Flash back to 10 years ago, sitting in a middle school classroom, watching tears pour down the teacher’s cheeks as she attempts to explain the impact of the events unfolding in New York City to a room full of 11-year-olds.
All eyes were glued to the television set as the class of fifth graders watched the second high-jacked plane crash into the World Trade Center and tried to wrap their minds around the foreign term, “terrorists.”
Everything seemed to have come to a halt that September day. Distress, fear and confusion draped the country.
“We didn’t really know what was going on because we were young,” said junior wide receiver Rueben Randle. “The teacher told us and then stopped class and she started crying. Once you get home, you see it on every channel and you kind of terrorism.”
The next game for the OSU Cowboys was on the road at Texas A&M.
Miles recalled the patriotic red, white and blue atmosphere at the stadium, the thunderous military flyover before the game, as well as some interesting — and rather frightening — instructions from the local police.
“It was the first time I’ve ever been spoken to by a policeman and instructed to wear a bulletproof vest,” Miles said. “Nor did I have instructions ever again on how to remove my team from the area and get on the bus and where we would time.”
Nearly 10 years have passed since the United States waged war on al-Qaida.
While people mark all sorts of different milestones in their lives as individual moments of maturation, Sept. 11 was one event that affected everyone across the nation.
“At that point nobody really thought an attack like that was possible, and I had never dealt with anything like that,” said senior offensive lineman T-Bob Hebert. “It was a little bit of a growing up experience. It’s pretty insane to think it’s been 10 years since it happened. It’s a national tragedy and I’m glad that our country seems to have come