'Nightline' co-anchor recalls 9/11 attacks on New York

ABC "Nightline" co-anchor Byron Pitts exerted his charisma Monday night at Southeast Missouri State University, urging students in the audience not to take their education for granted.

He also called on them to seek out and help people in need whenever they can.

"I believe with every fiber of my being each of you has the power to change the world," he said.

Pitts gave his remarks at Academic Hall as part of the annual speakers series at Southeast.

His presentation centered on his experiences during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, but he also spoke of covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and witnessing the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

"In many ways, I make my living as a journalist covering death," Pitts said.

On the fateful Tuesday morning the Twin Towers were attacked, Pitts was at work early at CBS, reviewing the tape of an interview he had done over the weekend with musician and social activist Harry Belafonte.

When his assignment editor charged into the room to ask him to cover a plane crashing into one of the towers, Pitts said he didn't react immediately.

But when he finally caught a cab to lower Manhattan, Pitts heard on the radio another plane had hit the second tower.

When he arrived on the scene, he stood with a group of police officers outside the hotel across from the trade center. Rescue personnel were attempting to evacuate the building in a manner Pitts referred to as controlled chaos.

Then, a woman jumped to her death from the upper stories of the fractured structure, looking like some sort of white paper streamer floating down, Pitts said.

A short time later, a man and woman clasped hands and jumped together, their bodies exploding when they hit the pavement just feet from the spectators.

"After that happened, we backed away," Pitts said.

Somewhere in the crowd someone yelled the first tower was collapsing.

Pitts and a co-worker from the TV station "ran like hell" and ended up three blocks away at an elementary school while thickening dust chased them as they scrambled for cover, fearing they would be crushed in the rubble.

"I assumed that the building would fall over, not that it would implode," he said.

Meanwhile, the popping sound of the tower's floors smashing into each other as they disintegrated reached them as they ran for their lives.

"It was like a moonscape," Pitts said. "Everything in lower Manhattan was the same color -- this light, ashy gray."

Soon after, fleeing pedestrians started shouting the second tower was going down.

While all of this was happening, Pitts was feeding what facts he could get back to the station.

"One of the things that became clear to me after 9/11 ... (was) we are a nation at war," he said, likening the events of that fateful day to the epic fight between good and evil.

Once, when Pitts interviewed South African President Nelson Mandela, the politician put it this way: "Good and evil are constantly at war, and good men and good women must choose."

Pitts urged his audience at Southeast to choose wisely and to use their gifts to their best advantage -- not just for themselves, but for others.

Pitts, who has won Emmy awards for his coverage, previously worked as chief national correspondent for "The CBS Evening News" and as a contributor to "60 Minutes."

As a child and young adult, he struggled with reading and learning difficulties, as well as a stuttering problem he worked for many years to overcome.

ljones@semissourian.com

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