I was in the shower, getting ready for work. Scott called and told me to turn on my TV.... so I did and stood immobilized as I watched and listened as they hit the Pentagon and then as Flight 93 went down.
What a nightmare. We all knew we were being attacked and didn't know where the next strike might be. We live close to Portland and my son & family live in Seattle. His business is right there on Boeing Field........... so we thought Boeing might be a place to strike also.
I had to go to work, it was the opening day for fall quarter (I worked at a college). Faculty were there for a full week of orientation and first thing in the morning the college president makes his speech....... HE LOVES TO HEAR HIMSELF TALK! So, there we were, pinned up in the student center while he went on and on and on and everyone in the room just wanted to flee back to our offices so we could hear if anything else had happened. Every few minutes someone would escape to run check their computer and come back and the news was passed around the room..... and good old speaker that he was............just continued to go on and on for well over an hour. No-one heard, or cared to hear a single word he said that day.
My son has an air cargo, jet charter & refueling business......... it's straight across Boeing field from one of their biggest sections of the factory. I tried calling him all day, all phones were down, cell phones and land lines. I could not reach him, no matter what.
I was scared for him and not knowing what else would happen. Later, after it had sort of calmed down a bit, like two days later, he called me. He has a huge electronic screen in his business where he monitors the location of all his planes and that day, across America........ which at any given time has between 5,000 and 7,000 planes in the air, only a few military planes were up. No private planes coming in or leaving American air space. Mike said he'd never seen or even imagined anything like that day.
He had, before 911, given flight lessons also. But after that day, he closed the academy portion of his business. He said Boeing field was literally crawling with FBI men. They reviewed his flight training for every single trainee going back years. Mike just handed over his books and closed the academy that day. He said there would be no way that part of his business could survive this event........ He was right. Most of the flight training academies closed down and never reopened. The FBI, and rightly so, was so present and demands and certifications for training became impossible to conform to.
Mike has done so well with his cargo and refueling private jets business and he provides charter jets and pilot & crew for business men from all over the world, so he wasn't sorry to say goodbye to the flight training academy. But, that entire event hurt his business something terrible, but he hung on because all his employees depend on him for income & insurance benefits. So many other businesses totally went under, he survived and now is huge on Boeing field.
But, he says Boeing field is so changed by all that.......... Everything in his business is open to scrutiny. He says he doesn't mind, except when it really starts interfering with business.....
That was a nightmare for everyone. No-one will ever forget that day....... and remember, it wasn't the first time they attacked the World trade Center.
jane
_________________ Scott Matthew HIll - 2 years old
To lose a child teaches one what the word bereavement really means. There is no loss equal to the loss of a child.
“We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other."
~Luciano De Crescenzo
www.scottmatthew-hill.last-memories.com
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