9/11 Never forget - 19 years

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Mtns2Skies

Final Approach
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Mtns2Skies
It's now 19 years after 9/11. I was only 7 at the time, but I lived in New Jersey and I remember the eerily quiet skies.
I remember the smoke rising to the North.
I remember all of the heroes and first responders that rushed in without regard for their safety or well being. Only thinking of saving others.
I remembers neighboring families who had fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters and children not come home that day.
I remember the cancers and illnesses that swept across thousands of those people that were there to help that day.
I remember all of those that have fought for, and died for our country defending it from attacks like this happening again.
I remember the nation unified in its anger and resolve.
I remember watching the news and my grandfather, who was about my age at the time of Pearl Harbor, turning to me to tell me I would never forget this day.
I will never forget 9/11.

This is a year old speech, but I believe it is as pertinent now as it will ever be:
 
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I was three days shy of my 5th birthday. I vaguely remember it. Faintly recall being on our living room floor playing with a toy with the tv going and the news was being broadcasted.
 
My 16th birthday, 11th grade. Watched the second airplane crash during trigonometry class.
Thanks for sharing the video.. I've never seen it, but it is right on.
 
I was in my home in Vancouver WA getting ready for work. We routinely had the radio news on in the morning, but when reports of "a twin-engine plane" hitting the WTC came in, we switched on the TV.

My first flight after 9/11 was on the 19th, when all flights had to be under IFR. I flew my Cheetah on a business trip from Vancouver WA to Newport OR, IFR -- in beautiful CAVU conditions. The trip was occasioned by a three-vehicle crash that happened on the afternoon of 9/11 on I-5 near Vancouver. One of the vehicles involved was rented in Seattle by an airline passenger who had no other way to get home to San Francisco.

I recently wrote an article about my last flight before 9/11: https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/07/the-forever-weekend-flying-my-cheetah-to-canada
 
I was flying, then stuck in Hailey, ID, KSUN at the FBO watching on a small TV (that probably was still a tube). OK that was a long time ago. People posting here were 5 and 7. Some were probably not born yet...
 
I was taking number 2 son to school when I heard the news report of a plane hitting the WTC. Got home in time to see the second one hit live on TV. Very solemn day.
 
I was driving to work and heard the morning radio show say something about a plane hitting one of the towers. After I got inside, I ended up watching the TV all morning until I ran out of gas.

We did the tower tour a long time ago. We were in one of the indoor observation decks, looking out over the whole world at sunset on a beautiful day. It was outstanding.
 
I remember the smell. Odd how olfactory memory works when tied to strong emotions.
 
Matthew said:
We did the tower tour a long time ago. We were in one of the indoor observation decks, looking out over the whole world at sunset on a beautiful day. It was outstanding.
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I also did the tower tour a long time ago. I grew up in NJ and remember them being built. Coincidentally I was in NJ (KTEB) a few days before. We were wondering if we were going to stay and wait for the passengers or go back to Colorado. Turns out we went back. If we had stayed, we would have been there.
 
My neighbor across the street was at a meeting in NJ. From the conference room window he could see the towers. During the meeting someone facing the window stopped, then someone else stopped, then the folks facing away from the window turned around and looked. The meeting was over, they just watched it all unfold.

He rented a car and drove back to Kansas City.
 
I was at an office just off the North end of the runways at Andrews Air Base.

Military planes going over low and loud was normal. My wife called, and told me to find a TV.

The entrance hall had a large screen TV, and there was already a silent crowd there. The pictures were hard to watch, but we could not turn away.

Fighters continued to launch through the day, as air cover was maintained over Washington, with regular returns for fuel.

One of my partners in the Cessna worked in the wing of the Pentagon which was hit. He had taken the day off to go flying, and as he arrived at College Park airport, he saw smoke rising to the south, and found that the Pentagon had been hit. Some of his co workers were killed, his office was unusable. Perfect day to take off, luck can not be beat, sometimes. He did not fly, just watched TV at the airport office like all the rest of us.

Living inside the beltway here, we knew many people who worked at the Pentagon.

October 6th was the first time a civil aircraft took off from CGS, I flew ours to FDK, and did not fly it from CGS again until July the next year. If CGS was not historic and government owned, it would have gone out of business. GeorgeC's base, Freeway, W00, nearly went bankrupt, and the financial damage continues to today. It is not viable any more.
 
A few weeks later I was doing some yard work and heard something fly overhead. It was still rare to see anything moving, and it just didn't sound "right", so I moved around the side of the house where I could see what it was. It was a B2. They were being repositioned from Whiteman to Guam. I watched it heading west, thinking "someone is going to have a bad day". I saw at least one more, but I can't remember if it was that same day or the next.
 
I came downstairs after waking up in the morning(pacific time.) My son was there with a friend just getting ready to go to school. He says something like dad, you gotta see this. I look at the TV. It wasn’t the towers, it was the pentagon. That was, I don’t know what word to use. What flashed through my mind was attack and war. I spent most of the rest of the morning and early afternoon watching the news. I had the eve watch at Los Angeles Center. Not a plane in the sky. Eerie
 
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Matthew said:
I found this article last year, and I saw that someone had posted it somewhere today.

One of the most famous photos of that day, and as far as I know still unidentified.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod/
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Moving article. I remember seeing the jumpers on TV the first day, but not so much afterwards. We were very busy in the aftermath for at least a few months, though, so I didn't see a lot of the news coverage. Probably a good thing. Interesting the reactions of the families not wanting to think that their loved one was a jumper. I think it would be a brave thing to do; to take control of your life at the last instant. But I know there are plenty who feel otherwise.
 
Everskyward said:
Moving article. I remember seeing the jumpers on TV the first day, but not so much afterwards. We were very busy in the aftermath for at least a few months, though, so I didn't see a lot of the news coverage. Probably a good thing. Interesting the reactions of the families not wanting to think that their loved one was a jumper. I think it would be a brave thing to do; to take control of your life at the last instant. But I know there are plenty who feel otherwise.
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I read somewhere, a report on suicidal jumpers who had survived ( that's very different from what those people were doing 19 years ago ). These jumpers were people intent on killing themselves, but afterward they said that once they made that decision and stepped off that bridge, or whatever, they did feel a sense of peace. They they were now in control of their lives rather than whatever demons in their heads they were dealing with. Maybe the people in the towers did have that same sense of peace, too.
 
I'm so over this, we have a new normal after 2011, but what's next? masks for ever? plastic guard over the teller that I'v known for ever?
using a auto teller because I can't walk up?
 
Tom-D said:
I'm so over this, we have a new normal after 2011, but what's next? masks for ever? plastic guard over the teller that I'v known for ever?
using a auto teller because I can't walk up?
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The only rational reply I can give you will result in the thread being locked.
 
Had just sat down for my 1st semester 9am class during my freshman year at OU. Someone came in and announced what had happened shortly afterward. All classes canceled for the rest of the day. Went back to the dorms and woke up my roommate and we mostly had it on the tv for the rest of the day. Massive blood drive held on campus by end of the week and set an Oklahoma record for most blood donated in a 24hr period. Lot of friends went and signed up for military service in that next year.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Had just sat down for my 1st semester 9am class during my freshman year at OU. Someone came in and announced what had happened shortly afterward. All classes canceled for the rest of the day. Went back to the dorms and woke up my roommate and we mostly had it on the tv for the rest of the day. Massive blood drive held on campus by end of the week and set an Oklahoma record for most blood donated in a 24hr period. Lot of friends went and signed up for military service in that next year.
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Oh man, am I biting my tongue(fingers actually)
 
luvflyin said:
Oh man, am I biting my tongue(fingers actually)
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By all means release your tongue (or fingers). I assume it's in reference to the other thread where I had a discussion with boone about the insignificance of people knowing intimate details (like exact date or time) about historical events versus understanding the overall significance.
 
SoonerAviator said:
By all means release your tongue (or fingers). I assume it's in reference to the other thread where I had a discussion with boone about the insignificance of people knowing intimate details (like exact date or time) about historical events versus understanding the overall significance.
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No. It's not about anything that has been on POA. PM sent
 
I was getting dressed in my uniform for a mid shift at Osat Air Base, Korea. Chief Controller showed up because she couldn’t sleep and we watched the news coverage all night long.

seems like a couple of years ago not 19
 
That fateful day I was working developing what we thought was a niche capability for a certain type of signal inside a copper box on Fort Meade. Walked out to see the TV as 2nd plane hit.

I drove down to Andrews to my reserve squadron and briefed and Ops advised maintenance to set the alert 15. No idea what we were going to do with an EA-6B we wanted to be ready to do something.

Two years later that "niche" solution had been deployed hundreds of times, produced a lot of intelligence and saved a lot lives.
 
I was there.

/story
 
September 11th was my Mother's birthday.

In 2001 I was doing a project in SoCal and planning to have dinner with her and my local brothers (3 of them)

My phone rang really early. My wife (at the time) said someone flew a plane in to a building. I was like "whatever". Then she called again, second plane. Still half asleep I said I'd call her later.

So when I did wake up and turned on the TV I was like, DAMN! and I called her. She said something to the effect of "no ****, I wouldn't have tried to wake you up if it wasn't a big deal"

another entry in, do you know where you were when....
 
No teleprompter needed for that speech.
I love Nadlers reaction, he doesn’t know what to do, looking around trying to figure out if he should clap or not.
 
I was playing an Apache pilot during a computer exercise in Germany. XO (Major) barged in during the class and played footage of the first airplane hitting the tower. Came in later and showed the second aircraft hitting the building. It’s then when everyone knew we’d be going to war somewhere, sometime. Except me, I was in denial. “Surely there are other units they can send instead of us.” Nope.
 
I was coaching a string quartet comprised of high school juniors and seniors in the orchestra room of our school. A choral colleague entered my room and whispered into my ear, as the students continued to play, that a plane had hit the WTC. She was somewhat of an alarmist generally speaking, and I figured that some small plane or ultralight had grazed the building or maybe tried an emergency landing on the roof. A few minutes later I found out just how wrong I was. A very somber, tough day... And one of many examples that serve to remind us that evil, wherever you believe it may come from, exists, along with irrational hatred and indefensible violence. Trying to understand the perpetrators is akin to trying to understand a rabid animal. A futile, frustrating, endeavor. Yes... Never forget. Our parents and grandparents, and perhaps even a few of us, can remember the Great Depression, the Holocaust, WWI, WWII, the Korean war, Viet Nam, Pearl Harbor, and other truly terrible events our wonderful country has endured and stayed strong and relatively unified through. Today's generation(s) don't have that unfortunate wide selection of national tragedies to remember through personal experience... 9/11 is one of the few, and should not be forgotten. The tremendous sense of unity following that awful event would be a very healthy, helpful rememberance today, and the memory of the truly horrific event itself might help keep the things that some young folks in particular find so offensive and worthy of extreme protest today in perspective.
 
MuseChaser said:
The tremendous sense of unity following that awful event would be a very healthy, helpful rememberance today, and the memory of the truly horrific event itself might help keep the things that some young folks in particular find so offensive and worthy of extreme protest today in perspective.
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Unity requires both sides to come together... that's how unity works. Something that seems to have been forgotten...by all age groups. Otherwise, well put.

Ironically your comment is actually divisive.
 
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Mtns2Skies said:
Unity requires both sides to come together... that's how unity works. Something that seems to have been forgotten...by all age groups. Otherwise, well put.

Ironically your comment is actually divisive.
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I read and appreciated your reply... prior to you editing it and adding that last line. Not sure how to take it, especially coming from a mod who has the ability and right to censure my reply to it. Hopefully obviously, divisiveness was not even close to the intent of my post.

Having said that, the ideas that "divisiveness" is always bad, or that "inclusion," "tolerance," and "diversity" are always good, and that "everyone deserves respect" are all concepts that on the surface have great appeal but are factually and pragmatically incorrect. In order to eat a healthy diet, we have to divide food into things that are good for us and things that are bad for us, before unifying those foods into a healthy diet. We have to divide good influences from bad influences. We have to divide truth from lies. We have to divide reality from fiction. It's a necessary, healthy part of life. The unity comes from discussions about the divisiveness, compromise, finding common goals that bridge the divides that will always exist. Without overstepping the bounds of this forum, I'm hoping I can state that I personally have no interest in seeing our country follow any form of Marxist influence and that I will not be able to unify my thoughts on that with someone who WOULD like to see our country go that direction, but that I would gladly find other commonalities with that person and unify with them on other issues. People coming together does not mean that there will be no divisive issues... there always will be. We can't simply say, "we're all correct.... let's incorporate all of our thoughts and come together." What we CAN do is what we did immediately following 9/11... realize that we are a country full of individuals with differing political opinions and religious beliefs that may not always play nice with each other, but that we are AMERICA, that is something special, and we still value each other's lives, liberties, and pursuits of happiness.

I hope that helps a bit. Did your final comment help bring you and I together, or create further divisiveness?
 
I was attending a program manager's workshop at a retreat center near Orlando. One of the other attendees stepped out of the morning session for a moment to take a bio break, and saw the coverage on a TV in the lobby. He came back in, interrupted the session, and we all went and clustered around the television.

The following weeks and months were an interesting time in the defense industry. I recall that immediately after the attack, word came down from corporate telling us to give or do anything our customers requested immediately and we'd figure out the contracts later. Security at our facilities was stepped up greatly.

Hard to believe it's been 19 years.
 
I was only three, and we didn't have a TV, but I vividly remember my mom playing video of it on the computer. I think I mostly remember it because of how upset she was, but for years afterwards, all of my nightmares involved being trapped in a burning building.
 
My underwhelming anecdote was that I was asleep at my apt during college, got a phone call (residential land lines lol, wtf are those?!?) from the FBO saying my rental for the afternoon had been cancelled. In my night owl underslept stupor I of course retorted "why?..." and nothing but silence on the other end. I can't remember what they eventually retorted with, but I played along like I knew wtf they were talking about, and said sure sure it's all good no worries, and hung up. Then I turned on the TV and it all made sense.
 
The wife and I were at a marina in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela on our sailboat. Several locals, that owned condos in the marina, opened up their homes for the Americans in the marina to watch the news in English. When we went out of the marina locals would come up to us and ask if we were Americans and then express their sorrow over what happened.

Venezuelans as a whole are great people too bad what has happened to their country.
 
I was comforting my wife when number two came down. A day I will never forget.
 
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