Homewood residents share memories of 9/11

On Sept. 11, 2001, Mary Scott Pearson, a legislative aide for then-U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, got her coffee and was watching the morning news from her Washington, D.C., office, a typical morning routine.

“We always had the news on,” Pearson said.

Without warning, newscasts switched their focus to New York City, where a plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Pearson, like so many others, thought it must have been an accident.

Minutes later, that thought was shattered.

“The Pentagon is on fire!” someone told Bonilla’s staff.

The Pentagon had been hit, and a second plane had struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and life in the United States changed forever in an instant.

“Alarms start going off; traffic is not moving,” Pearson said of the chaos that enveloped D.C. that day. “We didn’t know what was going on.”

It took Pearson’s husband hours to get home, and in a day and age before texting and smartphones, the two could not communicate and so for a while, she had no idea where he was.

When she got home, Pearson watched the news unfold and learned more about the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 3,000 people that day. Pearson, along with former Homewood Fire Marshal Reggie Davis, shared her memories of that fateful day with The Homewood Star.

The Nature of Firefighters

Sept. 11, 2001 was an off day for Reggie Davis.

Davis was driving near Valdosta, Georgia, on Interstate 75 when he got a call from his daughter that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Minutes later, his daughter called back and told him about the second plane.

Because he had his young niece and nephew with him, Davis didn’t want to watch the news for fear it would scare them. But the longtime firefighter, who spent 35 years with the Homewood Fire Department, knew he had lost some colleagues in New York.

“It still breaks my heart,” Davis said. “A lot of those New York firefighters were in my class [at the National Fire Academy].”

Davis can still recall watching firefighters swarm into the World Trade Center, going up into the flames as others came down and escaped the danger.

In the days, weeks and months that followed 9/11, Davis remembered how people would pull out of the way for emergency vehicles, stop emergency responders and tell them thank you and a general spirit of patriotism.

Davis went to the memorial service for the firefighters killed that day and heard President George W. Bush speak to those gathered in attendance. Davis still remembers watching First Lady Laura Bush wipe away tears as bagpipes played at the service.

Davis was on standby to go to New York and help with relief efforts, but there were so many volunteers, they had to turn people away, he said, and he ended up not being needed.

“It’s just the nature of how firefighters are,” Davis said. “That’s what firefighters do; they help people.”

Uncertain and Scared

Following the events of 9/11, Pearson said she remembered feeling “really scared” and “uncertain” about what would happen next.

She was worried about friends and didn’t know the scope of things, about whether there would be another attack. It brought a sense of uneasiness to a job she loved so much.

“It was such a joy and an honor to be in that environment,” Pearson said.

Between the attacks and the anthrax scare that followed, it was a strange time in D.C., she said.

“Nothing felt normal for a really long time,” Pearson said.

Still, there was this “amazing” sense of resilience and mission among those who worked in the capital.

When an angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Pearson said it brought back memories of that fear and anxiety that 9/11 had brought.

“There were definitely some parallels,” Pearson said.

Never Forgetting

Each year, the cities of Homewood, Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook get together to remember and honor the lives lost during the 9/11 attacks at the “Patriot Day” event.

This year’s event is set for Sept. 11 in Mountain Brook at Crestline Village, 101 Tibbett St., beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Brian Hastings, the director of the state of Alabama’s Emergency Management Agency, will be the keynote speaker, and the event will also include the Mountain Brook High School jazz band.

As the anniversary of the attacks reaches year 20, Mountain Brook Fire Chief Chris Mullins said he wasn’t sure what the event would look like going forward. It may not be an annual event, but it won’t just be forgotten, just as the events of that day will never be forgotten.

“We want it to be special,” Mullins said.