This week's Weekly Update is a short one as I get ready to leave on a business trip. Things at work are going well, but with September 11 marking 25 years since the attacks, I've also been thinking back to that morning and what I remember seeing, thinking, and worrying about as the events unfolded.
Well, I don't have much time for this. I'm about to head out on a business trip. But I wanted to get a Weekly Update out before my flight.
This week has been a normal enough week. Things at work are going well. I got a lot of work done, but I am waiting on a bunch of work from other people that I need for my project. Hopefully, I can get most of it done while I'm down at headquarters this week.
25 years ago yesterday, at about 6 o'clock AM, I was getting ready for work and decided to turn on my TV. I was shocked to see that what I thought at the time was some jerk who had flown his airplane, probably some plane like the ones I flew, into the World Trade Center. At the time, I was thinking this was just some jerk. I had no idea what was coming. I remembered that years ago a bomber had crashed into the Empire State Building, and that building was still standing.
I knew that my wife used to live in New York near the towers and still had friends who lived there, so I wanted to wake her and let her know what was happening. I walked to our bedroom door, but before I could open it, I heard the announcer saying that another plane had crashed into a tower. Hearing that totally changed my view of what was happening. One plane could be a mistake, but two was an attack. And watching the playback, it was clear this was not a small plane. It was clearly a large jet, but the idea that it was hijacked had not occurred to me yet, so I was shocked and wondering how something like that could have happened.
I got Linda up, and we watched the coverage until it was 6:30, I think, and I had to get to work.
On the drive to Tigard, I listened to the news on the radio. As I entered downtown, looking at the Bancroft Building (the closest thing we have in Portland to the World Trade Center towers), I heard the report about the plane crashing into the Pentagon. As I continued to drive, another report came in about a plane being missing somewhere over Pennsylvania.
I've always been an early bird, and that day was no different. I was the first one to get into the office and started working. After a while, David, my boss, got in and told me that the first tower had fallen. I was shocked. The idea that it would collapse like that had not occurred to me.
David had brought a TV into the office with him, and we were able to watch the coverage while we worked.
My mind was trying to figure out what was going on. Who could have done this? My first thought was that the drug cartels were involved. Turns out I was wrong about that.
The rest of the day, I was worried about what would happen next. Clearly, this was a well-organized and planned attack, and I thought it was not over yet. I was thinking that there would be more attacks that day. If I was the planner, I would have started with attacks that made a big impression, like the ones that had just happened. But then I would attack in a way to actually affect large numbers of people. I would attack the power grid.
Living here in the Northwest, I have seen large power plants and how vulnerable the power lines leaving the plants are. Frankly, there's no real way to protect them from someone willing to take any risk. I thought that if the terrorists could knock out power to a large part of the country, people would panic. We had seen riots in the past from blackouts, and I worried that if it happened, our country could be in flames by morning.
I called Linda and had her go to the store to stock up on food and, most importantly, batteries.
I've never been one who loses sleep over something like this, but I do remember being scared that night and for a long time after.
I remember the first time Linda and I went out after the attacks, how we talked and planned how we would react if something happened. How we would stay together. How, when we went into the theater, we would make certain we knew where the exits were.
What a day and what a way to live.
Well, it's been 25 years, and I hope all of you are doing well.
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