Ten Years Later

I imagine that everyone who was alive in the USA remembers where they were when the World Trade Center was hit by the terrorists. I was in the simulator at the Delta Training center getting checked out in the B737. That’s the same plane that I instruct on now. Anyway, that day totally changed the lives of many, if not most, Americans. Some, especially if they lost family and friends were drastically affected. But others were affected drastically in other ways.

I know that 9/11 affected almost every area of my life. Being a pilot, it took what was a great job, and made it one that was not so much fun anymore. The new security system for helping stop any other tragedy played havoc with flight crews. It got to the point where I hated going to work because of all the security systems that we had to navigate. I could have understood it if it passed the common sense test, but it didn’t and was very irritating every day I flew. Also, everyone stopped flying for almost a year, and the airlines were going broke fast. Delta wasn’t doing very good even before 9/11, but after that, they were loosing millions of dollars a day.

What they should have done was right then asks all the employees to take a 30% pay cut. I believed then and I still do that the employees would have gladly given this to keep their jobs. But they didn’t and the rest is history. Yes, 9/11 really did have a drastic effect on many of us.

So, today as we remember ten years ago, I salute the heroes that fought and died. The fallen in the building and the planes as well as all our troops who have given so much to protect us and keep anything from happening to us since. The cost of freedom is high, and many are continuing to pay that price daily. May we never forget!