I was just coming in to work, entering through the cafeteria, and there was a group of folks standing around looking up at the TV that was on. I saw what apparently was a replay of one of the planes, I think the first, flying into one of the towers. I stopped to watch, wondering what the heck we were watching. Normally there was something silly, inane on the tv. Then watching, we saw the second plane crash. They did not have the sound on which made it seem even more surreal. After a very quiet, solemn morning, we spent the afternoon and next few days trying to figure out how to get our field service team home from various locations throughout the country, Canada and South America. A very dear friend of my wife and I for many years worked in the tower. Remarkably, he did not go in that morning as he had an unscheduled meeting with some of his team in NJ. He still has much guilt and remorse over that.

I was in DC / NOVA that day with a buddy at the car dealer’s service counter. The service manager said “come into the customer lounge, a plane just hit the World Trade Center on TV”

A couple of minutes later, the second plane hit.

https://x.com/just_whatever/status/2094897362757882202

I was working as a school nurse at a Texas elementary school. My first thoughts while watching the planes hit the tower was we’re at war. I didn’t know who or why but I knew someone or something was declaring war on us. My WWII vet father in law told me no this isn’t war. Little did I know at that time that the dark forces behind the attack probably involved our own government.

My next thought was what I needed to do to prepare in case the elementary school I was the sole medical professional was somehow a part of this emergency event. Really, a new normal in how I looked at the world. Be prepared for the unthinkable.

And then, the overwhelming quiet that occurred for weeks after the event. No airplanes over DFW, empty streets. BUT, for a brief moment Americans had a pride I’d never seen. It was comforting. And then, our ‘leaders’, MSM, and ICA began to slowly show their dark side. What? Islam is a peaceful religion? That was when I realized that something is very wrong in our nation and world.

It may sound crazy, but after the second tower was hit, I left work and went home.
I strapped on a weapon and just walked up and down the road I lived on.
Angry, horrified, confused, sad.
I wasn’t looking for trouble, but by God, I was going to be ready for it.

I was laid off at the time, woke up to my mother watching Good Morning America and on the screen they were talking about the first plane that had hit the World Trade Center and how it could have been an accident. Then we watched the second plane hit the other tower. It wasn’t till later that night that me and my father were sitting the in backyard when we say two jets fly over. An my dad commented they were flying combat air patrols over the Detroit Area.

I didn’t expect to feel the way I do on this date, 25 years after evil reached out and subsumed our America into terror, shock, disbelief, loss, and unbearable grief.

If I describe it, I’d have to admit that what I felt on 9/11 when I heard the news, I am experiencing to the same degree today.

Never forget, we said, then proceeded to do just that…and promptly dropped our guard.

A sorrowful day of terrible Remembrance as we consider the existential cost of that forgetting. 

God rest the souls of those who thought they were simply just getting on with another day in their lives, and found they were not.

God bring whatever peace is possible for their families who said their quick, usual “See you when you get home” farewells. And who can never forget, as far too many have.

Almighty God, our Father, by Your mercies, look upon this country, take pity, and be with us as we attempt to restore this nation as founded upon our love of and faith in Your Divine presence. So that once again You may bless us with Your grace which we long ago by our iniquities forfeited. In the Holy Name of Your One and Only Son Christ Jesus, our Saviour, we pray…Amen.

And Amen.

Had just reached my office in Chicago. Before I had even taken the lid off my coffee one of the traders walked by and told us a plane had hit the WTC. 15 minutes later when the 2nd plane hit the decision was made to evacuate our office which sat directly across the street from the Sears Tower. Headed back to the train station along with thousands of others trying to get out of Chicago. There was a two hour wait to get on a train. Watched both towers fall on a TV in a bar in the train station. Never did open my coffee.

I knew 30-40 people who died in the South Tower. People I had worked with for years. The stories that came out later were heart breaking. Some had left the building only to be told to go back to their offices. Where they died. One man told me he was debating whether to go back up to his office when his wife called and begged him to leave the area. He listened and lived.

There are other stories of people from that firm which are too terrible to type here.

RIP former colleagues. We will never forget.

I had just flown into Laguardia and was in a shuttle to pick up a rental car. Out the window I saw the smoke where the 1st airplane hit. Then watched as the 2nd airplane hit the World Trade Center. Drove to our corporate offices on Long Island and watched the towers fall. Days before I could drive my rental car get out of NY.

Alan Jackson asks the question: “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”:

I think of those who were delayed en route to work…one went back in the house for a bandaide, missed the train because of that, thereby surviving…another was delayed getting the child to school…missed a bus…and survived…

Sitting in my Long Island kitchen drinking coffee & getting ready to go out on the road for my sales job. I turned on the TV & Fox News was talking about a “small plane” having hit the WTC. As I watched, I saw the 2nd plane hit and the fireball spew out the other side. Immediately called my husband at work & told him to turn on their tv. Shortly thereafter, their plant was closed down & he returned home. Remember the east/west highways on Long Island being turned to westbound only as all the local fire departments/volunteers streamed west toward the city. The westerly wind carried the acrid smoke from that funeral pyre over the Island for many days. The usual regular sound of passenger jets from LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark airports was replaced by an eerie silence and the sound of low flying military jets. That day, Our town set up a memorial that we tended near our local firehouse & kept candles burning in memory of those volunteers we’d lost. I will never forget watching people jumping to their deaths and watching the towers collapse and fall. There are still many unanswered questions about everything that occurred on that day. We lost so many brave firefighters, Port Authority police, NYPD and WTC employees. The stories about their bravery and personal sacrifice as they went into the buildings to save others will never be forgotten. NEVER FORGET

Addressing the solemn room in the North Tower on September 11, 1974, Davis gave voice to the single greatest fear haunting the aviation industry: an airborne mass-casualty event.

Eight months after he concluded 33 years of distinguished military service, Lt. Gen. Davis—West Point graduate, legendary commander of the Tuskegee airmen, the first African American general in the US Air Force, and the son of the first Black general in American history—now found himself spearheading the anti-hijacking efforts of the federal government. 

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-untold-pre-history-of-9-11

The family were all at my mothers house getting ready to attend my grandfathers funeral.
It was a sunny beautiful morning here in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Sitting in my office at the Dept. of Corrections when a coworker stuck his head in and said a plane had flown into the World Trade Center Building. I thought he was joking and continued working, until I realized the offices around me had emptied out.

I went to the hallway and everyone was crowded around a tv set. I was just in time to see the second plane. I felt sick. Confused. Dismayed. I took sick leave, went home and stayed glued to the tv all day.

I cried many, many tears that day and since then. The world changed that day, and there has been no justice for the American people since then.

Since then, our political class has allowed our country to be infiltrated and overrun with our enemies. There is a war against Western Civilization.

This old, 2000 year war of Islam against Christians is on full display, and the people in our government seem willfully blind.

9-11-2001 was the opening battle against freedom and the American way as we knew it…….we have been under constant attack ever since. 911 was aimed at the spirit, the soul of America and judging by the cow tow reaction to covid it was extremely effective.

Our fathers generation would not have put up with our current condition.

We are surrounded by a propagandized and ignorant populace by design.

Win or lose it will come down to how much sand the remnant have.

The eerie empty skies is something I will never forget.

Some of you may have seen my handle before. I am a (very) infrequent poster, but I have been here for a decade. Every day. Therefore, since I trust this community to the extent I can trust anyone, I will share a bit of my experience. It is intimate. It is personal.

I am not a native New Yorker, but I have now been here (in the metro area) for 30 years. Earlier in 2001 my then-wife and I welcomed our first child into this world; she is still the delight of my life, thankfully. This is important to mention because by September, 2001, both of her parents were working in NYC and this day was ALL about getting back to our precious child.

Our commute that day went THROUGH the World Trade Center (WTC). We literally walked the grounds of the tragedy to come, half hour later. My wife worked ACROSS THE STREET, and I worked in nearby Long Island City (LIC – i.e. a part of Brooklyn) at a well-known company, then a “start up.” The management of that company, in tough-guy NYC fashion was an obnoxious stew of hubris and fakery and their actions that day and in subsequent days fit the same pattern. I know, no surprise.

I was, as typical, one of the early arrivals to the office and there were about 3-4 people there when we started getting reports of an event at the WTC. We turned on the TV and could see the damage to the first building that was hit. Having previously worked with someone who worked at the WTC in the earlier 1993 bombing, I was well aware of the desire of these islamo-fascists to destroy the complex. Their original intent was to bomb the bottom and topple one of the towers into the other, but they didn’t use enough destructive force. They learned their lesson. Knowing this, I called my wife and told her to leave immediately and walk north to a relative’s apartment, in Stuyvesant Town, for those of you who know the landscape (several blocks north and east for those who don’t – in other words, outside the extent of a falling WTC). Then the second plane hit and everyone’s aspect changed completely. Also, communication was no longer possible. All at once. Even though I didn’t know it, my wife did, for once, listen to me, but as soon as she stepped outside, she was rewarded with closeup witness to the jumpers falling like teardrops every second out of the now two towers that were on fire. The SOUND of these unfortunate souls as their denouement was effected has terrorized HER soul ever since. To this day, she cannot even conjure up these mental images, much less even talk about it. We all cope in our own way.

Meanwhile, from the roof of my building in LIC, along with many of my now-arrived colleagues, I watched the towers crumble. “We are at war,” was the only thought I had. You could not help watching this happen and of course KNOWING that you were literally watching people die. At that point, I did not know if my wife was even safe. This is the “up close” nature of this experience, because many of us in this beautiful country in which we live, NEVER have to experience this kind of violent death right in our grills. Even in New York City. Incidentally, the “CEO” of my company chased people off the roof, because he felt we should conduct important meetings about the “launch” right then, which he pretended was less than a month away, even though it didn’t actually happen for another year. I informed him I was leaving to get my wife and get back to my daughter. I caught shit for it when I returned on the 13th. I will not elaborate further, since I have washed myself from that iniquity long ago.

Long trip to Stuy Town to pick up my wife because things just weren’t running, and communication at that point was not possible. Ended up having to go north to walk across the 59th St. bridge and then back down to the 20s to get my wife and check on my relative. For those of you not familiar with NYC, that is a pretty long walk. Along the way, I witnessed, for the first time in my life, manned military vehicles with 50 caliber placements on top, guarding street corners in the USA, like some coup d’etat was underway. And NO traffic. Don’t misconstrue this thought process as a negative about the Army; my son is at West Point right now. I am a supporter of the military, even if not often its civilian leadership. This was simply what I was thinking at the time; I’m no shrinking violet, but it is a bit intimidating.

I met the then-governor that day, George Pataki, as people were lined up at the hospital trying to give blood. The gov was there encouraging and thanking everyone, not mugging for the camera. He was just a guy that day. BTW, nobody really understood at that point that blood was not going to help – the people in those buildings were flattened. Everyone just didn’t know what to do, but wanted to do something. Say what you want about New Yorkers (and I often do, too) but when you strip away all the bullshit and the other “skin” you kinda have to wear to live here, MOST of us are still Americans at heart with positive American impetus. ALL along my walk that day, people just gave me free water that they had brought out to the streets by the pallet.

Any way, the day ended close to 1am the next day, as another long walk up to Penn Station (34th street on the West side of town) and a long wait for an over-packed train home that was then stalled (6 hours vs. a normal 40 minutes) by a bomb threat along the way. I’m surprised the train didn’t topple over since everyone was on the left side looking at the looming and now iconic smoke as our previous lives curled away in the beautiful, clear September sky.

I hugged and sang lullabies to my daughter for two days.

There’s so much more, but for everyone’s sake that’s a good end point to my story. God bless us all.

Thank you for putting up the remembrances and reminder, didn’t think i would think on this today, but it is needed.

I was watching at home that day, when i still watched tv news, mulling the smoking first strike, shocked as i watched the second. So many horrific memories well up–the jumping people, falling buildings–a day packed with emotion.

The skies went silent that day; it was eerily quiet–until the President’s plane and escort flew on Barksdale approach at the north treeline.

The country was reunited for a few days after that, so far from that now.

9/11 Was The Beginning Of A Religious War That We Lost

By: John Daniel Davidson

September 10, 2026

“…“The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam,” bin Laden wrote. It’s a striking admission. The terrorists’ first priority was not for the U.S. to leave Muslim lands, or halt support for Israel, or stop propping up authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. All of those demands come after what bin Laden says is the first thing he wants for America, which is conversion to Islam: “The religion of the Unification of God … of complete submission to His Laws; and of the discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories and religions which contradict with the religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).”

Despite such an explicit statement from bin Laden, and others like it from jihadist Muslims around the world, almost no one in the West wanted to acknowledge this reality and its implications, because doing so would undermine the animating idea of the post-Cold War project. If sincere religious convictions could inspire Muslims in the 21st century to carry out attacks like 9/11, then it wasn’t really true that all religions are the same. And if that’s the case, then all peoples and cultures are also not the same, and neither is all labor, and suddenly the entire agenda of creating a borderless world of global free markets is called into question.

So almost immediately after 9/11 our political leaders and most major media outlets scrambled to declare that Islam had nothing to do with the attacks, that there was nothing to fear from Muslims, and that anyone who suggested otherwise was a bad American.

Less than a week after 9/11, as the rubble of the Twin Towers was still smoldering, President George W. Bush gave his now infamous “Islam is peace” speech after meeting with Muslim leaders at the Islamic Center of Washington. “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam,” he said. “That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.” The terrorist attacks, he said, “violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.”…”

https://thefederalist.com/2026/09/10/9-11-was-the-beginning-of-a-religious-war-that-we-lost/

I was at home getting ready to leave for work. I think my wife was watching the Today show and they had video of the first tower burning. When the second plane hit I knew it wasn’t an accident and I hustled off to work. It was a beautiful sunny day with hardly any clouds where I lived in the Midwest and as I drove to work I could see planes flying over our downtown and I wondered if one was going to hit one of our skyscrapers.

I worked in financial services and the group was significantly impacted by 9-11 so it became a very busy day and night. Back then things were still paper-based so grounding all the airplanes was a big deal. The federal government had to get involved to keep the payment system afloat and save multiple large banks/brokers from going under (due in no fault of their own, that time).

The Feds have never really undid their involvement in the industry in fact (until Trump 2 it only increased). Congress passed the Check21 bill unanimously (there were no “nay” votes) which paved the way for check digitization which underlays much of the financial innovation you see now. Of course there’s Homeland Security and all the other things that occurred as well. Sept 11 2001 was a very impactful day in many regards.

I was 15 miles away in New Jersey, walking in to work, four months pregnant with my oldest daughter when the first tower was hit……..they sent us home after a little while and I remember sitting on my couch crying the whole day. The next day I was driving to work and had to pull over, crying my eyes out. Heading toward New York City, on the other side of the highway I was on, were hundreds and hundreds of fire trucks, EMTS, police cars, ambulances, and other rescue vehicles…..all heading to Ground Zero……if feels like it just happened yesterday and not 25 years ago……….

Heard on the radio about “a small plane” hitting a WTC building. Then listened the rest of the morning as the attack progressed. I knew then that our lives would be changed irrevocably, but I could not envision the extent. Never could I have imagined that 25 years later there would be so many who doubt what we all saw replayed over and over on TV that week.

Bush knew.

I caught part of a movie trailer with Arnold Swartzenegger where a high rise tower was on fire. The morning was amazingly clear, cool, crisp and beautiful. I was a criminal investigator and went to the office for the usual work assignments for the day. The TV was on in the background and when the first tower was on fire, I thought this might be prep for the movie or an accident, since a while back an aircraft struck the Empire State Building. It was then that we watched the second plane strike the second tower and we all knew America was under attack. My fellow Investigators and I to a man and woman immediately got angry and wanted to fight, fight, fight!
Perhaps because of the events of that day, the movie was never released to my knowledge.

I lived in Madrid, Spain, at the time. My wife worked for the U.S. Embassy and we had U.S. Armed Forces TV at home. I had
“Good Morning America” on. Just before 3pm they broke in to report some sort of activity with smoke visible near the top of the North Tower of the WTC. My wife was a New Yorker so I called her and told her to turn on her TV. Speculation on the TV was a plane “accident.” The second plane then hit the South Tower and the question immediately was who and why. Then U.S. airspace shut down and we had hundreds of American’s “trapped” in Spain. Then the rest of the story began to play out.

As we all were, I was shocked by the towers coming down. I was an Athletic director at a Catholic University and told my coaches to shut it down for the day and to make sure the athletes were safe and then go home.
I was glued to the TV but when I saw the BBC reporter report live on TV that Building 7 had come down twenty minutes before it did…….I was never the same again.

I cried all day. By the next morning on 9/12 my eyes were so puffy I couldn’t see.

Charlotte NC downtown library. A block from world hq of Bank of America. All of downtown charlotte evacuated. What I recall clearest is the sound of my son’s voice when he called me from college. Fear, confusion, vulnerability. I had no answers.

I got to work early that day and was at my desk. A co worker stopped by my office about 8 CT and said a plane hit the World Trade Center. We kind of puzzled over how that could happen and assumed it was a small plane. She came back 15 minutes later and said another plane had hit the WTC. At that point you knew we were under attack.

The worst thing was seeing that first tower crumble and fall. I could never have imagined such a thing could happen.

It’s absurd how far this country has shifted in 25 years. We now have an extremist muslim mayor of NYC, who would really love to demolish the freedom tower and the 9-11 memorial and build a mosque in its place.

Our tv was on, my husband had left, my son was getting ready to go to school, we lived in the mountains his school was in Denver. I was idly watching when the first blurbs came, then the footage. I could not understand how that could have happened, and while he and I were standing in the kitchen watching the second plane hit and I knew it was no accident. He and I talked about it on the way to school. When I got home I was walking my dog when the neighbor stuck his head out his door and said the first tower had collapsed, I cut the dog walk short went home in time to see the second tower collapse. It made me sick then and it still makes me sick now I can’t imagine the horror of being on the floor above the plane with no escape. I felt horrible and it made me angry, sick, and sad all at once and that hasn’t changed and for some reason this year it’s worse than in the past.

I was at Erie Community College in Buffalo, NY. I was attending to learn computer programming after a fall off a ladder in 1995 ended my career working on my feet as a lab technician.

My first class was an Accounting class, very early in the morning with an hour and a half break before my next class. Word spread fast and the AV Department in the basement had a TV playing in the hallway about 20 feet from my locker. I saw the 2nd plane hit live and instantly knew it was not an accident.

I had seen many controlled demolitions on TV over the years. What struck me was how both towers collapsed perfectly straight down, without any sideways lean – despite asymmetric aircraft strikes at different levels.

The official government psycho-babble and obfuscation soon followed, just like the Wuhan virus plandemic.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

What Part Did George W. Bush Play on 9/11 and Why Did the Saudis Get the Royal Treatment?
Reprinted from January 30, 2026

Susan Daniels
Sep 08, 2026

“…Over the years, the Bush family and its affiliates have received a significant amount of money from the Saudis. According to Craig Unger: “Around $1.4 billion (high-end estimate) in investments and government contracts tied to Bush-connected firms that involved Saudi funding or customers — according to some investigative accounts.”

Bush needed a reason to go to war with Iran, and he got it on 9/11. World War I started with the sinking of the Lusitania and the illegal armaments stored in the hull. FDR was warned repeatedly about an attack on Pearl Harbor. All evidence points to George W. Bush knowing what was coming on 9/11….”

https://susandaniels.substack.com/p/what-part-did-george-w-bush-play-950

I was at work, SE Michigan, just west of Detroit and was listening to the Drew & Mike show on 101.1 WRIF when they said that a plane had crashed into the first tower, the one radio host Mike, was a pilot himself and was describing what they were seeing on the news and him saying that what he saw was not just some little Cessna.

We had just recently got a big screen TV for our cafeteria and we probably had 20 people crowded in there watching the flames and smoke from the first tower when we all saw the 2nd plane fly directly into the other tower live as it happened. We were all glued to the TV for awhile and then reports started coming out about other planes possibly being hijacked. Pretty much everyone went home early.

I live 5 miles due north of Detroit Metropolitan Airport(DTW) and later that day it was so quiet when the airspace got shut down. Right now i can hear airplanes taking off about every 60 seconds over my house. Again I tuned into 101.1 FM, different radio hosts but they just observed a moment of silence for when the first plane was crashed into the towers.

This still hits big, 25 years later. I wish the whole country was as unified now as it was then.

In Memory Of 9/11/2001 Live!!!

https://usnewson.com/watch/fox-news-live

Never Forget The Evil Of Islam!!!

Oh, my good gawd!

This was 25 years ago?

Holy Crap, I’m old.

On the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. Anger, boiling anger — that’s what I felt. Still do.

I worked in Boston at a financial firm at the time. That week i was home with my baby and watched the bombings unfold. I called my boss to ask if he needed me to come in not thinking we might be a target too. Every time I drove to work after that, if I saw a plane near the skyscrapers near my building, I was afraid.

like some of us, we do remember the events of that day, many were watching it unfold on tv. Hard to judge time in this events, hard to believe it was 25 years ago. And how much our country has changed over the last 25 years.

The security state with super powers to spy on all americans, and the lies Bush did to attack the wrong country. And then Covid biological attack by our Government to turn the country into police state with tyrannt leaders in some of the states, … shutting down schools, churches, etc.

Then the 25 million invaders that were allowed to come in our country, changing our language, and now running major cities, and the list goes on. Lots of changes the last 25 years.

Lest we forget this aspect….John Brennan director CIA converted to Islam…..and was involved with approvals for Visas for flight school training.

I was teaching a fifth grade class in a small private school. The principal called me to his office after the first strike, and as we watch the news, the second plane hit.

Evil only understands one language. Unfortunately it seems that 25 years later, we still fail to speak that language with authority.

I was 9 years old and in school and remember a lot of hustle and bustle but the teachers were reluctant to tell us what happened (small private school). I officially found out after school during my sisters ballet class when I finally asked my mom what everyone was talking about and she just said “two planes crashed”

I was a commuter pilot on an overnight in Philly. I was talking to my wife on the phone with Fox News in the background. We were discussing the smoke coming from one of the towers. My only thought was that a sightseeing plane had gotten too close and crashed. Then we watched the second plane hit. Then I knew we were at war.

I was working 2nd shift painting in the cleveland ford engine plant. Just got home from taking my kids to school and saw the 2nd plane flown into the tower. The ford plant is next to the airport, they told us not to come to work until notified. Everything around the airport was shut down.

screw islam and all its adherents

Thank you, Sundance. 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Like most at my desk at work.

First thought – well, we have a major war on our watch.

Second thought – thank God for the stupidity of our enemies. They attacked a civilian target. Flashy, and yes well over 3000 deaths (some months or years later), but they did not damage the nation seriously. Nor did they damage our ability to make war. There are many ways they could have done exponentially more damage and killed 10 or 20 times more people.

Later in the day – fury at the idiots in NYFD & NYPD that let people back in the South Tower. It should and the surrounding area should have been evacuated immediately.

Was working in the Poconos on an elevator in the early morning and could see the smoke from the towers. When discovered it was a large jet, I knew it was not an accident. The second jet confirmed. Many of the Islamic faith responsible were on television jumping up and cheering in NJ and NY. Later Bush scrubbed any videos of Islamic celebrations from the airwaves.

Always a hard day. Our family lost a cousin & a long time friend.

My cousin’s Thomas’s wife, terry strada, decided today she’d had enough.

file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/eb/11/9518D5AA-2881-47DE-BECD-E740C2FB42F3/IMG_8827.mov

Hope this video posts.

DONT ASK QUESTIONSsteria: Best 9/11 Memes

Building 7 didn’t kill itself, jet fuel melts steel (but not passport paper), if only they made the WTC out of passport paper, from never forget to forget or don’t ask questions and more 9/11 memes!
Sep 11, 2026

https://covidsteria.substack.com/p/dont-ask-questionssteria-best-9-11-memes

I just heard a blerb on Fox….that 25 years ago,

“100 million Americans weren’t born yet”

(that “one generation” perhaps, a geenration being 20-25 years, that Ronald Reagan spoke of…)

For my wife and I this day is bittersweet.

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary.

Doris was getting ready for work, I had just turned on Faux news to find the first tower burning. As I told her what was happening, I watched the second jetliner hit the second tower.

I have no words for what I feel for those who masterminded this attack or those who did it.

I still say, as I have said for over 50 of my 68 years on this earth, we need a dedicated military force to hunt down and kill every terrorist that exists. Every last damn one of them.

I was at work early that day in my office on the 18th floor of BCE Place in downtown Toronto, for a call with our US office. I came out after to find my boss and update her. But everyone was in the boardroom watching the news. I walked in and saw the first tower smoking.

Someone said “A small plane just hit the WTC”. I was fairly new to Canada but I’d lived through 30 years of the IRA campaigns in England. I shouted out “That’s a f*cking terrorist attack – where are the jet fighters?”. Everybody looked shocked, mainly because I’d reverted to English and used the F word, never heard in public there.

When the second tower got hit they went very quiet. Everybody started to realize that we might all be under attack . We all got sent home an hour later, as most towers in downtown T.O. were evacuated.

Our US office wasn’t in the WTC but we did lose four colleagues who were attending early meetings there.

I hadn’t had to think about terrorism for several years but this cut me to the quick, and brought me back to the full hyper-vigilant state that I was used to being in when in London and other UK cities. I realized I had relaxed during my first 3 years in Canada.

A few days later I was driving down the DVP on the way to work and a 737 flew East to West along the lakeshore right in front of me, heading for downtown. Something I’ve never seen before or since. I had to pull over for a few minutest to compose myself. To this day I can’t be 100% sure it was really there, or if I imagined it.

Anyway, my story is trivial compared to the horror, devastation, trauma and loss suffered by all those poor souls who perished or experienced it in person, and those who ran towards the fire.

I will always think about them. I fervently hope that America, the last hope for Western Civilization, will continue to succeed in the face of ever-increasing hostility from the rest of the world.