Most people can remember exactly where they were 25 years ago Sept. 11, 2001. Early in the morning on that fateful day, four planes took off from airports as they do every day. The assorted passengers were relaxed with the take-off behind them and settled back in their seats for the expected arrival at their destinations.

At 7:59 a.m. American Airlines Flight 11 left Lager International Airport from Boston. About fifteen minutes after takeoff, the unfathomable happened. Five hijackers armed with just boxcutters took over the plane. They forced their way into the cockpit after displaying an explosive and spraying mace into the cabin, causing the passengers to be submissive. The day of horror had begun.

Flight 175 also left from Boston, but a few minutes later, at 8:14.

At 8:20 America Flight 77 left Dulles, headed to Los Angeles.

At 8:24 one of the hijackers hit the wrong button and mistakenly broadcast to the tower instead of the passengers. Air traffic control contacted the Air Force who mobilized the Air National Guard.

At 8:42 United Airlines Flight 93 departed Newark, New Jersey, headed to San Francisco.

At 8:46 Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center North Tower between floors 93 and 99. All passengers were killed, and an unknown number of people inside the building. Everyone above the 92nd floor was trapped.

At 9:03 Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower between floors 77 and 85.

On Flight 77 four men took over, killing one passenger, after 46minutes in flight. At 9:37 the plane crashed into the west side of the Pentagon. On this flight, passengers had the time to call loved ones to say goodbye.

Flight 93 was taken over by hijackers at 9:28. Having heard calls about the other planes, the passengers decided to act. It was at 9:57 that the passengers rushed towards the cockpit with thirty-two-year-old Todd Beamer’s famous shout, “Let’s roll!”

The passengers helped to foil the hijackers’ plans; they crashed near Shanksville, Penn., at 10:03. The 9/11 Commission believes the target was either the Capitol Building or the White House.

I now live but a few minutes from Todd Beamer Park, who was a Fresno State graduate.

At 9:59 the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, 56 minutes after the impact of Flight 175.

The Pentagon’s 5 stories collapsed from the fire started by the crash of Flight 77 at 10:15.

At 10:28 the North Tower collapsed, 1 hour and 42 minutes after the impact.

As a result of the fires at the World Trade Center, 7 World Trade Center and the Marriott Hotel also collapsed due to fire-induced structural failure.

While the South Tower of the World Trade Center was struck 17 minutes after the North Tower, the impact zone was far lower, and the plane hit at a faster speed into a corner, causing it to collapse after burning for 56 minutes. The North Tower lasted another 29 minutes until it collapsed while stunned viewers watched it on television.

Many of the victims of the Towers died trapped in the fire. We watched as an estimated one to two hundred people jumped or fell from the Towers to escape the fire and smoke. The collapsing of stairwells made them inaccessible, as well as the crash destroying all seven elevators, not allowing any other exit.

Only 49 people who survived were on or above the 77th floor. Many more died when the buildings collapsed. I have often thought of the sheer panic these people must have felt, and it is unimaginable.

While many 911 calls were made from inside the towers, the operators were not informed. They advised the callers not to try to ascend.

Some people inside the South Tower decided to leave the building. Eric Eisenberg, an executive of AON Insurance, decided to evacuate his office on floors 92 and 98, following the impact. This decision allowed 224 of the 400 employees to evacuate. Sadly, Eisenberg was one of those who did not escape.

Within hours of the attack, search and rescue teams began their operation. They worked around the clock. The World Trade Center was cleared of immediate cleanup and recovery in May of 2002.

My daughter Leslie and I walked to the site on our visit to New York and were able to see the pictures of missing people and the flowers that visitors had placed on the fence.

Standing there, where such a tragedy had occurred, was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I kept all my written notes about the attack, and they helped me write this piece.

The damaged Pentagon was rebuilt and occupied within a year.

The Flight 93 Memorial is located near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township. The concrete and glass visitors' tribute to those lost opened in 2015. The site overlooks the area where the plane crashed. Made of white marble, the names of all who died that day at that site are engraved on the moving monument.

On every anniversary of the attack, New York City has a somber remembrance ceremony where the names of all the victims who died on Sept. 11 are read out loud.

While time changes the heart, the heart never forgets. That day in New York, 8 EMT’s and paramedics, 72 police officers, 343 firefighters and 2,753 civilians died that morning.

Of the attack, President Obama stated, “Even the smallest act of service, the simplest of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 911.”

Mayor of New York City at the time of the attack, Rudy Giuliani, said, “The attacks of 9/11 were intended to break our spirit; instead, we have emerged stronger and more unified.”

Why!? That is what I wanted to know. Why did they attack us? How were they able to plan such a complicated attack without us getting any warning? I have sought those answers in the years that have passed since the impossible became possible.

We know that the series of orchestrated suicide attacks were done by the Islamic terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. We know that 19 terrorists planned and hijacked four airplanes. We know that two planes were flown into the World Trade Centers, another crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and the fourth crashed into a rural Pennsylvania field due to the brave actions of the plane’s passengers.

We know that there was a quick global response to eliminate hostile groups that acted through terrorism. We attacked Afghanistan, but the leader, bin Laden, evaded capture for a long time. It was almost a decade before he was killed during a US Military raid.

What was the impact of the attack? What was the cost of the attack to the United States besides the many deaths, injuries, and need for long-term health care? It is roughly estimated to be billions of dollars in infrastructure and property damage.

It was the deadliest terrorist attack in history. It was the largest loss of police and firefighters in history. Flights 11 and 175 were the deadliest aviation losses of all time. Flight 77 was the fourth largest. The destruction of the World Trade Center drastically hurt the US economy as well as affecting global market stocks. Many countries crafted anti-terrorism legislation.

Anyone who flies knows how our check-ins have changed due to the weapons that were able to be carried onto the planes.

Why? We know that bin Laden, in his 1996 Fatwa, called for the killing of Americans. In yet another Fatwa in 1998, he doubled down and cited even more reasons to kill Americans, including objections to our foreign policy, our support of Israel, and our sanctions against Iraq, and stated that the US was directed by an International Jewish Conspiracy into killing as many Muslims as possible.

Bin Laden believed these strikes would send a message to America that would force the US to reevaluate its policies. They were inspired to attack the towers after watching the destruction of the towers in Lebanon in 1982.

Others have offered the opinion that the 911 attacks were to provoke us into war.

Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mindhar, experienced jihadists, had taken lessons at flight schools in San Diego in January of 2000 in preparation for the attacks.

How!? Richard Clarke, the former U.S. “Counterterrorism Czar,” and CIA Director George Tenet believed the United States was at risk of a major terrorist attack months before 9/11. They believed that they were more likely to occur in Saudi Arabia or Israel, but there was still concern that it could happen in the U.S.

Clarke put domestic agencies on full alert, saying, “Something spectacular is going to happen here, and it is going to happen soon.”

In July 2001, CIA agent Alec Station, partly informed by the FBI, warned about coordinated efforts by Osama bin Laden to send students to the U.S. to attend civil aviation schools.

Also, in July, Jordan alerted the U.S. that al-Qaeda was planning an attack on the US. The code name for the plan was The Big Wedding. This lack of communication between the agencies proved to be deadly.

Attorney General John Ashcroft stated, “The single greatest structural cause of 9/11 was the wall that separated criminal investigations.”

Richard Clarke has publicly acknowledged, “There were failures to get information to the right places at the right time.”

The four accused masterminds of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, are set to face trial in June of 2028. It is unbelievable that it has dragged out for this long for justice.

The horrible attack did change the routing of information. Once attacked we have developed new policies and procedures. Sadly, much of the feeling of unity expressed after 9/11 has changed.

I am hoping that by honoring this day it will help to rekindle the realization that we have far more in common than we don’t.

Our ancestors came here for freedom. When one person’s freedom is challenged, it is an attack on us all. As a journalist, one of the freedoms is freedom of the press. One of the reasons many traveled the ocean was for freedom of religion and to value the sanctity of every human being.

This Sept. 11, let us all pause and remember. United.

Sources: personal notes, history.com, Britannica, Wikipedia, and all that is interesting