Page 20 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine

HONORING SENIORS

9/11 For all Americans who are old enough to remember
September 11, 2001, that day still looms large in our
minds. Each can tell the story of where they were and
what they were doing that early Tuesday morning. It
was a crisis on par with Pearl Harbor, with a nearly
equivalent loss of life and an ensuing war. Some were
closer than others to the impact. Following is the story
of one man who was near enough to feel the heat.

as told to Cheryl Goforth by Lou Ortiz

“ fter I finished Texas Tech
Law School in Lubbock, I
Areturned to active duty on
September 1, 2001, at Headquarters
Air Force at the Pentagon. At
that time, I was still trying to get
oriented into the humongous office
building, with about 25,000 people
assigned there. We were staying
across the Potomac River at Bolling
AFB, in our temporary facilities;
we would catch the bus that came
across the river to work.

On the morning of September
11, the sun was shining on the
Jefferson Memorial as I headed
across the river. You’ve heard this a It shook the entire part of the the adjacent highway into Pentagon
million times - it was a perfect day; building where we were sitting. City. Another airplane was coming
I was thinking to myself how lucky Twenty seconds later, the fire toward DC, but they didn’t know
I was to be in Washington D.C. at alarms went off, and we were told where it was headed. It was chaos.
the Pentagon. to evacuate.
At orientation, a little after 9:00 We evacuated into the south We were told we had to report
to work the next day, but
a.m., we saw a bunch of scrambling parking lot, where ambulances and not everyone made it back
around. The proctor for the course police vehicles were rushing in, and immediately. The building was
turned on CNN. They were first responders were everywhere. literally still on fire, and there was
showing the first plane hitting the The sky was filled with a billowing black soot everywhere, even on our
tower. black cloud of smoke as we were desks and the things we had left
A few minutes later someone came trying to get over to that side of when we evacuated our classroom.
in and whispered in the ear of the the building to help, but police The Secretary of Defense said
proctor, and the next thing we and civilian security agents were we needed to make certain that
knew, the plane hit our building. ordering people, “Get away from we continue the role that we are
We were one corridor over from the building! NOW! GO!” assigned to do so that everyone
the impact area, which was under A sea of uniformed military would know that we were still in
renovation. personnel and civilians scrambled business, so that’s what we did.”

across and under I-395, which is

This is what America did – we carried on. We suffered, and we mourned—but we carried on. We fled to our
places of worship. Many young men and women headed for their nearest recruiting offices. We honored the
fallen and vowed to respond. Our shores had been breached, and our lives were changed forever.
We have not forgotten, and we have carried on.

20 Lubbock Senior Link