This past Monday marked the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. As I began thinking about that fateful morning, it reminded me of how I found out and exactly what I was doing at that time.
I was just tying my tie getting ready for work when my wife Pat hollered at me to come quickly to the room she was watching TV as she also was preparing for work.
The TV had the second plane that crashing into the Twin Towers in New York City.
As I watched like millions of others were, I was almost in shock what was occurring. I quickly asked myself, “How can this be happening on American soil”?
I finished dressing, kissed Pat good-bye and got in my car heading to the office. I knew in my own mind it would be late that night before I’d see her again.
After the 15-minute drive to the office, my boss met me as I came in the front door. The first thing he told me was, “Start calling your staff back in. We’re putting out an “Extra edition” this afternoon.”
Being the editor for the daily paper in Shawnee at the time, I went to phoning our newsroom employees, most all of whom had worked the night before helping put out the Tuesday morning paper. Many were still in bed and were totally unaware of what had happened.
I informed each we were putting out an “Extra” edition of the paper for that afternoon. It was the first “Extra” since World War II ended.
I went about quickly the task at hand, trying to comprehend the magnitude of the events taking place from thousands of miles away in our own United States.
It brought back memories of the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah building just six years before in 1995 and how I had been responsible for coordinating that coverage.
But the significance of 9/11 far surpassed that of what happened in our state’s capital city.
This act of terrorism took the lives of several thousand, injuring and maiming countless others.
My task on this infamous morning was ensuring we had the news content ready to be printed by a deadline that hadn’t even been set yet.
I was busy the next few hours directing and assisting a staff of great reporters, designers and a photographer that I knew was capable of meeting this formidable challenge.
Even though I was maybe busier in a short period of time than I had been in several years, foremost in my mind was the thought of all those innocent people who had perished and were injured in this senseless act of terrorism.
After we had made our deadline for the “Extra” and it was on our press being printed, I began meeting with staff members as we started working on the next morning’s issue. There wasn’t any time really to take much of a break.
We were in the midst of starting to put together an edition that would be our third to come out in a 24hour period. That was an awesome task for our staff and I had the responsibility of ensuring that it happened.
It was near midnight when I was finally able to get home and see Pat, who was still up, so we could visit about what all had taken place that memorable day.