9/11 ... The worst terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil...Nearly 3,000 dead in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania ... Countless American lives change

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - First it was New York, two airliners coming out of a faultless late summer sky and slamming into the glistening towers of the World Trade Center. And then it was in Northern Virginia, an airliner appearing perversely off course, dipping low and ramming the west side of the Pentagon. The airliners, filled with innocent passengers, not realizing until almost the end that it was the last day of their lives.

The explosions changed the U.S. and the world and altered the lives of every American. The fingerprints of that day are visible on everything we do.

The attack on the Pentagon touched our husbands and wives, our teachers, our coworkers, our neighbors and our friends — and right in our backyard. The capital region, more than any other, has changed forever. Billions have been poured into law enforcement, building defenses and monitoring air traffic. Phone calls are being listened to. Stringent security checkpoints are fixtures at every major building and event. A chorus of voices from Metrorail stations to baseball games to Dulles airport’s ticket counters remind us to keep on guard.

More than half of Washington-area residents said the attacks changed their lives and are certain we will be attacked again, according to a recent Associated Press survey.

Now five years after the attacks, The Examiner takes a brief look at the lives of five individuals who were directly affected on Sept. 11, 2001, and how they now see their world.

Richard Cox

‘A dark fog had fallen’

Richard Cox was so close to American Airlines Flight 77 that he could see the rivets on the underbelly of the huge plane. The veteran Arlington County motor officer, who was setting up cones at a Columbia Pike intersection less than a half-mile away, just knew something wasn’t right.

“I heard it first and then it came right over my head,” said the 44-year-old father of three. “The weather was perfect, I remember — it wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold.”

Seconds later the Boeing 575 would barrel into the northwest side of the Pentagon, killing all 64 on board, including five hijackers, and another 125 inside the building. Cox’s voice was one of the first on the police radio alerting authorities that something horrible had just happened.

“It was just black, like a dark fog had fallen,” said Cox, who was haunted by nightmares for years. “There are very few moments that actually seem like a Hollywood movie, you know, very dramatic and when every vehicle has a siren. This was one of them.”

Cox said he still gets a little anxious as planes make their descent to Reagan National Airport.

The officer put himself through his own therapy to deal with his haunting, driving down to Gravelly Point Park just off the George Washington Parkway and standing under the planes as they landed. Getting to sleep eventually got a little easier.

In the five years since the attacks, Cox said, he doesn’t feel the region’s security enhancements have dramatically changed the way people live their lives, other than making them more aware of the world around them — no matter how frightening that world may be, he says.

“It shows people are a lot more resilient than we gave ourselves credit for,” Cox said. “We are paying more attention to our surroundings and we may be a little less trusting, but for the most part we’ve moved on.”

– Mike Rupert

June Stallings

‘We can’t stop living — we just can’t’

Metro station manager: Commuters not afraid

June Stallings slowly spins her chair inside the manager’s booth at the Arlington Cemetery Metro Station and glances down at the eight closed-captioned video monitors to scan what she affectionately refers to as “my station.”

“If there is a bag, a cup or a briefcase in my station that doesn’t belong there I’m going to get it,” Stallings said. “It won’t be there long. Trust me.”

Stallings, 45, reels off a list of security measures the agency has implemented since the Sept. 11 attacks — bomb-sniffing dogs, bomb-resistant trash cans, more security cameras and plans for better lighting — but admits there is little they or anyone can do to prevent another attack.

“All we can do is stay vigilant and stay cautious,” Stallings said. “I think people have realized that and have continued living their lives.”

Metro — the second-largest U.S. public transit system — has not seen a decline in ridership, despite the risk. Metro ridership is at record levels and the numbers didn’t even blink after a series of high-profile attacks in other parts of the world.

“People are just living their lives,” Stallings said. “And that’s a beautiful thing. We can’t stop living — we just can’t.” – Mike Rupert

Jim Laychak

‘It’s another day when my brother can’t be here to see his wife and children’

Memorial Fund president honors his sibling everyday

Jim Laychak says he honors his younger brother Dave’s life by being a good father, a good husband and good person. It’s the best he can do.

If David was still alive, Laychak likes to say, he would likely tell his big brother, “I’m fine. Get over it.”

Laychak said he still thinks about him everyday.

“It’s been five years and not a day goes by with him popping into my mind,” said Laychak, 47.

David, who had just moved his family to Manassas nine months before, spent the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 in his first-floor office in the E Ring of the Pentagon — the site where American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building.

And whether it’s one year, two years or 10 years, Laychak said time doesn’t make it any easier.

“It’s another day that my brother can’t be here to see his wife and his children,” he said. “And knowing how quickly life can be taken from you, you have no other choice but to live your life every day.”

Within days after the attacks, Jim Laychak became a fixture at the family assistance center set up at the Sheraton Hotel in Crystal City to aid the hundreds of grieving family members. He would later lead the effort to construct a proper memorial to honor all 184 victims of the attacks at the Pentagon.

– Mike Rupert

Mahdi Bray

‘We were Americans, too’

Muslim leader sees strides, setbacks in civil rights

Mahdi Bray said life after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is much like the opening to Charles Dickens’ novel “A Tale of Two Cities” — it’s been the best of times, it’s been the worst of times.

Bray, executive director of the D.C.-based Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, said the immediate spotlight the attacks put on his religion both here and abroad has both forced Muslims to emerge from the shell of their tight-knit community and made them targets.

“We had to let our neighbors immediately know who we were and that we were respectable, law-abiding citizens,” said the 56-year-old Bray. “We had to peel through the spirit of hysteria and show them we were Americans, too.”

The son of a prominent civil rights activist and World War II veteran, the southern-bred Bray said the attacks also gave what he refers to as “the double-whammy.”

“Now, not only am I ‘driving while black,’” Bray, a converted Muslim who was raised Baptist, says with a grin. “I am also ‘flying while Muslim.’ I quickly realized I was in unpleasant waters I’ve had to tread before.”

Alleged racial profiling from law enforcement officers continues to plague his community, but Bray, recalling a Muslim saying, said “only through the very difficult comes ease.”

Bray claims the attacks have resulted in a better dialogue between American Jews and American Muslims and also has led to a better understanding of his faith.

“All of the books at Barnes and Noble on Islamic teachings are always sold out,” Bray said. “And I think that has helped teach people the difference between true Islam and extremists and that not all of us are on watch lists.”

One of the hardest things to endure has been the public perception that he was not affected by the attacks, “as if we didn’t lose our friends in the attacks, and as if we wanted extremists living in our neighborhoods,” said Bray, who lost a childhood friend in the World Trade Center attack.

“Bin Laden didn’t care about Jews, Christians or Muslims,” he said. “He decided he was going to attacks Americans. And when he attacked Americans, he attacked me too.”

– Mike Rupert

Chris Stephenson

‘I call it the movie in your head’

Air Traffic Controller saw jetliner strike Pentagon

Chris Stephenson had just set down the “hot line” phone to the Secret Service when he saw the plane emerge from the horizon.

He peered through the clear blue sky that fall morning from his chair in the control tower high above the Main Terminal at Reagan National Airport and that’s when the “movie” began. The plane the radar room had picked up was just five miles away and he could see it clearly.

“The plane was way out of position,” said Stephenson, 48, a 20-year veteran air traffic controller. “It was obvious something bad was just about to happen.”

Stephenson said he stood motionless for 10 seconds and watched the 757 descend into the Pentagon — and then watched it explode. The scene plays out in Stephenson’s head every time a news clip or conversation mentions the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

“I call it the movie in your head,” said Stephenson, a father of two. “It just doesn’t go away. The day gets referenced every day and every time I remember exactly where I was and exactly what I saw.”

Despite the increased security and terrorism threats facing the airline industry, Stephenson said he and his colleagues can’t worry that every plane could be a weapon.

“It’s a pretty fast-paced job,” Stephenson said. “You wouldn’t be able to do it if you were worried all the time. It would drive you mad.”

Even on the day of the attack, Stephenson said, he was so busy diverting planes and grounding others — a directive issued after the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers — that he didn’t have time to gauge the enormity of what he had just saw.

Yet Stephenson, who had two already scheduled days off after the attacks, said he recalls very vividly the day he returned to work.

“The first time a 757 came in for a landing I got goosebumps,” Stephenson said. “I’m not going to lie.”

– Mike Rupert

mrupert@dcexaminer.com

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