Posted on 09/10/2007 6:41:30 PM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
I was in High school math class. Someone came into the room and whispered in my teacher’s ear, she then took pale and said we were attacked but failed to specify where. So naturally as kids will, we were contriving wild stories, but truth is stranger than fiction for when I learned planes were rammed into skyscrapers I could scarce believe it until I went home to watch the news. I never watched the news so long in my entire life, and that night when I finally turned off the TV I felt depressed and empty.
“The Ballad of Mike Moran”
(Christopher Storc and Doug from Upland)
I am Irish and was proud to serve with other firemen,
Who gave their lives for us that day, each one of them a friend,
In remembrance of my brothers who from earthly bonds did pass,
Osama, step right up and kiss my royal Irish ass
They’re the bravest men I’ve known and I’ll miss them every day,
I will keep them in my heart, so they’re never far away,
In remembrance of my brothers, who from earthly bonds did pass,
Osama, step right up and kiss my royal Irish ass,
You’ll pay the price, but first you’ll kiss my royal Irish ass
Never thinking of their safety, only saving other lives,
They never made it home to see their daughters, sons, or wives,
In remembrance of my brothers who from earthly bonds did pass,
Osama, step right up and kiss my royal Irish ass,
They’re the bravest men I’ve known and I’ll miss them every day,
I will keep them in my heart, so they’re never far away,
In remembrance of my brothers, who from earthly bonds did pass,
Osama, step right up and kiss my royal Irish ass,
You’ll pay the price, but first you’ll kiss my royal Irish ass
Try to take our freedom and you’ve made a big mistake,
The Spirit of America, you’re never going to break,
In remembrance of my brothers who from earthly bonds did pass,
Osama, step right up and kiss my royal Irish ass
They’re the bravest men I’ve known and I’ll miss them every day
I will keep them in my heart, so they’re never far away,
In remembrance of my brothers, who from earthly bonds did pass,
Osama, step right up and kiss my royal Irish ass,
You’ll pay the price, but first you’ll kiss my royal Irish ass
Right here on Free Republic. Woke up and saw the breaking news story.
As my older kids came home I found out that they turned the coverage off at the HS (why that was done I will never understand); but played it (on Channel One) for the Middle schoolers. My then 13 year old middle son had watched all day...his core teacher was a Coast Guard Reservist. My next youngest was in elementary school...he said a few kids in his class had their parents pick them up...he didn't know why...but he thought he should have come home too.
We just watched the coverage...and prayed. Never forget.
I remember it was really hot the on Sept 10th, and after the I got bored with the Broncos and Giants I went to bed.
On Tuesday, I was playing on going down to the Pentagon with my co worker to discuss the fire alarm system on a project. He told me he go alone and that I would be better off in the office that day.
Then another coworker came in and told me that a plane had hit the world trade center. I tried to bring up Drudge, but the internet was slow. The AAs pulled out a radio and everyone started to listen to the coverage. No work got done that day. I met with the operations managers who passed along a rumor that the FAA was hit, then I heard Foggy Bottom was hit.
I am getting chills just thinking about. It was like it happened yesterday. I started to get calls from my family wanting to know where I was.
My fellow coworker was stuck in traffic for hours. Then we started to listen the coverage of UAL 93.
I live in northeast NJ, just a few miles to the west of Giants Stadium. At the time I was dring a truck for a living. That day my first delivery was down off exit 14b of the NJTPK, just a block from Liberty State Park.
I got there just about 9am. It was then I noticed smoke billowing out of the north tower. I didn’t see the first plane strike, but I witnessed everything after that.
The images of that day are forever burned into my memory.
I will never forget.
I calmed myself long enough to call my son on his cell, and he came home. I just wanted him close. By the time he got there I was just sitting there, glued to the tv, and everything was unfolding. I had a sense it wasn’t going to stop, how many planes are up there?
Then I called my mother. I don’t think I stopped crying, off and on for 3 days!
Up till that day, I think I had a false sense of security, a sense that the Greatest Country in the world, no one would ever dare do anything like that here. Since.......I just feel vulnerable. As long as I live I will never forget those long long days. And I pray I will never, nor will America, EVER see anything like that again!
No need for apologies my FRiend. To be honest I dont recall if Mike and I spoke, Barbara and I did post to each other once or twice.
On 9/11 I was working in Manhattan with a clear view of the World Trade Center towers, in another skyscraper, One Penn Plaza, which is the 50 story tower looming over Penn Station and Madison Square Garden in mid-town Manhattan, 2 avenue blocks west of the Empire State Building at 34th and 7th Avenue.
Every workday I had (until that date) a beautiful view from my desk of the Twin Towers plus the Statue of Liberty, looking from mid-town south down the island, with the Statue of Liberty appearing across the water just to the right of the towers. I always used to try to pause for a few seconds at least a few times per day just to take in that magnificent view and try not to take it for granted. I also (before 9/11) had to try to prevent myself from daydreaming while looking down the length of Manhattan to such a beautiful view of the towers and the SofL.
OK, here goes..... I want to emphasize that while this is a genuine “I was there story” and I was indeed living and working in the middle of Manhattan on 9/11, I worked in mid-town, not downtown, and I lived on the upper east side, so I was not in direct physical danger unless the terrorists had hit more targets. Still, the intensity of those minutes and hours is almost indescribable, far beyond what can be imagined from seeing it all on TV, since from the moment it was clear that it was terrorism at the WTC there was great uncertainty about how many targets might be hit, what other buildings and locations might be hit, whether there could be any WMDs involved etc. I have to say that I almost immediately thought about possible bio and chem weapons, because I did not think terrorists would come to Manhattan unless they planned to cause the maximum possible carnage (the real attacks were bad enough, but I immediately pondered even more devastating scenarios that might possibly be unfolding). Also, the subway system had been closed down very quickly and some of us were wondering almost immediately whether there had been any attacks within the subways, etc.
Anyway, when the first plane hit (though I wasn’t at my desk or looking at the WTC at that moment), there were gasps and shouts and everyone in my office was both mesmerized and horrified as we could immediately, in real time and real life, see one tower of the WTC burning..... this was real life, not TV, and although we were not downtown in the immediate danger zone we all knew substantial numbers of friends, family, former colleagues and classmates, etc. who worked in and around the WTC. Although I did not yet know it, one of my college classmates had died in the first plane’s impact, probably instantaneously.
Then we were all frantically trying to get information, calling people and check the web for news, etc. I did not happen to be looking toward the WTC when the 2nd plane hit, even though if I had happened to look up from my computer monitor at that instant I would have been looking right at the impact zone. I heard shrieks and yells and someone yelled “oh, God, another one!” Now we could see both WTC towers on fire.
At that point, within not very many more minutes, our company received an order to evacuate the building. As the main office tower overtop Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, we were imagined to be another possible target, although the Empire State Building and Grand Central, etc. probably would have been next had there been more targets. Still, we were evacuated while both towers were still standing.
I was 2 blocks away on 34th St. walking right in front of the Empire State Building, when a guy started hollering “the tower’s collapsing, the tower’s collapsing!” My first thought, seriously was that the Empire State Bldg. had just been hit and I remember the instant of wondering (1) why had I not heard the impact right above me, (2) was I about to die in seconds, (3) why had I not walked uptown first rather than crossing directly in front of the Empire State Building, and (4) was there any chance to run??? I looked up the ESB in an instant, expecting to see disaster directly above me, but I could not see anything out of the ordinary happening on the ESB. I was puzzled, but hurried onto 5th Avenue to get away from that tower. Then someone listening to a car radio, I assume, yelled out his window to everyone on the street that one of the WTC towers had collapsed.
Soon I was walking uptown with a friend, and oddly enough we managed to flag a cab that had just dropped off a passenger - I never expected to be able to flag a cab at such a time, but it happened.
I lived near the New York Presbyterian Hospital and Cornell Medical School, and my roommate was a doctor in the hospital there. They were put on alert to expect to receive potentially a large number of patients, nobody knew for sure what the situation was, and they have one of the premier burn units in the country as well as a large ICU and hundreds of hospital beds. They began discharging as many patients as could leave to free up space. They did end up receiving around 20 burn patients, I believe, many of them very severe. However, aside from those cases there were few if any injured surivors from the WTC. FOr the most part people either got out in time or else died in the collapse of each tower.
Due to a very serious medical condition I was neither allowed to give blood nor do too much of anything.... I had spent the night in NY Presbyterian Hosptial just days before 9/11, having round-the-clock tests and monitoring, and was under medical orders to do nothing more than gentle walking, so I just stayed home the rest of the day and monitored websites such as FR to try to keep up with what was happening. I could go up to the roof of my apartment building (above 36th floor) and see the huge plume of smoke from the WTC site, but it was not really possible to determine anything specific once the towers had collapsed — there was obviously still major fire(s) but my only real info at that point was coming from the Internet, even though I could see the smoke from the site in the distance. I thought a lot about ignoring my doctors’ prior medical advice and trying to get down to the WTC to see if I could bring bottled water and supplies, or help people or do anything at all, but I knew that rationally speaking I would only risk getting in the way of EMS personnel who would be swarming there by the hundreds or thousands, or even becoming a medical problem for rescuers myself for pre-existing reasons.... so I felt uselessly worthless but just stayed the hell away, then and in the days afterwards.
The friend whose office was next to mine at that time had a best friend who was a NYFD firefighter, and who had been the best man in my friend’s wedding. He died in the towers that day.
Not too long after 9/11 I was diagnosed with a serious case of cancer and had to spend much of the next year in an intensive serious of chemo treatments and major surgeries, so in addition to the horrors of 9/11 for everyone else I was soon dealing with my own personal battle for survival from competely non-terror related causes.
Now, six years later, I feel amazement at being alive, because of the strange personal coincidence of the 9/11 attacks and my own subsequent battle with cancer so soon after. Strange times in every way.
I went into a tirade about how he must view my day and how I don't spend my time sitting around watching TV and eating bon bons.
He let out a long-suffering sigh and said, "We're at war. They've hit New York and the Pentagon." (At the time we had no idea that planes were involved. That cleared up within a half hour.)
I said, "Who was it? Dear God, please don't tell me it was the Chinese!"
He told me that we didn't know yet.
About an hour later I was watching the news, crying, (thanking God that it wasn't the Chinese) when I heard a deep rumbling. I went to our balcony and saw trucks carrying dozens of GIs pulling into our housing development. Troops poured out of the vehicles and took up positions in pairs throughout housing. Two ended up under our balcony (much to my son's delight). A tank showed up a few hour later. We were locked down for over a week and every one of us had to prepare for an emergency evacuation. None of us really relaxed again until we PCSed back to the states.
Best friend called, "Turn on the tube."
Strongest emotion: nuclear rage.
I was filling upwith gas and had the radio on.I had ABC news and they were talking about the huge amount of black smoke from the trade center and asked someone on the street and said it was a plane. The first assumption was a small plane. I continued listening and then heard as it happened the second plane hit. I knew immediately it was AL Qeada. I called my husband and my brother. I was thinking of other targets while I was in Silver Spring and thought the Pentagon may be hit or White House or Congress. 10 minutes later the Pentagon was hit. I finished my appointment and called my husband again and then called my son’s school.
My son was at middle school at FT Meade MD where NSA is and I knew that security would get tight. I was told that RT 32 and RT 175 was shut down and that the school buses would send the kids home.
It took the buses an hour to get through security. My son said that jeeps with troops with 50 cal guns drove over the school and that dogs and military went through the entire school. OF course he thought that was cool.Many kids were scared. School was shut down for 3 days since they had to set up a security system for students and school staff and parents.
I went home at mid day and watched the footage for the rest of the afternoon.
My company got flags magnetic stickers that we could put on pur cars.
The anger I felt that day is still strong. I have not forgotten and agreed with the decision to invade Iraq for strategic reasons. Iraq has been a great flypaper trap, where we have had a chance to kill a lot of jihadists. Too bad we had to stop short of Pakistan, but since they allied with us, difficult to justify a bombing mission on the madrassas schools where the jihadist get trained and indoctrinated.
This is a long conflict and on many fronts. Bush made a good start but the next President needs to follow on.
In case I wasn’t clear: I was in One Penn Plaza at 34th St. and 7th Avenue, 2 avenue blocks west of the ESB which is at 34th and 5th Avenue.....
I had just gotten to work. Sat down at my desk, (this was a few minutes after the first tower had been hit) when I heard my boss scream “Oh my God, a plane just hit the World Trade Center!”
He turned on the TV and all 19 of us in the office were huddled around his 13” TV for hours watching the coverage. We didn’t leave work until about 2, but didn’t get actual work done.
I remember at first thinking it was an accident, but when the second tower was hit...I knew it was Mooselimbs responsible.
I bet nobody here can remember the exact date that their lawn sprinkler system was installed. I can.
I was planning on going into work late. The illegal Mexican immigrants doing the installation told me a plane hit the WTC.
I had the day off and woke up to hear the news on tv saying that a plane crashed into one of the “Twin Towers”. Still being half asleep, I assumed that they were referring to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur. I finally walked over to the tv just in time to see the 2nd plane fly into the WTC. I was glued to the tv after that. Our local Pittsburgh news station was also reporting a plane, initially heading towards Cleveland, that was turning around and heading towards Pittsburgh. This eventually became the plane that crashed near Shanksville, PA. I couldn’t stop crying that day. I have several friends who have each lost friends, relatives and co-workers in New York and the Pentagon.
I was on a solo backpacking trip in the Eagle Cap mountains in NE Oregon. I didn’t hear about it until I got back to my car a few days after and started listening to the radio.
The New Zealanders were very compassionate, but the attack kinda put a damper on the rest of the trip. We were wondering if we would make it home because of the ban on inbound flights to the US. We just wanted to get home.
The ban was lifted the morning that we were to fly back and we ended up only being delayed about 3 hours.
For the next couple of hours, I watched the news reports and then decided to be home with my wife and baby daughter. We only live 35 miles from Manhattan and are on the shore of Long Island Sound. On a clear day, you can see the NYC skyline across the water from certain locations, so we went to the beach. Sure enough, we could see the smoke from the burning rubble.
When the grim score was taken, my wife and I knew several business acquaintances who worked at Marsh McLennan and Aion who were killed, the mother of my son's schoolmate was killed, the son of a friend at church died of a heart attack during the recovery effort the next day. Our next door neighbors owned a day care a couple of blocks away from the towers. Although none of the kids lost parents, a disembodied arm and hand hit the window of their business, and ultimately, they lost their business as it was inside the closed zone. I know of two other men who made it out of the building in time as they were both on lower floors. Lots of people moved either jobs or homes from Manhattan to my CT town and occasionally you hear one of their stories. What happened that day was a very personal thing and although CT is a somewhat liberal state politically, the friggin' Al Queda navy would never make it past Norwalk. We would kick their ass.
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