Each of us has a story about September 11, 2001. Each of us has a memory about what we were doing when we first heard the news about the four airplanes that crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the field in Pennsylvania. For some, those memories are faded, but for others, the details are vivid and etched in our memories for the rest of our lives. These are just three of those stories.<em>Each of us has a story about September 11, 2001. Each of us has a memory about what we were doing when we first heard the news about the four airplanes that crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the field in Pennsylvania. For some, those memories are faded, but for others, the details are vivid and etched in our memories for the rest of our lives. These are just three of those stories.</em> Each of us has a story about September 11, 2001. Each of us has a memory about what we were doing when we first heard the news about the four airplanes that crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the field in Pennsylvania. For some, those memories are faded, but for others, the details are vivid and etched in our memories for the rest of our lives. These are just three of those stories.
University Minister Ira DeSpain<strong>University Minister Ira DeSpain</strong> University Minister Ira DeSpain
DeSpain remembers seeing former University President Dan Lambert walking in front of his house on the way to the dentist.
“It was a beautiful day. It was in New York and it was here,” DeSpain said. “That’s how clearly everything is burnt into my head.”
DeSpain went inside his home to get another cup of coffee and he saw the first tower smoking.
“I had no idea. I had no idea what was going on,” he said. “I just sat there and watched it. Then all of a sudden, I saw the live coverage of the second plane hitting the second tower.”
DeSpain remembers walking over to campus from his home, which at the time was across from Case Hall.
“There were vapor trails in circles over Baldwin,” DeSpain said. “At that time we didn’t know if that meant they were coming to crash into us, or what. Every airline in America was ordered to the ground and those were planes that went to the nearest airport, which was Garden City, Kan. So a bunch of planes landed there … but I remember seeing the vapor trails.”
In the days following the terrorist attacks in New York, DeSpain recalls campus getting back to normal. He also recalls some of the details from the home football game that weekend, too.
“There was some fright that sort of permeated a lot of things,” DeSpain said. “Our first home football game, people were uneasy about what might be falling out of the sky onto Liston Stadium. Fear that if someone really wanted to get under skin, they might attack something in middle-America, not just New York City.”
Sophomore Eldina Kunic<strong>Sophomore Eldina Kunic</strong> Sophomore Eldina Kunic
Kunic was nine years old on September 11, 2001.
She remembers sitting in class, watching the World Trade Center in New York City being attacked.
She remembers consoling her best friend, whose father worked in one of the Twin Towers. Kunic later found out that her friends father died in the attack.
“I didn’t personally know anyone else, but I knew there were a lot of people of different races in the buildings and my best friend had her father there, so I was just trying to be there for her,” Kunic said. “I was young, so I didn’t really understand it a whole lot.”
As the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center draws near, Kunic and others around the world are taking time to reflect on that day and what has changed in the past 10 years.
What makes these past 10 years different for Kunic, though, is that she has grown up Muslim.
“I’ve heard a lot of comments regarding my religion just because a lot of people when they first meet me don’t know I’m Muslim,” Kunic said. “So, when I tell them that … they say ‘oh you’re Muslim. Oh no, you’re a terrorist.’ So, I’ve heard that a couple of times. But a lot of times it’s just jokingly.”
Alumna Jordan Bean-Ward Boone<strong>Alumna Jordan Bean-Ward Boone</strong> Alumna Jordan Bean-Ward Boone
Boone woke up early on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. She woke up early that morning to turn in a paper and then made her way back to the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority where she went back to bed.
“I remember walking around campus and thinking of how clear blue of a day it was,” she said in a Facebook post to The Baker Orange.
She woke up later that morning to the television and her roommate telling her that planes had hit the World Trade Center Towers.
“I went to most of my classes that day, but many were canceled when I showed up,” Boone said. “ … There were American flags on the lamp posts around campus, and I can not find the words to describe how it felt to see the flag, and know what was going on in NY. Many students and professors were rattled that day. Many tears were shed that day, and many were scared of what was to come.”
Each story is different. Each memory is different. Each person on the BU campus then, and now, have different details they remember about that day. But the days, the weeks and the years following September 11, 2001 are ones that none of us will soon forget.<em>Each story is different. Each memory is different. Each person on the BU campus then, and now, have different details they remember about that day. But the days, the weeks and the years following September 11, 2001 are ones that none of us will soon forget.</em>Each story is different. Each memory is different. Each person on the BU campus then, and now, have different details they remember about that day. But the days, the weeks and the years following September 11, 2001 are ones that none of us will soon forget.
