COUNTY RESIDENTS REMEMBER
From a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Persian Gulf to a Wyoming campground to a Clearview Mall store, the events of Sept. 11 caught people at work, on vacation or on the road.
Anne Halvorson of Parker was serving on a Navy destroyer chasing oil smugglers in the Persian Gulf the day of the attacks.
“Our ship was old and falling apart so on a good day communicating back home was sketchy,” she said.
Her commanding officer, she said, told the crew the news. Later, a helicopter from another ship ferried over recordings of the news reports for Halvorson and her shipmates to watch.
“Our mission never really changed ... we carried on our original deployment mission, chasing down smugglers,” she said.
Scott Kerr of Butler was a Delta Air Lines pilot who landed in Los Angeles in the early afternoon of Sept. 10, 2001.Kerr said he was scheduled to fly to New York City's JFK airport the morning of Sept. 11.“I awoke to an early call from my mother at home in Pittsburgh. She said 'Turn on the TV, a plane has hit the World Trade Center,'” he said.“I expected a similar incident to the B-25 that flew into the Empire State Building in bad weather in 1945,” he said. “ As I turned on the TV, I saw clear skies over Manhattan and witnessed the second plane impacting the south tower. I knew we were in trouble.”On their way to the airport, Kerr and his copilot learned the government had shut down the nation's airspace.Kerr said in the three days he spent in his Los Angeles hotel, he was worried about his sister who lived in worked in Manhattan in the shadow of the World Trade Center.“She heard and felt the impacts but didn't know actually what it was. News broke as the towers collapsed, her office was evacuated,” Kerr said.Ground transportation was nonexistent, she walked some 70 blocks home through the falling debris to East 72nd Street. In time, she learned that she had lost a very close friend, Lindsay, in the collapse of the south tower.
Jack McMillin, who was Butler County controller from 1994-2014, was just beginning a Butler County Prison Board meeting at 9:45 a.m.“From that point forward there would be nothing normal about the remainder of that day. Shortly after 10, a corrections officer abruptly interrupted the meeting and announced that two planes had crashed into the south and north towers of the World Trade Center,” McMillin said.“The meeting adjourned shortly thereafter. Our prison warden later told me you could have heard a pin drop among the inmates crowded that morning around a congregate area TV,” he said.McMillin said he returned to his office in the government center where he learned of more attacks.“Later that morning, I encountered a sheriff deputy patrolling a nearly empty Government Center. I recall our conversation as if it had taken place yesterday. He asked me “What I thought the nation's response would be to the day's events?” I said I didn't know what the full response might be but 'This changes everything,'” he said.
Annette Smith of Saxonburg was on a cross-country camping trip that was planned to be a monthlong vacation.She said, “We had pulled into a camp site for the evening in Buffalo, Wyo. It was our second stop. We had been gone about two days. We wanted to tour that area and all the surrounding beautiful sights.“Thankfully, we were equipped with an antenna on our camper in order to receive television reception in case we wanted to watch some late evening TV and to catch up on the news,” she said.“I'm an early riser, and the next morning, which was Sept. 11, I had turned the TV on. It was about 6:30 a.m. local time. 'Good Morning America' was reporting that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center,” she said.“At first, we questioned how could that happen? If a pilot was experiencing trouble with the aircraft, surely they would ditch it in the Hudson or the ocean. Maybe, this was a small craft with an inexperienced pilot.“It wasn't too long, while watching the live news, that the second plane had hit the other tower. We now knew, this was intentional,” Smith said.Smith and her companion were able to receive phone calls from their adult children.“While on the phone with one of them, she freaked when it was reported that a plane had crashed in Shanksville. At that point in time, that news was local to Pittsburgh but wasn't yet on the national news. Was this in someway connected? Eventually, the network broke in with the latest heartbreaking news,” Smith said.The confusion and fear of that day continued when her daughter said they had shut down all the bridges in Pittsburgh.The anxiety continued when Smith and her companion cut short their vacation and tried to return home.“While trying to head to a shopping mall to buy some supplies, we inadvertently took a wrong turn and ended up on a road that led to a military installation. We were greeted with military rifles pointed at us and asked what we were doing there. After an explanation, we were given directions and pointed in the right direction,” she said.“Everyone was on edge. On our way home, crossing through Chicago, we witnessed police having pulled over a couple of men in turbans. They were almost fully in the trunk of their car searching the inside. No one knew who the enemy was at that point,” she said.“We made our way home in record time. Instead of a month, we were gone less than 10 days. It was good to wrap my arms around my daughter. We were all safe,” she said.
Susie Gallagher of Cabot watched the events of 9/11 unfold in the company of strangers.Gallagher was working the Cheering Section store in Butler's Clearview Mall, “the one with the glass wall with all the hats ... and two TVs,” she said.She opened the store that day as normal and turned the TVs on to a sports channel.“Before long, my store had a few gentlemen in, asking me if I could turn on the news. I knew I really wasn't supposed to, but they said there was breaking news and a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I turn the TVs on, and that day changed forever,” Gallagher said.“As the news coverage was coming out, my store was filling up. I soon turned both of the TVs to the news,” she said.“I remember my mom calling me, She had my son that day. I was so worried, and I didn't know what was going on. As we watched the terrible aftermath of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, the most devastating thing happened ... we all watched the second plane hit.” said Gallagher.“We all asked each other what was that? We all wondered what was going on? And then we knew. We gasped at what we were watching. ... the store was so quiet,” she said.“We actually watch the second plane hit the second tower. I will never forget that day, and all of the people in the store, and the looks on their faces as they watch the TVs that day,” Gallagher said. “I wasn't in New York, but I was surrounded by a bunch of strangers, all feeling the same kind of impact. I will never forget.”
Ramona Parsons of Lyndora had a much closer view of the events of Sept. 11 as a senior at Francis Lewis High School in Queens, New York.Parsons said, “I was in class when we heard the shocking news that the first tower was hit. There was an announcement over the loudspeaker, parents were rushing into the school to pick their kids up when the second plane hit.”She said, “We knew we were in an attack. I left the school and hurried to work. I tried calling my sister, my foster mother and foster sister, but there was no answer because the cell tower was down.“It was quiet in the street of Rockaway Boulevard. Like many other neighborhoods in New York City, everyone was in their home watching the news,” she said.“I remember a military jet flying low. I left work early because they were closing early because there was a curfew out. It was a scary and sad day in America.”“My sister took the last seven train leaving Manhattan. She was lucky because that was the last bridge still open, and it closed down afterwards. No one in or out of Manhattan but emergency vehicles,” Parsons said.She remembers it was scary not being able to connect with family members. She recalls praying everyone was okay and praying for everyone that was impacted, while hoping there wasn't going to be another attack.Parsons said, “When I go back to New York City to visit my family I don't stay too long in the city, and I fear crossing the bridges and using MTA transportation especially in the city. I cry every year on 9/11. I don't think I'll ever forget that day.”“Every year the city shines the two bright beam lights at the towers memorial park shining to the skies. It's like it was shining to heaven for all those souls that died that day. I thanked God that my family came home safely but cried for those who didn't,” she said.
