I am still feeling shock and dismay over the events that occurred in New York, Washington DC and Pittsburgh on September 11. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families who are suffering through this tragedy.

We were very happy that all ATS employees and contractors were safe, although two of our drivers were near the World Trade Center when the incident occurred. The future impact of these events on our business, and the economy as a whole is still unknown. We will continue to focus on our business, anticipating and adjusting for market changes. What we do know is that the safety and needs of our drivers and office staff remains of utmost importance to us.

What happens next is still a question that remains to be answered. Our country will have to be defended against acts of terrorism. Offensive tactics must put our enemies, as ambiguous as they may seem, on the run. The leadership of our great country is faced with a type of war that has never been seen before and may go on indefinitely. Our united support of the President and military leaders is imperative. As a local billboard put it, "United We Stand, In God We Trust".

Rollie Anderson, Executive Vice President, Anderson Trucking Service, Inc.

Tuesday, September 11, started out as a usual day for ATS driver, Pete Smith. He had two granite stops left to deliver, one in Manhattan and one more in Yonkers. Pete decided to get into the construction site in the early morning for the first delivery. He had talked with a local driver on the CB the night before, and asked for the easiest route to take through the busy traffic of New York City. The local driver had given him directions and landmarks, and told him to be sure to look at the World Trade Center towers because they are beautiful buildings, and people in New York are really proud of them.

Pete remembered what the local driver had said, and stopped to admire the buildings from the construction site about eight blocks away. Pete recalled that he was looking at the buildings as he heard a loud noise. "A passenger plane flying full throttle, like a jet, flew into one of them". "It was flying so low, and was so loud that everyone looked up" Pete sent a message to his fleet manager, JT Ebert, telling him about what had happened. A few minutes later, a second plane flew into the second tower. At that point Pete realized there were terrorists in the plane, and the crashes were intentional. He Qual-Comm’d JT again. The message read "We are under attack!"

Pete said "it was ten times worse than you could see on TV." Emergency personnel instructed everyone to evacuate toward the river. After the first building collapsed, Pete took their advice and ran toward the water. "People were running. There were old people in wheel chairs. There was dust everywhere, and then a gust of wind came up and blew some of it away."

Near the water, a stone wall had been built with chain link fence across the top of it. Pete helped people over the wall, and then climbed over himself. A tugboat took them across the river to Jersey City. There he was instructed to go to a school, where the Red Cross would be setting up a shelter for people who were stranded. By the end of the day, the shelter had not been completed, so local citizens took people into their homes. A high school teacher named Janice took Pete and three other people she had never met before into her home in Jersey City.

For the next three days Pete helped out where he could, and attempted to check on his truck. By Friday morning emergency personnel told him it would probably be three to four weeks before his truck could be recovered. The Qual Comm continued to put out its signal, indicating the truck had probably not been destroyed. A tow truck driver told Pete that ,based on the position the truck was left, it was probably fine, but covered with thick dust.

Pete picked up another truck in Baltimore and headed toward home. He said the people were very friendly and hospitable, but he was "ready to do some fishing". Pete drives unit 14768 and lives in South Dakota. He has been with ATS since March of 2000.