9/11, where were you and what do you remember

I think of the sad story of the Cliffords who were from Cork, but moved to the US. On Sept 11, Mark Clifford was at a meeting in the South Tower and was evacuated when the North Tower hit. When reaching outside to safety, he watched the United B767 with his sister Ruth Clifford and her 4 year old daughter Juliana on board plough into the building he just left.

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Not important here, of course, but my family were from Millstreet, County Cork.

Terrible story. :cry:
 
I think of the sad story of the Cliffords who were from Cork, but moved to the US. On Sept 11, Mark Clifford was at a meeting in the South Tower and was evacuated when the North Tower hit. When reaching outside to safety, he watched the United B767 with his sister Ruth Clifford and her 4 year old daughter Juliana on board plough into the building he just left.

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Horrible, if only the South tower was fully evacuated then many of my friends might have lived. One of the survivors e-mailed this story to me yesterday
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S77KYbkmjwc
My friends were also on the 104th but with a different company.
 
I watched an interesting documentary featuring President Bush (the younger) and his cabinet from the time in a set of fascinating and really honest interviews.

The Bush White House Reveals Its Unfiltered 9/11 Story in New Documentary

I get the strong sense that politicians welcome the chance to be more open with people, when they've retired and no longer feel the need to wear a "mask". I'm a liberal politically, which I only mention, as I was really impressed by Bush in particular. He came across as thoughtful and honest. I suspect more politicians are like that, than we give them credit for. He got a chance to tell his side of the story, what was actually going on and what led to later decisions.

It's worth watching as I learned some things that really surprised me. The re-telling of United 93 is, of course, always worth it. The heroism of the people who rushed the cabin was way beyond anything I'm capable of, if I'm honest. That goes without saying, with regard to the emergency services. It amazes me that some people instinctively run towards danger, when I'm the sort who runs away. I'm immensely grateful for them and very conscious of their bravery and sense of duty.
 
Sitting in the main conference room at (then) Chrysler HQ in Auburn Hills, Michigan waiting for a meeting to start. Slowly people funneled in to the room and turned on the projection system. We watched events unfold together in silence. Stayed about 30 mins. On way back to the office I called my wife and my mom. Then I called HR and told them I was letting everyone go home. Got a stern talking to for that.
 
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Since I moved to IL, it's been a striking difference in how this day is reflected on than it was in NY, but I always enjoy the feelings of how we were all affected across party lines by the events of 9/11 as we experienced together across the nation and across the world. as people reflect on their experiences of that day.

Myself, I was in Buffalo still, a truck driver when cell phones were pretty rudimentary compared to today.
I was in the dock at American Axle, getting a trailer loaded for Detroit, reading the paper, feeling the breeze coming through the windows on a beautiful day.

My mother called me, crying, to tell me a plane had flown into the WTC and that bombs were going off in Washington DC (it was early in the news reporting) so I calmed her down and told her I'd go into the break room and see what was going on.

Walking into the plant, I found it deserted but the break room was full of people, eyes glued to the 2 TV's and as I walked in the 2nd plane hit and we knew, we all knew what was happening and who was responsible.

I was glued to that TV for hours, making calls to my mom and of course my company and at about 1 PM, I was finally loaded and headed back downtown to where the company was located.

Streets were deserted and at most corners was a police car, parked with beacon lights on. It was an eerie feeling I'll never forget and looking at the (then) HSBC Tower, the tallest in Buffalo, something I would do many times for months, I couldn't get the image of a plane flying into it.

When I got to the shop, they had set up TV's in some offices watching the news as it all unfolded.
One of our drivers was in NY, across the river in Brooklyn and watched it all happen. I remember seeing trains coming through Buffalo for weeks after, with open top hopper cars loaded with twisted steel and concrete and knew exactly where it was coming from.

It was the longest day I could remember, which turned into weeks and months before I stopped watching planes flying overhead, judging if they were going up or coming down. Months before I stopped staring at that tower and 20 years later, that day and those feelings still haunt me.
 
I think of the sad story of the Cliffords who were from Cork, but moved to the US. On Sept 11, Mark Clifford was at a meeting in the South Tower and was evacuated when the North Tower hit. When reaching outside to safety, he watched the United B767 with his sister Ruth Clifford and her 4 year old daughter Juliana on board plough into the building he just left.

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Jesus.....
 
I was drinking coffee and watching CNBC before work. I heard the news from David Faber's lips.
I changed to a news channel. I ran my own business and had obligations that day but was able to get home early afternoon.
Stayed glued to the news for days.
 
Work, working 2 restaurant jobs at the time.
Doing my breakfast gig.
In Mashpee, so I heard the fighters from the 102nd wing screaming overhead. Sounded different from the normal air traffic. Whereas I imagine most places got no air traffic the next couple of days, Otis was non-stop.
 
One great thing that came from this horrible day is there was no such thing as a Democrat, independent, or a conservative. We were united as Americans and that’s all it mattered at the time. The people of this great nation was United, devastated and wanted justice for the heinous acts. I find it really sad that it took a terrorist attack to bring this country together. Pearl harbor did the same thing and unfortunately there will be future terrorist attacks and not to make this political but since we moved out of the Middle East (Afghanistan) the same type of people that destroyed those towers are still breathing on this planet. We as Americans must stay vigilant and not allow another 9/11 to happen again. There should be no politics involved for something like this. It should be brother and sisters mother and father’s arm and arm to protect the people of our country.
 
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What a memorable morning for me, Remember I live in CA so 6-ish here.. Wife woke up screaming and sweating. Had a nightmare. Involved ceiling coming down on a daycare. She was freaking out. Never happened before. I tried to comfort her... and then we turned on the TV.
 
What a memorable morning for me, Remember I live in CA so 6-ish here.. Wife woke up screaming and sweating. Had a nightmare. Involved ceiling coming down on a daycare. She was freaking out. Never happened before. I tried to comfort her... and then we turned on the TV.

I remember you telling this story before and it kinda blows my mind
 
One great thing that came from this horrible day is there was no such thing as a Democrat, independent, or a conservative. We were united as Americans and that’s all it mattered at the time. The people of this great nation was United, devastated and wanted justice for the heinous acts. I find it really sad that it took a terrorist attack to bring this country together. Pearl harbor did the same thing and unfortunately there will be future terrorist attacks and not to make this political but since we moved out of the Middle East (Afghanistan) the same type of people that destroyed those towers are still breathing on this planet. We as Americans must stay vigilant and not allow another 9/11 to happen again. There should be no politics involved for something like this. It should be brother and sisters mother and father’s arm and arm to protect the people of our country.
Those people are under strict surveillance. This isn't 20 years ago. I believe any attempt to resurrect those groups will be met with force
 
I was driving into work and listening to Howard Stern. they were talking about the first plane hitting and thinking it was a small plane and an accident. then when 2nd hit I was pulling into work. we had TV's in conf rooms and just watched for hours. nothing got done work wise that day.
 
I was driving into work and listening to Howard Stern. they were talking about the first plane hitting and thinking it was a small plane and an accident. then when 2nd hit I was pulling into work. we had TV's in conf rooms and just watched for hours. nothing got done work wise that day.
That place I was at, they had Howard on at many of the radios people had at their work stations. He was awesome that day, staying on the air for a quite awhile past his normal sign-off time
 
That place I was at, they had Howard on at many of the radios people had at their work stations. He was awesome that day, staying on the air for a quite awhile past his normal sign-off time
:cry:
 
Just ran across this from my author and editor friend Walter Donway.

I have another friend who told me of his story watching the entire horror rein down from the window of his 49th floor office in the Empire State Building. Tragic.

Walter mentions no government connection and I disagree to a point as both Iran and Saudi govermentsvare the wellspring of Islamic Totalarianism but this isn't a political thread so I hope that doesn't become a focus.

The words just moved me.

Made a tear fall.

Try to Remember (9/11)

I was in New York City, in my office at Fifth Avenue and 59th, on September 11, 2001. The office manager, Burt Mirsky, came in and said, "A plane has crashed into a World Trade Center tower."

I said, "Oh, a private plane?"

"No, it says commercial airliner."

"I doubt it."

All of it unfolded during the day. We ended, of course, grouped about the television set. Oddly, I don't think I left until quitting time. My apartment in the West Village with my wife is virtually in the shadow of the towers. No subways running there that day.

Beautiful autumn day, except that the air was filled with an acrid odor. I walked down Fifth Avenue, with my briefcase. It was just over three miles. Coming toward me were people with sooty faces and wild hair. I still can't interpret that. Were some survivors of the collapse of the twin towers only now walking home uptown?

I don't think I was in touch with my wife or Ethan all day. Not entirely sure what phones were working. But that is me, anyway.

My wife was down at her job at Little Red Schoolhouse, a prestigious private school on Sixth Avenue and Bleecker Street. That day, the children were standing at the windows watching the disaster unfold: You could see the towers, from there. Faculty stayed later with kids until their parents came--or never came, as in a few cases.

Ethan was in school at Brooklyn Friends, in downtown Brooklyn, and tells me that they stood on the steps of the school and watched the clouds of black smoke billowint over Manhattan across the East River (not a "river," a tidal estuary).

This was a gigantic, almost miraculous triumph for Islamism. If you can do THAT to a city, a country, then suddenly (and ever since) you are taken very seriously. On my walks along the Hudson, on my runs in earlier days, driving back into Manhattan from any direction--the twin towers were the raised arms and fists of New York City.

Brought down in a single day not by a country, a government, but just 19 religionists ready to die for their cause. Few of them went to jail; one who did is now freed.

And in years since, I have walked along the Hudson and the sky has spoken loudly of...an absence. Experienced from any direction: the city streets, the sea, the air. It is gone.

Not very long after 9/11, I tried the impossible: to write a poem that might capture some part of what it meant to me to my countrymen. This is it:

Who knew that day
That we had buried her,
Untenderly, the way
A violated lady
Once elected to seek
Merciful obscurity?

O, she had been lovely.
She dared all who could see
To hope that life again
Might be as young, as new,
As the hearts of boys when
Their secret dreams are green.

So bountiful, and she
Was big and easy, too;
And because she was free
Drew so many to her side.
Her head was held so high:
Around her, only the sea,
Above her, only the sky.
They ever failed, who sought
To take her, so many sons
To keep her free had fought
Two centuries of wars.

Evil came stealthily
That morning, like the heart
Putrefied with envy.
Who spied the swooping blow
That ravished utterly—
Swift and obscene to know
What was untouchable?

Bickering, strutting down
Corridors of power,
Disposed for the eye: Who,
That day, was by her side—
That world men once called “new”?
 
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