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CHAUTAUQUA--If you're more than, say, 35 years old, you'll recall where you were when you heard the first news bulletins of 25 years ago today.
Maybe you were in school or college.
Maybe you were at work.
Maybe you were running errands.
Maybe you were with relatives or friends.
Maybe you were at home.
In that respect, Sept. 11, 2001, is like July 20, 1969; Nov. 22, 1963; and Dec. 7, 1941.
You know where you were.
Events of Sept. 11, 2001, are firmly in the memories of those old enough on that day.
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Some of the first news bulletins--around 9 a.m. EDT--sounded like they described what could have been a ghastly accident involving a small airplane at the World Trade Center.
To the laity's ear, what else could it have been?
But when a second airplane hit the World Trade Center, it was clear this was no accident.
The new president of the United States, having been in office just under nine months, was at a Florida elementary school at an event promoting reading.
Not long after the attacks, the president spoke publicly and was quickly whisked back to Air Force One, which was wheels up in short order.
The presidential airplane quickly landed in Louisiana so that the president could briefly address a stunned nation.
He was quickly back on Air Force One and flew to a secure facility in Nebraska before returning to the White House that evening and delivering a broadcast address from the oval office.
Meanwhile, the new vice president was in the White House and was quickly moved to a secure White House location.
And according to press reports at the time, the new first lady and her guest that day--former First Lady Nancy Reagan--were taken to part of a lower level of the White House. The latter remarked that she'd never even been in that part of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
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One person who knows where he was that day and on the following days is Steve Brown, the speaker this week--on Sept. 9, 2026--at a Chautauqua Women's Club event.
Brown, a former pilot who managed the U.S. air-traffic-control system from 1998 to 2004, recalled that after an airplane hit the Pentagon on that fateful day, commercial and private airplanes were told to land at the nearest feasible airport. Half of such airplanes landed within 30 minutes, and the other half landed soon thereafter.
It took five days for all of them to clear safety and security protocols to take off again, Brown said. The reason was to make sure no terrorists were aboard. That took time, in part because some airplanes had to land at remote airports.
American airspace reopened five days after Sept. 11, 2001. Even then, commercial and private flights operated at 50 percent of the pre-Sept. 11 levels, he said. Because of security concerns with private aircraft, it took until Christmas for the number of flights to return to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
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The events of Sept. 11, 2001, and their consequences hit many families, including local families, particularly hard. The rest of us who didn't stand in their shoes can't really imagine what it was like for them.
As for those of us having no memory of World War II: Until that day, we may have been operating under the premise--perhaps the unspoken premise--that wars of such magnitude were part of history and not likely to happen now if America maintained a sufficient defense.
In a way, stories of wars of such magnitude seemed like things that only our elder relatives and our elder friends could ever tell.
The events of Sept. 11, 2001--first at the World Trade Center, then at the Pentagon, and finally in a field in Shanksville, Pa.--belied any such premise.
Those who died that day--heroes, all--were the first casualties in a war.
Those injured that day--heroes, all--were the first injured in a war.
The date was a turning point in American history.
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Randy Elf joins those who know where they were on Sept. 11, 2001.
COPYRIGHT © 2026 BY RANDY ELF