911 Call: American Spirit Soars

Posted by michaelryan

September 11, 2008

Seven years have past since America was attacked by terrorist using one of our country’s most proud inventions, the airplane, as a weapon killing 3,000 people of 92 nationalities, religions, ethic groups and genders in the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Washington, DC (Arlington, VA) and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Like millions of Americans today, I can recall that tragic day as if it were only yesterday despite the 2,555 days that have past since that fateful nightmare of a day. I was awakened by my business partner Bobby Jones and witness the horror unfolding on my hotel television screen with disbelief and commenting “this is my generations Pearl Harbor”. First thinking some plane accidentally collided into my recent office located on the 85^th Floor of Two World Trade Center in New York City. It was only a few months before Bobby and I were meeting in my office conference room looking down at the Statue of Liberty from above, watching planes below us circling in flight like small birds and both of us being amazed at the beauty around us in these magnificent towers in the sky.

The evening before, we had flown into Indianapolis for our September 11th meeting with Sam Odle, FACHE, COO (now CEO), Methodist Medical Center, University of Indiana Hospitals/Clarian Health www.clarian.org. When we arrive at the medical center it was in a busy fury of activities implementing various security precautions given the uncertainty of the day and other possible unknown threats. Having been a former hospital CEO, I had practiced these as emergency drills many times of the decades. I still vividly recall the faces of the people I encounter if not glued to an available television were very serious attending to their business. It was remarkable to watch each member of the medical center staff, the security guard, physicians, nurses, the receptionist, the hospital administrator all in some temporary collective form of shock, yet all very diligently focused on getting their important work done. Bobby and I met with Sam that morning; we conducted no business, closed no deal; only shared our personal thoughts and concerns for those directly impacted. It was a national day of mourning and respect.

It was less than two months earlier I had left my position as managing partner at a healthcare consulting firm located in the Two World Trade Center in New York City. I had live many months in the Millennium Hilton hotel across from the WTC and ventured early each morning through tight security and two separate elevators to reach the 85^th floor were my office was located. It was indeed a bustling “city within a city” with its own police force, corporate offices, banks, grocery stores, restaurants, subway system, and an underground mall. To this day, I am not sure if it was fate, serendipity, kismet, karma or Divine Providence that lured me away from that position and landed me at a medical center in Indianapolis, Indiana on that day. We were “stranded” in the beautiful Midwest with all air flights cancelled nation wide for the foreseeable future. Bobby lived in Arizona and he was anxious to see his wife and I desperately wanted to see my two young children in Louisiana. We keep our “day” rental car, watched gas prices literally increase dramatically each fill-up, saw state trooper inspect us as we journey each state and drove across the country the next few days experiencing America’s heartland and witnessing people coming together to mourn the loss of life and America’s innocence. We saw hundreds of airplanes grounded at airports along our unplanned route. When Bobby and I parted our ways along the road West and I finally was able to see, kiss and hugged my kids closely again.

Exactly one year after the tragedy on 9-11-02, I flew from a nearly empty Newark International Airport after participating in a truly inspirational September 11th memorial service at a medical center in New Jersey where the hospital community of patients, family, administrators, physicians, nurses, clerks and cooks, came together for a brief few moments of silence to remember those that had perished and promised to “never forget” and pledging to the future by planting a seedling tree for generations to come to witness how deep our American roots are and how high our branches can reach the skies, and despite the many falling heroes, loss thousands of precious lives and crumbled buildings, our human spirit grows stronger.

So as with every 911, I will remember where I was, who I was with, what horror I witnessed, what wonderful community I experienced, what I remembered of my friends and colleagues on the 85^th floor of WTC-Two and thankful for our many blessings and the American spirit. As always each year, I will take a moment of silence, look at my WTC security card that I keep in my wallet and call my “brother” Bobby, and together we share a moment of remembrance.