Remembering 9/11/2001

Thinking back on this day....wow! I can't believe it was eight years ago. I was a flight attendant for American Airlines. I had just moved to Dallas from Chicago that August. I was working reserve the month of September, which means I was on call. Any flight they call you for, you take. It was Tuesday morning, and my phone rang, it was my dad. I could hear in his voice something was up. He said go to the TV and turn on the news. At that time only one plane had hit the towers. As I turned on the news, I remember thinking, that must have been a big plane, and then the next plane hit. I said to my dad...."That was a United Plane."

As they started to release small details I learned the first plane was AA. I told him I need to get off the phone. I started looking up all AA flights trying to track down names of the crewmembers flying.

As I watched...with the rest of the nation I started making calls. Quickly AA took down all access to the computers. This is done so that people can be contacted correctly. However I had already seen the name of the first crew to go down.

I receive tons of calls that day, family, friends, co-workers. It was a hard day, and it got worse. I lost a friend in the first plane, and I felt blessed to not be flying. The night before I had flown home from a double NY layover, I had just been there.

I feel very blessed to not have been on a flight that day. I had friends that were on planes sitting on runways with passengers for 72 hours. ATC wouldn't let any plane take of after getting everyone down. They all had to stay put.

I lived in an apartment in the landing path of DFW airport. At anytime you could see 5-10 planes in the sky either taking off or getting ready to land. Not that night. There were no planes in the sky. Wednesday would be the same....nothing. Like a bad movie coming to life.

I received a call on Thursday from AA asking if I would be willing to take a flight. I jumped at the chance. I wanted to help, needed to help. I took a flight into Pennsylvania. This was to take investigators in and to help get AA crew members out. We did have some passengers as well that had been cleared from the FBI. I was one of six flights that day.

As I arrived to take my flight, the airport was like a ghost town. I walked two terminals and didn't see a single person. I rounded the corner to head to my gate and I could see a small group of people. As I approached they stood to their feet and started clapping. It took AA seven hours to find a crew of five to take a flight, and I was one of them.

It was overwhelming the feeling I got walking to the gate. One lady ran to me and gave me a hug saying "thank you for being so brave". I was tearing up, trying to hold it together when the captain of our flight grabbed my bag and said "if you can't do this I understand." I told him I was happy and proud to take the flight.

I had called my family to let them know I was going. My parents were great, but I could tell my mom was ready for me to quit my job.....she even told me I could and move back home.

The flight went great. We landed around 11pm. I was the number #1 that flight. It was my one request when I took the call from AA. I wanted to be the last chance prior to someone breaking through the cockpit. I don't know why, but I felt like I was ready to give a little hurt back if I needed to.

As we landed I made the announcement that you all hear when you fly, but this time it was a little different.

As I summed up with announcement I add "Thank you to everyone for being so understanding during this time. We thank you for flying with American. God bless you and keep you, and God bless America!"

As I said those words the entire plane broke with cheering. Passengers were clapping and standing to their feet, people got up and started hugging complete strangers. As we parked at the gate and the cockpit door opened. Passengers one by one came off the plane. Tears streaming down their face looking to find the words to thank the crew. Two passengers had on their military hats and gave a solute to the pilots. They gave me hugs and wished me well. The woman who had hugged me at the gate came close to me and said "Thank you." gave me a hug and walked away.

I'm so blessed I was able to witness this, there would never be another flight like that in my career. I was able to be there and do something.

So, to all my fellow Americans, remember those who went to work and gave their all that day. We pray for those left behind and that God's grace be poured down on you, on us, and on the world.

Remembering 9/11/2001