When the unbelievable becomes all too believable
By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
September 16, 2001
3:45 PM EDT (1945 GMT)
COMMENTARY
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Tim Packman
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"Absolutely unbelievable" is a phrase that I've uttered more times in the past few days than in my entire life.
So there I was, tooling to work on Tuesday morning listening to "Lex and Terry" on the radio as I approached our little hobbit hole at the NASCAR.com office here in Concord, N.C.
Lex and Terry are two hilarious dudes with a syndicated talk show out of Rock 105 in Jacksonville, Fla. On almost a daily basis, they provide me with a much-needed chuckle in the morning.
Something was different on Tuesday.
When I heard them get real serious, real fast -- I knew something was up.
Once into the office, I asked Marty Smith, my cohort here, if he had heard what was going on in New York. Since we don't have a TV or radio here, we started jumping all over the Internet to get some information.
Once we dialed up CNN.com, we saw the pictures of what was happening at the World Trade Center's twin towers. Suddenly, anything we had to say about NASCAR became totally irrelevant. Without thinking, we bolted to a local restaurant to watch the story unfold.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Soon, others who were running into the establishment to stare blankly at televisions joined us. We sat in silence as the towers smoldered. We shuttered when they showed the replays of the plane hitting the second tower.
We sat in disbelief as the first tower crumbled down. We sat in awe as the second one did, too. I grew angry when I saw that the Pentagon, the nerve center of this country's defense system, was also hit.
Absolutely unbelievable.
"It was George Lucas special effects at its finest," I thought to myself, hoping it was just that -- but it wasn't. It was a Godzilla movie with NYC as his stomping grounds -- but it wasn't.
What it was, was our country becoming victim to acts of terror.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Having served in the United States Navy, I have a certain level of pride when it comes to this country. I spent part of my time overseas and took part in the Achille Lauro incident and the beginnings of the Libyan Conflict in 1985.
I was first assigned to an oiler that provided fuel for ships and airplanes. We held about 8 million gallons of the highly flammable goods in our hull, and I can honestly tell you that there were a few nights that I went to sleep, or tried to, with a life preserver on.
During the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship in October of '85, we were docked in Augusta Bay, Sicily, when we were hurriedly sent back out to sea. Later on, four of our F-14s surrounded an Egyptian jet and went overhead in a descending path.
We didn't know it until later that day, but the jet held the hijackers, and they were being forced to land in Sicily. That's about as close to a terrorist act as I've ever been, and it was minor compared to what's happened since.
For a few months between assignments, I was stationed in Bayonne, N.J., which is off the right shoulder of the Statue of Liberty. The Manhattan skyline towered off to the left. While making my daily walk to the building I worked in, I would always look across the harbor and see the World Trade Center and those twin towers standing so proud above the other buildings.
My second assignment was aboard the USS Mt. Whitney, the command ship for the Atlantic Fleet. One of the proudest days of my life was during the Statue of Liberty's 100th anniversary celebration in July of 1986.
Our ship led over 200 other vessels, from dozens of other countries, into New York Harbor. We lined the rails wearing our white uniforms as 100's of smaller boats sped around in the water below.
Proud? Yes, I was very proud to be an American and to be on the lead ship that day -- an unimaginable honor. We slowed in front of the New York skyline to take it all in. It was something on that bright, sunny day as the country celebrated our 210th birthday.
It certainly was something.
As I witnessed the attack on America this past Tuesday, I just wonder how Miss Liberty felt. She stands in the harbor as the statuesque definition of what freedom is all about and has welcomed our past ancestors to this country with all that promise.
As she stood there Tuesday morning, like she has for 115 years, she must have felt helpless as she watched her shores get attacked. She felt like we all did -- helpless.
But today she still stands -- and so do we. We just stand a little closer, a little taller and much, much stronger. With that in mind, when we do start racing again at Dover next weekend, do me a favor.
When the National Anthem starts, our National Anthem, please sing it louder and prouder than you ever have before. Miss Liberty would like to hear it; she needs to know that she's standing there for a reason.
NOTE: Tim Packman is a staff writer with NASCAR.com. The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer. If you wish to provide feedback to Tim, you can do so by writing him at tim.packman@turner.com.
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