A Reflection on September 11th

For my EDSE447 students, this particular post is not linked to any required or requested reflection for class.


September 11 -- my now husband's birthday.  He was 100 miles away working.  I had class and work in the office to do.  I needed to be in the office by 9:00 a.m.

Sitting in front of the television, eating a bowl of cereal, I watched the Today Show.  It had become my morning ritual before heading out on my 15-minute walk to campus for class and my job in the Texas Alliance for Geographic Education (TAGE).

And then, the first plane struck the World Trade Center.  My first thought was that the pilot must've had a heart attack or that the plane had some equipment malfunction.

While I watched, the second plane hit.  It became clear this wasn't an accident.

When I arrived in the Department of Geography, Dr. Estaville had a television set up just outside the department's main office.  Undergrads, Master's and Ph.D. students, faculty, and staff were all stopped in the hallway glued to the screen.  Rumors were flying.  The White House was struck.  The Pentagon.

Then, it all be can to settle in.  The Pentagon had been struck.  A fourth plane downed by heroic passengers who gave their lives to save how many hundreds more.

The Pentagon!  OMG!  A friend I'd taught with and babysat for who's husband was an officer in the Air Force was stationed at the Pentagon now.  Where was Todd?  How was Todd?  How was Sheri?  Did she know anything?  I dared not call because family would be frantic.  I was just a friend a 1000+ miles away.

Then, it just got worse.  Three teachers, three sixth grade students, and two National Geographic staffers were on their way to the Channel Islands from Washington, D.C., for a National Geographic/National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency research project.  They were on the Pentagon plane.  Joe Ferguson (of Durant, MS, and bastion of the Education Outreach division) and Ann Judge (who made travel miracles happen for National Geographic writers and photographers all over the globe - including me just two months earlier).  People I knew well enough to call friends and colleagues were on the plane where hijackers told them to call home, they were going to die.

Word came that another member of the geographic community was on one of the other planes that day.  I fail to remember his name.  All was blocked by fear for my friend Sheri and her two children and deep sadness and pain for my friends Joe and Ann and the teachers and students with whom they were sharing their passion for geography.

Sheri's husband Todd should have been in E-wing of the Pentagon, but was off-site that day.  She learned of his safety when he walked in the door at 9:00 p.m. that evening.

My brother, then stationed in Norfolk on the USS Archerfish, was actually in Texas making visits to medical schools.  The Archerfish was set to be underway in just a few weeks, and he was hoping to schedule interviews for admission before he left for sea.  On Friday, just before September 11, 2001.  He stopped at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.  The admissions officer, a retired Navy physician himself, told him to show up the next Friday, in uniform.  They would interview him.  My brother phoned his wife still in Norfolk, and she FedEx'd the requested uniform to my parents' home.

Then on September 11, 2001... The Archerfish was put out to sea, and underway early.  All leave was suspended, but there were no flights anywhere.  My brother was told to sit tight in Texas until further orders.

Friday, post 9/11, my brother walked into an interview for medical school, in Navy dress whites.  I don't know if it made an impact on the admissions committee.  It's significance was not lost on my family.  Several months later, we learned he had been admitted to UTHSC-H as a medical student.  You never saw a more proud family when we attended his "White Coat" ceremony the next fall.

Today is my husband's birthday.  We celebrate and try to take time away from the somberness of the date - which also marks the beginning of the Communist Revolution in China.  And, I take a few moments to remember Joe, Ann, and the teachers and students with them.  The excitement as they set out on a new adventure.