Reconstructing the evolution of a labor organization representing workers from Maine to Guam proved to be an aerobatic feat. Between March and November 2001, I traveled 50,000 miles and visited some 50 towers, TRACONs and en route centers to interview more than 175 people: NATCA founders and activists, former PATCO leaders, FAA management, and other union officials and scholars. I also digested a four-foot stack of archival material.

     My hopscotch across America took me on a fascinating journey through the past, but present-day history engraved one trip in my memory forever.

     I interviewed Alexander “Doc” Cullison, who was a key NATCA organizer, and former PATCO President John Leyden at their homes outside Washington, D.C., on September 10, 2001. The next morning, horrific images on television tore my attention away from dusty piles of records at NATCA headquarters, 2½ miles from the Pentagon.

     In response to the terrorist attacks, air traffic controllers guided some 5,000 planes safely back to earth in just several hours, a phenomenal feat. Meanwhile, I watched droves of workers evacuate Washington, leaving an eerie ghost town in their wake. As the nation’s skies fell silent for two days—broken by an occasional roar of military jets streaking overhead—I completed my research at NATCA headquarters.

     Then I rode a train to New York, where smoke still rose from the gaping hole in the city’s skyline, for interviews I’d scheduled before the attacks. Fortunately, controllers at Ground Zero appreciated the chance to set aside numbing reality and talk about the formation of their beloved union.

     The six-hour flight from Kennedy Airport back to my home in Seattle was the longest of my life. But profound gratitude over being alive tempered my unease.

     Against the Wind was published by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association in late 2002. To order a copy, visit the NATCA Web site.