I don’t know anyone of my generation who can’t tell you exactly what they were doing when they first heard about the attack on the World Trade Center. Earlier that morning, when I’d first come on duty, I drove down to the Missouri River access ramp. The mist was rising off the warmer waters of the river and just at the edge of the boat ramp, a lone bicycle-riding fisherman was trying his luck. I shot this photo and it became my iconic reminder of that Tuesday, September 11, twenty-five years ago. All was calm…until it wasn’t.

I was in my patrol car sitting in the parking lot of the Huck’s store after going inside and getting a cup of coffee. When I heard on the radio that a plane had hit the World Trade Center (and I had no idea what that building really was), I immediately thought it was probably just a little Cessna or something like that. I must have sat there listening for some time until I heard that a second plane had hit the other tower. I happened to be about a half mile from my house, and since it was permissible to stop at your personal residence if you were assigned to a zone you lived in, I drove home, went in, and turned on the television.

I sat there mesmerized, with half an ear tuned to my police radio so I wouldn’t miss a call, and in horror, I watched the first tower fall. My oldest son was in the Army reserves and still asleep in his bedroom. I went downstairs and woke him and told him what was happening. We watched the second tower fall. He thought for certain he would be getting a call to ready up for deployment.

The next week was like nothing I had ever experienced. My Sergeant who had flown to Mexico for his honeymoon, was stranded there for an extra week. The silent sky was something completely unknown and still to this day, when I see an airplane in flight at a certain angle, I think of the second plane seen approaching the tower before it was struck.

America as a nation came together and prayed together. I would never want anything like that to happen again, but I truly wish America could come together again.