Remembering 9/11 - 25 years later

It was like any other morning. Renee and I were both working at Gordon-Conwell Seminary and we were getting ready for another day. Coffee was brewing and we decided to take two cars to work because I wanted to stay later for two classes and the 50 students who would be on campus that evening. GCTS-Charlotte was pretty new, and we were still meeting in an office park near I-77 and Arrowood road while we waited for our permanent campus location to be finished.

Renee left at 8:25 and hoped that the traffic would be light for our 15-mile commute. I finished a light breakfast, turned off Good Morning America, and packed my briefcase. I had a 10:00 appointment with a Doctor of Ministry student, a US Army chaplain assigned to Ft. Bragg. He was in town for a week to make progress on his dissertation and I was meeting with him to discuss his topic and suggest books and journals that he could use for research.

Renee called to remind me to turn off the coffee pot and feed our cat Marbre, and indicated that the traffic was indeed lighter than normal. That was good news. The ride would be easy this morning; I would have time to gather some books for the Chaplain before our appointment. .

That was no small plane!

Then the phone rang again. Renee was listening to WBT radio for traffic reports, and she heard that a plane had just crashed into Tower One at the World Trade Center. I told her that I would turn the TV back on and let her know what happened when I got to work. It seemed rather strange that a plane would crash into a huge building and my first thought was mechanical trouble. I flipped the news to CBS and listened as Bryant Gumbel described the scene, and he seemed as confused as all of us. The size of the gaping hole in Tower One hinted of something more sinister. No small plane could cause that much damage.

Then I saw it. Another plane out of nowhere crashed into Tower Two. A massive explosion and fire. Debris pouring out; this was no accident. Everyone watching in New York City; everyone watching on television now knew the reality. The United States was under attack, and we all wondered, “Who is this?”

I called Renee again to ask if she was OK. Then I got into the car and left. Given what was happening, we had decisions about classes to make. I didn’t want to be late for my appointment with the Chaplain. As I drove up Independence Blvd., Al Gardner, the morning news guy at WBT radio reported that air fights across the country were now grounded, and that all passenger jets were landing at the nearest airport. My commute took me by Charlotte-Douglas airport and when I looked up, I witnessed a surreal scene—plane after plane, more than I remember ever seeing at one time, lined up in the sky waiting to land. To top it off, people on I-77 drove eratically and I wondered if like me they were trying to grasp what was happening.

Not the first attack.

At about the same time we heard about the air traffic, another bulletin: The Pentagon had suffered an airplane crash and was burning out of control. I got to work just in time to see the first tower fall. Renee got there about 20 minutes earlier and when she told folks on staff what had happened, some did not believe her. But it was real and it was happening before our eyes. It seemed so outlandish, and I’m sure that unless you were watching the events unfold on TV, you would have a hard time with it too. It was hard to imagine something like this, despite the reality that the Trade Center was attacked in 1993 and nearly fell then.

I pulled out the small black and white TV I had in my office as I started the meeting with the Chaplain. Neither of us felt like we are talking about his dissertation. I had some books that I pulled and checked out for him. Then the second tower fell and we sat there speechless. Our silence was broken by his cell phone ringing. It was the commander of his unit at Ft. Bragg telling him to get back there immediately. Leaves were cancelled and everyone was being called back. After all, we were now at war.

The Chaplain and I said our goodbyes and I prayed for his safe return and for his soldiers who would bear the brunt of decisions now being made. Who was this enemy? How do we deal with them? All we had heard was that it could be the work of a shadowy group called Al Queda, but even that was uncertain. What would a war look like against a group like this?

One more crash.

Then word arrived about the fourth hijacked plane crashing in Shanksville, PA while on the way to the US Capitol building. The passengers on United Flight 31 decided they were not going down without a fight, and they tried to take the plane back, Sadly, they did not succeed and the plane crashed in an isolated field. But they did stop it from reaching its destination; they died to preserve our country and our democracy.

Reports came in that Davidson College, UNC Charlotte, and other colleges and universities in metro Charlotte were closing, so we decided to cancel classes for that evening and close GCTS Charlotte at lunchtime. Renee and I followed each other home, and when we got home, we turned on the TV to watch the ongoing reports. We were worshipping at Forest Hill Church at that time, and word passed among the congregation that we would have special prayer at 7:00 that evening. Once we got that call, we decided we would go to be with the people of God at the end of such a tragic day.

Just after 5:00 pm, the 50 story WTC tower seven collapsed and pancaked just like towers one and two that morning. Three skyscrapers collapsed. Fortunately, the New York port authority had time to evacuate that building. At that time, there was no casualty toll except for the number of people on the four hijacked planes. But we knew that thousands had died in the Twin Towers. Renee and I got home from church that evening, and it seemed like a dream.

I write this 25 years later as an act of remembrance. Everyone alive on that tragic day will remember not only what happened, but where they were and what they did. The weeks after were horrible. As most of us went about our daily lives, rescuers first searched for bodies, and then started to remove the wreckage of those three massive buildings and everything caught in their wake. It took months for the fire to go out within that pile. Then came the funerals. Not only for the civilians killed, but for the hundreds of police and firemen killed when the towers collapsed while they were in them trying to rescue people. We heard about the heroism. We heard the stories of people who by some set of circumstances made it out of the buildings or who were supposed to be there but left their house late, missed their subway train, or had a meeting off site that morning.

Now years later, we still read of those there who contracted cancer, experiened breathing problems and heart conditions, and who experienced profound emotional grief. September 11, 2001 remains with us, especially all those who suffered from the events of that day. Most of us alive at that time were witnesses—witnesses to a day that changed the United States forever. Now, 25 years on, we look back at what that day wrought. I see links from that day to our divided and fragmented time. I wonder if the country will ever come to terms with that day. I wonder if we will ever recover the freedom and democracy we lost that day.

There are plethora of books written about the events of 9/11. One of the best is by Garrett Graf titled The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 (Simon and Schuster, 2020). Garrett is an outstander researcher and writer and his book Watergate: A History is the go-to book about the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.—Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have offered us 102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive inside the Twin Towers  (Times Books, 2d.ed. 2011). I read the first edition when it came out a couple of years after 9/11 and found it moving because it told the story from the experiences of people in and around the Twin Towers on that day.—I just watched Generation 9/11 a 2020 PBS documentary on Netflix a couple of nights ago. It’s not so much the story of that day, but an analysis of how those events have affected us, our country, and our world. The film gives quite a bit of attention to the 20-year Afghan war and offers a lot of food for thought.