A different kind of tower on 9-11

September 9, 2009 - 8:15 AM by

towerI may have been one of the few people to have almost totally missed the horrifying events of September 11, 2001.

I was in miluim (reserve duty) and stationed at the military prison at the Megiddo intersection on the way to Afula. It housed a couple thousand Palestinian security prisoners who were awaiting trial for alleged crimes ranging from belonging to a terror organization to throwing Molotov cocktails at cars, to planning terror attacks, to probably just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As a military policeman, until that year, my duties each year at whatever similar prison dotting the country that I was sent to entailed, opening alot of gates, accompanying prisoners to see their lawyers, doctors, families on visiting day, and bascially enabling them to receive the basic neccessities of food, shelter and medical care. Unarmed and at arms length of the prisoners, we MPs were always watched over by armed to the teeth combat soldiers, sitting in tall guard towers with birds eye views of the primarily outdoor compound.

But this year, due to a combination of budget difficulties and shortages of IDF units, our miliuim assignment was to take over the towers and guard a different batch of MPs. On 9-11, I received the noon to 6 pm shift and the midnight to 6 am shift. However, instead of one of the towers facing inward toward the prisoner action, I got the plum position of the tower facing the bustling Wadi Ara road, Road 65, which led to the Megiddo intersection. The directive – to make sure there were no attempted infiltrations.

What that really meant is that I got to watch traffic for six hours, and sing as many Beatles songs as I could remember. It was another uneventful shift and nearing the end, the only item of interest was a car pulled over to the road right outside the fence, with the driver changing his flat tire.

At one point, he looked up at me, and over the din of the traffic, shouted out something. I couldn’t really make it out and asked him to repeat it. I could only hear “plane… crash…building.”

I smiled and nodded, and counted down the minutes until my replacement arrived at 6. He told me to go straight to the command tent and see what was on TV, that I wouldn’t believe it. When I got there, there were about 50 soldiers gathered around the TV.

“What’s going on?” I asked one friend. He filled me in on the chain of events, each one seeming more infathomable than the previous. I wanted to sit down, glue myself to the TV and try to comprehend the enormity of the events as they were still unfolding. But I had to eat dinner, shower, and try to sleep for two or three hours. Because at midnight, I went back up the tower for another six hour shift.

By the time I saw the sunrise on September 12, the rest of the world was in shock and mourning the thousands of casualties. I climbed down from my tower, trudged to my tent, and fell into a long dreamless sleep.

Tags: , , , , • Category: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Politics, War 

Comments

2 Comments on A different kind of tower on 9-11

  1. Geoff on Wed, Sep 9th 2009 1:28 PM

    2. I was in miluim that day too. Stationed in the Kalkilya area, I happened to be manning a checkpoint outside the town of Azoun – a town from which numerous firebombs and shootings on the road below, had taken place. Sometime just after 4 PM celebrations started in the town and kids were running around handing out candies. A short while later a Coca Cola delivery truck drove around handing out free bottles of coke, even to the Israeli soldiers manning the checkpoint at the entry to the village.

    Later that night, I witnessed one of the most spectacular fireworks displays of my life. All up and down the West Bank, the PA put on a celebratory display for its citizens, probably financed with American taxpayers’ money.

  2. chava on Tue, Sep 22nd 2009 3:54 AM

    3. wow geoff, how incredibly ironic (both the coke and the US paid fireworks)

    as for the article, it was interesting but it made me a bit uncomfortable.

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