Never Forget - 9/11 reader memories

Twenty years ago on Sept. 11, 2001 Americans watched on television or were witness to the horror as aircraft hit the World Trade Center Twin Towers and crashed into the Pentagon. The images that were replayed over and over on the television and that others witnessed first-hand are seared in the minds of those of us old enough to remember. When the dust cleared, the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks not only united Americans but also changed our country forever.

Nineteen men hijacked four US commercial planes bound for California on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. They committed murder-suicide killing 2,977 people in and around the World Trade Center in New York City, in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Most of those who perished were civilians except for 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel.

Seeley Lake resident Tom Browder gave a gripping, personal account of ground zero in last week's issue. We asked our readers to share their memories of that fateful day. Thank you to those who responded to help us all never forget...

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Sue and I were in Portugal having attended a wedding. We were having lunch in a restaurant on the Spanish border and I could see a TV on the wall. I used to work in the building immediately south of the WTC and I saw, on the TV, the first plane fly into the building. I was trying to work out what movie they were showing as there was no sound. Another guest seeing me watching said something about the police.

We drove back to our hotel and switched on CNN and realized what had happened. We knew our daughter Caroline was at a conference in Miami and her husband Dwight was flying with the Navy on reserve duty in the south Caribbean. But where was our son?

Our MCI calling card was immediately canceled for some reason but I got through to my sister in the UK but it was impossible for her or us to call the USA.

I eventually got an MCI operator who put me through to Ohio to investigate why our card was canceled. The guy I spoke to was concerned that I was fraudulently pretending to be a customer. I suggested that if I were trying to fraudulently convince him that I was a customer, would I use Constantinides as my name!

Our son, Simon, eventually managed to call us in the early hours to tell us all the family were safe. He had been into the WTC the day before where he had staff.

Caroline and her colleagues hired a bus with a couple of drivers to drive non-stop home to New York.

We returned to the USA via London on the 17th. Security was very tight and American Airlines highly organized. People were put in lines depending on destination to specific desks. For people on later flights, food and drink was served in the parking lots. Check in was very smooth but we went through three checkpoints before boarding the aircraft to Newark.

Interesting that the flight attendants were mostly large men with obvious guns!

Patrick Constantinides

Seeley Lake, Montana

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I was a US Fish and Wildlife Service/National Wildlife Refuge law enforcement officer, then called Refuge Officer and now called Federal Wildlife Officer, at Hanford Reach National Monument. In the early morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I received a cell phone call from a FWS Refuge Officer based in Florida. He called to inform me the first plane had hit. Stunned, I drove over 90 mph to the Refuge Complex office in Richland, Washington. Later we heard that one of our Refuge Officers Richard Guadagno was on United Flight 93. It is believed he was one of the passengers who fought for control of the plane. He was what we then called dual function, both fully commissioned law enforcement and his other National Wildlife Refuge duties.

Never forget ... Remembering Rich Guadagno (1962-2001): Richard J. Guadagno was the 38-year-old manager at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge in California when he died on Sept. 11. He and 39 other passengers and crew were aboard United Flight 93 when the hijacked plane bound for San Francisco from Newark, New Jersey crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Carleen Gonder

Seeley Lake, Montana

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Bud and I were still living back east in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania-the eastern part of Pennsylvania on 9/11. We were celebrating my nephew's birthday on Sept. 1 and my 40th birthday on Sept. 12. My nephew wanted to take a trip to NYC for his birthday. So, along with my grandfather, sister, nephew, aunt, Bud and I, we all went to take the Circle Line Ferry boat for a trip around Manhattan for the day. This was on Sept. 9. I think I might have some of the last pictures taken of the twin towers on that day as we passed them from the boat. 

Since it was my 40th  birthday, my sister was taking me on a road trip. On Sept. 10 we were in Boston and went right by the airport (from which two of the planes took off) and ended up in Mystic, Connecticut. We checked into our motel room and went to the Mystic Aquarium. As is usual for me, I watch some news in the morning before starting my day. On Sept. 11 I did the same thing. I turned on the TV and saw that one of the towers was on fire on the top floors. I yelled to my sister, who was taking a shower, that one of the towers was on fire! I wonder what happened? Then as I was watching it burn I saw another plane fly directly into the other tower! I yelled at my sister to come out and look at this! "How could the pilot not SEE the building? It was right in front of him! OMG. How could he keep flying that plane into the building?" My sister sat down on the other bed as we both watched in amazement at to what was happening. Of course the news network didn't know what was going on either. No thought that this could be a terrorist attack even crossed our minds. We just couldn't figure out how this was happening. The more we watched, things were becoming a little clearer. There was a plane that flew into the Pentagon by that time and they thought we were under attack. I called Bud-it took me three times to get through to him as the phone lines were all jammed and told him to turn on the news and that we would be home soon. 

By that time we were crying over all the people who were killed and how horrible this was. And we were only about 1 hour away from it all. We decided to go out and get some air and go to Mystic Seaport to try to have some fun, not realizing the impact all this would have. We got to the Seaport and they were already closing things down. Come to realize there is a Naval Submarine Base in Groton, only several miles away and they were on high alert. We walked around in the parking lot deciding what to do next and everyone had their car radios on with the volume turned up high so everyone could hear the news. We just listened like everyone else and cried like everyone else and was scared like everyone since we didn't know what was happening. We were so close to the action and how do we get home? Are there roadblocks? Are we going to war? Is the country under attack?

At that point, we decided to just go home in case things got worse. So we started our four-hour ride home. We had to take the long way and avoid any big cities in case something else happened. I don't remember too much about the ride home but that we made it. Of course, the following days and weeks we were glued to the TV trying to take in all that happened and finding out that yes, this was a terrorist attack. Calling friends to see who they knew that was either killed or hurt by all this and "what did you hear"? We remember seeing the horrible images of all three places that were hit by planes in the attack. People's lives will never be the same. 

I will never forget 9/11 and how close we were to it all. The fear and uncertainty. Being a little selfish knowing that my birthday will always be on Sept. 12 in the shadow of Sept. 11 and being sad for how many people have suffered and died through it all.

We must never forget... people who were in the towers who died, children who died, firefighters who died and police who have died because of this cowardly act of terrorism. 

Chris Jewett

Seeley Lake, Montana