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The 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America bring rememberances from across the country and world. We asked a few notable Illinoisans and political figures for their memories of that Tuesday morning 20 years ago.

Bill Daley, former White House Chief of Staff and Commerce Secretary

“I was on a plane at O’Hare heading back to NYC. The plane moved away from gate then moved back telling us there was an issue in New York. I called my assistant and she told me about first plane into World Trade Center. As we were speaking, the second plane hit. I stayed at O’Hare for a little while and saw the towers collapse and went from there and spent rest of day with Rich [then Mayor Richard Daley, his brother) at the City Emergency Operations Center. Got back to NYC on Sunday.”

John Shimkus, former Congressman, who was in the Pentagon the morning of 9/11

“Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had invited numerous members to breakfast to talk about defense policy and appropriations authorizations. We were in the Secretary’s dining room in the northern wing second or third floor where his office is. We were eating breakfast and talking over policy and then he got a couple of notes passed to him and he talked about a plane hitting a building in New York, it wasn’t quite clear.

I remember John Mica, who was the ranking member on Transportation, had gotten a call that the plane had hit the World Trade Center. We had no idea it was a commercial airline, I think most of us thought it was a King Air or smaller type plane. The meeting adjourned pretty quickly after that. I got into the [shuttle] van with John Mica and on the way back to the Capitol, Mica got the call that the second plane had hit the World Trade Center.

By the time I got up to the office, the plane had hit the Pentagon.

Then the rest of the day unfolds. Everyone was told to leave the federal buildings, but there was really no good evacuation plan. Some members tried to get home, some were just kind of wandering the streets. I ended up at my Chief of Staff’s house, Craig Roberts, and we had some lobbyists, we had some constituents who were there, it was a motley crew of people.

Then we were encouraged to join members on the east steps of the Capitol where Majority Leader [Tom] Daschle and Speaker [Dennis] Hastert spoke a few words. Part of it was “we’re strong, we’re united, we’re opening tomorrow” and we were kind of dismissed. But, two members, a Republican and a Democrat, one was JD Hayworth, started singing “God Bless America.” There on the steps, we all sang united, showing a united front for the country after these attacks.”

Kirk Dillard, former State Senator, current RTA Chairman

“I had the “Today Show” on when it interrupted the broadcast about the first plane into the WTC and was especially focused since I was in Manhattan the previous week. Sadly, two of my Village of Hinsdale neighbors were killed. My church’s Assistant Pastor, Jeff Mladenik, was on AA Flight 11 which struck one of the Twin Towers. Visiting local businessman Bob Rasmussen was on the 78th floor of Two World Trade Center. Miraculously, Mrs. Mladenik, post 9/11, adopted two little girls from China to build on the four children left without a dad on Sept. 11th. What a beautiful family. [Jeff] would be so proud.

Locally, we lost Naval Commander Dan Shanower who was working in The Pentagon. Naperville’s September 11th Memorial –which includes a large beam from the WTC—is named after the Naperville native. Dan once wrote, “Freedom isn’t free”. So true.

The legendary Todd Beamer, a Wheaton College graduate, was a passenger on United’s Flight 93 and valiantly tried to regain control of the plane exclaiming, “Let’s Roll!” The “AIRPHONE” Call Center (remember those seatback phones) where the calls were made into describing the situation of the hijackings was located in Oak Brook. Those who visited my district office may have noticed in the lobby a framed United States flag featuring the names of all those who were killed by the terrorists which I purchased from the historic church located at Ground Zero the year following the attack. I always attended as many Sept. 11th ceremonies –still do—as it is critical to remember those lost, their families and the lessons of 9-11.

I will never forget the brilliant blue skies in Chicagoland that September day. It was so eerily quiet with no airplanes over my home from Midway or O’Hare. Also, etched in my mind was my beautiful 3 month old daughter in her crib and my wife and I wondering what type of world she was inheriting. I fondly remember how polite people were immediately following the terrorist attacks. Can we bring that back please? I stare at blue skies differently and now watch closely as airplanes fly by skyscrapers near my office in The Loop. As the Chairman of the Regional Transportation Authority, I ask many questions about security, some of which stem from post 9/11. Finally, the brave first responders have an even larger spot in my heart after September 11, 2001. Always, remember!”

Rep. Maurice West (D-Rockford)

“I was a junior in high school and I was in my Algebra class. I knew it was serious when my teacher, who was a stickler on productivity, stopped everything to watch the news. I remember looking around the room and seeing the “class clowns” even looking concerned. I felt like this couldn’t be real and we al creamed when we watched, in real time, the second plane hit the other tower. It was a sad and scary day in our school.”

Congressman Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville), who was a staffer for Congressman Shimkus at the time

“We had taken my then four-year-old daughter to Disney World September 7th, 8th, and 9th and we left my one-year-old twin boys back in Taylorville with my in-laws. We were going to spend our last day and a half down in Miami Beach with my brother-in-law, fly out of Ft. Lauderdale on September 12th to come back home.

I was lathering up my daughter with sunscreen to take her to the beach after breakfast and I was watching ESPN when my brother-in-law came running in and said “turn the news on” and we saw the first tower on fire and, at that point, we saw the second plane hit.

I immediately called my co-workers in Shimkus’ office to see if they had heard anything or knew anything. And I found out John was at the Pentagon with Rumsfeld. Fast forward, the next building we see on fire is the Pentagon. I couldn’t get a hold of anybody in DC, so I was very worried about what happened to John and to my friends out there. We finally got word that he was ok.

I knew we weren’t going to be able to fly the next day, so I got a rental car and started driving home. It was pretty eerie. We were on the Florida Turnpike and there was nobody on the roads. It was a really surreal moment to drive through Atlanta with no traffic and the big screens that normally direct you to the Atlanta airport said “Do not exit. All area airports closed.” We spent the night in Chattanooga, Tennessee and ended up driving home the next day.”

Christine Radogno, former Senate Republican Leader

“I was in Flagstaff, Arizona visiting my daughter who was a sophomore at Northern Arizona University. I was sound asleep (three hour time difference from the east coast) when I got a call from my husband telling me what happened. I remember being mildly annoyed he woke me up to fill me in on current events. That feeling quickly dissipated when I turned on the TV and realized the magnitude of the event.

My flight home was canceled, so I spent the next several days with a group of 19 and 20 year-olds trying to make sense of what happened. I recall being very glad I was there to provide comfort and perspective to these young adults who were away from home and most likely experiencing their first “where were you” moment.

When the ground stop was lifted I headed to the airport thinking it would take forever to get through security. I was wrong. The airport was empty and the security measures we now live with were not yet in place. That was the last time I got on a plane without going through TSA security.”

Eric Zorn, former Chicago Tribune columnist, recently launched the newsletter “Picayune Sentinel”

“I was playing catch with my 10 year-old son in the front yard of our house on the Northwest Side of Chicago waiting for the carpool to come pick him up. My wife came out onto the front porch to say a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center buildings. It was her understanding, like much of the rest of the country, that it was a small, private plane, and the incident was either an accident, a small act of terrorism or perhaps a suicide. We continued throwing the ball. The carpool arrived. I went inside and was watching the coverage when I saw the second plane hit. We were clearly under attack, but it seemed like an assault by Cessnas or something like that.

It didn't take long for the sickening revelation to sink it that these were hijacked passengers jets and the fear to overtake us that a massive assault on the nation was underway. I went from underestimating the situation to overestimating it, to imagining that every city in America was about to see its major buildings turn into targets and that life would never, ever be the same. When the towers collapsed I estimated the number of dead at least 20,000, maybe twice that. Flags came out on nearly every porch on our block. We went to fetch the kids from school, worrying with every block that the sewers would explode or something. I thought America would be changed forever. In hindsight, I don't think it was.”

Dave Dahl, WTAX Radio

“On September 11, 2001, I was news director of WMBD Radio in Peoria. I had come off a weekend trip to St Louis to see a Cardinals game and go to the zoo with my family. It was a clear, pleasant day, and the top story as of 7:30 was the return of Michael Jordan to the basketball court, this time with the Washington Wizards.

The day before, WMBD Radio had switched from CBS News to ABC News [affiliates], so I was not very familiar yet with how they did things. Just before eight, there was an announcement on their voice cue channel that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Remembering that not long before that, some Spiderman imitator or such was caught on the Statue of Liberty, I figured it was a minor, New York-centric story. During our 8am newscast (we did not take the national top of the hour news at WMBD), it became apparent that the story merited network wall-to-wall coverage.

At the time, the main local part of the story was that flights were grounded at the airport in Peoria. And, eerily, a single plane made its way across the blue sky mid-afternoon. Whether it was Air Force 1 or a decoy, no man can say.

Sometime after that, a Peorian contacted me to tell the story of one of the victims: his son, a young man who had just gone to work at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Especially that first morning, it was a day of rumors at furious speed and wondering what would happen next. The fact that we got through that week - to say nothing of twenty years - without a similar attack is remarkable.

Patrick Pfingsten

@pfingsten1 patrick@theillinoize.com