Sept 11 Memorial Issue

10 years later

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...

“It sickens me how they cheered when the towers were hit” ... Sarah Booms Helton.

“And then we began to realize that Charlotte was just a few miles away with all those banking towers” ... David Isenhour

Jimmy Hensley, coordinator of Brown Emergency Training Center at Cleveland Community College, displays a piece of history at Cleveland Community College–steel from one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Local college has ‘piece of history’ ‘A piece of history’ is how fireman Jimmy Hensley describes steel from one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, to his class of emergency training students at Brown Emergency Training Center at Cleveland Community College where he is fire training coordinator.

Hensley, a part time fireman at Kings Mountain Fire Department, contacted the NC Port Authority several years ago in an effort to acquire the steel. It was recently awarded to Brown Emergency Training Center as a permanent piece to commemorate the tragedy of 9/11. Hensley displayed the steel piece in his classroom as a memorial to the firefighters who died in the early morning terrorist attack Sept. 11, 2001 in the worst attack ever on U.S. soil.

“Every time we look at that steel we are reminded of the horror of that day and the thousands of lives lost,” Hensley said.

"It’s my hopes that everyone will purposely make some time in their busy schedules to remember how they felt that day and to pray to God that He leads our country, protects our emergency services workers, our military, and comforts all Americans!"...Jason Wofford “I think we felt somewhat indestructible before. We’re smarter than that now.”...Julia Benfield “I would say that today, we’re more aware. I don’t know how much safer.”...Chris Black

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We saw people helping people...My wakeup call.

For Jon Abernathy it was indeed a life-changing event...

“All we could do was stand there with others and watch the towers burn and then they disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.” The images trouble him still, he added.

Abernathy said the whole spectacle changed his life.

“When I saw those buildings fall, I expected there to be riots and everything. That’s not what we saw that day,” he said.

“We saw people helping other people; going out of their way to help other people. That changed my whole outlook. It was my ‘wake-up’ call! I saw I needed to go to work for God’s kingdom! I couldn’t do the things I do today, like singing in my church, giving my testimony, if not for what I saw on September 11.”

More from a Cherryville man who was there when it happened...Page 2

Page 2A

Patriot Day Remembrance

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Cherryville witness says it would be hard to go back Towers’ collapse; people’s reactions were Abernathy’s ‘wake-up call’

by MICHAEL E. POWELL Contributing Editor

Cherryville’s Jon Abernathy remembers well where he was the day terrorists attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

He was in New York City and wasn’t more than a mile or two from them. He has the pictures to prove it.

“My dad Bill, Chris Ballard and his dad Ben, and me were all in New York that day. We had been doing this every year. My dad would always go to an electronics show every year in September, then we’d catch a Yankees game. I love the Yankees,” Abernathy said. “I think it was only the second time Chris and his dad had come with us.

The game between the Yankees Then the other plane hit as they got added. and the Boston Red Sox was to out of the cab, he said. The streets Abernathy said the whole spechave been a momentous one, Aber- began to fill with people, curious tacle changed his life. nathy said, because veteran bystanders all, coming out of “When I saw those buildings “Bosox” pitcher Roger Clemens stores, all turning and looking fall, I expected there to be riots and was trying to become the first down the long street toward the everything. That’s not what we saw pitcher in the game that day,” he said. to go 20-1.

“We saw people “The game was helping other peo“Our families feared for us! scheduled for Sept. ple; going out of They thought we were dead!”

10, but that day, it their way to help poured down rain!” other people. That he said. “It got changed my whole rained out, needless to say.” now-burning buildings. outlook. It was my ‘wake-up’ call!

Abernathy remembers the “As Chris and I stood watching I saw I needed to go to work for weather was cool; a typical New the burning towers, we were won- God’s kingdom! I couldn’t do the York fall day. He said September dering the whole time, ‘How are things I do today, like singing in 11 dawned, a bright, clear, cool they going to get those fires out?’” my church, giving my testimony, if day. They decided to go have a Abernathy said. “At no time ever not for what I saw on September look around the city and wound up did we think of the buildings even- 11.” in what Abernathy termed “Fashion tually collapsing.”

Abernathy said his family didStreet”. His father Bill (aka “The Abernathy said none of them n’t know if they were safe or not Wizard” of Post 100 Legion base- knew what to do. for five long hours due to the probball fame), he said, had left to go “All we could do was stand lems with phone lines into and out take care of some sort of business. there with others and watch the of New York during the crisis.

When the first plane hit they were towers burn and then they disap“Our families feared for us! in a cab heading down the street, peared in a cloud of white smoke.” They thought we were dead!” he looking for some place to get out. The images trouble him still, he said.

Abernathy said he knows America felt safe then and the worst happened before our very eyes, on national television.

“It’s sad it took something like that (9/11) to make us think, to wake us up,” he said. “Still, I believe our military and our airport folks; our fire and police departments; our EMTs are doing a really good job in protecting us and keeping us safer today than maybe we thought we were then.”

However, Abernathy makes no bones about it when he says he believes it (a terrorist attack) will happen again.

“Those people (terrorists) hate America. They hate our freedom and everything we stand for. I believe they will try again and we must be on our guard.”

When asked if he had been back since that day, Abernathy smiled wistfully and said, “No.” “I haven’t been back since that day, and if I did, it would be hard,” he added. “It would be very hard.”

Why choose Sept. 11?

By THOMAS LARK Contributing Editor

Many Americans have pondered the significance of the date. Why was Sept. 11 chosen? As a Catholic, a U.S. Army veteran and a passionate amateur military historian, Steven Helton, said he believes he knows the answer.

“It coincides with the Battle of Vienna, Sept. 11-12, 1683,” he explained. “The Mohammedan Turks of the Ottoman Empire had the Austrians and their fellow Catholic allies, known as the Holy League, outnumbered nearly two to one—about 150,000 soldiers to around 84,000. But then the Polish forces of King Jan Sobieski showed up and saved the day. The Turks were routed, and Austria was saved. This really was a battle with the fate of all Christendom in the balance.”

Mr. Helton noted that some 20,000 horsemen–the largest cavalry charge in military history–poured on to the Turks, driving downhill at dusk. Among them were 3,000 Polish and Austrian heavy lancers, led by Sobieski himself, known as the Winged Hussars.

“They had the coolest uniforms I’ve ever seen,” he observed with a smile.

“They had these huge metal wings attached to the back of their armor. That made a really loud, clattering noise as they galloped down that hill, and it scared the Turks to death. They thought they were being attacked by angels!”

A big fan of the prominent English Catholic writer J.R.R. Tolkien and his Christian allegory, “The Lord of the Rings,” Mr. Helton said he shared the assessment of fellow Catholic James Bogle, an English historian and former British Army officer.

“I think Mr. Bogle put it well, when he recently compared that cavalry charge to the moment in ‘The Two Towers’ where the Riders of Rohan show up at dawn and save the day, defeating the army of those evil Orcs and saving the heroic defenders at Helm’s Deep,” he noted. “The Battle of Vienna was a great day for the West and one that I think all Christians can be proud of.”

There were some interesting cultural outcomes as well, as Mr. Helton noted. The fleeing Turks left behind vast quantities of strong coffee. This began Vienna’s long association with various kinds of coffee, especially the cappuccino. The croissant also found its origin here, he added, as the pastry was shaped like the Turks’ emblematic crescent, a popular symbol in the Islamic world.

“There was a lot of religious significance, too,” Mr. Helton continued. “King Jan was thinking of Julius Caesar’s famous saying, ‘Veni, vidi, vici,’ which means, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ Caesar was pretty cocky, you know. Well, Jan saw the Battle of Vienna differently. He said, ‘Venimus, vidimus, Deus vincit.’ That means, ‘We came, we saw, God conquered.’

“King Jan also put his troops under the protection of Our Lady,” he added. “Pope Innocent XI was so grateful, he designated Sept. 12 as the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary. So that’s why these Mohammedan terrorists attacked us on Sept. 11. They wanted to attack the West and get back at us for one of their worst defeats.”

His friend, Mike Lasley of Mount Holly, agreed. A fellow St. Anthony’s parishioner, he said that just as the Christian soldiers did during those heady days in 1683 and as Pope Benedict XVI has recently urged, Americans today need to pray the rosary to protect themselves against Mohammedan terrorists and bring about world peace.

“The rosary is the answer,” Lasley declared, adding that he often leads the rosary at church.

Photos contributed by Keith Miller

We stood on line for hours in the cold and the wind. We were weak and exhausted from fighting the elements. When we got to the observation platform the sun was setting on the city and our view was dim.

All poetically appropriate for the moment.

Native New Yorker watched as his city began to crumble

By KYRA A. TURNER Staff Writer

As millions of Americans watched the destruction as planes operated by terrorists flew into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center, Keith Miller, New York native now living in Kings Mountain, watched as his home city crumbled.

Miller grew up in the hustle and bustle of New York City, where buildings scrape the sky and a steady stream of people pound the pavement. It was where he went to school, where he went to church, where he learned the skills of his trade, and where he met his wife. For Miller, New York City was home.

It was where Miller and his wife, Julie, raised their two kids, Danielle and Chris, for seven years. Danielle was four years old when they moved from New York to North Carolina, Chris was three months old.

Before they left, the World Trade Center was just a monumental building in Miller’s hometown where he visited often with his job as an investment advisor.

“I had been several times (to the World Trade Center) and had been to the top to the sightseeing decks,” Miller commented.

“One Fourth of July we went to stay with a friend at their condo on the Jersey side of the Hudson. We watched the New York Harbor fireworks show and could see the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers.”

Miller compared the World Trade Center plaza to downtown Charlotte, “Tall glass buildings, lots of people in business suits moving about, normal busy city.”

When Danielle, Chris, and their newest addition Lauren, were older, Miller and his wife took them back to New York City (before that fateful day) to see where he grew up, where they used to live and the Baptist Church they helped plant on Long Island.

“We visited many of the places Julie and I used to go when we lived there, the parks we used to take the children, the apartments we lived in, the beaches we went to,” Miller explained. “We took the children across many of the bridges (my uncle used to deliver the steel for the Verrazano Bridge) and tunnels and to many places in Manhattan. The children got bored because it all looked the same, lots and lots of big buildings, mostly concrete, very little grass and trees.”

Before 9/11...

“I had been several times (to the World Trade Center) and had been to the top to the sightseeing decks,” After 9/11...

“It wasn’t busy with business people so much anymore. Now it was more like a tourist area, lots of people in casual clothes from many countries taking pictures,” With living in Kings Mountain the kids were used to the trees and rolling hillsides but for Miller this was home.

Then on September 11, 2001, something happened to Miller’s hometown that would change America forever.

“I was at work and we kept CNBC and CNN on all the time. Being investment advisors we always kept up with the business news. I was shocked when I had seen what happened. I thought about Lenny Zeller and his family. Lenny grew up around the corner from me. We went to school together. He was a trader there. I thought about the people at Cantor and Company.

They had about 2000 people working there and I bought my bonds from them sometimes. Their offices are the ones I used to call. I was sick in my stomach with grief thinking about them and watching the news.”

A few years later Miller and his wife took their family back to New York City to see Ground Zero.

For Miller, this trip home was not the same. This time airport security was different and so was the city.

“The lines got longer and slower and I had to change a lot of my carry on and check almost everything,” Miller explained. “It was weird going through metal detectors and taking off your coat, belt and shoes to go to the Statue of Liberty or board the ferry. It was also weird to see soldiers with rifles at the Statue of Liberty.”

After September 11, Miller commented that going to Ground Zero was much dif-

ferent than going to the World Trade Center.

“It wasn’t busy with business people so much anymore. Now it was more like a tourist area, lots of people in casual clothes from many countries taking pictures,” Miller said.

“The line to see ground zero was many blocks long. Near the site they had plywood walls around much of the site to keep people from seeing inside or getting hurt near the steep edges. All along the wall, for blocks and blocks, people had pasted up pictures and information about loved ones. Many of the pictures had flowers and candles below them as memorials.

Although that day was cold and windy when we went to see it, and although there were thousands of tourists from all around the world there to see it, the mood was somber and emotional. When we got to the viewing platform I was shocked. There was a hole, several stories deep into the ground. It looked like the foundation of a new building, dug out and squared off. I knew this is where the buildings used to stand. This is where people I knew of used to work.”

Miller said that of all his children Danielle, his oldest child, remembers the trip to Ground Zero like it was yesterday.

She understood what was going on but like many people, she didn’t know anybody connected with the tragedy so it didn’t touch her like it did her father.

Miller’s brother, Joe Miller, was a lot closer to the horror than Miller was.

“My brother, Joe, was a corrections officer at Rikers Island prison,” Miller commented. “He and his coworkers volunteered to help with the clean up and searches. My brother went to the Meadowlands (where the Jets and Giants football teams play) on his days off and after work for several weeks. Joe was on the crew that sorted the body parts found in the wreckage. The bodies and body parts were bagged at Ground Zero and sent to the Meadowlands to be sorted and processed.

That tells the gruesomeness of the event better than anything else I have ever heard.

Joe doesn’t like to talk about it. I think Joe is a real hero.”

New York City was Miller’s home.

Now it’s a town of torn memories.

“It seems strange to not see the towers there anymore, and then I feel sad when I think about it.”

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Patriot Day Remembrance

Page 3A

To those who serve...

Kings Mountain...

A message from the Mayor, On September 11, 2001 life changed forever all across America and parts of our world – American freedom and our way of life came under attack.

We could never imagine terrorist attacks ever happening in America, as we have read in our local newspapers and observed on television occurring in distant lands. But on Rick Murphrey that day that will live in infamy–9/11/01–an Mayor unprovoked and horrific cowardly act of terrorism struck our homeland.

When four commercial aircraft were hijacked, death rained from the sky in New York City and Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon.

Thousands of innocent people were killed on this day in history.

This was an attack that was intended to scare and humble our nation and for us to surrender our freedom.

But our nation united together to defend and fight to secure our freedom. The spirit of democracy can not be killed.

We will never forget the heroic actions of the rescue personnel, police and fire departments who responded. Saving lives while risking their own lives gave us a sense of pride and unity, the banner of freedom.

We honor and thank a special group of heroes: our local police and fire department and rescue personnel. We thank them for their professionalism, personal courage, honor and dedication as they risk their lives every day in performing their jobs.

We thank the men and women serving in our military for protecting our freedom and securing our quality of life. Today we stand together for God and country in honoring our past and our idealistic hope and faith in our nation’s future.

Please join us...

Patriot Day Observance Sunday, September 11, 2011 • 2:00 pm National Guard Armory, Kings Mountain At 8:46 a.m. the Kings Mountain Fire Department will lower the flag in front of City Hall to half staff. This is same time that American Airlines flight #11 was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The public is invited to participate.

Mayor Rick Murphrey

Howard Shipp Ward 1

Mike Butler Ward 2

Tommy Hawkins Ward 3

Rodney Gordon Ward 4

Rick Moore Ward 5

Houston Corn At Large

Dean Spears At Large

Marilyn Sellers City Manager

Gateway to Cleveland County

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Patriot Day Remembrance

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

FDNY In just a few short hours those four initials were burned into the minds of millions of Americans as they collectively began to stand for courage and heroism.

And, almost as quickly, we began to recognize those same traits in our own fire departments, our own police departments and our emergency services personnel. To say that we suddenly recognized their contributions, their dedication and their worth is a vast understatement.

Our chiefs speak out on 9/11... then and now Burns: Stay vigilant, stay safe

by ELIZABETH STEWART staff writer

Kings Mountain Fire Department takes any threat of terrorism seriously.

So does the Kings Mountain Police Department and all law enforcement agencies.

“After 9/11 there were not only airport security repercussions but all across the state first responders and all law enforcement agencies stepped up threat levels,” said veteran firefighter Frank Burns.

“We stay vigilant,” says Burns of local firemen and police. A fireman for 37 years, he was assistant chief from 1979-89 and since 1989 has served as chief of the department. He is also an officer of the N.C. Association of HazMat Responders and just returned from the State Firemen’s and Chiefs’ Association conference in Raleigh where 500 firefighters gathered for a 9/11 memorial service.

Burns said he was in Greensboro Sept.11, 2001, attending an officer’s

training class when one of the leaders of the course brought a radio in the classroom and the conference attendees listened as the horror of 9/11 in New York City was broadcast over the air waves. “We had no TV and no cell phones but we as firefighters from North Carolina would have liked to help.”

A year after the disaster, at least three part-time firemen, Bill Parker, Shad Johnson and David Ayscue–visited Ground Zero. They said they remember that experience on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

“We get emails on any potential threats,” said Burns, who said law enforcement looks carefully at potential danger that could attack gasoline tankers and tractor trailer vehicles, for instance, which carry up to 13,000 gallons of fuel, railroad tracks, water systems and water sources.

Since 9/11 Homeland Security has assisted fire departments and law enforcement agencies with grants to give first responders more training on

weapons of mass destruction and how to recognize additional threats that could come from explosives.

Nineteen hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001 managed to pass existing checkpoints and board aircraft. Since the attack, security at many airports worldwide has been escalated to lower the probability of similar events occurring again. Improved identification checks have also significantly tightened since 2001.

Kings Mountain Fire Department has received grants this year for turnout gear, a health and wellness grant which provides for physical fitness equipment and physicals for all firemen, and radios and rescue equipment. In addition, a grant has brought a second Jaws of Life to the Kings Mountain Fire Department.

“Staying vigilant is how we remain safe,” says Burns. And, he says, the public’s eyes and ears on any warning of danger is essential to helping firemen and law enforcement do their job.

photos by LIB STEWART

Kiings Mountan Fire Department Fire Chief Frank Burns

Cash: “Attack no accident!”

by MICHAEL E. POWELL Contributing Editor

Chief Jeff Cash, in New York City just six months after the collapse of the twin towers, said this photo of Ground Zero was taken as they were going through the debris as it were, with “a fine tooth comb”.

Cash noted that he found out just minutes after the shot was made they had found the remains of seven firefighters there that particular night.

For Cherryville Fire Chief Jeff Cash and Police Chief Woody Burgess, being public officers and helping others took on a whole new meaning on a September day 10 years ago. On that day, the world changed and America lost a little more of her innocence and well-being.

On that bright Fall day–September 11, 2001–Americans were attacked for maybe only the fifth time in the country’s storied history, by agents of a foreign power. The first time, April 18, 1775, the British attacked the young country; the second was August 16, 1812, when the British again invaded our country and sacked Washington D.C., burning the White House to the ground.

The third (and perhaps lesser known) time: March 9,1916, as Mexican bandit Pancho Villa and 500 Mexicans attacked New Mexico killing 18 Americans (New Mexico had become a state four years earlier, in 1912); the fourth, and perhaps most well-know and heinous attack: December 7, 1941–the day that will live in infamy, according to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when the Japanese attacked our Naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands (our losses estimated at 2,350).

See CASH on Page 5

We thank those who serve!

1250 Linwood Rd. • Kings Mountain

Warlick and Hamrick Insurance

704-739-3446 #09350

704-739-3611 • Kings Mountain, NC

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Patriot Day Remembrance

Page 5A

Seasoned air traveler says, ‘It’s different’ now He’s comfortable with new restrictions, but ‘I miss the good ole days’

by ELIZABETH STEWART staff writer

For decades flying was just that.

You’d show up at the airport, walk right up to the gate, show your ticket and board your plane.

There were obvious security concerns but nothing like today– after Sept.11, 2001.

Are we as safe after 9/11?

“Definitely,” says Kings Mountain Mayor Rick Murphrey, just back after a vacation flying with his wife, Sandra, to the New England states.

Says the mayor, “it’s different.”

Murphrey traveled every week in the late 1970s and 1980s as Vice

President of Sales for Spectrum Textured Fibers. He flew out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Sunday or early Monday for La Guardia Airport in New York City and Spectrum’s corporate headquarters in New York City. He flew back to Charlotte every weekend and to his home in Kings Mountain.

“Sometimes I didn’t get to the airport 10 minutes before takeoff but I had my ticket, boarding pass, and my bag which I took on the plane,” said Murphrey, adding that since 9 /11 there are drastic changes in air travel.

Murphrey said he saw lots of empty seats on flights he took back

in the 1970s and 1980s. On a recent trip he and his wife were at the airport two hours in advance of their flight, went through strict security checks, stowed his shaving gear in a suitcase for which they were charged a fee. Seats appeared closer and crowded, and there were no free refreshments or meals.

The mayor was supposed to fly out of Charlotte for Pennsylvania on business on Sept. 11, 2001. He was at Kings Mountain City Hall that morning and saw the news of the terrorism attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. He canceled his flight as city officials monitored the situation. Sev-

eral days after, he witnessed the tight security and soldiers with M16s at the airports.

“I think travelers are more anxious and more aware of their surroundings but I feel comfortable flying and with the restrictions, but I miss those good ole days,” said the mayor.

With the increase in fuel costs. the consumer is also paying more for airline transportation. “We’ve enjoyed that freedom of the good ole days but I understand the reason for more security precautions and I do feel more secure flying with all of these precautions in place,” said Murphrey.

Rick Murphrey

The loss of a cousin made attack very personal

By THOMAS LARK Contributing editor

MOUNT HOLLY—It’s personal.

The terrorist tragedies of Sept.

11, 2001, were the most successful attacks of their kind by a foreign power on American soil in our nation’s history.

And many of us have personal connections to those horrific events.

One of them is Sarah Booms Helton of Gastonia, a member of St. Anthony of Padua Traditional Roman Catholic Church of Mount Holly.

Recently, at the church, Helton talked about the pain that she and her family members suffered when her first cousin, Kelly Ann Booms, just 24 years old, was numbered among those killed on that fateful

Tuesday morning.

Booms, a graduate of Miami University, who had majored in accounting, lived in Brookline, Mass.

Like Helton, she was a native of Michigan. Booms had also lived in Australia, Colorado and Ohio. She worked in Boston as an accountant for Pricewaterhouse Coopers, one of the world’s largest accounting and consulting firms.

“She had just passed her accounting test the previous summer and was called to go to California on an assignment,” Helton recalled.

She also talked about Susan Henk of New York, mother of Tom Henk, who was Booms’s boyfriend.

Helton said the grieving New Yorkers spoke about their loss in a statement from April 23, 2002: “Kelly came into ours lives about two years ago,” Mrs. Henk

said. “She was dating our son, Tom. I will never forget her smile and the wonderful way she made people feel. We feel so sad for our son, the Boomses and us.

“We miss her so much. I’m so glad she was in our lives, even if it was for this short time. We will never forget Kelly! Please pray for her family and my son for healing.”

Helton said her cousin was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first airplane to crash into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

The plane was one of four that day hijacked by some 20 terrorists, most of them Saudi Arabian nationals, working for the international group known as Al-Qaeda (Arabic for “the base”), an organization of murderous Mohammedan militants.

Helton’s older sister, Sandra,

called her to inform her of their cousin’s death—one of 2,753 in connection with the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center.

“I was confused and horrified,” Helton said. “These attacks felt personal.”

She also remembered how she felt when the truth about Al-Qaeda summarily came out in the immediate aftermath of the day, and she saw the face of Mohammed Atta, the Egyptian ringleader of the attacks and pilot of the hijacked AA Flight 11, all over newspapers and television.

“He looked like the Devil himself,” she said with a shudder, recalling the evil man’s cold, dead eyes—a common feature among psychopaths.

She also recalled her feeling of revulsion when images of jubilant

crowds throughout the Islamic world poured in on television and in newspapers after the attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon.

“It sickens me how they cheered when the towers were hit,” Helton said.

Returning to her cousin, Mrs. Helton noted that 10 years on, Booms’s memory is still kept alive.

She is among her family’s faithful members still stoking that flame.

“I try to send out e-mails of her pictures and information with a prayer request for her soul and the souls of the others that died that horrible day,” she said. “Kelly Ann was like the little sister I’ve never had. She was so young and was such a loving soul. I think God has a purpose for her. She left this world too soon.”

Before...residents recall visit

Diane and T e r r y Wampler on a ferry with twin the towers of the World Trade Center in the background.

Contributed photos

Diane Wampler and Martha and Chip Sloan stand on top of the World Trade Center in this photo.

Cash

Continued from Page 4

And yet another heinous act: September 11, 2001, when Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the two World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. killing almost 3,000 people on the ground and in the airplanes they turned into suicide bombs.

Chief Cash, a fireman to his very core, he will always remember what he saw when he was privileged to travel to the site of the terrible attack in March of 2002, with other NC firefighters.

In remembering, Cash said, “I was at my desk at the fire station at City Hall. I received a telephone call from a fellow department head, Larry Wright. He advised me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center,” Cash said, solemnly.

“Along with everyone else at City Hall, I gathered in front of the television. When I

viewed the television, I thought I was watching a replay of the incident; when in turn, it was actually the second plane hitting the other tower!

At that point, I knew it was no accident!”

Cash has trouble telling what his personal emotions were that day. He has trouble telling what he felt six months later when he stood at Ground Zero as they removed more remains of EMT and firefighting personnel they found.

As far as if he feels America is any safer today than then, Cash said, “We are definitely better protected now than we were 10 years ago.

Will we be 100 percent immune from an attack; no, it is impossible, but we are 100 percent safer.”

Cash noted firefighters and emergency personnel and police men and women have included additional training and protocols at the local, state, and national levels.

“Millions and millions of dollars have been spent to in-

sure our national safety,” he said, adding, “The Cherryville Fire Department has been a direct recipient of the federal homeland security dollars, just like many other jurisdictions across the country.”

Cash said a prime example of the level of safety and security can be seen as you fly nowadays.

“The screening processes are time-consuming; however, they are so very necessary,” he said.

Cherryville police chief Woody Burgess agreed.

“I was in Raleigh delivering evidence to the SBI lab for a homicide case that I was working (when the towers were attacked),” he said. Like Cash, Burgess said the attack was a “terrible thing” to happen. He said he was saddened by the great loss of life.

As far as the country being safer, Chief Burgess said, “I do believe that our country is safer now since the attacks, but I still believe that we are vulnerable.”

Remembering and honoring the thousands of heroes who knowingly or not, gave up their lives for our freedom on September 11, 2001.

We are thankful too for those that willingly put their lives on the line every day for our community.

We remember those who have given their all...... and hold in our thoughts those who answer our call when we most need them.

Cherryville Rotary Club

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Mayor, City Council, and Staff of the City of Cherryville

Page 6A

Patriot Day Remembrance

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Remember where you were on 9/11/01?

“It was all I could think to tell them, I was so stunned,” she said. When parents came to pick up their children (the kindergarten was a half-day class), she said the kids asked their parents and grandparents many, many questions.

Mrs. Powell said her own personal scare came when she heard that the nearby nuclear plant had been placed on lockdown, as had other facilities.

As for the country being any safer, Mrs. Powell said she believes it is, but also added she believes the country can and most likely will be hit again by Islamic terrorist extremists.

Amy Abernathy Amy Abernathy, the administrative assistant for Chief Jeff Cash at the Cherryville Fire Department knows exactly where she was and what she was doing on September 11, 2001.

“I was working at the fire department. When we found out the World Trade Center’s towers were hit, we were in total shock! We watched everything unfold on TV the whole day.”

Abernathy said she feels the country is safer now than it was 10 years ago because “...since 9/11, we are more on the alert for any terrorist attack. It’s sad it took something like 9/11 for us to be more cautious, but we have somehow become better because of the tragedy.”

Jyma Atwell

Blake Putnam

Amy Abernathy

Blake Putnam

“I was in high school (Cherryville) when the planes hit the two towers,” Cherryville barber Blake Putnam said. “It was early in the morning. We knew the planes had hit the buildings, but we didn’t know it was terrorists at the time.”

Putnam said he was in algebra class and their teacher, Lynn Hicks, made them turn the television off. “She was very shocked by it all and that was her first reaction, I guess,” he said. “I got up to get a drink of water. That’s when I heard Mr. Corbin West, I think it was, who said another plane had hit the Pentagon.

When I got back into the room and told everybody, that’s when she turned it (the television) back on.” Putnam said the whole class then watched the horrible drama unfold.

“We realized then that we were under attack,” he added.

Putnam said his classmates and teacher’s initial reaction was one of disbelief.

“We were just trying to get our minds wrapped around what we were looking at,” he said. “I was 17, and a junior. I graduated in 2003.”

Putnam, an aspiring bluegrass musician and wellknown bassist, said he has flown quite a bit since then.

As far as airport security these days, he said, “I think that today they’re (airport security) on their game. So, I’d have to say ‘yes’, we are safer today than we thought we were then.”

Jyma Atwell

Rev. Dr. Vincent Hefner

Rev. Dr. Vincent Hefner

Susan Leavitt Powell

Susan Leavitt Powell

For private Christian school teacher Susan L. Powell, remembering where she was on September 11, 2001, is easy. She was just getting her kindergartners at Oakwood Christian Academy in Paducah, KY, ready for their morning snack. They would soon be into their tasks after that.

“I was standing in my classroom with my kids when I looked out my classroom door and noticed everyone was gone! The other teachers in the higher grades had all walked down the hall to the nearby office,” Mrs. Powell said.

Powell said, even at their young age, her kids wanted to know where everyone had gone and what was going on.

“I told them I would find out as soon as possible.

I called the office and was then told the horrible news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center! At first, I thought they were joking. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”

Powell said she remembers thinking that it surely must have been a small plane, but was later horrified to hear that not only was it a huge jet airliner full of people, but that a second plane had hit the other tower minutes later, bursting into flames.

“At that moment, it never occurred to me that we might be under attack,” she said. “I just simply couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe we were really being attacked!”

Mrs. Powell said she told her kids there had been a terrible accident in a place called New York City.

“I was working in the yard, and while I was taking a break inside, my Dad called to tell me to turn on the news, just in time to see the first tower collapse. I literally fell to my knees crying in front of the TV,” Jyma Atwell, the Cherryville YMCA branch Executive Director remembers.

“Mike, my husband ,was in Houston and ended up driving a rental car home since all flights were grounded,” she added.

Since the fall of the two towers, Atwell said she thinks America’s national security is better now, but added that “...it does seem that more terrorists than ever are out to find ways to attack us.”

Cherryville First Baptist Church pastor, the Rev. Dr. Vincent Hefner, said he remembers very wellwhere he was the day American soil was attacked for only the third or fourth time in the country’s history.

“I was in New Hampshire on a mission trip. I was staying in small motel. The youth minister and I were getting ready to go out and do some work when it came on the TV,” Dr. Hefner said. “We basically couldn’t believe what we were seeing!”

Hefner said all sorts of emotions and questions went through his head at the moment.

“Who’s doing this? Was it a small plane, like was then being said, or was it something more?” he asked himself.

Later on, Dr. Hefner said he and others of their group found out the awful truth that America was under attack from Islamic terrorists, and that two airplanes had struck and destroyed both towers of the World Trade Center, with a third plane striking the Pentagon. A fourth plane that was to have struck the Capitol building in Washington, DC, was taken over by valiant Americans and prevented from achieving its evil aim. Unfortunately, all those aboard that flight, like those aboard the other flights, gave their lives, yet saved countless hundreds of others by their brave and selfless actions.

Dr. Hefner said he personally believes America is safer today because we are wiser.

“I also believe that it could happen again if we’re not careful,” he added. “I also know that God watches over us and that we, as believers, need to pray for this country and those who protect her daily!”

Gert Fisher City councilwoman

Gert Fisher City councilwoman

My friend, Sandy Dismukes, called me to say- Do you have the TV on? A small plane has just hit on of the Twin Towers that you visited a few weeks ago. I turned on the TV and while we were talking another plane flew into the other one. We then we found out it was not a small plane wandering off course, but large planes making a deliberate hit. We were both just sick and stayed on the phone talking to each other for a very long time. Neither one of us wanted to hang up the phone and be alone.

As I said earlier, both Sandy and I were just sick.

We may be more safe from this type attack, but we have so many crazies who want to make statements, they will always find other ways to die for their cause.

Want to know a dirty little secret about your community newspaper?

Those “talking heads” on television love to talk about the decline in newspaper paid circulation numbers. But the truth is those statements apply to the top 200 or so metropolitan newspapers in the US. And the same thing can be said about their own industry (but they never mention that).

In fact readership at community newspapers (like ours) of 15,000 or less is VERY strong. And those newspapers comprise 80% of all newspapers in the US. And they love to talk about declining advertising spending with newspapers. Again, that applies to those same top 200 or so metro papers...and their own TV industry.

Actually advertising sales at those same smaller community newspapers is down less than half of those bigger daily newspapers and, in fact, any other major industry in the US! In other words, your community newspaper is weathering the economic storm better than television, radio, automotive, real estate, retail and most other sectors.

Why is that? Probably because advertising in your community newspaper works and is cost-effective.

Quoting Brian Steffans of the

National Newspaper Association on the results of a recent survey by Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism of residents of those small communities served by community papers and not large daily papers: “Will the auto industry (or housing or retail or (_) industry) disappear because sales fell 25%?

No. Neither will newspapers.

If readership is not a problem, or not the problem, then it must be advertising. Wrong.

Pick a quarter or year over year, and you’ll read that ad revenue for newspapers is down about 25 percent. Certainly not great. But the Oct. 12 edition of the Wall Street Journal said that following the “cash for clunkers” program, “auto sales have continued to plummet, falling 23 percent in September from a year earlier.”

Did the headline say “Auto industry to disappear”? Nope. It said something about automakers being “restless” and Cadillac dropping its ad firm. Sure, GM will shed Saturn and Pontiac, but most everyone figures GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes and the rest of the auto industry-will be around for quite some time. We’re a long way off

from a Jetson’s-like transportation revolution that will replace cars in the way that cars replaced the horse and buggy.

Look at the housing industry, the retail industry, just about any industry you’d care to mention.

Sales are off 20 percent or more in almost every one of them. Are we seeing the end of the housing industry? The retail industry? It’s the RECESSION ... DUH!”

The survey says...

Even more people are reading newspaper ads today! Yes, that’s right...readership of ads in small community newspapers is UP, not down.

What the survey shows this year: -80 percent of people read the supermarket ads or ad inserts in their local newspaper (up 7 percent from a year ago).

-75 percent read the department store ads or ad inserts in their local newspaper (up 9 percent from a year ago).

-72 percent read the home improvement or hardware ads or ad inserts in their local newspaper (same as a year ago).

-67 percent read the discount store ads or ad inserts in their local

newspaper (up slightly from a year ago).

-78 percent read the classified ads in their local newspaper (same as a year ago).

-63 percent read the public notice ads in their local newspaper (same as a year ago).

In fact, they look for it and use it to make buying decisions!

Again, quoting Steffan...

Skeptics might say: reading an ad doesn’t make it valuable. I’d personally argue that exposure is valuable. But we have stronger information: -69 percent of respondents said they use newspaper advertising inserts to make purchasing decisions.

-70 percent say they often go looking for, or seek out, newspaper advertising to find information on the latest offerings and sales available in their area.

Do you think the majority of Americans would say they often turn on the TV or radio to view or listen to ads? They turn those on to watch entertainment or listen to music or talk. And if they watched and listened to every station in the market, it’s unlikely they would find all the ads that are in one convenient place, such as the local newspaper.

Do you think the majority of Americans can find sales and specials from local community retailers and services on the Web? Most of those ads are national, and you’d have to visit dozens or hundreds or thousands of websites to track them all down. Or you could turn to one convenient local newspaper or its website.

They prefer papers to web or TV.

-79 percent say that if they had a choice, they’d rather look through the ads in the newspaper than watch advertisements on TV. -70 percent say that if they had a choice, they’d look through the ads in the newspaper than view advertisements on the Internet.

Finally, nearly half (47 percent) say there are some days when they read the newspaper as much for the ads as for the other content in the paper. Do you think anyone turns on the TV or radio as much for the commercials as for the entertainment or music.

Our dirty little secret...More people are reading our newspapers than ever before, and using ads in those papers to make buying decisions.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Patriot Day Remembrance

Page 7A

Where were you?

Jason Wofford

CFD Captain Jason Wofford

George “Buck” Altice

Chris Black

Heather Bundon

Angela Brown

“I was finishing up a fire inspection at Teddy Bear Daycare when the attacks happened,” Capt.

Jason Wofford of the Cherryville Fire Department said. “I immediately went to the fire station where everyone was glued to the television watching all the live news feeds.”

Wofford said he remembers the feeling of wondering how a plane could accidentally fly into the tallest building in the country, then suddenly switch to the feeling of being attacked as we watched the second plane fly into the second tower.

“I vividly remember Chief Cash shouting out, ‘This is deliberate! We are being attacked!’ “ At that point Wofford said he silently prayed for all those involved over and over throughout that day and the following days.

“That September 11 was devastating; losing so many innocent people in one location. All the emergency services personnel who died that day reminded every American that even though emergency services are not needed on a daily basis, they were there when needed, responding valiantly, and even died trying to help others!”

Wofford noted it’s impossible to count, but said he often thinks just how many people were saved that day by the actions of those willing to risk everything.

“Our military is still, to this day, risking everything to protect our people and our country against terrorism. We owe those men and women so much more than just our respect,” he said.

“People are critical of the issue of whether we are safer today then we were then. My opinion is ‘yes’. We haven’t had any more attacks on U.S. soil and airport security has gotten much tighter.”

Wofford added he knows the country still has security issues he’s sure, but noted he is “equally sure” there are some areas that need to be fine tuned.

“But, for the most part, we are making great strides toward being safer,” he said.

“It’s my hopes that everyone will purposely make some time in their busy schedules to remember how they felt that day and to pray to God that He leads our country, protects our emergency services workers, our military, and comforts all Americans!”

George “Buck” Altice Belmont Fire Department Chief George “Buck” Altice praised the first responders–fire crews, police and EMTs–who helped immediately after the attacks, many of them sacrificing their own lives in the service of others.

“I think our readiness has improved,” Altice said of the country’s highly prepared first responders, also citing the multiple precautions and protections implemented to better ensure Americans’ safety. “They’re an inconvenience.

But they have helped.”

The chief recalled being at the fire station in a staff meeting on Sept. 11, 2001, when the news of the attacks came in.

“With the first crash, we thought it was surely accidental,” said Altice. “But with the second, we knew we were probably under attack.”

Americans today may be more cautious, and the protective measures, especially at airports, may be a hassle. But as Altice noted, it beats the alternative.

“In our country, the land of the free,” he said, “I just think we need to proceed cautiously in all of our endeavors.”

Chris Black Mount Holly restaurateur Chris Black of Black’s Blue Water Seafood and Grill also talked about Sept. 11.

“I remember that day very well,” said Black, adding that he woke son Jered to watch the event on television. “I said, ‘Come here! You won’t believe this!’”

One airplane flying into the World Trade Center’s north tower could have been an accident—some unfortunate error, not unlike the B25 that struck the Empire State Building during a thick fog in 1945. But when Black saw the second plane hit the south tower just minutes later, like Altice, he knew it was no mere coincidence.

“I knew then that it was intentional,” he said somberly, recalling how like many Americans, he knew instinctively that the nation was under attack. “I would say that today, we’re more aware. I don’t know how much safer. I think it opened a lot of people’s eyes. People started to realize that these (terrorist attacks) can happen here in America, not just abroad.”

His wife, Debbie, shared his sentiments and said she prays America is safer today.

“I hope so,” she said.

The Blacks attend the Second Baptist Church of Mount Holly. Like most Americans, their faith guides their lives. And like many of their fellow Christians, they see a clear religious message in the events of that terrible Tuesday—a stark and apocalyptic warning of a coming war between Light and Darkness.

Heather Bundon “I was at work at a bank in Tennessee when I found out. I was so angry that this could happen to the USA. I couldn’t figure out why our country couldn’t stop it from happening.”

Michael Davis

Angela Brown “I was in a Gaston College classroom as a freshman. I then realized my parents were out of town and I would be home alone. After checking on them I watched the news and did not know how to react. I was so worried about all those people and their families.”

Michael Davis “I was in the 5th grade and the teachers were solemn all day they would not let us watch it.

When I got home my whole family was stuck on the news.”

Bill Bradley “I was at home when the first plane hit. I was extremely angry with the idiots who had attacked innocent people. I know what it meant to them but to me it was a useless act.”

Bill Bradley

Suzanne Amos “I will never forget where I was. I was in Greenville, SC, working in Hospice and checking on my patients. When we were told corporate was stuck in the Boston Airport and then we heard the news, we didn’t have a television so we got an old one out and put tin foil on the ‘bunny ears’ and saw what was going on. But we had to tend to our patients also.”

Don Duncan “I was working on telephone equipment in Gastonia and a friend of mine told me there was an explosion at the Pentagon and World Trade Center by airplanes. I was extremely mad.”

Suzanne Amos

Terry Wampler

Terry Wampler “My good friend, Gerald Coppola from New Jersey, lived a mile from me and worked in the top of the North tower in the TV stations. He said ‘the towers could never be knocked down’ since he’d lived through the first attack in 1993 and knew how strong they were. Unfortunately, he was there in the top floor when it came down.

“He had invited me and a friend up to look at the view from the North tower one evening in 1996. It was spectacular! Gerald was transmitting TV on ham radio frequencies like I was, only he was up a quarter of a mile and could transmit 50 miles in any direction.

“My son, Mark, was not in NYC on September 11, 2001, but some of his friends were supposed to be there! Two of them weren’t there because of oversleeping and simply getting delayed coming into Manhattan.

“I was home at the time of the attack and got a call from Chip Sloan (pastor of First Baptist Church of Kings Mountain). Immediately, I turned on the TV and watched the live video, and I called Mark to see where he was.

“For the next few hours, I kept sending TV images via the computer to Diane at work to keep her informed of the status. We had been up in the World Trade Center many times. On a clear day, the view was great.

“In April 2000, we took Chip and Martha Sloan, Larry and Diana Allen, and Tim and Susan Elmore up to the top of the South Tower.

“It was a great experience to see Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, and New Jersey from that height.”

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