The morning of September 11, 2001 found me and 20 others on a charter bus getting ready to leave Idaho Falls, Idaho, after several days of fishing the Henry’s Fork River, and the south fork of the Snake River. I had a part-time job working in a fly shop, and one of the benefits of the job was flying out west every year to attend the Fly Tackle Dealer trade show. That year’s show was in Salt Lake City, but the real highlight of the trip would come after the show, when we were treated to two days fishing on two of the best trout streams in the United States.
The last guy out of the hotel where we were staying let everyone know that our flights out of Salt Lake City would likely be delayed, as CNN had just reported that an airliner had crashed into the World Trade Center. I heard several grumbles from the group, but I don’t think anyone was really that upset, since the worst that could happen was that we would all have an extra day off, before we got back to our offices. That all changed, when half an hour later, someone’s cell phone rang, with the news that a second plane had hit the other tower of the World Trade Center. I will never forget the immediate visceral feeling that this was an act of war, my generation’s Pearl Harbor. But who or what country would dare to attack us on our soil?
When the three of us from our fly shop got back to the hotel where we were staying in Salt Lake City, we gathered around the television in one of our rooms, transfixed by what we were watching. I don’t remember what station we were watching, or who the announcer was, but I do remember the absolute immediacy of watching first one tower, then the other, falling on itself, with who knows how many people in the rubble. The later news of a plane hitting the Pentagon, and Flight 93 crashing to the ground in Pennsylvania couldn’t make me any more numb to what was happening.
At 68 years old today, I can remember exactly where I was when JFK was assassinated, where I was when the Challenger space shuttle blew up, and where I was when the United States was attacked on 9/11. Each of these events will never be forgotten, and in the case of the attack on the Twin Towers, never forgiven.
DePoy Energy 