How Will You Remember Nine-Eleven?

[Johnlw7]

I thank you and my son send's best wishesfrom Nawa province Afgahnistan. Semper Fi!

[Beechnut]

Myself and 6 other co-workers(all active duty military) did a relay run on a 1.5 mile track for 9 hours and 11 minutes today. Covered 54 miles between us.

Suck it terrorists! You're celebrating and we're training.

Also, took a moment to watch

[BigStewMan]

by remembering the good people that came to the aid of others.

[Dennie]

I thank you and my son send's best wishesfrom Nawa province Afgahnistan. Semper Fi!

Tell your son that we're thinking of him today and everyday and we keep all of our Service Members in our thoughts and Prayers daily!

...and Really, Thank you John. Thank You Sir! Without you, we wouldn't have your son on our side.

I fly the Flag of the United States of America on my front porch proudly, everyday without exception. You see, it means EVERYTHING to me!

Dennie

[Dennie]

Myself and 6 other co-workers(all active duty military) did a relay run on a 1.5 mile track for 9 hours and 11 minutes today. Covered 54 miles between us.

Suck it terrorists! You're celebrating and we're training.

Also, took a moment to watch

Thanks Beechnut! We're counting on you and thanks for giving your all for us!

It matters to me!

Dennie

[Amy]

Aside from the obvious shock and horror, I remember the helpless feeling knowing my uncle worked 4 blocks away in Chase Manhattan Plaza. We didn't hear from him for a while... he spent the day walking home to Long Island.

10 years later, and I have a 7 year old asking a lot of questions about planes, buildings, and New York City (2 of which he has not experienced yet). It's hard to balance what's on TV vs. what I want him to know and what he should know, and hard to tell how much he processes without causing too much fear of every-day things. Small doses, I suppose.

[LarryC]

I went to a unique concert at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda, MD. It was by the "World Doctors Orchestra," a totally unique pick-up volunteer symphony orchestra made up of physicians from around the world! Their concerts are likewise held around the world. Proceeds go to local charities in the city in which they play. They have a roster of about 500, and the docs self-select which concerts to volunteer for. Players are accepted by credentials rather than competition or tryouts. The quality was quite variable, as you might expect, especially from the brass, which produced many bobbled notes.

The program was very fitting: Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 (his best one IMO), and Mahler's Symphony No. 2, the Resurrection. The Strathmore audience was wildly enthusiastic at the end.

I'd never heard of the violinist, Tamaki Kawakubo. Her performance of the cadenzas in the Mozart were exquisite, and prolonged applause led her to play a movement from a Bach sonata or partita for solo violin. I'm still trying to find out which one. See

for a brief discussion of these.

The concert was introduced by the Surgeon General of the Navy, resplendent in his all-white Vice-Admiral's dress uniform. He's a doctor, of course, but also a very fine baritone, and he led the audience in the first verse of America the Beautiful!

A kind of wild, but very interesting evening. A satisfying postscript to the daylong agony of reliving the horror of 9/11.

[JJkizak]

The most ironic thing is that the terroists didn't know the buildings would come down.

JJK

[dtel]

Just think how much worse it would have been if the buildings would have not collapsed almost into themselves, but rather as a tree, falling sideways.

[Daddy Dee]

Johnlw7,

I'd like to add my gratitude for your son's service to the nation.

God bless.

[Daddy Dee]

Amy, I think your instincts are right on what to share with Steven. It's definitely a hard call to discern.

[Johnlw7]

I get to visit with Matt from time to time on facebook and phone once a month usually.I worry everytime the phone rings.Bit i have faith that everything will be good.Theese young men and women sacrifice so much.thanks for the kind words.It is deeply appeciated.

[djk]

http://www.ae911truth.org/

[dtel]

I get to visit with Matt from time to time on facebook and phone once a month usually.I worry everytime the phone rings.Bit i have faith that everything will be good.Theese young men and women sacrifice so much.thanks for the kind words.It is deeply appreciated.

Please tell him thank you for his service, everyone over there is appreciated more than they realize.

An unbelievable job to expect someone to do.

[colterphoto1]

I worked a show at Rathskeller Biergarten with emergency responders, bugle playing taps, color guard from fire station, civil war renacters with black powder rifles doing 21 gun salute, 4 story American flag, fly in by emergency helicopter, bands bands more bands, speech and proclamation by Mayor of the city, prayers by several religious leaders, candlelight supergroup singalong of America the Beautiful.

M

[RT FAN]

Very nice Michael, it sounds like an appropriate memorial. I was fortunate in that I was on vacation that day, but not so lucky in having lost many friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. The Treasury market, in which I work, got hit very hard that day with many rival firms being located in the WTC, This is the story written down by the guy who sits behind me at work, here is Joe's experience on that terrible day:

The sound was of an explosion of that there was no doubt, but a longer drawn out sound. I looked at my boss sitting to my left on the 26th floor of 1WTC and we both had the same expression, wtf was that, then the building started shaking violently back and forth. From my seat ( I was actually standing holding onto my desk so I didn’t fall over) it seemed as if I was looking at the ground in a perpendicular way or a right angle. Guys were falling out of their chairs. When the shaking stopped no one knew what had happened, someone yelled out, “was it an earthquake?”

Then looking out the window on the north side of the building (opposite of the side struck) I saw streams of red, it looked like fireballs or rocket trails, I had no idea. As I was looking out I saw something that did not register in my memory until days later, someone was smoldering and heading straight down with a grimace, I can see that poor soul’s face right now as I write this, that’s when we got moving. We all raced for the emergency exits, I actually got hit in the head with a ceiling tile as I ran through the doorway out of the office, no damage just surprise.

The descent down the stairs was orderly and seemed efficient. There was a strange smell in the air which days later I assumed to be jet fuel, nothing out of the ordinary until I reached the lower floors which were starting to accumulate water from the sprinklers on the stairwell. I’d put my hand on a door every floor to see if it was hot, it was not, I had no idea what was going on. As I exited on the upper mezz. level the building begin to shake violently again (the second plane was striking tower 2) and I just started running. I sprinted for a revolving door that a split second before I entered had something huge, part of the building or a plane I’m not sure, crash just outside. A step faster and I was gone, no doubt. I spun and ran the other way, to another door, I snuck my head out and looked up and it seemed ok. I ran to the pedestrian overpass over the Westside Hwy, there was a security man on the other side screaming, “Run! We’re under attack!” As I ran past him he said he wasn’t sure what had hit the buildings, it could have been a rocket. I ran through the Winter Garden and did not stop until I was outside near the river, then I turned and looked up.

The sight was unbelievable and all I could think of were my friends at Cantor Fitz (where I lost one of my best friends and countless others with who I had once worked). When I realized people were jumping I decided to leave and not watch, I started walking up the Westside Hwy with two others from my office that somehow ended up in a similar location. I was able to finally make a call to my wife from a pay phone at this point as there was no cell service. We walked like zombies as we heard from people that planes had struck the building. We made it to Chelsea Piers and 2WTC came crashing down, it was a horrific sight as we all know, but one of the guys walking with me fell to the ground and started punching it, I did not realize at the time his brother worked in the building and he obviously thought the worse (thankfully he did get out). We made it to the parking garage around 34th street and our building came down. There were no words just head down walking to get away.

In midtown I went into a bar to get water and any info available and ran into a guy from my desk who somehow had made it to the same spot through a completely different route. As we both live in Westchester we start walking north, along Third Ave. I was hit by bird crap on that walk and someone told me how lucky I was, and I had no argument considering where I had just come from. We did not stop until we were in the Bronx on Arthur Ave., where my brother in law picked us up.

The day changed me profoundly then, I was depressed for a long time. I’ll never forget the day or my friends lost. I appreciate every day I have had since as the gift it is. Thanks for letting me vent this story, I do it every year and it makes me feel better and helps me keep the horror fresh in my mind. That is not a bad thing, because none of us should ever forget how hated we are whether it makes sense or not.

[falcon20x]

I actually never told my story to anyone, but 10 years later I was asked to do give my story by a Aviation news paper.

You can read the story at the following link

http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/remembering-911-in-your-own-words-31060/

Please keep in mind that I was not a military pilot, I was one of the only two civilian pilots allowed to fly on 9/12 and after.

Sept. 11, 2001, started like any other day for me. As a captain for Cherry Air on the Falcon 20, I was scheduled for a mid-morning departure. While filing my flight plan with the flight service station, I was informed that an airplane had just flown into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City.

I continued filing my flight plan when the report of a second aircraft crashing into the other World Trade Center tower came in, and then the news that all flights were being grounded indefinitely. At that time, I decided to make my way to the Cherry Air offices to see what was going on. Like most, we spent the majority of that first day watching the television.

In the evening, I headed home expecting to be grounded for several days. Around 10 p.m. that night, I received a call from our chief pilot informing me to report for duty the next morning for a 5:30 a.m. briefing. I was informed of my 7 a.m. departure on September 12 for a flight which I later learned would take me from Addison, Texas, to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Atlanta; Denver; and finally Santa Ana, Calif.

I didnt know how we could be flying with all other air traffic being grounded. At the briefing, I learned that because Cherry Air was one of the only operators having the necessary FAA authorizations and type of aircraft needed for the mission, we were asked to fly during this dark time. Ours was an important mission, flying blood products.

That first day flying was eerily quiet in the skiesno radio calls, no trafficjust silence. When entering Atlanta Centers airspace, and monitoring the radio, I heard a call that said, Target, Flight Level 250. It was at that time I realized that Atlanta was referring to me.

I called Center and asked them to confirm that they were aware of my presence and permission to be flying. They responded that they were aware of me and had been since I left Addison Airport. I then asked them to please refer to me as traffic rather than target. The next radio call heard was, Traffic, Flight Level 250. It was then that I realized I must have had a military escort.

In the days following 9/11, I flew multiple missions from coast to coast. Not having been born a U.S. citizen, I was proud to help a nation of people that considered me one of their own. My service as a pilot during this time is one of my most proud moments.

[Jay481985]

By living like it is another day

[Arky]

Falcon....nice story & thanks for sharing.

[Gilbert]

Just think how much worse it would have been if the buildings would have not collapsed almost into themselves, but rather as a tree, falling sideways.

Only if they were hit near the lower 1/3 of their length would that have likely happened. Horrific none the less, and I believe the terrorist knew or at least had the idea that the buildings would collapse.

I'll always remember sittng in my office watching my computer monitors with about 5 other structural engineers huddled around. We ooooed and aaaahed while we watched, and all of us came to same conclusion,... if the fires continued, the buildings would collapse. Before that day ended, the NCSEA contacted our firm requesting engineers to travel to NY, and 2 of the principles rented a car and left to the site the very next morning.

Our group started to break apart when we witnessed people jumping to their deaths, rather than be burned alive. It was exhausting to watch, and sucked the life out of all of us.