How Did Sept. 11 Impact You?

The tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is a somber milestone in the nation’s history, a day to commemorate the nearly 3,000 lives lost.

And even though Petaluma is thousands of miles away from the scene of the attacks, the impact of the violence reverberated in our community. Dozens of Petaluma residents became soldiers and fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One man became a counter-terrorism expert whose policy papers on Al Qaeda are used to inform decision-makers. Many others felt a renewed sense of patriotism and purpose, and put themselves into improving the community.

How did 9/11 change your life? Share your story with other readers.

Brian Fishman, a Petaluma High School graduate, arrived in Washington D.C. on Sept. 10, 2001 looking for a job. Instead he found himself sitting with survivors of the attacks in Pentagon City and trying to make sense of what happened.

“The only thing I did on the 10th was buy a cell phone, which turned out to be a really good decision,” says Brian Fishman, 31, who today is a counter-terrorism expert for the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. “I was going to spend the next day working on my resume."

Instead, Fishman woke up to hear people at the guesthouse where he was staying talking about an explosion. “I thought they were talking about a movie,” he recalled.

The guesthouse was less than a mile from the Pentagon, where Flight 77 crashed, killing all 64 people onboard and 125 military personnel and civilians on the ground.

“I don’t remember seeing it but I felt this vibration in the ground,” Fishman recalls. “I just knew what had happened."

Not knowing what to do, Fishman found himself walking in the direction of the Pentagon where he found a scene he describes as “surreal.”

“I could see smoke, people running out of apartment buildings across street Pentagon; a lot of people were crying and sitting on the ground, in shock of what had happened. That’s when the whole thing became real for me; seeing that human reaction was really scary.”

Fishman sat with the people who had witnessed the attack, as they described seeing the plane hit the Pentagon. He later returned to the hotel where he joined the other guests in front of the TV. “We were all strangers, but that day there was a camaraderie among us.”

Meanwhile, in the hours following the attacks, as the entire country sat in stunned shock, rumors began circulating in Washington, DC.--that other attacks were coming, that there was a fire on the mall and about the number of casualties, Fishman recalls.

Today, the Petaluma native who went on to study at Columbia University, says the 9-11 attacks helped shape his career.

Becoming a counterterrorism expert “wasn’t a conscious choice, but being close to something like that, you understand the reaction and how scary that was for people, certainly influenced my career choice. I feel like it was this moment for the country, but on a personal level it was a coming of age too.”

Steven Kiernan, another PHS grad, enrolled in the U.S. Marines as soon as he could after graduation and shipped off overseas. The son and grandson of veterans, Kiernan always thought he'd join the military, but the decision was hastened by the Sept. 11 attacks.

One day, while on patrol in Iraq, his convoy came upon an IED and Kiernan lost both legs in the incident. He was treated at Walter Reed Hospital, where he received the Purple Heart for valor in the field. Today Kiernan lives in Fairfax County, Virginia where he is attending college to pursue a career in foreign policy and is planning an October wedding.

As Petaluma jazz legend Peter Welker and his wife, Carol, had just returned from an East Coast vacation, arriving home on Sept. 10.

“We have family in the Boston area, so we had spent a nice vacation visiting in Kennebunkport, Maine, Boston, and Cape Cod. We had a wonderful time,” said Peter Welker.

But towards the end of the trip, it looked like they’d have to cut it short and return earlier than planned. They changed their flights scheduled for Sept. 12 to Sept. 10. On Sept. 11 as every television channel covered the airplane hijackings and subsequent crashes into The World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, a nagging feeling kept the back of their necks tingling.

“Then we realized that the same exact flight which flew into one of the twin towers, we were on it the day before. It left out of Logan Airport at the same time and had the same flight number. What a freak out that was,” said Welker.

On Tuesday, September 11 2001, American Airlines flight 11, the same flight the Welkers flew home on the previous day, was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists, and deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. All of the 92 people aboard were killed, including the hijackers, plus 1,402 people in the building.

“Were we lucky? I don’t remember feeling that way. Even though we didn’t lose anyone. Didn’t know anyone who lost a loved one. I remember it was such a somber feeling… how close we came.”

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, Sara Zander, a mortgage broker who at the time lived in Larkspur, sent her son off to school, grabbed a cup of coffee and flipped on the TV.

“The screen showed repeated video of smoke billowing from a twin tower, and I was sure this was some fantasy projection until I took into account the slight hysteria in the news caster's voice and that every channel had the same videos displayed,” Zander recalls.

To Zander, a former New Yorker, the idea of an attack on her 'impregnable' Manhattan was shocking. But as the news unfolded, all she could think about was her brother, Hal, a New York City EMT. But all cell service had been interrupted and she couldn’t reach Hal or her sister-in-law.

To put herself to use, Zander, who has lived in Petaluma for the past seven years, drove to her son’s school and began volunteering in the office, taking phone messages, assuring parents everyone was fine, walking notes to teachers.

The school went on lockdown and stores of emergency supplies kept in case of an earthquake were checked. “Security was beefed up outside the locked building. Counselors were alerted to handle any emotional issues. They were ready for nearly anything that might come,” Zander recalls.

Meanwhile, her brother was searching the wreckage of the World Trade Center for survivors.

“He lost his captain to the collapse, and never found a single person to carry out of the rubble,” says Zander. “The effect on him and his firehouse was immense."

To commemorate the anniversary, including the 343 New York Fire Department firefighers who perished that day, Zander and several members of the Petaluma Quilt Guild, recently made a quilt for Hal embroidered with 343 stars.

“As a family, we were lucky that day,” she says, “as so many were not.”

From Tragedy to Action

But as sad as the 9-11 anniversary is, the day is also about bringing people together to work on behalf of their communities. In Sonoma County, a day of service will be held this Saturday, Sept. 10 at Foothill Regional Park, 1351 Arata Lane, Windsor.

Volunteers will be conducting trail maintenance, providing brush clean up and planting trees throughout the park. Anyone interested in taking action and volunteering should contact John Ryan, Volunteer Coordinator, Sonoma County Regional Parks 565-3356 or at John.Ryan@sonoma-county.org.

This is one of thousands of events around the country, so make sure you check out ActionAmerica.com to search for other 9/11 Service Day opportunities and tell the country how you're taking positive action in your community.