The 20th anniversary of the 911 attacks this weekend ~ where were you , & what recollections of America’s worst tragedy can you remember ?
I was working as a Library assistant when breaking news filtered through ~ horrifying images of 2 aircraft striking the Towers , the smoke & flames , images of people jumping to their deaths …something I will never ever forget . There is still around 1100 dead they havent got DNA matches …I hope nothing like this happens again in my lifetime !
I had just started a new job as a live-in counselor at a boarding school. In fact, the entire counseling staff had turned over that year, and we were all on the job about three weeks, four of us with 127 high school juniors and seniors.
I slept in that morning, and when I got up, I stepped out of my apartment onto the dorm hallway. One of my students was crying on the hallway phone. “I need to check on him when he gets off the phone. Maybe a death in the family,” I thought. I then noticed I could hear the TV in the dorm lounge, which was on the opposite side of the hall. Way too loud for that time of the morning.
I walked into the lounge and told the students to turn it down, and they looked at me like I was nuts. It was then that I first saw the footage and heard the broadcast. A few minutes later was the live footage of the second plane hitting the tower.
Classes were immediately cancelled for the day, and they put together an assembly for all the students to hear from the administration. As a child of the Cold War, I had to put aside any fears I had of World War III and focus on projecting an air of calm. I also had to do this with two of our other counselors, as they were both in their first counseling jobs, whereas both I and the fourth counselor had more experience.
The most memorable aspect of the day, though was that several students grabbed musical instruments and met in the dorm lobby, where we sang peace songs for the next couple hours. It was then that I finally relaxed and felt that we were going to be all right.
I was at university using a PC. I was 22 years old and doing my undergraduate degree. I should’ve been studying, but instead I was slacking off and chatting to people on the fan site of a band I was into at the time. Of course, these were the days when, to access the Internet, you had to use a computer. Actually, just a few weeks prior, I went to the U.S. for the first time (Pennsylvania to be precise) to attend a fans’ party of said band. Anyway, that day, someone had posted a thread entitled “A Plane Crash”. For some reason, I didn’t click on it. An hour or so later, it had thousands of replies. I clicked, saw the photos, then went to all the news sites.
Later that day, I went to a pub near my mother’s house with an old friend. Everyone thought it was the beginning of World War Three.
Those Pictures just gave me Chills, that was so Horrific,
My thoughts and Prayers are with all who passed and their Families
My thoughts for the day! My thoughts go out to everyone who lost someone 20 years ago in the horrific terrorist attack! There are no words! I will never forget that day! Take care of you out there !! I am Swedish, I was in Sweden when it happened at work, a colleague in the store I worked in then saw the broadcast on the computer, everyone gathered around the computer customers as colleagues, it was completely silent, my feeling was sadness and fear! I will never forget!!
Many people know about Dunkirk. Not so many know that it’s not the biggest maritime evacuation of all times anymore, since during 9/11 half a million people were evacuated from Lower Manhatten within 9 hours by many, many boats that came to the rescue after the Coast Guard made a call.
(Tom Hanks narrates this short documentary)
Another incredible story is the one about Pasquale Buzzelli, one of only two people who fell with the North Tower and survived. He happened to be in the stairwell on 22nd floor when the tower collapsed.
The other one was a woman named Genelle Guzman, who also happened to be the last rescued person of the attacks over all after 27 hours in the rubble.
Rest In Peace to all the innocent souls taken that day and to all the heros who made themselves immortal.
One of the individuals who stayed behind in the towers to save as many lives as possible was the head of security for Morgan Stanley, Rick Rescorla. He made the supreme sacrifice, but it is said, that without his selfless act, the number of lives lost could have been doubled.
Also Rest In Peace to K-9 Sirius, the only service dog, who lost his life that day.
Here is a documentary about hero dogs of 9/11, including Sirius of course.
Portrait of Officer Sirius.
Rescorla was then living in Morristown, NJ. He also played a key role in evacuating survivors from the first Trade Center bombing back in the 90s and due to that, had trained his people how to evac if he gave the word to do so. But, even that wasn’t his first rodeo. If you look at the cover photo on the book “We Were Soldiers, Once, and Young” you’ll notice that guy pictured looks familiar. It should; it’s Rescorla. He was a true hero long before it was popular, so to speak.
Someone commented “Rick saved almost all of the Morgan Stanley company that day.”
To which there was a great response:
“No. He’s saved it over days and nights when he’s been taking the employees - all employees, including executives - on “useless” fire drills and made them walk down. When he got chewed out by the C-suite and stuck to his guns nonetheless, demonstrating tremendous integrity. What’s happened on that day was the payoff.”
I was in my first year of college and on my way to my first official class. I stopped into a campus cafeteria to eat breakfast before class would start. This was somewhere around 9:30. I had no idea what was going on at the time.
As I was standing in line to pay for my food I noticed a large crowd of people gathered around a television. I couldn’t see what was on the screen but I could see the peoples faces who were watching and they had a look of shock I had never seen before. I remember one young woman crying and holding her friend which really struck me as being a bad sign. I started hearing the audio from the TV with things like “the military has been placed on high alert” which was even more concerning.
After I paid for my food I quickly walked over the TV to see what was going on and there was the infamous image on the screen of the towers burning. The first thing I thought is that this looked from the scene in the movie Armageddon after NYC is hit by meteors. I elected not to go to class and go back to my dorm and watch the events on TV.
I will never forget this as long as I live. My deepest sympathies to anyone who lost friends or loved ones in this cowardly terrorist attack.
