On the day of September 11, 2001,  Mr. Nate Miller was a junior in college. When he got home from class that day, his roommates were watching TV when the screens went black and went to the news. They saw that two planes had crashed into the twin towers, shocked looks on faces all across the room. As they continued to watch the news, an hour later they kept seeing how people were jumping out of the buildings to save their lives. About an hour later, he called his friends that live in New York to see if they were alright.  One of Nate’s aunts worked in one of the buildings and she just made it out in time because she was working on the third floor. ‘Til this day, he feels like it was just yesterday. It was a frightening time in his life that he will never forget.

By: Kaley Manchester and Audrey Hitt

Mr. Mertens was in shock when the terrorist attack on the twin towers in September of 2001. He was scared for our country. He was watching TV when he heard it on the news. Disbelief, shock, and fright filled him at once. He thinks if we have known, we would have shot them down at once, before they could’ve hurt anyone. His friend’s daughter from Lincoln was in one of the towers when they collapsed. The questions of how they got through our defenses still eludes him.

On the day of September 11, 2001 a tragic incident happened when the twin towers were crashed into by hi-jacked planes. Mr. Zurcher remembers 9/11 like it happened just yesterday. He was in his 7th grade at this time and went to a catholic school. It was a regular morning at 8:45 and It was the first time he ever heard his principal over the intercom say “code red”. Sister Vivian looked at her badge to see what that meant. 15 minutes after, the principal came in and said “A plane hit the World Trade Center” with a frightened look. Mr. Zurcher was confused because he didn’t know what the world trade center was and he wasn’t allowed to watch the news either to see what it was. One of his football teammates told him there were terrorist planes flying over Bellevue.  Little did Mr. Zurcher he was lying. Therefore he got really scared because they live right by bellevue. After football practice he went home and watched the news along  with his parents telling everything that happened. He was very scared because they have never been attacked while he was alive.

On the day of September 11, 2001, Mr. Dylan Pinkman, was in seventh grade, at that time he didn’t know what was going on. Then all of a sudden, teachers started bringing TVs into the classrooms to turn on the news and show what was happening. Teachers explained that the twin towers were hit by two planes. About an hour later, they turned the TVs off because it was too much to handle. Only the seventh and eighth graders were told about it. His mom taught at the school that he went to, and when they went home, his mom explained what happened. To this day, Dylan wants to learn more about it and get a better understanding on what all had happened that day.

For many of our teachers, looking back at September 11th is hard. Mrs.Bonesteel remembers the watching the first plane on the T.V at home, and hearing about the second plane on the radio while driving to work.  At the time she worked in Sidney, Nebraska, and saw many military trucks driving down her quiet road. She recalls feeling disbelief and shock that anyone could do such a thing, and is uncomfortable thinking about those chaotic times. Even though Mrs.Bonesteel didn’t know anyone directly effected by the attack on the Towers, she met many students later that had family members killed in the attacks.