9-11 rememberance thread

[MHizzle85]

Out of curiosity, what does "never really heartbroken" mean? I'm not trying to be a dick, I just don't understand.

If I had to define it, I'd say that I understand that it's a major tragedy & everything surrounding it. But it's not something that hurt me personally. I don't know if that sounds bad or not...and I don't mean for it to, but it's how I feel.

[GoSox05]

I was at work and my mom called and told me that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I really didn't get what she meant. I thought like a small plane had accidentally flown into it. When she called the second time and told me another plane had crashed into the other building. You knew something was really wrong.

 

I remember how quiet everything became. Our phones ring alot at work and they just stoped for the rest of the day. I also remember that night sitting outside my friends house and we were talking about how wierd it was to not look up and see any planes in the sky.

[lostfan]

Last year MSNBC re-aired their coverage from that day. I was watching CNN's coverage in 2001 but it was really eerie seeing that. I could remember specific thoughts I was having at specific times, or where I was going, who I was talking to.

[kapkomet]

Last year MSNBC re-aired their coverage from that day. I was watching CNN's coverage in 2001 but it was really eerie seeing that. I could remember specific thoughts I was having at specific times, or where I was going, who I was talking to.

I remember a lot of details from that day too, but we had a totally different perspective being at a control center of an airline. Yea, small, cargo airline (20 or so jets), but FAA rep happened to be at our center that day for a meeting.

 

"I don't care where your f***ing planes are, get them on the f***ing ground right now".

 

That was about 5 minutes after the Pentagon was hit. We all just sat there and watched the tv that was hanging up in the control center, and watched the big screen that had the tracking software of jets coming off real quick-like. 2,500 planes, to 1,500 planes, to 500 planes, to nothing, all in about one hour's time... and then silence - at a major airport like Dallas Fort Worth - which is the most eery thing I will ever remember - total silence at that airport.

 

Oh, and transponders on Air Force One worked really, really well until about 2:00 in the afternoon. D'oh.

[lostfan]

As if an air traffic controller wasn't already a b**** of a job to have, imagine being one at about 10 am that morning and you needed to get ALL your planes down, somewhere, anywhere, RIGHT NOW. I would want to kill myself.

Edited September 12, 2009 by lostfan

[MexSoxFan#1]

The night before 9/11,me and some buddies had a party at my pad and we got drunk and got high and slept really late...

I remember thinking it was a dream that I kept hearing about a plane hitting a building in New York,one of my friends got up and had the TV on really loud and I tried to sleep through it until I got up and he told me what was going on,I could'nt believe it and I thought it was some kind of prank,if only it was.

 

I was living in Mexico during that time and it was surreal to tune in to MTV and have Dan Rather and CBS News replacing MTV's feed for weeks,the Mexican news channels covered the 9/11 tragedy 24-7 so I could only imagine how overwhelming the coverage was in the US.

 

I remember just breaking down like 3 days into the tragedy while watching the newscast,a sudden rush of sorrow just overwhelmed me,I didn't know anyone who worked at the WTC nor do I know anyone in New York but I just connected with the horror those poor folks must've felt at they jumped to their deaths to escape the fire.

 

I still get chills thinking about that.

Edited September 12, 2009 by MexSoxFan#1

[G&T]

If I had to define it, I'd say that I understand that it's a major tragedy & everything surrounding it. But it's not something that hurt me personally. I don't know if that sounds bad or not...and I don't mean for it to, but it's how I feel.

 

It's not bad. It's a feeling dependent on a lot of factors. In fact, I'd say most people who didn't know anyone in NYC feel the same way.

 

For me, there was something about being away from home for the first time and lacking that comfort zone only to see something like that which sort of stomped on my idea of safety and security. Not on a national level, but a personal one.

 

Also, a HS history teacher of mine said something interesting to us before we graduated, only a few months before 9/11. She talked about how every generation has a national crisis and defines the generation. Be it WWII, Vietnam, etc. But nothing had happened yet to define ours. It was pretty clear that our generation would be defined by this moment. On top of that, we just registered for Selective Service, and there were fears that the draft would be instituted. Of course, that was probably the first and only time I will ever see people actually enlisting in the military out of patriotism.

[BigSqwert]

I was in NY that week for my first work road trip. A group of 6 of us were going to spend the week in Long Island and as we descended late Sunday night towards Laguardia I noticed the twin towers out the window. Monday night at dinner our group discussed cutting out of work early on Wednesday or Thursday to go down and check out the towers. Obviously those plans changed Tuesday morning.

 

We wound up being stuck in Long Island until Wednesday afternoon. That's when they finally let some ferries take people off the island. Before that we couldn't start our drive back home in our rental cars since the bridges going back to Manhattan were shut down. While on the ferry we passed Manhattan and could see the smoke plumes from ground zero. Finally landed in Connecticut and continued our long road trip back to Chicago.

 

What a memorable way to kick off my career out of college.

[Brian]

13 years. Sheesh. Feels like last year.

[Kyyle23]

I remember so many little things. Waking up after having a bonfire the night before in my backyard, with my roomates mom calling over and over until one of us picked up the house phone. We finally got up and put the tv on right before the second plane hit. The coverage was just so surreal, so many different possibilities of what caused it and who caused it.

 

I remember the gas station down the street from me went from 1.35/gallon to 1.95/gallon by the end of the day, and 2 years later had to pay a significant fine for price gauging

[Brian]

I remember so many little things. Waking up after having a bonfire the night before in my backyard, with my roomates mom calling over and over until one of us picked up the house phone. We finally got up and put the tv on right before the second plane hit. The coverage was just so surreal, so many different possibilities of what caused it and who caused it.

 

I remember the gas station down the street from me went from 1.35/gallon to 1.95/gallon by the end of the day, and 2 years later had to pay a significant fine for price gauging

 

I was sort of the same. Hadn't had a job yet out of college and woke up just before the 2nd plane hit.

 

Even at my age I had trouble comprehending suicide missions like that and than realizing innocent passengers were on the plane.

[southsider2k5]

This is really cool.

 

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/11...d-its-stunning/

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

Ya know Jesus Etc. by Wilco was written pre-9/11.

 

I've never considered any parallel between that song and 9/11. I see Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released in 2001, and a quick googling shows me that the album was originally set for a 9/11/01 release, but the tall buildings shake/skyscrapers are scraping together lines are pretty generic. I didn't pick this album, or Wilco up until long after 2001, though, so there is that.

[Kyyle23]

I've never considered any parallel between that song and 9/11. I see Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was released in 2001, and a quick googling shows me that the album was originally set for a 9/11/01 release, but the tall buildings shake/skyscrapers are scraping together lines are pretty generic. I didn't pick this album, or Wilco up until long after 2001, though, so there is that.

 

just an FYI, he wont respond to this

[StrangeSox]

ha

 

YHF went through a big, convoluted process before it was released. It was finished in 2000 or early 2001 I think, but the record company wouldn't release it for some reason so Wilco eventually had to buy the rights for it.

 

I found this Greg Kot article circa 2001 describing the fallout prior to the album's release

http://web.archive.org/web/20010826133635/...chi-leisure-hed

[cabiness42]

Today makes me think of my late father. He was playing golf that day. He left the clubhouse and headed for the first tee at what must have been almost exactly 7:46, because the TV in the clubhouse cut from ESPN to ABC News to begin coverage right after that. Nobody in his group owned a cell phone at the time, so there were no relatives or friends calling them to tell them what had happened.

 

Somewhere along the first nine, they got behind a really slow group who was not letting them play through. When that group headed to the clubhouse for a break after the 9th hole, Dad's group skipped the clubhouse stop and went straight to the 10th tee. They finished their entire round, still in blissful ignorance about anything that had happened. Finally, shortly after noon, only upon returning home and wondering why his wife and stepdaughter were home in the middle of the day, did he learn anything at all about what had happened.

 

Since he was taken way too early, I'm even more thankful that he got those extra 4+ hours of peach and tranquility that the rest of us did not get that day.

[Jenksismyhero]

This is really cool.

 

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/11...d-its-stunning/

 

Amazing how much mis-information there was. Understandable given the chaotic nature of it all, but still.

[Chisoxfn]

http://news.yahoo.com/american-f-16-pilot-...-160215167.html

 

Very cool story.

[Harry Chappas]

Great quote:

 

"We're at war Dick and we're going to find out who did this and we're going to kick their ass."

[bigruss]

Great quote:

 

"We're at war Dick and we're going to find out who did this and we're going to kick their ass."

There were a ton of great quotes and pictures in that article, very cool to see. That sniper part is crazy, wonder if it was just false intel or if they really did have a sniper threat.

[southsider2k5]

There were a ton of great quotes and pictures in that article, very cool to see. That sniper part is crazy, wonder if it was just false intel or if they really did have a sniper threat.

 

The one about posting an armed guard on Air Force One to protect against an assassination attempt was chilling.

[BigHurt3515]

Watching a documentary on the history channel now. They are showing tons of people's videos. Zooming in on people jumping from the towers, it is so hard to watch, heartbreaking. I can't imagine what those people were thinking before jumping and while falling..

[Brian]

Watching a documentary on the history channel now. They are showing tons of people's videos. Zooming in on people jumping from the towers, it is so hard to watch, heartbreaking. I can't imagine what those people were thinking before jumping and while falling..

 

Hopefully they passed out before hitting the ground. Such desperation.

[Jenksismyhero]

I have to think jumping and falling to your death (and hopefully passing out before doing so) is better than burning alive. But what a terrible choice to make.

[Jake]

Hunter S. Thompson on 9/12:

 

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now — with somebody — and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

 

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.

 

...

 

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

 

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed -- for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

 

Full article here - http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1250751

 

He wasn't totally right...he mentioned in a part not included that we couldn't have stopped it and that we'll have no evidence/intelligence. It seems that we had an inkling that something like this was being planned. Could we have stopped it? It's difficult to say. We've given up a lot out of fear of it happening again. Go to the airport and report back on the extent to which you have experienced freedom.

 

It all seems like it was both a long time ago and so very recently. Much has changed in response, some of which we certainly don't yet recognize or understand. It showed us both the best and the worst about ourselves.