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Twelve years ago, our country was attacked in an onslaught that killed 2,977 people and changed the lives of millions. Most students at Bob Jones are too young to remember much of what happened that day. All we know about 9/11 is what we have seen on TV. For us, the world is the same as it always has been, but for those who have memories of the world before September 11, 2001, the world has drastically changed.
In memory of this tragic day, some of the residents of Madison have shared their stories to help educate us about the events of 9/11.
Mrs. Robin Dauma, an English teacher at Bob Jones High School, vividly remembers that day. Mrs. Dauma had just returned to work from maternity leave the day before. At the time, Mrs. Dauma was the enrichment specialist at Discovery Middle School. She was in the assistant principal’s office for a conference when she and the other teachers in the conference were called into the principal’s office to take a look at the news on the TV.
They stood and watched the live footage of the plane hitting the first tower. As they stared in wonder at the horrific sight, they watched the other plane plow into the second tower.
Mrs. Dauma recalls her thoughts as she witnessed the tragedy. “My first thought was for the people who were in that building, and I started desperately praying that they would make it out alive. My second thought was that the world was never going to be the same.”
The next few hours were a blur for Mrs. Dauma as she and the other teachers were getting information about what happened in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania. The teachers were told not to tell the students what had happened, but some students heard the news from other sources. One of Mrs. Dauma’s students came to her with tears in her eyes because her father was at the Pentagon, and she and her mother did not know if he had survived or not. The student spent the rest of the day with Mrs. Dauma, and by five o’clock that evening, she had gotten word that her father was safe.
Mrs. Dauma said, “I just remember feeling like time was standing still, like the world was never going to be the same, like my children were going to experience things they should not have to experience. The day is one I never will forget, but one I truly hate to remember.”
Mr. Rodney Schrimsher, a history teacher at Bob Jones, was a teacher at Liberty Middle School on that September day, and remembers exactly what he was doing on that Tuesday morning. He was making preparations for that night’s football game against Sparkman as his students worked on their assignments. At eight in the morning, a teacher knocked on his door and asked to speak to him in the hall where she informed him that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
After re-entering his room, Coach Schrimsher told his class that something huge was happening in New York City as he turned on his presentation computer to CNN. Soon afterward, a shocked class and teacher watched the second plane strike the second tower. Even more news came in reporting that an airplane had struck the Pentagon, and that another airplane was believed to be headed towards the White House.
Coach Schrimsher recalls, “That day and the days that followed were anything but normal. The total number of survivors who were rescued turned out to be minimal. By the third or fourth day, it became apparent—very few survived. The world, it seemed, had stopped turning.”
Yet as time passed, the innate goodness of the human spirit started to overcome the experience of evil.
For the first time in quite a while, Americans (and others around the world) put aside petty differences and stood together to demonstrate their resolve and courage. They sent the message that they would not be intimidated or deterred by the acts of violence committed by a few cowards.
Coach Schrimsher observes, “In that moment, no one was Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal, black or white, rich or poor. We were all American! No terrorist attack could ever take that away. Flags waved, families hugged, neighbors became closer, and faith grew stronger.” Coach Schrimsher said that the one thing that he wants our generation to think about is that “a person doesn’t have to be identified by the bad things in life that happen to them, but rather how that person responds to overcome those things. I believe that our nation and our people have become better, not because of 9/11, but in spite of 9/11.”
Mrs. Kathryn Teare, an anatomy teacher at Bob Jones High School, was working as a nurse practitioner in Decatur, Alabama. She had a patient scheduled for that morning. There was a TV in the kitchen of the office, and she was able to walk back and forth between the patient rooms and the kitchen and keep up with what was going on. It wasn’t until ten o’clock that morning that she remembered that her brother had recently changed jobs. “I had a sudden memory of an email he had sent telling us of the beautiful view he had of Manhattan from his office.” Mrs. Teare called her sister, who justified her fears. His office was in Tower 1. Mrs. Teare was with a patient when the towers fell and didn’t witness the nightmarish sight.
A friend of Mrs. Teare was a nurse at New York University’s Hospital and had access to the twice-daily casualty reports. She called Mrs. Teare every time a new report was issued, but Mrs. Teare’s brother was never on the list. Three days after the attack, Mrs. Teare learned that her brother had been at his computer when the plane hit his tower. He had been instant messaging a friend right after the plane flew into the tower. And no one heard from him after that.
It took a year for Mrs. Teare’s parents to obtain DNA confirmation of her brother’s presence in the remains of the catastrophe. Mrs. Teare remarked, “I guess we all still had kept up our hopes until then. We hoped that maybe he was an amnesia victim and would one day return to our lives.”
Dr. Jon Aycock, the physician for Nucor Steal in Decatur, Alabama, was working at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at the time. That morning had started like any other morning, but while listening to the chest of one of his patients, Dr. Aycock happen to glance at the TV and saw one of the twin towers in flames. He asked the patient what movie he was watching, but the patient replied, “I think it is the news.”
Dr. Aycock and his patient watched the TV and saw the second plane hit the towers. Dr. Aycock remembers saying, “I don’t think that is an accident.” The patient responded, “I think this is going to cause a war.”
The whole hospital was buzzing about the news regarding the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the one remaining hijacked plane. The doctors were called to a meeting and were told to prepare for a mass of casualty patients.
Dr. Aycock mentioned that St. Luke’s is a Trauma One Center and only about thirty minutes from New York City by helicopter. After every one had finished prepping, they all waited, but they never received any patients. There simply were not enough survivors.
Many things happened that day, and every one has her or his own story. Sadly, some of those stories will never be shared. May God bless all of the families who lost loved ones on that tragic day and may our generation, and the generations to come, never forget the events of 9/11.
For more information about 9/11, visit the 9/11 memorial’s web site at: http://www.911memorial.org
