The Far Reaching Effects of 9/11

On the morning of September 11, 2001, during a partial hiatus from public safety, I was in the middle of a three year stint as a computer salesperson at a Circuit City store located in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

The morning started uneventfully counting the money in our cash drawers and preparing for the store opening. Approximately the back right quarter of the store was the television section.

As events began to unfold all sets were tuned to the breaking news. The entire store staff stood in awe and horror as clearly an unprecedented terrorist attack was unfolding before our eyes. At 9:03a.m. we couldn’t believe our eyes as we witnessed flight 175 in real-time crashing into the south face of the World Trade Center’s south tower on live national television. The world seemed as though it was coming to a standstill as numerous “customers” began to enter our store not to transact business but simply to join in keeping all eyes glued to the numerous televisions of various sizes. I went to a register kiosk to phone my wife at home to make sure she was aware of what was happening, check on the children, and to tell her that I loved her.

The events of that day were only rivaled by two other days in my memory from a televised event. That being the day that Walter Cronkite appeared on national television to announce the shooting and death of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and as a child I witnessed my mothers and a nations tears, and the day I cried witnessing the death of teacher Christie McAuliffe in the Challenger disaster and explosion from my living room, then located in Abingdon Maryland.

I honestly don’t remember much else about that day except for the obvious sadness, worry and the terrorist events that followed.

The story on the far reaching impact of 9/11 and its direct impact to me while living in West Virginia doesn’t stop there.

Several days later upon returning home from work to my then residence located in the railroad town of Tunnelton West Virginia, I retrieved a phone message from someone identifying themselves as being from Hurley State Bank leaving a callback number in reference to a potential fraud alert. I immediately returned the call to discover that someone had ordered a Gateway computer to be delivered to an address in Far Rockaway New York (just east of the decimated World Trade Center Towers) and financed with my personal information through a fraudulent credit application with Hurley Bank. I was told this was a commonplace occurrence on the heels of the destruction of the Trade Center buildings.

It turned out that my Circuit City sponsored health benefit through Empire State Blue Cross/Blue Shield had been housed in the World Trade Center facilitating the loss of my files which were probably blowing around the streets of New York City. Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield was the largest corporate headquarters housed in the World Trade Center and were the fifth largest

employer there. They occupied 10 floors of the building spread between floor 17 and floor 31. Miraculously, of the 1,900 plus employees all but nine employees and two consultants survived.

Who would have thought, though, that I would have such a direct impact while living here in North Central West Virginia?

I attempted to make a report with the appropriate precinct of the NYPD but to no avail. The fraudulent act had been caught ahead of merchandise delivery and no one seemed interested in any sort of sting operation to nab the perpetrators.

My experience and troubles were, of course, nothing compared to the massive loss of life suffered that day.

All of us in law enforcement have a duty to always remember and never forget the sacrifices made that day by all of our fire, police and EMS first responders. Now 20-years later, many heroes and their families continue to feel the effects of their acts of heroism that day through continuing health and trauma issues and need our support.

We must do all that we can to train, equip and prepare to confront terrorists and acts of terrorism now and into the future. Let us never forget the sacrifices and lessons learned that fateful day. Patriotism and togetherness against all common enemies must ultimately prevail.

Let freedom ring.

Joel E. Gordon is a former Field Training Officer with the Baltimore City Police Department and is a past Chief of Police for the city of Kingwood, West Virginia. He has also served as vice-chair of a regional narcotics task force. An award winning journalist, he is author of the book Still Seeking Justice: One Officer's Story and founded the Facebook group Police Authors Seeking Justice. Look him up at stillseekingjustice.com