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FFOD342 : That Tuesday Morning · Fist Full of Dirt

0:03
SPEAKER_12: Welcome to Fistful of Dirt, the official podcast of Mossy Oak Properties.
0:09
SPEAKER_12: Whether you own a small farm, lease land, or just love hanging in your backyard.
0:14
SPEAKER_12: We're all about the outdoor lifestyle and how to get the most from your time in God's great outdoors.
0:20
SPEAKER_12: Now here's your host, Ronnie Cub Strickland.
0:24
SPEAKER_16: Semi-Love from the Camo Cave.
0:27
SPEAKER_16: This is obviously not your host, Ronnie Cub Strickland.
0:30
SPEAKER_16: This is his daughter, his youngest daughter, Lauren.
0:33
SPEAKER_16: Most of you know me as Laurreen.
0:35
SPEAKER_16: And you may know that I also have an older sister, Amy.
0:39
SPEAKER_16: And that's actually who we're gonna talk to this week.
0:42
SPEAKER_16: Because 25 years ago, on the morning of September 11th, 2011, my sister Amy was just out of college and in Washington, D.C.
0:52
SPEAKER_16: for a work trip.
0:54
SPEAKER_26: Good morning, America.
0:55
SPEAKER_26: I'm Charles Gibson.
0:56
SPEAKER_24: I'm Diane Say, and it's Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
0:59
SPEAKER_24: Well, it's primary election day in some cities and states.
1:02
SPEAKER_24: In New York City, four Democrats and two Republicans.
1:04
SPEAKER_24: Mart Roddy Giuliani's job is mayor.
1:06
SPEAKER_24: Giuliani has served his two terms, a limit in New York.
1:10
SPEAKER_24: But I can tell you what's the news down here in Washington, and it is Michael Jordan, probably the news all over the nation.
1:15
SPEAKER_24: He's given the biggest hint so far that he may return to the NBA as a player this season.
1:21
SPEAKER_03: And I'm David Hoffmanriffer.
1:22
SPEAKER_03: It is lunchtime in London, 5 a.m.
1:25
SPEAKER_03: in Los Angeles, and 8 a.m.
1:26
SPEAKER_03: here in New York, live from the CNN Financial News headquarters, you're watching Before Hours.
1:32
SPEAKER_16: When the first plane hit the World Trade Center, she was hundreds of miles away from her family and her home.
1:39
SPEAKER_16: For this episode, as we approach the 25th anniversary of 9-11, I sat down with Amy and our dad separately and asked each of them to take me back through that day.
1:51
SPEAKER_16: What you're about to hear are their memories told from two different places, woven together with the news broadcast Americans were hearing as it happened.
2:00
SPEAKER_16: This is our family's memory of September 11th and our way of remembering everyone whose story didn't end with them getting to come home.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: Just a few moments ago, something uh believed to be a plane crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
2:18
SPEAKER_02: I just saw flames inside.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: You can see the smoke uh coming out of the uh of the tower.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: We have no idea what it was.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: It was a tremendous boom just a few moments ago.
2:29
SPEAKER_02: You can hear around me emergency vehicles heading towards the scene.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: Now, this could have been an aircraft or it could have been something internal.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh it appears to be something coming from the outside uh due to the uh nature of the opening uh on about the hundredth floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center.
2:52
SPEAKER_31: Miss Justin, you were looking at um obviously a very disturbing live shot there.
2:57
SPEAKER_31: That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
3:05
SPEAKER_31: CNN Center right now is just beginning to work on this story.
3:08
SPEAKER_31: Obviously, calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened, but clearly something relatively devastating happening this morning there.
3:21
SPEAKER_18: I think I was probably 25 or 26.
3:25
SPEAKER_18: And I was in Washington, DC working for TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority, the company that I've been with for 26 years now.
3:33
SPEAKER_16: Still there.
3:34
SPEAKER_18: Still there.
3:35
SPEAKER_18: Uh yes, absolutely.
3:38
SPEAKER_18: And I had had started a the year before I think I'd been there about 18 months, and an opportunity presented itself.
3:48
SPEAKER_18: They had had some turnover in the Washington, DC office and said, Hey, you want to go on a rotational assignment and work in the DC office some.
3:59
SPEAKER_18: I was a newlywed, didn't have kids, and that was that was still a big decision.
4:02
SPEAKER_18: Right.
4:03
SPEAKER_18: Even without kids, I was still married.
4:05
SPEAKER_18: So talked it over with Kev and decided that that might be fun.
4:09
SPEAKER_18: That might be a good thing to do, uh, probably good for my career.
4:13
SPEAKER_18: So I started early that summer or maybe late that spring.
4:17
SPEAKER_18: And um typically I would I would go up on Sunday night, sometimes Monday morning, depending on if I had other meetings in Mississippi.
4:27
SPEAKER_18: And I would always stay at this hotel called the Phoenix Park.
4:31
SPEAKER_18: You remember?
4:32
SPEAKER_18: Oh, I yeah, 'cause I stayed there so much.
4:34
SPEAKER_18: And there's a little pub on the bottom floor called the Dubliner, and they have uh Guinness beer and fish and chips.
4:40
SPEAKER_18: It's a little Irish pub.
4:41
SPEAKER_18: But anyway, it was across the street from our office.
4:44
SPEAKER_18: And so I th I was in a little routine and I would stay there and then um work all week and then fly back home.
4:53
SPEAKER_18: Some weekends I would stay because I had friends that live there, so I would stay and we'd do things in the city.
4:58
SPEAKER_18: Uh and then that morning it was a Tuesday, I think it was.
5:05
SPEAKER_18: It was just a normal day.
5:06
SPEAKER_18: It was gorgeous outside.
5:07
SPEAKER_18: It had started getting a little cooler.
5:09
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
5:10
SPEAKER_18: So I'm I remember thinking, Oh, I need to bring some of my fall clothes back because there's a little nip in the air.
5:15
SPEAKER_18: And so we would have meetings and you'd walk to Capitol Hill or walk to the you know, the Senate or the House offices and do your meetings.
5:23
SPEAKER_18: And it was early.
5:24
SPEAKER_18: I tried to get to the office, you know, around 8 30.
5:27
SPEAKER_18: And I I remember I was we we kept the news on in the office.
5:35
SPEAKER_18: So in the way our office was set up, there were the executives had offices, but then there was kind of like a little pool in the middle with cubicles.
5:43
SPEAKER_18: That's where I sat.
5:44
SPEAKER_18: And there was a TV out there.
5:46
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
5:46
SPEAKER_18: And I remember watching I don't know how I remember this.
5:50
SPEAKER_18: Michael Jordan was about to make his big comeback to the NBA.
5:54
SPEAKER_18: Right.
5:55
SPEAKER_18: And I was just sitting there thinking about that.
5:57
SPEAKER_18: I'm like, oh Michael Jordan's back.
6:00
SPEAKER_18: And then uh the today show cut in with okay, this plane has hit.
6:06
SPEAKER_18: Did not think anything of it.
6:07
SPEAKER_18: I thought it was just a freak uh accident, like a little commuter plane.
6:11
SPEAKER_18: I didn't I didn't really know what to think, but we had meetings that morning and I I just was kind of checked out.
6:17
SPEAKER_09: But that they started like any other for me.
6:19
SPEAKER_09: Our office then was behind the parking lot of the main building at Mossio.
6:23
SPEAKER_09: The TV crew was really small, then it was me and Troy Ruiz and Big Steve and uh Pam was there and and and all the camera gear was up front and my office was all the way to the back, and there was one hallway there, and there was a little we had a little TV up in the front.
6:41
SPEAKER_09: It was a tiny little TV that had a VHS thing up under it so we could look at tapes.
6:46
SPEAKER_16: Right.
6:47
SPEAKER_09: And somehow, Troy, somebody rigged a cable to it from the building next door.
6:52
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, and we used to just leave it planned.
6:55
SPEAKER_09: And I can remember being back there, getting some hunts lined up, and I remember it got really quiet, and I walked out the hall one time to go to the restroom room, and everybody was up there by that TV.
7:05
SPEAKER_09: And I was like, them they're probably looking at some hunt.
7:08
SPEAKER_09: We went and I went back to the moffice in a few minutes, chores somebody said, Hey, you need to come look at this.
7:13
SPEAKER_09: And I went up here and it was uh, I guess Tower One or something.
7:17
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
7:17
SPEAKER_09: A plane and at that time a plane had hit it.
7:21
SPEAKER_16: Right.
7:21
SPEAKER_09: And they didn't know nobody knew what was going on.
7:24
SPEAKER_09: I said, Wow, that's crazy.
7:26
SPEAKER_09: But shortly after that, they called me back up there, cuz come look at this.
7:30
SPEAKER_09: And and it still hadn't dawned on me that uh there was a an attack.
7:36
SPEAKER_09: I thought it was like weird, but when that second plane hit, I said, Oh my god, and then right after that, yeah, they flashed a picture of the Pentagon.
7:44
SPEAKER_27: It appears that the there is more and more fire and smoke enveloping the very top of the building, and as fire crews are descending on this area, it it it does not appear that there's any kind of a an effort up there yet.
7:59
SPEAKER_27: Now remember, oh my god.
8:03
SPEAKER_27: That looks like a second plane.
8:08
SPEAKER_26: That that just exploded.
8:10
SPEAKER_26: We just saw another plane coming in from the side.
8:13
SPEAKER_26: You did.
8:13
SPEAKER_26: I didn't that was the exact one.
8:14
SPEAKER_26: Yes, and that's the second explosion.
8:16
SPEAKER_26: You can see the plane come in just from the right hand side of the screen.
8:21
SPEAKER_26: So this looks like it is some sort of a concerted effort to attack the World Trade Center that is underway in downtown New York.
8:29
SPEAKER_25: As you look at the picture from our chopper now arriving at the scene, uh Jim Friedel in Hoboken uh said it appeared to bank sharply and smash directly, perhaps purposefully, into Oh my goodness, there's another one.
8:48
SPEAKER_25: Oh my goodness, there's another one.
8:51
SPEAKER_25: Oh my goodness, now you have the plane.
8:54
SPEAKER_25: Now it's obvious, I think, that uh there's a second plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.
9:00
SPEAKER_25: I think we have a terrorist act of proportions that we cannot begin to imagine at this juncture.
9:06
SPEAKER_18: The second plane hit, and there were I think five, four or five people in our office that morning.
9:14
SPEAKER_18: The second plane hit and everybody came out to that middle area to watch the TV.
9:20
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
9:20
SPEAKER_18: And it was just this collective we don't know what's going on, but this isn't this isn't good.
9:28
SPEAKER_18: Something's off.
9:30
SPEAKER_18: And it was just this really heavy, bizarre feeling.
9:35
SPEAKER_18: Like just wanting information but not knowing anything.
9:40
SPEAKER_18: So and and the whole city was kind of like that.
9:43
SPEAKER_18: I mean, I remember emailing somebody because I was helping schedule some of our executives.
9:48
SPEAKER_18: I mean, I was 22, 23.
9:50
SPEAKER_18: I mean, it I was young.
9:51
SPEAKER_18: So I remember somebody emailing me and be like, hey, we're gonna push that meeting, we're watching this stuff going on.
9:57
SPEAKER_18: Can we reschedule?
9:58
SPEAKER_18: And I thought, Yeah.
9:59
SPEAKER_16: Okay.
10:00
SPEAKER_18: So everybody was kind of paralyzed there for a minute.
10:03
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
10:04
SPEAKER_18: And then as the morning went on, we started hearing the rumors about the Pentagon and the White House and the Capitol.
10:15
SPEAKER_18: And that's when I got v really concerned.
10:18
SPEAKER_18: New York still felt very far away and kind of isolated.
10:24
SPEAKER_18: And I remember thinking, oh, that capital.
10:27
SPEAKER_18: Looking out my window.
10:29
SPEAKER_18: That you can see like that capital right there across the street.
10:32
SPEAKER_18: And then you know, the news came out about there's another plane, and I thought I got pretty scared.
10:38
SPEAKER_18: This isn't safe.
10:40
SPEAKER_18: So our boss came out, uh and he was actually interim at the time, and he said, Everybody go home.
10:50
unknown: Like, I don't know.
10:51
SPEAKER_18: What do we do?
10:52
SPEAKER_16: I don't live here.
10:53
SPEAKER_18: Because that particular week, which you know, we always talk about having these little God moments or these little interventions where you think, golly, if that wasn't a divine intervention.
11:05
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
11:05
SPEAKER_18: So how many weeks had I stayed at the Phoenix Park?
11:08
SPEAKER_18: I mean, so many.
11:09
SPEAKER_18: Right.
11:10
SPEAKER_18: This week it was sold out.
11:12
SPEAKER_18: And I remember um we would call TVA travel and she the lady there would help me, you know, get my room reservations.
11:18
SPEAKER_18: And I remember her calling me the week before, she's like, Hey, there's some big there's a bunch of conferences in town.
11:24
SPEAKER_18: There's no room there.
11:25
SPEAKER_17: Right.
11:25
SPEAKER_18: In fact, like the whole city sold out.
11:27
SPEAKER_18: She said, I have to put you out in McLean, Virginia at a hotel.
11:31
SPEAKER_18: And I thought, well, that's weird.
11:32
SPEAKER_18: And coming from Mississippi, I'm like, You're putting me in another date.
11:36
SPEAKER_18: I thought that was so far away.
11:37
SPEAKER_18: I didn't realize you just hopped on the train.
11:39
SPEAKER_18: Yeah, you know.
11:40
SPEAKER_18: So I got to the airport that Sunday.
11:44
SPEAKER_18: This is where the story gets good.
11:46
SPEAKER_18: Good.
11:47
SPEAKER_18: And I thought, okay, I'm staying out in Virginia this week.
11:50
SPEAKER_18: Let's see how this goes.
11:52
SPEAKER_18: And a guy picked me up.
11:55
SPEAKER_18: This was before Uber and Lyft.
11:57
SPEAKER_18: So you just get a taxi cab at the hotel.
12:00
SPEAKER_18: So um had my bag, stood out on the curb, held the first taxi, and I said, Hey, here's the hotel I'm going to out in McLean, Virginia.
12:10
SPEAKER_18: And he said, Okay, great.
12:11
SPEAKER_18: And I'm sitting there and he's driving, and he has on a Washington Redskins football jersey with a smoot on the back.
12:21
SPEAKER_18: And I said, Are you a Fred Smoot fan?
12:24
SPEAKER_18: And he said, I love Fred Smoot.
12:26
SPEAKER_18: And this is back when he was, you know, doing his thing in the in hotel.
12:29
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
12:30
SPEAKER_18: Former MSU Bulldog, by the way.
12:32
SPEAKER_18: And I said, I'm from Mississippi.
12:34
SPEAKER_18: I said, he played at Mississippi State.
12:36
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
12:37
SPEAKER_18: So we just headed off.
12:38
SPEAKER_18: It was a guy, um, his name was Austin.
12:40
SPEAKER_18: I don't remember his last name.
12:41
SPEAKER_18: He was from Jamaica.
12:43
SPEAKER_18: So he started telling me all about how he's a f friends of Fred Smoot.
12:46
SPEAKER_18: So it was a kind of a little ride out to the hotel, and he said, Hey, here's my number.
12:51
SPEAKER_18: Why don't you just let me take you to work every day and pick you up?
12:55
SPEAKER_18: Like I can just schedule my route and pick you up.
12:58
SPEAKER_18: I'm like, okay, yeah, Austin, like let's go.
13:02
SPEAKER_18: Now I'm not stressed out.
13:04
SPEAKER_18: So Monday morning, he picks me up, takes me to work.
13:07
SPEAKER_18: Monday at 5 30, 6 o'clock, picks me up, takes me back.
13:11
SPEAKER_18: Tuesday morning, September 11th, picks me up, takes me to work.
13:17
SPEAKER_18: So back to, hey, everybody, go home.
13:20
SPEAKER_16: Your boss is sending you home.
13:22
SPEAKER_18: I'm like, oh I said, Well, I and and and the chaos had kind of ensued by then.
13:27
SPEAKER_18: Right.
13:27
SPEAKER_18: Like we're shutting things down, taxis aren't running, that kind of thing.
13:32
SPEAKER_18: So there was a girl in our office, Sarah Robinson, I'll never forget it, and she said, Hey, you can come to my apartment.
13:37
SPEAKER_16: I remember this.
13:38
SPEAKER_18: And I said, Okay, that would be great.
13:40
SPEAKER_18: So I got my stuff, went with her to her apartment.
13:43
SPEAKER_18: And we were just glued to the news.
13:46
SPEAKER_18: And I remember being in her apartment trying to call Yahya.
13:51
SPEAKER_18: Like just to tell y'all I was okay.
13:53
SPEAKER_18: Well it was hard.
13:54
SPEAKER_18: Do you remember those little heavy little Nokia phones?
13:57
SPEAKER_16: Yeah, little bricks.
13:58
SPEAKER_18: Yeah, that was my phone.
13:59
SPEAKER_18: And it would I couldn't I couldn't get out.
14:04
SPEAKER_16: Right.
14:05
SPEAKER_16: Right.
14:05
SPEAKER_16: And you're trying to call from Wyatt.
14:07
SPEAKER_18: So I'm like, oh my gosh, they're gonna think, what are they gonna think?
14:09
SPEAKER_18: I finally got through to her.
14:11
SPEAKER_16: And we were all panicked.
14:13
SPEAKER_18: Yeah, because I think y'all had all gone home and everybody was sitting at the house.
14:17
SPEAKER_18: So I got through to ya ya and I said, I'm okay.
14:24
SPEAKER_18: But I don't know what's going on.
14:26
SPEAKER_18: Like, because you I remember we were like, is there more coming?
14:29
SPEAKER_18: What do we do?
14:31
SPEAKER_18: And so she said, Well, Kevin Pop have left.
14:38
SPEAKER_18: They're on their way to come get you.
14:40
SPEAKER_18: I thought, Oh, okay.
14:43
SPEAKER_09: Hey, things got worse by the minute.
14:45
SPEAKER_09: By the minute, you know, then the Pentagon got hit, then the plane was going down and PA or it was like a full-blown attack or something.
14:54
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
14:55
SPEAKER_09: And I remember, yeah, your mother called me.
14:58
SPEAKER_09: She had she got the address, and me and Kevin somehow printed out some directions off a map quest.
15:03
SPEAKER_09: I mean, I didn't have none of that stuff in my truck.
15:05
SPEAKER_09: I had an old Dodge truck with a camper on it, yeah, that I used to go film hunts and stuff with.
15:11
SPEAKER_09: And uh I told Kevin, I said, uh, load load up.
15:16
SPEAKER_17: Let's go.
15:16
SPEAKER_09: I went to the house and I got some firearms and I don't even remember where I put them.
15:21
SPEAKER_09: I put them on the seat.
15:22
SPEAKER_09: I loaded up.
15:23
SPEAKER_09: I was like, 'cause I don't know what's going on.
15:24
SPEAKER_09: I'm not like a fly by the sea your pants guy, but man, it felt like an attack.
15:29
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
15:30
SPEAKER_09: So anyway, we gassed up and I think I grabbed a couple more gas cans because the the this this was the weirdest thing.
15:37
SPEAKER_09: This was like I drove into the Matrix in Birmingham and all that.
15:41
SPEAKER_09: And the further we went, the more open the road was.
15:45
SPEAKER_09: When's the last time?
15:46
SPEAKER_16: The middle of the day.
15:47
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, when's the last time you drove through Atlanta and there was zero?
15:51
SPEAKER_09: I'm talking about zero traffic.
15:53
SPEAKER_17: That's weird.
15:55
SPEAKER_09: And the radio would come in and out.
15:57
SPEAKER_09: I don't know if it was my truck or whatever, but you could I I didn't have XM, so we were steady searching for news.
16:03
SPEAKER_16: I didn't even think about that.
16:04
SPEAKER_09: Oh no, it was I mean, it would be a different thing handling it today.
16:08
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
16:09
SPEAKER_09: And uh I'm almost ashamed to say it the further I went with no traffic, the faster I got.
16:23
SPEAKER_13: It's a helicopter hovering around this.
16:27
SPEAKER_13: Is this a great distance away from this scene?
16:30
SPEAKER_13: And the more emergency vehicles power into this devastated area, Sam.
16:35
SPEAKER_30: Thanks, Pamela McCall.
16:37
SPEAKER_30: Obviously, reporters in that area are wondering how many people were killed, how many people were injured.
16:42
SPEAKER_30: The mayor says there's been horrendous loss of life in New York City.
16:46
SPEAKER_30: One police official tells reporters.
16:49
SPEAKER_30: Thousands, thousands of people have been killed and injured.
16:53
SPEAKER_30: We don't know for sure.
16:54
SPEAKER_30: Hospitals are busy.
16:55
SPEAKER_30: Ambulances moving this way and the other.
16:57
SPEAKER_30: As for the air crash that occurred in western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh area about 80 miles away from Somerset County Airport.
17:14
SPEAKER_30: Apparently it was high that's not fully confirmed.
17:17
SPEAKER_30: Apparently, it was crashed into some buildings.
17:23
SPEAKER_30: Crash into the ground, not far from Somerset County Airport in western Pennsylvania.
17:28
SPEAKER_30: Unfortunately, it seems that all aboard have done we don't know the numbers yet.
17:33
SPEAKER_30: So American Airlines, 164 people killed two planes went down.
17:40
SPEAKER_30: Washington LA 11.
17:43
SPEAKER_30: Washington LAX, Los Angeles.
17:45
SPEAKER_30: Those planes were high.
17:47
SPEAKER_30: Those planes crashed.
17:48
SPEAKER_30: American Airlines says 164 people killed.
17:51
SPEAKER_30: One of those planes apparently went into one of the buildings of the World Trade Center in New York.
17:55
SPEAKER_30: Up far from there, right?
17:56
SPEAKER_30: Now the buildings have collapsed.
17:58
SPEAKER_30: Up far from zero CPS News correspondent campaign.
18:00
SPEAKER_30: What do you see, Captain?
18:31
SPEAKER_09: I think we made it in just under nine, nine and a half, ten hours.
18:35
SPEAKER_09: That's a fourteen or fifteen hour drive.
18:37
SPEAKER_09: I at one I went through a real long stretch one time as it was getting dark.
18:43
SPEAKER_09: And I don't remember what the speed limit thing went on the dash.
18:46
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
18:47
SPEAKER_09: Never saw it.
18:48
SPEAKER_09: I don't know if that was a hundred or a hundred and never saw it.
18:53
SPEAKER_09: And as it got dark, then the news got real spotty.
18:57
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
18:58
SPEAKER_09: And uh I can remember, and I know we got close to when it gets real busy up there.
19:03
SPEAKER_09: And look, that highway going up the east coast of DC, I'm telling you, I w at one point I went an hour without seeing a vehicle.
19:11
SPEAKER_09: Either way.
19:12
SPEAKER_16: So you would go for like an hour stretch.
19:15
SPEAKER_16: It's getting dark.
19:16
SPEAKER_09: Floored.
19:17
SPEAKER_16: You're losing radio signal.
19:19
SPEAKER_16: What what do you remember knowing at that point?
19:21
SPEAKER_16: Like had they said terrorist?
19:23
SPEAKER_09: Had they said Yeah, at some point, like late that afternoon, they were somebody was coming, you know, getting to the point where it was a terrorist attack or something.
19:32
SPEAKER_09: Right.
19:33
SPEAKER_09: Which just made me go faster.
19:35
SPEAKER_17: Right.
19:35
SPEAKER_09: And uh, you know, the unknown is way more scary usually because your mind just plays tricks on you.
19:42
SPEAKER_08: I've and to help the victims of these attacks.
19:48
SPEAKER_08: Make no mistake.
19:57
SPEAKER_08: Those responsible for those with the leaders of Congress.
20:42
SPEAKER_08: And with world leaders to assure them that we will do what is whatever is necessary to protect America and Americans.
20:58
SPEAKER_18: So I'm at Sarah's apartment.
21:00
SPEAKER_18: She said they're coming to get you.
21:02
SPEAKER_18: They had printed off this is gonna sound so I mean archaic?
21:07
SPEAKER_18: Archaic.
21:08
SPEAKER_18: They printed off a map quest map.
21:11
SPEAKER_18: Right.
21:12
SPEAKER_18: They're headed your way.
21:14
SPEAKER_16: Of course he is.
21:15
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
21:15
SPEAKER_18: Of course.
21:16
SPEAKER_18: They're coming to get me.
21:18
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
21:18
SPEAKER_18: And I thought that's gonna be a long time from now.
21:23
SPEAKER_18: What do I do?
21:24
SPEAKER_16: Thirteen and a half hours if you abide by all the laws.
21:27
SPEAKER_18: All the laws.
21:28
SPEAKER_18: Which I've heard they didn't.
21:29
SPEAKER_18: So I just remember thinking they would be there a lot later than they were and they just rolled up.
21:33
SPEAKER_18: So I remember and finally got through and to Pop and got to talk to him.
21:38
SPEAKER_18: He said, Hey, if you can just get out to your hotel, if you can get out of Washington, if you can get out of DC, and I'm like, I can't.
21:47
SPEAKER_18: Cabs aren't running.
21:48
SPEAKER_18: The city was on lockdown.
21:50
SPEAKER_18: And I even thought, well, I mean I could walk.
21:53
SPEAKER_18: I mean, how far is it?
21:54
SPEAKER_18: Right.
21:54
SPEAKER_18: But I had on work shoes.
21:56
SPEAKER_17: Oh.
21:57
SPEAKER_18: So I'm like, no, I'm not walking far.
22:00
SPEAKER_18: So anyway, it's like fr three o'clock, four o'clock, and I'm still trying to game plan.
22:05
SPEAKER_16: How are they gonna get to me or how am I gonna get to them?
22:08
SPEAKER_18: Um we had uh made some calls.
22:11
SPEAKER_18: I remember John Rush had a friend up there, they were checking on me.
22:15
SPEAKER_18: So finally I'm like, let me just check on Austin.
22:18
SPEAKER_18: I I just wanted to make sure he was okay because we had established a little friendship by now.
22:22
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
22:22
SPEAKER_18: And I called him and I said, You good?
22:25
SPEAKER_18: He's like, Yeah, they've they've shut us down.
22:28
SPEAKER_18: And I said, Well he said, Are you good?
22:30
SPEAKER_18: And I said, I I said, My dad is headed this way, but I gotta get back out to that hotel.
22:38
SPEAKER_18: And he said, When will your dad be here?
22:40
SPEAKER_18: And I said, I I don't know, one o'clock.
22:43
SPEAKER_18: I don't know when they came.
22:44
SPEAKER_18: I I just remember sleeping in this hotel lobby at like it was all hours of the night, because I didn't want to go in my room and be myself being by myself.
22:52
SPEAKER_18: It felt weird.
22:54
SPEAKER_18: So he said, Okay, he said, Here's what we're gonna do.
22:57
SPEAKER_18: He said, You be downstairs.
22:59
SPEAKER_18: He said, Give me the address where you are.
23:02
SPEAKER_18: And I gave him the address to Sarah's apartment.
23:04
SPEAKER_18: He said, You be downstairs at seven p.m.
23:09
SPEAKER_18: And I said, Well, what are you gonna do?
23:10
SPEAKER_18: He said, just be downstairs.
23:13
SPEAKER_18: And at 7 p.m.
23:16
SPEAKER_18: I'm on the street corner, you know, hug Sarah's neck.
23:20
SPEAKER_18: Here he comes.
23:20
SPEAKER_18: Sarah's all sitting in the cab with his light off.
23:25
SPEAKER_16: Off duty.
23:26
SPEAKER_18: Off duty.
23:26
SPEAKER_18: Okay.
23:27
SPEAKER_18: And he said, Now be cool.
23:30
SPEAKER_18: We're gonna have to do this some back way.
23:34
SPEAKER_18: I said, Oh good.
23:36
SPEAKER_18: And so sure enough, he drove me out to McLean, Virginia and sat with me.
23:41
SPEAKER_18: Stop it.
23:42
SPEAKER_18: Like I'm gonna go I'm gonna tear this.
23:45
SPEAKER_18: Sat pop met him.
23:46
SPEAKER_18: Sat with me until Pop got there.
23:51
SPEAKER_16: I did not know that part of the story.
23:54
SPEAKER_18: Sat with me in the hotel lobby.
23:57
SPEAKER_16: I knew that the I knew that the guy that you had befriended, the cab driver, was an integral part of the story of getting the you to pop.
24:06
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
24:07
SPEAKER_18: But I I didn't know he just like waited with you.
24:09
SPEAKER_18: He told me all about his family, like we ate a bunch of junk food out of the vending machine, like we were just glued to the TV.
24:17
SPEAKER_18: Like we had this moment where we were just watching history unfold.
24:23
SPEAKER_18: Really?
24:23
SPEAKER_18: This random guy from Jamaica who had on a Fred Smoot jersey.
24:29
SPEAKER_18: And this young girl from Mississippi who was scared out of her mind.
24:32
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
24:33
SPEAKER_18: And um, I will never forget that guy.
24:37
SPEAKER_18: Wow.
24:38
SPEAKER_18: As long as I live.
24:39
SPEAKER_25: We are now given word that all three area airports are closed.
24:44
SPEAKER_25: So uh no activity whatsoever at LaGuardia, at Kennedy, or at Newark Airports.
24:51
SPEAKER_25: Also, there is no subway service right now on the one, two, three, nine, N, and R lines.
25:00
SPEAKER_25: So there is no subway service in and around the World Trade Center, and all three airports have closed.
25:13
SPEAKER_13: Lincoln, the Holland, or the TW bridge.
25:15
SPEAKER_13: I'm looking at the in the Lincoln line from my vanish point right now.
25:19
SPEAKER_13: They're starting to turn buses around.
25:20
SPEAKER_13: I've not seen anything like this before.
25:23
SPEAKER_13: Bridges and tunnels, you're going to find closures.
25:26
SPEAKER_13: No one allowed in or out of the city right now, from what we're hearing.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: Larry, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but Jim McGlaseski has some new information at the Pentagon.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: I hope you'll stand by and continue to talk with us, Mick.
25:36
SPEAKER_28: Katie, I don't want to alarm anybody right now, but apparently there it it felt just a few moments ago like there was an explosion of some kind here at the Pentagon.
25:47
SPEAKER_28: Uh we're on the E-ring of the Pentagon.
25:49
SPEAKER_28: Uh we have a window that faces out toward the Potomac, toward the Kennedy Center.
25:54
SPEAKER_28: We haven't been able to see or or hear anything after the initial blast.
25:59
SPEAKER_28: I just stepped out in the hallway.
26:01
SPEAKER_28: Security guards were hurting people out of the building.
26:04
SPEAKER_28: And I saw just a moment ago as I looked outside, a number of construction workers who have been working here have taken flight.
26:12
SPEAKER_28: They're running as far away from the building as they can right now.
26:15
SPEAKER_18: Even though we we didn't go right by it, we kind of skirted around the Pentagon and I rolled down my window and I remember that smell.
26:25
SPEAKER_18: I've never smelled anything like it.
26:28
SPEAKER_18: It smelled like like burnt metal.
26:31
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
26:32
SPEAKER_18: Almost it was very chemical-y, but and I just remember thinking, I've never smelled that smell before.
26:39
SPEAKER_18: Um but you have to remember all I was told was get to your hotel.
26:44
SPEAKER_18: Right.
26:44
SPEAKER_18: So that I had the easy part of the day.
26:48
SPEAKER_18: Also, I had the benefit of seeing all this on the TV.
26:52
SPEAKER_18: You forget when they left West Point, they never saw any footage.
26:57
SPEAKER_18: They were just listening to the radio.
26:58
SPEAKER_18: To the radio.
26:59
SPEAKER_18: The first time they saw footage was when they came to the hotel and walked in the lobby and they saw the footage of the towers going down.
27:06
SPEAKER_16: Right.
27:06
SPEAKER_16: They hadn't seen that yet.
27:08
SPEAKER_16: They left before the towers fell.
27:10
SPEAKER_18: Yes.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: The World Trade Center bought both towers were hit by planes in Washington, a terrorist alert because the Pentagon was hit by a plane and there's a fire on the Washington mall.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: And off and and there everybody has a tactical alert when they were beginning to evacuate the baby.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: And then there was awesome.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Another decision by the F a decision of the decision.
27:52
SPEAKER_21: Explosion.
27:53
SPEAKER_20: Did anybody what did you see?
27:56
SPEAKER_20: You thought it was an airplane or was it a building if not?
27:59
SPEAKER_20: Most of the top collapsed and all the debris from the building was falling down towards the smoke.
28:07
SPEAKER_06: Do we have do we have Jim Smith available in the microphone from chopper two as he takes these pictures?
28:11
SPEAKER_06: Jim?
28:11
SPEAKER_04: Yes, I am here.
28:13
SPEAKER_06: Jim, tell us, tell us what's happening out there.
28:15
SPEAKER_04: We just witnessed some kind of secondary uh follow-up explosion on the World Trade Center number two, the one that is up in the south that is difficult to make out through the debris and smoke, but it does appear that a portion, the top portion of the building, has collapsed down to the streets below.
28:34
SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
28:35
SPEAKER_04: Unbelievable we have seen here the debris of smoke is covering the entire portion of lower Manhattan.
28:41
SPEAKER_21: Oh my gosh.
28:42
SPEAKER_06: Jim, we know this is terribly difficult for everybody.
28:44
SPEAKER_06: We're asking that you please stay with us, hold your shots, stay with this uh an audio.
28:49
SPEAKER_06: We should tell people our crews have been uh running from that scene as if everybody and the entire area has been under an evacuation for some time.
28:58
SPEAKER_06: And just moments ago, you saw it here live from Chopper 2.
29:02
SPEAKER_06: A horrific scene as one of the towers there appears to have collapsed.
29:08
SPEAKER_09: This is what freaked me out more than anything.
29:10
SPEAKER_09: I started getting close to that busy world up there, DC, Virginia, and all that kind of stuff.
29:15
SPEAKER_09: And still, I'm telling you, zero.
29:18
SPEAKER_09: When I tell you zero traffic, I mean nothing.
29:21
SPEAKER_16: Everybody was at home glued to the TV.
29:23
SPEAKER_09: It's pitch black.
29:25
SPEAKER_09: I remember we stopped for gas one time and there was a big line at the gas pump.
29:31
SPEAKER_09: And some guy, there was like, I don't know, seven or eight cars, and I had pulled up to the side, and some guy when he paid for his gas, you couldn't do a credit card, he had to go in, and then the next person was fooling around.
29:45
SPEAKER_09: So I I broke right in front of that line.
29:48
SPEAKER_09: I told Kevin, I said, watch my back.
29:50
SPEAKER_09: I went in front of about 15 people and filled that thing up.
29:53
SPEAKER_09: Anyway, we started getting closer, it's pitch black, and I hadn't, I'm telling you, I hadn't seen a vehicle in forever.
30:02
SPEAKER_09: And uh Kev was sitting, I was driving at the time, we took took turns, and uh he said, Well, finally there's somebody coming.
30:09
SPEAKER_09: I looked in and there's headlights in the back.
30:11
SPEAKER_09: I'll never forget this.
30:12
SPEAKER_09: I can see this right now.
30:13
SPEAKER_09: Doing probably 90, 80, 80 or 90.
30:16
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
30:17
SPEAKER_09: Something like that.
30:17
SPEAKER_09: I might have slowed down a little bit.
30:20
SPEAKER_09: Got over in the right lane, and I figured it was law enforcement because it looked like two, you know, three or four vehicles.
30:26
SPEAKER_09: And it was like five, four or five, or six jet blacked out suburbans.
30:35
SPEAKER_09: And then four that I've never seen this before, blacked out 18 wheelers.
30:41
SPEAKER_17: Whoa.
30:42
SPEAKER_09: Going, and look, I'm doing 75 or 80, and they went by me like I was parked.
30:46
SPEAKER_09: Wow.
30:47
SPEAKER_09: And that when I saw that and they just kept going, that freaked me out.
30:52
SPEAKER_09: It's like this is really bad.
30:54
SPEAKER_16: It just feels like something out of a movie.
30:57
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
30:58
SPEAKER_09: And how we the only reason we got to her that quick is because there was no traffic.
31:02
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
31:03
SPEAKER_09: I mean, I'm a redneck from Natchez, Mississippi, and I've drove a lot, but I mean, driving around there is a little different.
31:08
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, it's a lot with handwritten out directions.
31:10
SPEAKER_09: Thank God her husband Kevin was there.
31:12
SPEAKER_19: Navigate.
31:13
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, navigate left, right, left, right.
31:16
SPEAKER_09: And I didn't know Amy's side of the story.
31:18
SPEAKER_09: All I got was this address to her hotel, which was in Virginia, just across the river, whatever.
31:24
SPEAKER_17: Right.
31:25
SPEAKER_09: And pulled up there.
31:27
SPEAKER_09: And the and I remember seeing this.
31:29
SPEAKER_09: She had a she had a little bag with her and I was first thing I asked her, I said, How long have you been standing here?
31:34
SPEAKER_09: And she said, like, the only reason I'm standing here is because of him.
31:38
SPEAKER_09: She pointed to this cab driver.
31:39
SPEAKER_16: His name was Austin.
31:41
SPEAKER_09: Austin.
31:41
SPEAKER_16: Yes.
31:42
SPEAKER_09: He was Jamaican or something.
31:43
SPEAKER_16: Yes.
31:44
SPEAKER_09: And she told me the story about how he got her there, and I think I started crying.
31:50
SPEAKER_09: I gave him every penny I had in my I don't know how much it was.
31:53
SPEAKER_09: I emptied my wallet.
31:55
SPEAKER_09: I got money from Kevin.
31:56
SPEAKER_09: I just got everything I could get and gave it to him.
31:58
SPEAKER_09: So, dude, I got no words.
32:01
SPEAKER_09: And he just kind of patted me on the shoulder.
32:05
SPEAKER_18: Just such an impactful day in my life.
32:09
SPEAKER_18: And I remember, I mean, they didn't waste any time at the hotel.
32:13
SPEAKER_18: I mean, they met the cab driver and I think Pop gave him a wadded up amount of money.
32:18
SPEAKER_18: God only knows how much that was, whatever he had in his truck.
32:21
SPEAKER_18: And was just like, thank you so much.
32:22
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
32:23
SPEAKER_18: And we turned around and we headed back home.
32:26
SPEAKER_18: I'm sure my adrenaline was just because I I'm like, we weren't talking.
32:31
SPEAKER_18: So I didn't know if they were coming or not.
32:34
SPEAKER_18: And so and then of course I left my phone charger at the office.
32:41
SPEAKER_18: So my phone died right after supper.
32:44
SPEAKER_18: They didn't get there until wee hours of the morning.
32:47
SPEAKER_18: But I remember we left, we were headed back home, and about nine o'clock that morning, uh, some of my coworkers called to sing me happy birthday.
32:55
SPEAKER_16: That's right.
32:56
SPEAKER_18: And so I put them on speaker and we all listened to, you know, and they're like, Are you okay?
32:59
SPEAKER_18: What's going on?
33:00
SPEAKER_18: Because I hadn't talked to anybody.
33:01
SPEAKER_18: They just knew like Amy's in the DC office.
33:03
SPEAKER_18: He said to go home, I'm going home.
33:05
SPEAKER_18: Like, home home.
33:06
SPEAKER_18: Yeah, I won't be back at work tomorrow.
33:08
SPEAKER_18: I'm headed back to the Magnolia State.
33:11
SPEAKER_18: Peace out, everybody.
33:12
SPEAKER_18: But yeah, I mean, you put those top five days of your life, you know, you line them up.
33:18
SPEAKER_18: Defining moments.
33:18
SPEAKER_18: That's one of mine.
33:19
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
33:20
SPEAKER_16: And there's something about, I don't care how old you are, there's something about my daddy's gonna come get me.
33:26
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
33:27
SPEAKER_16: Like, yeah.
33:28
SPEAKER_16: There's I I just have no words for that.
33:31
SPEAKER_16: And that's like there's some popular meme that's going around.
33:35
SPEAKER_16: It's like nobody's coming to save you.
33:37
SPEAKER_16: And I'm like, Bet.
33:39
SPEAKER_18: What?
33:39
SPEAKER_18: And both of my kids feel like that too.
33:42
SPEAKER_18: They should.
33:43
SPEAKER_18: I'm like, okay.
33:44
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
33:44
SPEAKER_18: Save me a part of the life.
33:46
SPEAKER_16: Yeah, we're blessed because we you could literally say I could say that about my sister.
33:49
SPEAKER_16: I could say that about my mom and my daddy.
33:51
SPEAKER_16: You have a list of people that you're like, oh no.
33:54
SPEAKER_18: There's a line of folks coming to get me.
33:56
SPEAKER_18: They're gonna they're gonna scrap at who gets to save me first.
33:59
SPEAKER_16: Right.
34:00
SPEAKER_16: Or they'll carpool.
34:02
SPEAKER_18: Right.
34:02
SPEAKER_18: Somebody's gonna bring snacks.
34:04
SPEAKER_18: There'll be lots of savings.
34:05
SPEAKER_18: Somebody's printing out MapQuest.
34:07
SPEAKER_18: Yes.
34:07
SPEAKER_18: Everybody's got a Nokia phones in MapQuest.
34:11
SPEAKER_16: I you forget how long ago it was, but Pop brought it up when we were talking about he goes, People need to understand I could not see your sister on Life 360.
34:20
SPEAKER_16: This was so far beyond being able to track your children.
34:25
SPEAKER_16: And he's like, You were lucky if you had a cell signal.
34:28
SPEAKER_16: He goes, But once you got out of Mississippi and we're all on these Mississippi cell phone service plans, this was before nationwide and all that.
34:36
SPEAKER_16: He goes, No service.
34:38
SPEAKER_16: He goes, Then you start hitting them gas stations that are closed.
34:41
SPEAKER_16: Then you start seeing military trucks just passing by you on the road.
34:45
SPEAKER_16: He goes, it just got real weird.
34:47
SPEAKER_18: It did get real weird.
34:50
SPEAKER_09: Once we got in the truck and I got maybe a hundred miles behind me, the radio cleared up.
34:56
SPEAKER_09: We kind of got because you'd have to go from like a Washington, DC thing to a Virginia radio station, then Charlotte and you were picking them up.
35:05
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, and they and the signal got a little better and you got a whole lot of facts.
35:09
SPEAKER_09: And on the way back, I was able to listen and and kind of you know educate myself on what was going on.
35:16
SPEAKER_16: Because you had her with you, so you could take that part of your work.
35:19
SPEAKER_09: Now we're listening to the news before that.
35:21
SPEAKER_09: I didn't know what I was gonna run into.
35:23
SPEAKER_09: I didn't care.
35:24
SPEAKER_17: Right.
35:25
SPEAKER_09: I said there's gonna be I kept telling Kev, there's gonna be a roadblock somewhere.
35:28
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
35:29
SPEAKER_09: So hang on.
35:30
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
35:30
SPEAKER_09: I'm gonna figure this out.
35:32
SPEAKER_09: Because you didn't know what was gonna I mean, I was thinking they're gonna drop a bomb next.
35:36
SPEAKER_16: We didn't know.
35:37
SPEAKER_16: Everybody was so scared that day.
35:39
SPEAKER_09: Well and rightfully so.
35:41
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
35:41
SPEAKER_09: I mean, there's like three thousand Americans lost their life.
35:44
SPEAKER_09: There's something bad going on.
35:46
SPEAKER_09: And once we got I'm I'm about a hundred miles behind me, I took a breath.
35:51
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
35:52
SPEAKER_17: And uh shoulders dropped.
35:54
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
35:54
SPEAKER_09: And I was able to get gas going back.
35:57
SPEAKER_09: I thought the gas and the gas could have been an issue going there, and that's just because you know, uh people that are unprepared, the first thing they do is panic.
36:05
SPEAKER_09: Everybody's going to get gas, milk, and bread.
36:07
SPEAKER_09: You know, so every gas station was packed.
36:09
SPEAKER_09: Like I say, I broke the line.
36:10
SPEAKER_09: Didn't have to do that coming back because by then everybody I think's at home glued to their TV.
36:17
SPEAKER_09: And uh it was uh it was unbelievable.
36:21
SPEAKER_09: But I and I can tell you this.
36:23
SPEAKER_09: I'm sure Amy has more stories than me because she was actually up there.
36:26
SPEAKER_09: Lord Lord only knows what was going through her brain.
36:29
SPEAKER_17: Right.
36:30
SPEAKER_09: And uh but I can tell you this I would give anything, anything in the world if we could go back to what this country felt like weeks and months after that.
36:43
SPEAKER_09: There was no wokeness, there was no bitterness, there was no racism.
36:49
SPEAKER_16: Just Americans.
36:50
SPEAKER_09: It was I I the for the people that weren't even born then, I I have a pain for them not to see what this country felt like.
36:58
SPEAKER_33: Across the nation, flags have been flying off the shelves.
37:02
SPEAKER_07: I've probably gone to eight or nine places.
37:04
SPEAKER_07: There are no flags.
37:06
SPEAKER_33: Walmart sold 200,000 yesterday and put more on order today.
37:11
SPEAKER_03: This is probably the most direct way for the common citizen to go show his support.
37:15
SPEAKER_10: I knew some people on those plans, and I feel like I have to do something.
37:20
SPEAKER_33: Ever since the disaster, a wave of patriotism has been spreading across America.
37:26
SPEAKER_25: America is united.
37:27
SPEAKER_25: We are strong, we are stronger than ever.
37:30
SPEAKER_33: From blood drives to passing out freedom ribbons.
37:33
SPEAKER_33: If it's anything red, white, and blue, it's gonna sell.
37:36
SPEAKER_33: At times like this, it's what we do in America.
37:39
SPEAKER_33: We the people pull together, and united we stand.
37:44
SPEAKER_07: We cease to be New Yorkers and Texans and become Americans really, really quick when the need is there.
37:51
SPEAKER_04: First question comes up.
37:53
SPEAKER_33: At this New Orleans Army recruiting office and others, the young and the brave are preparing to defend the land of the free.
38:06
SPEAKER_09: You want to be a part of it?
38:07
SPEAKER_23: Yes, sir.
38:08
SPEAKER_10: This country has to take care of itself.
38:10
SPEAKER_10: Nobody else is going to.
38:11
SPEAKER_33: That attitude has helped to more than double sales at BNS guns and other shops since Tuesday's attack.
38:18
SPEAKER_10: This gun has no safety at all.
38:20
SPEAKER_10: Why are people coming in, do you think?
38:22
SPEAKER_10: The first day they were buying ammunition and now they're beginning to buy defense guns of their own.
38:27
SPEAKER_10: They don't know how far this goes.
38:29
SPEAKER_33: For this man, it only goes as far as trying to vent his frustration out at a paper target.
38:36
SPEAKER_29: I've been antsy, I've run every emotion there is since Tuesday, and I thought, well, there's something I can do that's harmless.
38:43
SPEAKER_33: Across the country, from dusk to dawn, young and old, the emotions have run the gambit.
38:50
SPEAKER_32: These terrorists did what no politician, no speaker, no anything, nothing else, no one else could do, and that is bring Americans together.
38:57
SPEAKER_33: But the sentiment and the symbol are the same.
39:01
SPEAKER_33: Maureen Maher, CBS News, Dallas.
39:04
SPEAKER_18: It also, I don't know, I think it just kind of unlocked something in a lot of us, especially young folks.
39:11
SPEAKER_18: We had not had I mean, I did see the challenger.
39:14
SPEAKER_18: I remember they brought us into the library.
39:16
SPEAKER_18: I did see that.
39:17
SPEAKER_18: But as far as big defining country life things, I hadn't lived through anything like that.
39:25
SPEAKER_18: This was the first time where my bubble was burst, and I thought that there are people out there that want to do us harm.
39:33
SPEAKER_15: Right.
39:34
SPEAKER_18: That was a defining moment.
39:38
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
39:38
SPEAKER_15: You were really close to it.
39:40
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
39:41
SPEAKER_18: But and also not being able to talk to them, not knowing where he was or what time he was coming to get me.
39:47
SPEAKER_18: And him not knowing, like, did she make it to Virginia?
39:49
SPEAKER_16: Was she at the hotel?
39:51
SPEAKER_18: She could still be stuck somewhere in DC.
39:53
SPEAKER_18: We can't go in and get her.
39:54
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
39:55
SPEAKER_18: And I just had these images in my head.
39:57
SPEAKER_18: I'm like, they're gonna blow through some kind of roadblock and get thrown in prison.
40:01
SPEAKER_18: Like, I I didn't know if they were gonna have to like shoot their way into the city.
40:05
SPEAKER_18: So there was all this pressure on me.
40:07
SPEAKER_18: I'm like, you gotta get to Virginia.
40:08
SPEAKER_18: You have to hold that man accountable for what he'll do if he has to come in and it'll be my fault.
40:15
SPEAKER_18: I'll feel guilty forever.
40:17
SPEAKER_18: He tore up some federal property trying to get to me.
40:20
SPEAKER_18: No, but he would.
40:22
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
40:22
SPEAKER_18: So that was the deal.
40:23
SPEAKER_18: You get to Virginia, I'll be there to get you.
40:26
SPEAKER_16: And he was.
40:27
SPEAKER_18: Yep.
40:28
SPEAKER_16: I'm so glad.
40:29
SPEAKER_16: Thank you for taking the time to tell that story.
40:31
SPEAKER_16: I had heard bits and pieces from you from that day, but it's not something I ever want to tell somebody.
40:37
SPEAKER_16: So t let's sit down and talk about one of the hardest days you lived through.
40:41
SPEAKER_16: It was heavy.
40:41
SPEAKER_16: It was a lot.
40:42
SPEAKER_16: And it's just not something you bring up casually.
40:45
SPEAKER_16: But I did want it to be told, and I wanted your perspective because, like I said, Pops is it's it's a very chaotic version because they were just wide open.
40:57
SPEAKER_16: And I'm like, what was she thinking?
40:59
SPEAKER_16: No phone, no life 360, nothing.
41:02
SPEAKER_16: Just minimal.
41:03
SPEAKER_18: And I remember talking to them, I said, Hey, you know, I've got this opportunity in DC, and you know how ya is.
41:09
SPEAKER_18: And she's like, that sounds dangerous.
41:11
SPEAKER_18: That's not safe.
41:12
SPEAKER_18: I said, Nothing ever happens.
41:13
SPEAKER_18: I'm walking literally from a hotel across the street.
41:17
SPEAKER_18: And prior to that, nothing did happen.
41:20
SPEAKER_16: And after that, you've been there a million times.
41:22
SPEAKER_18: I was there last week.
41:23
SPEAKER_18: Great experience.
41:24
SPEAKER_18: Yeah, one of my I mean, yeah, one of my favorite cities ever.
41:27
SPEAKER_18: I love to take my kids there.
41:28
SPEAKER_18: But one hiccup that day.
41:31
SPEAKER_18: Very big hiccup.
41:32
SPEAKER_18: Yeah.
41:33
SPEAKER_18: But it's easier to talk about now, but that day was very impactful.
41:38
SPEAKER_09: It was like USA.
41:40
SPEAKER_09: USA.
41:41
SPEAKER_09: That's what it was about.
41:43
SPEAKER_09: And I'm sure Amy's I can remember bits and pieces of Amy's story's all divine intervention.
41:49
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
41:49
SPEAKER_09: The fact that she even got out because she was really close to the Pentagon.
41:54
SPEAKER_16: She could see the Capitol out of the window where our cubicle was.
41:58
SPEAKER_09: I was thinking about all that, trying to get the the radio to get and at one point I remember Kevin's like, let me run the radio because I'm doing like a hundred, you know, scanning, scannies.
42:08
SPEAKER_09: I I got this.
42:09
SPEAKER_09: You know.
42:10
SPEAKER_09: But I you know, and just and the only reason we're talking about this is because I I don't want anybody to forget.
42:18
SPEAKER_16: Right.
42:18
SPEAKER_09: I mean, I don't think any of our grandkids were even born.
42:22
SPEAKER_16: No, Amy Amy and Kev hadn't been married that long.
42:24
SPEAKER_16: There were no grandkids yet.
42:27
SPEAKER_09: It was just an unbelievable day.
42:29
SPEAKER_09: You you don't ever have a you hope and pray you don't ever have to go through this, but I can tell you this, I saw something in the next weeks and especially that day and months after that.
42:39
SPEAKER_09: If it if it came down to where our country if we got our ox in the ditch, there's plenty of people to help.
42:47
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
42:48
SPEAKER_09: And uh that that gives me hope.
42:50
SPEAKER_17: Good people.
42:51
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
42:52
SPEAKER_09: I I I hope that young people, if anybody listens to this, they'll go back and pull the videos up and see how horrific and horrible that was.
43:02
SPEAKER_09: And evil does exist.
43:04
SPEAKER_09: It's everywhere around you.
43:06
SPEAKER_09: And you you have to be you have to have your head on the swivel.
43:11
SPEAKER_09: I hate to say that, but there's people that won't that they would celebrate in your demise.
43:16
SPEAKER_09: There's evil everywhere.
43:18
SPEAKER_17: Right.
43:18
SPEAKER_09: If I don't prove it to you, I don't know what else does.
43:21
SPEAKER_09: It's like 3,000 people at one time.
43:23
SPEAKER_09: But I can tell you this you had two white boys from Mississippi flying up there with a couple of black guns.
43:30
SPEAKER_09: We was gonna get in, I can tell you that, whatever it took, and it was fun.
43:34
SPEAKER_09: And uh your mom was kind of the rock because I I did I think I had a flip phone, if I'm not mistaken.
43:40
SPEAKER_16: Y'all had those little StarTec or Motorola flip phones, something.
43:43
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, so I could contact with her.
43:45
SPEAKER_09: That's where I got most of my stuff was from her, and the sales service was spotty.
43:50
SPEAKER_09: I don't know if they shut.
43:51
SPEAKER_09: I'm thinking, like in a national emergency, they can adjust towers and stuff like that.
43:55
SPEAKER_09: I'm I'm thinking that's what I went through.
43:57
SPEAKER_19: Right.
43:58
SPEAKER_09: But uh what stands out more than anything.
44:00
SPEAKER_09: When I finally rounded the curve and saw her standing there with that suitcase.
44:10
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
44:12
SPEAKER_09: I said, we made it.
44:13
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
44:14
SPEAKER_09: And look, he had been gripping the door and gripping the dash.
44:18
SPEAKER_09: It was white knuckles for ten hours.
44:20
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
44:20
SPEAKER_09: And it was like, we made it.
44:22
SPEAKER_09: That was a you know, and it's sad you have to go through that, but you know, that's people just do what people gotta do.
44:29
SPEAKER_09: And I can tell you this, nobody's coming to rescue you.
44:33
SPEAKER_09: Figure out what you need to do to protect your family and do it yourself.
44:37
SPEAKER_16: That's weird you said that, because I told Amy, I said, you know, when you tell that story, it makes me think of that meme that goes around that says, Nobody's coming to save you.
44:45
SPEAKER_16: I was like, yeah, yeah.
44:47
SPEAKER_16: I was like, as long as Pop's walking this earth, he's coming to get us.
44:50
SPEAKER_09: Well, all them grandsons like that.
44:52
SPEAKER_09: They've been raised right.
44:53
SPEAKER_09: And it's yeah, I here's my pra I pray that I they never have that test.
44:58
SPEAKER_09: I know they got it.
44:59
SPEAKER_16: They got it in them.
45:00
SPEAKER_09: They got it in them.
45:01
SPEAKER_09: I pray that they never have to have that test.
45:04
SPEAKER_16: But then the anecdote to all that evil you were talking about, if you can't find a good guy, be the good guy.
45:10
SPEAKER_16: Be Austin the cab driver.
45:12
SPEAKER_16: Be pop from Jamaica.
45:14
SPEAKER_16: Be pop and go get 'em.
45:16
SPEAKER_16: You know, just be a good guy in those situations.
45:19
SPEAKER_09: It's uh, yeah, if I could find him now, I'd I'd call him and talk to him again.
45:23
SPEAKER_09: But I that's why I tell people all the time, I said, look, there's good people everywhere.
45:28
SPEAKER_09: Yes.
45:29
SPEAKER_09: You ain't gonna see them at the five o'clock news.
45:31
SPEAKER_09: They here.
45:31
SPEAKER_17: They're here.
45:32
SPEAKER_09: They're all over the place.
45:33
SPEAKER_09: And when your ox gets in the ditch, hope you can find one.
45:36
SPEAKER_09: That's right, they're gonna be knocking at your door.
45:38
SPEAKER_09: So I just, you know, my whole goal, and you brought it up, is uh maybe somebody listening to this podcast will encourage their 15 or 20-year-old, go pull up some of those clips.
45:50
SPEAKER_17: Uh huh.
45:51
SPEAKER_09: And our story was just about nerves.
45:54
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
45:54
SPEAKER_09: There was thousands of people that lost husbands, dads, moms.
45:58
SPEAKER_09: Go go look at the footage of those people having to jump.
46:00
SPEAKER_17: Right.
46:01
SPEAKER_09: To beat the fire.
46:02
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
46:03
SPEAKER_09: And have to make that decision.
46:04
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
46:05
SPEAKER_09: I'm telling you, evil's out there.
46:07
SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
46:07
SPEAKER_09: Open your eyes up.
46:08
SPEAKER_09: So anyway, I I would assume Amy's got more to talk about than I do, but I will never, ever, ever forget that day and don't want to.
46:19
SPEAKER_09: And uh I hope you don't either.
46:58
SPEAKER_11: Um I just love you more than anything.
47:06
SPEAKER_11: Um, I I'm comfortable and I'm okay.
47:12
SPEAKER_11: Um, a little problem, so um uh I I just love you.
47:18
SPEAKER_11: Please tell my family I love them too.
47:22
SPEAKER_11: Bye, honey.
47:26
SPEAKER_14: When I took the call over, there was a soft-spoken, calm gentleman on the other end.
47:32
SPEAKER_14: He told me that there's three people that have taken over the flight.
47:36
SPEAKER_14: That point I asked him his name.
47:37
SPEAKER_14: He told me Todd Beamer.
47:40
SPEAKER_14: He was from Cranberry, New Jersey.
47:42
SPEAKER_22: Did you make a conscious decision not to tell Todd about the World Trade Center?
47:47
SPEAKER_22: Why?
47:48
SPEAKER_14: Yes.
47:48
SPEAKER_14: Um, because I wanted him to have hope.
47:50
SPEAKER_14: I wanted him to think that he still had a chance.
47:53
SPEAKER_14: I didn't want him to feel like it was just totally hopeless and he definitely didn't have a choice and he knew he was going to die.
47:59
SPEAKER_14: I didn't want him to have that feeling.
48:02
SPEAKER_22: When he wanted to pray, was your sense then that that he knew that Yes, I did.
48:08
SPEAKER_14: I felt that he knew at that time because he had said, Oh, Jesus, help us.
48:13
SPEAKER_14: And then he said, Lisa, would you recite the Lord's Prayer with me?
48:18
SPEAKER_14: And I knew that he knew at that time that it wasn't much left for him to do.
48:25
SPEAKER_22: What do you think that um this country needs to know about the men and women who were on board Flight 93?
48:32
SPEAKER_14: They're all heroes in my eyes.
48:34
SPEAKER_14: They really are.
48:36
SPEAKER_14: They all pitched together and they did what they thought was the best thing to do at that time.
48:41
SPEAKER_14: And um I feel that Todd played a great role in that because when he told the guys, Are you ready?
48:50
SPEAKER_14: I assumed that they were waiting on his cue.
48:53
SPEAKER_14: Then they responded to him and he said, Okay, less roll.
52:50
SPEAKER_09: I love that.
52:51
SPEAKER_09: Old timer built for generations.
53:02
SPEAKER_09: You know, there's nothing I love more than teaching my grandkids how to be better woodsmen.
53:08
SPEAKER_09: The Onex app helps me do that in a way that makes sense to them.
53:13
SPEAKER_09: They're all about apps and that phone.
53:15
SPEAKER_09: Using Onex to set optimal wind on stands that should or shouldn't be hunted on certain winds makes it easy for them to understand that, hey, a north wind blows from the north, not to the north.
53:29
SPEAKER_09: Using that little slope angle layer when teaching them how to read topographical maps with the color-coded shaving makes it a lot easier to explain to them what tightly stacked tofo lines mean.
53:41
SPEAKER_09: Bottom line, Onex Hunt makes learning fun for those young ones and still helps me find success in the field.
53:48
SPEAKER_09: It's an easy-to-use platform.
53:50
SPEAKER_09: Hey, even I can do it.
53:52
SPEAKER_12: I suggest it for any age outdoors.com.