Glamour Archive: 20 Women Whose Lives Changed Forever on September 11
KIMBERLY MORAN, 41, IS A FLIGHT ATTENDANT AND THE WIFE OF FALLEN NEW YORK CITY FIRE BATTALION CHIEF JOHN MORAN.
John wasn’t even supposed to work that Tuesday. He was off duty at 7 a.m. but was still hanging around the firehouse when the first call came through. Of course, he went to help. I believe he was in the second tower, and that’s all I know.
Falling apart is not an option for me. I have to be strong for my kids, who will carry this with them for the rest of their lives. I’m a flight attendant for American Airlines, and I probably won’t go back to work. I don’t have the luxury of knowing that my kids have another parent at home with them. But I am going to go on one more flight—just to prove that these terrorists cannot break me.
MARY SCHIAVO, 46, IS A FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, WHICH OVERSEES THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA).
When I first heard about the hijackings, I felt shock and horror, and anger at the criminals who did it. Once I heard these were civilian jetliners, I also felt dismay over the terrible policy mistakes I believe we’ve made. I thought, 10 years of our begging for security improvements and this is how it had to end up.
When I was inspector general, from 1990 to 1996, we systematically looked at every aspect of airline security, and it failed at every point. We could get knives, guns, hand grenades, fake bombs—literally anything we wanted—through security checkpoints. My employees were able to get onto planes, into cargo holds, onto ramps without a ticket.
When we presented the results, the FAA’s position was that the perception of security was an adequate deterrent for domestic traffic. I was aghast. We gave the FAA two years to improve, but the second time, the results were almost as bad. Boston’s Logan Airport was the second worst out of the 19 biggest international airports in the country at detecting nontraditional items like components for bombs. And we weren’t even trying to get small stuff like ceramic knives and box cutters through.
Some FAA employees were stuck in the southeast during the crisis. Afterward, the FAA gave them tickets to fly home. They rented a bus and drove instead; that should tell you something.
JUDITH MILLER, A SENIOR WRITER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES, IS COAUTHOR OF GERMS: BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS AND AMERICA’S SECRET WAR
I watched the second explosion from an intersection near my apartment building downtown, about 15 blocks from the World Trade Center. I immediately thought, It’s terrorism. It’s Osama bin Laden. There wasn’t a shred of doubt in my mind. I knew it was bin Laden because he is obsessed with American symbols like the World Trade Center. I looked at those two towers and thought, He finished what he and his followers set out to do in 1993. If he is not evil, I don’t know what evil is.
Even though America is vulnerable to biological warfare, I didn’t worry about anthrax or smallpox onboard those planes because those sorts of weapons would have burned in the explosion—nothing could have survived those crashes. And besides, I don’t think bin Laden has the biological capability—yet.
