United Airlines Flight 175 flies low toward the South Tower of the World Trade Center, shortly before slamming into the structure. The north tower burns after an earlier attack by a hijacked airliner in New York City, on September 11, 2001. (Reuters/Sean Adair)
Rep. Steve Russell, Military Times: How Sept. 11 changed America
I remember where I was when I heard the news. It was Sept. 11, 2001. I was serving as the aide-de-camp to the commander of all American-based U.S. Army forces. We were having a welcoming ceremony.
At the time, I didn’t realize how much that day would change my own life. Now as I look back, I realize how much Sept. 11 changed it and our country forever.
As the new deputy commander, I had to interrupt the general and whisper that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center.
We knew immediately we were at war.
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WNU Editor: September 11 did not only changed America .... it changed the world. After the second plane had hit the World Trade Center .... and the Pentagon was on fire ... that was the moment in time that I realized that America was at war and nothing will be the same. I then called my brother in San Francisco where I woke him up and told him that the U.S. was now at a state of war. To say that he was shocked is an understatement (he misunderstood me, he initially thought the U.S. had experienced two nuclear strikes). As he told me later .... he and everyone else knew that nothing was going to be the same anymore. In my case .... I followed the news, and told my family and friends in Russia and Ukraine that it would be best to stand aside and let the U.S. go after the terrorists who did this. The next day I decided to take some time off from work. I visited New York City 10 days later to see an old friend. The airport was surreal. It was empty. No one was traveling. As for my experience in New York City. That experience .... the posters of missing people, the smell in the air, the unity and purpose among New Yorkers to overcome this tragedy and to bring justice to those who caused it .... I will never forget. I then flew to the Bay area to visit my brother, and spent the next week in Napa and wine country. And yes .... nothing has ever been the same since then.