This story covers in detail the series of events, as I witnessed them, of September 11th, 2001. At the time I was a 5th Grader at the Tarawa Terrace II Elementary School in Jacksonville North Carolina approximately 10 miles away from Camp Lejeune Marine Expeditionary Base.
These events took place in the old elementary school, a new elementary school was in development during the time of the attack. In the spring of 2002 the new elementary school was opened after a ground breaking ceremony took place.
September 11th, 2001
Tarawa Terrace II Jacksonville, NC
I remember the exact time, place and environment I was in when I received the news of the 911 attacks. I was in Ms. Pina's 5th grade class a TTII elementary school in Jacksonville North Carolina.
Ms. Pina was a 5th grade teacher with over 20 years of experience. She led her classroom with a strict policy on discipline, self accountability and excellence.
We had just completed our morning routine of reciting the national anthem along with the school motto followed by announcements from the school principal over the over-head intercom system.
Just as Ms. Pina began to cover the agenda for the day, which generally included collection of homework assignments from the previous day, she received an anonymous phone call from another teacher.
I assumed that the phone call entailed some form of gossip and/or exchange of information involving schedules. However I would soon realize that the conversation was much more serious than my 11 year old mind could imagine at the time.
After a few short minutes, Ms. Pina ended the conversation and proceeded to turn on the mounted television located just above her desk. Ms. Pina's desk was located in the front left corner of the room, when facing the chalk board, parallel to the class room entrance.
Over the next 10-15 minutes we watched the video footage of the first building smoking. Oblivious to why it was smoking, or why Ms. Pina was breaking her guidelines of discipline and order to allow us to watch television, the classroom took advantage of this rare opportunity of assumed gratitude.
Ms. Pina remained glued to the television with her back to the classroom. I do not recall which news channel we were watching at that particular time, however I understood that whatever it was that we were watching was serious as Ms. Pina's attention remained focused on the television as the class began to unravel.
The scene on the television felt pointless at the time as it contained a video loop of the first tower smoking. I had no context as to what was actually going on, let alone the seriousness of the event. However I knew that there was some level of importance as occasionally the video would switch to the reporter, whom appeared to be in distress while continually interjecting new pieces of information as they received them.
Some of the class started to take advantage of Ms. Pina's lack of attention as an opportunity to engage in free play and disruption, as others remained glued to the television screen.
After what felt like an eternity, suddenly a loud outburst of emotion proceeded from the news reporter as the second plan had just crashed into the second tower.
Immediately followed was an a scream of panic from Ms. Pina. Suddenly the classroom became immensely quite by which I could several people begin to cry. It was abundantly clear to the class at this time what was happening on the television.
Shortly there after we began to watch the first building crash. Within minutes Ms. Pina shouted, "Oh my God the people are jumping from the building". A few moments later the second building started to crash.
I vaguely remember watching Ms. Pina turn-around and face the class amongst the eerie shrieks and whimpering of fellow classmates in the room. Ms. Pina had a clear sign of distress on her face and to my surprise she too had a stream of tears falling from her face.
Within a few short moments a bell dinged from the intercom speaker in the room. The principal, also sounding very distressed instructed teacher’s to move their classes in an orderly fashion to the gymnasium, where we would proceed with the hurricane procedure.
It is important to note that in 2001 the concept of active shooters and terrorist threats against schools were simply not reality. The only real threat we’d ever prepared for was a hurricane or fire drill in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
As instructed we silently lined up to exit the class room and proceeded to walk through the school corridors to the gymnasium. I remember very clearly seeing the looks on the other teacher’s faces. As we passed Mrs. Legé’s 4th grade class I remember seeing nearly every student in her classroom whimpering and crying with fear. It was as if every teacher in the school had just witnessed the same course of events with their students.
Over the course of the next hour the entire school body waited, packed into the gymnasium with gut wrenching silence. I vividly recall shear panic and murmurs of other teacher’s wondering if our base would be targeted among the chaos.
Finally we received the news from the principal that school would be canceled for the remainder of the day and we were to return home.
As I walked across the field behind the school heading towards the tree-line where my house was just on the other side I remember hearing other kids walking quickly holding hands fearing for their life. I was the only child attending that school as my brother was attending Kindergarten at a different school and my sister was barely a year old.
When I walked into the front door of the house, my mother rushed me in with her hand on the small of my back and closed the door. I could see that she too had the television on as well as every curtain in the house closed. She was on the phone with one of our family members discussing the events that were taking place.
After a short while, my mother attempted to restore some level of balance as the shock wore off. We played board games at the kitchen table as we waited to hear from my father who at the time was an active duty Marine working on a different base. Bear in mind, in 2001 cell-phones were extremely expensive and not every family had one, let alone every member within the family.
My father would not return home from work until late night that evening. I recall the two of them discussing the chaos on the base and the heightened security of the base due to the event.
Over the next several weeks I began to learn more about what exactly took place, more importantly I learned the seriousness of what was lost. I went through a series of evolving emotions. I was afraid at first, but ultimately become angry as I’d started to learn the real definition of terrorism and hatred.
Within a few weeks my father received news that he would be apart of the first group of Marine’s that would fight in the war against Afghanistan.
By this time I knew exactly who Osama Bin Laden was. I knew without a doubt who Al Qaeda was and what they had done.
Let me make something abundantly clear. As the 11 year old son of a United States Marine, there is something very different about dependents and children of active duty service members compared to the rest of the world. We live and grow up with a high level of respect and exposure to military customs, courtesies and history. We take great pride in the sacrifices our mother’s and father’s are providing to this country. We are patriots and supporters of our military. In a lot of cases life on the base is all we know so it becomes apart of our DNA.
When my father shared the news that he would be leaving for war, we celebrated. We were obviously worried for his safety, but deep down in side I knew that is exactly where my father wanted to be. Fighting that war to keep us safe. The mentality of war during that time served a different purpose for our family. War during that time was less about my father not returning and more about him being in a better position to keep us safe.
The camaraderie of inhabitants on the base is none like any other. Families created network support groups. Children were glued to the television eager to discover the next major accomplishment we've made in the war. President George Bush was a hero. We all watched his address to congress when we declared war against Afghanistan. Outbursts of celebration could be heard throughout every home on the base. In a way you could say that we took the 911 attacks personally. Our mother's and father's were trained warriors. We were proud of what they did and how hard they fight. Going to war sparked a vigor of determination and resilience in every human being on that base.
Life on the base would be changed for several years to come. Initially the base was operating under FPCON/DEFCON Alpha, which is the lowest level of security aboard the base. Following September 11th the level was escalated to Delta which is the highest level of security. Delta level security on the base meant that no one was allowed to enter or leave the base without authorization from the base commanders office.
I remained on the base for nearly a year before any non active-duty family member was able to enter and exit the base without proper pre-authorization. Several years later we would remain on Charlie and Bravo status often periodically exculpating back to Delta.
When I left Jacksonville North Carolina in 2008 the base was still operating at a minimal level of Charlie and Bravo. I never saw the status change back to Alpha after this day.
Either way, my life would never be the same after this day. In fact life for every United States citizen would be changed forever. The war against Afghanistan would last two decades followed by a significant loss of life to our nation. Our news and media coverage would be changed for the foreseeable future. I've always wondered, what did we cover in the news prior to September 11th.
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