SQJ Taipei

We had been in the USA for exactly one week. We were at my parents’ house.

Angie let me sleep in a little bit that day. I must have woken up around 7:50 because the first thing I did was get on the internet to check the news. The Drudge Report was reporting a commuter plane had just struck the North Tower. Drudge is very fast with breaking news and is often faster than TV or other news sources so remember that I kept refreshing the page while I read the other news of the day.

When Drudge reported that a second plane hit the south tower… I knew to turn on the TV. As it turns out, they had already been broadcasting since shortly after the first tower was hit.

Like the rest of America (and most of the rest of the world) I watched in horror as the towers burned and then collapsed. I had been to the WTC in 1986 and figured there must have been 50,000 people dead. It is amazing that the death toll was only 2749 considering what it could have been.

For me… the most personal and memorable moment occurred the afternoon of the attacks. My kids were 5 and 3 at the time and I wanted to get them out of the house and away from the constant replays of the WTC attacks. It must have been about 3PM when we went out for a walk. At 3:36PM, we were returning to the house and I heard the distinct (and to me - rare) sound of a fighter jet taking off.

My parents still live in the town where I grew up and we grew used to the large aircraft taking off from Offutt Air Force Base. This sound was different. I heard the F-16 and another (bigger) plane taking off together and watched the sky where we would usually see the planes… soon, Air Force One appeared with an F-16 off its wing.

My family all assumed that the President would come to Bellevue because of the underground communications available there… but we didn’t hear him fly in and we didn’t hear on the news where he was.

We all knew of the difficult days ahead for our nation and for our President. I pointed the plane out to the kids and I prayed for President Bush and for our country… something I do often.

I saw Oliver Stone’s movie World Trade Center last night. I was very impressed. I’m not going to be critical of anything in it. I can’t say that all that was portrayed was authentic or not… although I believe that most of it was true. If you haven’t seen it because of Oliver Stone’s reputation… don’t let it stop you… the movie was completely a-political and instead focused on the stories of 2 families who were affected by the attacks and the people who helped them. Like I said, I was very impressed. Of course the movie is sad… but it is also hopeful and forward looking. There is no blaming and I would say it is an appropriate tribute to those killed in the attacks.

The quote of the movie for me? After a couple US Marines locate 2 police officers buried in the rubble… “We’re not leaving, We’re the Marines, you are our mission.”

I’m not looking all over the web for 9-11 blog posts/articles… but I need to give you just a few MUST READ LINKS… as follows…

Michele Malkin has been posting all day according to the times certain things happened 5 years ago. Right now they are all on her main page, but they’ll move to archives quickly as fast as she is posting. I might come back to this post and give the direct links later… or better yet… if someone would leave those links in the comments I’d be grateful.

Peggy Noonan’s “I Just Called to say I Love You” is a touching reminder and highlight of some of the phone calls made on that horrifying day 5 years ago.

The 2996 Project is a project launched by D.C. Roe involving more than 3,000 bloggers who have joined together to commemorate each and every one of the victims of 9/11 on this fifth anniversary. (The website is currently alternating between DOWN and SLOW, but will hopefully be up again soon.)

I’ll be talking with my kids about the importance of this day. I hope you will too.

Have a safe day.