I had landed at the Memphis, TN airport just about an hour previous and was walking through the lobby door of a company for a meeting with their engineeringdepartment. People were scurryingto the conference room and their television was on. Announcers were talking about a tragic air collision at one of the world trade towers in Manhattan. Within minutes the screen showed the second plane hitting the second tower.
The room gasped as if in unison, and then went eerily silent so that everyone could hear the announcements. Then came the announcement of the plane hitting the pentagon, and shortly after that the plane crash in the Pennsylvania field.
It took minutes for their head engineer to locate us and tell us that we were not meeting that day. We left and found a hotel to stay at for the night, as it was obvious no planes were moving. I didn't get back to Connecticut until the following Sunday. It took a series of rides by field salesman to get me back to Charlotte. There I was able to rent a car that need to be driven back to Newark. Six days after the attack, as I drove up the New Jersey turnpike towards the car drop, the smoke hung like an acrid cloud over Manhattan, where the twin towers once stood. The NY skyline was in mourning with it's once proud focal point alongside the river no longer there.
Air travel was no longer the same for me after that. I did not know anybody personally that last their lives in that tragedy, however there were friends of friends that did.
Our way of life changed, our priorities needed to be adjusted, and our sense of pride was never greater than right after that tragic day.
Gone but not forgotten
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