Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Where were you?

Note:  this is a re-post from my blog five years ago today.


I was in Ms. Luna’s fifth grade class at Rountree Elementary School in Springfield, MO on November 22, 1963. Everyone my age remembers where they were on that day.

On Tuesady morning, September 11, 2001, I was in the main conference room at LPD Headquarters. Our weekly staff meeting had just begun. Just as the meeting began, someone came in and told us that the World Trade Center had been struck by an aircraft. We turned on the television just about the time the second tower was struck.

Since the command staff was already assembled, we quickly brainstormed about what we ought to be doing, and started making some assignments of officers to key public facilities, such as the Federal Building, State Office Building, State Capital, City-County Building, and Airport. We didn’t have any detailed instructions, other than to be visible and to keep your eyes open for the unusual. More than anything, I suppose, we just wanted to make sure that citizens were reassured somewhat by the visibility of the police at these public places.

I imagine that 45 years from now, those in their mid-fifties will all remember exactly where they were on September 11, 2001.

10 comments:

Steve said...

Wow. That was a long time ago. I actually had a full-time job back then, and that's where I was when I heard about it. Video was showing up on some of the computers around the machine shop. I thought it was some kind of joke, at first. Still, it wasn't as scary to me as was the Cuban Missile Crisis or much of the cold war in general, when we thought any minute could be our last. The first time I heard a sonic boom over Lincoln, something that was later banned in populated areas, I thought it was the big one.

Anonymous said...

I was just getting out of my car to go into my school secretary job when the first plane hit. Surely, it was an accident, I thought. By the time I got into the office, others were watching the televisions. Soon, it became obvious that we were under attack. I can't remember when I quit crying about it.

Sometimes, it's so hard to comprehend what humans will do to other humans.

Anonymous said...

I was listening to radio when the first plane hit. I grabbed my coffee cup and went to the TV and just a few minutes later the second plane hit. When the first tower fell for a few seconds I was in awe of the precise way the tower collapsed. In just a few seconds my thoughts were " I just saw hundreds of people perish". Then I got mad! I am still mad but now I am almost as angry at the politicians handling this whole mess as I am at the Radical Islamists that planned and carried it out.

Until we target the Imams and Clerics that are preaching JIHAD the problem will continue. This is NOT a job for our military but a job to be carried out COVERTLY. When people like Ahmandinijad (sic?) are taken out with a cruise missile or a bullet to the head the signal will be sent that the United States means business.

Gun Nut

Anonymous said...

I arrived to work just after the first plane hit and saw my Manager in the break room watching the news footage. He kept saying, "Its a terrorist attack!" I looked at him and thought, what a nut! About that time, the second plane hit. After that he wasn't looking so nutty.

It was pretty scary for me. I had a small child and people were talking about going to the bank and getting out as much cash as they could. There was also some talk about us running out of gas. On my way home there was a line of cars into the street waiting to get into the gas station.

Anonymous said...

We had a new boss and she was unhappy that we weren't real interested in participating in her first staff meeting with us. "I can sense I don't have your full attention and that you are distracted, so let's continue this meeting next week," she said to us. I just thought "I sure hope we have a next week."

Anonymous said...

Worked nights at the time. I was sleeping when it happened. Woke up to a whole different world.

Anonymous said...

This may sound terrible, but a few days of recovery and someone offerred to paint a bullseye on the roof of the plant where I worked.

Steve said...

BTW, on November 22, 1963, I was in my eighth grade class at Pound Junior High. We learned about it from a history class that happened to be watching the Dallas parade, and we were all called to the auditorium and asked to say the pledge of allegiance. No one complained about it back then.

Anonymous said...

TV.... I didn't think those things are allowed at LPD????

Anonymous said...

Was on my way out the door to catch the #2 (old Bethany route) bus downtown, when my wife yelled "Ward Jacobsen says a small plane crashed into the twin towers!" Spent most of the rest of the day watching on TV with Dan from The Coffee Trader in the skywalk.

Cannot believe it has been eleven years. Dan and I do not look a day older.