9/11 – 19 Years Ago, Like It Was Yesterday
From odd reports of two small planes hitting the Twin Towers, to the reality and deeply embedded emotions.
What I remember most that day.
Sitting at my office desk in Providence, RI, when I saw something on AOL about a small plane hitting the World Trade Center. Seemed odd, but not unthinkable. Nothing to really worry about.
Then a report of a second small plane hitting the Twin Towers. Now it was more than odd.
Then the reality of two large passenger airliners hitting the Twin Towers, another hitting the Pentagon, and another unaccounted for. Panic.
I tried to think about who I knew who worked there. A cousin had been working in the Towers during the 1993 bombing, but no longer worked there. Since my law practice involved the stock brokerage industry, surely I knew people there. A list-serve I belonged to had people checking in as safe, and reporting on others they knew were safe.
I remember leaving the office soon after it was clear these were terror attacks, and my wife picked the kids up at school. We watched the events unfold from home.
The feeling of helplessness as events unfolded.
What I remember since then.
The chirping of the PASS (Personal Alert Safety System) alarms, each one representing a lost firefighter.
The phone messages left for loved ones by people stranded in the Towers.
The lost firefighters.
The lost heroes from my hometown Roslyn, NY.
The images of medical staff at St. Vincent’s Hospital and elsewhere who waited for injured who never appeared because there were so few survivors.
The unsuccessful fight by passengers to retake control of Flight 93.
Mandy’s post in 2013, a few days shy of a year before she had her stroke, Remembering September 11th and the importance of loved ones and endurance
I drove straight to my mother’s house, where the whole family gathered and waited to hear from my brother again, not knowing if he was safe. Every few minutes, the phone would ring and it would be a family member or friend, checking to see if he had made it out and home safely. My parents planned to try and drive into the city to see if they could find him, but quickly realized that there would be no entry into NYC with nearly everything blocked off. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that we’d finally heard back from him. He’d borrowed the phone of a stranger and was able to get the call through to let us know he’d made it across the Brooklyn Bridge by foot and could hitch a ride to an exit on a nearby highway, where I had later picked him up myself. We all spent the night together at my parents’ house, thankful to know that my brother was safe, but heartbroken about what our country was enduring.
My mother still has that stranger’s phone number written down and saved on a piece of paper.
September 11th taught me the importance of family and loved ones in our lives, as well as the compassion of those we may not know, and that we can never, ever take life for granted. So many were not as lucky as my family on that day, and my thoughts will forever be with them.
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I remember pulling out of Lordsburg, NM, getting a phone call from my co-drivers wife talking about the situation back east.
We turned on the radio to hear the horrible news.
We called someone we knew who worked for a major airline and she pulled up the flight manifests before it was pulled from the system.
It was then I heard for the first time it was a terrorist attack from the middle-east based just on the names she read to me.
My heart sank.
I was a contractor at Fort Rucker, AL. As I drove through the gate on-post I heard the radio announcer say there were reports of an explosion at the World Trade Center. When I got to the post hospital where I was working, I heard the news. That Army base was tough to get on after that. Having a military retired ID helped but they still combed my work van every time I drove through the gate.
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In class this morning, the head director Mr. D gives a whole story about remembering 9/11.
“Mr. M (me) I’m pretty sure is the only other person in here who was alive at that time. What do you remember?”
I was 4 (im 23 now). I only remember how freaked out everyone is.
I was 7-months pregnant with my first so I was able to sleep in when I wanted. I finally rolled out of bed around 8 (hey, for me, that is sleeping in) – 10 Eastern time. There were 7 SEVEN messages on the answering machine. Basically from my news-avoidant husband telling me about something happening in NYC, maybe the Twin Towers, maybe about the World Trade Center, he was unsure which. Even one from my teacher mom telling me to check the news. I went to the computer and watched the news on cnn.com until the traffic there got too busy.
Then I drove the 10 miles to my parents house to watch the news there (we didn’t have a tv even back then). I remember that the streets seemed emptier than normal and the sky was a bright bright blue. My parents house is in the flight path for the SLC airport so I grew up watching planes fly over, and none that day.
I seem to remember my sister eventually joining me there to watch the news.
I also worried – I had attended college in Upstate, and knew many who were from or worked in The City, and I worried about their whereabouts.
Also, as I watched the news that day and in the following days, I usually played either Jethro Tull and Erasure. To this day “Tragic” from “Always” and “Precious” and “Treasure” from “Cowboy” are the soundtrack for 9/11.
“News coming in goes nation wide
Not a grain of truth to be heard
Lie to the ancient tribe in their mother tongue
Wreaking havoc and wrecking lives
Like a ball and chain to the skull”
I was too young to remember any specifics of the day. I am dismayed that most of my peers neither know what happened nor care. Just wanted to let you all know, there is at least one American who may not remember, yet will never forget!
Biden at Ground Zero: “I’m here today because some people did something, but I don’t know what they did or when they did it. But as soon as Jill and the others set up my teleprompter I’ll probably be able to tell you what I’m told to tell you.”
Was it Amazon?
How much has changed. The exact same hatred of America that could be found in the hijacked cockpits of those planes exists in the halls of Congress by elected officials of similar cultural backgtounds.
My mother-in-law back East called about two small planes hitting the World Trade Center. What a bizarre occurance..until we turned on the TV and saw crystal clear skies and one then another jet hit the buildings in replay. The collapse of the towers in real time just seared that in my memory. The catastrophic underestimation of the unfolding peril being in those buildings is still haunting.
I am afraid the lessons learned…or should have been learned are fading as witnessed by our present situation with the biological attack of Wigan flu.
I miss September 10, 2001 and the times before.
On 9-11, I thought that we should nuke half a dozen high population camel jockey population areas. I think that it was a mistake to not have done so.
“exists in the halls of Congress by elected officials of similar cultural backgrounds.”
I think that we should expel them, and all their relations, who collectively far worse that Wuhan virus.
I was about to start some survey work in Orange County. I seldom turn on the car radio unless it’s XM, so in the rental I had the set shut off. I got to the jobsite, only to hear the news.
The jobs were canceled, and of course air service was shut down. The car rental outfits told us we could drive home without incurring one-way drop charges, so, it was OC to Oakland to get my pickup, and then, home.
About the only thing passing through my cynical mind was: how much more freedom will we lose; now much more surveillance will we be under in our daily lives? All using 9/11 as an excuse of course?
I guess I was right in my cynicism.
I was getting ready for a doctors appt when the first plane hit. I told my wife, no way a small plane could do that kind of damage and no way a commercial plane would fly into a building unless guided into it purposely.
At the docs, we conducted my appt* in front of a TV in the lobby and watched as the 2nd plane hit.
*just a discussion about my upcoming knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus.
In addition to the feelings of horror as I watched the news reports, there was the panic when I had to run an errand later in the day and saw a plane flying overhead. Being in a Southern state far away from NYC I knew the odds were low that any terrorists were on board but it was that kind of day. Then later in the evening we saw the crawler across the bottom of the tv screen letting Americans know that there were currently NO planes in the air ANYWHERE over the United States. And the relief we felt on seeing that news.
I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. It was a warm, brilliantly sunny day in the DC area. I went to NYC as part of a response team in late September for two weeks. The thing I remember most is the impromptu memorials with all the pictures and mementos. Just heartbreaking stuff; I still get choked up thinking about it nearly nineteen years later. When we got back, our uniforms were beyond cleaning so we just threw them away. I wish I had kept a shirt or cap or something.
Woke up to a radio talk show, a ‘Dog and Joe in the morning’ type program. They were bantering about the first plane. Being old enough to remember the WTC bombing, I immediately said “terrorists.” The Mrs. rolled her eyes. We turned on the TV moments before the second tower was hit. Watched it live. I said, “We’re going to war.” That time she didn’t roll her eyes. I’ll never forget her eyes after I said it. Seems like it could have been yesterday.
I was living in a remote area in Tanzania on 9/11, so it was almost a full day after it happened before I heard about it.
I had friends hiking in the mountains that didn’t get the news for three days. I would have been with them but for the blown knee on our previous trip (see my earlier comment).
They were stunned.
Some good news for this day.
Breaking911
@
ANOTHER TRUMP PEACE DEAL:
Bahrain will normalize ties with Israel, Bahrain Crown Prince will be in DC Monday. @realDonaldTrump is expected to make an offical announcement later Friday from the White House – Times Of Israel
9:48 AM · Sep 11, 2020
Isaiah 46:4 (King James Version)
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
All of this will either be laid waste or allowed to decay under a Harris/Biden/Politburo regime. Who really has made “hope and change” a vibrant reality? Imagine all that could have been by now if DJT had been fully given the opportunity?fully
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lewin
The first person to die in the Sept. 11th attacks.
He spoke fluent Arabic and overheard the conversation. He tried to stop them so they stabbed him.
The weather was perfect that day, the sky a perfect blue, just perfect in every way.
And then we found out about something Bush called the “Religion of Peace.” Bush, Bush, Bush….. who are his friends that he would think that, much less, much much less, say it? Who is in his orbit? Such a profound betrayal of Americans. So sad for us. Why did he think it was tolerable to lie to us about them?
I had forgotten about the chirping, the never-ending chirping…
Religion of peace, probably the biggest whopper of a lie ever. More like the religion of deceit, of barbarians, of willful ignorance and especially or arrogance.
My Spirit Airlines flight to Sacramento CA had just taken off from LGA and made that beautiful circle over the city. The passenger behind me asked if that was Yankee Stadium. I pointed out the landmarks, Central Park, the Empire State and then we saw smoke.
What do you think, she said? Oh, it’s probably just a fire somewhere…. The flight crew said we’d be landing, a “flight computer problem” we were told.
The plane touched down in Detroit where the bars had the iron gates pried open and the bottles of booze were everywhere while we caught a glimpse of what really happened under that smoke. Never Forget!
I was about 150 mile north of Bermuda, on a containership headed for Alexandria, Egypt. We got bits and pieces of information about a terrorist attack in NYC, then a plane crashing into the WTC and later about a plane going down in PA. It was a sad sight to see the skyline of New York when we returned.
Amy Mek
@AmyMek
Todd Beamer lead an assault against Jihadis on Flight United 93
Todd spoke to an operator from the flight, they recited the Lord’s Prayer together & he made her promise to tell his family he loved them
Hollywood omitted his mentions of Jesus from “United 93” film
#NeverForget
Powerful Speech – President Trump and First Lady Melania Remember 9/11 – Flight 93 Observance, Shanksville PA – Video and Transcript…
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/09/11/powerful-speech-president-trump-and-first-lady-melania-remember-9-11-flight-93-observance-shanksville-pa-video-and-transcript/
If you really want to be depressed read find some of the first responders narratives of the bodies raining down from the towers.
As the heat intensified their choices were burn to death or jump to your death.
I can’t imagine trying to find a place in your mind and heart for having to see so many jumping to their deaths.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035806/9-11-victims-fell-Twin-Towers-appeared-blinded-smoke.html
estimated 200 or more who plunged to their deaths, this uncomfortable official reticence can only compound the suffering they have already endured.
It’s not discussed or shown because it might harden hearts against the terrorist’s, and we can’t have that.
Weighing heavily on my mind at the time was knowing that thousands of children lost parents that day.
I was working as a software engineer for American Airlines. A co-worker and I had come in early to do some testing so we were mostly alone in that part of the building. He had one of his computers set up showing morning news and he yelled for me when the news of the first plane came in. We watched the second plane in shock. I remember trying to bring up flight crew lists for the plane to see who was working the plane. (We had recently been spun off we knew the American/United/U.S. Air crews, many of them.) I don’t remember much of the rest of the day. I think we were sent home.
Love the way my phone submis for me. Bleh…continuing. i remember watching the news all day so I must have gone home. I talked to my family, friends still working on flight crews periodically. I went in early the next day. We had to do some hot patching to figure out how to track bags and tie them to people in case belongings were found that could be tied to bags.
So much of the baggage system depended on bag tags that might not be there. We set up physical description ties, I don’t know that it helped but we did it.
lord–many vignettes from that day–the first tower struck and burning, then the second impact–the shock of it all, the disbelief–the tragic loss of life
and then the response–superhuman acts of bravery, of sacrifice to save(and attempt to save)our countrymen
saw a video shot in the lobby of one of the towers as the firefighters organized to go upstairs–lord, the bare face of courage, duty, determination–simply incredible
bless them all
Do not forget that lots of first responders suffered lingering fatal illness, and that their families, especially children, were put through that. Is it too late to extract retribution?
Lisa Beamer (Widow to Todd Beamer) #911Hero
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MY SON OFFICIALLY ENLISTED IN THE NAVY, HIS FATHER WHO PERISHED DURING 9/11 HAD A BIG INFLUENCE ON HIM.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Lisabeamer911/status/1305544278551142402