Kris Jenkins’ 9/11 Memory

I was living in the Fairbanks, Alaska area and got a call from my middle daughter who was attending college on the East Coast. She called after the first tower was hit and I watched in shock as the 2nd plane hit. I was working for the Alaska Dept of Fish & Game at the time, and attending school full-time pursuing a Social Work degree. I went to my first class of the semester that morning and it was my main Social Work class. Our instructor used the event as a teaching opportunity and we did a “Crisis Debriefing” about the attacks. Working for Fish & Game, it was the middle of hunting season and we had a lot of hunters out in remote areas that could not be picked up (planes were not flying) and some were very upset to hear from others who were floating down the river and were told that the United States was under attack. It was a pretty helpless feeling for a lot of the hunters and fairly confusing for those who didn’t know what happened until the planes could start flying again and get out to pick them up. Living in Alaska is different. For those vacationing, if you miss a flight in the States, you can just go get a rental car. It’s not that easy in Alaska!

Kris Jenkins