Local resident lost relative on board American Airlines Flight
77 that crashed into the Pentagon; family struggles to move on
Morgan Hill – For many Americans, reflecting on 9/11 is a daunting task.
The surreal images – broadcast coast-to-coast for hours on end – of United Airlines Flight 175 plowing into the south tower of the World Trade Center are for better or worse fire-branded in our minds.
We also can’t help but imagine – with a shiver – how brave passengers fought back against their hijackers, causing their jet to crash into a Pennsylvania field before it could reach a deadlier target.
For Morgan Hill resident Don Jensen, 57, the most numbing memory of the terrorist attacks is that of the Pentagon being hit. Jensen’s sister-in-law, San Martin resident Suzanne Calley, was on the plane. She was 42.
“It’s all very personal,” Jensen said, asked what the fifth anniversary of the attacks mean to him and his family. “The feeling still lingers. It’s a raw memory.”
He spoke highly of Calley’s cheerful disposition. She is missed. She is loved. She will always be remembered. Her family has installed a memorial bench at a beach in Monterey, where Calley enjoyed skin diving.
But even while her loved ones honor her memory, and others whose lives were cut short that day, Jensen said he’s eager to move on. So is his younger brother, he adds, who was married to Calley when she died, and who won’t talk to the press about losing her.
“We don’t do anything special” on Patriot Day, Jensen said. “We all just try to get on.”
But moving on is hard for a number of people. Five years later, the images of the 9/11 are pervasive as ever. Legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” has grossed more than $63 million at the box office. Media outlets across the country are once again featuring 9/11 images. ABC’s controversial five-hour, two-part docudrama, “The Path to 9/11,” is scheduled to air Sunday and Monday.
And, of course, the Bush administration’s war on terror continues in Iraq, with the somber announcement Sunday that the number of U.S. military deaths has now surpassed the number of Americans who died in 9/11, reaching 2,974.
“You can’t help but dwell on it, with everything that’s going on,” said Eddie Bowers, 57, a Vietnam War veteran who lives in Morgan Hill.
Jensen said he never did see a link between 9/11 and the war in Iraq.
“It’s less and less obvious all the time,” he said, adding his twin daughters are enlisted in the Air Force and U.S. Army. “I think our government wanted to take Saddam Hussein out, and now we’re paying the price.”
Bowers co-founded the veteran’s monument on Monterey Road and First Street, in downtown Morgan Hill, 15 years ago. He organizes two public memorial services there each year.
In 2002, he and others observed the first anniversary of 9/11 at the monument, but haven’t been back in large numbers in subsequent years.
The City of Morgan Hill, which held 9/11 memorial services at City Hall in the past, is also letting the day pass somewhat quietly. No events are planned.
Local public safety personnel, including fire fighters and police officers, will mark 9/11 by commemorating fallen comrades.
The Morgan Hill Police Department is not planning any official observance, but representatives of the department will attend the Community Servants Appreciation Day, 11am Sunday at Sobrato High School, sponsored by Shadow Mountain Baptist Church.
The Santa Clara County Fire Department is encouraging individual stations to commemorate the occasion, suggesting lowering of the flag at the station to half-staff and observing a moment of silence.
Some area private schools will mark the occasion with activities. For example, Carden Academy will have a special assembly with a slide show presentation in honor of Patriot Day, with patriotic songs. The school’s student council will take baked goods to fire stations, the police department and City Hall.
Live Oak High School’s Patriot Club will be handing out yellow ribbons to students on campus.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tburchyns@morganhilltimes.
