September 11, 2001 …as I lived it, I will never forget

By Francisco Romero. – Around 7:45 a.m. while still sleeping I hear the phone ring, my mother wakes me up and says, “your sister Charo is on the phone, she wants to know if you know what is going on in New York, seems like an airplane just crashed into a building.”

“Tell her I’ll call her later,” I said, “I’ll call the newsroom.”

I was the Sports Anchor for the Telemundo station affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, at that time, so it was easy to get first-hand information.

Before I turned to take another five-minute nap, the telephone rings again, this time it was my wife Larissa, my girlfriend at that time, and tells me about a second airplane hitting the Twin Towers.

I asked Larissa to pick me up on her way to work, as she had my car, so she could drop me off at the television station. I usually went into work at noon, since I had to broadcasts the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. sports segment.

When I arrived at work all of our news crew was already there.

Raul Romero, United States Air Force

A mixture of sad and somber feelings ran through our newsroom and as time went by we learned about the airplane hitting the Pentagon and another airplane crashing in Pennsylvania.

We heard reports of the United States being under attack and the military force on high alert.

Fear of the unknown kept me wondering if it was real, kept me thinking of where we would be hit next.

I had a few assignments right away; I was sent to the Nogales Arizona – Nogales, Sonora Border, as there was talk of a border closure.

I also covered the cancellation of sports events around the state including the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games, University of Arizona sports, the Arizona Cardinals and high school sports.

After hectic, sad and horrible day it finally hit me. I could not hold on to my tears as I thought about my family, my wife my son and how easy it would be for someone to come and take our lives away.

But most of all I thought about my brother Raul, who four years earlier had join the United States Air Force as a Medic.

I just prayed for strength and survival in his duty to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, as he had sworn, as he was about to embark in unknown territories.