9/11

[cgasner1]

Thinking about the events of yesterday and this anniversary today really makes me wonder how the country would react if something horrible was to happen again. I feel like a lot of people would shrug it off and say we deserve it. I was still a child when that happened or I’m sure I would have probably been enlisting like so many did after that.

 

[buckbull]

I was in Everett Washington on a business trip at Boeings twin aisle assembly plant. Many of us in those meetings had helped build those airplanes used that day. I thought i might be stuck in seattle but was able to get out with my original ticket. Pilot said we were the first flight out of sea-tac airport after the grounding was lifted. I just remember the airports and flight itself as being empty.

 

[Steelsearchin]

No republicans, no democrats. No this or that, just neighbors being nice to each other.

I love that place.

Small world.

"Suttons Bay sure ain't what it used to be..." was a phrase I heard all the time growing up. When Dad graduated, I think there were 27 fellow Norsemen in his class. Now when we go up, usually for a funeral, I echo the same feelings my old man had 30-40 years ago. That old barbershop (different location, same feel) was a big piece of the Americana burned into my childhood. The stories Smitty (RIP) and Uncle Andy (RIP) would yarn were as legendary as if John Wayne himself walked under Jon's barber pole. Those two raised a lot of hell together in their day. Glad the charisma and charm are still hanging on.

My 9/11 watershed moment involved skipping senior design at MSU with a buddy and driving up to the Pere Marquette to chase kings in the bug water. A guy in a Hyde parked his rig on some fish we were working just down from the Smith Hole. I was starting to get upset as he spooked the fish in the pocket while trying to convey what happened. We thought he was nuts. Later the radio said otherwise. The feeling on campus was very different when we returned that night. Fast forward a few years and that buddy spent nearly a year directing guys clearing IEDs off the sandbox roads and following the rules of engagement.

 

[kansasdad]

Central time zone morning shows are tape delayed most days, and for the first part of the morning that was the case on 9/11. I was just heading out the door when the Today Show (Katie Couric?) broke in and went live with the video showing fire in the first tower.

Knowing that all air travel was cancelled, it was odd to hear military aircraft on a high frequency tempo leaving/returning to McConnell AFB. And it was super strange to not see any contrails overhead for the next three days.

Lots of aircraft were diverted to our airport, such that IIRC all hotels spaces were taken, and a call went out for volunteers to accept stranded passengers.

My sister and her husband had just spent a work related trip to Italy in early September, where she had met Todd and Lisa Beemer. He is the guy in flight 93 that rallied the passengers to attempt the retaking if the plane, which resulted in the Shanksburg crash. That really tore them up.