Ohio State professor and former Senate staff member Dakota Rudesill pictured with former U.S. Senator Kent Conrad, in which he captioned the photo, “With Senator Conrad, in happier times.” Credit: Courtesy of Rudesill’s recollection remarks.
Former Senate staff member Dakota Rudesill was making his way to work from his apartment on Capital Hill when he heard a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
He parked his car, went into work, and by the time he sat down at his desk, the second tower had been hit. News coverage of the attacks had changed, with live coverage of the North Tower in flames.
Quickly after, a person entered the room, telling Rudesill and his colleagues to get out and evacuate. Everyone grabbed their valuables and walked out of the door.
Rudesill saw two of his colleagues who worked for the Senate Intelligence Committee running in the hallway and decided to take action.
“They were flat out sprinting down the hall, and when I saw them sprinting, I thought, ‘Well, they’re intelligent people. They may know something I don’t, as a budgeteer,’ ” Rudesill said. “So, I started running too. And we were evacuated into the Senate.”
Twenty-five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred, the memories are still vivid for Rudesill, who is now Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law.?
Rudesill said that the lack of cellphone usage during this time period made the situation disorienting. People would cluster around old-style radio transistors to listen to broadcasts as the attacks happened, but with over 500 people evacuating together, most people were not hearing what was going on.
“There were very few cell phones,” Rudesill said. “Only a few people had the brick-style cell phone, not even a flip phone. They were just the brick-style, and the cell phone networks then were much more limited, and they were very quickly jammed by so many people trying to make calls, get in touch with loved ones, figure out what was going on, emergency services.”
Rudesill said that on the day of the attacks, American citizens were all in the same boat, trying to figure out what was happening.
“It’s something that we experienced both individually and we experienced together as a country,” Rudesill said. “Each of us were doing the same thing that we as a country were doing, which is; we were, first of all, trying to figure out what is happening. When any sort of sudden, shocking, scary thing happens, that’s what we do psychologically, and that’s what we do together, is try to figure out exactly what’s happening and how we are situated in that, and what should guide us in terms of our response.”
Rudesill worked for the U.S. Senate for nearly nine years. He handled national defense and international affairs spending for the Senate Budget Committee, according to his 9/11 recollection remarks.?
He was national security policy advisor to former U.S. Senator Kent Conrad. From 2001-2003, he had a second role as the staff member at the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, in charge of the defense and foreign affairs budgets.
Rudesill said that if a 9/11 event were to happen today, it would be harder for people to get a collective understanding of the truth of what would be happening, due to the fact that the country and civic organization are in a much less healthy place.
Rudesill added that he was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the country was able to figure out what was happening that day. While there were a few conspiracy theories around the event –including theories blaming President George W. Bush and people associated with him and anti-semetic theories regarding Israel –most Americans understood what was going on.
“Just a range of conspiracy theories out there, but they were not mainstream,” Rudesill said. “What I mean by that is that I think a lot of us in the country heard about them, but they were not widely held. And instead, what I think the vast majority of Americans understood was that their government was being straight with them, and the media was being straight with them in reporting the best information that intelligence and law enforcement could get.”
Rudesill also touched on other Ohio connections that are linked to the tragedy.
Todd Beamer, one of the passengers on Flight 93, was an Ohio State graduate. He helped lead the revolt against the terrorists who hijacked the plane, according to Rudesill.
“I’m especially glad that I can mention again the bravery of those everyday people on Flight 93, who decided to rise up and not let themselves be turned into terrorist tools,” Rudesill said.
Rudesill added that of the four planes that were hijacked on 9/11, two were hijacked over Ohio.
Looking back, Rudesill said that the day feels very distant, but immediate at the same time.
“I can so quickly reconnect with the things that I felt that day and the days after, but at the same time, I look around, and it’s a long time ago,” Rudesill said. I mean, almost all of my students were born after 9/11, and at that time I was single, and I was in my late 20s, living in D.C. And now, I’m in my 50s, and I’m married with a daughter, and just at a very different point in my life.”
