CityView Magazine

FEATURE Ten years later, Fayetteville residents recall where they were that fateful day C ERTAIN EVENTS ARE SEARED into our na- tional consciousness: The bombing of Pearl Har- bor, the assassination of President Kennedy, the space shuttle Challenger exploding. Most anyone who was old enough to remember those events can tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. But perhaps no event evokes the sadness and horror for Americans that September 11, 2001 does. Before that awful day we thought ourselves to be impenetrable, perhaps even in- vincible. And then everything changed. As a nation, we watched as symbols of our country's great prosperity collapsed before our eyes, crushing 2,753 innocent people in the process and devastating many more thousands of lives. We stood, paralyzed and horrified, in front of our TV sets on that otherwise beautiful morning, helpless to stop the cruelty and stunned in disbelief at the juxtaposition of gray smoke and carnage set against that clear blue September sky. We watched, again helpless, as a flight of ordinary Americans fought back, choosing to crash into a field in Pennsylvania rather than allow themselves to be used as a weapon against their countrymen. Nearly every detail of life in America changed in the weeks that followed that day. Fort Bragg became a closed post, with soldiers waiting in security lines for hours just to go to work. Air travel became cumbersome and embarrassing. Our nation- al innocence was lost and we entered into a now decade-long war. Within hours of the attack troops with extensive ties to Fort Bragg began to land in Afghanistan, and they continue to fight there today. It was a day that forever altered the course and mentality of our nation and that forever altered the fabric of this commu- nity, where nearly every day service members leave and return from the war that started on September 11, 2001. CityViewNC.com | 49

• Cover