This is the Tragedy of 9/11, seen through the eyes of an ordinary man, a worker, a dad, a husband, and a U.S. citizen. September 11 started just like any other day for me. I was operator foreman for a contractor working a power plant in alabama. I drove the bus that transported the workers from the parking lot, to the plant nearly a mile away. Those who talk loud, talked loud, those who were normally quiet and reserved this early in the morning were quiet and reserved. It seemed like any other ordinary day. Little did we all know that this day would change us, our country, and our world,,,,,,,we had no idea. I drank my usual two or three cups of coffee, before heading out of the break shack, out into the jobsite, getting my head together and arranging everything I needed to complete the days projects. I went outside, and it's now light outside, I looked up at the sky, that beautiful blue sky. I remember thinking how I had never seen the sky so blue, so vivid and breathtaking. It was like an artist had painted a canvas and had mixed just the right colors to make the most beautiful background ever seen. I climbed aboard my machine, a backhoe, went to the site, and began digging a trench for a new water line we were installing. One of the other foreman walked up, and I turned off the backhoe so I could hear what he had to say. He told us that a plane had crashed into the world trade center, and it had set the building ablaze. I'm a rather simple country guy, not really informed of things of the world, polotics, business, and things perhaps the entire world was familiar with but me. I had no idea what the trade center was, what it was for, or who was in it. I was soon to learn about it all. As I said, not being familiar with such things, I remember commenting about how terrible it was for the pilot, the passengers on the plane, and those poor innocent people in the building, but otherwise not giving much thought to the whole incident. Our world was filled with tragedies, traffic accidents, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods. I guess we become a little complacant about death these days. I started my machine back up, and resumed digging. As I toiled away at the job at hand concentrating on the depth of the ditch I was digging, and making sure not to let dirt fall back into the ditch, I looked over my right shoulder as my superintendant pulled up in his truck. He informed me to get my men together, and tell everyone who worked for our company, to meet down at the office immediately. I thought this rather odd, most times the big boss wants people working, getting the job done, and concentrating on getting our projects underway, and completed, but as instructed I gathered my men up, and several other workers I told to go to the office, and don't ask me why, for I have no idea what's going on. I went down to the office, parked my machine, stood outside the office at the door to smoke that last cigarette before we go into the "no smoking" office, and helped corral the men into the office. What happened next would change my life forever, and I'm sure everyone else was the same. The superintendant made a small speach to us as they were plugging up a large television set. He said I know you have all heard about the plane that hit the world trade center, and some of you have heard about the second plane. Immideately my heart sank into my stomach,,,,second plane? This could only mean that this was no accident, perhaps a misguided pilot who somehow got off course and hit a rather tall building. No, this was intentional! We sat and watched CNN inform america of the goings on, the hit on the pentagon, the third plane that somehow crashed and believed to be headed to another "strike target" near pennsylvania. Strike target? This is the united states, this isn't some communist country that you always hear about on tv and the radio, the bomings, the wars, shooting, killing. For heavens sake, this is the US! At first, I just couldn't believe it. We are a target for terrorists? What in the world would make them want to come all this way, just to attack us? It was so surreal, and so unbelievable to think such a thing was happening. Attacks going on it seemed to the right, to the left, and everywhere in between. My second thought was well, at least there's nothing in alabama for them to target. I then thought of what terrorists goals are. They are purposed to create fear, havoc, and disrupt peoples lives. To make them live in fear, to terrorize people, in other words. I thought about what could be targets in alabama, to cause havoc and destruction. Disrupt the power sources, poison water supplies, destroy us in any way they could, by any means possible. I remembered the chemical weapons storage in our state, the nuclear power plants in our state, the explosives and fuel storage facilities in our state. Didn't take me long to have myself petrified of what could happen. I then turn my thoughts to my wife and children. My God I hope they stay safe at least until I get home! We were'nt living far from the chemical storage place, and we are always close to water systems that could be used to send boats with bombs on them, blow up the damn and flood the place, thoughts just rambled. They had accomplished one thing, they had instilled fear into our once complacant hearts. They succeeded,,,,,,,,TO BE CONTINUED
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