Brad Hoopes Story
All I wanted to do that day was pack the family up and move back to the safety of Colorado.
I was living in the Boston area at the time. I was at my desk when I heard a blood-curdling scream downstairs in the cafeteria. I ran down to find a woman screaming frantically, "He's in there!, He's in there!" I had no clue as to what she was talking about and then I looked up at the TV screen to see the first Tower on fire. Evidently her husband was down in NYC at the World Trade Center for a business meeting. Some of her co-workers came and got her and I never ever saw her again and thus never learned the fate of her husband.
For the next bunch of days life was very eerie, everyone unsure of what was to come next. The one thing that stuck out to me was the sky. I love airplanes and snap my neck looking up any time I hear one. The sky there is constantly full. The skies became very quiet, except for the occasional fighter jet making its rounds. At night all you would see is the glow of their backburners. We lost 42 people that day in the Merrimac River Valley area I lived in.
Fast-forward a year. I changed careers and was now doing a job that did in-home consultations. I was at an older couples' home and I noticed in the corner a shrine of sorts. It had a folded flag, various mementos and a picture of a man in uniform. I said, "I'm sorry, did you lose your son in the service of our country?" They said no, he was the co-captain on American Flight 11. First Officer Thomas McGuinness Jr. I was stunned and didn't know what to say.
I have always had deep respect for first responders, but especially now those from Poudre Fire Authority. All I wanted to do was grab my family and head west away from the danger, while at the same time a team from PFA, like all first responders do, was heading east towards that danger.