Please
- Thread starter Draketake
- Start date
At least 3 times more of our First Responders have died and/or continue to fight heath issues than those ~3,000 killed in the towers collapse.
That does not include the 10's of 1,000's exposed to the toxic stuff that lived and/or worked in the area.
A tragedy that just keeps on taking ---> 25 years later...
That does not include the 10's of 1,000's exposed to the toxic stuff that lived and/or worked in the area.
A tragedy that just keeps on taking ---> 25 years later...
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That day is one that I will never forget. Took a red eye flight from the Tri Cities to Reagan airport. Plane was able to land and I saw the towers burning on the TV screen as I walked through the airport. In a taxi on my way to a hotel in Arlington on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, I heard the plane hit the Pentagon and saw the smoke plume above the tree line. By Friday, I was able to procure a rental car at Dulles and started driving home. On Sunday, I got on a flight out of Salt Lake City for the final leg. Adrenaline was high and I had a couple of long days on the road. Many others were on the highways that day driving home. That trip is etched in my memory and I find it hard to believe that it has been 25 years.
My close neighbor, a supervisor in the SeaTac control tower, answered the phone call that ordered to get all the planes on the ground now.
He has not spoken about it hardly at all. The little bit he has shared was involved in getting all the planes in route from Asia and the Far East to ensure they had a place to land...
He has not spoken about it hardly at all. The little bit he has shared was involved in getting all the planes in route from Asia and the Far East to ensure they had a place to land...
I was working eight blocks from the white house in DC, and had just gone into a meeting when my wife paged me. One of my colleagues’s husband worked at the pentagon, and their kids were in the day care there.
We sent everyone home, but the streets were gridlocked and the metro wasn’t running, so we walked to a coworkers apartment in Rosslyn. I’ll never forget seeing the smoke and the pentagon from the Key bridge.
Going back to work a few days later was wild. Streets were empty, with armed humvees every few blocks.
I made the mistake of agreeing to a speaking engagement on 9/10/2002 in Dallas, and had a flight back to National on the 11th. I’ve never seen DFW so empty, nor have I ever been on a flight with so many fit young men with short hair and alert eyes.
Then there was the anthrax stuff, and I learned to not count on getting back in the building when the fire alarm rang. Plus the snipers. It was a hell of a time to be in DC, with a very sharp line pre and post 9/11.
We sent everyone home, but the streets were gridlocked and the metro wasn’t running, so we walked to a coworkers apartment in Rosslyn. I’ll never forget seeing the smoke and the pentagon from the Key bridge.
Going back to work a few days later was wild. Streets were empty, with armed humvees every few blocks.
I made the mistake of agreeing to a speaking engagement on 9/10/2002 in Dallas, and had a flight back to National on the 11th. I’ve never seen DFW so empty, nor have I ever been on a flight with so many fit young men with short hair and alert eyes.
Then there was the anthrax stuff, and I learned to not count on getting back in the building when the fire alarm rang. Plus the snipers. It was a hell of a time to be in DC, with a very sharp line pre and post 9/11.
I was on faculty at Georgetown and living in Arlington 2 blocks from Key Bridge, which I walked over every day to and from work. I was in my office listening to the news of the strikes in New York when a colleague poked his head in the door and said "they got the Pantagon". He had seen the plain flying unusually low but did not actually see the hit.
Georgetown cancelled all classes and everyone was sent home. Like Phil, I saw the smoke from the Pentagon crossing the Key Bridge on my way home. It smoked for several days, maybe a week in I recall. The thing I remember the most is the eerie silence. No traffic, no horns, no airplanes coming down the Potomac to Reagan National. It was just so unusually quiet.
I had forgotten about the "DC sniper". Some friends and I would sit outside having coffee, sometimes wondering, only half jokingly, if we would be targeted. We weren't going to change our ways though. It was a crazy time in DC for the next couple of years.
Georgetown cancelled all classes and everyone was sent home. Like Phil, I saw the smoke from the Pentagon crossing the Key Bridge on my way home. It smoked for several days, maybe a week in I recall. The thing I remember the most is the eerie silence. No traffic, no horns, no airplanes coming down the Potomac to Reagan National. It was just so unusually quiet.
I had forgotten about the "DC sniper". Some friends and I would sit outside having coffee, sometimes wondering, only half jokingly, if we would be targeted. We weren't going to change our ways though. It was a crazy time in DC for the next couple of years.
Was asleep after a night shift in San Antonio. My cousin came in and woke me up, told me a plane had hit the 1st tower. I got to the TV just in time to see the 2nd hit and then the pentagon and the calamity of trying to find flight 93.
Family asked me what I thought and I told them honestly, We're headed to war. Whoever did this is going to met their end by some soldier with a gun.
4 days later I was mobilized as part of an AMCOM team and was sent to Port of Charleston to help with load outs of the army prepositioning fleet.
Family asked me what I thought and I told them honestly, We're headed to war. Whoever did this is going to met their end by some soldier with a gun.
4 days later I was mobilized as part of an AMCOM team and was sent to Port of Charleston to help with load outs of the army prepositioning fleet.
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An old friend of mine was working for AP at that time, she took this famous photo and the story behind it is below. She went on to become Jakarta AP photo chief, and was then covering the boxing day Tsunami. Two of the most awful disasters, she covered front lines for them both.
Hard to find the words...
That day brought the US and all Americans together. It also brought the world together. Regardless of differences, it reshaped the the US and the world forever.
Every year, I watch programs about the memories, the sacrifices, the pain and all the heroic actions all being re-kindled all for a larger common good. Yes, tears are quite evident by me. Every year I learn something new.
About 1/3 of our population were not alive then. They should watch and learn from the remembrances of such a tragic day so it will not happen again ---> ever
Yes, never forget....
Can't forget. Just like with the JFK assassination, I'll always remember where I was - driving north on I-5 north of Seattle with a work colleague. We were on our way to a Skagit fisheries meeting in LaConner when we heard the initial radio report. Like a lot of people, and I think the radio announcer too, we thought it must have been a tragic freak occurrence where a private pilot in a small aircraft had a tragic medical emergency and crashed into the building. Then about 17 minutes later the report broke with the news that a second aircraft, a commercial jetliner, crashed into the south tower. In that instant it was clear that this was a terrorist attack and we were now at war.
Later I was on the phone with my oldest daughter who was working at Pew Research in D.C. She had gone to work late that morning and was riding her bike across the bridge near the Pentagon shortly after it was attacked and saw the smoke. She stopped and asked people on the street what had happened.
No one who was alive in this country on that day will ever forget. A Saudi terrorist did what neither Germany nor Japan couldn't do in WWII; he brought war onto the shores of the U.S. And our country isn't and never will be the same.
Later I was on the phone with my oldest daughter who was working at Pew Research in D.C. She had gone to work late that morning and was riding her bike across the bridge near the Pentagon shortly after it was attacked and saw the smoke. She stopped and asked people on the street what had happened.
No one who was alive in this country on that day will ever forget. A Saudi terrorist did what neither Germany nor Japan couldn't do in WWII; he brought war onto the shores of the U.S. And our country isn't and never will be the same.
My oldest aunt, who lives in West Linn Oregon, was vacationing in NYC. Her hotel was only 8 blocks away from ground zero. She had visited the World Trade Center just 2 days prior. She couldn't see the towers from her hotel, but could see & smell the smoke. And hear all the sirens. All she could do was hunker down in her hotel and hope nothing happened. Vacation was over.
Her flight ended up being delayed and she had to stay there for 3 or 4 extra days, which she has never once complained about. She was just thankful to be alive and understood a tourist getting back to Oregon was the least of their worries.
Never forget!
Her flight ended up being delayed and she had to stay there for 3 or 4 extra days, which she has never once complained about. She was just thankful to be alive and understood a tourist getting back to Oregon was the least of their worries.
Never forget!