Post Your 9/11 Memory Here (LONG)

Sep 11, 2024, 1:35 PM

On 9/11 I was at a National PepsiCo meeting in Dallas, TX. We had about 800 people in to do consolidated training of Frito, Quaker, Gatorade and Tropicana. That morning we had entered an opening general session there was some rumblings in the crowd as cell phones started to ping with voicemails and a few folks had texts I believe, but no one really could check their VM.

The speaker was quietly interrupted by the then President of Gatorade and with a whisper the speaker went visibly pale. The older gentlemen then gave a very brief comment about the Twin Towers being stuck by aircraft. We were all released to check phones etc. for an hour and then came back to the room for a more formal brief saying essentially all of us were stuck at the hotel, a mega Marriott property, and our global mobility group was working on transport solutions to get everyone back to their home cities. We had over 400 people from the Northeast, many of whom had family and friends at the WTC.

The meeting group then reworked reservations so all of us could stay as long as we needed and they shifted to 100% buffet style meals. The hotel set up recreation areas outdoors and indoors bringing in everything from ping pong and pool tables to soccer nets, bikes, board games, tv rooms etc. Also, PepsiCo did not cut off company paid for booze, a few of us abused that privilege. I had a rental car as I was in the middle of relocating from Cranbury, NJ to Dallas so I could house hunt etc. As every rental car in DFW dried up immediately after airports shut down, I was very lucky to have a car.

Within a few days, a fleet of rented busses, cars, SUVs, Limos pretty much shuttled everyone back to home station. I stuck around for a few days, did house hunting and then was eventually able to fly back to Philadelphia to be back with the wife. Our neighborhood of 70 homes ended up losing around 7 people to the terrorist attack and it was an odd time to sell our home, in a neighborhood wracked by loss. Interestingly, my wife and I met Todd Beamer (The "Let's Roll" guy who led the cockpit assault on the PA flight headed for DC) the weekend before at the Cranbury, NJ fall festival. I distinctly remember him, his wife and kids as they all were strikingly attractive people.

We did finally sell our home and move to Dallas but still remember this day always. God rest the souls of those lost and those who still suffer the loss of family and friends.

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I was a young tank company commander at Fort Hood, TX and we had just completed an all night gunnery qualification out at one of the main tank ranges that morning on 9/11.

We were all tired but excited because the entire company qualified that night before. That morning, 1SG and I were walking down the tank line greeting and joking around with the team as everyone was doing final maintenance and chow. My BN Cdr's HUMVEE pulled up to me and driver asked me to go with him, that the BN commander wanted me to come up to the tower on top of the hill.

When I got up there, everyone looked to be in total shock as I shifted towards the one small TV in the tower which was showing live coverage of the attack on the WTC. I had a nauseous feeling - that I would experience several times again over the years. I realized my wife (fiancé at the time) was a flight attendant based out of Boston and was supposed to have been flying at this time. Later that day I was able to get a hold of her and to my relief found out she had decided to drop her trip the day before. We got married 11 days later.

I went back down to the company and by that time the guys were buzzing as they had all heard what had happened and all were trying to call their families and others were talking to my 1SG. There was such an intensity as we gathered around, so many unknowns at that time. My 1SG's sister worked in the same area as the WTC and I remember our anxiousness as he tried to get word on her safety.

Our road march back to main post was surreal. The company radio was quite the whole way back, not one transmission, everyone was wondering what would be next - are we going to war?

Many good men from this company did in fact go on to war in Iraq and AFG (numerous times with numerous units) over the years. Many of those men made the ultimate sacrifice.

I hope we as a Nation never take our advancements, technology, and prosperity for granted. I hope also we never fail to fully appreciate our freedom and our National Treasure (our men and women) suffered to uphold it. Never underestimate those who may wish to do harm upon us. It happened so suddenly and unexpectantly.

Message was edited by: Oddball®

Post Your 9/11 Memory Here (LONG)

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