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SALT LAKE CITY - The 9/11 attacks cast a long shadow over America because of the demand for higher security. That was especially apparent here as Utah faced a major security concern a few months later: the 2002 Winter Olympics.
On that horrible morning of September 11, 2001, Fraser Bullock, Chief Operating Officer of the 2002 Winter Olympics, had just arrived at his Salt Lake City office.
"Shortly thereafter I received a phone call from Mitt Romney, who had just driven past the Pentagon in an open convertible, his car filled with smoke, recognizing that our country was under attack and the implications this would hold for our Olympics," he said.
It was a morning that all of us instantly knew would change our lives.
"I think every citizen in the country felt that it was a personal attack on each one of us," Dwayne Baird, with the Utah Deptartment of Public Safety, said.
Baird has lived with security issues ever since in federal and state law enforcement. In 2001 he was with Salt Lake police.
"All of a sudden we were five and a half months away from welcoming the world here to Utah," he said.
"Some questioned whether we should hold the Olympics and whether it was safe to do so after this horrific attack," Bullock said.
In the years since, we've all become accustomed to beefed up security --body scanners and pat-downs, removal of shoes and belts, indignities unimaginable before 9/11. Some critics portray the government as fumbling for solutions.
"We can't give up every liberty, every civil liberty, every piece of privacy in the name of security," Congressman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said. "I still worry that we have a lot of vulnerability, and a lot of what we're doing is just security theater, it's not actually making us more secure."
"I think there's always room for improvement, but I certainly think that we're doing it right. We've been doing it right since 9/11," Baird said.
In those few months after 9/11 before the Olympics, we were more united, all on the same page, adjusting to a world where security was suddenly a paramount concern.
"And so we put some enhancements in, such as during the Games we had and air C.A.P., which is a combat air patrol, 24/7, all during the period of the Games," Bullock said.
Fighter planes to protect a sporting event wasn't the only added security. The feds poured an extra $20 million into Olympic security. The Games opened under a cloud of worry that quickly dissipated.
"Perhaps there was a little more inconvenience, but people flowed, the traffic flowed, and everybody was able to focus on the event," Bullock said. "And probably one of the most poignant moments was during Opening Ceremonies, near the beginning when the flag from the Twin Towers was brought in, carried by athletes. And that's something I'll never forget, and a time when we said, 'O.K., we're off and running and now we can let the world heal through this great event.'"
In the aftermath of tragedy, for Utah and the world, it was a moment of extraordinary unity.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
