The day started out like any other. I think it was
a pretty busy week at work, so I had plenty to
do. I think I was sitting here, working on a
proof, when Dan from production came by and
said something about a plane and kamikaze
pilots. I didn't really hear what he said, and
didn't think much of it.

Then about fifteen minutes after, he was back,
and that time I heard exactly what he said.

I spent the next 30-45 minutes downstairs in
the cafeteria, with a huge crowd of my
coworkers glued to the TV. The Pentagon was
hit while I was watching. I remember that I felt
like it wasn't real; like I was in a scene from a
movie or something. I went back upstairs, but
didn't get much work done. Nobody got much
work done that day.

I went home for lunch that day; I just wanted to
be with my family. I remember driving by
downtown and thinking how odd it was that
they had closed downtown Dayton; why would
terrorists target us? We do have
Wright-Patterson AFB nearby, but closing
downtown seemed a little reactionary to me. I
suppose the city officials felt better doing
*something*

After they shut the airports down, we still had
some activity in the skies because of the air
force base nearby. That evening, we had a
little scare when an air force plane created a
sonic boom that rattled windows all over the
city. People were calling the police thinking it
was a bomb or some other sort of terrorist
activity. There was a rumor that the air force
had shot down a plane over the suburb of
Beavercreek, which is right next to the AFB,
and then covered it up, but that was never
substantiated.

Even now, a year later, what happened seems
so surreal to me. It's hard to grasp the reality
of it. Sometimes it still seems like something
out of a movie.