MOSES LAKE—On this day of remembrance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks 25 years ago, a personal perspective was shared by people of Moses Lake, ranging in age from 17 to 75. 

Lexi Hallatt,17, a barista in The Drip cafe, represents the generation that is most removed from the events of 9/11, and grew up decades afterwards.  

“I remember in fifth grade, we all went outside on 9/11, and the teachers who were alive at that time just explained to us,” she said. And almost like today is the one-year anniversary of Charlie Kirk dying and knowing that that will stick in my brain forever. Just imagining the horrors of seeing 9/11 happen, it's crazy, you know that will always stick in their brains forever, and that it changed everyone's lives forever, and even people that it didn't really affect in the long term.” 

She said her parents lived in Moses Lake during the 9/11 attacks, and her mother was watching it on TV in the living room with her siblings. “She just said that they had to turn it off because she couldn't stand watching everyone in total disbelief and shock.” 

Hallet’s father was a police officer for 30 years, and she knows the 9/11 event directly impacted him. But in her life, the impact is not noticeable since she grew up many years after the event.  

“I think it's easier to notice it when you lived life before it happened and then when you lived life after it happened, and so I don't know life before it happened. So I don't really notice a difference in my life personally...Like the airport right now seems normal to me because that's how I grew up with it. But I have done some research on how it was before, and it was way less security in it, so yeah, that's interesting. Very interesting to think about.”

Robert Moulton,67, was working in the Purina Mill in Spokane when the 9/11 attacks happened. He had been in the army then rejoined after the attacks for another three-year duty.  

“I remember waking up and catching it on TV, and went to work and told them, and nobody could believe something like that happened,” he said. “I think the worst part of it for me was watching people jump out of buildings. I mean, that's like can't even imagine. I think that they rather than burn up and jump out of 50 stories.” 

Moulton said he reenlisted to go to Iran, but they sent him to South Korea instead. 

“I thought we're going to get to Iran. I even I even reenlisted to go there because I thought we're going to Iran, and they backed out," he said. "And I'm like, man, I'm stuck here for three more years... I was stationed in Korea. I was on DMZ twice, and and I was in Germany, and we used to get sent up to the Czech border to practice. Yeah, I never did get to go see combat, which is I was two years too young for Vietnam.”

Hannah Fountain,42, owner of The Drip, was a freshman in college, and it was the first month of her attending West Coast Baptist College at 17. She was in a ministry studies program, and for her the event reinforced spiritual beliefs and the need for it in society. 

“I remember two things that were extremely impactful from 9/11,” she said.  "Me personally - the first one was, obviously there's fear striking the whole nation. Everyone's afraid, and I remember all of a sudden, everywhere you look, there's a God Bless America bumper sticker on every car, and I just it just made me really realize that in a moment where something is completely out of our control, and thousands of our own people are losing their lives, that people do have a tendency to look to God and to cry out for someone else because they feel that loss of control in their lives. 

"And here I was just 17 years old, kind of thinking that I was going to be in the ministry serving people, telling people about God, and then I'm seeing my whole country cry out for God, and that just kind of reinforced the direction for my life. It reinforced that yes, this is what I'm supposed to do, is in whatever way I'm able to follow God and share Him with others, and the hope that he brings to other people. I wanted to do that, so that kind of reinforced that for me.” 

She cited one incident of the United Flight 93, the plane hijacked by terrorists that crashed in Pennsylvania on its way to its target. One of the men, Todd Beamer,32, she said was noted for his courage for sacrificing their lives to stop the hijackers from carrying out the suicide attack. 

“There was a third plane that did not strike a tower, and Todd Beamer is famous for his quote of 'Let's roll.' Basically, what he did, he was a Christian man as well, who believed in God,” Fountain recalled. “He made a phone call to his wife. You can go on YouTube and you can hear his story. You can hear the call that he made to his wife, telling her, you know, this is it. I love you. Goodbye. Then you can hear him stand up and start saying, "Let's say the Lord's prayer. And he starts saying, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. And he's saying this, and people on the plane are saying it with him because they know what's about to happen. And then him and some other courageous men on the plane charged the cockpit and took down those pilots. 

“They also took down their own lives and the lives of the whole plane but potentially saved the lives of thousands of Americans. And it's a very rare thing for a man to have that kind of courage and that kind of response, you know, we all have a fight or flight or freeze response in trauma, but this man, it was 100% We're going to fight this. We're going to do something, even if it cost him his life. And that also reinforced to me the direction that I felt like God was calling me to in my life.” 

Linda Brinket,72, was living in Wenatchee on 9/11. She remembers watching the events unfold on television and then reached out to her father.  

“I was so overwhelmed and shocked and scared that I went and called my father, who lives in California, and asked him, ‘Dad, what are we going to do? Are we going to be okay?’ I thought somehow my almost 60-year-old dad would be able to tell me, and he said, ‘We're going to be okay.' He tried to calm me down,” Brinket said.  

When asked about the impact of 9/11 attacks on the country today, she replied that it is important to remember and learn from that transformative day in American history. 

“I think it is one of those things that is too easy to forget what happened at the time and how horrific it was to be suddenly attacked in such a big manner," she said. "And I am concerned that we are not protecting ourselves against that, and yet, in my life, I trust the Lord for how we will deal with if something like this happens. But I admire all the people who just laid their lives down to try to save people.” 

Loyal Leas,75, was an English teacher in Ridgeview on 9/11. She was home when she saw the first tower struck by a plane and then went to the school and witnessed the second tower struck, watching it in the classroom with her students. 

“It was devastating. It was horrible to think about, and you know the kids like me, they were all wondering how this could be, you know, it was like a shock,” she said.  

Leas has a degree in counseling, and that was helpful in addressing the trauma of the 9/11 events with her students. “I just let them share their feelings with me at that time and tried not to direct anything.” 

Twenty-five years later she reflected on the impact of the events of 9/11 on her personally and for the country. 

“It sent us into war, and we’ve been in war since then. I don't think anything positive has come out of it, unless it's a feeling, you know, that as Americans, we need to stick together and be stronger,” Leas said.  

Reina Howard,25, was born and raised in Moses Lake. Born the year of the 9/11 attacks she said most of what she knows of it was from her parents and later in school in her seventh-grade history class. 

“My mom and father talked about how both of them learned about it on the radio, and so they both talked about where they were when it was happening,” she said. “My mom was driving my brother to school, I think, and my dad was heading out of town. Whenever we passed the intersection that he was at when he found out about it, he always mentions it, and we've done so around 9/11 before. It's one of those things that you hear about. I heard about it a lot growing up. It was hard to contextualize, especially growing up in a small town, like how this horrible thing could happen and how so many people could be affected.  

“And then in school, I remember sort of learning about it, but it was mostly that people died and that this horrible thing had happened. We didn't go into depth about it a lot until I was in probably seventh or eighth grade, and our history teacher really encouraged us to look into it, and we kind of looked at pictures and videos of what was happening at the time, and especially growing up when cell phones and stuff are really so prolific, it was a little hard for me to understand how difficult it was for people to get in contact with loved ones when it was happening. But that's one of the things that really stuck out to me, is how difficult it was to find out information at the time about what was happening. You couldn't really know what was happening just because of how news was at the time.” 

Heather Mason,52, owner of Masons Place coffee shop, was living in Savanah, Georgia on 9/11. Her husband at the time was in the army, and they had two young children. She recalled that the uncertainty of whether her husband would be deployed right away; he eventually was sent to Iraq.  

“It was terrifying, absolutely terrifying,” she said. “I also had a friend who was stationed in Kansas, I think, and she was a nurse, and she was deployed right away. And her stories of the very primitive triage that they had to do, like using Black and Decker house tools for their operations they had to do. Just horrific, absolutely horrific.” 

The country today is still dealing with the ongoing issues of the attack, she said, including those her were directly involved in the rescues of people in the Twin Towers.  

“All of the issues that people are having with their health, who you know were in the area and helping with rescue,” she said. “These many years later, you know, they're still affected by it. They've lost their own lives because of it. It's just, it's really hard to wrap your brain around the fact that that actually happened and that some people are dealing with this still every single day.” 

    Reina Howard of Moses Lake was only one year old when the terrorists' attacks of September 11, 2001, happened.