Saturday Story - II - Saturday, September 12, 2020
This builds on Patriot Day - yesterday - which honors the fallen of September 11, 2001. While this is built on fact, the story as written is fiction.
*****
Joe Rodgers was the co-captain of American Airlines flight #937 from Boston to Los Angeles on September 11th, 2001. He and captain Thomas Merchant had flown in yesterday from DFW airport - arriving about 4:15 p.m. Boston time, and today this crew was flying to Los Angeles, and then tomorrow he would fly back to Dallas-Fort Worth (and home for a couple of days) He had sufficient sleep (as per the Federal Aviation Agency’s rule (FAA). After leading the airport, the crew took a shuttle to a Hilton Garden Inn about four miles Northeast of Boston’s Logan airport.
As co-captain, he was second in command in case something incapacitated Tom. There was more than that, of course, co-captains were generally the first people to a plane. He made a visual inspection with one of the managers of the ground crew. They went with the inspectors as they crawled into the luggage area and checked out the various compartments for any kind of potential problem. He supervised the filling of the airplane fuel. During the on-boarding process, while the captain was busy with checking all the functions, the weather-maps, and more, he stood at the cabin door nodding and saying “hi” to the boarding passengers. Happy passengers made for return passengers who kept paying Joe’s salary (among other things). Like Tom Merchant, Joe had been an Air Force pilot and had flown many combat missions in Vietnam - and was fortunate to return home.
The night before, September 10, 2001, the crew had dinner in an Italian place in Northeast Boston and returned to the hotel about 7 p.m. As the weather was nice this evening, he went for a jog around the hotel, doing two miles in about 22 minutes - not too bad for a 54-year-old male. When he returned, he showered and called his family in Grapevine Texas. His wife Carolyn answers and he heard about the school days of Lauren and Daniel. Lauren was in tenth grade and had gotten on the color guard squad for the Bobcat Band. Their first home game was this coming Friday and Lauren hoped Dad would be home to watch. (He was sure he would be home unless something came up.) Daniel was in sixth grade and was just starting to play in the school band - playing the trombone. Joe was in a jovial mood and when Carolyn came back on, he sang “Sweet Caroline” to her. Sweet Caroline had become a sports favorite - and especially in Boston. The Red Sox were still in the pennant race and faced the dreaded Yankees next weekend with a three-game series. A sweep by the Red Sox would put them in first place with three weeks to go. The New England Patriots were away next weekend, but the locals were excited about the play of their second-year quarterback, Tom Brady from Michigan.
Carolyn taught first grade in the Grapevine School District. This was her third week of the fall semester and all was going well so far. Joe didn’t have too much to say, other than the flight from DFW to BOS had been pretty routine and they had even landed about half-an-hour early and today's flight looked routine too - other than some potential storms over Colorado, but they would be flying over New Mexico and Arizona and probably would avoid the storms.
Joe did his nightly devotions. He was raised a Catholic Christian and he and Carolyn were trying to raise their children with Godly values. He was in bed by 8:30 p.m. and was asleep quickly.
*****
Joe’s wake-up call came at 5:30, and he shaved and got dressed. The hotel did have a hot breakfast, and the crew was ready and left at 6:20 a.m. for the airport. They arrived at the crew check-in at 6:35 and made their way to the plane. Joe went through the underground passages (with a guide) so he could inspect the plane. Tom went to the capital’s lounge (less like a lounge and more like a flight school), where printouts and weather analysis was available. The storms in Colorado seemed to have petered out overnight, so it looked like smooth flying today. Joes’ next flight was Wednesday about noon - the trip home for a few days.
The pre-boarding started at 7:30 for the 7:59 flight and everybody was on and bags stowed by 7:55. Tom and Joe went through the pre-flight checklist while the flight attendances helped people get to their seats.
Joe did stand by the door for the last few arrivals. At last call, four Arabic men came on - with the checkerboard kerchief. They reminded Joe of Yassar Arafat, the famed leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). They seemed grim. All had briefcases. Joe guessed maybe oil tycoons flying to Texas to visit with other oil people - but somehow that didn’t seem right.
For a Tuesday morning flight from Boston to LAX, the flight was fairly empty. Lauren, the head flight attendant said there were forty open seats on the large Boeing 767 plane. Lauren had laughed at that - “Less work for me to do” she had said with a smile. (Little did she know)
*****
It was about 30 minutes into the flight when one of the Arab men went to the front restroom, and another got up to stretch and slowly made his way to a back restroom. The flight attendants were getting the cabin service items ready in both the front and back galleries. A third Arab man went to the front restroom area as if to wait for it to become available, and likewise, the fourth Arab man went to the back restroom area. At a coordinated time, one of the men in the front kicked in the cockpit door and used a knife to kill Tom Merchant in front of Joe’s eyes. The second man in the front quickly killed the two flight attendants in the front galley with his box cutter knife and entered the cockpit.
In the rear of the plane, the two Arabic men killed the four flight attendants in the rear galley with their box cutters. The two from the rear came forward, bloody knives in their hands, and killed four men who they had identified as potential problems.
In the front, one of the Arab’s took over the controls from Tom Merchant, the second first broke Joe Rodgers’ arm and held a knife to Joe’s neck so he couldn’t do anything to stop the hijacking. The two in the cockpit had trained on Boeing 767 planes and set a course for New York City - and in particular for the World Trade Center. The plane was full of jet fuel and with the planned long flight to Los Angeles, most of the fuel was still available - and would burn when they crashed into the World Trade Center.
The other two roamed the cabin looking to kill anyone who might get up or yell or cause panic. The four yelled in Arabic frequently - from Allah Akbar (which means “God is Great”) to other expressions.
There were a few communications from the flights that day on the payphones built into the back of the seat in front of them. Wikipedia noted, “Cell phones and in-plane credit card phones played a major role during and after the attack, starting with hijacked passengers who called family or notified the authorities about what was happening.”
Joe was still alive when the plane accelerated and slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, but he died instantly - as did most on the plane. The unused jet fuel burst out of its gas tanks and onto the building - melting steel and everything in its way. Joe didn’t know it but shortly afterward another plane crashed into the South Tower.
There were “2,977 fatalities, over 25,000 injuries, and substantial long-term health consequences,” (according to Wikipedia).
*****
But, there were injuries that were NOT reported, mental injuries of family, friends, acquaintances across the country. In many communities, churches opened, Ecumenical Prayer Services and candlelight vigils were held. Obviously, many of the dead and wounded were in New York City, but there were people from the Boston and New England area on the planes, there were families of passengers, and relatives.
And, there were ‘wounded’ in Grapevine Texas as well.
Carolyn Rodgers was in her classroom at Cottonwood Creek elementary school in Grapevine when the principal, assistant principal, and an aide came in. The principal, Nancy Hernadez, took Carolyn in the hall while the assistant principal and aide took over the class for the remainder of the day.
The principal held Carolyn’s arm as they walked back to the office. The Dallas Morning News and KDFW Television station had gotten word that the co-captain of the flight was from Grapevine and that was airing on the television in the main office of the school as well as reruns of the crash, the smoke, the mayhem, and the confusion. The principal asked if Joe was flying from Boston to Los Angeles today, and while Carolyn knew that was his assignment for the day, she didn’t know if this was the flight he was on or if he was flying on a later flight. The two women stood in the office watching the reruns as commentators rehashed the situation. After a few minutes, Carolyn collapsed into a chair. American Airlines had a hub at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) airport and Nancy managed a call to a personal office - where she left a message with a human resources person to verify that Joe was on, or not on, that flight.
The return call came in ten minutes. Yes, Joe had been on that flight and was presumed to be dead.
*****
Carolyn went into shock in the news. Yes, it was a personal shock-like hearing that your spouse was killed in an accident, but it was also such a nation-wide shock. “Who did this?” “Why did they do this?”
The school nurse brought Carolyn a blanket to put around her shoulders and Nancy, the school principal sat next to her. Nancy had asked if Carolyn wanted the television turned off, but Carolyn wanted to see the carnage and hear the reports.
Suddenly, she jumped up and cried “Lauren and Daniel”. Nancy knew that Carolyn had just realized that their children - Joe and her children - may or may not know that their father had been killed. All around America phone calls were being made (when the calls could get through), offices with television sets were turned to the news, school intercoms announced it to their students.
She jumped up “I have to get Lauren and Daniel”!!
Nancy said “I’ve arranged for somebody to quietly get them out of class and bring them here. They have been told that Mom needed them here today.”
Nancy pondered her next words. “I think it would be good if you had company today during all of this. Are your folks in the area, I should know that, but I’ve forgotten, or Joe’s folks.”
Soon a car pulled up with Lauren in it. Carolyn met her at the door and explained that Dad was killed on the plane in the terrorist attack. Lauren had thought that might be the case and buried her head on Carolyn’s breast and cried. A few minutes later, Daniel arrived, and again, Carolyn rushed into the hallway to hug him.
*****
The day passed as a nightmare for Carolyn, Lauren, and Daniel and millions around the country.
By Wednesday evening, churches had services. Carolyn, Lauren, and Daniel sat together at a service in their home church of St. Francis of Assissi. Some knew of their connections to the attack, but most did not. Their pastor, Father Ed, did know but wasn’t sharing it publicly. Joe’s parents lived in Muenster Texas about two hours north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Carolyn’s mother was in an assisted living center in Topeka, Kansas and her father had died of lung cancer six years ago and it wasn’t going to work to get her mother down to the Dallas area.
It was actually good for Joe’s parents, Mike and Connie Rodgers, to be with Carolyn and family. Having to make meals for them and involving them in funeral arrangements for Joe kept her own mind off burying her husband. And, actually, they didn’t have a body to bury anyway as Joe was cremated in the crash into the north World Trade Center tower. Carolyn took the rest of the week off from school, although Lauren and Daniel went back to school the next day. Carolyn made them both promise that they wouldn’t say anything about their dad being one of the pilots, but that wasn’t going to happen. Some of Lauren’s friends knew that her dad was a pilot for American and asked her point-blank “Was your dad on that flight?” The first few times, Lauren cried, but by the fourth time, she just nodded her head ‘yes’. When one of her classmates that was a bit of a bully came up, she turned her head but he surprised her by being really compassionate and gave her a quick side hug. (Later, she understood his dad had left his mom when he was five and she realized that growing up without a dad must have been rough on him.)
Mike and Connie Rodgers spent the weekend with Carolyn but went to visit one of their other sons in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex for a few days after that so Carolyn could try to regain some normalcy in her life. The funeral for Joe Rodgers was held on Saturday, September 22nd in St. Francis of Assissi church and the church was overflowing. Again, it was hard for Carolyn, Lauren, and Daniel, but the final step in the grieving process is acceptance and having a funeral was part of that acceptance process.
*****
Lauren withdrew some after the attack. She asked to sit out the color guard for the fall marching season but still was involved as she helped the team change their flags during the program.
Lauren found her way to St. Francis of Assissi church a couple of afternoons a week - just to be alone and be with God. She didn’t necessarily pray, she didn’t necessarily do much other than sit there alone for a half-an-hour with her thoughts. A few times, she went to the rectory and talked with Father Ed about death and dying. He was compassionate and without judgment listened to her.
Father Ed mentioned forgiveness to Lauren. It took her a while to forgive those terrorists who had attacked the twin towers. Their problem was not with her Dad, but with hatred - hatred of Americans, hatred of our way of life. It wasn’t until Wednesday, February 20, 2002, that she finally felt peace. She went out of her way to befriend some of the Muslim girls in her school. The girls knew Lauren’s background and were for peace in the world, not the hatred shown by the terrorists. While they didn’t become best friends, they were good friends - with one, Nadia, that she included in her friend group.
*****
Lauren went on as did her Mom and brother into the future. They could have become haters - but chose to love. Lauren majored in nursing at Southern Methodist University and became a pediatric nurse helping the newborn babies of the area find love and peace. She dated some boys, but never felt really comfortable in the dating scene.
**********
Author’s note.
I’m quoting from the Christmas Song “I heard the bells on Christmas Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men
Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good…
LOVE DOES EVENTUALLY WIN!!!
Hugs!!!
Karen
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