UW-Whitewater Public Relations and Communications instructor Ann Peru Knabe was driving to Whitewater to teach a public relations class when she heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Soon after that, Knabe heard of a second plane crashing, and that the cause of the accident was a terrorist act. As a civilian, Knabe had many of the same unanswered questions that millions of Americans had. As a mother, she was left with the task of explaining a devastatingly-unexpected situation to her five-year-old daughter. Yet Knabe’s life as a civilian and as a mother were not as life-changing as the third role Knabe held. September 11, 2001, turned Air Force Reservist Ann Knabe’s world upside-down.

These past four years, so many friends, employers and professors have touched my life in ways I never could have imagined. Of course there is my family too, who for better or worse have always been there for me.