David Beamer, Tom Ridge Recall How 9/11 Affected Lives and Our Country

While the entire country has taken its' turn to ponder the demise of Osama bin Laden, there is no one more emotional than those who were personally affected by the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

With the tenth anniversary just a few months away, bin Laden's death has stirred up memories of that tragic day. 

I remember clearly how everything unfolded on that morning that re-defined our nation.

Alone in the kitchen, and with the kids already off to school, I just happened to be watching the small 8-inch television when news broke of the Twin Towers being hit, then crumbling to the ground as if I were watching something out of Hollywood. It was all surreal. 

Next it was the Pentagon, followed by the heroes of Shanksville, Pa., who bravely took command of an airplane they all but knew was headed to another, and maybe even bigger tragedy. 

In the middle of all the chaos, my first thoughts turned to my family. Are they safe and what was next? Suddenly the safety of suburbia didn't seem so safe. 

When the picture started to become more clear several hours later, my wife and I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. In this case, silence was far from golden. It was eerily quiet. The planes that usually were buzzing above our heads every few minutes never came. There were few cars in the streets, most likely because people were glued to their televisions in disbelief. 

Outside of the occasional helicopter buzzing about, it was strangely silent-- the complete opposite of what was happening just thirty minutes away in New York City.

Many of us were touched by these horrific events, either knowing someone directly or indirectly who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Hours and days later, we all learned of the heroes -- from Ground Zero to the skies over a little town in the middle of Pennsylvania.

One of them was Todd Beamer -- a 32-year-old with a wife and two young children -- who realized that the terrorists holding Flight 93 hostage were there to continue a mission which began with the Twin Towers. With that in mind, Beamer and his newfound colleagues devised a plan to take over the plane and crash it before the terrorists could carry out their mission of further destruction.

It was the ultimate in heroism.

And what feels like yesterday has already been more than nine years.

Last summer, I had the honor of interviewing Todd Beamer's father at a golf outing which helped to raise money for a 9/11 memorial in Shanksville at the site of the crash. David Beamer was full of pride, and as you would expect -- emotional -- as I asked him about his son and how the events of that day changed him personally. 

I also talked with former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who was the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

Their words then ring just as true now.

Hear what they have to say by clicking on the video.