Today was highly remniscent as well. The weather has been identical, I had the same class first today that I had two years ago, the same class in which I heard the news. Today, just like 2 years ago, there was the beep of the PA system, the same aprehension, the same news, the same prayer. I also went down the same road I did last October, which is way out of the normal way of things. And last night, I stepped outside to the sound and sight of F-16s headed off...
Here is a peice I wrote a year ago today, recalling the morning of two years ago today...
Even though it was a year ago to the day, I can still remember that Tuesday very clearly. It is something I wish to forget, but it will remain with me until my death.
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning, the date was September 11th, 2001. Everything was going as usual. Towards the end of religion class, an administrator came on the public address system and had us pray, for at that time, "all families and victims affected". No one had any idea as to what had happened, though I suspected a plane had crashed at the local airport. After religion class was over and I was at my locker, I asked my friend what he knew about the situation. He had been in computer class and had been able to go to CNN.com. He told me that a 747 had crashed into the Twin Towers and another one into the Pentagon. At the time, I did not even know what the Twin Towers were or where they were, though I had a feeling New York City. At about the time I entered Spanish class, the second airplane hit the second Tower. A couple minutes later the Spanish teacher told us that one tower had collapsed, an airplane crashed in Pennsylvania, and a plane had smacked into the Pentagon. What was going on? How amny more planes will crash? After we checked homework, we turned on the television about 40 seconds after the second tower had come tumbling down into a heap of debris. Everyone was awestruck.
For the rest of the day, we did no work. All we did was watch, awestruck, as history unfolded before our eyes. I remember the social studies teacher telling us the Towers' rubble would burn for days and that it would take months to clear the rubble. A student asked her if this mean't war, and yes, she said, war was probable. In math class, we had the television on. I can clearly remember watching two F-16s from the 174th Fighter Wing(the same wing tasked to shoot down FLight 93, but it crashed shortly before they took off) lift off from Hancock Field, which is right here in Syracuse, armed with missiles to go patrol New York City. Schools closed early, some classmates with FDNY relatives or relatives that work at the Towers began crying. My uncle, who has visited the Towers many a time said he could not imagine how the towers, massive and strong, could have crumpled like tin cans.
I think in a way, remembering that fateful day so vividly helps me. It helps me to remember all the lives lost. Hopefully, I will be able to recount the story in the years to come, I don't see how I could not.
Now, as the 174th is back on Combat Air Patrol, two F-16s scream over my house each night en route to New York City. When I hear that unmistakable scream of the jets and rush outside to see them, I can't help but think of that first night they flew over for Combat Air Patrol, the night of September 11, 2001.
Amen.
