The anniversary of the attacks on 9-11 presents a day to reflect, remember and pay tribute to those we lost. I am sure most of us remember exactly where we were at the moment when we found out our nation was under attack. Our nation was forever changed by those moments on September 11th, 2001.
Perhaps we can share our memories together as we think about the anniversary of this date.
Where were you on that day? And what memories are most vivid for you?
~ The Better Option ~
He stared toward a cloudless sky; a tear was present in his eye.
What did he see I wondered aloud – this man of strength did not look proud.
Transfixed we watched through a camera’s lens, strangers before, now oddly friends.
What are his eyes held witness to? What’s stirring such tears of painful hue?
Electronically we were connected, our lives attached, a stopped nation affected.
What horror was there, upon his gaze? – What caused such pain amid the haze?
Some sounds not known were heard aloud – and people screamed amid the crowd.
We struggled to sense what view they saw; the fireman’s face was present more.
His sorrowed eyes bleeding despair – my God, what was he seeing there?
I could not move, we stood transfixed, my view of hell would soon be nixed.
He bore my witness through those flames, this hell on earth from terror planes.
Our Eagle screamed….. the metal cracked; two once proud towers stood attacked.
The human toll still yet unknown, our feeling safe was overthrown.
Finally, as I stared, I recognized….. what was causing those tears in that fireman’s eyes.
Oh – My – God, humanity was being lost – and helplessly we saw the cost.
The sound of people,… people, jumping down, from towers strong in our New York town.
Locked in horror, frozen, all there stood – bewildered eyes saw nothing good.
We viewed a scene of great despair…amid evil, smoke, and hate filled air.
Connected witness we became, to terror’s rage and human pain.
Trapped atop a blinding heat, were once moms and dads upon the street.
A “better option“?… caused by hate – to leap the flames and own your fate.
More horrid thoughts we’d never known, not from before the glass had blown.
Theirs was not an option for the stair, their only choice hands locked in prayer.
I cannot grasp the thoughts that crossed – the minds of those loved, soon to be lost.
As victims now…. their life soon ceased, a hurling body – soul released.
and for those who bore witness, my God the pain; those memories seared will long remain.
Connected all we stood aghast, all witness to the terror blast.
Their bodies torn; their spirit lost; memories now……. a priceless cost.
But what we have now to decide; reflecting on this place they died.
The Blood-soaked ground, the empty skies, our throat in knots, our tear-filled eyes.
A memory now so deeply burned, their sacrifice for us was learned.
The hurt, the pain, the bitter sorrow, must guide us now toward tomorrow.
For those we loved, and families lost, no gold of man can count the cost.
Through the eagles’ tears our nations price, we must honor those of sacrifice.
How do we honor such courage bold and warm our souls despite the cold.
A daunting charge ‘mid our mortal stage – to reflect that courage amid our rage.
Two decades past and now we find – our hearts, our souls, our tears, our mind.
Still harken back and feel those tears; the wound -the scar- through many years.
Memories honored must remain, our task in life to cherish that pain…
For souls we lost, and sorrow bound – we must always respect such hallowed ground.
~Sundance
I was at work my daughter was military…I got a 30 second phone call telling me she was ok…then I didn’t hear from her for a month..didn’t know where she was at or anything
I was in seventh grade at the time, in a smallish town in Southern California. I walked to school, and always got to class pretty early. I stood outside the building, watching a beautiful sunrise, a blue and orange sky dotted with cloud. I noticed a passenger jet flying, its contrail behind. My first class was Social Studies, which, ironically, the teacher always said was the best time to have it, because that is when history happens. It was true that day. As we sat in the class, she pulled up the news cast, and we watched as a class as the second plane hit.
Darn your school started pretty early.
I was staring dumbfounded, alongside a shaking UPS delivery courier, at an ancient little B&W TV in an office filing room, when the first tower collapsed. Then the second one came down. There was silence, even from the TV. I immediately closed the office and sent everyone home.
The entire Internet and many phone lines were jammed up from all the traffic to get information. My wife was unable to contact me for several hours because the lines were so jammed.
I had family in the bay across from Manhattan on their boat, with little children aboard, of parents trapped in WTC during the attack. They quickly stuffed the kids in the cabin, and ran at WOT back to the Jersey side, so the kids couldn’t see what was happening. It was a total nightmare scene.
I had a close friend who provided psychological treatment to NYC first responders for many years thereafter. Many never recovered from it. Some committed suicide.
I now refer to this horrible day as America’s Reichstag Fire. People who are not students of history don’t understand at first.
But because of the healing and increasing clarity of time, that’s exactly what it turned out to be.
I was unwinding after a week of graveyards at the gold mine……my daughter, who was at college called, and told me to turn on the TV that the first plane had hit…..at first I thought she was joking….I was in a bit of a trance the rest of the day as I watched coverage
I was woken up by a call from my brother that morning after the first plane hit.
I was living on the 6th floor in my condo building about 2.5 miles from the pentagon in Arlington VA. My parents lived in Hawaii at that time. My father was the head of a major company in the news business, on the production side, not the fake news side, is all I’ll say about that.
My older brother calls me frantic and tells me turn on the news. I was in college at the time and had been out the night before watching my favorite team, the New York Giants get embarrassed on Monday night football. So I was a bit hungover. When I saw what was going on I asked if I should call our parents and wake them up. He said no they can find out about it in the morning when they wake. It was around 2/3am in Hawaii at that time.
The news was still trying to identify if it was a commercial airliner or small plane. Then moments later the second plane hit. And at that point my brother says “Call mom and dad”. I said ok and hung up.
That call was a call I will never forget. I was 21 years old at the time. I called and my dad answered in a haze and asked if everything was ok. And I remember saying “No it’s not, I think we are under attack by terrorists.” I remember him coming to alertness real quick (he was a Vietnam vet that was used to having to scramble fighter jets from a dead sleep during emergencies) and saying “What and how? And before I could say anything he says “pack some shit up and get the hell away from the pentagon right now. Just go somewhere out in Fairfax or Herndon and to stop by your sisters work in Falls Church on the way out and make sure she’s safe.”
So after I told him everything in detail he said to do what he had told me and check in with him every hour. At that point I could hear my mom in the background panicking and crying because at first she didn’t know what was happening but then she turned on the news and began crying because now she did know what was happening.
I did eventually do as my father said. But I decided to wait around another hour or so just to observe the city from my balcony and roof since I could see all of Washington DC and most of Arlington. I watched fighter jets from Andrew’s AFB tare through the clear blue sky, not a cloud in site and it was already crisp air as fall had come early. I had called my brother back and we stayed on the phone. Luckily we both had landlines back then still, because cell phones did not work at all that day.
My brother says “did you hear what they just said?” I said “no what?” He says they said the pentagon was just hit. I said no chance I would have heard it and seen it most likely. I had heard absolutely nothing. So I go back out on my balcony and sure enough I could see smoke billowing up in the sky. But I didn’t hear a peep which still bugs me to this day. At that point I said ok man I’m on the move I’ll check in with you later.
From there I went to my sisters work and she was ok. Her office was all packing up files and watching the news. A few minutes after I arrived the first building fell and we watched it live in the TV. I told her to get her things and head out to her friends in Herndon or front royal. She said ok and did so.
From there I hopped on I-66 west bound and I will never forget that scene. It was gridlocked with everyone from DC and Arlington heading as far out as they could. But the crazy thing was 66 east bound was wide open with emergency vehicles of ALL kinds, from fire trucks coming from as far out as Manassass to unmarked vehicles with sirens the likes which I had never seen. All of them just racing towards the chaos. It was a proud moment. Little did I know One of the last before all the wars and destruction of our common respect as fellow citizens.
From there I went to my buddies dorm/trailer at Patriot Village in George Mason University in Fairfax. Being college kids with no grasp of adulthood really to that point we went and got cases of beer and invited everyone over to their trailer to watch the news all day long while drinking. We drank and got pissed off all day long. Fights broke out when stupid leftist kids would pop by and try and say we got what we deserved etc etc. Those pricks were either thrown out or punched. No matter if you think our government is pieces of filth, innocent people do not deserve to be killed for politicians sins.
I’ll leave it there for now. That was the basics of the day that changed the trajectory of my adult life and millions of other Americans and humans in general world wide.
Your statement about ‘politician’s sins’…says a lot. Your telling of your story is excellen!
Thank you, Aggie. I’ve told that story many times over the years. But it was the gravity of the day that has engrained it in my head.
That day was a coming of age day in my life. Not only due to the tragedy itself, but having to make that call to my parents was something that is hard to forget. I always think about how my father and mother must have felt on the other end of that call.
My father had taken the job in Hawaii just two years prior to that day. My parents lived in DC and the surrounding suburbs their entire lives. Then my dad lands the dream job that takes them to Hawaii. And just two years after, 9/11 happens.
They had never been more than a few miles away from any of us (me and my siblings) since our birth. Then on such a scary day, especially for my mother, they were not only thousands of miles from us, but there was an ocean between us as well. And their kids were living smack in the middle of one of the Target cities.
It must have been so awful for them I can’t even imagine.
And no, the average public should NOT have to answer for the dirty deeds of vile scum. Scum that deceived their way into power in our country and has done nothing but violate human beings all over the globe.
Oh, and true to form, liberal s—t heads just had to stoke things that day at the dorm/trailer. They are just disgusting creatures. My buddy knocked one of them out cold that said some very disgusting things about the victims. That was pleasant to see.
RE Hawaii: My wife’s secretary always went into work early, and she called my wife as it went down. My wife threw on her uniform and shot up to Camp Smith (HQ for US Pacific Command) and got in prior to everything on the island going into lockdown.
One interesting fact from that day in regards to Hawaii and their local media/press. It was my phone call to my father that got him to wake up his entire staff and get them in to the office in the middle of the night for them to be the first to report on it so it made the morning run.
I wonder if outside of military, my call was the first civilian call to the island. And it happened to be to the largest Hawaiian press outlet.
I was heading toward an appointment in downtown Omaha. Called home to let them know and found I couldn’t tell them. Just said it was too horrible, turn on tv.
In Minneapolis, and moving day (cross-country move). Movers/packers arrived and said “turn on the tv, an airplane just went into the Twin Towers.” (The TV was already disconnected, but they connected real quick.)
Woke up to it while in Dallas, TX. Had just flown in from London the night before. Got in late and slept in, but my wife called after the first plane hit. Turned on the TV just before the second one hit.
The streets and freeways around Dallas were mostly empty, but I remember a pick-up truck driving on the freeways with two US flags flying from poles in the back – I saw him multiple times throughout the day. Made me proud, and knew we’d come back from this horror.
I immediately called my brother in law, a physician, and requested he call in a boatload of antibiotics and other meds. Then went out and bought a ton of non-perishable food. And a mini-14 and a few boxes of ammo.
Stainless or blue? Full stock or folder?
I was at work. My twin called me and said “go to Fox News on your computer.” I did. We both watched as the 2nd plane hit. I said “I don’t think this is an accident.” He agreed, and then the Pentagon was hit. I told him “we are at war.” He has since passed on. I remember the hardest thing I did that week was pray for the people who did the deed, because God tells us to forgive. May we get back the unity we had as Americans that day.
My Memory is that from a Newsweek perspective – was working there at the time- Layouts and design –
A few years later saw Jon Meacham on Morning Joe – describing how he was work at that day and all the horror.
He was not at work – we got to work on a special issue, we had to find anyone willing to get in the city which was locked down to bring him proofs to sign off on…..in connecticut.
A complete finger Popping fraud
Meacham apparently wrote the cornhusk sock puppet’s Hitler-esque tirade in Philly against MAGA voters, and most of America.
When life is no longer precious, things like this do not just “happen.” I am convinced we’re just puzzle pieces to be moved about at whoever’s international whim.
Get right with our Creator. This is not our eternal home. Rest In Peace you innocents of that day.
I was in my office in Fort Lee, NJ that morning… Windows overlooked the Hudson River (Near the GW bridge)… My son (NYPD) at the time on his way home from a midnight tour… called to say just heard a plane hit the Twin Towers… We both assumed it was a small plane and an accident.
Turned on the TV and began to watch this horrendous vile act as it unfolded.. Eventually, you could see black smoke as it traveled North from NYC..
I attended two funerals later those weeks…
One a neighbor and a Captain FDNY… his body was never recovered… His son went on to join FDNY –
The other was the son of a co-worker, a Lt FDNY … his body was recovered … he left three very young daughters…
It is difficult to put into words the sadness and the anger… Many recounted that day and said they were afraid… I must admit I never felt fear, after all this is the USA… I would probably feel different today…
NEVER FORGET!!
Ncxplant ,
I was just telling my Cousin that I Never Felt Fear either .. just Complete Despair and Sadness and Finally Anger at the Lives Lost and for the Lives They had Touched and Held Dear .
It took me awhile to move on *after the planes* .
After a week or so my Son forbade me to even turn on the TV , he could See how affected I became .
To this Day I Still Say *after the planes* and
Everyone Knows what I am Speaking About …
It was a Beautiful , Sunshine, Blue Sky Day in Washington State that Day also . I Will Never Forget .
The closest day I ever experienced in terms of import and impact to 9/11 was January 6th.
Agree , Maquis .
Thinking of the STILL INCARCERATED makes me So Sad and Angry , Angry , Angry !!!!!
I was sitting at my desk during my 1st hour prep when the janitor came in and told me about the first plane. I thought he was joking.
At the start of 2nd hour, I asked if anyone was aware of what had happened. No one knew.
I apologized that I had to be the one to tell them because no matter what happened the rest of the year, they would always remember me as the one that told them the awful news.
I was home from work with a killer sinus infection/headache when the dogs demanded a walk.
As I walked the along the edge of the woods and I could hear a large jet coming low and fast from the direction of the woods. I grew up next to Wright field in the 50’s and spent a lot of time looking up so I know whereof I speak…
I looked up to see the light colored underside of a 747, engines screaming, smoke pouring out of four engines, directly over head driving the dog nuts. There was a 16 on each wing. They were heading roughly ENE. I made the dogs go home so I could turn on the TV and see if there was any news to explane the 747’s behavior. There was….
I guess I saw GWB heading to DC.
I have a box of VHS recordings I made that day. I have never played them back. Maybe I should…
I was getting ready to go to the job site and turned on the TV to get the weather report.
The wife was working on a federal contract at the time at a facility they knew would be a target. Went in and told her to call her office because they wouldn’t be going to site that day.
Art work, I remember everyone going about their day with quiet resolve.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 I was in the Orlando airport with my husband and 8 year old son. We had taken him to Disney for his birthday which was the 10th. We were originally going to fly later in the day but while we were in FL I received the news that my day was in critical condition and not expected to live long, so I got our flight moved up to that morning. As we were going through the airport I saw a television with breaking news on the screen. We went over to see what was going on. Wow – I stood there with my young son watching video of the planes flying into the bldgs. I knew thousands of people had perished.
I remember thinking I do not have a clue what is happening but we need to get on our flight ASAP. Everybody boarded and the hatches were battened down so we could taxi out to the runway. The pilot then announced a 10 minute delay, then a few minutes later an hour delay. A few business men had cellphones and were getting calls and saying all kinds of information about attacks in different locations. It was wild. After some more time the pilot told us passengers to get off the plane and leave the airport. I was sobbing because I had to see my dad again while he was still alive, I just had to.
We ran to get out luggage and to get in line for a rental car. As we were going through the terminal all the televisions and screens were blacked out. It was scary and chaotic. We were able to get one of the last rental cars and we drove back to NC.
My dad who was a US Marine from 1940 to 1946 and was at Guadacanal survived after the doctors said he would not and lived 3 more years.
I highly resent being called a Facist, and a threat to democracy etc by you know who!
I was getting ready for my grandfather’s funeral.
Putting on my tie.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/iPyYpGhTftOP/
hmmmmm……
There is plenty to wonder about regarding this incident.
However, today, in my humble opinion, we should honor those who perished, both innocents and rescuers.
Was leaving a downtown Chicago hospital, in the shadow of the Sears and Hancock towers…popped in a patients room that morning to say good by for the day (worked nights), and saw the news clip…said good bye and got out of there.
A bit later, stranded on I-55 south and majorly unusual traffic heading south, parallel to the Midway airport exit, it dawned on my that Mayor Daily was doing an unannounced, ‘controlled evacuation’ of the loop…
And then the next tower got hit. Skies over my house, usually with lots of air traffic…eerily silent.
A friend of mine worked closely with Marsh and McLennan, and lost many friends -the company lost 295 employees. My friend was devastated.
Had the day off and finally turned on FOX News. I thought I had turned on a movie channel showing “Die Hard” instead. After a few seconds I realized it was real life and before I heard a single word I guessed it was Osama Bin Laden behind it.
Being a NYC suburbs native, I was familiar with the Blind Sheikh and Bin Laden.
An American Airlines flight attendant who was based out of St. Louis but who’s home was in FL lived with us when she was on call, sometimes for several weeks at a time.
I heard the TV and went to check; one of her flight attendant colleagues had called her immediately after the first building was struck; we watched together as the second building was struck, then watched all day in horror. In the afternoon I walked down to the 7/11 to buy a couple newspapers, preserving them forever with their graphic front pages.
Our friend was unable to get home for nearly a week, and eventually she and a pilot in similar straits rented a truck and drove home.
I was off-duty. Once I heard what had happened I went to the fire station to watch the coverage with one the on-duty crew. We were amazed, but not surprised when the towers fell (unprotected steel fails around 1,400 degrees, we knew the planes flying into the buildings would’ve ripped off any of the fire proofing they put on).
As any good firefighters do, we Monday-morning-quartered back what we would’ve done if we’d been there and none of the 3 of us came to the conclusion the fire would’ve been extinguished with water. We had about 85ish fire stations at the time, but no where near the staffing of FDNY. Just a different perspective.
This is an interesting perspective from an FDNY Battalion Chief who responded to the Towers and got hurt:
https://gothamist.com/news/fdny-battalion-chief-reflects-on-responding-to-wtc-collapse-todays-911-politicization
Our joint USAR Task Force with another fire dept. in the county got activated and went for a few weeks. The 9/11 attacks created a whole new era of gov’t funded terrorism training we did, even 8 years later when I promoted to Fire Captain on the Haz Mat team.
My wife and I went to NYC in September 2010. We went to the “Ten House” – FDNY’s Engine 10 Ladder 10 (most FDNY fire stations have engine and truck companies with different numbers, the Ten House is unique). That was the first due engine and ladder on 9/11 being located across the street from WTC. It was amazing to see all the scaring on the buildings in the area and talk to the guys of E10 and L10.
Oh my, they could make a movie from that interview! Thanks for the link.
I’ve never met that person (obviously) but I can vouch for his perspective. I had 20+ years in the fire service when I was medically retired after injuries from a crash while responding to a fire.
There was a firefighter killed in the Denver area in 1992 (I started my journey in the fire service in Jan 1994) and some people created the “Denver Drill” to mimic the circumstances. It became a bragging right on how fast you could to the drill to rescue the down firefighter. Just search the web for “Fire department Denver drill” to learn all about it, the problem is you can do it fast when there’s no actual fire and you know exactly where the victim will be located.
Some drills like this are useless BS in my opinion. In the 15+ years after the Denver drill became popular I never heard of another situation like the 1992 death occurring (115ish firefighters die in the line of duty every year); however, I’ve known people who’ve been hurt while doing the Denver drill during training. 🤷♂️
We did a lot of a High-rise fire training and everyone in the department went through a few day High rise training class. We had SOP’s that laid out what to do for high rise and wide rise (large commercial buildings that needed a lot of the same task done. I was the 2nd due company officer to a fire in a wide-rise and the fire went out, but adherence to the SOP’s was not well executed.
I was at the E16 L7 station about a month after the attack. The national guard had soldiers with M16s on guard duty everywhere. A fireman there showed me his wedding picture and then told me that most of the men in the picture had died in the tower collapse. I donated every bit of money I had and told them to raise a toast to their fallen.
I still have pictures of the pit. Seeing that hole in person gives you a feeling you could never get from pictures or video. The sheer size was breathtaking. I had a hard time getting on a plane back to Texas after that trip and I’ve never flown again.
One of the guys I know went back to NY a few times a year, he became friends with a lot of FDNY and arranged ride outs for guys at work that went on trips with him. I never made it out pre-9/11, but he knew and/or met a lot of guys who died in the towers.
I couldn’t imagine what it’d feel like for the guys who responded and survived that day or those who were off-duty. There were two on-duty deaths in my dept. during my career, both people I knew well, and that was tough. Both were isolated incidents involving only 1 engine company, it’s hard to comprehend losing 343 in a single incident. That would’ve just over 1/3 of our dept.
As I was leaving the house that morning, Steve Doocy was doing the weather report on Fox (of recent shame), and with a US map in the background. He gestured, “It’s a beautiful day all across the United States.” True and not a cloud anywhere on the map.
I worked in one of the many telecommunications office buildings of a then YUGE company. Most of the guys I worked with were either retired mil or National Guard on their time off.
Had gotten to the office early, 7:30 central time and the guy who sat in front for me was a contractor and ran by saying to go the break room, a plane hit in NY. He was wild to get to his phone and contact his son who flew short routes from Boston to NY and DC. Turns out, he woke him up. It was his day off.
I sat in the break room for a couple of hours with everyone else and an ex-Marine who used to service AF-1. When Bush took off from Tampa, he explained he was in the safest place in the world. He pointed out all the antennae on the bottom of the plane and explained he could be in touch with anyone in any country. But we didn’t know where he was headed. We heard all air traffic had been cut off by that time.
Then, we watched Bush’s ashen-faced, time delayed (for security purposes) address from Barksdale AFB. By the time it aired he was already en route to the bunker at NORAD, if memory serves me. He had to fly right over us.
interestingly, my husband, a coworker at the time and now my precious husband, was on his way to work and passing Ft. Leavenworth, he reported for duty, as a National Guardsman. . He went into the SCIF and our boss told us we probably wouldn’t see him for a while.
No one really knew what was going on. It seemed like we were living in a vacuum, that our minds were solely concentrated on the why and the hate. We didn’t hate anyone. How could people hate us so much? Oh, the horror of innocent people just going to work and out to vote on Primary Day in NYC just boggled our minds.
God, continue to love us and guide us back to you. Today is a reminder that we are only given today, and tomorrow is time for more blessings. Know Him … He loves you!
I have a very talented nephew who is a commercial artist. He has created album and CD covers and high quality advertising materials for some big name entertainers and bands. He worked in one of the twin towers.
On the Friday before September 11, 2001, he decided to go home to visit his parents, so he was gone when the towers fell. When he got back to New York later in the week, he tried to locate the management and fellow workers from the company. None of them survived. He and I both suffer survivor’s guilt, mine from my Vietnam war experiences, and we have helped each other cope with it. I am very proud of how he has handled the loss while realizing that God spared him for some purpose that hopefully he will someday fulfill.
Please pray for everyone grieving for various losses today.
I was driving an electrical service van that only had an AM radio. That fact didn’t bother me, because there was a lot to like on the AM dial at the time. I was pulling up to a building at Denver University, and running just a little late. I didn’t mind, as I had the job going well ahead of time, and I’d get to hear Paul Harvey in just a minute. Then, Dave Logan came on the air to mention a plane had hit one of the towers. Like me, and most of everyone else that heard the initial report, Dave was mystified at how a small plane can be so reckless. Shortly after, news broke of the second plane, and they were plainly described as air liners. I was in a complete state of shock.
I figured I had better at least go into the job site. I didn’t bother to bring my tool bag, only a small portable radio. It was a fire alarm job, and I was supposed to meet a programmer to get the new devices programmed into the system. He was in the fire command center of the building, and had not heard the news. I turned on the radio, and we sat there for the next several hours, just talking and listening to the news.
Zero work got done that day, and I left early for home. When I got home was the first time I could actually see the footage of the events. I was in a fog for weeks after that day. I couldn’t properly focus on anything. I knew the world would never be the same. Sadly, it took me another 15 years to realize who the real enemy was.
Here’s 5 hours of reality for you. Scared me to death.
https://rumble.com/v12urxr-september-11-the-new-pearl-harbor.html
THANK YOU for remembering what so many Americans appear to have just “moved on” from.
As a Marine attached to a joint headquarters, I was deployed to Afghanistan in the first deployment against the Taliban. Things went downhill from there sadly.
Americans are so incredibly spoiled they cannot even be bothered to remember what real terrorism looks like.
I was at work getting ready for my first group of 6th graders to start class. A fellow teacher called me into the hall to tell me we were being attacked, New York was being bombed. It was surreal. Then we found out it was planes, not bombs. I went back to my students and was thinking of how I should break the news to them.
Ironically, I was a 6th grade student when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We didn’t have tvs in the classrooms back then, but I will never forget my 6th grade teacher as she broke the sad news to all of us. Now it was my turn.
I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I tried to be calm, and I told them we were going to watch the news reports on the tv. We watched the towers fall and saw the news about the Pentagon and also Flight 93. It was unbelievable to me that anyone could pull off such an attack. I couldn’t understand how our powerful government couldn’t have stopped something like that. After all, we were the United States of America.
On the way home from work I remember seeing a huge American flag on a flagpole outside a local business. I didn’t remember ever seeing it before, but I guess I never noticed it so much. The sky was so blue and the flag waving against it was breathtaking. I’ve never seen that flag look that way before or since.
I was in the last stage ofmy alcoholism. I had to take my then 16 yr old son to an appointment. Upon leaving, the receptionist said a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. I remember thinking, “Wow, that sucks.” When I got home we turned the tv on. And then, the unspeakable, the unthinkable, the unimaginable happened before my eyes. The last thing I remember thinking before I picked up my first drink of the morning was, “I don’t want to be here anymore.” My kids told me years later in my recovery, that I spent that whole day an evening walking through the house saying, “Son of a bitch!” evert time I passed by the tv. It took me years to allow myself to watch and listen to the pain of those who survived that day from hell. I’m still watching and listening. I will never forget. 🇺🇸
Wow. Thanks for sharing.
I was driving to the Dept. of Agriculture in Springfield, IL listening to the radio. When I got to the building, I was told all government offices had closed. I drove home and was in front of the television for the rest of the day.
We were had.
I was on vacation on the Island of Kauai, Hawaii. I noticed in the morning that guests in the lobby were crowded around a TV and the American flag outside the lobby was at half staff. With the airport closed, I spent the next days going back and forth between the TV and the beach. It was a strange time.
I was in the Liberty Tunnels in down town Pittsburgh heading to the city/county building to install some phones. Howard Stern on the radio screaming at what was happening. Got to the city/county building and they wouldn’t let us in. They said all government buildings were closed because there were still planes in the sky and nobody knew where they were headed. LONG DAY!
I was working as a blaster at an open pit gold mine near Fairbanks Alaska. My co-worker on the crew was a guy named Alex Karvalis. As the enormity became apparent, he said to me, “We could lose a lot of our rights over this.” My God, was he prescient or what.
Sundance, I can’t even remember how many years I have benefited from your excellent writing, analysis, thoughtful posts, at least seven or eight, but I never before realized that you were such an amazing wordsmith when it came to poetry.
The quality, the meaning, the language used, the entire Ode is breathtaking in its beauty, and I’m sorry I didn’t think to mention it in my first comment.
Also, thank you for providing this space for sharing each individual’s heart-warming experience of the time, a necessary facet of national healing.
Agree completely. Beautiful and genius all together.❤️
Damn the people that did this.
Damn the people that allowed them to do this.
Damn the people who protected those who did this.
And damn the people that now want us to forget about it.
And thank you Sundance for reminding those who would like to forget about those who jumped.
I was in the the office that morning preparing letters to send. Drove them to the Post Office to get them on their way. As I neared the PO I turned on the radio and as I rolled to a stop the news guy said, “This is something that you will always remember where you were when you heard the news.” Inside with my letters they told me what had happened.
I drove into our large town and stopped to see a client / friend. We watched on his giant TV screen as the second plane crashed into the WTC.
The next day a friend, a nurse, and I took a day at the lake. The skies were blue without clouds or planes. We talked about going to NYC to help but they’d begun telling people not to come as there were few survivors.
A few years later I left the real estate business and returned to college teaching. All our writing students were required to make a presentation with slides in the course I was teaching. One summer a returning student who had worked at the WTC talked to us about her colleague who had died that day.
The title of her talk was “Falling Man.
Never Forget, indeed !!
I was driving to a large women’s bible study. There were about 250 women there in the sanctuary. The leaders made the decision to spend the next hour praying. There were about a dozen women who stepped-up to fill that need. I sat in the pew and sobbed my eyes out the entire hour.
In the weeks following, the churches around the country were FULL. It was a time of intense emotion and a huge portion of Americans knew where to draw their strength. It is my prayer that God has mercy on our great country and we turn to Him again.
🙏🏼🇺🇸🙏🏼🇺🇸🙏🏼🇺🇸🙏🏼🇺🇸🙏🏼
We are self employed and work at home with the TV and radio off and had been working all morning on our business reports, just my husband and myself.
Around 2:30 in the afternoon I drove into the small town near by, we live rural in a valley in the top of the Rocky Mountains, to get some work done by a print shop.
They had their TV on and every one was laser focused on the screen.
I asked them what was going on and that was when they told me.
I watched the news coverage trying to understand what in the world had happened in NYC, clear across the country from me while the printshop owner completed my order.
I drove home and told my husband to turn on the TV and we watched the horror for the rest of the day, hardly able to believe what we were seeing.
We had so many feelings, anger at the perps and helplessness at not being able to do anything and such deep gratitude towards the firemen and women and police and other’s who worked so had and died in the attempt to save lives.
I will remember many things from that time.
One thing I will never forget is our Pres George Bush calling Islam the Religion of Peace.
Bush, complete misjudgment of character. YUGE disappointment, now that we understand the truth.
I was teaching school in Pittsburgh when the towers were hit..In my mind I thought if it gets that bad I’ll head to my parent’s house in the mountains of SW PA..the next thing I saw was that a plane was down in Somerset County, PA. That’s where my parents were..flight 93 flew over their house and crashed 20miles away..we are here now..my parents and brother have passed..
The Catholic high school in out city was known as the Twin Towers and was about a mile and a half from our house. My brother called our Mom and told her a plane hit the Twin Towers. She thought it was our school.
I was working in midtown across from St Pats at that time. When I got off the train I could see the smoke from downtown. I had worked in WTC2 during the first bombing in 1993 and our company then moved to midtown. My brother was across from the towers and we were on the phone as he related seeing the people jump (I could hear his co workers screaming) and then the towers came down. My company told us to leave so I walked all the way downtown and saw the people covered in ash and whatever else and the paper flying. Everyone was silent.
I then walked across the bridge to Brooklyn and looked back and it was just so sad. I then walked all the way to the southern tip of Brooklyn where I lived. This was the longest walk of my life.
So many of my neighbors lost loved ones that day. Such a sad and horrifying day.
I was raised and live on Long Island NY.
9/11 was horrific for Long Islanders. Most Long Islanders work in Manhattan and take the Long Island RR. My brother in laws office was in the world trade center. He took the subway and when he got to the entrance of the building people were walking out both doors. He thought it was just weird and went to his office. When he got there, his coworkers were all looking out the window. He went over and saw the other tower on fire and a lot of smoke. He saw something fall quickly before him in a flash. Someone told him it was a person. The PA system was telling people to stay where they were to avoid falling glass.
He picked up his stuff and headed out of the building and kept walking. He was lucky to have a cell phone at that time,because not too many people did. He called my sister who was working in a tower in Chicago to tell her he was ok. They are evacuating that tower. He loaned his cell phone to a guy to call his mom and then with all the chaos and people they got separated. He went to Penn Station to get a train home. There was a bomb scare in Penn,so everyone had to leave. No trains out or in. The Tunnels and roads were closed for hours, so just stuck in NY. Trains started moving later at night. No tickets necessary, just jump on and off when you could. My sister had to rent a car with 3 people and drive home from Chicago as there were no planes.
My cousins husband didn’t come home that night. He worked in the south tower. He worked on an upper floor. It was horrible, no information at all. Complete chaos. My family posted pictures all over NYC with a number to call if anyone saw him. My cousin went to the Armory with his hair brush so they could compare DNA of victims they found as they were finding only body parts. 3 weeks later, a Priest and NYPD officer came to her home and told her they found him. We were so grateful for that as some families never got that closure.
I found out later that 2 friends from high school and a boy I used to babysit were dead. Wonderful people, all of them.
The horror of that day and the weeks and months that followed will never be forgotten………
I was on a flight from Atlanta to Newark, NJ to visit a client who had a Distribution center across the bay from Manhattan. You could see the Statue of Liberty and the WTC from their offices. During the flight we had flight attendant say privately to a few of us that a plane had hit the World Trade center. At first, we thought it was a tragic accident. Then it was reported that a second plane had hit the Trade center. We then knew it was an attack and you started looking suspiciously around the plane for anyone that looked like a terrorist.
The plane turned around and went back to Atlanta. Upon arrival we heard that the Pentagon had been hit. Driving through the city of Atlanta, I half expected to see a plane go crashing into the city’s downtown skyline. I called my business partner and he had been talking to one of our consultants at the job site who witnessed the event from across the harbor. While they were talking, our employee saw one of the buildings go crashing down, exclaimed, “Oh, my God!” and simply hung up. Evil never takes a holiday and the threats to our nation can be external or internal. Praying for the families who lost so much that day and it should serve as a reminder to all of us to stay sober and be vigilant.
Let’s not forget United 93 and the selfless heroism of the passengers “Let’s Roll”. Not to mention the fake war and the activation of illegal warrantless spying on the US citizens. The terrorist act was just the (terribly unfortunate) beginning of a long period of much worse consequences of disastrous, and probably intentionally harmful policy making. I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories but to take this wound on the nation and exploit it for decades as a weapon (in addition to helping the war industry) has probably been the most disgusting and harmful aftermath of this event.
My engineering team had just entered the offices of a Texas river authority at approximately 8:00 a.m. central. The lobby was empty and we heard the sound of a TV on in a conference room. We entered the room and saw smoke rising from the North Tower. The reporter was saying that a small plane had hit the North Tower. As we stood there, the second plane hit the South Tower at 8:03 central. My mind could not comprehend what we saw. I initially thought that we were watching a replay of the first strike. Then realized that the aircraft we had seen was a passenger jet airliner.
The river authority’s technical manager then appeared and ushered us off to perform the inspections of their four dams. We were all in shock, but we had no time to process what we had seen. We inspected the first dam and turned the radio on and to follow up on the towers. That’s when we heard about the attack on the Pentagon. It was surreal.
We inspected the next dam and then heard that the South Tower collapsed and immediately after that, the news of the Flight 93 crash nearly overwhelmed us. My son was calling and asking if we were at war. I told him to stay with his mother and stay home until we could find out more details.
Then the North Tower collapsed at 9:28 central. We finished our inspections and headed straight back to Austin, glued to the radio. Then the TV was non-stop. We all tried to fathom what had happened and why.
The details were horrific. The number of heroic deeds were stunning. I always lift a solemn cup of remembrance for those souls who lost their lives on this fateful day, 21 years ago, and for their families.
Forever blazoned in my mind are the words of Todd Beamer on Flight 93, “Let’s Roll!”.
Thanks for posting here-I’ve heard you many times with Fetzer.
I was on the second train out of Grand Central Terminal that day. There were people covered in dust all around me. It was a quiet ride. But what I noticed through the window were all the US flags flying in every conceivable place where none had flown before.
Thanks Sundance for this post.
And for the photos of the jumpers. The media at the time chose not to air video of the jumpers and generally suppressed video and pictures of them for years. Not sure if they were trying to be respecful, but the result felt like erasing them. Let them be remembered too.
My memories are in two parts –the first before the phone call, then after. Like many posting here I was going about my day and had the car radio on when news came of the first plane. The 2nd plane hit while I was at my appointment. Oddly building security was all over the parking garage looking for car bombs. Noone knew what was happening, so they looked for bombs.
I remember all commercial flights being told to ground immediately. The govt was desperate to identify any remaining terrorist-held planes still in the air. I got home to see news playing a repeat loop of the second plane striking the South Tower.
I got a call. A family friend had been on AA11 the first plane that hit the North Tower. Turned off the TV, no longer watchable. She was a part of my childhood neighborhood which was a bit of an extended family –us kids in and out of each others houses. Her mother taught me to swim and I babysat her kids. A few years later I found the seating plan for AA11. She had been towards the back of the plane and I’m not sure what she knew of what was happening up front.
Betty Ong a flight attendant made an extended call to air traffic controllers which was made public in 2004 and which recounts that the hijackers used mace in business and first class making it hard to breathe and several people were stabbed, some killed. I assume my friend died on impact. But still don’t understand how some items of hers were recovered (not sure why the plastic cards didn’t melt).
Lately it seems that the media and government would prefer to whitewash and memory-hole Sept 11. I can’t explain why, but it seems so important that we don’t disappear the memory of this country-changing event nor all of our combined personal experiences. Before 9/11 we moved with freedom and a sense of safety. I miss the America before 9/11. Hope to one day see a semblance of it again.
Almost forgot to mention how moved I was by the feeling of patriotism that washed the country in the days the followed, the unity, the sense of connection with fellow Americans. And on that day the individual acts of immense courage and selflessness. No wonder the media and govt wants this day to fade from memory.
James Corbett- 9/11 Whistleblowers
“But someone would have talked,” say the self-styled skeptics who believe the government’s official conspiracy theory of 9/11. But there’s a problem with this logically fallacious non-argument. “Someone” did talk. In fact, numerous people have come out to blow the whistle on the events of September 11, 2001, and the cover-up that surrounds those events. These are the stories of the 9/11 Whistleblowers.
https://www.corbettreport.com/911whistleblowers/
James Corbett- 9/11 Wargames
Little did we know at the time, 9/11 was not a normal day of blue sky aviation. On the contrary, it was one of the busiest days in the history of American aviation, a dense forest of live fly exercises, drills, simulations, fake radar injects and utter confusion. And that was before the attacks even began. This is the story of 9/11 that you didn’t watch unfold on your TV that fateful day in 2001. This is the story of the 9/11 War Games.
https://www.corbettreport.com/9-11-war-games/
James Corbett – 9/11 Trillions Follow the Money
Forget for one moment everything you’ve been told about September 11, 2001. 9/11 was a crime. And as with any crime, there is one overriding imperative that detectives must follow to identify the perpetrators: follow the money. This is an investigation of the 9/11 money trail.
https://www.corbettreport.com/911-trillions-follow-the-money-video/
Donald Trump did not believe the establishment story – watch interviews with him from that time. There are videos, some very good, bringing out all the truth. At first I didn’t believe the “conspiracy theories” but once I saw the evidence it was plain as day what happened.
I am so sorry — Think people misunderstood what I meant by the word whitewash. I did not mean what people seem to think I was saying by the word “whitewash” —this was a real event, that impacted real people, including someone I knew. I am so sorry to confuse people with my poor choice of words.
I was thinking of our govt describing 9/11 as some vague thing that happened –trying to disappear the event and make it less horrible. That’s what I meant by whitewash. Knew I shouldn’t have written today. My apologies to everyone.
Today is about honoring the memory of the day. Sorry if I accidentally derailed the conversation — not at all my intention — I was shocked and surprised to come back here later and see where things went–guess I need a thesaurus to comment. Thank you to all who are posting their memories.
You gave no offense and I see no grounds to take such.
There has been a bit of contention that is somewhat understandable but you aren’t the source of it.
You’re doing just fine, appreciate your remarks, stay with it.
When the fires weakened the Steel Framing Members, the massive weight of the stories above the fire caused the Steel Framing on the exterior part of the structure to fail. As the upper stories fell, they gained momentum, increasing their force/or weight—the Cooler exterior Steel Members, though stronger, could not stop the momentum of the upper stories, but they did maintain directional control of the upper stories, forcing them to fall almost straight down.
I have been in building construction most of my life, and understand how structures behave under stress.
Thank you Sundance for the invitation to share with fellow Treepers. I have done so at 4:44 and I have issued a similar invitation to my friends with whom I regularly share the wisdom and perspective of CTH.
God bless you all.
The names of the dead are listed here from the Memorial.
http://www.911memorial.org/visit/memorial/names-911-memorial
If you’re unfortunate enough to find yourself in New York City, be sure to head on down to the memorial. The infinity pools are quite something. Staring into the holes in the ground where the towers once stood… every name etched in bronze… you’ll find yourself walking 360 degrees around each, reading each and every name because you feel like you have to…
Also don’t forget to visit St. Paul’s Church… it’s quite a story of the days around the attack, and an interesting history to boot…
Not even one window had been shattered. The building sat directly across the street from the World Trade Center yet survived unscathed. People started referring to it as “the little chapel that could.” The church gave credit to a giant sycamore for saving it from damage.
Worked for a large healthcare corporation at the time. A few days prior to 9/11 there had been a shooting at a hospital in another smaller city nearby. I had been interviewed by a newspaper reporter regarding that incident and general hospital security practices. Knowing that the newspaper article was due out the morning of 9/11, I was pretty nervous about the slant the reporter would put on the story. Early the morning of 9/11 Westcoast time, I got a call from the Corporate President’s secretary asking me if I knew what was going on and directing me to the corporate boardroom immediately. I of course said I did know what was going on, but assumed things were blowing up over the shooting and the newspaper article. Drove quickly to the office building and ran to the boardroom, really sweating how bad the article must be. When I arrived all of the Board Members and upper administration minus the corporate president were there watching the burning buildings. Turned out nobody had even read the newspaper and the Board wanted me to drive several hundred miles to get the corporate president back home after all the planes were grounded. While I was momentarily relieved I wasn’t in trouble over anything I said to a reporter, I was only able to stay and watch as the 1st tower collapsed before heading out to get the corporate president back home.