September 11, 2001 was the date the world trade centers were attacked.
I was in New York State on the date of the attack, not New York City. I was staying in the town of Newburgh New York. I was filling in for a Distribution Center General Manager. There were several times during my employment with the company, when I was called on to fill in for D C managers.
The morning that the first plane flew into the building, one of the supervisors came to me telling me what had happened. I thought we should see what news was on the TV. They did not have a TV in the break room. I told the supervisor to get a TV out of stock and bring it to the break room. We were able to see the news and it was not good.
During break we made the announcement about the attack, even though most of the employees knew about it (word spreads quick in the building). There were a couple people who had relatives who worked in the trade centers, we allowed them to leave work.
When we learned there was another plane flying around the state, I began to worry that they may be looking for something to fly into. This distribution center was large, it was out of town, and could be a good target for a terrorist.
Later that day when work had ended and I was on my way back to the hotel, I saw more state troupers than I had ever seen, one group was 10 or 12 vehicles driving together heading for Newburgh. I learned that they were gathering in Newburgh in preparation to go to New York City.
I received a call from our home office telling me, “Do not turn your car in, you may need to drive from New York State to Texas state, as all the air lines were shut down”.
Things were very difficult for everyone during the next few days, but we kept working.
After several days, I got a call to turn the car in and go to the Newburgh airport, where I was put on a taxi and transported to a different airport (I don’t remember which airport). I check my luggage and in my suit case I had a pocket knife. When they saw the knife, they called police over. I explained, it is checked baggage, I will not have access to it, and they decided it was ok.
Getting through the check in I went to the gate an found a seat. There were not a lot of travelers in the airport, there was national guards with guns, and police everywhere. It was totally quiet, no one was talking, it was a scary quiet.
We finally got boarded and we flew into New York city airport. As we were flying over the city there was a military airplane flying within sight of our plane. I assume that plane was there to shoot our plane down, if we were to head off course.
We landed there, got on another plane and headed out, not for Texas but another airport.
It happened that Waco was having the Profit-Sharing meeting that night, and my wife went out to the Waco air port to pick me up, but I was delayed. She went back to the profit-sharing meeting to pick up the service award that I was to receive, it was a ring! Dalton had the food vendor make a to-go plate for me, with a steak and the fixens. I made it into Waco a little after mid night.
That is my memories for 9-11. There was more than that, which went on…
A tough memory!
Don Ford
1 comment:
Don I think the airport you took the cab to was Westchester. I thought that you also ended up in Philly for part of that flight.
Also that day, at the beginning of the day I recall a state trooper was out at the RSC for an errand and that 9/11 events cut short his errand.
There were helicopters landing in the lawn of an adjacent warehouse company. The airport your were scheduled to fly from was the mobilization point for emergency medical response into NYC.
The company appreciated your calm demeanor and decisions made during this unscripted and uncertain time.
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