September 11

A couple of weeks ago, I received a copy of Time magazine in the mail that featured the 40th anniversary of man landing on the moon. Following that, I saw TV segments where people would recount their memory of that day. Americans who were alive in the 60's also remember where they were when they heard that President Kennedy was shot. Not even being born in the 60's, I obviously have no story to tell or memory to keep about those events. However, I DO have a memory of September 11, 2001.

We had been living in Germany for over a year and had just moved into our new home in Preist. We had AFN (the Armed Forces Network), but nothing on that network was ever live. Popular shows were generally televised a season late. The kids had already come home from school that day (it was the afternoon in Germany) and I remember seeing a headline on Yahoo that something catastrophic had happened to a building in NYC. I didn't read the details since I was busy with the kids. That afternoon, we went out, and when I returned home, there were two messages on my answering machine from Sarah Simmons. The first said that a plane had just slammed into one of the World Trade Towers. The second message from a few minutes later said that both towers had collapsed. I quickly called John who had already heard about it, and I logged onto the computer to read the details.

I know that in the US things were scary. Airports closed down and nobody was exactly sure what had happened. I also know that there was continuous news on all the networks about the attack. From what I hear, the video of the airliner plowing into the tower was shown ad nauseum. However, not having a live news feed and not having access to German news networks, it all seemed rather surreal to me. We had a dial-up internet connection so I couldn't get any live news there either. Quite honestly, our lives went on without more thought about the attack. The only emotion I felt was inconvenience from the whole experience when I had to wait in long lines to enter the base because every vehicle was being inspected.

Over the next week, I started seeing photos in magazines on the news stands, and the significance of the event finally hit me. This wasn't some small suicide attempt in a foreign land--this was a massive attack on our own soil. I can't remember where I heard it, but a couple of days later there was a report on the surviving family members. They had made public recordings, listing the details of their missing family members. "This is ...... and I'm looking for ...... who worked on ..... floor in the World Trade Center. Please help me find them." Often these pleas were accompanied by tears. It just broke my heart for those family members and the reality of what had happened became too real. What a tragedy.

Coming from a long line of war heroes and being stationed on an air base, I have an appreciation for men who have served, fought or died for our country. That day, the patriots weren't wearing military uniforms, but instead were an army of policemen, firemen, medics and courageous

volunteers. On the first anniversary of September 11, I felt great sadness for the senseless loss of the victims.

Today, while driving and listening to NPR, the weekly segment from StoryCorps came on. I look forward to it each week. Usually, the segments portray comedy or romanticism or incredulity. Today, however, I was once again reminded that people's lives were changed that day in September. Here it is for you (click on the link and press the "play" button next to the photo).

John Vigiano and his wife Jan