Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 | 9:24 a.m.
Steve Hsu, 24, joined the Army National Guard seven years ago to pay for college. Now a stocker at Smith's supermarket, he takes classes at the Community College of Southern Nevada. He was on duty at the National Guard base near Nellis Air Force Base on Sept. 11.
"When the attacks happened, they shut the base down," Hsu said. "I'd never seen that happen before, so it was unsettling."
When he joined the National Guard, the chances of actually having to fight were remote. Now, it's likely that he'll be called upon to serve in some capacity, either at home or abroad.
"I joined up so I could go to college; it wasn't so much a patriotic thing," Hsu said. "Since Sept. 11, things have changed. I'd say I'm ready to fight."
-- Emily Richmond
Bill Iverson, store director at Wild Oats in Henderson, reacted like many others when he learned that terrorists were responsible for the thousands killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I was angry. It makes you angry, then..." he trails off.
Eight years ago his son, a Las Vegas High School student, was murdered. Iverson now is a survivor, he said, a member of a group called Families of Murder Victims.
He has just a few words of advice for the families of those murdered on Sept. 11.
"Faith. You've got to believe in God," Iverson said. "You've got to pray."
-- Launce Rake
The reality of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks didn't hit Rena Whitehead until she left Jamaica and arrived in Atlanta on the first day commercial flights resumed.
After a "nerve-wracking" flight, passengers were met in the customs area by three Delta Airline employees hoisting a sign that read "Welcome Home."
Whitehead takes her vacation the same time every year -- early September -- and refuses to allow terrorist threats to alter her plans. This year, however, at the request of her traveling companion, they're vacationing in Mexico, where they have the option of driving home if more attacks occur.
"I will not stop living and stop doing things I like to do because of that," Whitehead said. "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. I won't let them run my life with their actions."
Valeria Rodriguez, a 29-year-old drafter at SCA Design in Henderson, will never again fly on Sept. 11.
"I'm afraid for the next Sept. 11," said Rodriguez, who moved to Southern Nevada from her native Argentina about two years ago. "I would travel, but not by flight. I will not do it. We know here as in my country it's a problem that we need to live with -- all over the world," she said.
-- Adrienne Packer
"It was devastating. I still remember everything exactly as it happened," said Nick Kalas, a waiter at a downtown Henderson restaurant. "But at the same time, it's over and gone and let's hope it doesn't happen again."
His friend, Dan Sense, a waiter at a Las Vegas steakhouse, agreed. He started to attribute some financial losses to Sept. 11, but then stopped himself. They were his own fault, he said, laughing.
He said he planned to begin a trip to Europe on Sept. 6.
"I'm going to Italy," he said. "And I'm not worried at all."
-- Jeff Libby
Jerry Meardy, 68, is a Las Vegas resident, a retired electrical engineer and a volunteer for the Red Cross of America.
He made three trips to ground zero in New York and said that the experience personally changed him.
He said he has not changed his traveling habits, and that he still flies.
"It is an experience that none of us expected," Meardy said. "It made me appreciate life a little more. I think (what happened in) New York made me a better person."
Meardy said he pays attention to the news more closely than he had.
-- Mary Manning
Sue Lopez, a married mother of two teenagers, said the events of Sept. 11 haven't caused her to live her life differently.
"The only tough thing was getting on an airplane the first time. I thought long and hard about it," Lopez said.
In the end, Lopez said she and her family got on a flight to Florida in January because their airline tickets had been purchased in advance.
"Nothing really changed for me, probably because it happened so far away. Plus, I didn't have any relatives or know anyone in the explosions," Lopez said.
-- Kim Smith
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