WINSTON COUNTY - As the the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks-- which left approximately 3,000 people, including over 400 first responders dead-- approaches this Friday, local residents are sharing their recollections and personal stories from that fateful day that will forever be etched in the pages of history.
The attacks, which were the deadliest attack ever on American soil, lead then-U.S. President George W. Bush to declare a war on terrorism. The Islamic extremist group founded by Osama bin Laden hijacked four commercial airplanes, using them to carry out a series of suicide attacks against the United States. Two of the hijacked airlines were crashed into each tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing mass hysteria. A third hijacked plane struck the Pentagon, known as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington, Va., and the fourth hijacked plane crashed in a remote field in Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought the terrorists.
It was believed that 19 al-Qaeda terrorists from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon had hijacked the four planes, according to reports.
At the World Trade Center, 2,606 to 2,753 people lost their lives, including civilians, firefighters and law enforcement officers.
At the Pentagon, over 125 people were killed, including military personnel and civilians.
In Shanksville, Penn., where Flight 93 crashed, 40 passengers and crew members died.
In total, numbers aboard all four hijacked airliners that died were 265, including passengers, crew and the 19 hijackers.
Also, hundreds of rescue and recovery workers have died in the years following the attacks due to 9/11-related toxic illnesses.
Local personal
stories
Double Springs Police Chief Andy Tucker recalled he was working in a mobile home plant and was a reserve in the sheriff’s office, about to leave for the police academy 25 years ago,when the terrorist attacks occurred.
“It was kind of a somber time and an angering time when we got to the academy that day,” Tucker recalled.
“After our session was over, we took the flag that flew over the academy, had it framed and a plaque put on it and presented it to the academy staff,” Tucker recalled.
“The flag that was flying over the academy that day (September 11) to my knowledge is still hanging up on the wall at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Academy,” he added.
Now that Tucker has been in law enforcement 25 years, the same time as has passed since the attacks, he looks back at how the attacks brought all forms of first responders together in a way he had never seen before.
“It really gave me a sense of pride, knowing that, as bad as we thought things were in the country at that time, after an attack like that, the patriotism came out in the entire country. People came out to back law enforcement and let us know they were behind us,” Tucker recalled.
“I can remember just about every police car in the state of Alabama I saw had some kind of magnetic or stick-on American flag,” Tucker said. “We all put them on our sheriff’s cars.”
Lynn Police Chief Bryan Kirkpatrick recalled he was a deputy with the sheriff’s office 25 years ago and was sitting in the living room at his mother’s house watching the events unfold on TV.
“You hear all the time about bombings overseas, but on that day, they brought it to our home,” Kirkpatrick pointed out.
“That is something we’ve got to be aware of and be very vigilant when it comes to that because it could be brought to our home again,” Kirkpatrick said.
“September 11, is a day our nation will never forget,” stressed Haleyville Mayor Dr. Ray Boshell. “We remember the innocent lives that were lost, the first responders who ran toward danger when others were trying to escape and the men and women who answered the call to serve our country in the years that followed.
“I also hope we remember the spirit of September 12, when Americans came together, helped their neighbors, flew our flag proud and were reminded that the things that unite us are far greater than those that divide us,” Boshell added.
Haleyville Fire Chief Coby Wiginton recalled he was only in 6th grade at Hamilton Middle School when the terrorist attacks occurred, but through the years has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather as a first responder.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Wiginton looked back.
Later that day, after the terrorist attacks had occurred, Wiginton was picked up by his grandfather and taken to the fire station because, at the time, his grandfather thought fire departments and first responders may be targeted, he recalled.
His grandfather felt like someone should be at the fire station just in case something happened, Wiginton said.
He also recalled waiting in gas station lines 30-45 minutes due to an ongoing panic that erupted due to the attacks.
Sacrifice from first responders
remembered
One thing that has stood out with Wiginton through the years of his career in the fire department is seeing the sacrifice made by first responders on September 11, without regard to their own lives.
“They knew what their fate was, but they were going to help anyway,” Wiginton stressed. “That is what a servant does.
“That is what you are there for. You know what risk you are taking every time you get a call. You may not come back. They all knew that, that morning,” Wiginton stated about first responders on September 11.
9/11 terrorist attacks in history books
The September 11 attacks are now part of the history studies for high school students. Haleyville High School 11th grade U.S. History teacher Chuck Moody graduated from HHS a year before the attacks. Now, part of his course of study as a teacher is the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said.
“That’s what I tell my kids all the time. Things we are going through right now, they are eventually going to be added to these textbooks, too,” Moody said. “It’s history that you’re living.
“Every generation has something they go through that kind of characterizes their generation,” Moody said.
“For me, I feel like it’s this (the terrorist attacks). For these kids who are in school now, I think they cling to COVID (pandemic),” Moody explained.
When Moody teaches students about the terrorist attacks, he tells them about recorded messages left by those who knew they were about to die, sent to loved ones during the disaster, he said.
“We talk about those other planes and those heroes that were on those other planes that didn’t allow the White House, the Capitol (to be hit). We do know it was headed to some destination,” Moody pointed out.
Boykin allowed to place wreath at
Pentagon
Haleyville Center of Technology Secretary Natalie Boykin, along with so many others, will always feel a personal connection to the terrorist attacks.
Around 2018, while on a trip to Washington, D.C. during Wreaths Across America in December, Boykin was asked by an official to place a wreath on the gate of the Pentagon, just in front of where one of the hijacked planes had once crashed into the wall of that building.
Boykin showed a picture of the Pentagon after it was refurbished from the crash.
“That was very humbling,” she said.
Judy Thompson, administrative assistant at the Haleyville City Schools Central office, recalled her twins were juniors in high school when the attacks took place, and that her oldest daughter had graduated in 1997, and had been able to see the Twin Towers on the school’s annual educational trip to New York City.
“My twins did not because by the time they got to New York (for their senior trip) the (towers) were leveled,” Thompson recalled.
Seniors visit 9/11 memorial each year
HCS Superintendent Dr. Bill Bishop expressed pride in the annual senior class trip, allowing students to visit the 9/11 Memorial where the foundations of the Twin Towers remain.
“We go to the 9/11 Museum,” Bishop said. “It’s horrific the number of people who lost their lives there.”
The memorial features a monument honoring all of those who died at that site, he said.
“I don’t really have the words for it,” Bishop said. “So many people lost their lives because of this horrible act of terrorism.
“That is something our students need to understand, that everybody doesn’t appreciate the American way of life and freedom,” said Bishop. “(9/11) also has all the heroes and the people who stood up”
Donna Jones, who was teaching 4th grade at Haleyville Elementary when the attacks occurred 25 years ago, recalled, “It was overwhelming because we had never experienced anything like that, where our country felt literally attacked during my lifetime, by other countries.
“I tried my best not to get overwhelmed in front of my students,” Jones added.
Elementary Principal Tammy Hatton recalled she was teaching in room 28 on the kindergarten/first grade hallway when news of the terrorist attacks came out.
“At that time, we just had the basic televisions,” Hatton recalled. “We were allowed to turn the TV on. I remember choosing not to let the children see that. You are talking about first grade children.”
The mission in the coming days and weeks after the attacks was to assure the children they were loved and safe, that the attacks had taken place in another area, Hatton said.
Elementary teacher Denise Berry recalled she was trying to get a job in the school system and had a 5-month-old son when the attacks occurred 25 years ago.
“I was looking at it from a teacher’s perspective, but also a new mom,” Berry recalled.
In the days and weeks following, as Berry saw the nation’s patriotism and unity soar, she began to feel hope.
“We are strong. We can combat this,” Berry said. “The comforting part was knowing there are so many brave men and women that run to the danger and not from it. They are going to protect us.”
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
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