Tucson remembers 9/11: Disbelief

Travels paused

Someone was pounding on the bedroom door of our budget-priced hotel in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. "Come quick. Ya gotta see what's on the TV downstairs."

My wife Dorothy and I joined a group of 10 or 12 huddled around the only TV in the hotel. We were with our traveling companions George and Earlene Ridge. We sat in stunned silence with tears in our eyes as the Twin Towers burned and collapsed.

Finally in the late afternoon we were able to go out for fresh air in the narrow winding streets of the Sultanahmet. Street vendors asked, "Are you American? We are so sad for what happened in New York. Allah maaka. May Allah be with you."

The next morning we were out on the streets getting ready to start our gulet (a two masted sailing boat) trip up the Turquoise Coast of Turkey. The vendors again asked if we were American. Again they expressed their sympathy but added, "Remember we are still selling rugs."

For several years George Ridge, University of Arizona professor of journalism, and I, retired M.D. with a camera, had a monthly travel story in the Travel Section of the Arizona Daily Star. The Travel Section was cancelled because no one would be doing much traveling after this sneak attack on the United States of America.

 ─ Hal Tretbar

'Why do they hate America?'

On 9/11, I was on a Disney Cruise, with my daughter. We were on Disney’s private island when a thunderstorm came pouring down on us. We all rushed back to the ship. When we got to our cabin, the maid was cleaning, with the TV on. There were the burning towers. She said, “Why do they hate America?” I responded, “There will be war.” The ship returned to port, and we were accommodated at Disney World. During the return trip, so many people on board from other countries expressed their sympathies to the Americans, which was very meaningful to me.

 ─ Suzanne Voeks

'I assumed we were at war"

On 9/11 I was waiting for a plane at Presque Isle airport in Maine after attending a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health. It was there, on the TV news, my colleagues and I saw a plane dive into one of the Twin Towers and burst into flames. I rushed immediately to the car rental desk to rent a car. I assumed we were at war and guessed correctly no planes would be flying. Accompanied by some colleagues, I drove to Boston's Logan Airport where I checked into the airport Holiday Inn. It was all over the news that some Logan airport employees saw the hijackers there before the attack. My hotel room window overlooked the airport parking garage. I stood at the window and watched countless numbers of tow trucks towing dozens of cars out of that garage. The search for the 9/11 terrorists had begun in earnest and I witnessed some of it.

 ─ Alison Hughes

Detective's reaction

On 9/11 I was a detective for the Pima County Sheriff's Department. I was assigned to economic crimes. I would usually come to the office at 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. so that I could work on reports without distractions. Another member of the squad would also come in early. We would turn on the television in the sergeant's office to watch the early morning news and also start the first of many coffee pots for the day.

I was in the middle of working on a case/report when my partner yelled out, "Clem come and see this!" An airplane had just hit one of the World Trade Center buildings! We stopped and watched the report. I told him that this was no accident and then another plane hit the second building.

I now knew how my parents felt when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

 ─ Currie B. Clement

Helped Marana kids feel safe and secure

My wife woke me from her job as an OR nurse with instructions to turn on the TV. Like you, I witnessed a horrific scene just as the second plane went in. Also like you, I was in shock as we all watched on edge not knowing the extent of the attack. Was the next plane or bomb coming to Tucson, AZ?

I was a sixth-grade teacher in the Marana district, and needed to get to work immediately. I could not imagine any parents sending their kids to school. Within an hour I was in my classroom in case a few did show up, but to my surprise all 27 came in the door.

I was overwhelmed with this responsibility in such a time of crisis, but I loved these kids and would do whatever it took to make them feel safe and secure. We were instructed to make it a normal learning day, but these kids were not in normal learning mode. Instead we spent lots of time talking, and trying to calm their fears. I offered reassurance that all would be well even if I did not know that myself. We played games and did other fun activities to keep their minds, and mine, off of this terrible tragedy.

After that day I never looked at my students the same. Beyond teaching, I had known the importance of loving and caring for kids, but on that day I realized that was truly all that mattered.

 ─ Tim Curtis

'It made me feel sick'

I had trained as a surgical resident at Bellevue Hospital in the '60s, where we had a special room with beds for NYPD and NYFD patients, injured in the line of duty in NYC. I knew how brave and dedicated they were and how honored we were as residents to care for them. It made me feel sick to see how many were lost or injured in this disaster, not to mention all the people that worked there, including friends of our niece, who fortunately was not in the Trade Center that morning. I still mourn for the devastating blow to NYC that took place on 9/11.

... To add to our horror, my wife and I realized that we had been on one of the involved flights out of Boston to Chicago O’Hare one week before, returning from a short vacation on Block Island, Rhode Island. A close call I don’t like to think about. It was so unreal to me.

 ─ Bill Webber, M.D.

In the wilderness, unaware

No airliners over the Gila Wilderness. Seven of us from Tucson thought the Sierra Club won some sort of lawsuit. Jets always interrupted the mountain silence before.

Away from people and far from roads you get into a different rhythm. Forty-two miles downriver. Rise with the sun, bed at dark, all distraction real and unplanned. Lacking instant input we wondered aloud around a campfire whether we would feel any connection to a major event. If someone found a cure for cancer, and we didn't know about it for five or six days, would we feel part of the triumph? Maybe it wouldn't matter. We'd been told history as we knew it was dead.

The first tower collapsed as we pumped water at Iron Creek. For the next five days we, unaware, splashed across the Gila, relaxed in the weakening September sun, endured a violent night thunderstorm with lightning so close it illuminated through closed eyelids. When we reached civilization the flag at the visitor center was at half-staff. We thought Reagan had died. Or Ford.

Then a blur. Silver City festooned with red, white and blue. Hurried landline calls home. Buying every newspaper we could find. We were all stunned, unable to speak in a nation that was already recovering its resolve.

History was real again.

And, yes. We felt part of it.

 ─ Steve Nash

Worked air traffic control that day

I was an air traffic controller at Tucson Approach Control. I was working the departure sector for Tucson International Airport and Davis-Monthan. One of my co-workers came in and said, "a plane just plowed into the World Trade Center." My first thought was low clouds, a pilot got disoriented and hit the building. A few minutes later he came back and said another plane hit the other building.

A few moments later the phones started ringing off the wall. Numerous messages appeared on computer screens. The supervisor then said everything was grounded until further notice. Our facility here in Tucson was not impacted as extensively as the ones back east. Within the hour we had F16s flying overhead in a combat patrol.

 ─ Ron Gagner

Watched while getting chemotherapy

During the year 2001, I was fighting cancer of the bladder. It was detected in early 2001 and on April 19, I had surgery which removed my bladder and gave me a urostomy.

On Sept. 11, I was watching the results of the terror attack on TV as I was receiving chemotherapy in a cancer clinic on the northwest side. It was a doubling depressing day for me. The chemotherapy clinic had 15 to 20 people receiving chemotherapy. Many of these people were very, very sick and probably would die within the next year. Some of them were in their teens or 20s.

The events on TV were even more depressing than the clinic. Over 3,000 innocent victims died that day for no reason at all.

 ─ Douglas R. Holm

'We put up our American flag and it remains'

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was working in our IT security office in the Washington, D.C., suburbs when I saw the news flash on TV about an airplane having hit one of the towers in NYC.

We had a team on the way to FBI HQ at that moment, to brief them on a program to detect terrorist planning on the internet. The team turned around and it was another month or so before the briefing took place.

I called my wife Patsy in her office in D.C., and with the city in chaos from the second aircraft, and then the third at the Pentagon, traffic came to an abrupt halt. Patsy walked home to our house in Arlington.

It took me another seven hours to get there — some 4-5 miles — with mostly inbound roads closed.

We put up our American flag and it remains, because the sister of the buyer of our home was on the airplane that crashed into the first tower. It's our reminder of her sacrifice.

 ─ Ron Sable

A close call

On Sept. 11, 2001, I turned on the TV to see the second plane going into the World Trade Center. By the time I realized that this was an attack, it occurred to me that my sister worked on the 84th floor of the North Tower. I spent the next 3 hours frantically trying to reach her. Thankfully, due to the beautiful weather that morning, she had decided to take a walk and go to work at noon. She had no idea what had happened, or how close she came to being a victim of the attack.

 ─ Danielle Griffin

A simple communal event boosted morale

Twenty years ago on 9/11, I stood watching the news in disbelief as I saw the second airliner hit the twin towers in New York City. It was horrific for our entire country. But in Tucson later that day, I had an option that other people didn't. We were having a local election that day and I got to walk to the polls to cast my vote. Wow! It really boosted my morale knowing that I could participate in such a simple communal event. Oddly, I have actually mailed in every ballot since then. The juxtaposition of those two events are indelibly etched in my memory and I am grateful!

 ─ Carol Brown