My 9/11 Memory

Originally published on my Facebook profile 9/11/10.

Jonelle (my wife) and I had just returned from Raleigh, NC on a job-hunting expedition (which went badly.) We weren't living together yet. My dad woke me at approx. 9:30 in the morning after the first plane hit the WTC. We watched ABC News that morning. After the second plane hit, I called Jonelle. She said it looked like something out of a comic book. If only....

Shortly after, WTAE (local ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh) broke into the coverage. Sally Wiggin, the longtime anchor, looked extremely troubled. My first thought was that a plane was flown into the US Steel building in Pittsburgh. At the time, it was the tallest building in the US between New York and Chicago. I had worked there for PNC Bank from Summer 1998 until Spring 2000, and there were still people I knew that worked there.

She reported instead on Flight 93.