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Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,339
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

My memories are bits and pieces. My husband and nephew were on the USS Carl Vinson already there on deployment in the area. A lot of people don't know American military are always on the watch and away from home. That ship was the first to fire and start the war. Also that

ship they lowered OBL after we killed him and he still got a respectful burial at sea. 
My son was in boot camp .

My younger son was at elementary school just outside of the base we lived at. So at school pick up the kids went through a gate that was guarded now with armed military personnel.

Lots of phone calls. Life was never the same for my group of people. Just leaving base was different because to come back on where we lived we had to wait so long as they had to check each car with canine for bombs. So if anyone wonders why we get upset with kneeling we come from a different perspective.

Wrong is still wrong just because you benefited from it.
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,764
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

I live in rural PA.  I was testing my elem students to determine reading levels. Tucked away in the old gym locker room, I didn't find out until lunchtime.

 

We didn't tell our students but just maintained our regular schedule.  At afternoon break, everyone huddled around the tv in the library. Mostly we were all in shock.

 

Three weeks after 9-11 my parents, who were in their early 70s, were called out to work as Red Cross disaster relief volunteers very close to Ground Zero. They were there for 3 weeks and handled countless claims from all kinds of folks who lived near the TC buildings or worked in that area and had their businesses damaged and/or shut down due to the attack.  

 

When they got back home my mom was sick, likely from the air.  My dad was later diagnosed with COPD and he always figured it was from breathing the air at Ground Zero.  He never complained about it, though. They were RC disaster relief volunteers for almost 20 years and loved doing it. 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,255
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

@Nancy Drew wrote:

My memories are bits and pieces. My husband and nephew were on the USS Carl Vinson already there on deployment in the area. A lot of people don't know American military are always on the watch and away from home. That ship was the first to fire and start the war. Also that

ship they lowered OBL after we killed him and he still got a respectful burial at sea. 
My son was in boot camp .

My younger son was at elementary school just outside of the base we lived at. So at school pick up the kids went through a gate that was guarded now with armed military personnel.

Lots of phone calls. Life was never the same for my group of people. Just leaving base was different because to come back on where we lived we had to wait so long as they had to check each car with canine for bombs. So if anyone wonders why we get upset with kneeling we come from a different perspective.


 

@Nancy Drew    Your husband and family should be thanked for their dedicated service to the nation.

 

Surely you know why there was a "respectful burial at sea."

 

Why can't you let the politcal agenda go on such a heartfelt and poignant thread?????

 

Many would be disappointed to see this thread taken down.

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." BF
Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,399
Registered: ‎07-15-2016

I was working just a few blocks from WTC ... a co-worker who lived in The Village was walking down Broadway on his way to work and called the office to tell us that a plane just hit the Tower.

 

Our offices were up on a high floor (51st) - and we walked to the windows on that side of the building and got there just as the second plane hit.

 

Co-worker saw people jumping from the windows.

 

No one knew what was happening.  When management thought it was safe - we were all evacuated.  

 

As I was walking home, just on the outskirts of Chinatown - we heard a rumble and turned to ssee the first Tower fall.  

 

People on the street told us that they heard that the Pentagon had been hit.  

--------------------------------------------

The next few days were awful.  Every time a plane flew over we were expecting the worst..

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,339
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

@Mersha wrote:

@Nancy Drew wrote:

My memories are bits and pieces. My husband and nephew were on the USS Carl Vinson already there on deployment in the area. A lot of people don't know American military are always on the watch and away from home. That ship was the first to fire and start the war. Also that

ship they lowered OBL after we killed him and he still got a respectful burial at sea. 
My son was in boot camp .

My younger son was at elementary school just outside of the base we lived at. So at school pick up the kids went through a gate that was guarded now with armed military personnel.

Lots of phone calls. Life was never the same for my group of people. Just leaving base was different because to come back on where we lived we had to wait so long as they had to check each car with canine for bombs. So if anyone wonders why we get upset with kneeling we come from a different perspective.


 

@Nancy Drew    Your husband and family should be thanked for their dedicated service to the nation.

 

Surely you know why there was a "respectful burial at sea."

 

Why can't you let the politcal agenda go on such a heartfelt and poignant thread?????

 

Many would be disappointed to see this thread taken down.


@Mersha I could say the sky is blue and you would argue with me. I am not going to stop voicing my opinion no matter how much it irritates you. The mods can take down a post without removing a thread. You must know this by now.

Wrong is still wrong just because you benefited from it.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,736
Registered: ‎02-19-2014

So sad that the main legacy of this event for some is one of hate. If you allow a horrific, tragic, man-made event to make you turn against and hate your fellow Americans, for any reason, the evil forces behind the event have infected your thoughts with their hate. And that is the entire point of terrorism. To terrorize, divide, spread hate, and ultimately destroy the society the terrorists disagree with. If a terrorist organization can provoke a free country like America to attack and destroy ourselves from within, all the easier for them.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,819
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Your Memories of 9/11

[ Edited ]

I will never forget that awful day.  I was working in Weehawken, NJ ...... and had a great view of the Towers.   I remember looking out the window and seeing smoke come out of one of the Towers.  Someone said a small plane had accidentally crashed in the Tower.  I didn't believe that for one minute.  I was proved to be right when the second Tower was hit.   At the time I was working with the Port Authority Police Officers.   They all had to leave in order to rush over to Ground Zero.  I can't forget  the roar of military jet fighters flying above us just shortly after both Towers fell,   I remember hearing screams and people running out of the building I was in when the towers collapsed.   I remember worrying about all the Port Authority Police Officers who had gone into the Towers.   I lost two friends who were Port Authority Police Officers:  John Skala and Alfonse Niedermeyer.  Alfonse's wife gave birth to their daughter a few months later.  Neither had known she was pregnant at the time of Al's death.  I was able to look down into the Lincoln Tunnel toll plaza...... it was eerily deserted.   I have never seen it like that before or since.   Driving back home on Route 495 I was the only vehicle on the road.   I remember anxiously waiting for word that my friends and all the other Port Authority Police Officers were safe.   It was not until September 12th that I learned the sad news regarding John and Alfonse.   Their remains  were never recovered.   However, John's badge was found among the rubble.  Of course, I was glued to the TV for days for any news hoping that there would be many survivors.   For days we could still smell the smoke from Ground Zero in Weehawken.   Some of my Port Authority Police Officer friends offered to take me to Ground Zero.  I just couldn't bring myself to go.  I kept thinking I would be walking over the buried remains of all the people who were killed. My brother, an Anesthesiologist, was on vacation.  He called the hospital where he worked to tell them he was on his way back in order to assist in the treatment of survivors.  Sadly, his services were not required.  

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,417
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

My office building was across the street from the World Trade Center.  I was at my desk when the first plane hit.  The sound was like nothing I had ever heard before.  Seeing the towers on fire and the debris in the air was unbelievable.  My most horrible, vivid memory was seeing a man in a gray suit jump from the 100th floor.  To this day, I can still picture that poor man free falling to his death.  We were evacuated after the second plane hit.  When we got outside, the landing gear from one of the planes was in front of our building.  It was total chaos.  People running, crying, and not knowing where to go.  My coworkers and I just stood there frozen and the sound of sirens blaring was deafening.  I remember seeing fire engines speeding by us and looking at those firemen heading toward the towers.  Most of those brave men never made it out alive.

 

I was walking over the Brooklyn Bridge when the towers fell.  My black sweater turned white from all the ash in the air.  It took me four hours to walk to my home in Brooklyn.  

 

My building had a lot of damage to the roof and windows were blown out.  We were relocated and it was six months before we were allowed to work in the building again.  I retired in 2010 and have not been back to Manhattan.  Just can't bring myself to visit the memorial.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,120
Registered: ‎03-29-2019

Re: Your Memories of 9/11

[ Edited ]

What haunted me then, and haunts  me still to this day, is knowing that people chose to jump. 

 

I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like.

 

You know that if you stay, you're going to die, and if you jump, you're going to die.

 

I can only hope that their souls left their bodies, and ascended to Heaven, before their bodies... and that they felt no pain.

 

Seeing the towers collapse on live tv, caused me to scream a scream of sheer terror, knowing that I was witnessing the death of innocent people.

 

 

I remember the walls and fences plastered with posters of the missing, and loved ones going on camera, and tearfully begging for  any information on their missing loved ones.

 

I can't  imagine what it must have been like to have been on the streets of New York, and to have witnessed the horrors, not through  a camera lense, on your tv, but with your very own eyes.

 

 

I don't think that I would've been able to handle it.

 

But I know that New Yorkers are tough, strong and resilient. 

 

I also know that a lot of people suffer still from PTSD from what awful day. They suffer from the horrors that they witnessed, and from survivors guilt.

 

Some have tried to numb that pain by self medicating with alcohol and/or drugs.

 

Let us also not forget the victims that came after today. The people who have died from cancers and other illnesses as a result of breathing in all of that dust that was a result of the buildings falling. 

 

We should also take a moment to remember the  dogs that were used to find victims, both alive and deceased.

 

These wonderful dogs gave selflessly,  and all  for a ball, a treat, or a pat as a reward.

 

 

All of these beautiful souls need to be remembered.

 

Some commemorate the anniversary by attending a memorial service, or a church service, or by volunteering somewhere, or by watching programs about 9/11.

 

 

Others, then memories are just too painful, and they always will be painful, and they just can't bare to do anything for those 24 hours. They hunker down, and wait the day out.

 

These are the thoughts that I have on this solemn anniversary.

 

The Sky looks different when you have someone you love up there.
Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,534
Registered: ‎10-05-2010

I was in the shower and heard my phone ringing. I was wondering why someone was calling me so early in the morning. It never stopped ringing. The first call I was able to answer was my best friend telling me to turn on the TV and she was on her way over.  My husband worked at  2 World Trade.

 

I kept repeating, "I can't remember if he works in the building with the antenna or without the antenna." Then we saw the second plane hit and it didn't much matter anymore. 

 

It was three hours later that he was able to get a hold of me. He had left the building about five minutes before the first plane hit to go to a meeting down the street. He saw everything from the window.

 

My phone did not stop ringing until after midnight. I think everyone I've ever known in my life called that day. Plus all his colleagues who didn't know he left the building were calling and screaming into the phone, "Where's 'John'?!" and telling me of the horror they had seen on the streets below.

 

My youngest was in third grade. I called the school to see if the kids were aware of what was happening. I was going to go get him or at least go talk to him so he wasn't worried. They told me the kids didn't know anything.  I went out on the porch to wait for him after school. He walked up to me and said, "Is Daddy dead?" It breaks my heart 20 years later to even type that.