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Post by 101ABN on Sept 9, 2011 15:32:30 GMT -8
With the imminent tenth anniversary of the worst attacks ever on the American Homeland, I thought we should have an appropriate place for remembrance of that terrible day in our history.
Feel free to post in this thread or add your own.
I trust we'll remain grounded in reality and maintain an appropriate air of reverence.
101
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Post by Arethusa on Sept 9, 2011 22:05:20 GMT -8
With the imminent tenth anniversary of the worst attacks ever on the American Homeland, I thought we should have an appropriate place for remembrance of that terrible day in our history. Feel free to post in this thread or add your own. I trust we'll remain grounded in reality and maintain an appropriate air of reverence. 101 ***** When I turned on the TV to catch the news that morning, it was set on TNT, ironically. The screen showed a jet hitting one of the Twin Towers and my first impression was that I was watching an action film with fireworks provided by John Woo. It took only a minute for me to realize I was watching the real thing and that the horror was only beginning. And naturally, I sat riveted to the set for the rest of the day and days afterward when I could manage the time to do so. My initial reaction was deep shock and I remained in that state for several months afterward. In fact, despite all that's gone on to punish the act, that feeling of shock and the anger that came afterward have never really left me. In faithful remembrance of all who were lost on September 11, 2001, my everlasting sympathy to their families, loved ones, friends and co-workers. Arethusa |
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Post by peterd on Sept 10, 2011 5:01:28 GMT -8
I that faithful day I suppose fly to LA for meeting. I got ready had everything packed. My wife still had things to do so I turned on TV. What a shock. I watched the second plane going into the building. This seemed like something from Twillight Zone. That picture will stay with me rest of my life. Our agency lost 8 comtrollers in Pentagon in that attack.
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Post by Sailor on Sept 10, 2011 6:31:42 GMT -8
Excellent idea 101.
I was at work that morning when I got a call from one of the nurses who was on break watching TV. She asked me to come up to the Break Room. I knew about the first plane but didn't realize weather over NYC was CAVU (Clear Air, Visibility Unlimited) so I was expecting this was an accident similar to the B-25 crash into the Empire State Building in 1945.
When I walked into the break room there were a number of people watching the TV and one of them, remembering that I was a vet and had a background in intelligence asked me what I thought.
I could now see the CAVU conditions over Manhattan but before I could answer we witnessed the second attack. It was horrifying.
The only thing I could think to say when asked what was happening was "They found a way to hit us."
I learned that a couple of the people I worked with had family working in the WTC, it was a day or more before it was learned they were okay.
I have a friend who was a Navy photographer at the Navy Annex in Arlington that day. He and his party were there for a photo-op with the Master Chief of the Navy and he witnessed the Pentagon hit, the flight passed very close to the annex. He and his team grabbed their camera gear and headed for the site. They were drafted into becoming forensic photographers for DOD and the FBI spending weeks crawling into and through the impact site.
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Post by Sailor on Sept 10, 2011 6:38:34 GMT -8
I ran across this in the local newpaper this morning and think it appropriate to include here. This is for those who ask where the Air Force was that day. Like everyone else they were unprepared. This pilot was prepared to do whatever it took to stop another attack. F-16 pilot was ready to die to stop Flight 93 on 9/11Late in the morning of the Tuesday that changed everything, Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney was on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and ready to fly. She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93. The day's fourth hijacked airliner seemed to be hurtling toward Washington. Penney, one of the first two combat pilots in the air that morning, was told to stop it. The one thing she didn't have as she roared into the crystalline sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to throw at a hostile aircraft. Except her own plane. So that was the plan. Because the surprise attacks were unfolding, in that innocent age, faster than they could arm war planes, Penney and her commanding officer went up to fly their jets straight into a Boeing 757. "We wouldn't be shooting it down. We'd be ramming the aircraft," Penney recalls of her charge that day. "I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot." More here: hamptonroads.com/2011/09/f16-pilot-was-ready-die-stop-flight-93-911May God bless her. |
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Post by 101ABN on Sept 10, 2011 8:23:59 GMT -8
We had just flown in from Portland the night before, and I was sitting up in bed watching the local news when they cut away to the NBC network feed and announced that an aircraft had hit the WTC.
The newsie was discussing the images of the burning tower, and questioning how such a thing could happen on a clear day. His partner mentioned that jetliners sometimes fly down the Hudson on approach to one of the area airports, then interrupted himself saying "See, here comes one now." A few seconds later, UA175 struck the South Tower and exploded in a fireball.
I'm not a pilot, but I've known many of them. I knew no professional pilot would deliberately destroy his aircraft and wantonly murder his crew and passengers. MY first thought was that the terrorists had found a way to attack our air traffic control or jam our guidance systems.
It's still boggles my mind how anyone could do what those 19 hijackers did and justify it in the name of God.
I watched in horror until I had to tear myself away and go to work. On the drive in, I heard the report of the South Tower's collapse.
When I got to work, everyone was glued to a small TV. I heard two coworker's discussing BinLaden. Another said "I hope Bush doesn't nuke somebody" and my response, "I Goddamn well hope he does."
My boss, knowing I'm a VN vet, called me into his office and, genuinely concerned, asked me how I was doing.
"Oh, just fine,' I replied, "for a guy who woke up this morning, flipped on the TV and saw a few thousand people die before I had my first cup of coffee, I'm just fucking fine."
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Post by peterd on Sept 10, 2011 10:59:42 GMT -8
An Unlikely Hero Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. In a 2002 piece reprinted below, Rebecca Liss recounts the story of one "crazy brave" Marine who rushed to Ground Zero and worked through the night to help rescue two survivors trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers. www.slate.com/id/2070762/?GT1=38001 |
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Post by tankcommander on Sept 10, 2011 15:16:21 GMT -8
"I would like to fly in a professional like manners one of the big airliners. I have to made my mind which of the followwing: Boeing 747, 757, 767, 777 and or Airbus A300 (it will depend on the cost and which one is easiest to learn).
The level I would like to achieve is to be able to takeoff and land, to handle communication with ATC, to be able to successfully navigate from A to B (JFK to Heathrow for example).
In a sense to be able to pilot one of these Big Bird, even if I am not a real professional pilot."
— Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker, in a 2001 letter written to the Pan Am International flight academy. They guessed him to be a rich playboy, but when when they started training him they called the FBI. Reported (with his exact misspellings) by the New York Times, 8 February 2002.
"I knew he wasn't real pilot material — he had actually studied his manuals and didn't talk about girls."
— Flight Instructor Clancy Prevost, regards his experience with Zacarias Moussaoui. Reported in Newsweek, October 2002.
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Post by tankcommander on Sept 11, 2011 4:30:27 GMT -8
"Either end your life while praying, seconds before your target, or make your last words: 'There is no God but Allah, Mohammad is His messenger."
— translated from written instructions for Mohamed Atta, the terrorist at the controls of AA flight 11
"We have some planes. Just stay quiet and we’ll be O.K. We are returning to the airport. . . Nobody move, everything will be O.K. If you try to make any moves, you will injure yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet."
— Mohamed Atta, hijacker on American Airlines flight 11, heard over Boston Center ATC frequency. Note use of the plural, 'planes.' 08:24 East Coast time, 11 September 2011.
"The cockpit is not answering their phone and there's somebody stabbed in business class and there’s, we can't breathe in business class. Somebody's got Mace or something."
— Betty Ong. American Airlines flight attendant, AA Flight 11, phone call to AA reservations. 11 September 2011.
"What do I tell the pilots to do?"
— CNN commentator Barbara Olson, passenger on American Airlines flight 77, cell phone call to her husband Justice Department official Theodore Olson, 11 September 2001.
"I see water and buildings ... Oh my God! Oh my God."
— Madeline Amy Sweeney, American Airlines flight attendant, end of her phone call to supervisor Michael Woodward describing the hijacking of AA flight 11. She provided many important details before the plane was crashed into the World Trade Center, 11 September 2001.
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Post by peterd on Sept 13, 2011 5:45:15 GMT -8
As I was watching movie We were Soldiers, Once Young, something came to my mind. It was about one of many real hero's of that tragic day, Rick Rescola. I done some research about that movie and this is excert: The heroic acts that typified simple minute to minute existence at X-Ray continue to be relived in the lives of the veterans. For the very man who appears on the cover of the Ia Drang campaign book We Were Soldier's Once... and Young, died in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. Rick Rescola was vice-president for corporate security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and he ordered his employees in the South Tower to evacuate despite official requests to remain in the building. He was last photographed holding a megaphone, ordering his people to "Keep Moving" as they evacuated. www.wtj.com/articles/xray/ |
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