On September 11, 2014,
World Bird Sanctuary was invited to participate in the Arnold City Memorial
Service and to bring a Bald Eagle to th Ceremony.
Wold Bird Sanctuary intern
Crystal Meyers and I brought Patriot, our 19 year old Bald Eagle to the
event. We arrived at the City of
Arnold Recreation Center at 8:30 am for the 9:00 am service. We met with Susie Boone and Teresa
Kohut who organized the event.
They let us know when and where the Bald Eagle would be in the
procession and where to stand next to the Memorial Statue. The Eagle and I would end up on the
right side of the monument.
Event organizers had Patriot stand next to the monument (photo: Crystal Meyers)
Arnold has a piece of an
actual contorted metal beam from one of the Towers of the World Trade Center. They received the twisted metal beam
from the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey.
The 911 Monument in Arnold, Missouri (photo: Mike Zieloski)
Fire Fighters, Police
Officers, The Master Gardeners, City Officials and the general public were in
attendance on this beautiful morning.
The Bald Eagle followed the Fire Fighters and the Police in the
procession. Music played and
recordings of newscasts from that day were replayed. We heard President George Bush’s voice telling us of the
terrible events of that day.
All of the above brought
back memories of where I was that September morning. Just as with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, most
people can tell you just where they were when they heard the terrible news of
the attacks on the World Trade Center and Capitol Building. I was at the old site of the World Bird
Sanctuary, which was in Washington University’s Tyson Research Center. I was getting ready to clean bird
transport crates from our recently returned Sea World of Ohio Bird show birds
when Marion Ernst, our Newsletter Editor told me the World Trade Center had
been hit by a plane. Then soon she
told me another plane flew into the other Tower of the World Trade Center. Then we all knew these events were not
one random accident.
My dad called and said
that my mom was flying back from an East Coast reunion and she was in the air
at the time. He figured that
planes would be diverted and he was right. He later called again, once he found out she was diverted to
Pittsburgh. I got off work
immediately and dad and I drove to Pittsburgh to pick mom up at a hotel
there. What an intense day for my
family and the whole country.
Do you remember that there
were no airplanes flyng for four days?
Remember how quiet the skies were during those days? Those events changed America.
Jack Poitras, bugler, his dog Bliss, and I pose next to the Arnold 911 monument (photo: Crystal Meyers)
The City of Arnold will
not forget. The Memorial Service
was well organized and very meaningful to me and many others that day. I was glad Patriot the Bald Eagle was
there to represent World Bird Sanctuary, Arnold and America.
Submitted by Mike
Zieloski, World Bird Sanctuary Director of Education
1 comment:
I remember that day well. I had just turned 16 the month before, and was hanging around the house. I remember turning on the tv, to watch the news, and seeing a tall skyscraper being shown with clouds of billowing smoke coming out of an unnatural hole in the side. I remember noticing that the video being showed had the words LIVE on it. It was surreal. I remember the voice of the news anchors, trying to find the words to explain what was going on. Their voices were tense, scared, but they worked hard to do their job of informing the public to the goings-on in New York, trying to play out whether this was a tragic accident, or a deliberate action. I remember them saying that the Pentagon had been hit, then as they were speaking, another plane came into the camera sights and flew directly into the second tower. I couldn't believe what I saw. Neither could the news anchors. I remember the words "It's official. There has been a Terrorist Attack on the United States" I couldn't breathe, and couldn't take my eyes off the tv.
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