For many AFN listeners and readers that’s 9-11.
The world changed that day, but it didn’t stay the same. It never does.
Here are some AFN remembrances of that day. Most staff members were working, some of us here, some at other places. Some were at school. Some staff members were children. The event predated the birth of one.
Most of us have vivid memories of that day. The others have learned it. Today, we remember that tragic morning now a quarter of a century old.
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Steve Jordahl: I was taking my kids to school in Colorado Springs. We were all on bikes. My wife called and told me. I was working at a church at the time as worship leader. I went into work, for some reason. I was the only staff member who did. My first thought was how to lead the church in reaction to the attack. I put together a video with images of the Twin Towers rubble and rescue workers and put to the Amy Grant song Somewhere Down the Road. The lyrics:
So much pain and no good reason why
You've cried until the tears run dry
And nothing here can make you understand
The one thing that you held so dear
Is slipping from your hands, and you say
Why, why, why
Does it go this way?
And why, why, why?
And all I can say
Is somewhere down the road
There'll be answers to the questions
And somewhere down the road
Though we cannot see it now
I think it was the perfect response to the shock we all felt.
Chad Groening: I was working my current job at that time, and I woke up and turned on the Fox News Channel and heard about the attack.
I remember getting dressed and driving to work knowing that I would be having a busy day. When I got to the office everyone was in front of the TV watching the coverage.
I do not remember who I talked to that day, but we spent all day calling and getting sound for the newscasts. I remember President Bush's reaction and was thankful that he made it clear that it was an act of war.
In the years that followed I became the national defense correspondent and did a lot on Islamic terrorism. My wife Christa and I went to New York for the first time several years later and visited the Ground Zero site before the new building was constructed.
It is hard to believe that next year we will commemorate a quarter of a century since the attack, the same year we celebrate the 250th birthday of the Republic.
Rusty Pugh: Tuesday, Sept. 11 was a typical day.
I hadn’t yet started the early-morning anchoring shift in 2001. I was working 9-5.
I remember well that it was a crisp, sunny, almost fall day. I guess I didn’t have the TV on as I was getting ready for work because as I backed out of my driveway and turned on the radio, I heard Fred Jackson’s voice doing a live report. This was unusual, so I knew it must be something big.
As I listened to Fred and Jim Duke describe what was going on, I couldn’t believe it.
I rushed to the office, and the next 12 hours were just a blur.
It was definitely an “all hands on deck” situation, and everyone did a great job to keep our listeners informed.
I was given the assignment of visiting some local churches to get some of the area pastors’ reactions.
For weeks, it dominated our news coverage.
Robert Thornton: I was working the morning shift at KETK-TV in Tyler, Texas, as a meteorologist.
The news broke during the time after the local morning program ended when we would do local news and weather segments before “Today Show” programming.
I had walked to the back to a part of the TV station known as the “Edit Bay” area where editors would get audio and video ready for broadcast. There was a TV there that was always on and showed our channel’s programming. That is where I learned of the terrorist attacks.
I cannot remember if I saw the second plane hit the tower live or if it was a replay. I remember the fear in some of the employees’ eyes. I had some too but kept believing that God was my protector. There was also the unknown as to when the next plane may strike another city or some other sort of attack would occur.
The day was very chaotic, and I remember our news director working on getting a phone call to a contact in New York City to give their account of what happened. 
I also remember hearing that President George W. Bush had landed in at Barksdale Air Force Base in nearby Shreveport, Louisiana, at one point. In the days immediately after, I remember how strange it was to not see any aircraft in the sky. The night of 9/11, I had a sleep lab appointment and when trying to go to sleep, all I saw were the planes hitting the towers. Not a good time for such a procedure! It was a day I will not forget.
Chris Woodward: I was a college sophomore. I did not have a class on Tuesdays until 10 or 11 o’clock. My dorm room was small, and my roommate woke me when he got up to get ready for his early morning classes.
An outdoorsman, my roommate liked to watch shows about hunting. After a few minutes, I heard him say, “I don’t feel like watching hunting today.” He then did something he did not normally do: turn on the news. I rolled over, shut my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. That’s when I heard him say, ‘Hey, Woody (my nickname), someone accidentally crashed a plane into a building in New York City.’
I sat up, looked at the television, and became glued to the coverage. It wasn’t long after that we saw the second plane hit. At that point, we knew it wasn’t an accident. All our classes were cancelled because of the terrorist attacks. We watched television for the rest of that morning, and I kept up with the news when I went to my part-time job that afternoon.
Fred Jackson: I arrived at work that morning at the usual time…around 6 AM.
It seemed like a routine day.
The TV was on in the news studio and our morning anchor at the time, Jim Duke, was busy at work.
About an hour later, the horrific 9-11 story began to unfold in New York.
When the first plane flew into the first tower, the assumption was it was an horrific crash…certainly nothing deliberate.
But then when the second plane flew into the second tower, it was clear, the nation was under attack.
For the next 12 hours, the AFR radio network told the story as it unfolded, with a special emphasis on providing reassurance to our audience that God was still in control.
It was a day none of us will ever forget.
Melonie Manning: September 11, 2001, was the day after my 15th birthday. I had stayed home from school, and my mom had taken a morning break from mail carrying to escort her aspiring driver to the Limestone County (Alabama) Courthouse.
The first tower was hit before we left home. Having no concept of differing time zones, I didn't think it was a big deal -- just an unfortunate event that involved an empty building.
The second tower was hit as I rushed my mom out the front door. At that point, I began to wake up to the seriousness of the situation. Still, I had a permit to test for, and in my naïve mind, it was still an accident. The buildings … and the planes … and the streets below were empty.
News had reached the courthouse before we did. A girl my age sat with her mom across from me. A bulky television mounted high in the corner silently rolled the footage. Inaudible reporting could be heard from a radio somewhere. Amid the discussion and murmurs in the lobby, a security guard emerged from his office shouting, "The Pentagon's been hit!"
I passed my exam and checked in at school, excited about driving … ready to fill in my classmates about what was happening in New York. But of course, they already knew. Everyone did. I remember how eerily quiet the halls were as I made my way to history class, where a television had been rolled in. Coach Carter, like every other teacher, had cancelled his lesson plans for the day. We all watched as the towers crumbled.
The previous fall, my eighth-grade class had taken a trip to Washington, D.C. and New York City. We didn't know what would soon become of the sites we visited, that the pictures we took with our disposable cameras would be some of the last of the Twin Towers.
Parker Kate May: I was born a couple years after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. While I did not witness the tragic event, I saw the effects that rippled out.
Schools began to pay tribute to the day in order to educate the younger generation in an effort to “Remember 9/11.” Time was taken out of the normal academic schedule to watch videos pertaining to that day’s events. I learned about the controversial photograph “The Falling Man” and “Let’s roll,” the last recorded words of Todd Beamer.
On the side of personal accounts, a woman told the story of how she saved her father by making him late for work. Her insistence that he drive her to school ensured he was not inside the World Trade Center when the Twin Towers were hit. While originally angry, he was thankful that his daughter’s actions saved his life.
The events and lasting effect of 9-11 are tragic, but God’s hand can still be seen amid the devastation in the lives of the people who were spared that day.
Billy Davis: The news an airliner hit one of the Twin Towers came over the radio, on the K-Love music station, on my way to work in downtown Memphis.
I was working at The Commercial Appeal, the daily newspaper there, and remember the fear of a terrorist attack in Memphis.
Memphis is known as a major shipping hub right on the Mississippi River, so in a war it’s a logical civilian target. It was the fear of the unknown, of not knowing what was a target and what was not, that struck fear in us that day.
Parrish Alford: I was covering college sports for the local newspaper, The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, at the time, but there’s an AFA component to my experience.
I had just dropped off my kids at our church preschool and had begun the short drive to AFA to tape a weekly sports radio show.
I was walking toward the studio, when I heard the lady at the front desk tell a caller, “Yes mam, the Pentagon.”
I stopped immediately. As a journalist, my initial reaction was anger. I thought to myself, “No! You can’t give out wrong information at a time like this.” Then I considered the situation and thought, “Oh my gosh, it’s the Pentagon too.”
I quickly found out that indeed, the Pentagon had also been hit.
We taped the sports show that day because it’s what we always did.
I drove down to Mississippi State University and wrote football stories about the coming Saturday’s game because it was my job … what I always did. Like many Americans, sports writers just plowed ahead that day, not knowing what else to do. We clung to familiar routines.
Later, Mississippi State and South Carolina would play on a Thursday night, the first football game of any level after 9-11. There was an eerie quiet before kickoff, but the pre-game ceremony and playing of the National Anthem were stirring.
Beforehand, the moment of silence was interrupted by one fan’s shouted curse of Osama bin Laden.
But writing football stories on 9-11, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to get home and be with my family.
