Never Forget!

[CaptPatrick]

[MarkS]

Not a chance. History is IMHO the most important class in school! Now we just have to stop deniers from rewriting it!

[Bertramp]

NEVER !!

[Rawleigh]

I remember it like it was yesterday!

[Pete Fallon]

Faithful,
Never forget that morning and the aftermath for months afterward. Should have nuked the entire area from the Med to the Indian Ocean back in 2001, we wouldn't be having the problems were having now, plus you can still burn the oil even if it is radio active. I saw a great documentary on HBO about the NYFD done by Steve Buschimi( Spelling) the guy that plays the lead in Boardwalk series, he was a former firefighter at E-55 NYFD before he became an actor. Good take if you have HBO it is called :A Good Job:FDNY. Worth watching for an hour. Former firefighter/EMT during the war years 1968 -1980.
Pete Fallon

[IRGuy]

Like Rawleigh, I can recall the morning of 9/11 as if it was yesterday. That and the day Kennedy was assassinated seem to be burned into my memory.

[Navatech]

Snow flakes will show up in hell and pigs will sprout wings before I will forget!...

It was the afternoon (Israel is 7 hours ahead of the US) and I was on my way to Tel Aviv to teach a class in programming (web development)... On the way I started getting news flashes over the radio and calls from friends on the phone... Needless to say that there was no teaching that day... Some of the students stayed home and those that did show up and myself did nothing but scour the web for additional information...

[PeterPalmieri]

Today is the day my coworker doesn't come to work, he lost his brother in law, his wife lost a brother, his daughter never got to meet her uncle and his inlaws lost their son. It's an all to common story around here. Unfortunately these photos of the towers and that day is forcing these folks to spend an entire day looking at crime scene photos. Many of these families don't have interest in going into the city to the 9/11 memorial, leaving the house or even putting the TV on today.

It's also a day where we celebrate the friends and neighbors who spent so much time digging through the rubble in the search and rescue effort providing a sense of hope to those less fortunate folks, many who are now suffering the long term health effects (both physical and mental) of that job and the armed forces who have since defended these freedoms.

This is what makes our country great and seperates us from the animals who loot the site of a plane crash or natural disaster on the other side of the world.

[Navatech]

Pictures of the 911 memorial in Israel: https://www.google.com/search?q=israel+ ... 00&bih=797

Wikipedia article about that memorial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Living_Memorial_Plaza

[Carl]

No chance on Forgetting...


I was talking with Doreen who was watching from foot of the building, she worked in the Towers. Dad came walking into shop with his TV so we could all watch the news in the shop. I hung up with Dor, she was sure there would be no work that day and was going to start heading home in a few minutes. Dad had put TV and finally got a signal after finagling with those stupid Rabbit ears and the 1st tower came down...the city looked like a bomb went off...all I could do was try to think how long since I spoke to Dor...how far could she have gone in the time since we hung up...did she leave.
An hour later I got a call from a friend of hers that was in Jersey...Doreen could not connect within the city on her cell phone...but had the brains to call elsewhere and ask to relay a message...she was getting on the Ferry and heading home. I met her at the train station with friends who needed to get away...all covered head to toe in white soot. We were the lucky ones...many never got that call, didn't get to pickup their friends and spouses, children at the train. I can't imagine...actually I can....and so glad it was only an hour.

We know lots of people that were there before and after...each with a story that tears at you. And then all those I do not know...but my heart goes out to them. Doreen had a tough time getting over it...I wasn't sure what life was going to be like for quite awhile. No leaving the house, no TV, wouldn't see her daughter...when the planes started flying again....tough days. I thank god we were the fortunate ones and those days are in the past...many not so lucky.

No...we will never forget.

[Bertramp]

The items that I left on my desk on the evening of 09/10/2001 have never been seen by me since.
I had boat parts in my office from Hatteras. They knew that they had shipped to me in the towers days earlier. I received a gift of a replacement. The "H folks" were/are a class act !!
A day that changed me forever. I knew 3 of the lost, but a bit of me got lost on that day too. I saw stuff I would like to forget.

[Tony Meola]

A lot of us knew people in those buildings. Friends, family, former co-workers. I think about all the times I passed through the towers going to work. The times I spent on the upper floors. Any one of us could have been there.

Like Pearl Harbor we should never forget. But unfortunately time will pass and you will hear less and less about it. Just like Pearl Harbor. Changing of generations.

Problem is, we thought we learned from Pearl Harbor but we did not. We let our guard down. We will do it again.

We should never forget.

[TailhookTom]

My, at that time, significant other was flying from Chicago and landed at JFK shortly before 7:30, she was on her way to meet with her nephew who worked in Tower 2 for a late breakfast. I was on my way up the elevator in my Hartford, CT office when someone commented about a plane hitting the World Traded Center. I had thought nothing of it, as I assumed it was a small plane. I was going about my morning work routine when someone came into my office and asked if I knew what was going on in NYC. So I opened up msnbc.com and saw, to my horror, a burning tower. Since I was one of the few people on my floor who had successfully logged onto a live feed, many more people started joining me to watch, with horror, what was going on. Shortly after the second plane hit, I received a phone call from our Boston office to evacuate our office. I was working at Ernst & Young at the time, and management made the decision that since we were in most of the tall buildings in major cities, get everyone out -- worldwide.

At this point I began to realize that Tonia could be in danger, which flight was she on, where were those planes from, all thougths going through my head. Needless to say, no cellphone communication with her, I couldn't get her nephew on either his cell nor his office. So, I started thinking, okay where would she go...he lived on Staten Island, maybe try to get there, nope, roads closed from CT to NYC at this point, only first responders allowed into the city. On and on it went. It turns out that she had connected with her nephew, and they were rescued by that incredible fleet that responded and were actually in New Jersey. If I remember correctly, she was on one of those sightseeing boats that tours around the Statue of Liberty. Fortunately, her nephew knew people who lived in Northern Jersey and they were put up by his friends for several nights. It took at least 2 days before she and I were able to speak directly.

It was our December 7, 1941 and I will never forget that cowardly attack.

Tom

[White Bear]

Was at World Financial Center as EMS. Never Forget.

[Bruce]

Two months before they were hit, my brothers company just signed on to finance the leasing rights of the towers for Larry Silverstein to the port authorities of NY and NJ.

Had he not insisted on terrorism insurance coverage(unheard of at the time) for the loan, he would have been left holding the bag.

When the FBI called him into their office to explain the coverage thinking there was some kind of financial connection, he told them it was simple. The towers had been hit in 93 and it was only a matter of time before they were hit again and he was not going to be left holding the bag for that sum of money.

As I recall it took a dozen companies around the world to cover the loan amount and some kinda scoffed at the idea as nonsense and a waste of money.

[Bertramp]

Funny thing .... But, As some of you know, I worked in the towers and ran through the street that morning.
Prior to that day, I felt extremely safe in the building (2WTC).
There were 8' diameter concrete planters with gorgeous flowers in from of every entrance (baracades) ... a guard that knew me refused to let me into the building one day, because I had gone downstairs and forgot my ID ... and he said point blank, yes I know you, but I cant let you in.
I guess you always feel safe until you realize that you are not !!

[HilaryS]

I was sitting in my drafting class when I first heard that a plane had hit the WTC. I remember thinking "Some idiot flew his Cessna into the towers". A few minutes later the school president pulled me out of class to go prep the schools auditorium to display CNN and that all classes would be canceled in 15 minutes. At this point I knew something was up but still had no clue as to the extent. No sooner had I gotten the projection system online than I saw the first tower fall on a 3-story screen. I had several classmates that lost family members that day and a roommate whose cousin was on the United Flight from Boston. I haven't forgotten.

[Bertramp]

I remember thinking "Some idiot flew his Cessna into the towers".

I was there and thought the exact same thing. Pilots used the Hudson as a navigation tool regularly for small planes.......

[Carl]

I remember thinking "Some idiot flew his Cessna into the towers".

That is how it was reported on the radio news at first. A small plane hit towers. First thought...good it was way up, Doreen is safe, she worked on the 39th floor. Then my head went to thinking nobody would "mistakenly" hit the towers in a small plane...then reports had people saying it was an AirBus...nah...couldn't be.
The second plane was a deal changer...everybody knew then the world as "we knew it" changed.
Reports of other planes being taken over and crashing into The Pentagon and The White House started coming in...one being shot down over PA.