“We Will Always Remember, and Never Forget”

Growing up surrounded by a bunch of “baby boomers”, I remember hearing stories about where they were when John F. Kennedy was shot.  I was not born until the 70’s, but I never thought for a moment that this country would have another painful memory of pure EVIL.

I had started flying small planes (Cessna 172’s) in 1999.  I was slowly working on my pilot’s license and had just had a lesson on the Saturday before.  We practiced “touch and go’s” and landed at Charleston International and back to John’s Island (JZI).  It was September 2001.

I was working for my Father at Anderson Well Drilling, and running my own Irrigation business on the side.  I worked 60-80 hours a week…

Monday, September 10th, we had performed service work on Edisto Island, finished early, and I had pulled an “all nighter” installing a system and prepping for another irrigation job.

I came into work that Tuesday before any of the workers to drink coffee and get prepped for the Deep Water well we were drilling that day.

I was driving a 2000 Ford 750 loaded with 660′ of Mayhew Jr 2-7/8″ drill rods and 1000 gallons of fresh sterilized water that was to be used to drill the well.  It was the only well truck that had a stereo radio installed.  Before pulling out of our driveway, I was loading the cooler and had the radio tuned to talk radio…I heard the first airplane hit…nobody suspected anything yet…I assumed it was a small plane that had hit the World Trade Center as I was listening to radio and not watching TV.  I knew enough about small planes to know that occasionally an accident occurred where a novice pilot gets disoriented and things such as this occurred.

We drove the Deep Well Rig, a 1979 DSI QUICKDRILL mounted on a Ford F-7000 Cat 3208 diesel, the water truck I drove which was towing an Ingersoll Rand 185 CFM air compressor, and a 2500HD Chevy towing the bentonite grout machine.  We were headed to Wadmalaw Island to an area called Rockville, off Sea Island Yacht Club Road.  We were replacing a shallow well that had gone salty and was contaminated with high levels of iron which made it untreatable, with a deep well drilled to 600’….we would also be installing a whole house Reverse Osmosis system once the new well was complete.  This system was for the local Presbyterian minister and his family.

As I was getting on to the dirt road at our destination, I heard the second plane hit…I got out of the truck and told the crew what was going on…we continued unloading, setting up and working to get the 4″ PVC casing set down to 160 feet.  After the casing went in, I went up to the only store in the village to get hot dogs with something that could be described as resembling chili, a couple cans of Vienna Sausages, bags of chips, and cans of coke for lunch.  There must have been 30 or 40 people crowded in the old-timey store watching an old TV mounted up high that usually only Mr. Carol, the soft-spoken, dry-humored shopkeeper would watch.  As I realized I wasn’t going to get my lunch order any time soon, I did what everybody else did, and stared at the screen in disbelief about what just happened.  Some folks shook their heads, a few whispered, but you could have heard a pin drop in that place!  As I stood there, which must have been longer than 20 minutes, I saw the first of the towers fall…what horror!  I somehow managed to pull myself away from the crowd.

I eventually returned to the job site empty handed, trying to describe the scene to a bunch of hungry men.  We finished the well, but I cannot recall anything after that…if the well cleared quickly, how many gallons per minute, pH…details that I am sure went down on the customers file, but not in my memory, because nothing could be more impressed into one’s memory than what had just occurred.

I will always remember and never forget the details leading up to, and what occurred as long as I live…As Americans we should get angry every time we remember, angry enough to fight against those who wish harm on this great land.

Those folks who remember the aforementioned JFK shooting, sometimes say what makes it worse than just his death, is that there was no closure as conspiracy theories abound about what really happened.  I say the same kind of people that killed JFK also attacked our Great Land on September 11th, 2001- EVIL.  

Thanks for reading

Jody Anderson