Remembering Balbir Singh Sodhi, Sikh Man Killed in Post-9/11 Hate Crime
In the wake of the September 11th attacks, Muslims, Arabs, and Sikhs became targets for hate across the country. Balbir Singh Sodhi was the first person to be murdered in a hate crime in this aftermath.
On the morning of September 15, 2001, Balbir donated the contents of his wallet to the victims of the attacks. He then went to the gas station he owned in Mesa, Arizona and began planting a garden out in front, when a man who was seeking retaliation for 9/11 drove by in his pickup truck and shot and killed Balbir, assuming he was a Muslim man. Balbir was a follower of the Sikh religion and wore a turban as part of his faith.
At StoryCorps, Balbir’s brothers, Rana and Harjit Sodhi, sat down to remember him.
Later that day, Balbir’s killer also shot at people who were of Middle Eastern descent. They all survived. The murderer is currently serving out a life sentence in Buckeye, Arizona.
Originally aired September 14, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Top Photo: Rana Sodhi (L) and Harjit Sodhi holding a photograph of their late brother, Balbir Singh Sodhi, in Mesa, Arizona. Photo by Mia Warren for StoryCorps.
Memories of Escaping the South Tower of the WTC on September 11, 2001
On September 11th, 2001, Joe Dittmar was visiting New York City from the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois. He worked in the insurance industry and had an early morning meeting at the World Trade Center.
Joe was on the 105th floor of the south tower when the north tower was attacked. Then, 17 minutes later, his tower was hit. He followed the crowds as they evacuated.
And at StoryCorps, he remembered making his way back home.
Top photo: Joe Dittmar at his StoryCorps interview in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on August 28, 2017. Photo by Jud Esty-Kendall.
Middle photo: Joe Dittmar’s World Trade Center visitor’s pass that he received for his 9/11/01 meeting — set to expire the following day. Photo by Jud Esty-Kendall.
Bottom photo: Joe Dittmar (right), pictured with his wife, Betty Dittmar. Photo courtesy of Joe Dittmar.
Originally aired September 7, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Vaughn Allex and Denise Allex
This weekend marks 15 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Each year since, StoryCorps has commemorated the day by featuring stories from the parents, wives, husbands, coworkers, and friends of those who died on 9/11. This year we hear from Vaughn Allex, a man whose life was affected in another way.
Vaughn was working at the American Airlines ticket counter at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., on the morning of September 11 checking in passengers on Flight 77. 
As he was wrapping up, two men who were running late for the flight came to his counter.
Before the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airport security was more lax, and Vaughn did exactly what he was supposed to do — he checked both men’s IDs, asked them a few standard security questions, and then flagged their bags for extra scrutiny.
Vaughn then checked the two men in and they boarded the flight to Los Angeles.
Those two men were among the five hijackers onboard who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing 189 people including themselves.
Vaughn, who retired from the airline industry in 2008 and now works for the Department of Homeland Security, came to StoryCorps with his wife, Denise, to discuss how he has felt since learning the next day that he checked in two of the 9/11 hijackers on American Airlines Flight 77.
Originally aired September 9, 2016, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Illustration by Matt Huynh for StoryCorps.
Jenna Henderson and Laurie Laychak
On June 17, 2007, Army Sgt. First Class Chris Henderson and two other soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near their Humvee in Afghanistan.
Chris enlisted in the Army during his senior year of high school, and soon after graduating in June 1991; he went off to boot camp. He spent more than 15 years in the military serving tours of duty in Bosnia and Kosovo, and was still in uniform when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, occurred.
A month later, in October 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom began and in January 2007, Chris was deployed to the Kandahar Province in Afghanistan where he was part of a team working to help train Afghan National Army forces. Chris was killed on Father’s Day of that year; he was 35 years old. 
He is survived by his wife, Jenna Henderson, and his 8-year-old daughter, Kayley.
Jenna and Chris met while in their 20s and had been married for seven years before he was killed. The family lived together in Fort Lewis, Washington, where Chris was based. He was a loving husband and a devoted father, and Jenna says, a total goofball. She remembers coming home to find Chris and 18-month-old Kayley in their bathing suits playing in mud puddles or riding on Chris’ motorcycle. The two were inseparable.
Now 18, Kayley bears a striking resemblance to her father. “When she’s upset, her little eyebrow twitches,” says Jenna, “And when she smiles, she’s kind of got that little crooked smile he had.” She has even participated in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) at her high school and is hoping to soon get her motorcycle license.
Jenna still misses Chris terribly and holds on to one of the last letters she received from him. 
“In it he said, how much he loved me and how he was glad that he had married me, and that he wouldn’t have changed that for the world.”
Jenna came to StoryCorps with Laurie Laychak (left), a mentor she met through the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) — an organization that offers compassionate care to those grieving the death of a loved one serving in the Armed Forces—to share memories of Chris.
Originally aired September 3, 2016, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.
Family photos of Chris, Jenna, and Kayley courtesy of Jenna Henderson.
Isaac Feliciano
Isaac Feliciano has been working at Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood cemetery for 21 years. He has done many jobs there and is currently a field foreman, supervising landscape and maintenance workers on the grounds.
On September 11, 2001 he dropped his wife off at the subway so she could get to her job at Marsh & McLennan in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
He then headed to work at Green-Wood.
Rosa Maria Feliciano, pictured at left with her daughters, Amanda and Alexis, was 30 years old when she was killed on September 11, 2001. Today, Isaac is a single father raising their two daughters.
Originally aired September 11, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Photo courtesy of the Feliciano family.
She Was the One
When Richie Pecorella met Karen Juday, she captured his heart and changed his life.
They were engaged and living together in Brooklyn when Karen was killed on September 11, 2001, during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center where she worked as an administrative assistant for Cantor Fitzgerald.
Here, Richie remembers Karen, his love and inspiration.
Sekou Siby
A few years after immigrating from the Ivory Coast, Sekou Siby began working in the kitchen at Windows on the World—a restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
Sekou, 49, lost more than 70 colleagues on September 11, 2001, many of them immigrants as well.
He was originally scheduled to work on the morning of the attacks but switched shifts at the request of another employee—fellow kitchen worker Moises Rivas.
Sekou came to StoryCorps’ booth in Lower Manhattan to remember Moises as well as the many other coworkers he lost on that day.
Originally aired September 5, 2014, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Marking the Distance
When Gweneviere Mann lost her short-term memory following surgery to remove a brain tumor, she was forced to navigate life in a new way. But she wasn’t alone. With the support of her boyfriend, Yasir Salem, Gweneviere found she could tackle the challenges her condition threw her way—and a few more.
“Marking the Distance” is part of StoryCorps’ first-ever half-hour animated special, Listening Is an Act of Love, which premiered November 28, 2013 on the PBS documentary series, POV. Watch the special for free on our YouTube channel. Now also available for download on iTunes—or purchase the DVD!
Constance Labetti
Connie Labetti was working for Aon Corporation in 2001. Her office was on the 99th floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower—the second to be hit on September 11, 2001.
As the attacks began, she fled the South Tower and made it out alive—with help from her boss, Ron Fazio. The only trace of Ron recovered at Ground Zero was a mangled credit card.
Originally aired September 6, 2013, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Graham Haggett and Shelli Wright
The last picture 11-year-old Graham Haggett’s grandmother Sandra Lee Wright ever saw was of him.
When Sandra, 57, arrived at her job on the morning of September 11, 2001, waiting for her in her email was a photo (at left) of 10-week-old Graham sent by her daughter, Shelli Wright (pictured above). Her response, “So cute! I’m going to steal that baby.”
Sandra, the facilities manager for Aon Corporation, 
had an office located in the World Trade Center’s South Tower. She, along with 175 of her colleagues, were killed on the morning of the attacks.
Graham, (pictured above and at left with Lammy, a gift from Sandra), came to StoryCorps with his mother Shelli, 41, to remember the grandmother he never got to know.
Originally aired September 7, 2012, on NPR’s Morning Edition.