A worried retiree

By Judy Bjornsen: I had heard the horrible news on KGAN before I left home to donate blood. None of the girls at the blood bank had heard about the attack.

Later I heard about the Pentagon being hit, so I called my boss I had worked for at Rockwell. I had retired in 1997 as executive admin to one of the vice presidents (Herm Reininga) and remembered that he went to the Pentagon every other week and hoped this wasn't the week that he would be there.

I called him at his office in Cedar Rapids, and he answered the phone. What a relief to know that he wasn't in Washington! He hadn't heard the news, so I told him what was happening and how glad I was he was OK. I'm sure he said a word of thanks that he was in good old Cedar Rapids.

That was a changing day for all Americans. I often wonder if before that day, we took our freedom for granted.