Seven years later
Nearly everyone remembers what they were doing on Sept. 11, 2001. My experience had a somewhat outdoor element to it.
I flew into Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., late on the evening of Sept. 10 and rented a car to drive to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s beautiful training center in Sheperdstown, W.V. the next morning to give a speech to that agency’s public affairs specialists from around the U.S.
Listening to the radio while making the drive, I heard a sketchy report about a plane hitting one of the World Trade Center towers in New York. As I checked into a room at the compound, a second plane hit and I noticed federal security personnel getting increasingly nervous. I didn’t know it at the time, but the training center was a “safe” area in case of a national emergency for the Secret Service and the Department of Interior.
By the time I got to my room, the Pentagon -- not all that far away -- had been hit and the other hijacked plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. The full scope of what had happened was starting to sink in.
I had an early lunch and watched a big screen television in the sprawling complex. The group of close to a hundred people was called into the main auditorium early in the afternoon and told that we would have to leave in a couple of hours because our rooms would be needed. Since no planes were flying out, most hotel rooms in the area were already packed. There was lots of discussion about what we were going to do and where we would stay.
Organizers asked me to give my speech on how the public affairs officers could best deal with the media. As a thank you for coming, I received a small desk clock with the date of the conference on it that still sits on my desk. It was one of the most difficult speeches I ever had to give and I’m sure no one there remembers a word of it.
One of my sons worked for Starwood Hotels and got me one of the last rooms at a Sheraton in Tysons Corner, Va., where I stayed until the planes started to fly again on Friday. It was a weird travel experience. I went to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12 and the place was almost abandoned. I could park anywhere on the mall.
For some reason, I went to the National Art Gallery to see some Jackson Pollock modern art, the only time the drip paintings ever made some sense to me.
The next day, I got an assignment to try to interview Utah’s Congressional staff. All but Orrin Hatch agreed to meet with me and I had some interesting conversations, the most cordial being with Chris Cannon. I remember Jim Hansen coming out of a meeting in the basement of the Capitol, pulling a little Swiss Army knife out of sport coat pocket and realizing that he wouldn’t be allowed to take it on a plane with him.
As I left, there was a bomb scare and most of Capitol Hill was evacacuated. I got stuck for about two hours in a huge traffic jam on Pennsylvania Ave. near the White House and simply listened to what was happening, realizing life would never be the same again.
-- Tom
I flew into Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., late on the evening of Sept. 10 and rented a car to drive to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s beautiful training center in Sheperdstown, W.V. the next morning to give a speech to that agency’s public affairs specialists from around the U.S.
Listening to the radio while making the drive, I heard a sketchy report about a plane hitting one of the World Trade Center towers in New York. As I checked into a room at the compound, a second plane hit and I noticed federal security personnel getting increasingly nervous. I didn’t know it at the time, but the training center was a “safe” area in case of a national emergency for the Secret Service and the Department of Interior.
By the time I got to my room, the Pentagon -- not all that far away -- had been hit and the other hijacked plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. The full scope of what had happened was starting to sink in.
I had an early lunch and watched a big screen television in the sprawling complex. The group of close to a hundred people was called into the main auditorium early in the afternoon and told that we would have to leave in a couple of hours because our rooms would be needed. Since no planes were flying out, most hotel rooms in the area were already packed. There was lots of discussion about what we were going to do and where we would stay.
Organizers asked me to give my speech on how the public affairs officers could best deal with the media. As a thank you for coming, I received a small desk clock with the date of the conference on it that still sits on my desk. It was one of the most difficult speeches I ever had to give and I’m sure no one there remembers a word of it.
One of my sons worked for Starwood Hotels and got me one of the last rooms at a Sheraton in Tysons Corner, Va., where I stayed until the planes started to fly again on Friday. It was a weird travel experience. I went to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12 and the place was almost abandoned. I could park anywhere on the mall.
For some reason, I went to the National Art Gallery to see some Jackson Pollock modern art, the only time the drip paintings ever made some sense to me.
The next day, I got an assignment to try to interview Utah’s Congressional staff. All but Orrin Hatch agreed to meet with me and I had some interesting conversations, the most cordial being with Chris Cannon. I remember Jim Hansen coming out of a meeting in the basement of the Capitol, pulling a little Swiss Army knife out of sport coat pocket and realizing that he wouldn’t be allowed to take it on a plane with him.
As I left, there was a bomb scare and most of Capitol Hill was evacacuated. I got stuck for about two hours in a huge traffic jam on Pennsylvania Ave. near the White House and simply listened to what was happening, realizing life would never be the same again.
-- Tom
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 9:43 AM |
1 Comments:
Thanks Tom for your blog entry about Sept 11, 2001. Just read it today, but your narrative was very interesting.
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