CINCINNATI — Anyone who was alive and of a certain age on Sept. 11, 2001 can recall to the most specific of details where they were when they first heard of the terrorist attacks and began to process the images.
“Everyone remembers where we were that day,” said author Jim Serger.
The Navy veteran put together a collection of personal stories from a wide variety of people who recall their own 9/11 day. He adds the book shows that through disaster we were united as a country.
“That's what these stories are about. It's not just about I was here I was there,” he said. “It was, I became a friend with somebody I didn't even know for the day because they were a fellow American. And we're all in this together.”
Serger was working for Home City Ice when the first plane hit.
“I thought maybe it was a Cessna — maybe it was a helicopter whipping around maybe,” he said.
Eventually, he says he saw what every other American was seeing broadcast across the nation.
“When I pulled into an IGA. The manager said Iceman come here. And then I went into his little office, and it was me, a couple cashiers, the receiver and some carts and huddled around this little rinky dinky black and white TV with the old rabbit ears,” Serger said. “That's when I took in all the devastation for the first time. I think I was sitting in his office for about a half an hour. Silence. Everybody just sat there kind of looked at each other. Nobody said a word.”
Train engineer David Farwick is featured in the book. He was working his normal shift having left Union Terminal in Cincinnati heading on his routine route three hours south. It wasn’t until he got into his cab to head to his hotel at the end of his shift when he heard the news.
He too thought it was just an accident, at first, but soon found himself glued to the TV coverage like millions of other Americans.
“Straight to the room and watched, watched all day, watch TV all day," Farwick said. "You know, you’re glued to it and you're trying to figure out how, what, who, you know all that."
His biggest concern watching things play out at ground zero were the people stuck inside the Twin Towers who were making life and death decisions.
“The thing that made my stomach just absolutely sink was when the building started imploding,” he said. “When you look at a TV and go, somebody's jumping, people are jumping off this building is like, what would I do?”
For Serger, the book is something he had tossed around creating for years. He said something else was encouraging him to put the collection of stories together.
“When I was operations manager at the Indianapolis Airport, I kept seeing the time 9-11. And then I would work the night shift and it would be 9-11. Again, I was at home popping popcorn for my wife, and kid. And as soon as the microwave got over, it'd be 9-11,” Serger said.
The book entitled ‘9:11 A Time to Always Remember’ correlates the time he kept seeing to the date of the attack.
There are chefs and mechanics, pro-athlete executives, attorneys, engineers and more each with their own experience and takeaways from that day. Serger said the overall theme is that none of us were alone on that day and while each of us has our own takeaways from the day we united as a country to stand strong.
“Old, young, black, white, Catholic, Protestant, it didn't matter that day," Serger said. "We were all Americans. So that's what got me to drive behind the book.”
The book ‘9:11 A Time to Always Remember’ can be purchased through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and at book stores like Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Portion of the sales will go to Tunnel 2 Towers.
If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.
