9/11: Never Forget

Where were you on 11 September 2001?

 

Me?  I was in the library of my high school awaiting the start of school.  There was a TV on a stand in the corner tuned to the news of the event.  Someone in the library told me that a plane ran into a building in New York City.  We both scoffed.  Really?  Who runs a plane into a building?  We were thinking small, single prop type plane that ran off course.  Then we watched the news.  We saw a second (very large) plane hit the second WTC tower.  We were not scoffing any more.  We watched in fascinated horror.

The first tower fell while I was in homeroom.  The second tower fell when I was in AP Physics.  We stared in muted silence.  We discussed the physics involved in bringing a building of that size to rubble.  It was to vast to comprehend.  Everyone was wondering if anyone we knew had family affected by the event.  The FAA grounded all flights in the U.S.  The death toll kept rising.  We heard of a third plane hitting the Pentagon causing a gaping hole.  We were afraid the White House was next and what or who was doing this coordinated attack on our soil?  There were reports of a fourth plane that had crashed in a field in PA.  Dumbstruck is the best description of the day. 

Many businesses closed in my hometown.  I remember calling the photographer that did my senior portraits to see if they were open so I could pick them up.  In the ensuing weeks, I felt a swell of pride to be an American.  How dare terrorists attack us and kill so many innocent people.  I also felt a wave of guilt as I admitted to myself that I was impressed by the attacks themselves.  They were very well coordinated.  They caused a massive amount of devastation.  I was angry that we let it happen.  Granted, our way of life as Americans changed that day.  And it has ever since.

My family flew into Reagan Airport less than a month after the attacks to look at graduate schools for my sister.  I recall when we were 30min from DC, we were not allowed to leave our seats and we had 2 fighter plane escorts to the airport.  Yes.  Life has changed as we know it.

On this fourteenth anniversary of the attacks, I find myself more emotional when looking at the photos and videos of the event.  Back when I was a senior in high school when the event happened, I did not have the life experience I do now, I did not know anyone directly affected.  Now I have met people affected, people who lost loved ones.  We have been engaged in war ever since where thousands of soldiers and contractors have lost their lives.  We live in a different world now.  And when I watch those videos, I cry.  When I see those photos, my chest tightens.

I feel it is a dishonor to those that died for me to pass on looking at the photos and watching the videos on this day.  I do not wish to see them.  But thousands died.  The least I could do is look and remember and honor.  The most heart and gut-wrenching part is seeing people jump from the towers.  People who saw no other option that to plummet to their death at the foot of the WTC towers.  Hearing their bodies hit while the firefighters, paramedics and police flock on scene.  I will never forget that.  Never.  Ever.

So.  Let us never forget.  I copied and pasted info/facts from a CNN article released today:

Facts:19 men hijacked four fuel-loaded U.S. commercial airlines bound for west coast destinations. This terrorist attack on the United States was orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. A total of 2,977 people were killed in New York City, Washington, DC, and outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

The Victims:
At the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, 2,753 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed in the north and south towers.

Of those who perished during the initial attacks and the subsequent collapses of the towers, 343 were New York City firefighters, another 23 were New York City police officers and 37 others were officers at the Port Authority.

The victims ranged in age from two to 85 years. Approximately 75-80 percent of the victims were men.

At the Pentagon in Washington, 184 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building.

Near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 40 passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when the plane crashed into a field. It is believed that the hijackers crashed the plane in that location, rather than their unknown target, after the passengers and crew attempted to retake control of the flight deck.

As of September 2015, 1,640 of 2,753 WTC victims' remains have been positively identified.

Timeline:
September 11, 2001
- 8:46am ET - American Airlines Flight 11 (traveling from Boston to Los Angeles) strikes the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
- 9:03am ET - United Airlines Flight 175 (traveling from Boston to Los Angeles) strikes the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
- 9:37am ET - American Airlines Flight 77 (traveling from Dulles, Virginia to Los Angeles) strikes the Pentagon Building in Washington.
- 9:59am ET - South tower of WTC collapses in approximately 10 seconds.
- 10:03am ET - United Airlines Flight 93 (traveling from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco) crashes in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
- 10:28am ET - North tower of WTC collapses. The time between the first attack and the collapse of both World Trade Center towers is 102 minutes.

 

 

I read some stories on Facebook today.  I wanted to share some of them on here.

 

From: The New York City Firefighter Brotherhood Foundation Facebook page:

"9/11/2001. FDNY Ladder 118 crosses the Brooklyn Bridge into lower Manhattan. This picture captures the last alarm all 6 of the members riding on that rig would ...ever respond to. The men from Ladder 118 responded into the chaos and emerged at the doomed Marriott World Trade Center hotel. Survivors remembered seeing men with the number 118 on their helmets running up the stairs to help the panicked guests. They were never seen alive again.
When the 110-story towers collapsed, the hotel was pulverized. More than 900 guests and scores of Marriott employees escaped. Many were likely aided by the men of Ladder 118.Their rig, a mangled wreck of steel and glass, was recovered within days of the attack. Two months later, firefighters digging in the mountain of rubble spotted tools emblazoned with the Ladder 118 logo.
Some of the men from Ladder 118 were found within a few feet of each other, and the survivors in the firehouse were grateful that the men spent their final moments together. Three of them — Agnello, Vega and Cherry — are together still, buried in adjacent plots in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. Their simple yet elegant headstones sit on quiet, grassy slope, shaded by a canopy of oak trees. Every year, the families and firefighters make a sacred pilgrimage to their graves, as well as to those of their other fallen brothers elsewhere in the region.
"They were found side by side, and they should stay side by side," said VinnieCarla Agnello. Her two sons were 3 and 1 at the time"

 

 

Here is an interesting link that has people from different countries explaining how they experienced 9/11.  Granted, most people were children when the event happened, but it still shows how for at least one day, humanity banded together.

 

 

Today, the site of World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 has a memorial and museum.  Last year, One World Trade Center had its grand opening on 09/11/14.

This week marks the 16th birthday of the last surviving search and rescue dog that assisted at Ground Zero in NYC after the attacks.  Her name is Bretagne.  Here is a post and video on Barkpost in which she is brought back to NYC to have the best birthday of her life and to give thanks and honor for the services she provided during the 9/11 aftermath.

 

 

 

 Tonight some of my Team RWB friends went to the Boise Fallen Firefighter and 9/11 Memorial after dark and lit some candles in remembrance for the event and those that lost their lives.