Anyone who was alive on the day of the 9/11 attacks on America has their own memories and reactions to experience when the anniversary rolls around each year. Today, this commemoration is for those who were not old enough to remember the world before Sept. 11, 2001.
Morning television shows were on schedule, rolling through their planned programming when suddenly they broke in with a Special News Report – all within a few minutes of each other. A visit to website news would show a photograph of a burning high rise in what appeared to be New York.
We turned up the volume and heard the first words spoken about the terrorist attacks that are now part of America's history.
Like the moon landing and Kennedy's assassination, we remember where we were when the World Trade Center towers were struck.
As we watched the first tower burn and news anchors speculate, a second passenger jet filled with people plowed into the side of tower two on live television. The hit was lower than the first, which struck in the top ten floors. This one altered the integrity of the building and it eventually collapsed onto the street below – on live television. Terrified by-standers were shown on video running for their lives.
We sat in front of our televisions – the shock of what happened beginning to sink in. We realized we had just witnessed the murder of thousands of people.
In Washington D.C., news stations began reporting the Pentagon had been struck by third passenger jet.
News reporters in New York began talking about missing first responders. One broadcast revealed that a fire truck was sitting under the second tower when debris came crashing down. The American public watched and hearts sank as everyone began to realize just how many people were killed.
Survivor reports began broadcasting. Jet fuel was feeding the fire. Individual stories of being trapped in stairwells and offices by an inferno began to haunt us.
Reporters talked about people who miraculously survived on a floor that was ravaged by fire. Video of people jumping from the floors high above the ground sickened us and there was controversy surrounding the release of the images.
Then the media broke in to announce they had received word that another jet crashed – but this one into an empty field in Pennsylvania. There were no survivors. The story of Flight 93 would be made into a movie years later – one of the most heroic tales shared in this lifetime.
Nothing of this scale had ever happened on American soil.
The death toll continued to rise.
More than 3,000 people died in less than two hours at the hands of 19 men.
Terrorism had hit home in a big way.
We were stunned.
And then we were furious.
Something happened inside Americans all over the country. We became closer as a nation – a unity that would forever change us. It raised the standard by which we all identified ourselves as a people.
We were united as Americans, identified and unified by those who would attack us. Flags hung in higher numbers, higher on the flagpole; and created a high in American citizens everywhere.
We wanted to fight back.
The rest is history.
There is a lot of video on YouTube about the 9/11 attacks now. There is more information than ever about specific numbers. Everyone who can handle it should visit those videos and revisit the terror that changed the world.
And remember; don't ever forget.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Commemorating 9/11