MY GROUND ZERO by Brad Ingram

WGHP photographer Brad Ingram and reporter Nancy Lee at the Media Pen behind Ground Zero.

After the tragic events that hit our nation September 11, 2001, it left all us numb and speechless. The thought of it never happening here came true. I'll remember where I was that morning as I'm sure all of you will. I was home asleep only to hear something crazy come over the scanner. It was a cell phone call saying someone had bomb the Pentagon. Of course that awoke me from a dead sleep. I tuned in on the television to find out what was going on. And there before my hazy eyes the World Trade Center on fire. Knowing the effect and magnitude I called into the desk immediately. And got a frantic Assignment editor on the other end. He told me to get in as soon as possible. That started a 12 hour nonstop of news for all of us.

After a night of rest I woke up and started to get on with my life never thinking that I would have the chance to go and cover the story of a career. About an hour after being up the phone rang. It was my News Operations Manger. He asked if I would be interested in going to help out one of our sister stations in New York City.

After having a second to make up my mind, I agreed to go. Not fully knowing what I had just done, I started to pack. Packing in 20 minutes is a lot harder than you would think. I finally was able get to the station only to find out that our Sat. Truck and another crew where heading to Washington to do the same.

My reporter and I got on the road around threee in the afternoon on Wednesday. After two stops for gas and a quick bite to eat, we made it into Secaucus, New Jersey around one a.m. Crew call was set early at seven a.m. Laying in bed, I knew it was going to be an eyesore. To what extent, I had no idea? I started to prepare myself emotionally for the worst case scenario. In the end, it didn't help. The severity of it all was ten fold more than what I believed it to be.

On Thursday, we were at the station no longer than ten minutes before we were back out the door. Four packages and two vo/sots later, it all added up to be a seventeen hour day. The terror was everywhere. No matter where you turned it slapped you dead in the face of what truly had happened. It got to the point where we had to turn down people because we had enough sound and pictures to fill two stories. The story was the same over all of lower Manhattan. Missing people walls mirrored those images of the Vietnam wall in Washington. That was one of the toughest story I've ever been faced with to shoot in my life. The hundreds and thousand of flyers with the faces of all these Americans was too much.

The thing that I found out in covering an event of this great magnitude was TIME. It seemed like there was no time to do anything. No time to shoot, no time to edit, no time to write. Thank God there was no time to think of what you had just seen and witnessed. That made my experience mirror that of the firefighters looking for any survivors. You just did it. Because if you didn't, the thoughts in your head would get to you. You busted your ass so hard. So when it was your time to go back to the hotel you could fall right to sleep. Only to get up four hours later to go back in and do it all over again.

After spending four days in New York. It was our time to come home. Those four days I spent there were four of the worst days of my life, and will probably change my life forever. The work load combined with the images that I saw and shot was an emotional overload. The back end of it all is now just starting to hit me. I'm more jumpy now when hearing sirens. I have more understanding of Veterans now, when they talk about shell shock. Today I was a walking zombie at work. I had the empty face look. My sports director summed it up nicely, calling it "The Thousand Yard Stare."

In my reflection in the last 48 hours, it is simply this. Yes, it's the story of your career. Would I go back tomorrow? Of course. But in the same sense I don't want to go back, to see those images face to face ever again. Smell the sulfuric air. Look at Manhattan's skyline not being able to see those twin towers. Questioning, how this attack is going to effect America in the days and years to come. It's leaves you blank and numb inside.

Two days prior to the attack, I honestly took for granted what America was all about. Two days later, in reflection, I have a true sense of what the word "America" stands for, and why we must rage this operation to protect it's freedom and liberty foreign or domestic. I will be the one to spread the news. To those people questioning why are we fighting this fight, I'll show them what I have on tape and how these events should never happen here again. It was an attack on our Freedom. This great land of ours is free. Free from everything. Free from fear. And the attacks last Tuesday were attacks on our freedom.

God Bless You All
Brad Ingram

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