Michiana locals reflect on witnessing events of 9/11 first-hand

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- For so many, the memories and moments from that Tuesday in September of 2001 will stick with them forever.

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, started out like just another day for so many in New York City.

Ellen Hayes Vera, a Granger native who was living in Great Neck, Long Island, at the time, was on her way to her job at Killarney and Rava, a law firm with offices about six miles from the World Trade Center.

Hayes Vera was nearing the end of her daily commute, when she noticed a commotion.

"It was a beautiful day, had my Walkman blaring on the way to work, and I crossed Madison Avenue, and I guess I didn't realize it because I was in my own zone, but people were standing in the middle of the street, and it was still rush hour, so I had to be at work at 9:30. I walked past, and people were very upset, and I said what's going on, and you could see down to the World Trade Center, that there was a fire, and I just thought there was a building fire," said Hayes Vera.

That building fire was American Airlines flight 11, crashing into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m.

Hayes Vera says initially, she didn't think much of it, just that it was a very large fire.

But less than 20 minutes later, United Airlines flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, shortly after 9 a.m.

"I'm not sure that I quite understood what I saw, with that second plane. You doubt yourself, 'did I just see that?' I don't think anybody's mind can comprehend something like that. I was in shock, the whole office was in shock, the news was spreading quickly over the radio and TV, the lawyers were supposed to go to court down in that area, and they didn't know what to do. All the circuits for the phones were lit up, I was finally able to get a phone call out to my best friend and her family in South Bend, Indiana, to say that we were under attack," said Hayes Vera.

A normal Tuesday quickly turned into something Hayes Vera couldn't have imagined in her wildest thoughts.

She had to make a monumental decision - stay at her office or leave.

In the chaos, she had to figure out what options she had to get back home, if she could even get that far, with travel restrictions rapidly being put into place.

But Hayes Vera had a friend who lived about a block from Times Square.

"My friend there had allowed several other people to come and stay there, because where were you going to stay? I think what was probably the worst of those couple days staying at our friend's house was the jet fighters flying around, over and over again, circling Manhattan, the noise was horrendous," said Hayes Vera.

Meanwhile, news was spreading quickly in Washington, D.C., about the attack on the Twin Towers.

Robert Faltynski was working at Smith Gym in Henderson Hall, about a mile from the Pentagon.

Robert moved from Mishawaka to our nation's Capital during his time with the Marine Corps.

At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines flight 77 hits the west wall of the Pentagon.

"It was like a big hum, and you felt like a vibration going, and then all of a sudden, after a little bit, there was an explosion. When the plane hit the building, everything was complete panic, cell towers were overloaded so we couldn't make calls, we were going through and finding our uniforms and stuff, to start going over there and helping where we were needed," said Faltynski.

Faltynski's location was about a football field away from the impact zone.

He quickly sprang into action.

"We got suited up and had to do search and recovery inside the Pentagon," said Faltynski.

When Faltynski arrived at the Pentagon, he immediately administered aid in whatever way he could.

The sights and smells of that day are still fresh in his mind.

"Smelt like burning of anything and everything, and seeing parts everywhere, I can't remember making out what anything is, I just know there were pieces of stuff everywhere and it was just complete chaos," said Faltynski.

Faltynski says an image he can't escape was seeing someone, as he described, burnt to a crisp at a desk inside the Pentagon.

"In the Marine Corps, we're trained to adapt and overcome, try to push everything in your feeling aside, that way, you can complete the mission at hand, and that's what I did. Now, afterwards, I deal with it. Psychiatric therapy, with the VA, and medication," said Faltynski.

What's left are photos Faltynski took on a disposable camera; up close and personal reminders of the day that changed him and America forever.

Despite the horror Hayes Vera witnessed that Tuesday 25 years ago, she says she was able to see a silver lining.

"I think I probably witnessed the best in humanity on those couple days, of people looking out for each other. Everybody was concerned about everybody," said Hayes Vera.