Erin Huffer
Section: 1
September 11, 2001
September 11, 2001 is a day that will always be remembered in American history as a day of terror, suffering, and confusion. It was an event that made the front page in every newspaper around the world. Many people sat in their homes, in their living rooms and watched the terrifying incidents happen on their TV screens feeling helpless and unsafe. No one knew what to expect and how to stop it.
In the early morning of September 11, 2001, two commercial airliners crashed into New York City’s World Trade Centers instantly setting the tops of the buildings on fire. Who can imagine the terror that was going through the minds of passengers who were in the planes and the people that were trapped inside the burning Towers. The Towers had about 50,000 people working there each day. Within ninety minutes of being struck, both Twin Towers collapsed killing more that 2,600 people. Of this total, some of the people killed were firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical officers who were just trying to do their jobs in saving innocent peoples’ lives.
Shortly after the tragedy at the Twin Towers, a third commercial plane smashed into the western side of the Pentagon in Washington D.C. The plane smashed into the E, D, and C rings of the Pentagon in between corridors 4 an 5. Even though a large part of the building had burst into flames, a highly toxic gas had been released from the impact, and an unbelievable amount of smoke was released. Some people on the other side of the Pentagon didn’t even know that a plane had crashed into their building! About 2,600 people were working in the Pentagon that day, but only 125 people died. Due to the unique design of the building, military and other civilians were able to save a lot of lives by telling the remaining people to find the nearest, safest exit and get out as quickly as possible.
The fourth and final plane was aimed at the United States Capitol or the White House. Instead, the plane crashed into a field in southern Pennsylvania due to the heroic passengers on board. Several passengers managed to gain control of the plane and crash it in a nearby field. There were no survivors but these brave passengers saved America and many lives that day by taking their own.
The people responsible for all this tragedy were 19 young Arabs who were Islamist extremists from Afghanistan. Some of these young Arabs had been living and training as pilots here in the United States for more than a year. Even though most of them barely spoke any English and were only carrying small knives, box cutters, pepper spray, and Mace, they managed to create massive destruction on the United States. Usama Bin Ladin was the leader of the Islamic extremists and believed that it was Islam’s duty to kill any American anywhere in the world because of the Americans’ involvement against Muslims.
Two people that I have interviewed gave me much more insight into the tragedy that took place on September 11, 2001. The first person I interviewed was my Uncle Todd. My Uncle was in bed sleeping because he had the day off from work. My aunt woke him up and told him to turn on the news. He said that at about the same time his phone was ringing and it was his employer. My uncle was a policeman at Sheppard Pratt and his boss was telling him to keep himself available because he may need to report to Sheppard Pratt to help. Since no one knew what else to expect, no one knew if there were any other targets. Just in case Sheppard Pratt got attacked, he needed to be on stand-by. When he first tuned into the news which was live coverage, the people still were not sure if it was a terrorist attack. When the second airliner crashed into the second Tower, from that moment on it was very clear that these were “deliberate acts of terrorism.” My uncle knew that from that day on we were living in a changed world. This personally impacted my Uncle Todd by making him aware of the fact that there are people around the world that resent the United States, Americans, the western way of life, and as a result are prepared to inflict pain and suffering upon us if and when they get the chance. It has increased his “situational awareness” and it made him realize that we live in a society that is not as safe as we all once thought.
The second person I interviewed was my Mom. Mom was driving to work and listening to a talk show on the radio when a plane hit the first Tower. The show was interrupted with an emergency news bulletin. At that time they thought it was a tragic accident. Minutes later it was reported that another plane crashed into the second Twin Tower. With this, the person on the radio just kept yelling that this definitely was a terrorist attack and that the United States was under attack. After arriving at work, my Mom heard about the Pentagon attack. She felt extremely scared and as if at that point anything could happen. My Mom felt that our country was very vulnerable and this made her so sad. She couldn’t understand why there was no one protecting our country and how these evil people were able to get away with something of this magnitude. My Mom hopes that our government today is a little wiser and that nothing like this can ever happen again.
The 9/11 attacks made a huge impact on the United States economy. Since United States commercial air lines had been hijacked, no one was quite sure which planes contained the hijackers, and which planes did not. All air crafts at that time were told to land at the nearest airport which left many people stranded for days at the airports. It was the only time in American history when you could look up into the sky and not see a commercial air line pass by overhead. The attacks on 9/11 caused a world wide spread about the safety of American air travel therefore the arrivals coming into the United States drastically dropped. Before the attacks, the oversea arrivals coming into the United States was at about 7 million people but when the terrifying news broke out around the world, the arrival count dropped to about 3.5 million people.
Another area that was greatly impacted by 9/11 was the American stock markets. All American stock markets closed and did not reopen until September 17, 2001. When the stock markets finally reopened, the United States stocks had lost about 1.2 trillion dollars for that week. It was the worst and largest closure ever since the Great Depression.
Even though I was too young to remember 9/11, this day still has impacted the way I feel. To be honest, I don’t think I would ever be able to imagine a terrorist attack happening here in the United States. You always hear about this type of thing happening in other countries, and when I watched the video of 9/11, it made me scared and unprepared. I hope our government has learned from this. I hope nothing like this ever happens again because I never would want my children or my children’s children to have to experience anything like September 11, 2001.
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