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Dark Day, September 11, 2001
Our lighthearted backpacking trip came to an abrupt halt on September 11, 2001, with the unspeakably horrible terrorist attacks on the United States. For three days we were paralyzed with sadness and fear as we watched the events unfold. At first, we stayed close to our hotel and kept a low profile. Then, Joe got an unexpected call to go back to work.

JOE: We watched the news unfold at an Internet café in Istanbul, just before 4:00 in the afternoon. We were writing e-mails when news of the terrorist attacks started appearing on the news Web sites. I was checking MSNBC.com when the first plane crashed and a picture popped up with just a bulletin…two lines of information. A plane crashed into the World Trade Center. It seemed like an accident. I told Jenni and then, seconds later, the MSNBC Web site crashed and so did CNN.com. I kept trying (and yelling at the computer) and eventually got MSNBC.com back. That's when I saw the second photo. Again, I pulled Jenni away from her computer and was making a loud scene, I'm sure, as I tried to understand what happened. We both were open-jawed in disbelief. The second crash photo was very clear, because it was captured on video! I was stunned. Wow. And then, oh my…now they've hit the Pentagon. What is going on? All of the news Web sites continued to crash and then, eventually, come back to life with new shocking details. Jenni was computer chatting with her friends Danielle and Julie who were also trying to understand. MSNBC.com finally came back with a statement from the President that the attacks were terrorist actions.

We immediately cancelled our sightseeing plans and began walking back to our hotel in a daze like we'd been kicked in the gut. And people must have read our faces because the usually aggressive shop owners left us alone. Except for one restaurant hawker who beckoned us inside. "Amerikan? Have you heard? Come inside and watch the news." For the next 3 hours, we watched BBC Television on a big screen TV inside the restaurant. Americans began trickling into the bar to sit and watch in disbelief. Over and over we watched those big towers get broadsided by the planes. Each plane crash looked different from every different angle. An American woman sitting behind me began to cry out loud. Others were just stunned into silence.

I had a giant knot in my stomach that was not cured at all by the several beers I kept ordering. Another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. What is next? Where is the president? BBC was clearly pirating video from all of the American networks' feeds and just throwing it on the air. I didn't care...at first, I wanted to see it again and again just to convince me it was true. After awhile, I would hide my eyes…or look around to see the reaction of the other Americans. Unbe-friggin-lievable. A TV reporter hiding his eyes? I wondered about the photographers and reporters who were clearly risking their lives covering the story. What would I have done? What about all those cops and rescuers who were in the buildings when they collapsed? Where's the President? HOW is the President? What the hell happened? And Why!!!???

Later, we trudged back to our own hotel and watched more TV. CNN was on and Aaron Brown was doing an incredible job of anchoring the coverage from the field in New York. I was curled up in a fetal position on the hotel bed watching and waiting…would there be more attacks? I was hanging on every word that poured out of the screen. I eventually flipped around and saw that Turkish TV was also in wall-to-wall coverage. It was a big day for journalists, especially TV journalists who have spent much of the last decade getting lambasted for fluffy coverage. On this day, they showed the world how brave and capable they really are. For that I was proud. But after several hours of seeing the images and hearing the heart-breaking stories, it finally got to me and I began to cry.

JENNI: My reaction, I think, was one of much like an ostrich burying his head in the sand. I withdrew, almost immediately. As Joe was telling me the news at the Internet café and I learned with my friends on IM, I was busily composing an email to another friend about Bulgaria and its beauties. Once I even snapped at Joe for disrupting me from my e-mail writing. And I still wanted to go where we had planned to go sightseeing that afternoon, I forget where now. When Joe said that we were going back to hotel to watch CNN, it surprised me that we would cancel our plans so suddenly, and it embarrassed me that I was surprised. So I said nothing, and pretended that I had thought to do that too. It began to sink in what had happened, but I didn't cry. I think maybe my eyes got wet only once, and I surreptitiously watched the other people, mostly Americans, in the bar openly crying. But not me. I can cry at the drop of a hat if I imagine too vividly my loved ones hurt, especially Joe. But when the real thing happens for thousands of strangers in my own country, my eyes are dry. And I got impatient with Joe for holing up and watching TV all day. I thought we needed to get out, to get some air, to stretch our legs…but I think really I wanted to just escape and pretend all was right again. But, even through the next several days, pretending was not an option - the television and newspapers' awful pictures were everywhere in Turkish and English. Turkish people would stop us on the streets and express sympathy in either words or sign language. There was no escaping, and it grated on my nerves. It was very weird, the way Joe and I experienced our shock and grief. We were not in sync, and we were working against each other. While I'm thankful for learning this about the two of us, I wish we never had the lesson.

JOE: We did react very differently. I obsessively gobbled up every detail of information. When I wasn't watching CNN and BBC, I was on the Internet reading the newspapers. I had to know for several reasons. First, because I wanted to constantly make sure we were safe. Second, because I'm a journalist and I have to know everything. And, finally, because I was trying to understand. Why? Why did they do this? How could anybody hate America that much? I still don't understand. And they did this in the name of Islam? That gentle, loving religion to which we were just recently introduced? That angered me because, in my view, those attacks were a huge slap on the face to the wonderful Muslim people of the world, especially our new friends who have exemplified the kindness and generosity which is such an important part of the religion. I can tell the difference between the majority who are kind and peaceful and the minority who are loud and hateful. I am, in fact, comforted by the calls to prayer that blare from the mosques. They are warm and rhapsodic, like loud lullabies five times a day. I still like to hear them outside our hotel window despite the menacing calls a few countries away for a jihad - a Muslim holy war against my country and against my people.

JENNI: I discovered that although I hated that Joe stuck himself unblinkingly in front of the TV, newspaper, or monitor, I would later ask him questions about what he's read. And he told me. It was very convenient, using him as my single news source that would stop sharing the information if I wanted. And double bonus - I didn't have to read about all the horrifying stories of people so sad and crying. And I had a fascination in learning more about Islam, and the difference between our Muslim friends -- Ahmet and Gonul and the staff at the Apricot Hotel -- and the terrorists who committed their crimes in the name of the same religion. It was a lesson I'm sure I would not have had at home, and I am now truly grateful for it.

JOE: Along with my grief, I also felt so helpless. Isn't there anything I could do? My journalistic instincts were also buzzing. Here was the biggest story in the world. I felt duty-bound to cover it. I was also feeling very sick to my stomach and we had planned to leave Istanbul on Saturday. I couldn't leave. I couldn't go - not just because I was sick - but also because I needed to be near the TV in case there was another major development. For us, the major development came via the Internet: an e-mail from Betsy Mueller, my agent, who knew I was in Turkey and whose job it is to find me a new job when I get home. Her urgent e-mail said to "stay in Turkey … NBC wants you to work for them on a freelance basis." Excuse me? The next e-mail I got was the Vice President of Recruiting, saying, "welcome to the NBC family. Please stay in Turkey and call us for your assignment." I called NBC back and they asked me to stay in Turkey because the American retaliation was imminent. I informed the foreign desk that, if attacks were to occur, there might be a Turkish role. Incirlik, a Southern Turkish Air Base near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, is the base from which American and British warplanes have been launching patrols of the Northern no-fly zone of Iraq for much of the last decade. NBC's foreign editor said, "go to Incirlik… but be ready to go elsewhere - maybe even Islamabad - at a moment's notice." (Keep in mind, during these first several days after the attacks, planes couldn't fly out of the U.S., so NBC was struggling to get its own crews into the affected areas.) I said I had to talk to my wife first. Jenni and I proceeded to have a long, gut-wrenching tear-filled conversation about what to do next.

JENNI: This was really a bit much for my emotions! Islamabad? Where the hell was Islamabad? In fact, where is Afghanistan again? We are in a foreign land, where we don't speak the language, and Joe was going to leave me for Islamabad?!? So many thoughts flying around in my head. I don't want to keep Joe from doing what he wants to do - needs to do - but I also don't want either of us to be in danger or possibly die. Neither would I want to continue on the trip; with or without Joe. It felt wrong. So, in the end, two things remained perfectly clear to me: I would not separate from Joe right now, and I didn't want to go to Islamabad. But I could never ask Joe to give up doing something productive at this time, and I couldn't fathom continuing merrily on our little trip as if nothing had changed. So when Joe says it was gut wrenching, it certainly was. We got more information from NBC saying to go to Incirlik, and not Islamabad, which made the decision to go a bit easier. At least we would stay together, and stay in Turkey.

We bought plane tickets to Adana (the big city next to the Air Base at Incirlik) that afternoon, and prepared to leave the next day.

JOE: We decided to tell NBC I'd accept the assignment. And we decided Jenni and I would stay together as long as we were in Turkey (which we still believed was relatively safe). If I got assigned to a more dangerous locale, we'd have to talk about what to do next. Once on the ground in Adana, I was surprised to realize that I knew what to do in terms of covering the story. Jenni and I proceeded to build "NBC's Turkey Bureau" from scratch. The first order of business was to make contact with the Air Force, American consulate officials, and regular people both on and off the base who might be able to share information. In the meantime, I had to arrange for NBC to wire me a bunch of money. Then I had to line up a photographer and satellite truck, buy a cell phone, hire a driver and a translator, get an NBC credential from the London Bureau, establish an Internet connection, make business cards, and buy some proper shirts and some jeans (I only had t-shirts and travel pants). At night, I spent quite a bit of time on the Internet, keeping up with events and downloading research about military equipment and strategy, as well as everything I could find on Bin Laden and his terrorist network. Jenni helped me by putting together notebooks with all the printed research material, by setting me up on an Internet service and by keeping track of the money. After the set-up, I started spending time around the Air Base trying to meet Americans. I also spent quite a bit of time as the only American journalist among a collection of Turkish reporters and photographers who were staking out the back fence of Incirlik Air Base and taking pictures of every single aircraft to fly by.

I also spent some time talking to Turkish citizens who overwhelmingly empathized with America's cause. Everywhere we'd go, Turkish people would tell us about how much they hate terrorism. They'd quote again and again their own casualty numbers: 30,000 young Turkish people have died at the hands of terrorism over the last 20 years. The Turks have felt the pain and so they understand why we were grieving so much. Yes, Turkey is a Muslim country, but it is on the opposite political extreme from Afghanistan. Keep in mind the Turks have a secular republic, which means they strongly believe in the separation of church and state. While Muslim protests were boiling in other countries, the Turks (98 percent Muslim) have remained remarkably quiet. The small minority that does want an Islamic state does manage to raise a stink every now and then, but most people here believe the Islamic fundamentalists would set the country back even further financially. According to the polls, a large majority of the Turkish population are much more interested in being seen as a modern country that deserves to be part of the European Union. In the days following the attacks, the Turkish government - a NATO ally of the United States - pledged full support for America's war on terrorism, including the unlimited use of Turkish air bases. But public opinion polls were starting to tell a different story. A majority of Turks, according to the polls, are against the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. Eighty percent are against sending Turkish ground troops to fight in Afghanistan. (It wasn't until a month later - mid-October - that anti-war groups began to hold protests at Incirlik, Istanbul, and another southern city called Konya).

While setting up the bureau, a stressful thought constantly crept into the back of my mind: will this be my final assignment, or will I be assigned to go East to one of the 'Stans (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, etc.)?

JENNI: I felt rather like a little helper with not too much to do, and so I gave myself the title Deputy Bureau Chief. A touch of humor that was welcomed by Joe and myself, since we were still not in sync with our reactions from the events and we were suffering from it. I did an about-face and suddenly couldn't get enough of the sad, sad stories of people's lives destroyed, and how it all happened frame, by frame. Over and over I would read these things. Not much help as Deputy Bureau Chief, I'm afraid. I was also out of my element as budget traveler … Suddenly we'd gone from scruffy backpackers staying in hostels to now staying in the 5-star hotel (that's the lobby in the picture on the right) where employees preface every sentence with "sir" and "madam." We went from public transportation and our own two feet carrying little pocket phrase books to now having a driver and translator! When we ate nice dinners at the hotel, the waiters hovered around us like flies, just waiting to pounce on our every need - real or imagined. The hotel was so un-Turkish; they didn't even have Turkish tea! We had to sneak out to find some real Turkish culture, which made for some yummy dinners and a break from the 5-star hoopla. The extra amenities at the Hilton, however, afforded Joe an easier time getting things done. I just felt the typical pressure that comes when you're severely under-prepared to handle fanciness. I had to buy a lipstick.

JOE: Jenni always understates her abilities. She was a HUGE help (not just a helper), especially considering her organizational skills and brilliance with a budget! She went with me as we met the American consul, Greta Holtz, and she also went with me to meet Americans around the Air Base. But, despite all of our hard work at preparation, activity on Incirlik Air Base turned out to be minimal and, in fact, was just the standard amount of traffic for continuing Operation Northern Watch over Iraq. After awhile, it became quite boring to watch the same F-15's and F-16's and other aircraft fly over the same fence day after day. But I was ready to do a live shot, just in case. Mostly, I just waited. My NBC credential from London finally arrived about a week after we started. I opened up the package and the credential said, "producer" which was more than a little disconcerting. Did they expect me to be a producer or a correspondent? I called NBC and they said, "both." They wanted me to be a one-man-band who would produce my own stories and stand up and perform a live shot whenever necessary. Hmmm. Okay. I saluted smartly (over the phone) and told them I'd be their eyes and ears in Turkey.

In the course of covering the story, I briefly met the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Ismail Cem. Actually, my fleeting moment with the Foreign Minister basically consisted of the APTV producer and me asking Cem for an interview on camera. After he lit a cigarette (in the middle of a news conference, mind you!) he told us he didn't feel like talking English. Then, he ended the news conference.Oh well. Who said Journalism was always pretty? And there actually was another moment when I thought I might actually make it on the air. Investigators in Detroit had found out that one of the terrorists arrested in Michigan had written plans of a past terrorist attack on an air base in Turkey. That's right. Incirlik! I talked to the foreign desk who said the producers were considering going live. But then they decided that they had more pressing stories to get on the air. Stand down, she said. No live shot. (That planned terrorist bombing of Incirlik was scheduled for last fall. Police foiled the plan before it could be implemented and they threw at least one terrorist in prison.) After about 10 days, it became apparent that the United States was not going to attack immediately. And even if they did, it wasn't going to be against Iraq for awhile because Afghanistan was the stated priority. (Attacks on Afghanistan would probably not originate from Incirlik because it's too far away, but attacks on Iraq probably would … and still might come from the Turkish Air Base). NBC asked me to hang around for a few more days just in case. (More utter boredom). Then, two weeks after they originally called, NBC pulled the plug and thanked me for my time. I thanked NBC for the opportunity. Jenni and I were, frankly, thrilled to be done with the assignment.

JENNI: Thrilled is the right word…Joe had done something that felt meaningful, and I did too since I was a ridealong. The time in Adana also gave us both time to finally touch base with each other and get back on the right track. Now we were faced with another tough decision. What to do about our trip? Two major points influenced our decision. First, we wanted to get on with our lives like the President said to do. Second, we didn't feel that going home was a very good option, considering it was still dangerous and it would accomplish nothing to go back to Texas without jobs lined up. We talked about it and decided to press on.

JOE: Was it dangerous? Maybe. During our stay we learned that Iraq likely has Scud missiles pointed at Incirlik Air Base and the base was within the range of the missiles. But we also learned Incirlik has Patriot missiles ready to intercept the Scuds. The U.S. Consul of Adana, Greta Holtz, evacuated her husband and children, but insisted it was still likely safe. It probably wasn't the best idea to stay at the Hilton Hotel (such a big target with an American name). We'd probably stay at another Turkish hotel nearby if we had it to do again. But otherwise, I think we were okay. If there had been any inkling of danger, we would have evacuated Jenni immediately and I would have kept a lower profile.

Everything worked out nicely, it turns out. We got a nice paycheck, a stay at anice hotel with working baths and showers, and plenty of rest. Just enough rest to make us anxious for more journeying. But it will never be as carefree as before. We'll need to be extremely aware of our surroundings and keep low profiles because hateful people out there are still targeting Americans. With our hearts still heavy, but our minds telling us it was time to travel on, we caught a bus for a 5-hour ride to our next stop: the magical wonderland of Cappadocia, Turkey!