As 10th anniversary approaches, area leaders reflect on the impact of September 11 attacks

by Bob Beach

It was just before 9 a.m. on the east coast September 11, 2001 when American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 81 passengers, 11 crew members and approximately 10,000 gallons of fuel, crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. While initial reports suggested that the airplane involved was a private twin-engine plane, the millions of people who watched the situation unfold during continuous live coverage on television learned that the truth was much, much worse.
Just after 9 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 56 passengers and nine crew members, crashed into the south tower. As live television coverage continued, millions of people watched the impact and ensuing fireball live on television.
As early as 9:15 a.m., reports were aired that the planes had been hijacked and that the most likely mastermind behind the attacks was Osama bin Laden.
It wasn’t over.
Just after 9:30 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77, carrying 58 passengers and six crew members, crashed into the west side of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board along with 125 Pentagon personnel.
By 9:45 a.m., United States airspace was shut down. No civilian aircraft were allowed to take off and those in flight were ordered to land at the nearest airport.
But it still wasn’t over.
At 9:59 a.m., the south tower of the World Trade Center began to collapse. Minutes later, United Airlines Flight 93, carrying 37 passengers and seven crew members, crashed southeast of Pittsburgh, PA as passengers stormed the cockpit held by hijackers, thwarting an attack on either the U.S. Capitol or the White House. There were no survivors.
Just before 10:30 a.m., the north tower of the World Trade Center began to collapse.
Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the attacks, but it still isn’t over. In a sense, it will never be over as the consequences of the attacks ripple forward through history, most notably through the United States invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and continuing war on terror and efforts to improve homeland security to prevent, or at least better prepare for, further acts of terrorism.
As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, Allamakee County Veterans Affairs Director and Iraq War veteran Heather Homewood, Msgr. Ed Lechtenberg and Allamakee County Sheriff Tim Heiderscheit were asked to share their perspectives on that infamous day and how it has changed the world.

HER SERVICE AT DIFFERENT LEVELS
Allamakee County Veterans Affairs Director Heather Homewood was in college in Madison, WI September 11, 2001. She remembers, “I was in the car listening to the radio and I didn’t quite understand what was going on until I listened quite a bit longer. And then I got to school and everybody was in the lobby and everybody was around everywhere watching TV and I kind of got a glimpse of what was going on. I was in the National Guard at the time and my stomach just kind of dropped - ‘Is something going to happen? Am I going to be activated?’ I didn’t get sent right away after that, but my brother did. He went to Afghanistan shortly thereafter - he was in the National Guard as well.”
Homewood’s National Guard unit was eventually deployed to Iraq in 2003. “As National Guard, we had sat at Fort McCoy for a few months training before we left. We were initially told we were going to be going to Turkey and then that was changed. There was a lot of confusion, anxiety and nervousness about just sitting because I think it was all ‘hurry up and wait’ to begin with. There was a lot of training but there was also a lot of down time and sitting around and stuff at Fort McCoy, which made it even harder because you’re so close but yet you can’t go home to your family - you still got to go home on the weekends most of the time while we were still stationed at Fort McCoy.
“When we actually flew out, that was another time period where I was like, ‘I don’t really believe this is happening.’ The biggest thing I remember was stepping off the plane and the handrail was scalding hot and the air was so, so hot and dry and it was just like a haze. It was like you were stepping onto another planet. It’s just totally different. You feel like you’re in a different world.”
After six months in Iraq, Homewood and her unit were allowed two weeks mid-tour leave. “That was really different because we were used to being in the military, that war zone atmosphere. You know that, well, I have go back into that, so it’s hard to have fun and enjoy yourself knowing that you’re going to have to go back. I actually think that it was a lot worse going back after coming home on mid-tour leave. I know quite a few people, and I actually think that most of them were deployed in the first Gulf War, who didn’t go home on the tour leave, and I think that was why, that they knew it would be harder coming back. The first time when you were going over there, you didn’t know what you were getting into and when you’re coming back you know exactly.”
Homewood’s unit finally returned home in April, 2004, flying out of Kuwait April 1, hoping that they weren’t the butt of a cruel April Fool’s Day joke. “We flew back into Camp Douglas, above Fort McCoy and we did stay at Fort McCoy for about a week, and that was kind of nice because we weren’t in that war zone kind of atmosphere but we were so busy with paperwork and out-processing that kept you busy, kept your mind busy. But when we actually came home after that it was... it was something different. They had a big welcome home party for us in Prairie du Chien and that was almost too overwhelming at first and I think a lot of people probably don’t understand that it’s so overwhelming when you come back.”
Homewood said that she was fortunate that she didn’t have to rush back into a job after returning home and was able to take it easy for a couple of months before going back to school at Northeast Iowa Community College. In her current position as Veterans Affairs Director, Homewood is fully aware of the difficulties faced by many returning veterans, noting, “It’s not just the VA, but there’s such a shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists that they just can’t keep up with the numbers. They say that you might have to wait a month or two months to see somebody, and that is really unfortunate. I do think that they’re trying harder and they’re trying to get the word out. They now have suicide hotlines and Vet Centers in different areas and there’s a new one that just opened up in La Crosse. They provide free counseling. We also offer counseling on the county level, which isn’t as often as maybe some people need it - it’s three times a month and we only have five spots, so that fills up pretty fast.”
In addition to the shortage of mental health care professionals, Homewood says the VA medical system has been strained by the sheer number of veterans in need of health care. “One of the things that’s really unfortunate is that prior to 2003 the VA used to have open enrollment for health care. After that it was changed and they have priority groups according to whether or not an individual has a Purple Heart or if they were a POW or have a service-connected disability or what their income level is. If they haven’t previously gone to the VA or weren’t previously enrolled prior to January 17, 2003 and their income is over those guidelines and they weren’t a POW or have a Purple Heart or a service-connected disability and they weren’t an in-country Vietnam veteran, then that individual can’t be seen at the VA. So that’s a really unfortunate thing that’s occurred since 9/11 that’s due to the influx of so many veterans that they can’t provide health care for so many veterans.”
While the VA system faces challenges, Homewood says she feels confident that efforts are being made to meet the needs of veterans and recognize the value of their service through programs like the Post-9/11 GI Bill. “Through the original GI Bill the individual had ten years from the date of their discharge to use their GI Bill to help pay for their education,” she explains. “The Post 9/11 GI Bill pays for a certain percentage of their college tuition based upon how many months they were deployed. The main provision of the act includes funding of 100 percent of a public four-year undergraduate education for veterans who have served three years of active duty since September 11, 2001. The act also provides the ability for veterans to transfer benefits to a spouse or a child after serving for ten years.”

DEEPER CONFLICT
For Msgr. Ed Lechtenberg, a Catholic priest who has served northeast Iowa for many years, the attacks of 9/11 seemed simply unbelievable. “I got up in the morning and I didn’t even turn the TV on,” he shared. “I said my prayers and was walking down to get the mail and a neighbor came running out and said, ‘Have you had your TV on?’ and I said, ‘No, I haven’t’ and they said, ‘A plane flew into a building in New York!’ and I said, ‘What?’ So, I went in, and just about that time, the second plane hit the other tower and you think, ‘Is this for real? This is the United States, this can’t be happening.’ You’re thinking maybe this is a movie they were making or something like that. And I just sat there and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, those people,’ and there were people jumping out the windows. And then of course the one that slammed into the Pentagon and then the other one that fell out in the field in Pennsylvania. The whole scenario was unbelievable.”
Aside from the fear following the attacks, Lechtenberg said that the prevailing feeling among people he spoke with was anger. “A lot of people were very angry. You know, ‘how did these guys get on these planes to do this? What’s happening in our country with our security? Where is the watchdog for this kind of activity when these Islamists hate us so bitterly?’ There was a lot of hatred and then, of course, the whole idea of questioning God, you know, ‘Why did You allow this?’ Well, that idea just doesn’t ring a true bell with me. It’s not an act of God. It’s the meanness and bitterness of men.”
Lechtenberg is uncharacteristically pessimistic about the situation, seeing 9/11 as the day when the United States was really drawn into the centuries-old conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. “The hatred that exists between the Islamists and the Jewish people is just horrible. Then when we established the State of Israel in 1948, that was the last straw for those people - the United States was a big part of that United Nations decision because we wanted to do something for the Jews. I once traveled to the Middle East, and oh, the hatred that existed there... Let’s hope and pray that we get a good Palestinian State and they’ll live side by side. But now, with our involvement with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, all those people will be hating us for centuries.”
So, what can people do in the face of such bitterness and hatred? “It’s best to light one little candle than to curse the darkness,” Lechtenberg said. “We have so much darkness around us, but if we, as Christians, can try to be examples for these people, so that they can see that we have a way of life that’s beautiful and we respect each other, men and women respect each other. That’s the only way that I can see that anything ever will happen... One of the sayings of Jesus that people won’t even mention anymore, ‘Love your enemies, be good to those who hate you.’ If you love your enemy, you won’t have an enemy any more.”

POSITIVE OUT OF NEGATIVE
The year 2001 was Allamakee County Sheriff Tim Heiderscheit’s first year as Sheriff, and he recalls, “I was in the Sheriff’s Office and one of the girls came out and told me that a plane had hit one of the twin towers in New York. A few minutes later she came back and told me that another plane flew into the towers and at that time we knew that it wasn’t a rogue plane, but a terrorist attack. Like everyone else, we were glued to the TV set, waiting for more information to come in. I remember the talk amongst us was ‘what was going to be next? Were they going to try to cripple the highways?’ With all the airplanes landing we thought we might see key highways and railroads taken out to cripple the transportation system.”
In the weeks and months that followed, Heiderscheit, along with Sheriffs across the country, was called upon by the federal government to help prepare for future terrorist attacks and natural disasters. “We were tasked with forming committees to go over the hot spots in the county,” he said. “By ‘hot spots,’ the federal government meant transportation cogs such as bridges and railroads. We had to identify our power plants, any facility that had natural gas, schools and anywhere in the county that had a high population of minorities (such as Postville). We were paid for doing that - I believe we got $30,000 in grants. We had to assemble a committee with public works, law enforcement and rescue. We met a few times and we went over it, township by township.
“We probably hadn’t done this since World War II or Vietnam and the infrastructure had grown a lot. At that time, there was all the rumors about eco-terrorist attacks and the water supply. We figured they were using us as the quickest way to update. Believe it or not, it was hard going through Allamakee County. I couldn’t image what New York went through. We kind of surprised ourselves with what was here that you just don’t think of every day.”
If there was any silver lining to the 9/11 attacks, Heiderscheit says it is the improved organization within the emergency management system. “It cast a spotlight on the Emergency Management Director,” he remarked. “In most counties that was kind of a defunct or non-existent job. When they reviewed those laws, that was reinstated. Every county in Iowa, and I believe across the United States, has to have an emergency management director. Ours was a part-time position and it’s now a full-time position. The idea of the emergency management director is ‘from the White House to the courthouse.’ He’s supposed to be your ‘go-to’ guy, not just for terrorism but for any FEMA-funded natural disaster. It’s worked quite well and there have been a lot of grants available through emergency management that have benefited this county. It’s a good resource to have and good way to have someone in charge that can organize activity quickly for disasters. It’s one of the big positives that have come out of the very negative.”