September 11, 2001, was a day that will be a part of America’s history forever. TCU may be far from New York City, but faculty and students were still affected by the terrorist attacks.

Bruce Miller, professor of physics and astronomy, used to live in New York. Although Miller was not living in the area at the time of the attacks, he still had friends there, he wrote in an email.

Miller was at home eating breakfast when his wife called from the gym and told him to turn on the television, he wrote. He turned on the news right after the first plane hit the towers.

“I saw everything that happened after that,” he wrote.

Miller wrote it took his friend’s wife over a day to get home because the train station she had to leave from was under the Twin Towers, and had collapsed.

Miller made a journey to ground zero in December 2001. He went into local stores, talked with construction workers and police officers, and looked behind the barriers to see the devastation, he wrote.

“Frankly, it was awful,” Miller said.

Sophomore sports broadcasting major Matt Giordano said he was in 6th grade at the time of the attack and watched the events unfold on television while in history class. Giordano had family living in Manhattan at the time and said most of the mass transit systems shut down.

Giordano said his entire family visited ground zero about a year after the attacks.

“There were lots of flowers and pictures,” he said. “It was still a mess, it didn’t look like anything.”

Giordano said the memorial was positive because it made those involved in the attacks feel loved and created a sense of unity.

“Unification and nationalism came out of an unfortunate situation,” Giordano said.

In the long run, Miller was not sure what impact 9/11 will have on American history, he wrote. However, the attacks exposed our vulnerability to a type of warfare we still seem unprepared to deal with, he wrote. 

9/11 brought a sense of realization to America, Giordano said. America likes to play world cop and thinks they can do anything they want, and they realized on 9/11 not everyone is our friend, he said.

Osama bin Laden, former leader of al Qaeda and mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, was killed on May 1 by U. S. forces in Pakistan.

Miller said bin Laden’s death represented a closing of a chapter that should never have occurred.

Giordano said bin Laden’s death gave a sense of satisfaction for families affected by the attacks.

“Justice has been served,” Giordano said.

According to 911memorial.org, a new 9/11 memorial will open this Sunday, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, to honor those killed on 9/11 as well as the six people killed in the 1993 bombings of the Twin Towers.