I had fallen asleep the previous evening on my sofa, I had stayed up late watching DVD's on my new entertainment system... I was awoken by a call- I answered it rather pissed off since it was so early (I was in California)- she told me that two planes had crashed into the WTC and that I should turn on my TV... I watched them burn and hoped that no one was in there- that hope was smashed with the report of jumpers- I watched it all... I wondered for a second why the camera was panning up before I realized that it was actually the tower coming down.

I am not sure what time it was when I felt the determination to get to work... but I got on my bike and speeded to work.... I pulled up to the gate of Sandia National Labs and they turned me away, the lab was shut down and evacuated- I went back home and watched the horrible aftermath

I went back in to work the next day, the attitude of everyone was different- we were angry but we were more co-operative than ever (we had never had a bad working environment, but on that day it was all about asking each other if we were ok, had we lost anyone)

my boss was furious that they had shut down the lab.... one of the world's experts on Al-Queda worked there... That is when I started researching explosives in my free time- I wanted to find a way to use lasers to remotely detect them... had I stayed at sandia that is what i would have been doing, making detectors for chemical nulcear and biological weapons...

9/11 changed a lot of people
The terrorists should be very afraid....