9/11 - Never Forget

[Neon_Chaos]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks

[hawk4669]

343.

[Groundhog]

I can't believe that it's 3.50pm here in Sydney, and this is the first mention of the anniversary I've seen.

[st.cronin]

I can't believe that it's 3.50pm here in Sydney, and this is the first mention of the anniversary I've seen.

I can. :(

[Rizon]

I don't see all those American flag stickers on any minivans or SUVs anymore. :(

[korme]

I can't believe it's been six years.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

They already have the Liberty Park plaza all set with porta-johns and police EVERYWHERE.

Tomorrow is going to be a nightmare with the tourists and war protests. (I work one block away.)

I'd pay money to see a fireman punch out some idiot yelling "9/11 was an inside job."

[Chief Rum]

I actually have been eyeing this day for a week. This is the first time since the day that this day has fallen back on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, September 11...

[Qwikshot]

This morning, I forgot, I drove to work like any other morning...
But when I noticed the date I realized.
Still it did not affect me so much, the closest person I knew affected was a fraternity brother I never got along with whose mom was in one of the towers, I don't believe she ever was recovered. I had a friend at the pentagon who was late and missed the crash; I had a friend whose meeting was canceled and moved somewhere else from the tower, and that's it...so I don't feel as scarred.

Until I started reading some of the articles, the families getting the calm (or frantic) phone calls from now gone loved ones, I began to tear up a little, and had to stop reading.

I do recall my girlfriend (now ex) waking me, telling me my mom called and to put on the tv (I worked 2nd shift). I watched, alongside my girlfriend (now ex) and our daughter not even a year old sleeping blissfully unaware as the second plane hit. I remember sitting in my car as the plane crashed into the pentagon and it was broadcast as so from the pentagon live...and I drove to work wondering about the 4th plane, unaccounted for...

It was all so surreal, almost a bad dream that is now fading with each year.

[Lathum]

It is one of theose few moments in your life where you will NEVER forget where you were when the second plane hit.

I remember I was in Saldana's den with my now ex, saldana and his wife.

[Lorena]

I'll never forget where we were and what we were doing. Our daughter had just turned 1... can't believe it's 6 years.

My eyes are welling with tears as I think back :(

[Izulde]

That was a surreal day, period.

I remember helping my grandfather get his stuff down the steps because he was going back home that morning when I saw it on the news. I told my dad and grandpa about it and all three of us just stared in shocked silence as we watched the second plane hit.

School was the quietest I'd ever seen it that day. A lot of professors cancelled classes, so I spent most of the day online checking on friends across the country.

Sure doesn't feel like it's been six years though.

The director for our program here in Granada e-mailed us today, reminding us of the anniversary and including some thoughtful words and support, which I thought was a nice gesture on their part.

[Lorena]

It is one of theose few moments in your life where you will NEVER forget where you were when the second plane hit.

I remember I was in Saldana's den with my now ex, saldana and his wife.

Yeah, exactly.

We were in San Diego and my sister and her kid were down from L.A. (that never happened) and we heard it on the radio. It was so surreal, hard to believe until we actually saw it on tv.

[hawk4669]

I was scheduled on duty that day. Now, I never listen to news, etc when I get up. I just get up, shower, pack my bag, and head into the station. I only live about 5 minutes from my station, so I slept in a little bit that morning.

I remember getting into my truck and heading for work. I had the radio on very low and heard the DJ talking about some "attack on the Pentagon." I didn't think anything of it as who would attack the Pentagon of all places. How crazy is that??

I remember getting to my fire station, and heading into the TV room. There I found the off going crew, and my crew for the day just locked on the TV. No one said a word. I barely got a head turn to acknowledge my arrival. I could see that something was very wrong. The mood was beyond somber. Soon, I sat down and started watching....and didn't quit until my Captain that day (I was still and Engineer) just turned off the TV at about 6 or 7 pm and said "we've had enough of this....I just can't watch anymore."

I remember maintaining my composure all day, devastated beyond belief at all the happenings but trying to be a tough young firefighter in front of my crew. Then my wife called and told me something my two year old daughter told her.

It was well into the evening. My wife said she was locked on the TV as well trying to make sense of everything. My two year old daughter wandered into the room and said something to the effect of, "Mommy, what's wrong?" My wife trying to explain a very horrific thing told her, "Well some bad people did something terrible and hurt a lot of people today."

My daughter looked at the TV screen, saw the scores of FDNY firefighters on the screen, grabbed my wife's arm reassuringly and told her, "Mommy don't worry. The firemen are there and they will make it all better."

(here I am at the fire station going off duty and I'm choking back tears...literally...at this memory)

I think I told you guys this story last 9/11....but I guess it bears repeating.

Thanks.

[MikeVic]

I can't believe it's been six years.

Me either. I think I was in my first year of University when this happened!

[duckman]

I was stationed at Tinker AFB, OK at the time of the attacks. I was coming off the graveyard shift when it all started. At first, we thought that some idiot in a private jet had hit the first tower before we realized how large the damage was.

I didn't get much sleep that day. I went home and sat in front of the TV until I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in my recliner. It didn't help when I got the call to pack up my bag because we may have to deploy within 24 hours. It never did happen, but we ended up working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week for the following six months. We sent up hundreds of sorties to make sure the skies were safe following the attacks. According to my commander, it was the first time the mainland was attacked since the War of 1812. It still boggles my mind that my own country was considered a combat zone.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I think I told you guys this story last 9/11....but I guess it bears repeating.

You may have told it, but I missed it if you did, so I'm very glad you repeated it.
Thanks.

[oliegirl]

I was at work, and a friend of mine came into my office and said her husband had just called and told her a plane flew into one of the twin towers...I didn't believe it and told her he must be playing a joke on her. Then I tried to get onto the internet and couldn't and slowly realized that something was going on...turned off my CD that was playing and switched over to radio and heard the broadcast when the 2nd plane hit...unbelievable that it's been 6 years and I still cry thinking about it.

I remember trying so hard to shield my son from it, but it got to be unavoidable and I finally explained to him what had happened...he had just turned 4, and I was crying so hard when I told him...he was very into Toy Story/Buzz Lightyear at the time and after he asked me if it would ever happen again, I told him that everyone was going to be working very hard to make sure nothing like this ever happened again and that he didn't need to be afraid...he looked at me and said, "Mommy, you know what Buzz always says...Evil Never Wins".

[flere-imsaho]

I was already in a pretty somber mood as the dot-com I worked for at the time had just laid off 50% of the work force the day before (how's that for timing?). I was listening to the radio on my way to work and didn't hear anything before I stopped at the bagel shop to get breakfast.

After I came back out, the radio was talking all about the first plane, just trying to get details/confirmation. Once at work, I clustered around the TV with a bunch of other people who were already in, and watched the second plane hit. I watched some more, called my wife (who worked nearby) and we both headed back home.

We had guests visiting from Belgium at the time, so they ended up staying an extra week. It was a mess for them with flights and whatnot.

I remember it was a beautiful fall day in Chicago, in fact not unlike today, though a bit warmer. And the weirdest thing (and this was true for a few days) was that there was not a plane in the sky. And in Chicago, there's always a plane in the sky.

I was lucky not to lose anyone, but had a close call. A cousin of mine worked for Don Rumsfeld at the time. He and a colleague had gone back out into the parking lot of the Pentagon to get something from a colleague's car when the plane hit the building. He still doesn't talk about it.

[hawk4669]

As a side note, and in line with folks forgetting 9/11.

This morning I had to remind a young firefighter on my crew to put the station flags at half staff. He's a good kid and was mortified when I had to remind him of what today is....but again, even those in my profession have started to let the memory slip.

I handled it professionally as his officer, but still....it kind of bothers me.

[hawk4669]

I was at work, and a friend of mine came into my office and said her husband had just called and told her a plane flew into one of the twin towers...I didn't believe it and told her he must be playing a joke on her. Then I tried to get onto the internet and couldn't and slowly realized that something was going on...turned off my CD that was playing and switched over to radio and heard the broadcast when the 2nd plane hit...unbelievable that it's been 6 years and I still cry thinking about it.

I remember trying so hard to shield my son from it, but it got to be unavoidable and I finally explained to him what had happened...he had just turned 4, and I was crying so hard when I told him...he was very into Toy Story/Buzz Lightyear at the time and after he asked me if it would ever happen again, I told him that everyone was going to be working very hard to make sure nothing like this ever happened again and that he didn't need to be afraid...he looked at me and said, "Mommy, you know what Buzz always says...Evil Never Wins".

Dola,

It's amazing how kids sometimes tend to say just the perfect thing to put things like this in perspective sometimes. Even though they have no clue the significance....they are just right sometimes.

[wade moore]

You may have told it, but I missed it if you did, so I'm very glad you repeated it.
Thanks.+1

[oliegirl]

We had guests visiting from Belgium at the time, so they ended up staying an extra week. It was a mess for them with flights and whatnot.

My grandmother was visiting us from Chicago, she always would come for Anthony's birthday...she was in the early stages of alzheimers and never grasped what had happened. She was with us for an extra 2 weeks b/c of 9/11, and every time they would show footage of the planes hitting the towers, the towers falling, etc...she would get all confused and ask why they kept playing the same movie over and over again. We all tried to explain it, and she knew something was going on, but couldn't piece it together.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I was in Washington, DC. I had come into the office early that morning, before 8:45 or so, because I had been on vacation the last few days. I had actually flown into National Airport that evening around 10:0 pm (returning from watching a NHL prospects camp in Michigan).

I was sitting at my desk, drinking coffee, and surfing the net. You know, getting warmed up for the long day. I think I was reading some ign.com review of Transformer toys or something intellectual. A co-worker walked by my office and said "Some just flew a plane into the WTC." My first thought was "What kind of jack-ass flies a plane into a giant, fucking building? It's pretty hard to miss. Maybe he passed out or something." I was thinking a small plane. One with propellers and such.

Co-Worker walks by again and says "A second plane just hit." At that point I thought "One, maybe a mistake. Two. No fucking way." I walked over to a conference room where a TV had been set up. I stood there stunned, watching the smoke and flames billow-up from the towers. We stood there watching for a moment and I looked out of the window in the room. The side of the conference room is all windows and looks out over the Potomac.

That's when I saw the smoke.

It took me a second to realize and then I said, at work, "Holy shit. They bombed the Pentagon." Everyone looked over and saw the thick, dark cloud of smoke scarring the clear sky. Some people said that it wasn't the Pentagon, but I had lived in that area for a summer and was positive it was. This was all before anything was reported about the Pentagon.

I stood there for another few minutes and decided "Fuck it. I am going home." I grabbed my laptop and walked home. As I left I kept hearing reports of another plane coming towards DC (the one that crashed in Pennsylvania) and a car bomb near the State Building.

I walked home and it took about an hour. It was incredibly surreal. People wandering around the streets, trying to use cell-phones, the streets grid-locked with cars trying to get out. My walk home took me through the National Mall, past the White House, Congress, Supreme Court. The roads were all blocked off, so I had to walk way out of my way to get home.

I finally got home at sat in front of the TV all day, stunned. It was hot. I was exhausted. I fell asleep every few hours for about 15-30 minutes at a time. Not sure why. Just overwhelmed I guess.

My wife had it much worse. She was in the subway going from Brooklyn to downtown Manhattan for work. Her office was directly across the street from the WTC, One Liberty Plaza. (There were a few post 9-11 reports that the building was on the verge of collapse, though it never did). Her mother worked in the WTC (but was late to work that day) and her brother was on a flight from Newark to San Francisco. (His plane landed in Indianaoplis.) The subway stopped a few times and they reported there was some problem with the tracks. After a long delay the subway finally made it to the station. My wife came out of the subway and saw the smoking, flaming towers. She tried to make it to work and was turned back by the cops. She was one of the people running down the street away from the debris and rubble. She collapsed out of fear and exhaustion, thinking her mom had died, and had to be picked up off the street by some woman. She couldn't get a hold of her mom until around 2 PM that afternoon.

She went back to work at One Liberty Plaza in December. About two years after 9/11, she developed severe asthma. She is one of many who had to live/work around the site who now suffer from lung damage.

[BYU 14]

You may have told it, but I missed it if you did, so I'm very glad you repeated it.
Thanks.

Ditto, great story.

[MacroGuru]

For me, I was home sick from work that day, my wife woke me up just as the first plane hit, which to my horror, when I finally cleared the sleep from my eyes, the second plane hit.

The worst part for me, was finding out the united flight from Boston to LA was one I was scheduled on months in advance when I was with Macromedia, and that me being laid off was a hidden blessing. As I have said before, I still have the email with my itinerary saved.

[Lorena]

I was scheduled on duty that day. Now, I never listen to news, etc when I get up. I just get up, shower, pack my bag, and head into the station. I only live about 5 minutes from my station, so I slept in a little bit that morning.

I remember getting into my truck and heading for work. I had the radio on very low and heard the DJ talking about some "attack on the Pentagon." I didn't think anything of it as who would attack the Pentagon of all places. How crazy is that??

I remember getting to my fire station, and heading into the TV room. There I found the off going crew, and my crew for the day just locked on the TV. No one said a word. I barely got a head turn to acknowledge my arrival. I could see that something was very wrong. The mood was beyond somber. Soon, I sat down and started watching....and didn't quit until my Captain that day (I was still and Engineer) just turned off the TV at about 6 or 7 pm and said "we've had enough of this....I just can't watch anymore."

I remember maintaining my composure all day, devastated beyond belief at all the happenings but trying to be a tough young firefighter in front of my crew. Then my wife called and told me something my two year old daughter told her.

It was well into the evening. My wife said she was locked on the TV as well trying to make sense of everything. My two year old daughter wandered into the room and said something to the effect of, "Mommy, what's wrong?" My wife trying to explain a very horrific thing told her, "Well some bad people did something terrible and hurt a lot of people today."

My daughter looked at the TV screen, saw the scores of FDNY firefighters on the screen, grabbed my wife's arm reassuringly and told her, "Mommy don't worry. The firemen are there and they will make it all better."

(here I am at the fire station going off duty and I'm choking back tears...literally...at this memory)

I think I told you guys this story last 9/11....but I guess it bears repeating.

Thanks.

Great, great story.

[Lorena]

I was at work, and a friend of mine came into my office and said her husband had just called and told her a plane flew into one of the twin towers...I didn't believe it and told her he must be playing a joke on her. Then I tried to get onto the internet and couldn't and slowly realized that something was going on...turned off my CD that was playing and switched over to radio and heard the broadcast when the 2nd plane hit...unbelievable that it's been 6 years and I still cry thinking about it.

I remember trying so hard to shield my son from it, but it got to be unavoidable and I finally explained to him what had happened...he had just turned 4, and I was crying so hard when I told him...he was very into Toy Story/Buzz Lightyear at the time and after he asked me if it would ever happen again, I told him that everyone was going to be working very hard to make sure nothing like this ever happened again and that he didn't need to be afraid...he looked at me and said, "Mommy, you know what Buzz always says...Evil Never Wins".

wow, that's awesome.

[Lorena]

Dola,

It's amazing how kids sometimes tend to say just the perfect thing to put things like this in perspective sometimes. Even though they have no clue the significance....they are just right sometimes.

Exactly. Sometimes I wonder if they're actually the ones teaching us... patience, understanding, and putting things in perspective.

[Young Drachma]

I was stationed at Scott AFB, IL and was taking the AFOQT. They interrupted us taking the test to tell us we all had to be outside, because a plane had hit the World Trade Center and that this "wasn't an exercise."

I didn't get to see actual footage of it until that afternoon and when I did, I was in shock, disbelief and just...I think it took me at least a week to be convinced it really happened, because it was so surreal. And still is, having grown up near NYC.

[hawk4669]

Ok...I'm off duty now, and the wife is out taking the kids to school. It's safe to have that memory now and cry.

I'm a 32 year old man, but I'm not afraid to admit it. Until I wrote that today, I forgot how powerful that memory and the memories of that day are/were.

Take care of yourselves.

[JetsIn06]

I was a sophmore in High School.

I was in chemistry class, and in the middle of my teacher talking, an announcement came over the intercom that all students were to stay in their classrooms after class ended. No one knew what was going on, but we figured it was no big deal.

Class ended, and we all sat there goofing around. Then the announcement came. The woman said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. With my hometown being less than an hour away from the city, it was possible that many students had parents who worked there. Two of my best friends parents worked there (one was late to work, so he wasn't there. The other made it out okay.) My Dad's best friend worked there. (He was on business that day). But the first thing that jumped out at me was my Dad. He worked at 1 Penn Plaza, so it's pretty far from the WTC, but is still a big building with a packed train station beneath it.

The woman said that if anyone had anyone that they knew and wanted to call home, they could go do that. However, no one knew at this point that it was a huge plane. I thought it was a small prop or something. But my teacher ran into the next room, where there was a TV. He ran back in the room cursing. "That wasn't an accident. Another plane just hit the other tower."

Holy shit, I thought. So quickly, I called my Mom. She said that everything was okay, and that my Dad basically ran to the train station and caught one of the last trains leaving NYC.

Then, in my next class, another announcement came. "Obviously, something is going on here. Another plane has crashed into the Pentagon."

Throughout the rest of the day, rumors flew about there being 11 planes, the towers have crashed, they haven't, one did...no one knew what was going on. It was fucking scary. The weirdest part is that I could see the smoke from my classroom window.

Finally, school ended, and I take the bus home. My Dad and my Mom are waiting for me outside. My Dad says "Look up. This is the first time you won't see any planes in the air." I was just glad to see him.

My Dad told me about what it was like in NYC. He told me that someone in his office said there was a fire at the WTC. Seeing it from the reverse angle, he didn't see the gaping hole or the huge flames, it just looked like a small fire. He turned on the radio and discovered it was a plane, but like me, he assumed it was a small prop plane. Him and his co-workers watched, when out over the water, they saw a commercial jet flying low. He watched the second plane hit. He ran.

I'll never forget.

[korme]

Today still kind of makes me nervous... especially since Wright-Patt AFB is, I believe, the 3rd largest base in the U.S., and I live about 2 minutes from it.

[Dr. Sak]

I know this can be said for a lot of people but that day was probably one of the strangest days of my life. I decided to take the day off of work and drive to State College to play golf and visit my girlfriend at the time. We teed off at 9am and I remember thinking all day what a beautiful day it was outside, how peace and calm everything seemed. I don't think I finished till sometime close to 3pm.

I got back to my car, turned on my cell phone and saw that I had 10 voicemails from my friends and family trying to get a hold of me. It wasn't until I got to my girlfriend's apartment that I saw what happened. All of the classes at Penn State were canceled for the day. On my ride home I was diverted off of my normal route because of what happened with United 93.

In my mind it was just crazy how I was peaceful but at the same moment only a few hundred miles away the country was being turned upside down.

[EagleFan]

That was such a sureal day. We heard the news of the first plane while around the water cooler and we first thought it was a small plane and the pilot had crashed while site seeing, just a basic accident and not of the scale that it ended up being.

Then we heard of the second plane and more details. I had a radio on and heard of the Pentagon. We spent much of the day a couuple floors down watching the televisions that were near the simulcasting and one of the high end pits. Seeing the towers collapse just didn't seem like it was real.

I went through a range of emotions that day, from feeling extremely sad for one of the guests who was down from NY and in shock saying to the person next to her that her brother works in that building as the first tower fell. Soon after I went through disghust as an old guy walked by complaining rather loudly that not one of the televisions had any of the simulcast races on (damn degenerate gamblers).

I would later learn that someone who I used to work with, and actually helped train, was killed in the collapse of the towers.

I still get angry at those animals responsible when I see footage of it now.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I guess I think I've seen the events discussed in every way possible, but tonight I ran across one of the seemingly endless hour long programs on The History Channel that I'd never seen. And I'm glad I did, however sad it makes me.

Somehow in all the stories, I must have missed this one. Rick Rescorla was the head of security for Morgan Stanley at the WTC, who died clearing the employees from the building. But that wasn't his first encounter with incredible danger, among other things he was apparently the man pictured on the book jacket cover of We Were Soldiers ... Once and Young.

Just an incredible guy, as the documentary (The Man Who Predicted 9/11) really showed me tonight.

His story is summarized on Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla
And there's a lot of information at a site maintained by his widow.
http://www.rickrescorla.com/

[MizzouRah]

I'll never forget. :(

[BrianD]

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned the 50/50 vote results to the question "Is it time to put 9/11 behind us and just move on?" I think it was CNN that did the poll.

I was in Manhattan for the first time this weekend and toured ground zero on the 10th. Touring that area gives quite an odd feeling. The ground real estate in that area is so small and the buildings were so tall. I just can't imagine all the people and material that came down in such a small area...

[Subby]

My wife made be bring running shoes to work yesterday in the event I would have to haul ass home. I love her. :)

I work three blocks from the White House, across the street from the Reagan Building and about a mile from the Capitol Bldg - and it was just business as usual yesterday. Very weird.

In 2001 I was at a meeting across the street from the White House when the planes hit - my experiences trying to walk back to work then drive to my kids' pre-school was very similar to what Honolulu_Blue described (major gridlock, rumored car bombings, etc.) We live eight miles from downtown in Northern Virginia and it took us three hours to drive home that day.

Anyway - the feeling I had that day is something I will never ever forget.

[molson]

I remember an almost desperation to lighten the mode at some point, after just an exhaustion of bad news in our office (south of Boston then), about relatives working in the towers.

We couldn't get on any news websites for a while at work, I guess because they were overloaded (or maybe it was our own network). For a second your're thinking "was there a nuke dropped somewhere - where's the internet?" Then one guy was able to pull up some hardcore porn on his office computer. So porn was still working. Sureal.

I think that night after digesting hours of every news source I could, I watched about 2 hours of Three's Company reruns on TBS or something. One of the few networks that wasn't just running someone else's news feed.

[ISiddiqui]

Then one guy was able to pull up some hardcore porn on his office computer. So porn was still working. Sureal.

Huh... the wierd part for me is that the one guy thought... hey, let's check a hardcore porn site to see if the internet is down.

[molson]

Huh... the wierd part for me is that the one guy thought... hey, let's check a hardcore porn site to see if the internet is down.

Exactly. So you have the combination of: Relief that "something" is still working, a little bit of needed levity, watching porn openly in the work place, and then - what the hell's wrong with this guy?

[saldana]

i had just gotten assigned to a new shift at the 911 center, but hadnt actually started it yet....my new supervisor had a meeting scheduled for 10 am that i was supposed to go to...Lathum and I had been up drinking most of the night, so when she called me at just after 9 to ask me if i was watching TV, I hung up on her and then turned the TV on.

after staring dumbstruck at the tv for what felt like an hour, i walked upstairs to where lathum was sleeping and said "you need to come downstairs and watch this"....the four of us just stood there staring at the tv for what felt like days.

the next night, a there was a thunderstorm here (only about 60 miles from NYC) and a little old lady called 911...i spent 15 minutes on the phone with her trying to calm her down and convince her that we werent being bombed, that it was just a thunderstorm...she was actually crying in fear.

i dont know how anyone can forget....

[path12]

Other than the absolute shock that others have mentioned, one of the weirdest things for me was that my apartment was pretty much in the Sea-Tac airport flight path -- and I was so struck and almost in tears just by the silence of no planes taking off and landing for those few days afterwards.

[StarBuck]

I don't see all those American flag stickers on any minivans or SUVs anymore. :(

American's have very short attention spans.

I was watching some of the memorials on TV. Before I knew it I had tears running down my face. We live next to Middletown, the hardest town hit with casualties after NYC. I know people who lost loved ones that day. From our apartment you could see the smoke from the towers.

Jets flying over our place all that day. It was unreal. I thought a war broke out and it was the end of the world.

[Dutch]

I'm late but I wanted to add an international perspective of sorts.

I was in Ankara, Turkey at the time and a Turkish Cable TV guy was fixing the TV signal/connection/whatever. My wife and one of her friends were talking in the kitchen. The Turk was flipping through the stations. I see a building on fire (it's in the afternoon there). I don't think anything of it. He flips back through the stations a minute later and I still see this building on fire. A WTC building! I have him stop changing channels. I tell my wife, "Hey, one of the WTC's is on fire." and she doesn't hear me. And the second plane hits. Stunned silence. I can hear my wife chatting away. And it's just me and some Turkish Cable TV guy watching in disbelief.

The next day--a mini-traffic jam of sorts--the first lane of traffic next to the US Embassy is shut down because the boquets of flowers and well wishes had streamed out into the street (of course, just a month before somebody was throwing hand-grenades over the fence.). I couldn't believe that half a world away, the Turks would show that sort of sympathy. It's not that Turks are bad people, they are the exact opposite, but I was so new to the country. I had no idea how the Turks would react and was overwhelmed by it. It was a very emotional time for everybody. I think that's what I will remember forever right there. It tends to put into perspective not only what is worth fighting for, but what is worth grieving for. Never forget 9/11. I agree.

[StarBuck]

My daughter looked at the TV screen, saw the scores of FDNY firefighters on the screen, grabbed my wife's arm reassuringly and told her, "Mommy don't worry. The firemen are there and they will make it all better."


Oh man, I'm tearing up just reading this.

My cousins are all firemen in Newark (big Irish family) as was my granddad, he was Chief of a Newark.I remember hearing about the rescuers and knowing that my cousins had to be there.

Some of us went in the days after, to help the firemen cope. It was devastating. My friend sat one young guy down on a chair who was exhausted. You ever see the scenes in war movies when the guys come out of the trenches with dirt caked all over them and a look of numb shock and trauma? That was this guy, and hundreds of others. Just pure grief mixed in with shock (and dirt). He hadn't slept in days and was afraid to sit down because he's d stop and he had to find and recover his friends. But the guy was stumbling. So she gave him a glass of water, began to massage his shoulders and he just fell over. Fainted.

One of my clients decided to take her vacation that day. She worked for one of the investment firms up in those towers. We hear stories like that around where I live all the time. Someone who stopped for a bagel instead of going right in, someone who's alarm clock did not go off. Then there are the people who for some inexplicable reason, did not go in or felt the need to be late or who were made late. Talk about listening to your gut instincts, which very well might have been an angel on your shoulder trying to get the message through to our busy minds.

path12, I also remember how strange it was not hearing the planes going overhead. We live in the path too. I remember about 3 weeks later, one, maybe two started to be seen and it felt good, made you smile. It felt like a recovery.

I don't know if any of you have ever watched this documentary "9/11", filmed by two Frenchmen following a NYC firehouse, but if you can watch the entire thing without crying, I'd be amazed. All the pieces of it are on Youtube.
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