Twenty-Three Years Ago Today---09/11/2001

[Tiberius]

We are pretty much a society that is forward looking, and that is a good thing. We don't so much try and get over our history as simply just move along to the next thing without dwelling on the past. I'm sure for some people this date is more personal than for others but for most Americans this event is fading into the past rather quickly. Just like Pearl Harbor did and the JFK assassination. 

 

 

I visited the Twin Tower site this summer and its a beautiful memorial and new building there. Horrible tragedy but you can't keep America down for long. It was a puny effort to hurt our country and we have emerged stronger. 

[Guffalo]

This is what I  wrote the next morning on this board...

I almost feel ashamed looking at this board, since football is far from my mind right now, but my home page is TBD...When I was on my way to work yesterday, I was on the #1 express from Penn down to WTC, at 14th a couple got on and said they saw a plane hit the trade center, I figured it was a light plane, and continued on. There was an announcement by the conductor that said "Due to a fire at WTC there will beno service to Cortland ave (in the wtc), I got out at chambers street and started walking..as I turned around to face the north tower I saw people just string up in awe.. there was a hole in the tower with smoke and flames, I asked some guy what happened and he said, he saw the plane go in.. and then he said 15 minutes later the other tower exploded.. (we were on the north side so he didn't see the 2nd plane , only the impact)I tried my cell phone (no good) so I tried to find a pay phone , I thought of my wife wondering if I was in there, and just the worry that the rest of the family would have when they heard. .I was able to get through to her voice mail, and then I called our office on 36th st ( I am a consultant assigned to 4 WTC since last September). The office wanted me to try to locate another employee, and we started using my cell phone with the two way radio feature. I started looping around to the east of the buildings, trying to find myco-worker, as I walked near the post office, I saw debris and broken concrete, small puddles of blood, shoes ,lots of shoes and I picked up a warm hunk of metal ( I have no idea why) it was almost hot and it was heavy and it was oily or greasy... I dropped it when I saw a wheel or turbine that was 20 feet away, high density aluminum about 6 feet wide....Using my radio to my boss, I kept chatter back and forth and kept moving towards where I figured Marcia would be (we went through the bombing in 93and had always said, head for the water by the Seaport).Police were busy on Church so I moved to Broadway by J&R Music and continued the radio chatter with my boss, he said Marcia had not checked in yet, keep looking, he also told me he saw video of the 2nd plane as it went in, he said it had been hijacked as well as the first one, he also told be about the Pentagon being hit. I had worked my way to Nassau street, a pedestrian mall about 3 blocks east of the towers. My radio was quirky, sometimes the frequency was jammed, sometimes you could get through, so I told my boss I was going to keep it on once I get a signal. As I was walking up Nassau I left the center of the street and stayed along the storefronts, I was talking to Doug and he heard me say "Oh @#$%^! something's happening, oh my God something went off", and he could hear the rumbling as the first tower went down, I felt a shock wave and wind rush as I ducked into a doorway (from the narrow street you could not see the tower) I knew that one of them had fallen and I assumed it had toppled over like a domino, not the gentle slide that I saw later. The dust and debris cloud came next as I peered out of the doorway the cloud came east towards the Nassau area, I started sprinting north and got one block, as I looked over my left shoulder I saw a huge cloud of debris/dust coming our way, as we ran I saw a woman fall, someone slowed down to help and they were trampled ( I know I should have stopped, but I was thinking about wife, kids etc, and she went down pretty hard) As I rounded the corner near Beekman Hospital emergency personnel were waving us away I zigged through the waiting stretchers, and headed to the Seaport, I slowed down to catch my breath....The smoke/debris cloud was covering us with something that was making me choke and burning my eyes, it looked like snow... I started towards the Brooklyn Bridge, but I was afraid that if the other tower went it may drop towards us, so I started to go towards Chinatown. As I was walking I remembered my radio.. the (last transmission I sent was Oh my God and the rumbling in the background) when I finally got through my boss was excited, he thought I was a goner. A woman stopped be and asked to borrow the phone, I told her there were no calls in or out, she then started wandering back towards the site and I stopped her and asked what she was doing, "I have to get my pocketbook" I said that would not be a great idea, and I asked her where she lives, we were going the same way and started walking together, we saw a cab (empty)so we got in and the driver said "I'm only going north" (well hello....that was an understatement, who the hell wants to go back there!!!)In the cab, Doug (boss) confirmed that the tower had fallen, we looked back and saw the new skyline with just one tower standing up. A short time later Doug asked where we were, I told him in a cab, and he told us the second tower just went down, we looked out the back window of the cab as the debris and smoke filled the air in the distance. We were up to the village, and I saw the Empire State building looming in the distance.. I told the driver to stop and let me out, the girl (Valerie)said why get out now??? I pointed to the building/target and said "what would be the next landmark to get hit??I got out and gave the girl some money for the cab , she insisted on paying me back and made me give her my card ( amazing at a time like this the etiquette thing still remains in some people).I started west to avoid the Empire State Building and went around it to get to our office located 2 blocks north of the ESB. I got upstairs and changed, called the wife ( she heard my voice cracking on the messages and she cried every time she heard news of my progress)We watched the news as others straggled in (Marcia had gotten up there too).Once they opened the Long Island Rail Road, I left and got on and headed home..I never figured out whose shoes those were.. I am home now, and I suggest the following: Don't complain about doing your kids homework. Say I love you whenever possible Try to keep in touch with your loved ones, Whatever you think is very important today, may seem like a pimple on the ass of an elephant tomorrow. God Bless us all Guff

[Saxum]

Twenty-Three years ago terrorists won by having US changes which will impact US longer than their lifetimes.

[Saxum]

 

On that day I got a check to see you are alive call from work - I scheduled that day off and they were calling everyone working at DISA since DISA HQ is near crash site and they were worried about people going to work being colleterial.    I used to drop off military personnel at Pentagon when I was leaving work rather them having to take the bus.

 

Just previous week DISA imposed parking restrictions only allowing senior personnel to park by building and each one had a reserved spot.  I was discussing with gate guard this because he was waiving me through since my car had General markings and I told him they added risk by doing this since any terrorist would know exactly what kind of car and location parking it making it easy target for remote bomb.

 

He mentioned it to security and I was called down to explain risk and they agreed and changed parking plan moving VIP cars elsewhere not easily visible by road and used devices to check for incendiary devices under vehicles.

[sherpa]

I was a check captain on the 757/767, qualling a new copilot.

Left JFK for San Francisco on 9-10.

Left San Francisco for the return a 6am west coast time.

After level off, made the usual seat belt PA.

Got a message on our cockpit printer from the company:

 

"Numerous cockpit incursions. Do not allow anyone in the cockpit."

I thought that was weird, so didn't mention it to the new copilot.

A few minutes later, we were north of Las Vegas and got another message.

     "Numerous cockpit incursions. Do not allow the door to be opened. Defend the cockpit at all cost.

Suggest diversion."

 

These are not normal comms. There was an extra guy in the cockpit, an old Navy bud who was going to New York, and I invited him up to catch up. We had the capability to pick up AM radio, though we never did, so I asked him to listen to an am station and he told me about the breaking news.

We were the only ones on the ATC frequency, so not any info, so I told the controllers I was turning back to San Francisco.

Pushed it up to max mach and started back. As a west coast Naval Aviator, I knew all the civilian and military runways that could handle us, so I was prepared to drop in if anything happened.

Had the flight attendants build a mini barricade in from of the cockpit door, manned by our three, of eight, male flight attendants.

Never said a word to the passengers until well into the descent.

The company kept bothering me with messages to verify i still had the cockpit.

Eventually they asked me to verify by sending a password that nobody when you selected it, was told nobody would ever see as as a check airman, it gets you into really back door stuff.

I sent it. A few days later I asked how they knew it. The guy said, " We didn't, but we typed in your employee number and it worked, so we knew it was you."

Bay approach control cleared me for a noise abatement approach called the "Quiet Bridge," which avoids high density areas of the east bay and comes over the San Mateo Bridge, but is longer.

By now, knowing my company had lost planes and with no idea what was to happen, I told them I was not going to fly any noise abatement approach, but was going to point the thing at the approach end of 28R, the closest runway, and land it.

I also added, and if someone tries to get through our door I'm going to put this ***** thing in the Bay, and you better come get us.

Using profanity is not legal, so during the pause in his response, I thought he may not have liked that.

Anyway, after a pause he said" If you put it in the Bay we'll get you."

 

Landed, followed by about 30 vehicles with armed folks.  Called home to have the Mrs. tell the kids I was OK, as they knew I was flying transcons from NY to the west coast that week on my airline which was involved.

 

Found out who had been killed. Having flown 77 from Dulles to LA for the previous two years I knew those people.

Did a conference call with the FBI that afternoon and told them saw nothing in the exiting passengers, and also told them they were off before I ever got to the door because I was busy shutting the airplane down.

 

Simply horrible.

 

 

Edited September 11 by sherpa

[GASabresIUFan]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5756568/2024/09/11/jason-whittle-giants-911-patrick-swayze/

 

Talks about his work on 9/11 and that he is not Patrick Swayze's son (apparently there is another Jason Whittle who claims to be Swayze's son).

Quote

 

Back at Ground Zero, Whittle mustered whatever he could to encourage the community. He was a default celebrity as a member of the Giants’ Super Bowl squad from just eight months earlier. A week after the attacks, Whittle and a group of Giants visited FDNY Engine 40 and Ladder 35, where families of the missing still waited for loved ones to return. He passed Giants teddy bears out to children, unloaded supplies for the first responders, handed out water bottles and coffees, signed hard hats and posed for pictures.

The grief, however, was overwhelming. Adults had begun to realize what anxious kids at the firehouse hadn’t yet, that their mommy or daddy wasn’t coming home.

“It’s one thing to see it on TV and to hear about it, and your heart breaks,” Whittle said, “but then to go down to Ground Zero and see these heroes that have been down there for a couple of days and they haven’t slept and haven’t eaten … It’s hard to explain the level of destruction and despair.

“People understand how tall those buildings are, but they don’t understand that, for blocks, windows 30 stories up were just blown out from the compression. To see the smoke and the rubble and these people who are looking for friends and family, it was a difficult thing to see firsthand.

“When you talk about heroism, many of those guys knew they were going into that building and they probably would not come back. Hoo, that was pretty heavy.”

For weeks, the Giants could see and smell from their training facility at the Meadowlands the smoke still billowing from Manhattan. Whittle appreciated that constant reminder.

Several of his teammates backed out of a second Ground Zero support mission, too traumatized from the last visit. But Whittle returned. If he could provide even a brief distraction from the chaos and misery and divert the spotlight from sports demagoguery to those who truly deserved it, then how could he not?

 

 

 

 

[T master]

I really can't stand these sights that you have to get a subscription to just to read a article !!! And i must really be a DS because i knew it and went to try and read it any way ... 🙄

[GASabresIUFan]

1 minute ago, T master said:

I really can't stand these sights that you have to get a subscription to just to read a article !!! And i must really be a DS because i knew it and went to try and read it any way ... 🙄

It's why I posted a quote about his 9/11 work.

[EasternOHBillsFan]

I was in third year in the Navy and on the USS WASP when it happened. I had just returned from my first deployment on the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN and life was never the same again for us in the military, that's for sure. In 2003 when Enduring Freedom kicked off in Iraq I was deployed on the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT and after ended up in East Africa for anti terror ops and civil affairs work. I can't imagine how much suffering and death in sum total this one day inflicted upon our nation and the world.

 

Working in Haiti for the earthquake relief in 2010, nobody can really understand how terrible it is to see dead bodies all over the place, buildings destroyed, stretchers everywhere with hurt or exposed people, chaos, the smells... most people can't handle those conditions and I still can't 14 years later fully deal with those memories. 

[GASabresIUFan]

2 minutes ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

I was in third year in the Navy and on the USS WASP when it happened. I had just returned from my first deployment on the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN and life was never the same again for us in the military, that's for sure. In 2003 when Enduring Freedom kicked off in Iraq I was deployed on the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT and after ended up in East Africa for anti terror ops and civil affairs work. I can't imagine how much suffering and death in sum total this one day inflicted upon our nation and the world.

 

Working in Haiti for the earthquake relief in 2010, nobody can really understand how terrible it is to see dead bodies all over the place, buildings destroyed, stretchers everywhere with hurt or exposed people, chaos, the smells... most people can't handle those conditions and I still can't 14 years later fully deal with those memories. 

I can only imagine.  I used to work on the 56th floor of Tower 1 and my brother was working in the WFC next door and had just come through the WTC subway before the first plan hit.  He was one of the thousands that crossed the bridge into Brooklyn following the attacks.  

[EasternOHBillsFan]

3 minutes ago, GASabresIUFan said:

I can only imagine.  I used to work on the 56th floor of Tower 1 and my brother was working in the WFC next door and had just come through the WTC subway before the first plan hit.  He was one of the thousands that crossed the bridge into Brooklyn following the attacks.  

 

That's brutal... how is his health now? Any serious effects from that day? It's also hard for people to fathom how much toxicity was in the air on that day. I hope that he is healthy and doing well.

[Ga boy]

9 minutes ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

I was in third year in the Navy and on the USS WASP when it happened. I had just returned from my first deployment on the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN and life was never the same again for us in the military, that's for sure. In 2003 when Enduring Freedom kicked off in Iraq I was deployed on the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT and after ended up in East Africa for anti terror ops and civil affairs work. I can't imagine how much suffering and death in sum total this one day inflicted upon our nation and the world.

 

Working in Haiti for the earthquake relief in 2010, nobody can really understand how terrible it is to see dead bodies all over the place, buildings destroyed, stretchers everywhere with hurt or exposed people, chaos, the smells... most people can't handle those conditions and I still can't 14 years later fully deal with those memories. 

Thanks for protecting freedom 🙏🏻👏

[EasternOHBillsFan]

Just now, Ga boy said:

Thanks for protecting freedom 🙏🏻👏

 

Thank you! After 20 years I tend to think more about who I served alongside and all of the people I met during that time. I just wish people got the opportunities I had to see the world and work alongside selfless professionals who band together to try and make the world a better place.

[Ga boy]

1 minute ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

 

Thank you! After 20 years I tend to think more about who I served alongside and all of the people I met during that time. I just wish people got the opportunities I had to see the world and work alongside selfless professionals who band together to try and make the world a better place.

Yes, you’ve had a great life.  Being an army brat, you’ve reminded me of the selflessness of my Dad.  Thanks!

[The Jokeman]

His name is familiar but I don't recall him ever playing or even what position he was TBH. 

[GASabresIUFan]

1 minute ago, The Jokeman said:

His name is familiar but I don't recall him ever playing or even what position he was TBH. 

OL and long snapper

[Utah John]

On 9/11/2024 at 12:05 PM, Punching Bag said:

 

On that day I got a check to see you are alive call from work - I scheduled that day off and they were calling everyone working at DISA since DISA HQ is near crash site and they were worried about people going to work being colleterial.    I used to drop off military personnel at Pentagon when I was leaving work rather them having to take the bus.

 

Just previous week DISA imposed parking restrictions only allowing senior personnel to park by building and each one had a reserved spot.  I was discussing with gate guard this because he was waiving me through since my car had General markings and I told him they added risk by doing this since any terrorist would know exactly what kind of car and location parking it making it easy target for remote bomb.

 

He mentioned it to security and I was called down to explain risk and they agreed and changed parking plan moving VIP cars elsewhere not easily visible by road and used devices to check for incendiary devices under vehicles.

Good show by everyone.  You for observing and reporting the security vulnerability, and the Pentagon security forces for taking action.

[EasternOHBillsFan]

6 hours ago, Ga boy said:

Yes, you’ve had a great life.  Being an army brat, you’ve reminded me of the selflessness of my Dad.  Thanks!

 

Thank you again! I lost my father in 2000 before that deployment on the TRUMAN. The last time I saw him he was in a VA Hospital bed in Statesville, NC and I learned it from my father. Thank God he never got to see what happened after he died and what was essentially our Pearl Harbor. I spent my entire Chief Petty Officer season always thinking of him and how I so wish he could have been there to see me pinned with anchors but I have to have faith he was in spirit.

[Ga boy]

6 hours ago, EasternOHBillsFan said:

 

Thank you again! I lost my father in 2000 before that deployment on the TRUMAN. The last time I saw him he was in a VA Hospital bed in Statesville, NC and I learned it from my father. Thank God he never got to see what happened after he died and what was essentially our Pearl Harbor. I spent my entire Chief Petty Officer season always thinking of him and how I so wish he could have been there to see me pinned with anchors but I have to have faith he was in spirit.

Sounds like you had a great Dad too.

[Wacka]

Told this in the past. Our company (in Alameda CA) had an office in NJ and  several people would go there to do work.  One guy would get tickets for several flights over one or two days so if he got done early he could fly back  the day before he was scheduled.   We were al watching on the TV in the lunchroom  and around noon he disappears to his office and comes back. 

He says "look what I found". He had a boarding ticket   for flight 93 for 9/11!  He had finished his work on 9/10 and flew back that evening. This was before you could print out your own passes. It was on one of those IBM cards they used then.

Someone I went to HS with was an audiologist for the army and she worked at the Pentagon then. I read later that she got a commendation for treating people who were injured in the crash there.