investmenttool.com Cover Story

Where I was

At 6:40 in the morning Chicago time, I was sleeping when my clock radio went off with WBBM news 780. As usual, I slept through it for a few minutes, perhaps hitting the snooze bar a few times. Suddenly I had a dream that I was in New York, listening to News Radio 88 in the city. Intellectually, I knew I was not in New York, so I forced myself to wakefulness to understand what was going on.

WBBM had put on their New York Affiliate because the world trade center was burning, possibly from an aircraft impact. I got up and ran to a television set in the basement. I turned it on and picked the clearest channel which showed the North Tower burning from a massive impact.

There was speculation on the radio which was still on that a DC-3 aircraft had hit the building. Still, the fire did not seem to be spreading very quickly and there would be time to get most people out. I judged that it was terrorism but the building would stand and we would survive.

The camera angle changed. From the right part of the frame, I saw an aircraft. In that split second I thought, 'Oh, they caught it on tape' A millisecond later, I realized my error, fooled by the camera switch. There was still smoke in the picture. What I was seeing was live.

My next rapid thought was it was some yahoo news organization, trying to get pictures of the fire. The airplane disappeared behind the North Tower a fireball emerged from the left side. It looked like Challenger.

I did not see the collapse. I did not need to. I was a witness in real time to this event. I was in disbelief. I went upstairs, barely holding back my tears and told my wife what happened. I showed her the television. I hugged my children, told them I loved them all and went to work in Chicago.

On the train, I heard more. The Pentagon had been hit. The Sears Tower, two blocks from my office has been evacuated. I wonder to myself why I decided to even go to work.

That is where I was when the war started.

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Shmuel Protter
investmenttool.com

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