I remember heading to the boss man's house like I had every morning before. I walked into his garage to shoot the ****, but I knew immediately something was wrong. He was sitting there staring at the tv with the most intense look of confusion I had ever seen on a person's face before. He was 75 years old, and had served in the Navy and worked for FAA for the large majority of his life. He sat quietly, tears rolling down his face, just trying to make sense of what he was watching. I sat and watched too, and not a word was spoken.
We sat in silence as the second plane hit, and as we watched everything unfold. For nearly 3 hours, we sat in awe, anger, sadness and total confusion. We sat in total silence, not a single syllable being uttered.
When the plane hit the Pentagon, it got even more real for me, as my father in law was an Officer currently stationed there doing his work for the Marine Corps. My heart sank, I felt sick to my stomach, and I immediately called my wife to get in touch with him by any means possible to make sure he was ok. I was flipping out and hysterical, and she was oblivious. See, me calling her and freaking out that her father may have been dead was the first she had heard of the attack.
Our daughter was just 7 months old at the time. Our first child, and a complete handful. She was getting to that age where she would crawl, climb and scoot all over the house, so you had to keep a very close eye on her. At the time of the attacks, she was watching cartoons, and my wife was completely oblivious to what the world had come to.
In a frenzy, we tried for nearly two days to get word on his safety. When we finally got word he was ok, it was a huge relief. After driving up to spend time with him, it was immediately apparent that he was not ok. He was shut off from the world at what he had been a part of. His regular office was part of the remodel that was destroyed in the impact. Had it not been closed off just days prior, the plane would have come through almost exactly where he sat every day for nine years. The emotion of knowing he was so close to death was enough to shake him, but it was his actions after the impact that kill him to this day.
After the impact, he was thrown to the floor from the explosion. His temporary office was less than 100 feet from the initial impact. He was shaken up, battered and bruised, and confused. He heard people screaming all around him, but he also felt the heat from the flames. He had to make a split second decision to likely die trying to save others, or save himself for the sake of his family. He chose to get out, and it's a decision that breaks him down constantly to this day. He will never be able to live with his decision, and he is a shadow of his former self. We spend nearly every other weekend with him, and even ten years later he is not the same man.
Time does not always heal. September 11, 2001 is a pain we will never forget. Some things hurt too much, and some pain lasts a lifetime.