Going out of Columbus this morning, I noticed that all the TSA agents had black electrical tape over their badges. It was their way of commemorating September 11, 2001. I didn’t watch a lot of the 9-11 special on ABC last night, but my wife likely rocked herself to sleep by shaking her head in amazement and disbelief. :)

This morning I’m not too worried about my plane: the 50-passenger regional jet would be lucky to take out a Walgreen’s, much less a major business center. :)

Five years ago we were on vacation with the in-laws in Gatlinburg, TN. We had rented one of the mountain chalets down there, which was quite nice. That morning we were eating breakfast at the Burning Bush restaurant. It was a good breakfast, but the waitress took forever in getting our receipt to us. I got up to go look for her, when I saw CNN broadcasting that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC towers. Everyone at the time thought it was an awful accident until the second plane crashed. We didn’t learn that the towers came down until that afternoon.

When the FAA grounded all U.S. planes, I thought about Chris H., one of our trainers who was inbound from Norway. Fortunately, his plane came in on the 10th. Business travel was suspended for two weeks. The next flight I was in First Class, counting beard-wearers with green passports.

I’m glad it hasn’t happened again, and I thank intelligence, law enforcement, and the military for helping out on that front. I hope we keep in mind that this enemy who desires one big happy Caliphate isn’t keeping the Geneva Conventions in its back pocket.