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No I I remember the events from 9/11 in sequence
as as sort of they happened.
It was a day that started like any other day and I came
to work, dropped my son off at the Lewis Little Folks
which is the lab daycare center here at NASA and it was
about 8:45 at that time.
And we, so we had our exchange, I stayed with him
for a few minutes and then I actually had a flight
out that morning to travel to NASA Langley.
So I went from the daycare at 8:45 to the travel office.
And at the time we had to pick up our travel orders,
you know sign for tickets to to the aircraft for our flight.
And so when I was in the travel office, someone walked in
and turned on the news and they were showing the first airplane
crash into the first tower, and it was horrific.
You know the the accident itself was horrific, and for for folks
that work NASA Aeronautics and the FAA this is,
the odds of this are astronomical
so this is just something that doesn't happen.
So again we began to speculate at that time,
well what was the cause, how can we prevent this
and all the tragedy of it?
And this was a few minutes before nine,
and so then I left the travel office with my tickets
and went back to the office, and went to the office for the day
to pick up my traveling companion
and some things from the office.
And I walked in and everyone was sitting
in the conference room watching a little TV screen silently
and I stuck my head and just asked 'em did you hear
about the plane crash?
And it was then that they told me a second plane had crashed
into the second tower
and I remember my my blood just ran cold because there was,
there was no question at that point
that it had to be deliberate.
I mean the odds of one crash were astronomical,
the odds of this were unthinkable.
So then I walked into the conference room, sat down and,
with everyone else silently watched as trickles of news came
in over the next 20 minutes or so.
Then I I left to, went back to my office to call Langley
to let 'em know obviously we weren't coming,
made a couple calls.
No one picked up on that end because they were all
in their conference rooms watching the news.
Called home, let my wife know that I wasn't gonna be
on a plane that morning, told her to turn on the news
and watch the events and then went back to,
to my own conference room and watched
as as the Pentagon was destroyed,
and more news trickled in.
And as we watched the news came in of a, of an aircraft
that made an unscheduled turn over Cleveland
and then news came in of an aircraft parked
on the tarmac here at Hopkins by the NASA fence you know due
to suspicious activity.
And all this news was trickling in and we were all speculating
as to why-- we knew, we knew what was happening
but we couldn't understand why or who.
And then people began to ask me, what should we do?
So we started to make calls
to the ad building what should we do?
And at the time there were no thoughts of evacuation plans.
I mean all this was unthinkable what was unfolding in front
of us, so at at some point during the course
of the morning, maybe
around 11:00 I said all right I'll take responsibility
and dismissed our staff and said if, if you need to go home,
if you feel you need to leave then, then go ahead and leave.
And then at that point the lab was beginning its evacuation.
People were leaving and there was a long line
of traffic to get out.
And my first thought was h- how do I get
to my son at that point?
So I I joined the evacuation stuck in traffic
and finally pulled off onto the grass and walked the mile
to the Lewis Little Folks daycare center
to pick up my son.
And frantic parents were there and,
and I s- I asked my son last night,
do you remember any of this?
And he said I remember, I remember riding
on your shoulders and walking for a long time.
And and we did.
It was about a, it was a mile back and and someone,
some parent in kindness, they picked us up on the way and
and gave us a ride back to the, to our car.
And the whole event, while it was surreal as it was happening,
there was sort of a a bonding even at that time and much more
since I think, that that sort
of galvanized the resolve of Americans.
I I certainly felt that all that was fought for
and hard-earned freedoms,
that this is not something we can take for granted.
And on a daily basis I'm I'm reminded of that
but particularly when I walk
through the events of the, of that day.
Where were, you said you were a mile away.
Where were you parked?
I mean you, i- on the other side of the center from here?
Yeah the Lewis Little Folks was the old building at the time.
Oh that's right, yeah 'cause I'm, I'm a newbie, so.
That's right.
Where where was it .
. . It it it's about the location of where it is now.
Um hum. There at the there at the very back gate.
So it was in the back gate.
And I worked here at the main lab.
. . Um hum.
-- over in building 60.
In 60, okay.
So, yeah. So you had to walk, you couldn't drive over here
because of the traffic?
The traffic.
-- of people leaving.
All exits were just a, a big long line of cars evacuating.
I think at some point there was an official closure
of the center.
Um hum. And they they told everyone to to evacuate.
Yeah. Everyone leaving at the same time creates a huge.
. .
Don Campbell was the center director back then wasn't he?
He was. Yeah it was Don.
Yeah because I mean he was appointed
by Goldin and you know, wow.
Well there was no precedent for this either.
The federal building downtown, there's act-.
. . -- what it meant to you.
So on September 11th, I was actually sitting
in my high school chemistry class.
The administration comes on the PA system telling us
that planes have attacked the World Trade Center,
and school essentially pretty much stopped at that point
and a lot of us were kind of questioning what's going on,
you know, how come school's stopping.
We didn't understand what was going on.
And then once more information started coming in that
that plane hit the Pentagon, then we knew
that there's something very serious.
And it was a big lesson throughout the day trying,
learning you know what this meant to us,
what this meant to the country.
And I knew that our country would never be the same again
and it caused a lot of uncertainty and curiosity.
Throughout the rest
of the school day we pretty much every TV had CNN on
and everybody was glued to the TV and especially
for us students, we were learning a lot, never thought
that something could happen to us on on American soil.
So you know what it meant to me,
it just actually gave me a greater appreciation
for you know, definitely you saw what the community
and what the nation can do together when we're under attack
and gave me a different perspective for, you know,
being proud of this country
and that's pretty much all I have to say.
All right.
Cut that pretty short.
No that's great.
I have--
Well, when 9/11 happened I was stationed
at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
I was actually sitting in the DFAC,
the dining facility eating breakfast with my squad,
and we had this big screen TV in there so we're just eating like,
oh what kind of movie is this?
It was really lighthearted.
And then we realized once the news broadcaster talked
about it, we were getting attacked.
Everyone just stopped eating.
We just looked and it just was unbelievable.
So we're here, I'm a fresh soldier.
I've only been in for a year.
I was in the Army so I just knew, we just said,
my my buddy Baker, he said we're goin' to war.
Nobody said anything.
The dining facility was just quiet.
We're just watchin', so at that moment I, you know I felt
that we were goin' to war.
And when I signed up on the surface level it was
for college money, but what it meant to be
at that moment it just meant that the oath that I took,
it was a serious oath and I had to live up to it.
I had to defend my country if we had to.
So that whole day we just, we didn't work, we just listened
to the radio, and come to find out some troops
and squads did go overseas-- it was Afghanistan at the time.
You know I didn't go to Afghanistan
but two years later I was in Iraq
but this all was a result of the 9/11 attack.
It really changed my life.
I have a better appreciation for just the simple things
and just being able to speak today
and you know tell the story of where I was when it happened.
It was very significant
and unforgettable and it's really sad.
Do I stop?
Yeah oh any any time you want.
Now what did, what did it mean to you, the experience?
I mean you sort of touched on that but.
. . Yeah. -- you know maybe you can elaborate a l-
well I guess you really sort of took care of that.
Do you want to hear more?
No no, that's okay, only if you want to, yeah.
Well, it it just meant that I really had to step
up in a way differently than if I was a civilian.
I had to go and really take everything that I learned
in basic training, everything that we trained for and,
you know, just really had to put it into action,
you know, at that point.
So I was livin' up and just bein' ready to,
when I got the call to just go and serve my country
and make sure I made it back home safely
for my, to my family members.
9/11 it just, from that day on it just led us up to today.
We're still in Iraq.
We're still in Afghanistan.
We're still all over the world.
And we just have a, a stronger bond military service,
men and women and veterans you know ve- veterans of past wars.
It's just a stronger, tighter bond
because if you've never experienced
that you wouldn't know what it's like.
So just to be able to be home and be safe and live in America.
You, when you're exposed to a different culture
that you know their government is really just not like,
it's not a democracy.
It's just not, because of culture and religion
and the disparities between the U.S. and those other cultures
in the southwest Asia, is it's you just appreciate it more
when you're exposed to that.
So to me, the effects of 9/11, I was exposed to that culture,
so I know what it's like.
I've seen it and I appreciate my country that much more.
And when I went over, I wanted
to protect my country that much more.
So it it, you know inside it just changed my outlook on life.
I have a global perspective of what it's
like to just be exposed to different cultures
that don't believe what we believe.
So I guess to me it just really opened up my mind
to what other cultures see and do and how they live
and how they function and what they can and can't do,
and you know some things they'll die
for that we just take for granted here.
So I just have a, an appreciation just
for bein' an American citizen, you know as a result of 9/11
and my experience with the military
and you know just seein' everything
and you know just the exposure so, I'm not really sure
where to stop George [inaudible] keep talkin'.
That that-- And away we go.
All right.
All right so on 9/11 I was out in Seattle for a Society
of Automotive Engineers AC9C standards committee meeting.
And I found out what had happened--
at 5:30 in the morning I went into the gym and saw the,
one of the towers had been down and then saw the second one.
To this day I'm still surprised we actually continued
on with the meeting that day and the next.
At the end I I think though that was probably a good thing to do
because it gave gave us some focus, something to do
in the time and we weren't able to come home for several days.
And I think you know what it meant to me at the time,
there was a lot of concern about what had happened
in our country, when we'd get home, even my oldest daughter
at the time had a lot of concern about me flying
in an airplane to come home.
And now I look back and I think,
I remember how much it brought our country together
and that's what I really remember about 9/11.
Okay. On September 11th, 2001 I was in the military stationed
at Fort Stewart, Georgia when I heard the news
of two planes crashing into the Twin Towers.
Actually my first sergeant was on the phone with someone
in the Pentagon and the guy hung up on him stating
that a plane flew into the pel- Pentagon
and of course my first sergeant thought the guy was just lying
in ways to get off the phone with him.
With that being said, Fort Stewart was put on lockdown.
It took about an hour and a half just to get on post,
so what I was doing, I was at that time working as a sergeant
in the United States Army and what did it mean to me?
As a soldier at that time it meant, it it it put a kind
of a a fierce feeling into my heart
because with us being soldiers, we were always on call.
And it was, it was kind of terrifying considering it was
on our U.S. territory, our soil.
So it was kinda too close to home,
but being in the armed force it meant that we had to step
up our game and be more on duty as far
as protecting the United States.
I was across the street from the Pentagon when the plane went in.
Jet fuel immediately filled the meeting room at our hotel.
What what mattered most to me is that I saw pep- the best
of people in the face of the tragedy.
The hotel staff actually went home, baked cookies for all
of us that were stuck in the hotel.
But for me personally, the bravest person in my life
through that whole time was my wife who drove
down from Cleveland to Baltimore alone to pick me up.
Baltimore was as far away from Washington
as I could get on September 11th.
I was on my way to work when the first tower was hit,
listening to it on the radio.
Came to work.
I was able to sit in Larry [inaudible] office watching the
second tower get hit and both towers collapse.
I instantly started praying, realizing that I had friends
and family that work very close to that area and some actually
in the World Trade Center buildings themselves.
I was hoping and praying that they were fine,
and in fact they were.
And what it meant to me is the fact that we are no longer
as safe as we once thought in this country
and that evil can come to our doorsteps and we have
to be scared and vigilant and diligent.