A Memory of 9-11

This annual excursion to the historic home of George Washington in Northern Virginia about 15 miles south of the District of Columbia was to be a day of fun, exploration, education, and memory making.

 

The sky was clear, the temperature was in the low-70’s, and the humidity was hardly noticeable, factors which created about as perfect a day to travel as one could imagine.

 

The trip up I-95 was uneventful, but as the buses approached the area near Woodbridge shortly before they exited onto Route 1 about 10 miles from their destination, those riding in the front noticed massive plumes of smoke rising in the distance.

 

Today, you’d simply pull out your smart phone, check your favorite news app, or Google “Smoke in DC.” Twenty years ago, though, most mobile phones were simply that – mobile phones with no internet access – and communication capability in many areas was spotty at best. They were curious, certainly, but they had no idea in the moment that the course of history was changing dramatically.

 

Blair Chewning, the grade level chair, was accompanying her class on the lead bus, and when the convoy arrived at Mt. Vernon, a parent traveling on the second bus rushed to relay the news, which she’d learned from her husband, that two jetliners had crashed into the World Trade Center.

 

Within minutes, they became acutely aware that the smoke they had seen in the distance was billowing from the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.

 

As the children and parents remained on the buses, many still unaware of the tragedy unfolding, Blair made a call to Collegiate where Dr. Jill Hunter, the head of the Lower School, instructed her and her traveling party to return to Richmond at once.

 

“I have very little memory of what I told the children and parents about the events and why we were returning to school,” Blair said. “I do remember picking my words very carefully and emphasizing that for every bit of evil there is in the world, there was far more good.

        

“I also remember asking the bus driver to turn off the transistor radio beside him because I didn’t want the news to frighten the children. And as we reversed course and headed south to Richmond, we saw a steady stream of military vehicles packed with Marines from Quantico heading north into D.C.”

 

They rolled back into Collegiate around 1 p.m. with many children still unaware of the tragedy, much less the magnitude of it.

 

“So many of our colleagues back at Collegiate were worried about us, but I honestly believe it was easier for us than for them,” said Blair, who retired in 2017. “We didn’t have access to a television to see the horrifying images.

 

“I remember, at the end of the day, stopping at my parents' house on my way home from school. It hadn't occurred to me to let them know earlier that I was safely back from Mt. Vernon, but my father's bear hug and misty eyes told me just how worried he had been for our safety.”

 

Kimberley Nance (now Zandler) is a Middle School humanities teacher who in 2001 taught fourth grade and was on that Mt. Vernon trip.

 

“About the time we saw the smoke,” she recalled, “calls started coming in to the parents. They didn’t tell the children what had happened, but a parent said to me, ‘A plane has hit the World Trade Center.’ I asked which tower. I was nervous. I don’t think anybody knew the connection I had.”

 

At the time, Kimberley’s father, Jim Nance, was the chief operating officer of ICAP which occupied office space on two floors of both the north and south tower.

 

“I tried to make phone calls,” she said, “but I kept getting a fast busy signal every time I tried to dial.”

 

Her priority, of course, was the children in her class, but she worried mightily about her father.  Finally, after about 45 minutes, she received word from her sister that he was not in the office that morning but on a train with several other executives from his company heading to a meeting in Wilmington, DE. She could breathe more easily now, and she turned her full attention to the moment.

 

“With all the kids around, we didn’t want to panic and let them see anything that’s out of the ordinary,” she said. “People were really calm. It wasn’t instant news like it would be today. People were relaying information rather than us seeing what was happening. We were so insulated from actually seeing the images, which was a blessing.”

 

Over the Labor Day weekend before 9-11, Kimberley had spent time in New York City watching the U.S. Open tennis tournament. During her visit, she had lunch with her dad at the Windows on the World restaurant atop the North Tower. It was a peaceful, joyous time.

 

“You have such a visual image of the people who helped you, the service staff, everybody who was up there,” she said. “And days later, this happened…”

   ~Weldon Bradshaw