Never forgotten
The events of Sept. 11, 2001 made their mark on the U.S. with unforgettable force.
They left a legacy of somber annual ceremonies that pay tribute to those who died, many of them police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders who lost their lives while trying to save others.
And 15 years later, every U.S. citizen old enough can still recall where he or she was the day the terrorist attack on New York City’s World Trade Center occurred.
Several North Idaho residents shared their recollections of this day so deeply and forever etched on the American psyche.
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Betty Brewer spent her day off crying in front of the TV. From her home in Texas, she watched people get pulled from the rubble, some alive, some just bodies.
“I wasn’t able to make myself get up and do anything else that day,” she said. “I sat there, and saw what was happening, but I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
As the day wore on, she watched more horrors and miracles than she ever thought she would in her life. She couldn’t believe anyone could have survived in the huge mountains of rubble. But, one after another, people were pulled out.
“There was a lot of prayer going on that day,” she said.
Brewer, who now lives in Hayden, was most distraught afterward, about what the attacks meant for the country. She couldn’t fathom how people got through the nation’s safety barriers because the U.S. was supposed to be the safest country in the world.
After the twin towers were destroyed, everyone was on edge she said. Her husband was a retired member of the Air Force. The whole base near their house in Texas was on high alert. To enter the base, he had to go through high security checks. His ID was looked over many times and his car was searched for bombs.
One good thing that came out of that day, Brewer said, was it gave people compassion and perspective.
“Today we see Aleppo and it’s more real to us now,” she said. “Before, I don’t think we could imagine what those third world countries went through until it happened to us. It’s not just a story in the newspaper anymore, it’s real.”
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Deanne Clifford was driving to school on Sept. 11, 2001, preparing in her mind the lesson plans for the day. She turned on the radio and couldn’t believe what she heard. Two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York.
Immediately she called her parents who were living in Virginia at the time, but the phones were down and she couldn’t get through.
She got to Post Falls High School and walked into chaos. All the TVs in all the rooms were turned on and teachers and students stood gaping in front of them.
Some students were in tears, some couldn’t figure out how they felt, others were worried for family members.
As far as what to do as a teacher, Clifford had no idea. There was no instruction given, just the situation. The school had an emergency response plan, but this was bigger.
“Everyone was in shock and everyone was affected in different ways,” she said. “We just did what we sensed we needed to do.”
Since 9-11, Clifford has become the principal at Lake City High School. Now, she said, the schools do have an extensive crisis management plan.
Back at Post Falls High School, Clifford talked with her students, consoled them and told them everything was going to be OK. Throughout the day teachers would go into each others’ classrooms to see how others were handling the situation. Members of the school’s administrative team were available to talk or offer support.
“Lunch was intense,” Clifford remembered. “Usually everyone is active and talking to each other, but that day it was so somber.”
As attendance dwindled throughout the day, Clifford looked after all the students she could. She found time to call her son who was in college in Oregon and talked to him for a while about what was going on there and how he was doing.
“Everyone remembers where they were the exact moment they found out,” she said. “It’s one of those days you just never forget.”
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Wes Veach, CEO of bankcda, was working at a small, community bank in Tuscon, Ariz. on Sept. 11, 2001. Veach said he was driving to pick up his boss, who needed a ride to work, on the morning of the attacks. He recalls hearing reports on the radio that a small plane had hit one of the World Trade Center buildings.
“I remember telling my boss ‘Some idiot wrecked an airplane into the twin towers,’” Veach said. “And then, of course, it became clearer.”
After arriving at work, Veach said he remembers more than 15 people, customers and employees alike, were huddled around a television in the lobby of the bank watching news coverage of the attacks.
“It was just very surreal,” he said. “It was very somber in there, I think we were in disbelief more than anything.”
For Veach, the terrorist attacks were personal. From 1996 to 1999, Veach worked as a public accountant and had a client who was located minutes away from the World Trade Center. He said he and his colleagues would often go to a ticket counter at the center to purchase cheap tickets for Broadway shows or other events, and that he and his wife had dinner at the top of the tower on at least five occasions.
“It was just very bizarre,” Veach said. “I looked at that and it was just amazing to think that somewhere I’ve been so many times was where something like that happened.”
When he thinks back on the day, Veach said he mostly remembers the resilience and resolve of the American people.
“As a country, everybody pulled together to help,” he said.
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Brandon Underdown was visiting a friend in Moscow when he heard a plane had crashed into one of the towers.
Underdown watched alongside University of Idaho students as the second tower came crashing down.
“The overall feeling of the campus was everyone was down and out about everything and scared,” he said.
Now, 15 years later, Underdown has a 1-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter. He said it’s scary to think that an attack like that can happen on American soil, but that because of 9-11, the country has made many advancements in technology and security.
“Because of it, we have heightened security measures, like in airports, and hopefully now we live in a safer place,” he said.
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Kirtis Vanderwilt woke up, got dressed, started the coffee and turned on the morning news. The Coeur d’Alene man was getting ready for work when the TV started an alert system. Everyone was confused, the news anchors were getting word that the Word Trade Center buildings had been crashed into.
“The first tower had already been hit and they didn’t even know,” Vanderwilt said. “It was shocking. How dare anyone attack America so blatantly, and vicious?”
He worked in Hayden, but never received a call from his boss about whether or not to come into work. So he went.
When he got there, he and his boss talked and decided to start work for the day.
“We did a few jobs and worked for about three hours. We were listening to the radio in the truck,” Vanderwilt said. “Then we just stopped.”
He said it was hard to work, because working meant going about your normal day, and the day was not normal. But it was hard to not do anything either.
“It was tough because you’re all the way over here and so helpless,” he said. “All you could do was pray.”
Nine days after the attacks, Vanderwilt turned 40. He said he felt guilty. It didn’t feel right to be celebrating anything at the time. But his sister came over with a cake and told him, “Today we can be happy.”
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Shabby Fabrics owner Jennifer Bosworth will soon break ground on a 17,000 square-foot facility that will house 26 employees.
The budding, Coeur d’Alene-based business — one which specializes in quilting fabrics, precuts and quilt kits — wasn’t an avenue Bosworth ever thought she’d pursue 15 years ago while piloting for United Airlines.
Her flourishing venture is a serendipitous product of Sept. 11, 2001.
With two of the four hijacked planes in the attacks belonging to United, the airline’s passenger traffic took a substantial dive. This resulted in a $2.1 billion dollar loss for the company that year, consolidation and subsequent furloughs.
Bosworth’s husband, Dave, also a United pilot, was the first to be handed a lengthy furlough in 2002. By 2003 both were out of work.
“Everyone was laying off pilots and nobody was hiring pilots,” said Bosworth, who was on maternity leave with the family’s first child the day of the 911 attacks. “We were laid off six months from each other.”
When neither could generate an income, the Bosworths learned to live beneath their means. They began selling their things, everything from household items to a beloved horse.
Bosworth had an affinity for arts and crafts and began selling fabric on eBay. One particular item, a decorative-style shabby chic fabric, became a hotter commodity than others.
The bids came in fast and the sales proved to be a viable source of income. Even years later, when both were employed and flying again, the small business grew to a point where Bosworth made fabric sales her primary job.
Eleven years removed from attaining a business license, her online-based store — one that now includes a 72-page color catalog and a robust staff — is a boon to the Coeur d’Alene economy.
Ground Zero changed the course of her life.
“When you think about it, 15 years down the road, going from how I didn’t know I was to feed my kids to having this many staff members,” Bosworth said. “I feel really blessed to turn something so awful into something so unexpected. This was silver lining from such a terrible event.”
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Former Lake City High School football coach Van Troxel, then in his eighth year with the program built from scratch, was prepping for Week 3 of the 2001 season.
On Tuesday, Sept. 11 — the same week in which the Timberwolves were ranked in the Top 5 of the state football media poll — Troxel watched news of the attacks from the coaches’ office.
“It was such a huge tragedy for our country,” Troxel said.”I remember thinking ‘What the heck is going on?’ But we were in Idaho. There was nothing we could do.”
Staff writer Keith Cousins contributed to this report.