The 9/11 Call That Changed Everything: My Life - Business - World View
The attack on 9/11 still affects this retired veteran emotionally every time I see the memorial tributes on tv. If I’m camping or sitting in my livingroom, I feel the hurt. Some of my older kids also feel the pain. Air travel nationwide was shutdown. My Private Investigations agency shifted focus several days later after getting (that call). Every year, as September 11th rolls around, television screens fill with the familiar, gut-wrenching imagery. We see the towers standing tall for a brief, agonizing moment before the attack. I remember 9/11, not just as a citizen mourning a national tragedy, but as someone whose life and career pivoted because of that dark day.
Retired folks from my generation can still vividly remember the immediate aftermath. The most horrific loss of life and sudden silence of the skies. For the first time in modern history, air travel nationwide was completely shut down. No planes overhead. Just an oppressive quiet that settled over the country as we waited to see what would happen next. Like everyone else, I was glued to the news. For me, the personal reality check didn’t just stay on the TV screen.
In my line of work before retirement, we got all kinds of calls. Infidelity, insurance fraud, missing persons investigations, etc. You think you’ve heard it all. But that call a few days after 9/11 was different. The tone of the nation had shifted and suddenly our caseload shifted with it. Decades later, the wounds of 9/11 are still fresh. When I see the memorial tributes on TV, I don’t just remember the tragedy of the fallen. I’m just one retired veteran who remembers the exact weight of the air in those days following the attack. I remember the silence of the skies. And I remember the feeling after that phone call, signaling that the world and our work, would never be the same again.