Take Me To Post Comment Form That's a question many of us heard at the introduction of a popular weekly radio program when we were young. Unfortunately, "Only the shadow knows" is no longer a suitable answer for us or our country.
Who would have thought that our country would be air targeted on 9/11/2001 for the attack and destruction of several thousand lives in three primary locations here in America?
Understandably, the location under attack that hit closest to my heart was Two World Trade Center (2WTC) in New York where for many decades the headquarters of the company for whom I worked, Ebasco Services, Inc., occupied several floors to accommodate more than 2,000 employees. Subsequently, when the company changed ownership in the early 1990s, and the headquarters was located in another large city, Raytheon (the new owner) continued to have some offices at 2WTC. Although I retired from Raytheon almost a decade ago, I was hired to work from my home to support Raytheon as a security consultant through a Denver, CO firm, Worldwide Security Services (WWS). At that time, WWS handled almost all security services for Raytheon.
In this role, I was no longer a Proposal Administrator traveling to major offices or power sites such as Hanford, WA, Denver,CO, New York's 2WTC, TVA, Savannah River Site, etc. as I had been for the previous years where submitting government proposals was my top priority. My new job involved supporting the Vice President, Security who flew from her home near Bush Field outside Augusta to Philadelphia and then via rental car to Princeton, NJ every Monday while reversing the trip on Friday afternoon. She currently holds a security management position at Oak Ridge and the Governor's Office of Homeland Security in Nashville, TN.
Raytheon is a large company with several primary divisions - we were Raytheon Engineers and Constructors, Inc. We were subsequently bought by Washington Group International, and presently the firm as been sold to URS and they have just dedicated their New Nuclear Energy Center located just outside Charlotte, NC in Fort Mill, SC.
Because of Raytheon's concern for their employees' safety and security, it was my job to work closely with the VP, Security to write and publish security documents to ensure that all employees both on and off site were protected. It was also my job to be available on a moment's notice to travel to Princeton, Birmingham, New York, Seattle, Umatilla, Honolulu, or wherever needed.
For example, if we were supporting a major oil refinery in Equatorial Guinea where some of our engineers would be working, we would appropriately research and write documents taking every step to ensure employee safety while traveling and working abroad. Sometimes it meant having a patient air lifted to neighboring Cameroon for emergency surgery.
Another good example involves joining with the military in writing a document detailing steps for evacuating Johnston Island in the Pacific in the event of hurricanes. About two months after flying to our Honolulu office in 2000 to initiate this particular document, we had to put the Emergency Evacuation Preparedness Plan into action when Hurricane Dora marched through the Pacific. We safely evacuated the Island where both military and civilian engineers were efficiently and orderly brought to safety.
In 2000, a year prior to the 9/11 crisis, I made my last trip to 2WTC to outline their Emergency Preparedness Program. Some of you may wonder about the need for this since the WTC had effective Emergency Preparedness Organization (EPO) training in place initiated by joint efforts of the New York Port Authority and the New Jersey Port Authority. While it's clear that both were on top of things at the WTC, our engineers were often out and about on job sites such as nuclear power plants away from the city. Therefore, they required further protection.
In mid August, 2001, my husband and I left Georgia for a leisurely trip driving across the Northwestern US and down through some of our National Parks before driving back to the Eastern US on a more Southern route. Our plans were to stay away for a month. Although every moment of the trip equipped us with pleasant memories, after being gone for a few weeks, something told me to head back to Georgia.
I am so glad that we arrived home a few days before the tragedy of 9/11!
On 9/11, as always, I woke up about 6:00 a.m., put the coffee pot on, read the Statesboro Herald, turned on ABC's Good Morning America and within a short period of time, the horror of 9/11 unfolded in front of my grief-filled soul! All I could see were visions of pain like I had never experienced before. Did I know and had I worked with any of the hundreds of people losing their lives?
It was days before the anguish diminished enough so that I could read e-mails listing those from our company that had lost their lives. Yes, we lost some of our employees for which I feel great sympathy for their families. Fortunately, there was no one on the list with whom I had worked.
A couple years ago, I received a letter from either the US State Department or a similar government agency telling me that I would receive a call from them within a few days. Why, I wondered. When I received the call, I was asked if I was at the WTC on 9/11. My reply was "No, but why do you ask?" Then they told me that the last day that I was at the WTC, I had failed to turn in my badge!
Yes, I still have my badge and I shall treasure it the rest of my life.