By Tonya Brantley

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing that late summer morning on Tuesday, September 11, 2001?

I was on my way to work at the radio station to do the midday shift on Rock 105 in Chattanooga. I was listening to the morning show on my way in, just before 9am, and I remember one of the DJ's announce that an airplane had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. I thought it was just a terrible accident as many of us probably thought at first. It wasn't until I got to work and saw my coworkers crowded around the television in the conference room that I realized the true scope of what had happened.

The sight of that gaping hole in the building made by the plane and the billowing smoke from the fire was heart wrenching. The sight of those firefighters and first responders running in as everyone else was running out is one I'll always hold near and dear to my heart.

And then it happened... As I was watching, a second plane hit the south tower and the reality that our nation was under attack was evident. Then shortly before 10am, another plane crashed into the Pentagon.

As we all stood watching in disbelief, one of the towers came crashing down, slowly sending a massive cloud of smoke, dust and debris into the streets below. People were running away from the darkness that was pouring through the city streets.

Then just before 10:30am the second tower collapsed from the top down. The entire situation was like something out of a Hollywood action movie, except that it was very real. The scenes from that day are forever etched into the minds of many. It is a day we will never forget.

The death toll from the September 11th tragedy was 2,973 people, excluding the nineteen terrorist hijackers that took control of four commercial airliners that morning en route to San Francisco and Los Angeles from Newark, Boston, and Washington.

American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were flown into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon. A fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, whose final target was believed to be either the U.S. Capitol building or the White House, crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh.