could see and walk to the interstate, it was 3 blocks away, however the height of the exodus was occurring. Two hours later, we finally managed to get to the interstate. Another hour and we arrived home shortly followed by my mom and brother. As a family, minus my father, we continued to watch coverage for the remainder of the day and night.

Even though I know the attacks happened, it's still unbelievable that our country was invaded by people that felt so strongly in their beliefs, they wanted to hurt themselves and thousands of innocent victims to make their point clear. While I'm proud that our country pulled together and put forth a united front, it still saddens me to think of all the people that were lost in the attacks. I say a prayer for those that had their loved ones taken from them, and feel selfish when I'm thankful that mine are still with me. I still get choked up when I watch the memorial tributes each anniversary. Each year, it gets a little bit easier however the memories never go away; we will always remember.