Cowboys Recall 9/11 While on Rodeo Trail
Trevor Brazile was at the Pendleton Round-Up fast asleep in his trailer on the famed grounds in Oregon when he heard the news.
The highjacked Flight 11 crashed into floors 93 to 99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 a.m. (ET).
Flight 175 struck floors 77 to 85 of the South Tower 17 minutes later.
It was part of a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the militant Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda against the U.S.
On Sept. 11, 2001, the world changed forever when the World Trade Center in New York City collapsed.
“Heck, yeah, it is something I will never forget,” said Brazile, the 26-time PRCA World Champion. “I was in a trailer asleep in the infield grounds of Pendleton (Ore.). I was rodeoing with Tommy Guy, and we got a call from Tommy’s mom that we were under attack and to turn on the news. We didn’t know if it was two planes or if there were war planes coming after that. Nobody knew what was going to happen. It was a wake-up call for America, for sure. Before that, the thinking was that can’t happen here, and it was real sobering. It was a numbing situation.”
The death toll of the attacks was 2,996.
Saturday, Sept. 11, marks the 20th anniversary of those, and the events of that tragic day are fresh in the minds of cowboys who were competing on the PRCA trail.
Like Brazile, five-time PRCA world champion steer wrester Luke Branquinho vividly recalled 9/11.
“I was in a hotel room in Pendleton at the Oxford Suites,” said Branquinho, who was 21 at the time. “I was with my traveling partner Trav Cadwell and his wife, and we were in the room, and she came and hollered at us to come watch TV and watch everything that was going on. It was unbelievable seeing what was going on. It’s something you thought would never happen to our country. I was heartbroken for all the people who lost their lives and their families.”
Scott Snedecor, a four-time PRCA Steer Roping World Champion (2005, 2008 and 2017-18) stepped off a plane into a new world.
“I just got off a plane in Pasco, Wash., when I learned of the attacks,” said Snedecor, who was 26 at the time. “Nobody really knew what was going on. It was almost like it wasn’t real. How did somebody do something like that? Then, you saw all the stuff on TV and the news channels how things unraveled, and you realized it really happened.”
Courtesy of PRCA