Recalling a Bright September Day

It was a Tuesday morning, I had gotten off work at 0615 hours after working 12 1/2 hour shifts for three straight nights. I was tired and went to bed at 0700 hours, falling to sleep quickly.

My wife woke me up at 0850 hours, saying that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. As I was waking up and trying to comprehend her words  I remember she said "It's on fire on TV now".  I got out of bed and stumbled into the family room, expecting to see a small fire from a small aircraft.

Instead, I saw a conflagration and soon learned it was a passenger jet. I thought, WTF, how does a passenger jet do that? I sat down and listened to ABC reporters breathlessly discuss the scene. The wife and I discussed the accident and wondered if the tower would fall.

As the wife and I watched TV the second tower was struck by Flight 175. We were both dumbstruck by the surreal attack. For the next 34 minutes we followed the live chaos and confusion, evacuations and false alarms culminating in the Pentagon attack and the crash of Flight 93.

By 0959 hours the south tower collapsed and 1028 hours the north tower was gone. Thousands dead. For what? The dead were mostly civilians, just living their lives, going to work and looking forward to enjoying the perfect late summer afternoon.

At some point I walked outside and saw the clearest blue September sky. Not a cloud in sight. I wondered how such a beautiful day could turn into a nightmare.