I shall never forget that morning. I was reading the bible, the Book of Daniel. His surreal dream
and having to tell the king and the fear that was instilled in all those in the area. I had closed
my bible, turned on the tv and saw the smoke from American flight billowing out of the building. I
could not discern if what I saw was fact or fiction from what I just read. I then remember the news
man saying a bomb went off in Washington. I got dressed and ran downstairs of the Los Angeles hotel I was staying in. I hadn’t smoked for a few months, as I was trying to give it up, but that ended after I paid $9 for a pack of cigs in the lobby. I ran outside and in a knees to my chest position, I smoked my cigs and kept saying….Alan has to come back. I walked in to see the big screen and at that exact time, I saw the second airplane UA 175, go into the World Trade Center. I just screamed “it’s United.” By now I was amongst the Boston Crew that came in on Monday on flight 175. There was a sense of dread, the unknown, who do we go to and where was my friend Al who left for the airport that morning.
More flight attendants gathered and Al and other crew members came in. They had to hijack a van to
get them back to the hotel.
My thoughts are mixed. The flight attendants and pilots were the first responders and yet that is
never mentioned. If it was not for American Flight Attendant Ong, there would have been no description, nothing to go on that it was Al Qaida. They gave their lives to save others and they need to be recognized just as much by the public as the firemen and police….and their companies need to recognize them for the true heroes that they are.
We were all affected. We will never be the same.