9-11 – Never Forget

Seventeen years ago today a tragic and horrific event took place in our country, an event that we will never forget.

September 11, 2001 is a day that is forever etched in my mind. If you were alive on this date, there's no doubt that you know exactly where you were and exactly what you were doing when you learned about the hijacked airliners being intentionally crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3000 people were killed in this coordinated terrorist attack on our homeland, values and beliefs. Among those killed were the courageous souls on the doomed flights, those in the Pentagon and the World Trade Centers in New York.

On this day I always place myself in the studios of Star 105.9 in Portland, Oregon where I was running the control board for the Jamie and Danny Morning Show. Our local news director Marie Dodd and I had to break the news to the Portland metro and from that point on we left he coverage to our news/talk station.

Today, 17 years later, a co-worker here at the station, Kenny Smith, set up a very touching memorial for remembrance which included his reflection on the tragic day:

My phone rang in the studio and like always, I began to record and after, “Good Morning K-MOO” I heard the familiar voice of longtime friend and listener Gary Cobb of Quitman say in a frantic panic, “I think a plane just hit the World Trade Center, man do you know anything about that?’ I reached for the remote and immediately went to CNN and in an instant the adrenaline flow began to dry my throat. The next few minutes rolled by with confusion setting in for the on air personalities at the time when they were informed an eye witness “SAW” a passenger plane “fly into” the building.

 

There were thousands of radio and television personnel that were “on the air” at the exact moments those listening needed information and more importantly……….answers. WE WERE NOT PREPARED FOR NOR TRAINED to handle such an event much less be able to control our own fear and confusion in order to HELP those on the other end of our microphones. Just sitting and watching wasn’t  enough, I had to figure out a way to address those that COULD NOT get to the TV. After sitting up a mic next to the speaker on the TV, it was a simple decision to just let the people that had MORE INFO than me, to just tell my audience what was happening. Then………as the camera’s rolled, United 175 flew into the second tower. It was IMPOSSIBLE not to feel the air go out of the lungs of America at the moment the debris began to fall and the fire ball began to rise.

 

We ALL have a shocking and horrified response when this day comes along every year and the memory will forever be one of sadness, fear, unparalleled anger, and heartbreak, for the hundreds that died as a result of the act as well as the hundreds that naturally felt compelled to brush danger aside and “do the job”. Edmund Burke wrote, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

 

Thanks for the time today my friends, change a life today and never forget, “not everyone gets to go home at the end of the day."

 

So on this important and historic day in our nation's history, I hope you take time out to think and reflect on the events that took place on this day and how it has affected us today.

May God Bless America, those who serve our great nation and all of its citizens.