Remembering the 9/11 Tragedy

That was well said and it's good that you had a place to go like that. I was in a new school that had TVs in the classrooms so we saw the second plane come in. What a crazy day, I can only imagine what it was like in the city.

9/11

Thank you for re-posting.
Country going south seems like to me. Fighting harder against each other than we did against Jihad and Al-Queda.
I love all peaceful U.S. citizens and those who strive for citizenship.
USA !

I was working in the Sears Tower that day. The building was evacuated an hour or so after the attacks. There was an anonymous threat called in from Milwaukee on the Sears Tower. An obvious hoax, but we didn't know it at the time. Plus, being in the former tallest building in America didn't seem like the best place to be anyways.

We had an office in the World Trade Center as well. One of the employees was a retired cop. As all the persons from our office were heading out from the tower that was NOT attacked, they got a message on intercom to go back and don't leave. The ex-cop was having none of that, and ensured they all left now. Good thing he didn't listen, and that everyone else listened to him. Well, we know what happened next.

Tragically, many folks didn't make it out and died that fateful day. Something that should never be forgotten. I was on the train home when my wife called me telling me the WTC collapsed to the ground. I didn't believe her, told her she was not understanding the reports, etc. I just could not conceive it actually happening until I saw it with my own eyes later that day.

Heck, our company lost $1B on that day alone. We didn't have $1B in reserves. So, nobody got a bonus, nobody got a raise that year and several years after that and yet nobody complained about it

Instead of saying, "oh well", the company borrowed money from the banks, sold all their office buildings nationwide for cash (then rented them back from the new owners) in order to pay their claims. It took over 10 years to pay back the loans.

A moment of silence in remembrance.

It's good to remember and never forget that horrible day. A childhood buddy of mine was a pilot for American then. He was scheduled to fly a 737 from New Jersey to L.A. Was in the motel, changing into his uniform when the phone rang, telling him that all flights were cancelled and to turn on his TV. Jim had lucked out again. Later he was one of the pilots who had a gun in the cockpit, since he previously had clearance to fly nukes as an F-111 pilot. What's crazy? He couldn't carry a small Gerber pen knife I gave him.

Even way out here in Oregon, we remember that day. Another whacky story was that Oregon megadealer Ron Tonkin found himself stranded on the east coast with all flights cancelled. You name the car brand, one of his dealerships sold it...all the way up to and including Ferrari price wise. So, how did he get home to Oregon? Naturally, he bought a car and drove home. What did he buy? A Toyota Camry.
I briefly wondered why. Then realized it was the perfect car to use when one was wanting to not be targeted during an uncertain time. Some days later, a used Camry with a few thousand miles on it was for sale at his Toyota dealership.

I was recently retired...just stayed home, eyes glued to the TV...after calling Jim's mom and learning he and his flight attendant wife were both okay. "Hi Anita. It's Paul. Have you heard from Jim?" "Yes! He and Bev are both fine."

Remember Bush's speech to the nation...saying that those responsible and the nations that aid them would be brought to justice. Sadly, it's a new kind of war...one that has no end.

God bless those who perished, those who suffer yet because of that day, and those who are still perishing and suffering in the fight.

I remember that very vividly. I was already retired so I was able to watch TV for quite some time. I still think bad things about that day. Some of the S**T we are fed about that event doesn't add up. Having been in the aircraft business for 38 years, will do that to you.

four of a kind

The huge rugby player, the former high school football star and
the onetime college baseball player were in first class, the
former national judo champ was in coach. On the morning of Sept.
11, at 32,000 feet, those four men teamed up to sacrifice their
lives for those of perhaps thousands of others.

Probably about an hour into United Flight 93's scheduled trip
from Newark to San Francisco, the 38 passengers aboard the
Boeing 757 realized they were being hijacked. The terrorists
commandeered the cockpit, and the passengers were herded to the
back of the plane.

Shoved together were four remarkable men who didn't much like
being shoved around. One was publicist Mark Bingham, 31, who
helped Cal win the 1991 and '93 national collegiate rugby
championships. He was a surfer, and in July he was carried on the
horns of a bull in Pamplona. Six-foot-five, rowdy and fearless,
he once wrestled a gun from a mugger's hand late at night on a
San Francisco street.

One was medical research company executive Tom Burnett, 38, the
standout quarterback for Jefferson High in Bloomington, Minn.,
when the team went to the division championship game in 1980.
That team rallied around Burnett every time it was in trouble.

One was businessman Jeremy Glick, 31, 6'2" and muscular, the 1993
collegiate judo champ in the 220-pound class from the University
of Rochester (N.Y.), a national-caliber wrestler at Saddle River
(N.J.) Day School and an all-state soccer player. "As long as
I've known him," says his wife, Lyz, "he was the kind of man who
never tried to be the hero--but always was."

One was 32-year-old sales account manager Todd Beamer, who played
mostly third base and shortstop in three seasons for Wheaton
(Ill.) College.

The rugby player picked up an AirFone and called his mother,
Alice Hoglan, in Sacramento to tell her he loved her. The judo
champ called Lyz at her parents' house in Windham, N.Y., to say
goodbye to her and their 12-week-old daughter, Emmy. But in the
calls the quarterback made to his wife, Deena, in San Ramon,
Calif., and in the conversation the baseball player had with a
GTE operator, the men made it clear that they'd found out that
two other hijacked planes had cleaved the World Trade Center
towers.

The pieces of the puzzle started to fit. Somewhere near Cleveland
the passengers on Flight 93 had felt the plane take a hard turn
south. They were now on course for Washington, D.C. Senator Arlen
Specter (R., Pa.) believes the plane might have been headed for
the Capitol. Beamer, Bingham, Burnett and Glick must have
realized their jet was a guided missile.

The four apparently came up with a plan. Burnett told his wife,
"I know we're going to die. Some of us are going to do something
about it." He wanted to rush the hijackers.

Nobody alive is sure about what happened next, but there's good
reason to believe that the four stormed the cockpit. Flight 93
never made it to Washington. Instead, it dived into a field 80
miles southeast of Pittsburgh. All passengers and crew perished.
Nobody on the ground was killed.

In the heart of San Francisco's largest gay neighborhood, a
makeshift memorial grew, bouquet by bouquet, to the rugby player
who was unafraid. Yeah, Bingham was gay.

In Windham, a peace grew inside Lyz Glick. "I think God had this
larger purpose for him," she said. "He was supposed to fly out
the night before, but couldn't. I had Emmy one month early, so
Jeremy got to see her. You can't tell me God isn't at work there."

In Cranbury, N.J., a baby grew in Lisa Beamer, Todd's wife,
their third child. Hearing the report last Friday of her
husband's heroics, Lisa said, "made my life worth living again."

In Washington, a movement grew in Congress to give the four men
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian
can receive.

At a time like this, sports are trivial. But what the best
athletes can do--keep their composure amid chaos, form a plan
when all seems lost and find the guts to carry it out--may be
why the Capitol isn't a charcoal pit.

My 26-year-old niece, Jessica Robinson, works for Congressman
Lane Evans (D., Ill.). Jessica was in the Capitol that morning.
This Christmas I'll get to see her smiling face.

I'm glad there were four guys up there I could count on.

-Rick Reilly

I grew up downtown, about a mile from the World Trade Center. My mom was on the roof hanging up laundry and witness the planes hit the tower.

When I heard the news, I called home but the lines were all busy. Later I found our central office as the AT&T building next to World Trade and they got knocked out. Our phone service wasn't restored for weeks.

Since the Empire State Building survived a hit from a B-25 bomber in WWII, my initial thought was nothing to really worry. Later when the second tower got hit, then it hit home that it was deliberate act of terrorism.

Working in New Jersey, we could still see downtown Manhattan from the roof deck garagee at work. Many came out to see what was happening. The most crass thing I saw was a family in a minivan pulled in from I-95 and took pictures of themselves with burning towers in the background. I was simply at a loss for words.

I still live in downtown Manhattan, closer to ground zero than before. I've been diagnosed with COPD and wonder if it stem from that disaster.

I’ve got 9/11 stories, but they pale in comparison to other people’s tragedies and near misses. But I do tell people this when the stories start to come out: my ex-wife and my anniversary is Sept 11.

Freddie <~~~ not one up

I was young then, just 23 and it was the 1st year that I started a real job. I worked since I was 16 but nothing with benefits and all. It was my day off and my phone rang. I was asleep and wasn't going to answer because I saw the # and new it was work. Mind you back then I was out gambling every night after work whether it was pool or poker til 6 or 7am, worked 2nd shift, 3-11:30pm. For some reason I decided to answer and my boss asked me to come in right away. I asked why and she told me to turn on my TV. As soon as I turned on my TV so many crazy thoughts entered my mind, but did manage to tell my boss is be there ASAP. Forgot to mention I worked in a hospital in Central NJ so we weren't sure how busy we would be or how many people would get shipped to us from the attacked area.

So many thoughts came to mind that day. I was young and stupid, but I remember being a little thankful because my father used to work in the Trade Center when I was way younger.

I was reading many posts today on Facebook and the ones that really stick out to me are the ones remind us how we came together as a country back then no matter who we were. All this shit today from guns, race and Creed that is destroying us bothers me. I've never been political or really pay much mind into the news because I don't think I could handle it because it's mostly bad news. The takeaway I get from it is I wish we could come together like that again as a country without disaster.

I was working at the Syracuse Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Syracuse administering chemotherapy to outpatient veterans in our small infusion room. 5 chairs with veterans of Vietnam, Korean and WWII. I typically through the Today show on in the morning. As we sat there watching everything live it was the most surreal thing to be there with men who had sent combat reacting. The silence and determination was incredible. They knew we were now at war.

There was an immediate canvassing of our staff to go and help , as we are all federal employees. By noon that day it was very apparent that extra medical help was not what the people at ground zero required. The hope that survivors would be found vanished. All the remained was the resolve to respond to those who committed this atrocity.

That day and for the next few months we who worked working in the largest federal building perched at the top of the hill was a very unnerving reality.

A month prior to 9/11 my wife and child were on the exact flight that was the one hijacked to hit the Pentagon. I could not help but think what my reaction would have been. A group of Muslim men take over the plane with box cutters and a box described as a bomb. Would I have chosen the path those did in the plane that went down in that Pennsylvania field? When they said, "Let's roll."

America is the single greatest force for good in the world. Something we should never forget. We must also remember that our kindness will be tested at times and we must maintain our strength.

sjm said:

Thanks to all for sharing their stories and memories. The 9/11 tragedy, as we've learned through the perspective of history, happened to every American, not just to those geographically closest to what happened.

Click to expand...

So true Stu. I can remember that day well, I put a lot of time and effort growing vegetables at 8000+ feet in elevation. My garden froze that day and I can remember complaining about it until I heard what happened in NYC. A frozen garden is really no big thing....since that day my garden has frozen 9 times on September 11th including last night and tonight, crazy.

In Toronto, American flags flying all over the place....
...and signs saying God Bless America.
So many Canucks were crossing the border to help...they started telling them too many.

I read a short story a couple years later that stuck in my mind...
...a woman near ground zero had windows so dirty on her condo that tenants complained.
...turns out she had lost her husband in the towers and wouldn’t clean them in case some
traces of her husband were in the ashes.
....so sad

the Mets won last night with 9 runs on 11 hits.

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A story of another hero from the day the twin towers fell.

There was an old Jewish shoe store owner a few blocks from ground zero and when people went scrambling trying to stay ahead of those awful plumes of dust, smoke and debris that were forced through the nearby streets when the towers fell, he provided access to as many people as could fit in his store and gave away sneakers and other comfortable shoes to the ladies who were wearing high heels to make it easier for them.

There were many stories like this following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. America came together; we were one. It's a shame what's happened to our country in the 18 years since.

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forgive me if you disagree but I feel this needed to be posted:

http://www.fox5ny.com/news/son-of-9...dZvmyaLwsuQdOHNHUvu1HZnV6o1KdvfVIik5MahpMizsE

I always questioned the official narrative of what happened that day. Watch this 5 minute interview and you will too.

Here’s Richard Clarke, former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism for the United States. He has worked for multiple presidents. He was working directly for Bush when 9/11 happened. If you want to know what the guy whose job it was to read all intelligence reports and brief the president daily has to say about this, here you go.

https://youtu.be/bl6w1YaZdf8