I had walked into the copier room at my office just before 9:00 a.m. on 9/11/2001 and found one of the secretaries standing transfixed before a television set. She was praying. The image on the television was of smoke billowing from the side of the World Trade Center's North Tower. A few minutes later the South Tower erupted into smoke and flame.
The impact of that terrible moment is indelibly burned into my memory. I remember feeling the same cold numbness and helpless fury which I felt at that terrible moment on November 22, 1963, when I strolled into the lobby of my hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen after a day of skiing and was told by the concierge: "I regret to inform you, Sir, that your President was killed earlier today in Dallas, Texas. U. S. forces in Germany have been placed on high alert, and all American soldiers have been ordered to report immediately to their units!"
There are moments in life when one realizes that the world as previously known will never again be the same.