Asleep Down Under when Disaster Struck  − 11 September, 2001

(8:46am EDT -- American Airlines flight 11 is flown into World Trade Center north tower)  At 10:16pm in Alice Springs, Australia, I was in bed asleep, completely unaware of events unfolding on the other side of the world.

(9:02am EDT -- United Airlines flight 175 is flown into World Trade Center south tower)  At 10:32pm, still sound asleep.

(9:37am EDT -- American Airlines flight 77 is flown into the Pentagon)  At 11:07pm, still sleeping.

Sometime between 11:00pm and 11:30pm, my sister-in-law called us from Colorado Springs.  I answered the phone, but between my sleep-clouded brain and her speed-talking (slightly edged with hysterics), I could hardly make sense of what she was saying.  I caught words and phrases: Pentagon, towers, under attack, everything shutting down...  I wasn't getting a warm fuzzy and did not like where this was going.  She apparently became frustrated with my confused responses, because then she just kept saying "Turn on CNN!  Turn on CNN!"

I handed the phone to my bleary-eyed wife and ran downstairs to turn on the news.

There it was.  On every channel.  Even the ones that weren't news channels.  I could not believe what I was seeing, almost like it was a movie about what could happen.  They kept playing the video over and over of the planes flying into the towers.

"Sweetheart, you better get down here and see this."

Her jaw joined mine on the floor.

We just watched in abject shock, saying nothing, not moving.  It was surreal.  I just couldn't comprehend that this had actually happened.

(9:59am EDT -- World Trade Center south tower collapses)  At 11:29pm we watched as the first tower collapsed.  I have never been to New York, and I did not personally know any of the victims of the attacks, but as I watched the tower collapse I felt like a giant hand was squeezing my chest.

(10:03am EDT -- United Airlines flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania)  At 11:33pm the news reported that the fourth airplane no longer showed up on radar.  We quietly speculated what this could mean.  We found out soon enough.

(10:28am EDT -- World Trade Center north tower collapses)  It was as if we were conducting a silent vigil; waiting and watching for what we knew to be inevitable.  At 11:58pm we watched the second tower collapse.

We didn't go back to bed; how could we?  We stayed up watching the news reports and holding each other like we were clinging to something that was real and sane and made sense.

A bizarre wave of homesickness and a feeling of utter helplessness swept over us -- we were thousands of miles away from our home, our family, and our country.