Travelers feel overwhelming urge to return to U.S. soil

The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11 have stirred patriotic feelings across the nation, perhaps to heights unknown in a generation.

For Americans overseas at the time of the attacks, those feelings of patriotism were manifested in an urgent, overwhelming desire to return to U.S. soil.

Les and Sheila Kuhn of Clarkson were on board an airplane with engines running at Gatwick Airport, London that Tuesday morning, September 11, when the pilot suddenly announced there had been a terrorist attack on the United States and that passengers would be evacuated from the plane immediately.

One passenger on the plane began screaming and crying, but "most of us didn’t really believe it," Sheila said.

The Kuhns, along with other passengers, many from the British Isles tour that had originated in New York, were shuttled on buses to a hotel two hours away. It was only then that they learned what exactly the terrorist attacks were.

As the horror unfolded on British television, the Americans began trying to find a way to get home.

"We wanted to get to the United States," Sheila said. "It was a powerful feeling I can’t describe. I didn’t care where in the United States, I just wanted to be in our country and then of course home, if possible."

The British people they met through U.S. Air, at the Eastbourne Hotel and in restaurants and stores were "100 percent sympathetic and willing to help us any way they could," Sheila said. "There was a sense among them that it wasn’t just the U.S. that was attacked, it was everyone."

Sheila plans to write to her state and federal representatives to let them know how supportive the British people were to American travelers.

Although they tried repeatedly, the Kuhns were unable to contact their children back in the Rochester area. "The phone lines were clogged," Sheila said.

The best that U.S. Air could do for them was to book a return flight for September 19. But the Kuhns, like many other travelers, flocked back to the airport on Friday, September 14 to get in line for standby seats. They were lucky, on the second plane out to Philadelphia their names were called.

The mood in the British airport had changed dramatically since their arrival on August 27. Now there were police officers in protective gear with automatic weapons "everywhere," Sheila said.

The Kuhns had to pass through three security checks before boarding the plane. One included a pat down. "It was men in one line, women in another," Sheila said, "and if you weren’t willing to go through it, you weren’t going on the plane."

With no baggage allowed on the plane, including no purses, Sheila had to cram her passport and other important items into her pockets. "We knew it was for our own safety, but it left us feeling kind of naked, exposed."

It wasn’t until they landed in Philadelphia that the Kuhns were able to contact their daughters to pick them up in Buffalo. The Kuhn family had been unable to get any information on their parents for three days, and when they did, they were led to believe that only Les was on the flight.

When they arrived home in Clarkson Friday night, September 14, they were surprised to see election signs still in lawns. The Kuhns, who had voted through absentee ballots, were unaware the primary had been postponed.

The next day, Clarkson held a garage sale/bake sale to raise money for the Red Cross. The Kuhns were too travel weary to volunteer at the sale, but they went for a while and were glad to see the spirit of patriotism running high among their neighbors and friends.

"This is the first time in our lives," Sheila said, "that war has been brought to us, where we live. We’re afraid there might be more terrorist attacks, but we’re so glad to be home, so glad to be Americans."