A Middle Tennessee man was in Ankara, Turkey as a group in the military attempted to overthrow the government.
Brentwood native Landon Scott moved to Ankara two years ago to coach American Football and teach at a local university.
"I was at my best friend's house, we were building a corn hole set. I started getting these text messages that were like what is going on? It was at that point that the first F-16 flew pretty low over head," said Scott.
He said he never envisioned this happening in Ankara.
"This is so uncharacteristic for Turkey. It's polar opposite of what I live every day," said Scott.
He hunkered down in his house for 12 hours as the attacks took place.
"It was hard to distinguish between a sonic boom and an explosion. There were probably two to three every hour and the house would shake," he said.
Hundreds were killed during the attacks and thousands were later arrested.
"From the news reports, you never saw them targeting civilian houses or apartment complexes so I never had that worry cross my mind. They were attacking other government buildings," he said.
Scott said as the government works to regroup, the people were trying to heal.
"The Turkish people are extremely resilient. It was only a couple weeks ago that there was a triple suicide attack at the airport in Istanbul, so sadly the past year attacks like that have not been a regular occurrence but have happened. Obviously, it's heart breaking," Scott said.
During the deadly incident, U.S. Embassy officials told Americans in the area to stay where they were and take cover.
