9/11, Looking Back...

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been six years since the attacks of 2001. From the picture above showcasing the Pentagon, you wouldn’t believe that a plane flew into it six years ago. It happened, and as a nation, we've all changed as result.

...but six years ago, life was so different.

For me, it started as any other day. I had taken my vehicle in for an oil change at the Honda dealership in Fairfax. I liked to go there, because there was a bookstore across the street where I could hang out while my car was being worked on.

At one point, I decided to check my voice mail. My wife was in Florida, showing off our newborn twin girls. She was the first of my many voice mails that I still remember to this day:

"Scott, wake up! You're not going to believe this, but a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center."

Ok, I hear that message and I'm thinking, "Yea, right." The next message was from my production manager at the time:

"Scott, we need you at work now! A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center."

Ok, now I'm thinking to myself, "What’s going on?"

(A quick side note here)

As I write this, recalling these events in so much detail still brings me the chills...a small example of how 9/11 personally touched me.

At any rate, I started racing across the street to the dealership, when I listen to the third message from my production manager:

"Scott, where ARE you? A plane just hit the pentagon. We NEED you NOW!"

I can honestly say that at this point, I'm a bit panicked. I race up to the dealership to get my vehicle. The technician says that they are just bringing my car down from the rack. I try to pay for the services with my credit card. Because of all the phone lines being tied up, the card doesn't go through and I didn't have enough cash to totally pay for the services done to my car.

The technician swiped my card for a third time and still nothing. I tell him I work at Channel 9 and I need to get to work right away. Given the nature of what was going on, he understood, and said "don't worry about the credit card. I'm sure you're good for it."

Ok, so I've got my car and I'm driving to work. The scene on the road kind of reminded me of what traffic is like on a snow day. There were many cars leaving the city and very few cars going into the city. The main difference that day: People were leaving their cars on the side of the road and just running to get out of the city.

I finally arrive to work to a bee hive of activity. Our morning director, Billy Rayment is in the chair and has been since the early hours of the morning. I let him know that I'm there and can sit in for him whenever he's ready.

I finally get into the chair and start my day. Things were coming at us fast and furious. Buildings were collapsing. People were running from the scenes of New York and Washington. Our reporters were busy getting people in front of the camera to get eyewitness accounts and some type of explanation from officials on what just happened here. The control room was jammed with managers helping out with coverage shouting out commands of where we need to go next.

I think one of the things that really stuck with me that day was watching video of people who were stranded at the top of the World Trade Center. With a raging fire behind them and no where to go, some people elected to jump off the building either in the hopes of somehow being caught or just to escape the tremendous heat.

It was the one thing that we did our best NOT to put on the air. There was so much devastation of the day, just thinking about the people I saw jumping to escape the inferno of the World Trade Center brings tears to my eyes six years later.

I'll be perfectly honest with you. There was so much going on that day in the control room, that I didn't have time to process it.

Later the next morning, I finally started on my trip home. I drove through Georgetown. I saw military tanks on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. Despite everything I saw and broadcast that day, the sight of those tanks hit me just as hard. The buildings collapsing and the people trying to escape the World Trade Center hit me hard too, but at the time, it was video. It was something I was putting on the air. There wasn't a whole lot of time to process what was going on in the activity of the control room. We just did.

The tanks on the other hand, I had seen personally with my own eyes. I knew the tanks were the direct result of the news we had put on the air that day. After all the things I had witnessed while directing this coverage, my heart just sunk deeper into my chest.

It would be a couple of weeks before I could collect my family from Florida. All air travel was grounded and we were working long days at the station.

When I did get the chance to pick up the family from Florida, it was my first view of how air travel had changed. There were soldiers in the airports with rifles, ready to go at a moments notice.

At that time in Orlando, EVERY piece of luggage was personally searched. Naturally, there were long lines and we even had a bit of a "scare" ourselves.

The gentleman ahead of us had a suitcase that was suspiciously heavy. He had tried to resist security doing a search out in front of everyone. After a bunch of soldiers came by, he relented to the search. His suitcase was filled with a bunch of "girly" magazines. Everyone had a bit of a smile on their face as the gentleman turned eight shades of red.

The following year brought many changes to the entire world. I think it took that whole first year for the true impact of 9/11 to sink in.

On the first anniversary, I did my best to avoid all TV broadcasts marking the first anniversary of the attacks. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I know I didn't want to see planes smashing into the World Trade Center. I know I didn't want to see the human tragedy, the suffering that people had went through.

Of course, when you work at a TV station, you can't really avoid that. I went into work that day, saying to myself, it's just like any other day...but it wasn't. I was so lying to myself.

We were on the air for extended coverage of 9/11. I had walked into the control room. I don't remember what I saw or heard...but whatever it was set me off. I abruptly walked out of the room and for the first time broke down over the events of 9/11/2001.

It took me a year to really do that. Why? I couldn't tell you. I can only surmise that as a television news director, you turn yourself "off" to the news you put on the air and read about on the wires. If you don't turn yourself "off,” I'm a firm believer you'll go into deep depression over the things that we do to each other. It goes without saying there is some pretty bad stuff that happens in this world of ours.

That day, 9/11/2002, I couldn't turn myself "off." I went to a room to be myself for a few minutes to truly let it all out.

Once I did that, I was ok to work. I wasn't ok for what had happened, but I could at least pretend to act professional and do my job.

Looking back, I can see what an impact the events of 9/11/2001 had on me and on us as a nation. When you’re in the middle of it though, it’s hard to do. I remember when I attended the University of Florida; I took a class from Dr. Mickie Edwardson. She taught a class called, "Mass Media, Processes and Effects." It was one of the more important classes I took at UF. In the class, Dr. Edwardson drilled into us the heavy responsibility of what we do and how it could effect people, how the media could ruin lives, or at the same time, reunite families or do general good for the public.

The media was and is a powerful tool, but I don't think Dr. Edwardson ever imagined how it would be used on 9/11/2001 and how seeing those planes hit the World Trade Center would really impact everyone. Just as important, I don't think any of us attending that class so long ago would ever dream we could cover an event as powerful as 9/11...