You are going to spend a ton of time reading about, praying about, and talking about 9/11 today. It will really wash over your whole day. You are going to try to have a “normal Sunday”…but it won’t be. I myself will be trying to enjoy the first Sunday of regular season football…but it will be wrought with ceremony and memorialization.

There will be lots of talk about impact and who had to endure what. In my opinion, there were only a certain set of people who were most immediately and dramatically effected by the terrorist attacks of 9/11:

- The people who died at the WTC, The Pentagon, and UAL93 and their families
- The first responders  who were dispatched to the above locations
- The employees of the United States airline industry (particularly pilots and flight attendants)
- The people of NYC, particularly Manhattan
- Members of the US Military

These five groups ended up being forced into sacrifice they never imagined. Many people will argue that all US citizens have sacrificed and suffered since 9/11, and I agree with them – I am not trying to diminish that. All I am saying is that 10 years of retrospective leads me to the opinion that these five groups of people had greater, more immediate levels of sacrifice due to the direct effect of the terrorists. Here is the rationale:

It should go without saying that the people who were onboard the hijacked flights and died, and the people at ground zero who died – including at The Pentagon – were innocents who died needlessly. But their families – equally innocent –  live on in perpetual sacrifice through the memories of their loved ones who they miss. My prayers go out to them the most.

The first responders – police, fire, EMTs, sheriffs, guardsmen, etc…the list goes on – who were sent to rescue people from the attacks saw their mission change before their eyes to a recovery mission. It was long and exhausting both mentally and physically. I cannot begin to fathom their level of sacrifice.

As a member of the airline industry it is hard for me not to include myself and my colleagues in this list. Every time a passenger boards an airplane they look to their flight crew for reassurances that we have everything under control – that their lives are safe. But such was the case pre-9/11 as it is today. The change we endured was not a change in our job overall. It was a change in how we did our job. We have pilots who are trained and deputized by the DHS to fly while armed as the last line of defense to a hijacking. We were all trained how to better defend the flight deck, how to respond if someone  gives us even the slightest twinge of uncertainty from a security standpoint. But moreover, the impact of the 3-day shutdown on US airspace and the resultant tightening of airline security measures crippled the airline industry economically. Tens of thousands of airline employees lost their jobs and their livelihood. Our sacrifice has been great.

New Yorkers are wonderful people. They have the trademark, patent, and all royalties on what it means to be American. The WTC was the symbol of their city. It was destroyed to purposefully destroy the pride, faith, and confidence of every New Yorker, and thus, every red-blooded American. What the terrorists didn’t count, however, was that New Yorkers (and thus, Americans) are not weak submissives. They are fighters. Toby Keith said it best in his post-9/11 tribute song Red, White, and Blue, “You’ll be sorry you messed with the U S of A.” And while we all can share in the feeling of national pride, I really think it pales in comparison to the emotions of the people of NYC. Think about it…if someone burned down your neighbors house, you would certainly come to their aid and be empathetic. But if someone burned down your house the feeling would be much different. New Yorkers have sacrificed more than any other citizenry in this country due to 9/11.

Finally, our military. Whether you agree or you disagree with the decisions to make war in Iraq and Afganistan in response to the events of 9/11, you cannot deny the sacrifice of our military and their families. They serve selflessly. They give their lives to their country – literally – whether they live or die in service, a person serving in the armed forces no longer lives for himself or his family. He or she lives for the USA. They sacrifice their own personal freedom so you and I can have ours. Some may argue that if 9/11 had never occurred, we would still have found a way to war anyway due to the number of conflicts worldwide. But even those people cannot deny that the level of military sacrifice has been far greater due to the events  of 9/11.

In closing, I want to make sure I tell my 9/11 story (the “where were you when”):

That week my parents, my brother and I planned a trip to Orlando to see Universal Studios and perhaps hit Daytona Beach. My folks got a two-bedroom condo down there for us all to share and they, along with my brother, arrived a day before me. I ended a trip on the 9th and flew down to Orlando joining them the afternoon of the 10th. We relaxed poolside that evening, headed out and had supper and retired for the evening with plans to head to the theme park in the morning. The only damper to our plans, we thought, would have been tropical storm Gabrielle, picking up strength in the Gulf of Mexico and forecast to impact most of FL on the 12th.

The morning of 9/11, just before 9am, I woke to the smell of fresh coffee and the sounds of my mom starting some breakfast out in the kitchen. I got up, went out, said good morning, and my mom pointed out the TV…on which there was that video feed looking at the smoldering north tower. I asked her what was going on, and she said, “Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center.” We were puzzled and I remember asking, “Like, a small plane?” Within minutes, while watching the live coverage, along with hundreds of thousands of other viewers, I watched UAL175 fly into the south tower…on live TV.

My heart almost stopped.

From that point on it was a blur. I remember thinking it wasn’t possible. I remember feeling scared. I remember feeling like there had to be some other explanation. Then as we were finishing breakfast and starting to get ready to head out we watched the towers come crashing down. By now the news had already broke about the other planes, the Pentagon crash, and preliminary reports of Flight 93′s end in PA. We thought about staying in, but made the decision to try and act as normal as possible. I mean, it was vacation, right?!

When we arrived at Universal we were turned away. The theme parks all closed as a result of the attacks, so we spent the day shopping and listening to the radio. Remember the radio stations? All programming was halted. It was live news on every station. Later in the day, I started getting calls from friends and co-workers…many of whom were stranded due to the grounding of every flight. I participated in a couple of phone conferences with the union as we tried to prepare assistance to pilots stuck in outstations. I wasn’t much help as I was stuck myself and wouldn’t get a chance to get back to Minneapolis for two more days with the rest of the world.

Gabrielle did hit, and I remember thinking that the rain and the wind was a good accompaniment to the mood. We eventually did make it to Universal. Everyone was down, and I don’t mean just my family, I mean everyone. The look on people’s faces said it all; everyone felt the sucker-punch. Everyone was grieving. But it was hard to enjoy it became very clear over the days that  life as we all knew it  was all going to change.

Never forget.