Director, Safetyissues.com

I was in Boston’s Logan airport the morning of the 9-11 attack. I saw the Television screens in the airport showing what was happening in New York as the first tower was as the second tower was hit by a plane. I felt like I was watching a TV show not live news coverage of someplace in New York City. I remember hearing the announcement over the airport speaker system that all flights were cancelled. As I tried to get a handle on what I was going to do next because I was going to be late for my meetings in New York I watched people go into chaos and begin crying. I wondered if there was something else going on that I did not know about. I asked someone standing next to me what was going on. He said the flight that just crashed into the World Trade Center came from this airport, came from Boston. The stranger informed me “So we are not going anywhere from this airport”. After sitting captive for over three hours at the Logan Airport I was allowed to leave to go home.
While driving home my cell phone rang and it was a restricted number. I answered it and it was someone from Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. They requested that I do everything possible to get medical supplies of needles there ASAP. I was instructed there were very different procedures I had to go through in order to get the needles to NYC. I had to somehow get the needles to Hanscom Air force Base. I was told to write the name and number down of the military officer to contact. I called my warehouse in Woburn, MA. to tell them about the customer’s request. They informed them that UPS nor FEDEX or any other carrier were operational. My daughter and I had been in communications because she new that I was on my way to New York City and had called to make sure I was Ok, several times in the three hours I sat in the air port. I told her of the request I had received. She called me back saying that some kids in her school were able to drive and they were being released early. So we made a plan to have everyone meet me at the Woburn warehouse. This was the only way I could get them to Hanscom Air Force Base in time to join the Red Cross blood supplies was to ask my daughter’s friends who were being let out of school early due to the crisis to help me drive the product as requested to Hanscom Air Force Base. I remember getting some of my eldest daughter’s High School classmates, from Nobles and Greenough of Dedham, MA. together with their parents SUVs, Hummers and trucks to drive a caravan from a warehouse in Woburn, MA. where my company stored safety needles. I was directing a caravan of about 10 such vehicles to the gates of Hanscom Air Force Base. There we were met by military police, each of us, the 12 high school students, me, were searched and each of our vehicles were scanned for bombs and sniffed by military guard dogs. It was quite an experience for all of us. We were then escorted into the base with military escort onto the airstrip and runway. We watched as our cargo of safety needles were matched up with boxes of blood from the Red Cross trucks that had arrived shortly after us. Both products were loaded on various small aircraft and got clearance to fly them into New York bound for various hospitals in New York to help the victims of 9-11. We had to take extraordinary measures because no trucking company was operating and no commercial flights were operating. Indeed all airports across the nation were cancelled. Only military flights were allowed into New York airports. The students reported over the next few days their feelings about participating in this event with me and made speeches to the general student body of Nobles and Greenough High School about their experience that day. They all in various ways said how much they appreciated being able to do something positive and proactive to help the victims of 9-11.