San Diego-native firefighter shares 9/11 memories Published Sept. 12, 2011 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs RAF MILDENHALL, England -- Tech. Sgt. Chris Smiley 100th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department, remembers the day the world stood still ... I was a 20-year-old airman first class assigned to the fire department at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., and had been there for about a year. I'd just finished upgrade training, and had started training in the alarm room about two or three weeks prior to 9/11. The morning of Sept. 11 was the first day I'd worked by myself in the alarm room, after completing my training. Our NCO in charge of that section was on leave, and so unavailable that day, so I was pretty much it. After morning roll call, I was in the middle of doing the radio checks, and was watching CNN. I saw they had live coverage of downtown New York City. They were talking about an airplane that had just hit the World Trade Center, so I turned up the volume so I could listen properly. I remember guys coming into the alarm room to check out equipment and radio batteries, when our station captain walked into the alarm room. I immediately told him what I'd just seen on television, and he stood there watching CNN with me. That's when the live footage showed the second plane hit the second tower. I remember him saying, "How was the building on fire, when the plane already hit it?" and that's when it dawned on us that a second plane had hit tower two, and the reporters were confused as to what had just happened. A couple of minutes after that, as we were sitting there wondering what was going on, our fire chief walked by. We told him what was going on, and he came into the alarm room to watch the TV with us. The scrolling messages at the bottom of the screen reported that the Pentagon had been hit by a plane. As soon as that happened, the primary crash net phone rang, with a call from the command post, telling us that all military installations were going into Threat Condition Bravo. At the time, there was no 'force protection' - it was 'ThreatCon.' This was the first time at Pope AFB that the military had ever had to go into ThreatCon Bravo for real-world purposes. I was asked to find the book that stated exactly what we needed to do during ThreatCons; although going through the book had been part of my training for working in the alarm room, it had only been briefly covered, just because the Air Force wasn't used to dealing with those types of real-world situations. I found the binder, but a lot of the information in there was either missing or out-of-date. The fire chief told me we needed to find the up-to-date information, and start making placards, so I called the command post for further direction. They told me to hang up the phone as they were about to transmit another radio message. A couple of seconds later, the primary crash phone rang again. This time, the message was that the entire installation was going real-world ThreatCon Charlie. The crash phone rang for a third time, and it was the command post again, telling us the base had upgraded into ThreatCon Delta. From what I understand, that's something that hadn't happened stateside, in the whole history of the military. The situation had suddenly become very serious, and dispatching in the alarm room for the very first time, I found it very stressful, especially because I'd been tasked to find out all this information. Immediately, I started receiving hundreds of phone calls from all different agencies, which were coming through the alarm room. This was because back in 2001, a lot of the communications centers, such as the Disaster Control Center and Emergency Operations Center didn't exist at most military bases. Before I knew it, the base commander, my squadron commander, and the commander of Fort Bragg, N.C., were in the dispatch center with me, trying to figure out what the plan of action was. I then received a phone call from somebody who said they needed to talk to the fire chief immediately, on a secure phone, and the only one we had was in his office. It turned out that Pope AFB had been appointed as an alternate landing site, if needed, for Air Force One, either for presidential or congressional aircraft that were already in the air. At the time, Fort Bragg was an open military installation, which meant all of its main access roads were open to the general public. Its main road, Bragg Boulevard, ran right through the base. It was the main transportation road for a lot of civilians, who used it to get through Fayetteville, the community we lived in. So now, on top of having to support us as the alternate land site, Fort Bragg was trying to close down roads all over the place, because of ThreatCon Delta. Meanwhile, I began taking phone calls from the local community, wanting to know what was going on. Throughout the day, for me - being a young Airman and having all these questions fielded to me - it became extremely stressful. After a 12-hour shift, I'd got to the point where I couldn't think straight. When I went home that night, I was so full of emotion, both from what had happened, and my first day working by myself, that I just broke down and started crying. I called my mom to let her know I was alright, and talking to her is when I really broke down. I'd only been in the service for a little more than a year at that point, and I was still trying to transition into the military lifestyle. Going through something like that at the beginning of my career was really emotional for me. I starting watching CNN, to see what was going on and, like most Americans, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I had to work the following day in the alarm room as well. Before I left work Sept. 11, I'd been told that because Fort Bragg had to shut down all the roads that were usually open to public transport, that getting on base was going to take a lot longer, and I should plan for that. My shift started at 7 a.m., so I left my house at 5 a.m. (I only lived five miles away) - but I didn't get to work 11:30 a.m. I could have walked that in a fraction of the time. Cars had broken down because they'd run out of gas; there were people on bicycles and walking - it was chaos. September 11 was probably the hardest day, both emotionally and mentally, that I've had in my entire career. I look back on that day as being probably the greatest learning experience I've had as far as information management and how the military communication system works. On one hand I wish I'd never been put through that situation, as it was very stressful to me as a young Airman, but on the other hand I feel very grateful that I was given that opportunity to excel. Because of how long it took to get on base, the firefighters stayed at the station; we were all living there - the guys who were on shift would ride the trucks and sleep in the day room; the guys who were off shift would sleep in the bunk rooms. It was like that for at least a couple of weeks. Now, on every anniversary of Sept. 11, I feel a sense of patriotism for my country, but also as a fireman you feel a lot of sorrow for all the firefighters who died. Every 9/11, it makes me think about where I am in my career, and I realize there's more I can do to be better at my job, and it makes me want to become a better fireman. I'm serving my country and I feel that I've done my duty, but 343 firefighters lost their lives that day, and those guys were in tip-top shape and had lots of training. The New York City Fire Department is one of the premiere fire departments in the world. When you hear stories about them, you know they are top notch - for them to lose that many people is a huge deal. As Air Force firefighters, we know it doesn't take a lot to lose your life. Just running into a building to do your job, you never know what's going to happen. 9/11 will forever be a day of remembrance for fire departments all over the world. About six months after Sept. 11, FDNY sent a recruiter to our fire station, trying to find Airmen who were on their way out of the Air Force; one of my buddies came in the military at the same time I did, and he now works for them. I have a family now, and just a couple of months ago, I explained to my son Connor, 6, what 9/11 was, because they'd been talking about it at school. Being in kindergarten, he didn't understand what it was, so I pulled up pictures of the buildings, explained to him what had happened, and told him that "we're at war with the bad guys who attacked America." I told him how a lot of people had died, and two great big buildings had fallen to the ground. Connor had a lot of questions, but being only 6, he was still slightly confused. But now, every time he sees something to do with 9/11, he always reminds me that now he knows what it is. I also have two daughters, 5 and 1, but they're a bit too young to be told about it yet. My kids are definitely a driving force in my military career. My biggest concern is making sure the United States is still the United States when they're older. There have been a lot of changes (to our country) in the last few years, and it brings on a lot of concerns as to how their future is going to be. The younger generation we have now, doesn't know how it felt to have been in the military during that time. I'm sure they saw it on the news and learned about it in school, but I don't think they have a feel for the impact that 9/11 had on the military. The young Airmen don't know what it's like to be in the military when we were involved in peacekeeping missions. Deployments were only deployments in terms of showing a presence in the Middle East; now when we deploy, you have to carry a weapon and ammunition - it didn't used to be like that. The military has definitely changed a lot. Editor's note: This story is the personal recollection of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, based on interviews with the subject. It is compiled and written by Karen Abeyasekere, 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs.