SALEM COUNTY — Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, on a clear Tuesday morning in September, two planes struck the towers of the World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon, and a fourth went down in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. By the time the dust settled that evening, nearly 3,000 people were gone, and the country that woke up that morning was not the same one that went to bed the prior evening.
Everyone who was old enough to understand what they were watching can tell you where they were. That is not an exaggeration or a figure of speech, by the way. It is, 25 years later, still simply true. So in honor of the anniversary, we asked members of our own community to tell us: where were you, and what do you remember?
What came back was not one story but 10 — coaches and teachers, a councilman, a municipal employee, parents, neighbors. Some are a few sentences. Others run long, the details still sharp a quarter-century on. Salem County didn’t watch 9/11 happen from some safe distance, either. Wedged between New York and Washington, sitting close to a nuclear plant and what was then one of the region’s largest chemical operations, our towns spent those first hours and days wondering, just like everyone else, whether the worst might not be over.
Continue on and read enough of these accounts back-to-back and the same details start to surface, even though each answered individually. A janitor interrupting a class to say a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and nobody quite believing it until the second one confirmed it wasn’t an accident. Classrooms and coaches’ offices turned into places where kids looked to the adults around them for an answer nobody had. Practices canceled, schools let out early, phone calls home just to hear a voice. And afterward — for days — skies over a county that normally sits under a steady stream of air traffic went completely, eerily silent. People remember what the world sounded like, and what it didn’t.
They remember something else, too, whether they name it directly or not: for a little while, none of the things that usually divide us were the things anyone was thinking about. A principal turning to a teacher and saying simply, “We’re at war.” A shelter of strangers under draped sheets, listening to the President together in silence. Neighbors walking to the school to bring each other’s kids home. Nobody asked what anyone else believed before they helped.
Memories and Recollection of 9/11/2001
I distinctly remember it was just a few days into my freshman year of Woodstown High School and I was casually walking down the hallway on the top floor that runs parallel to “the side street” in order to attend a student government meeting. It was just after passing the second classroom door on that wing that I suddenly recall an uneasy silence. Not like test taking silence, but a profound silence. Getting closer to the last room of the high school, an old classmate popped his head out of the doorway waving us in and followed with some vague but terrified statement about devastation in New York City.
We had televisions in the rooms that could connect to cable and it seemed like every room in WHS had the news on and each class seemed to be watching it. One or two classes where the teachers were being a bit much and not allowing their classes to watch soon found themselves alone yelling at themselves in empty rooms as students seemed to understand this was far beyond Mrs. [You know your names] and simply started walking towards the nearest newscaster’s voice.
From there I just remember being told to go home and walking home a few blocks onto Dickinson St. in Woodstown into the apartment I lived in at the time. The entire day I remember watching the news and never changing a channel (come to think of it, I really don’t recall seeing any commercials either). There was nothing to do. Soccer practice was canceled and there was nothing to do but watch in helplessness.
After watching the second plane hit and then watching people jump from the stories above the flames because the heat and smoke was unbearable I became rather disturbed trying to empathize with those who had made the choice to jump from 80-100-plus stories up. Then the towers collapsed and I, for some reason, instantly presumed it was connected to terrorism and a feeling of acceptance that the world had changed from how I had known it eventually settlled in my gut. Then anger.
I shared that day with people of whom today I could not tell you when the last time we had spoken. Though we grew closer from the incident, as decades passed that comradery disintegrated and has been lost.
I feel the ending of my recollection serves as an allusion to the cohesiveness of our nation’s citizenry throughout the same time period and over the last 25 year. We had suffered such trauma and relied upon one another to heal and it worked! Today, we still experience trauma but lack the cohesiveness that existed previously. Instead of healing together, we have decided to try and do so in our own worlds and ways.
Being cognizant of such is integral in whether our country will come together and begin to heal or continue on the current trajectory of division. That is why when we say, “Never forget” it means much more than solely remembering those who perished and suffered that day and from “the war on terror.” It means never forget that during our nation’s frailest of times how we came together to process and heal. That is one thing I cannot ever forget.
– Zachary Ahl, Alloway – Publisher of The News of Salem County LLC
Damian Ware, Penns Grove – Penns Grove High School Football & Basketball Coach
It’s a very vivid memory for me. At the time, I just came back from college (FDU). I just moved back from college and was working as an assistant manager at Enterprise Rent-a-car and I was renting a car to a customer at Vallee and Bowe Cadillac in Woodbury and on the TV in the lounge they were showing it and I saw the first plane hit the tower. Everybody was going crazy, they didn’t know what was going on; it was a very weird situation. Everybody was glued to the TV watching the towers fall.
For me, it was kind of weird because I had just come from North Jersey and New York. I lived up there for 5-6 years in college. If you know where FDU is, it’s literally 10 minutes from the George Washington Bridge, so I was very in tune with New York City and North Jersey. They showed the first plane and then they showed the second plane hit the tower. It was devastating, a devastating moment for America, but we built back and as you can see now it’s standing stronger than ever. It was a sad day for history in America, but it shows the resilience of the American people as we bounce back and continue to be strong.
I taught history because it was part of the Social Studies curriculum. I told the kids my stories all the time. I told my class this story every year I was a teacher when we discussed 9-11 in the beginning of the school year. It’s definitely something I discussed with all my classes every year since then. It really hits home for me because I know people who were actually there and I’m very familiar with the New York City environment.
Jay Accorsi, Salem CC – Head Football Coach
I think I was in the AD’s office at Rowan, I was an assistant (coach) at the time, and I was there when either the first or second plane hit. I didn’t see it until that night when I got home. I don’t remember what day of the week that was, but I remember we used to have Tuesday night practices and there were no planes in the sky at all. I remember that vividly. Being at Rowan, right near the Philly airport, you’d see planes all the time.
It was really eerie.
Then that weekend we played up in Jersey City. I was in the press box looking out and there were no twin towers, and we all had to use bottled water. There were no coolers, there was no ice, it was just all bottled water. I remember it just being really weird being in the press box looking across and seeing the skyline of New York City and not seeing the twin towers. It was really surreal. I’ll never forget that.
Jamy Thomas, Pennsville
I definitely remember the day and exactly where I was. I was teaching science at Penns Grove High School. I was on my prep in the morning when the first plane hit. We had a news broadcast feed in our classroom TVs at the time so almost every classroom had it on in shock. Once the second plane hit, and things got real, the principal came on the announcements and asked all staff to turn off the TVs. He was definitely trying to keep kids and staff calm and go about our day, but it was no normal day.
I remember calling to check on my daughter who was not even 4 months old at the time. Very scary few days not really knowing what was going to happen next and Salem County was essentially in the center of all the chaos between NYC and DC. With our proximity to the Nuclear Plant and DuPont that was still a pretty big chemical plant at the time, there was concern our area could be a point of attack. Certainly one of those memories you will never forget and never forget where you were when those planes struck the Towers, the Pentagon and crashed in PA. I hope we never have to see this terror in our country again.
Heather and Henry Papiano, Pittsgrove
Heather: I was working (at Wawa) that morning, so when I first started hearing about what was happening I really didn’t know what to think. Everyone coming in that day was talking about it, but everyone seemed to have a different story, so it was really confusing. I remember feeling scared and just really sad for everyone. It wasn’t until I got home from work and turned on the news that it really started to sink in. I was 20 at the time, and something that big was just really hard to understand and process.
I remember watching people putting up pictures of their missing family members and friends and begging for any information about them. That really broke my heart. The whole thing just didn’t feel real. It almost felt like you were watching a movie, except there was no ending. You didn’t know what was going to happen next or how many people were still missing. It was just a really scary and sad time, and it’s something I’ll never forget.
Henry: I was at the Virginia Military Institute the morning of the attacks. When the attacks happened I was on a treadmill in the weight room and watching the first plane hit, not sure what happened. An announcement came over the barracks for everyone to return to their rooms and start getting their BDUs or their fatigues on. A lot of cadets were sent up to Washington, D.C., because by that time the Pentagon was hit, and it was all chaos in the barracks.
That night I helped organized draping sheets along the barracks walls so we could watch George Bush talk and we sat there and listened to The President talk. It was the quietest the barracks were ever at night.
Tom Mason, Salem County
I can still see the events and what happened that day clear today. I was sitting on hall duty at the Penns Grove Middle School and the janitor comes over and says a plane just hit the World Trade Center. O-ka-a-a-y. The period got done, I walked into the principal’s office, he’s watching TV and that’s when we saw the second plane hit. The principal was Roy Webb and he turned to me and he said, ‘We’re at war.’ I said I think so, too.
I went back to my classroom, the class came in. In that short period of time – I was teaching computers – the net had crashed. You couldn’t get on. Then about noon they made an announcement for all students to go directly home. All walkers to go directly home, all sports, everything are cancelled.
At the time I was a volunteer cross country coach at Pennsville; it was my intermission between St. James and Penns Grove. I go to the Pennsville stadium and obviously they had made the same announcement and two of the kids were there and they were upset. They thought we’re all going to die, we’re going to be invaded and planes are going to be hitting towns. I can’t give you an answer, but stay calm, go to your homes, stay with your families.
My wife taught with me, my late wife Cheryl, so she went straight home. My next-door neighbor is from England and she works for Morgan Stanley, but out of Wilmington. She was called that Saturday (before the attacks) to say her and her team did not have to drive up to the World Trade Center; they weren’t needed that week, where she could have been one of the victims.
I remember to this day looking up at the sky and there’s nothing in the sky. Where we live is a flight path for the major aircrafts. Then all of a sudden I saw this jet fighter go across and we were like, oh man. What also was unique was we did not know, we didn’t get any information, about Flight 93, until we had gotten home.
Cindy Wilson, Pennsville
On that day my fiancé, he was from Wales, was here on vacation with his middle child. She was in our 11th grade, so she was getting to see if she was going to come to America with him when he moved over here. The school district was awesome to let her follow my niece who was the same age to see what American schools were like.
The day it happened I was at work at the (Pennsville) Municipal Building and when it happened the chief came running in with a small TV to show us what was happening. Of course, we think of our children, who are in school and in lockdown and we couldn’t go get them. We had to wait until the school released the kids.
My deceased husband, John, we walked up to the school to get the three kids – my two, plus his daughter. At the time I was afraid for us, but I was more afraid for them because they were in a country that was being attacked. Two weeks later they left to go back to Britain and, of course, the airport was a complete mess. She had a soda in her hands and they made her drink it before she went through customs. It was chaos, total chaos.
That trauma will always be with this generation like Pearl Harbor was with that era.
Greg Martin, Carneys Point Twp. – Committeeman at Carneys Point Twp.
I was at work at AstraZeneca, sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast when the news came across the television screen. At first, I couldn’t even grasp what was happening. I honestly thought it was some kind of tragic accident—a plane had crashed.
Then we walked back to our offices.
And the second plane hit.
At that moment, we knew. America was under a terrorist attack.
To be honest, it completely blew my mind watching those events unfold in real time. I remember tears beginning to stream down my face as I thought about all of the people who were going to die and all of the families whose lives were about to be changed forever.
Then my mind immediately went to my own family and friends. I started wondering if anyone I knew was in one of those buildings or somewhere in the surrounding area.
I think I became instantly depressed.
Our job allowed us to leave immediately. I had about a 30-minute drive home, but that drive felt like an eternity. I had to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and I remember thinking that at any moment another plane could attack the bridge.
All I could think about was getting home to my family.
For the rest of that day, I was constantly praying and glued to the television. When I watched the towers come down, I was literally frozen. I couldn’t move. I just sat there watching in disbelief, trying to process what I was seeing.
The days that followed were extremely difficult for me and for our entire country.
But in the middle of all that pain, there was something that brought me comfort: America came together. It seemed like, for a moment, so much of the division that existed in this country had completely disappeared.
Nobody seemed to care about Black, White or Brown. We were Americans. Nobody seemed concerned about Republican, Democrat or Independent. We were Americans.
People were loving on one another. People were checking on strangers. People were praying together. There was a sense of unity and togetherness that I will never forget.
I know we can never go back and relive those days, and I certainly would never wish for the tragedy that caused them. But sometimes, when I look at the division in our country today, I find myself longing for the unity that followed 9/11. I long for a time when we could disagree with one another without hating one another.
When our differences didn’t prevent us from loving our neighbors. When we could put our differences aside and remember that, at the end of the day, we are all Americans.
September 11th taught us many painful lessons, but one of the most important was this: When we stand together, we are stronger. When we love one another, we are stronger. And despite our differences, we are still one country and one people.
I pray that somehow, some way, we can find our way back to that kind of love, compassion, and unity—not because of another tragedy, but simply because we choose to love one another.
Chris Watson, Pennsville
On 9/11 I was driving a delivery truck in Gloucester NJ listening to Howard Stern when word started to come through that somebody crashed a plane or helicopter into the WTC. When the other 3 planes crashed, I called it quits and went home to be with my wife and 2 year old. It felt at the time like they were bringing the chaos of the Middle East to us and this was going to be the new normal. That’s when I decided to join a defense contractor as an engineer to support the country’s response.
Never forget
It has been a quarter-century, and it would be easy to let this become simply a date on the calendar, a headline, a moment of silence, or a scroll past. We’d ask you not to let it be that. If you were alive on September 11, 2001, we hope these accounts brought some of that morning back to you, uninvited but familiar. And if you weren’t yet born, or were too young to remember, we’d ask you to sit with these words anyway. They are not ours to keep to ourselves. They belong to the whole county now, and they are worth carrying forward.
What strikes us most, going back through what our neighbors shared, isn’t the fear, though there was plenty of it. It’s how quickly people turned toward each other. Coaches became counselors. A municipal building became a gathering place. A stranger’s daughter was walked home by someone else’s father. Whatever separated any of these people on September 10th — where they lived, what they believed, who they voted for — none of it mattered on September 11th, or for a long while after. For a moment, the only thing anyone was, was American, and that was enough to hold each other up.
We would be lying if we said that same instinct has held steady in the 25 years since. It hasn’t. Anyone paying attention to the state of our national conversation today — the discord, the suspicion, the sense that we increasingly see each other as opponents rather than neighbors — knows that the unity so many people describe feeling that week has frayed, in some places badly. That should trouble us. It’s a dangerous thing to discover, only after tragedy forces our hand, that we still know how to stand together. The harder and more important work is remembering how to do it before we’re given a reason we can’t ignore.
That’s the real lesson sitting inside these 10 stories, we think. Not just what happened on a single terrible morning, but what happened between the people who lived through it in the days that followed is the real lesson. Salem County didn’t need a disaster to be reminded that we’re all in this together. We’d like to believe we still don’t. Twenty-five years on, that may be the most important thing these accounts have to teach us, and the truest way to honor everyone we lost.
The News of Salem County thanks Damian Ware, Jay Accorsi, Jamy Thomas, Heather and Henry Papiano, Tom Mason, Cindy Wilson, Gregory Martin, and Chris Watson for sharing their memories with our community. Please, share your own memories and stories in the comments section below!