9-11

By Mick Holien

There are several dates that stick in the minds of people of my generation – That is born a couple of years before what has become described as baby boomers.

December 7, 1941 is first chronologically for me and I was fortunate enough to walk on the U.S.S. Arizona

Memorial deck on the 50th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor which has even personalized the date for me even though it was a couple of years before my birth.

November 22, 1963 has even more special significance because of being in the military when John F. Kennedy. Since I was on active duty when he was assassinated in Dallas, he was my Commander in Chief when the country fell immediately in turmoil and my duty station went on immediate alert..

The assassination of Martin Luther King April 4, 1968 followed by the death of Robert F Kennedy June 6. 1968 has less of a profound effect probably because I was out of the country.

But June 18, 1980 found me scrambling to get across Washington state to my Spokane home in order to fly to Louisville for the National bowling tournament. I have told you all that story before but the date continuers to remain highly significance.

When the Challenger exploded (1-28-86) claiming the lives of seven I was news director at KGVO in Missoula and spent the next several hours assembling local reaction and coordinating it with the CBS broadcasts.

It was my first exposure to the value and immediacy of local news as I felt like I had the world on a chain and I could pull it in for the benefit of my listeners who at that time depended on the news-talk format we were providing.

 

And then of course was 17 years ago today when our country was attacked for the first time since in 60 years.

Can you believe it has been that long and how you and the country has changed.

It was all hands on deck at my employer, the Missoulian, where we produced two special sections that we hawked on downtown streets.

I can’t say it was a highly coordinated and efficient effort but it was focused on doing what a daily newspaper does – tell the public what they know at the time the best way they can.

But listeners and webpage readers do this for me today.

It doesn’t have to happen at any particular time but take some time to just pause in your own time, remember that day, where you were and what you were doing and honor the victims of that day the terrorists attacked our country.

Forever our day to remember – this Sept day 17 years ago when all our lives changed. A day worthy of remembering.

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