September 11, 2001, has become a date that will be etched in history forever. The attacks were coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States that targeted the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Dave Haraden, a former Marine and current SEMO Freshman Master's in Management student, said he remembers the impact the attacks had when he was younger and how they affected daily life.
“I was a teenager at the time, and so it became a big deal at school. I mean it was all over the TVs. All the classes got cancelled. And more importantly, it's also my mom's birthday. And so sort of having that kind of tragedy happen at that time, it was a very big deal,” Haraden said.
Across four hijacked airplanes, the first two flew directly into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City on the morning of September 11, 2001. The first plane hit the North Tower around 9 am. The second plane crashed into the South Tower less than 20 minutes after the first.
According to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, each tower was over 1,200 feet in height and 110 stories tall. Both towers collapsed within two hours after the attacks.
The third plane flew into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense.
The fourth and final plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers retaliated and learned of the attacks on the Twin Towers, then realized that their flight was also hijacked.
According to Wikipedia, the intended destination of the fourth plane is believed to have been a federal government building in Washington, D.C. It was the only flight out of all four to not have reached the intended target in the planned terrorist attacks.
Senior Health Science major and current Naval reservist, Kennis Wohletz, said she learned about the 9/11 attacks and their impact as she grew up.
“I knew it had a really major impact on us. I was actually born like two years after it, so I've only ever learned about it,” Wohletz said.
According to the CDC, the 9/11 attacks resulted in nearly 3,000 casualties, caused a need for better security measures to be taken across the U.S., and changed the way people go about their day.
“I think one of the big reasons why it's important to look back on it is because when we start to become relaxed, we start to forget about these kinds of events. We are vulnerable to have them happen again, and it's important to remember that this happened at home. And that there's a reason why we do things the way we do things,” Haraden said.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in airports after 9/11 to better monitor who boards an aircraft and create an extra layer of security. It also changed many other safety protocols, including military training.
“It changed a lot of the ways the military does things because previously we were very geared towards fighting organized militaries of sovereign nations. So this kind of brought out a lot more hit-and-run, guerrilla tactics. Everything then became a weapon or a danger, instead of just being in combat zones,” Haraden said.
Even 25 years later, the tragedy and shock of the 9/11 attacks still leave a lasting impact on humanity and have made a spot in the history books for generations to come.
“It was like one of the most impactful events that happened to us in a long time. I mean it's the 25th anniversary, and we're still talking about it,” Wohletz said.
