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Remembering 9/11
Posted by Bigfoot on September 10th, 2008
On September 11, 2001, I worked in Arlington, Virginia, in an area about a mile away from the Pentagon, even though I had moved to Maryland about a dozen years earlier. The day started out routinely, with a commuter train ride into Washington, DC, and a short ride on the Metro to where I worked. Sometime after 9:00 AM, I noticed that several co-workers were watching a small portable television set, its screen at most 3 inches across. After joining them, I learned that airplanes had crashed into the twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York, and another one had hit the Pentagon, just a mile away from us. The newscasters all seemed to realize what was going on. This was a terrorist attack, in which airplanes were hijacked, and then used as suicide weapons. Arab terrorism had merged with the tactics of the Japanese kamikaze.
As we continued to watch the TV, other reports came through, some spotty and unclear. A gas station a few blocks from us was allegedly on fire. Another fire had broken out somewhere on the Mall, an open area in Washington that extends between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol. Another plane was still out there, heading toward Washington. Or maybe there were several planes still not accounted for. We started to hear sirens, sometimes the same one simultaneously on the television and from outside our building. After some time, I decided to leave the building and take a walk, to see if there really was a fire in a nearby gas station. I could not find any evidence of fire, other than smoke rising from the Pentagon. The reports of fires in a gas station and on the Mall turned out to be wrong.
One other thing I could not help but notice is what a beautiful day it was, sunny and warm, but not too warm. In and around Washington, summers can be brutally hot and humid, but Septembers were often very pleasant. Temperatures would retreat down into the 70’s, with the humidity receeding as well. But now, this gorgeous day was ruined and sent into infamy by the actions of an enemy that at the time, I barely understood.
Our employer let us go home early, so I rode the Metro back into Washington, and then the commuter train back home. The train proceeded slower than normally, maybe because the railroad dispatcher thought that a slower speed would be prudent, but I didn’t think the slower speed was a good idea. I thought that moving more slowly would only make us an easier target if there were still hijacked planes out there.
The slow ride home gave me plenty of time to think and speculate. I remembered that a renovation project had recently been started at the Pentagon. I remembered how one of my brothers had worked there, as an employee of a civilian contractor, back in 1991. And I realized that thousands of people, the greatest number of them in New York, must have lost their lives.
When I arrived back home, I turned on my television to see if anything else had happened. I also turned on my computer and sent my parents an e-mail, to let them know that I was OK. I would later learn that the country’s phone lines had not been able to handle all of the calls made in the wake of the attack, but that internet traffic had continued unabated.
What did I feel? At various times, shock, confusion, fear and anger. And an acceptance of the fact that Al Qaeda, which seemed like a minor irritant back in the 90’s, was in reality a dangerous enemy. A decade earlier, as the Soviet Union fell apart, I had the idea that just as one enemy can be defeated, another enemy could appear on the scene, but had no idea about who that enemy could be. With 9/11, I realized that the new enemy had arrived, and had hit us at home, something no one had done since the British in the War of 1812.
I would later learn of a plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, the result of passengers trying to fight back against the hijackers, and of the heroic efforts of firefighters in New York trying to rescue people from the burning skyscrapers, before each of them collapsed. News reports would show footage from several different directions of the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center. Later on, President Bush would announce what he would call the War On Terror.
It’s been seven years, and much has happened since that awful day, both good and bad. But thankfully, the terrorist organization that perpetrated the 9/11 attacks has not been able to repeat their dastardly deed on American soil. This is more than some had hoped for. It was not a question of “if” but “when” Al Qaeda would strike us again. But so far, for whatever reason or cause, they have not.
As September 11, 2008 unfolds, let us be sure to remember the events of that day seven years ago, along with the people who lost their lives, and the heroes in New York and Arlington and on Flight 93, who did what they could to prevent that day from becoming even worse. Never forget.
:91101:
September 11th, 2008 at 4:08 am
[...] Remembrance: Michelle Malkin And Righly So Tags: 9-11, terrorism, wtc [...]
September 11th, 2008 at 8:08 am
:91101:
I begin teaching a class in American Government today — to a group of homeschoolers. They don’t have much personal connection to 9/11. I’ll be seeing what I can do to bring them to an understanding of the larger meaning of 9/11.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:21 am
I was almost done with my intitial training in the C-130 @ Little Rock on 9/11. I had ’bout one more month to go. At the squadron, we all looked at each other and knew that this was war. Especially when we walked out of a brief to catch the next bit of news and saw the second tower fall. Don’t remember anything in the brief. I remember going home that evening, and watching the news of the smoldering ruins. This event, I believe, is one time I know I felt like my grandfather felt about Pearl Harbor. I sat down with my wife, and prayed for the people lost, their families, and then I asked God’s vengence upon those who would target and murder innocent people. I think God’s been doing a pretty good job of using the U.S. military, and her allies, to send as many of those rats straight to hell.
I for one will never forget, nor forgive.
:91101:
September 11th, 2008 at 9:22 am
[...] And Rightly So! remembers [...]
September 11th, 2008 at 9:22 am
[...] And Rightly So! remembers [...]
September 11th, 2008 at 9:27 am
[...] And Rightly So! remembers [...]
September 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I will always remember this day! The
day the skies became silent; the day we all feared the worst. The day we all held our breaths in fearful anticipation as we wondered what would come next. The day we all said
a silent prayer. The day we all united and thereafter were wearing flag pins.
But today, seven years later I am sadened as I think of how we have fallen back into the same old pre
9/11 state of mind and wonder, when
and where will this day repeat itself.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
In memory of MARY JANE (MJ) BOOTH…
I have decided to join the team of Project 2996 again. I did a post for Jason Dahl 2 years ago for this fine project. This year the person I am going to be posting on is Mary MJ Booth….
September 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I was at work and we watched the events as they happened, from the first reports of a small plane hitting the WTC to Flight 93 crashing. It was awful to witness the towers falling. Knowing people were IN it, being pulverized to death. Or worse.
I was angry. I was pissed off. I suspected Iran or Iraq…I called home and my X (then hubby) suspected AQ- he being more aware of the threats to the US. He wanted to reenlist THAT day for the Marines. He eventually did. My oldest daughter was at college down in Boston, which went into total lock down shortly after the second plane hit the second tower. Her entire school went to it’s fallout shelters underground.
Driving home from work that day, I remember not seeing a SINGLE plane in the sky. That afternoon, I drove to Boston to pick up my daughter, who wanted nothing to do with Boston. Driving to the city, one has to go up some hills before finally seeing the skylines…it was eerie as heck to see F16’s flying low, over the city, in the late afternoon. 6 of them. My X taped all the news on the day- we have it all forever recorded. Of course, lots of channel surfing…but it’s weird to see so many who now disregard those attacks, in shock, tears, angry…I can’t remember who, bone anchor was hoping for revenge attacks THAT night.