September 11, 2001 Remembered
The defining moment of my parents’ generation was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Everyone seems to know exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news that JFK had been killed. That always amazed me. How big would an event have to be in order for literally everyone in the United States and a very large portion of the rest of the world to remember exactly what was going on at the moment it happened? I had speculated many times as to what the defining moment of my generation would be.
Was it the murder of John Lennon in late 1980? No. That was still an event in my parents’ generation. I was only 11. I know who he was, but it wasn’t a defining moment in my life.
Was it the shooting of President Reagan in the Spring of 1981? I was in my sixth grade classroom when they made the announcement over the Providence Elementary School PA system and wheeled the television in to show the news reports. It was a big event, but the President lived and was joking about his shooting only moments after it happened.
Was it the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January of 1986? That was a significant event in my life. I remember televisions being wheeled into my high school cafeteria during lunch hour and showing news reports of the shuttle disaster a couple of hours after it happened. Although it was a significant event at the time, the overall shock and impact of that event did not seem to be a “defining moment of a generation.”
Was it the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City on the morning of 19 April 1995? I was in my car driving the 10 minutes it took to get from my house to the law school. During the 8:00 am news, they had said that they had just received word that there had been an explosion at the federal building in Oklahoma City. I didn’t think much of it until I got home a few hours later and saw the television reports. Eventually, the final count was 168 men, women, and children dead. I thought that this incident had a very good possibility of being the big event to define a generation…a terrorist attack on US soil by a US citizen resulting in massive loss of life.
Little did I or anyone else know that in just six and a half years later, there would be an event of such catastrophic proportions that the Oklahoma City bombing would become a footnote in history to most and forgotten by many.
On the night of September 11, 2001 (Korea time) I was at the house of my friend, Trent Thornock. We were talking and have a generally good time. It was getting a bit late, so I decided to head for home so I could get up for work the next morning. As usual, I was listening to the Armed Forces Network on the radio. The problem with AFN in Pusan is that the AM radio signal from the Camp Hialeah in the heart of Pusan was so weak that was always fading in and out in the daytime and at night it was often impossible to pick up.
The AFN reception on the night of September 11 2001 was very spotty. I was about five minutes away from Trent’s house when I was finally able to pick up a weak AFN signal. Expecting to hear their regular evening programming, I was surprised that there was a news cast on the air. Due to the poor reception, I couldn’t quite make out the details of the story. I heard something about the Pentagon, a fire or bomb, evacuations.
I picked up my cell phone and called Trent and asked if he was watching TV. He said that he wasn’t. I told him what I had heard and asked him to tell me what was on CNN. As I am waiting for him to do that I hear on the radio that all US air traffic has been ordered to land as soon as possible. I was still trying to make sense of what was going on.
Trent came back on the line and he said, “Everything is on fire.” Just as I was asking, “what,” the radio signal cleared and I heard the CNN radio announcer say that the South Tower had collapsed. Trent breathed an expletive. He explained that the South Tower of the World Trade Center had just collapsed.
Trent spent the next few minutes piecing the story together and relaying it to me. Two planes had crashed into the towers. One had crashed into the pentagon. A fourth plane was reportedly head toward the White House and fighters were in the air to protect the white house. I told Trent I was heading home to watch the news myself.
I switched over to Korean radio to hear what they were saying. Most were broadcasting the CNN feed with sound and giving a simultaneous translation over the CNN audio. It was easier to hear than the AFN broadcast.
I listened as all flights were ordered to land at the nearest airport and that any flights not landing immediately would be considered hostile and, if necessary, shot down. The next several minutes were fulled with confusion as unconfirmed report after unconfirmed report of collapses and highjackings and bombs hit the airwaves. Suddenly, CNN reported that the South Tower had collapsed. The World Trade Center towers no longer existed.
I was utterly stunned. I had no idea how to react or what to do. The only thing I could think to do was to call my friend Jeff, who grew up in the Bronx and ask if he knew. I called him. He was in a bar on Texas Street having a drink. I asked if he had heard the news. He said what news. I told him that he needed to get to a television immediately because America was under attack and the twin towers had just collapsed. Of course he didn’t believe me. I told him to just shut up and go to a TV.
I got home and was awed by the video images being shown over and over and over again and the complete confusion as to what was going on.
Shortly thereafter, word came that a Korean Air passenger plane from Seoul to New York had been hijacked and that fighters had been scrambled to check it out and, if necessary to blow it out of the sky. Thankfully, it turned out that, for some reason, the pilot had mistakenly broadcast a hijacking code.
I well never forget where I was or what I was doing on that day. I will never forget what was done to my country and it’s citizens.