Today is the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. It is a particularly poignant anniversary for me because I was 15 years old when it happened. It is strange to think that we have reached the point where more of my life has taken place since the attacks than before. For the sake of historical and family record, I wanted to describe the events of that day from my perspective.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), which encourages young men and women to attend daily religious studies courses (known as “Seminary”) during their high school years in order to deepen their scriptural understanding of the Gospel during that critical, but turbulent, part of their lives. In Utah, Idaho, and a few other places where Mormons make up a significant part of the local population, the Church will often work with the local school district to make these courses available as release-time electives such that LDS students can attend Seminary during the school day. But in most other areas of the world, including where I grew up, Seminary is instead offered in an “early-morning” format. We met from 6:00-6:45am on each school day for our class, so I would have woken up on 9/11 no later than 5:30am.

I was also a proud member of my high school marching band, which means that immediately following Seminary I would have caught a ride over to the high school practice field for early-morning band practice. The marching band class itself was held during 1st period (8-9am) but in order to learn our show in time for the first football games of the season, we were expected to arrive at 7am to practice.

As I grew up in the central time zone, the hijackings and impact of the first planes would have taken place while we were outside practicing. But this was 2001; there was no Facebook or Twitter or even Google News. Cell phones existed, but not as we think of them today. They were still simple but expensive devices with no Internet connection, and most did not even support text messaging. Few teachers and even fewer students would have owned one. And so innocently we continued our rehearsal, unaware of the terror that was now unfolding on the east coast.

In fact, I didn’t receive my first indication that anything was wrong until around 8:45am local time. We had concluded our band practice on the field and had meandered inside to put away our instruments and other equipment. Our band director came into the room holding a memo from the main office. He announced that the World Trade Center had been impacted by two aircraft and was on fire. No additional information was available at the time and we were advised to remain calm.

And calm I was. It didn’t even cross my mind at the time that this was a coordinated attack. I played Microsoft Flight Simulator a lot growing up, which used downtown Chicago as the default location in at least a couple releases. I was a bad enough wannabe pilot that I had crashed dozens of simulated planes into simulated skyscrapers. So the idea that a plane would crash into a skyscraper in real life didn’t seem all that far-fetched to be honest. Granted, I thought the planes involved were small general aviation planes, and it was pretty crazy that not one but two pilots would screw up like that on the same day…but I really didn’t grasp why this was even news. I was more confused as to why the main office felt a need to send out a school-wide memo detailing events in New York City that were clearly of no consequence to us.

The next few minutes would shatter that naive bubble of security though.

As I left the band room to head to my next class, I overheard the band director in his office talking to the main office on the phone, asking questions about the incident. The anxiousness and concern in his voice gave me pause, but I brushed it aside and proceeded down the hall to my next class. When I was about halfway there, the office made a school-wide announcement on the PA. The Pentagon has been destroyed, they said.

Suddenly, it all began to click in my head. The plane crashes in New York City weren’t accidents or coincidental. Someone was doing this on purpose. We were under attack!

I don’t remember much of the school day after that. It no longer mattered to me. I genuinely thought that this was the start of World War III. Everything was a blur…

At one point, another announcement was made that another plane was en route to either the Capitol building or the White House. We were never told whether or not it impacted. Initially we all figured that Russia or China or maybe North Korea was behind the attacks, but eventually rumors started going around that it was actually a country in the Middle East. At another point, we were told that the US Air Force had shot down an airliner that was preparing to attack another facility.

I was in the locker room getting ready for PE when the announcement came that the World Trade Center had collapsed – with thousands of people still inside. We all cursed and swore in anger that we were all gonna go enlist and fight these bastards – just like our grandfathers did after Pearl Harbor. We would make ’em proud.

Around lunchtime the decision was made that no further announcements would be made, as the events of the day were becoming too distracting to our studies. We were furious. Didn’t the idiot teachers realize that this day was going to be the defining moment of our generation? Who cares about Algebra 1 on a day like that?

So several of the more rebellious kids found ways to eavesdrop on the faculty break room, which had a TV; or to sneak onto the Internet in the school library between classes and get some updates. But what information these heroes were smuggling out to the rest of the student body could only really spread by rumor and word of mouth and ended up pretty scattered and incoherent. What I ended up hearing ranged everywhere from “isolated terrorist attack” to “nuclear war”.

As soon as school was over, I literally ran all the way home and burst into my house on a beeline towards our TV. My mom was already there watching the news. And for the first time, I saw with my own eyes what had unfolded.

I spent the rest of the day and most of the night glued to the TV, watching again and again the replays of the impacts in New York and Washington, the subsequent collapse of the WTC towers, and the apocalyptic scene of bloodied people running through the streets of New York City dodging a wall of dust, smoke, and debris. It was a Tom Clancy movie in real life. It was surreal. But it was also real. The United States of America had been attacked. Thousands of Americans were dead.

At some point I must have fallen asleep, though I don’t remember whether it was in my room or downstairs in front of the TV. The next morning, I woke up at 5:30am to go to Seminary and band practice again.

But the world was a different place.

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As an epilogue I share one final memory. A month after 9/11, I sat in General Conference as Gordon B. Hinckley, the President of the Church, announced that he had just learned that a retaliatory US missile attack was underway as a prelude to war. He then delivered a most powerful and sober sermon on the “times in which we live.” With prophetic authority he comforted and counseled the members of the church at a time when we needed it most. Fifteen years later, his counsel is just as relevant now as it was in 2001:

No one knows how long [the conflict] will last. No one knows precisely where it will be fought. No one knows what it may entail before it is over. We have launched an undertaking the size and nature of which we cannot see at this time.

Occasions of this kind pull us up sharply to a realization that life is fragile, peace is fragile, civilization itself is fragile.
[ . . . ]

Through centuries of time, men and women, so very, very many, have lived and died. Some may die in the conflict that lies ahead. To us, and we bear solemn testimony of this, death will not be the end. There is life beyond this as surely as there is life here. Through the great plan which became the very essence of the War in Heaven, men shall go on living.
[ . . . ]

Now, brothers and sisters, we must do our duty, whatever that duty might be. Peace may be denied for a season. Some of our liberties may be curtailed. We may be inconvenienced. We may even be called on to suffer in one way or another. But God our Eternal Father will watch over this nation and all of the civilized world who look to Him. He has declared, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Ps. 33:12). Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the commandments of God.

Let us be prayerful. Let us pray for righteousness. Let us pray for the forces of good. Let us reach out to help men and women of goodwill, whatever their religious persuasion and wherever they live. Let us stand firm against evil, both at home and abroad. Let us live worthy of the blessings of heaven, reforming our lives where necessary and looking to Him, the Father of us all. He has said, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).

Are these perilous times? They are. But there is no need to fear. We can have peace in our hearts and peace in our homes. We can be an influence for good in this world, every one of us.

May the God of heaven, the Almighty, bless us, help us, as we walk our various ways in the uncertain days that lie ahead. May we look to Him with unfailing faith. May we worthily place our reliance on His Beloved Son who is our great Redeemer, whether it be in life or in death, is my prayer in His holy name, even the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Gordon B. Hinckley
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/10/the-times-in-which-we-live

Header image: “2004 memorial, New York” by Derek Jensen, Public Domain