It was eerie ...

By Lori Chalupa: I was sitting at my desk at work and listening to the Bob and Tom Show on the radio. They mentioned on the air that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, so I went down the hall to a TV to see what was going on. In just seconds, a large crowd had gathered and overflowed into the hallway. And even though there were so many people watching, you could have heard a pin drop ... except for the occasional quick inhalation of breath in disbelief. We were all stunned. When the towers came down, one by one, many were already crying.

I have been an emergency responder for 17 years. To know that not only hundreds of people had instantly died, but that many fellow responders had gone into those buildings and to know that they lost their lives when the towers came down was devastating to me.

Shortly after, the FAA called all aircraft out of the sky. I had no idea how much of an impact that would make on me until I left work that day. Because if there's one thing I've taken for granted it is seeing the 'jet tracks' in the sky. And they were gone. GONE. I was actually leery of looking up at the sky, as to me it looked so abnormal. Knowing that we had been attacked from the air just exacerbated the feeling.

Off and on during the day, I had heard that President Bush was crisscrossing the country, from Air Force Base to Air Force Base, and that he was leaving Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha and heading to Washington, crossing Eastern Iowa shortly after 5 p.m.

I was heading south on Highway 218 between 5 and 5:30 when I saw a group of fighter jets in the sky. Not far behind was a large jet that I knew had to be Air Force One, flanked by additional fighter jets and more fighters bringing up the rear. It seemed a grim punctuation point on a devastating day.