I was in Fort Leavenworth, near Kansas City. I’d been there three or four times before, shooting the yearbook portraits for the Command and General Staff College. It was a good account. We all made money, the people at the Fort were all nice, and it’s beautiful in the area at this time of year. The Wife and I would often take a weekend and go to the KC Ren Faire, or eat at one of the many great barbecue joints the city is famed for. Our favorite spot was KC Masterpieces, which sadly is no more. This was a big shoot and we would often be there for two or three weeks.
Fort Leavenworth was an open base. They had a thrift shop, several historical monuments, and lots of trails where the average person could wander around for hours on end looking at statues of Buffalo Soldiers or standing in front of a bit of the Berlin Wall. In all the previous years, I had driven right onto the base and headed toward the place we normal shot the photos. I would then search for one of my bosses who would be hanging around outside to flag us down.
On this particular September 10th, things were different. There were two armed guards standing next to a makeshift guard hut. They asked what our business was and walked around my pickup truck with one of those mirrors on a stick to check the undercarriage. After a few minutes were we waved through and I went into the base and found the shoot location. That was the first day of the shoot.
In the years since 9/11, I’ve spoken to other people working at other military bases. Several people have told me of similar experiences. The sudden appearance of increased security on September 10th, 2001. This has always bothered me. The Powers That Be knew something was going to happen. Would things have been different if they had shared that knowledge with a few more people?
Or maybe it’s like Agent K said in Men in Black, the would is always about to be destroyed and it’s best if the general population doesn’t know about it.
We now know so many things were done wrong.
Back to my own little story.
The next morning we were watching some show we had recorded from the Sci-Fi Channel. I called the office to report the sittings and sales numbers from the previous day. Beverly, the woman at the office who did all the real work, sounded upset and said something about the end of the world. I said the numbers weren’t that bad.
Turn on the Tv. She said and we switched over just in time to see the second plane strike the South Tower.Then we watched as the planes crashed again and again and again.
I went over to the window and looked out toward Fort Leavenworth. Cars were stretched a mile in both directions. I called the Office and I told our Boss I didn’t think we would be working today.
No one’s called to cancel their appointment. He said. Bill was an idiot.
Once it was confirmed that we had the day off, and once we had seen the planes slam into the World Trade Center a million or so times, we decided to go into Kansas City. It was a ghost town. The streets were empty, most of the shops were still open, but we were the only customers. It was an eerie, and as everyone has said about 9/11, a surrealistic day.
A few months later, in December, we were working a shoot in Los Angeles. We went to Disneyland. This was three months after 9/11. We had the place to ourselves. A few hundred people in Disneyland made it feel like a ghost town as well. When we got to the end of a ride, the kid at the controls would ask if we wanted to go again, since there was no one waiting to get on next.
There was another plane crash around this time, but we were told over and over that it was not a terrorist attack. Now I wonder if it was and they just decided not to tell us.
I was talking to one of my Twitter buddies about 9/11 and told her my story. She said, I was in Midtown Manhattan. You win, I said.
That September 10th was the last normal day. I was traveling extensively at the time. In November I was working my way up the East Coast. Every town on the Atlantic has a harbor, some small, some pretty large. All of them were filled with boats, yachts, and ships. All of these vessels had flags flying from every country in the world. The idea that searching random people at airports was anything more than window dressing seemed ludicrous. All anyone had to do was park their boat and step onto shore. There were no customs officers, no guards, no sign that anyone cared where these boats came from or who was on them. At the time I didn’t know about the millions of shipping containers that flow without question or inspection in and out of the country. But yeah, you need to take your shoes off before you get on a plane.
A fence will only keep an honest man honest.
After the attacks there was a Think Tank put together to find out if a small group of people using easily available items could create something that would kill a lot of people. The shell shocked scientists that answered reporters questions said, yes. Fortunately, terrorists appear to be a bit on the dim side. But like mass shootings, the real threat isn’t some ISIS extremist, it’s one of our own who has snapped.
A couple days after September 10th, new construction started around Fort Leavenworth. A permanent guard house was put in place. Walls were put around the perimeter. I only returned one more time to shoot the year book. I still miss going there at this time of year.
