With the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it was a time worth reflecting on. Not only being thoughtful about the memories and sacrifice of those who perished on that day but also reflecting on my experience. I had worked remotely at that time and it required the remote employees to travel to Seattle once per month for a week at a time. I happened to be up there during that week.
I remember waking up to the hotel clock radio and hearing the voices on the radio talk about how the World Trade Center was having some issues. I quickly presumed this was an anniversary of the garage bombing that had happened almost a decade prior. I went about getting ready for work and turned on the television for some background noise. That is when I learned what was happening. It was all very unreal and shocking, especially when that second airplane went into the second tower. Things changed. The intent changed.
None of us were sure what to do, so we headed into the office up the street. Being early, only our project manager was there. He was an older gentleman by the name of Dan and was reading the paper at his desk. We told him what was going on and he laughed and said, “Sure fellas”. We suggested he pull up a news site, but when he did, none of them were working. The news sites in the earlier days of the internet were quickly overwhelmed with everyone trying to figure out what was going on. We pulled him into one of the conference rooms that had cable television and we were all transfixed. He suggested we would all be best to call it a day at the office.
The three remote coworkers I was with went back to our hotel and joined in a room watching it all unfold. We watched as the Pentagon was hit. We watched as the first tower fell. We watched as Flight 93 wrecked in Pennsylvania. We watched as the second tower fell. We watched until we were emotionally exhausted, without words, and without hope. This was all while trying to console my wife with a five month old who’s father was an Airline pilot and could not be reached for several hours. He was stuck grounded and had to wait to re-gate and sort out a federal US Airway grounding.
We decided it would be best to get out. We went to a bar on the waterfront and sat on the deck. I was not a drinking man at that time, but I had zero judgment for those who did and my coworkers drank. We watched out in the crystal blue cloudless sky with no airplanes, but a squadron of F-15s who patrolled the Seattle waterfront. It was extremely sobering.
The rest of the week was attempting to figure out how or if we could get home. My coworkers lived in Atlanta, so waiting for a flight to happen was the more likely scenario. I had a rental car and decided it would be more expedient and more calming to drive back home to Las Vegas. I called the rental car company and asked if I could keep it and drive to my destination. They replied, “Do whatever you need to do.” Driving home was therapeutic and took two days. I still have my unused return ticket to this day.