… the sound of the PASS (Personal Alert Safety System) alarms worn by firemen, which continued chirping after the buildings collapsed, each one representing a life lost. I never have been able to erase that sound from my memory.
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Rick Rescorla, “We Were Soldiers Once and Young”, LZ X-RAY, November 1965. Security Chief at Morgan Stanley, WTC. Killed 9-11-2001 while saving others from the Towers.
Barbara Olsen, Conservative Extraordinaire, Author, Wife of Ted, Beauty inside and out. Killed in the Pentagon airplane
9-11-2001.
Thank God for you both. Never, Ever Will I Forget.
“Rick Rescorla, “We Were Soldiers Once and Young”, LZ X-RAY, November 1965. Security Chief at Morgan Stanley, WTC. Killed 9-11-2001 while saving others from the Towers.”
Now, regarding Rick Rescorla, I have to ask a question here:
“Where are YOU, Steven Spielberg?”
This man should be CELEBERATED for his bravery in that day. He had a very bad inkling that something like this was going to happen, for years. He took steps to protect the people of Morgan Stanley from such a terrorist attack. Many people there thought he was crazy, that he had lost his mind, that he was just a “boy crying wolf”… I wonder how many times he had been threatened with being fired from his job because of it….
And then, that day came.
The staff were going to stay inside the building, but he told them all, “We did all these drills for an event like this. This is not a drill. You are getting out of here.” They all left their desks and took the stairs down to the street and safety. Only he and another staff member remained. His body was never found.
Where the HELL is the filmmaker who would do the the decent and right thing for this man, and do a decent film to honor his life, his concern for others, his bravery and his sacrifice? Where is he/she? Every soul in the world should know his story. Where is Hollywood in all this?
Again, “Where are YOU, Steven Spielberg?”
My Brother, who was born on September 10th, died in 1995.
For 6 years, and especially on his birthday, I donated blood to the local Red Cross in his honor (And would have kept doing so, had I not been flagged for being in the Military overseas in the 90’s during the Mad Cow Disease scare).
So, on September 10th, 2001 I donated my usual 2 pints, not realizing that the very next day it would be needed.
If you can, donate blood today. Save a life.
God bless, and NEVER FORGOT.
We had just stopped in Lordsburg, NM, for refueling of my U-Haul van. My friend’s wife called us on a rather spotty area of cell coverage to pray about what was going on back east. I told her that we would call from Deming where the coverage was better.
We then looked at each other and said, “What situation back east?”
we then turned on the radio to hear the chilling news that the second tower had fallen. What tower we wondered. And then silent, we traveled down a new road of a changed world as it unfolded before us on the radio.
We stopped in Las Cruces where I got him a ticket back to Tucson on Greyhound and left him there because he couldn’t fly home.
Then I tried to absorb the reality of what had happened.
The world had changed. The specter of death and war had landed on our shores in the most gruesome and horrific way.
We will all never forget. Nor can we.
A new question had entered the lexicon of events in our country to sit along side that of the 22nd of Nov 1963 or Dec 7th, 1941.
Where were you when the towers fell?
Every year our local combination fire department has a fundraising pancake breakfast. They have a couple of rigs open and kids play in them. Last year a little boy activated the PASS alarm on a breathing apparatus. I knew the sound from the Professor’s previous posts. I ran to the rig, desperate to shut it off. A firefighter took way too long to come and turn it off—it takes some doing. The fireman was young, nonchalant…I wanted him to see the video then and there.
People were murdered in cold blood simply because they went to work trying to lead productive lives. Never forget!!
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I did not notice that before. Now I will and I will offer a prayer for all of them.
I can’t forget the picture of that firefighter coming up the stairs as someone was going down to safety.
He looked resolute but apprehensive.
I haven’t seen that picture in years and I always wondered about him.
One side note. This morning NONE of the legacy networks appeared to give much if any coverage of that happened that life changing day. Fox ran it’s coverage from back them almost in its entirety.
WE will never forget.
The liberals don’t seem to care
I am almost positive that I read a follow-up story on that iconic photo. The fireman was able to get out of the building when the order was given to evacuate, and he made it out.
This fireman?:
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/400/overrides/september-9-11-attacks-anniversary-ground-zero-world-trade-center-pentagon-flight-93-firefighter-stairs-wtc_40006_600x450.jpg
I hadn’t seen this before, and I will never hear a PASS device the same again. As a former fireman, that sent chills down my spine.
@RWGinger. The famous picture of a firefighter coming up the North Tower Stairs while residents went down was of Mike Kehoe who survived, although 11 men from his firehouse were lost. If you Google his name you can see if that is the guy you are thinking of. I am sure there were other, less famous pictures.
– bsd
Mike Kehoe:
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/400/overrides/september-9-11-attacks-anniversary-ground-zero-world-trade-center-pentagon-flight-93-firefighter-stairs-wtc_40006_600x450.jpg
doc
Yes
that is the one and thank you for this.
I am so thankful he made it out yet I know he wonders why.
this quote could come from any of our first
thank you again
Of all of the photos, videos and stories that help to portray the shock, dispair, mourning, anger and yes, determination to exact revenge on the cowards who used planes as weapons, this has got to be about the most chilling I’ve yet seen or heard. The video and audio are eerie but knowing what all of those sounds meant – a horrendous loss of many of NYC’s finest first responders (specifically firefighters wearing these safety devices, but knowing that each beep in many ways represents more than one lost soul given the number and variety of first-responders who were present when the buildings collapsed) – makes it among the most haunting 35 seconds of video we’re likely to see in our lifetimes. Like the men and women who have deployed to far-flung areas of the world to fight the terrorists on their own turf, these firefighters, paramedics and police… officers ran towards the chaos while everyone else was sanely trying to distance themselves from the danger. It’s been said that “courage is not the absence of fear but the determination that something else is more important than that fear.” Anyone who deliberately entered those towers in order to help others was courageous in a way and under circumstances that most of us have never and will never experience.
Words cannot adequately express the gratitude that we as a nation owe to these true heros who faced a seemingly impossible situation with courage and determination to help those in need despite what they must have known at some level within themselves were long odds of surviving, but I’ll say it anyway:
To those first responders and other individual heros lost that day – Thank you for your sacrifice. Your actions will forever be an inspiration and a reminder that the best of humanity is often seen when circumstances seem to be at their worst.
Nice article on hero Mike Kehoe:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/911-firefighter-mike-kehoe-my-pal-150697