Avery Wolf doesn’t remember much about her fifth birthday.
“I think I was in kindergarten, maybe I was like in morning kindergarten, I don’t remember school that day really,” Wolf said, who is a 17-year-old University of Idaho freshman. “Maybe I was in pre-school.”
Wolf’s birthday fell on Sept. 11, 2001 — a date forever seared into the collective memory of Americans.
On that Tuesday moring, terrorist organization al-Qaida launched a series of unprecedented attacks on U.S. soil that resulted in the deaths of 2,977 victims. Members of the group hijacked four commercial airplanes, crashing them into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan and the Pentagon outside of Washington D.C.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut
Americans of all ages look back on where they were on Sept. 11, 2001. From vibrant recollections to blurry memories, each person has a different story. Left to right: Neva Mahler, Dmitri Saberi, Karlee Kirking, Stephen Weeks, Avery Wolf, Katherine Graff.
But not all planes reached their target. United Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when passengers attempted to regain control of the aircraft — preventing another tragedy, but costing the lives of all on board.
Americans will remember the 13th anniversary of 9/11 Thursday by honoring the victims and their families, and reflecting on the day that changed the course of U.S. history.
UI students take a step back
Incoming UI students have grown up in a world shaped by the 9/11 attacks, but remember almost nothing about the day.
For older UI students, the attack elicits vivid memories that represent a time of shock, panic and intense patriotism.
For freshman students like Wolf, the first-hand account of 9/11 is blurry. She said many of the intimate details of the day have been filled in with stories from her parents and historical accounts.
Even though she was young, Wolf said it was clear there had been a tragedy, and remembers the sober mood as her family gathered to celebrate her birthday.
“My parents tried to keep it from me,” she said. “Even a 5-year-old can tell.”
Wolf said she remembers finding out about the attacks that night by watching the news, but did not know the significance of the attacks until years later.
Karlee Kirking, a UI senior, said she relates to Wolf’s experience.
The Lewiston native said she could not comprehend the full scope of the attack, and what it meant for people across America.
Kirking, who was in 3rd grade at the time, said she found out about the attack when her parents woke her up to talk about it.
“It was the first time that I’d ever seen my dad cry,” she said. “I didn’t really know what happened, I didn’t understand.”
As the day continued, Kirking remembers watching the news in her classroom, and hiding in a yellow tube on the playground in fear of another attack.
Kirking sees a stark difference between how she experienced the attack compared to her parents. She said while her parents have a fully formed memory of the day, she only remembers bits and pieces of the attack and many of the specific details are foggy.
Other UI students have vivid memories of the day, like Adam Young, a doctoral student in the College of Natural Resources.
Young, 27, was a freshman in high school, and lived 75 minutes from New York in Pennsylvania.
He remembers sitting in the cafeteria when he heard news that the World Trade Towers had collapsed.
“And I thought it was bull crap, like, ‘oh yeah, sure they went down,'” he said. “It didn’t even make sense.”
But when his mother pulled him out of school mid-day and Young finally saw the smoky images on TV, it became clear the rumors at school were true.
Young said he knew many people in the city, including a family friend who worked in the towers but luckily did not attend work the day of the attack.
The days and weeks following the attack were a combination of disbelief and fear within the community, Young said. He remembers hearing military jets fly over his house at night in the succeeding weeks.
After the initial shock, he said there was a profound sense of patriotism across the nation.
“Just proud to be an American, just sticking together,” he said. “I don’t feel like that too often anymore.”
Back in Idaho, Kirking said she felt the same rush of patriotism in the months after the attacks. She said she remembers her family putting an American flag, along with many teachers and neighbors, while survivor search efforts continued in Manhattan.
UI senior Stephen Weeks tells a similar story.
Weeks was in 6th grade at the time, and was getting ready for school when he flipped on the TV hoping to find cartoons.
Instead, he saw the live feed of the attack in New York City and rushed up stairs to tell his mom.
“I remember going to my mom and saying ‘something hit the tower,'” Weeks said.
After seeing the news, Weeks said his mother became worried about his Uncle Mark, who worked in a building next to the World Trade Center, but happened to be on a business trip to Japan that Tuesday morning.
In school that day, Weeks said his class spent the afternoon talking about the JFK assassination, the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster and other national tragedies in an attempt to explain the attack.
Even though he remembers the specifics of the day, Weeks said he had a limited view of what 9/11 meant for the nation.
Weeks said he remembers a lot of speculation and misinformation about who, or what, was responsible for the attack on the news media and in the community. He said weeks passed and it seemed like no one had hard evidence on who committed the attack.
“No one really knew what to believe, people were just angry,” he said.
As 9/11 approaches its 13th anniversary, young teenagers have no recollection of the attack that has influenced the society around them.
Dmitri Saberi was only 1 year old in 2001, and has had to learn about the attacks through the secondhand accounts of the adults in his life and by reading history books.
He said it was only a few years ago that he sat down with his father and watched videos of the attacks.
“That was when it really hit me, what really happened,” Saberi said.
Saberi said the attack had a big impact on his father, who immigrated to America when he was 17.
“He told me that it was one of the most saddening experiences of his life,” Saberi said. “He was devastated that day.”
Saberi said confronting the reality of 9/11 bolstered his father’s patriotism and motivated him to get involved in politics. He said the event ignited a political fire in his father, and he’s watched him try to make a difference in America ever since.
“He’s just the most hardcore American you’ve ever seen now,” Saberi said.
Saberi said he can learn about the attacks online, but will never have the same emotional connection to the attacks as his father did as well as the millions of people who lived to tell their own recollections of the tragedy.
Saberi said while he doesn’t have a first-hand account of 9/11, he wouldn’t be forgetting that day in history any time soon.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]