By Chris Eaton, great grandson
*relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
Chris Eaton, son of Joseph “Joe” Eaton, son of Mary Eaton, daughter of Flora Lehr.
I was asked to share my personal story of what it was like on September 11, 2001. I was far removed from any terrorist attacks, but the entire world was affected by those attacks and our country’s responses, so this is the story of what it was like for one young man in Kansas during that pivotal time in history.
I was running a little later than usual for work on September 11, 2001. I was living in a one-bedroom apartment in the King’s Cove complex in Merriam, Kansas with my wife Lorna. Lorna had already left for work because her commute was longer. For some reason, I had turned on the TV, which was not my normal routine, but I felt like watching while I got dressed for a change. This was an old 19-inch Cathode Ray Tube TV, the heavy kind, with rabbit ears (we couldn’t afford cable) and this was before they even had digital broadcast signals. The local morning news had been interrupted by a feed from the New York station because of a breaking news event. They were reporting that someone had crashed a “small plane”, possibly a Cessna, into one of the Twin Towers skyscrapers. Details were sketchy and they were watching smoke billow out while pontificating as to why the plane had struck the building. I turned off the TV, grabbed my suitcase, and went to work. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky.
I was working for an environmental consulting firm in Lenexa, Kansas as a geologist and was scheduled to drive to Penalosa, Kansas for an early afternoon drilling job. The drive would be 3 ½ hours. I was to meet the Max’s Enterprises drilling crew from Fort Scott, Kansas. We planned to drill five shallow (20-foot) holes, and install one well inside one of them. This would take four or five hours and then we would drive to nearby Kingman and spend the night.
The site had been contaminated by leaky underground gasoline tanks that had already been removed. My job would be to inspect the soil cores, describe the physical characteristics (grain size, color, consistency, note any odors or staining, etc.) and screen it with a device that would tell roughly us how much gasoline contamination was present in each sample. The job was going to be fairly straightforward because: I had drilled there before so I knew what to expect; these were shallow holes; and, no samples were going to be sent to a lab for analysis. It was supposed to be a good day and I was actually looking forward to getting out of the office.
I was gathering my gear at the office, when I noticed people were crowding in the manager’s office around a small TV at his desk. He had the TV to watch the March Madness basketball tournament and never took it home but at that moment, it was showing the same broadcast I had been watching at home. The fire was getting worse in the New York skyscraper and they had received more information saying it had actually been a full-sized jet full of people, not some little Cesena as was reported earlier. I was standing in this office with about five other people when, at 8:03 AM we watched a second jet slam into the other tower, live on TV. I said “We just watched … thousands of people die.” In that moment, we all knew that our country was under attack, but we didn’t know who was responsible. Was it Russia, China, or terrorists and if so, were they state sponsored terrorists? We all discussed how this must be similar to what it was like hearing the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked without provocation, except that we had just seen it happen on live TV. It was sickening.
I called Lorna and she was watching it unfold on her computer at work, being streamed by one of the TV network news outlets. She was very worried about her sister, who lived in New York City at the time and of course Lorna couldn’t get a call through to her because the cell network in New York City was trashed or overwhelmed. I can’t remember if she tried to text her. I don’t even know if we had a texting plan at the time.
We talked it over and after some discussion, decided that she would be safe in Kansas City, and if things got bad, she should drive to my parents’ house in El Dorado or her father’s house, which were less likely military targets than Kansas City. Did that make any sense? I don’t know – at the time, that’s the best we could come up with. I would be safe in Penalosa, KS for sure.
Well, I called the drillers and they were still willing, so we decided to go ahead as planned because we were only a couple of hours behind schedule. I didn’t leave until around 10 AM, just to make sure it wasn’t the start of World War III, which was a very real concern. We seriously really wondered about that. Leaving at 10AM would put me there in the early afternoon, around 2 PM. Loading up the truck, I remember vividly how beautiful the day was. We only get a handful of perfect-weather days in Kansas each year and this was one of them. There was a light breeze with not a cloud in the deep blue sky. I struggled with that. In my head, that peaceful day contrasted with the horror and suffering I knew was happening back east. From what I hear, the weather was perfect all across the nation that day. The world kept turning, unaffected and oblivious to human concerns. It’s weird what sticks in your memory.
When I looked up, I noticed several contrails which normally cut a straight white line across the sky that had abruptly swung U-Turns as every aircraft in the nation was ordered to land immediately. I kept seeing those eerie contrail U-turns the whole drive.
I kept getting calls from the Max’s Enterprise drilling crew as they traveled west. They left at the same time I did, and it’s the same distance, so they should have arrived at the same time I did. They finally arrived at 5:10 PM after stopping to fix three flat tires on the way and arrived with a flat on the back axle of the rig, which has two tires on each side. They did a good job once they started drilling, and we finally finished the work at 9:10 PM (I took notes).
After they finished drilling, I noticed the surviving tire was going flat too. They asked a farmer to help them out, so he drove home, got an air compressor, and filled up the tire so they could limp into Kingman where we planned to stay the night. The crew had spent all of their cash fixing flats and they couldn’t afford a motel room, so I put the room on my credit card. As it turned out, that was the last room in town. The drill rig needed repairs before it could continue, so I let them have the room. I continued on to Wichita and checked into a Super 8 on the west side of town at 11:45 PM.
It’s been many years since then and I started writing this story completely from memory since I don’t keep a diary, but then I remembered there must have been field notes. I looked up the state project manager and he was still working for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). When I reached out to him, he remembered me and our work together. I had misremembered the site name and town name, but he remembered them and dug through the files and found my notes, which I have attached.
When he emailed those notes to me, the he did mention an interesting memory of his own. He did see an aircraft flying in the afternoon on September 11, 2001. This is an excerpt from his email …” Speaking on airplanes on 9/11, After visiting my son’s rooms at their school, I went out for lunch at my favorite restaurant. I had finished eating and was going to my truck when I noticed a jet overhead, way up high. There was a guy taking trash out of the restaurant to the dumpster. We talked and decided that there was probably only one guy still allowed to fly (President Bush). Found out later President Bush had gone from Texas somewhere to Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha. He apparently had a fighter jet escort but we could only see the big plane and its contrails.”
This wasn’t an epic story, but it’s my story and maybe someday, my kids or grandkids would like to know what it was like for me. This year, as you reflect on 9-11, don’t just “never forget” the news events of the day, but remember how it was for you to live that day. Where were you on 9-11? What do you remember? What was it like?
Chris Eaton, February 18, 2023
Addendum
Please add your memories of the September 11th attack in the Reply/Comment section below.
By Roger Eaton, grandson*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
I began September 11, 2001, by watching the news on television in our home office, Leawood, Kansas. My consulting contract hadn’t started at Sprint, so I was home. It was a Tuesday. As I was checking my email, the TV news kept showing an airplane crashing into a skyscraper in New York City. It was amazing and hypnotic.
Marcia planned to help the Leawood Elementary School librarian with the Birthday Book Club on that day. So, I drove her along with the Muriel and A.J., to Leawood Elementary School shortly after 8:00. Muriel was in Kindergarten and A.J. was in second grade. I had a Cub Scout planning meeting scheduled for that morning. It was at a coffee shop and began right after everyone dropped off their kids at school. The TV news was on at the coffee shop. There was speculation that the crash was intentional. We focused on our meeting. After the meeting I returned home.
On that day, a crew from the water department was working in a problem in our front yard. I spoke with the crew about the plane crashes. One of them said that the passengers recaptured a fourth hijacked plane and forced it to crash in an empty Pennsylvania field. I continued to follow the situation on TV while I worked on Cub Scout business.
Around noon, I picked up Marcia and Muriel from Leawood Elementary School. On the way home, I calmly explained the situation. By then the World Trade Center Twin Towers had collapsed. They were stunned. All aircraft had been grounded and people began to account for their friends and relatives.
The President, George W. Bush, was taken to Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha Nebraska. It was clear that the United States homeland was being attacked. It wasn’t clear if we would experience additional attacks or where they would occur. After school dismissal, I picked-up A.J. and we discussed the situation.
I had dabbled in emergency preparation, so we had food, water and essential supplies. That provided some confidence. It was important for me to remain calm and instill a sense of security in my family. We were anxious but didn’t feel an imminent threat.
Contrail halo at The Church of the Nativity, Leawood, Kansas.
By Susan Eaton, wife of Joe Eaton, grandson*
*Relation to Andy and/or Flora Lehr
On 9/11/2001, I was the El Dorado Main Street Director in my office in the Missouri Pacific Depot, attending our monthly Board of Directors meeting at 8 a.m. Some 20 members of our board of directors were seated around the table when Joe contacted me from his workplace in Wichita and asked if I had seen the news. I hadn’t heard so he proceeded to tell me that an airplane had just crashed into the World Trade Center! I gasped out loud alerting everyone in the room…they wanted to know what had happened. I relayed Joe’s message.
Joe interrupted throughout the meeting with updates for the duration of the meeting. All were glad for the updates.
Recently I ran into one of those board members in the grocery store. She told me she’s never forgotten, every year on 9/11 she thinks of me that morning in the El Dorado Main Street Board meeting when Joe was relating to me and then I passed to all of them the devastating disaster details.