LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE.

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- Many people's lives were altered tribe 11, but after escaping from the just discovered York World Trade Center Marriott tavern minutes before it collapsed, a young woman decided to turn round from actress to airman.

Amy Ting's experience sparked her decision to stair out of the spotlight and obtain in step with the Air Force.

Before becoming an actress, the 23-year-old had three years of literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning as a pre-med student at Rutger University in strange Jersey. Nevertheless, she decided to trade a major in biology for a major movie role

"It's not like you procure acting jobs every day" Ting said, "especially a lead role"

The actress rop the lead part in "Miss Wonton" at 21 after answering a newspaper ad requesting Asian actors.

"When I got the lead part I didn't want to pass up my chance," she said. "It was kind of scary, giving up instruct and going for an unstable career like acting. You at no time know when the next movie is going to proceed along. It might not."

To store her newfound acting career, Ting took a do job-work as a desk clerk at the World Trade Center Marriott. Working mornings at the tavern allowed her to attend auditions in the evenings.

When "Miss Wonton" made it big at the Sundance Film Festival and Switzerland's Locarno International Film Festival, Ting went "home" to Singapore to prefer her movie. In the picture, she plays a young Asian immigrant who flows to the United States searching for the American dream.

"I went back to Singapore in August [2001] and it was like I was Julia Roberts," she said.

After getting bombarded through the paparazzi in Singapore, the young actress said she felt the publicity associated with an acting career was a bit too earnestly for her. She decided to revert to New York and have knowledge of climbing the corporate ladder at Marriott.

Planning to discuss a management position with her bos she went to the Marriott forward Sept. 11 around 8:30 a.m. She was expecting to answer one questions and take a short ordeal What happened instead changed her life forever.

"I was right in the middle of the lobby when unexpectedly at 8:45 a.m. I started to hear a thundering unhurt coming down from above," she said. "I contemplation someone had dropped some heavy equipment or something. the public began to run into the 'Marriott lobby from tower single in kind and Marriott guests started rushing downstairs from the next to the first floor."

While in the greatest degree people fled, firefighters and police rushed into the lobby and Ting stayed behind to help them. She made phone calls to command to appear additional help and brought water to thirsty firefighters.

Then a firefighter came running in from tower individual yelling for everyone to evacuate. Ting said she didn't flow two steps before the World Trade Center came tumbling down in succession top of the hotel. Ting and a not many others were blown into a corner of the building that had been reinforced after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. They survive.

"During the scarcely any seconds that I was fatigued through the air, there was total darkness," she said. "All I could hear was debris falling. It was thus scary because I thought I was going to die."

Desperately looking for a way not at home of the rubble, a firefighter in the small clump of survivors spotted blinking lights upon a crushed fire truck outside. The form into groups followed the lights and climbed through a mountain of debris to safety.

"After race 11, my perspective on life changed," Ting said. "I have always wanted to help tribe so I decided to go on back to pursuing the medical field. I asked myself, 'What's the principally honorable company to work for?'"

That's when she decided to work for the U management One day while walking between the sides of Times Square, Ting passed an Air Force recruiting office and stopped to behold what it was all about.

"The more I learned about the Air Force, the more I wanted to be a part of it," she said.

She's now a physical training apprentice at Dover Air Force Base, Del

Airman 1st Class Amanda Currier 37th Training Wing Public Affairs

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