By John R. Nay
This Friday will be September 11, 2026. Another 9/11 anniversary has rolled around. As of this Friday at 0846 (EDT), it will have been exactly 25 years since the first plane hit the North Tower of New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC) complex. Any readers over 30 will remember that day and what followed. Those of you who have only read or heard about 9/11, know what I’m talking about.
There were 2,977 victims on 9/11 (not counting the 19 hijackers), of which 2,605 were Americans. Only the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862 – the bloodiest day of the Civil War) killed more Americans in one day than 9/11. Over 100 other countries lost citizens, with 11 countries losing 10 or more (in order: Great Britain; Dominican Republic; India; South Korea; Canada; Japan; Colombia; Jamaica; Philippines; Australia; Germany). It was truly an international tragedy. “How did 25 years pass so fast?” The older I get, the faster time seems to fly by.
This Friday, many of you will remember where you were that day. Maybe you’ll tell your friends about where you were and how it affected you. Discussing such traumatic events with friends is probably a good way of processing the memories, even though some of them are painful. For what it’s worth, my wife, our two younger children (then 16 and 14), and I were in New Delhi, India when the attacks happened, because I was assigned to the U.S. Embassy there. Our oldest daughter was attending college here in Michigan. As I recall, my son met me at the door as I got home from work that Tuesday and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. “On purpose?” I asked, “Or could it have been an accident?” (the question seems almost ludicrous now, but I knew that a small plane had accidentally hit the Empire State Building in the 1940s (it was July 28, 1945), so an accident seemed possible). My son responded that it didn’t seem clear yet. The four of us immediately sat down to watch TV, and it wasn’t long before we saw, via LIVE camera feed, the second plane plow into the South Tower. It was sickening. Soon, we learned that a plane had hit the Pentagon, and shortly afterward that a fourth plane had dived into the ground in Pennsylvania. I strongly recommend visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial there near Shanksville, PA. It is a sad, but moving memorial. Then, with all U.S. air traffic grounded, many of us were called back to the Embassy to discuss what we needed to plan for, and what to tell worried Americans there in India. I finally got back home about midnight, India time. Phone lines to and from the United States were clogged, so we relied on email to my parents (then living in Tennessee) and my in-laws, who lived here in Berrien Springs.
Happily for our relatives, they knew we were comparatively safe and a long way from the 9/11 tragedy. That wasn’t the case for some friends we knew who at that time were assigned to the Washington, D.C. area. I’ll share just one anecdote related to a family we knew quite well. Bill (not his real name) worked for the CIA. He, his wife, and their two sons (about 15 and 13 then, as I recall) had earlier spent several tours of duty overseas, For basic security reasons, Bill and his wife had never told their children who Bill actually worked for. Instead, the kids simply understood that Dad worked for the Pentagon, a not entirely incorrect statement. Anyway, the kids were at school that morning when one plane hit the Pentagon, and rumors about the level of death and destruction at the Pentagon abounded. The kids apparently were convinced their Dad might have been killed at the Pentagon that 9/11 morning. As it happened, he was safe out at CIA HQ at Langley, some miles away, but their inability to contact him only increased their worry. Once reunited later that day, Bill and his wife told their children where he really worked. They told us later that the kids were flabbergasted, having had no clue, but that was as it should be. 9/11 gave those kids a whole new perspective on their family – happily without them having had to endure the terrible loss that so many other families endured. Looking back on those events, in some ways they seem like a long time ago, and in other ways they’re burned indelibly into our memories.
Still, for most of us life has gone on and 25 years have passed. Probably nearly everyone has given more thought in the past week or so to one or more outdoor sports than to the 25th anniversary of 9/11 (although we’ll get many reminders this week). I’m not “an avid sports fan,” as I pretty much only follow NFL football and a bit of baseball. First, I’ll mention those looking forward to hunting season, still a few weeks away. Other folks in our area are tracking the waning of the 2026 baseball season, and although Michigan’s only team – the Tigers – isn’t likely to make the playoffs, those Michiganders who follow out-of-state teams will have noted that both Chicago teams are likely to do so. The college football season has begun – Notre Dame having walloped Wisconsin, and the University of Michigan having squeaked by Western Michigan – and the NFL season will kick off this week. I hope the Detroit Lions will win at least 10 games, which should be enough to get them into the playoffs, but maybe I’m an optimist. Still, I’m not delusional. Thus, I fully expect the Lions to add another year to their streak of failing to win an NFL championship.
Regardless, think back on how quickly these past 25 years have passed. What’s next?
