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9/11 Tribute Thread.......
Old 09-11-2008, 12:10 PM   #1
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9/11 Tribute Thread.......

Post your fellings about 9/11 here.

I'm not sure what I want to say yet, I will post it later.

However, my thanks go out in a heartfelt way to all the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who fight so hard for the freedoms we all cherish in the USA.............
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Old 09-11-2008, 12:23 PM   #2
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Nothing particularly poetic from me, but I can say that I, too, am proud of those who have served and continue to serve in my and others' behalf to protect and defend the United States.

I am sad for the families forever changed by the terrorists and wish them peace.
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Old 09-11-2008, 01:00 PM   #3
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This looks like a Soapbox topic to me.
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Old 09-11-2008, 01:46 PM   #4
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soapboxing a memorial, why? did a gay fireman die?

seven years already, wow. the smoke is getting foggy.

just a few weeks after 911 i took mom into the city to pay our respects. i forget now, it was either our last or second to last trip before alzheimer's made travel impossible. so many people touched by this still. wiki shows 2,974 people died. my uncle, an accountant in the area, lost a few friends and acquaintences and a cousin lost her brother-in-law. i didn't know any of the dead, but i remembered as a kid watching the twin towers under construction and i could see as an adult their destruction affecting this country.

i thought the towers were impressive but ugly. at my last vist to them years before, i enjoyed the views from the observation deck and having drinks with my now deceased partner at the top of the world.

memorials were set up in many locations throughout the area. here's a lookout park off a highway in new jersey near where we were staying with relatives.



a visitor to that memorial



here's mom in her sneakers waiting for the train. i decided it was too crazy to try to drive into the city.



we made our way on new york's subway system to just blocks from ground zero. i recall the odd silence everywhere, no horns honking, especially, made it a little harder to find the subway exit.

we got to within a block or three from what was left of the twin towers, just a smoldering heap of destruction about six or seven stories high.











many of the roads were fenced or barricaded. workers on the way in and out. dumps hauling away the remains. it was quite a scene.





i got disoriented on our way out and couldn't find my way back to the subway. so i thought if we walked away from the area we could catch a cab uptown. but there streets were deserted, not a cab, not a bus, not a pedestrian for blocks upon blocks.





i was worried that my mom couldn't handle the walking but she was such a trooper. and we were both just walking, numb from what we'd just observed. finally i heard some people up ahead. we turned a corner and came upon some more makeshift memorials which were all around the city. this one, ribbons on a fence.



found there a subway entrance and made our way up to time square where we were meeting a friend for dinner. the subways memorialized the dead underground with pictures and flowers and candles burning and one even with paper cranes.











out of the subway, time square was like another world, far removed from ground zero but for reminders now and then.



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Old 09-11-2008, 01:47 PM   #5
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Why, Cantlogin?

I lost three coworkers in the 9/11 attacks. I only knew one of them well enough to say "hi" in the hallways, but nonetheless it devestated our entire company. The entire day was spent in the largest media center room with CNN projected onto the big screen.
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Old 09-11-2008, 01:51 PM   #6
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No way this is Soap Box material,I am not politicizing anything........
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Old 09-11-2008, 01:56 PM   #7
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Lazy, thanks for your photo editorial. Those subway pictures and missing posters are just heartbreaking. Still bring tears to my eyes to think of their loved ones, hoping that just maybe they were able to escape.
Thank you for sharing such emotional images.
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Old 09-11-2008, 01:58 PM   #8
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Right on! Great post FD.
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Old 09-11-2008, 01:59 PM   #9
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I'll just share some memories. On 9/11/01, I was working in Alexandria, VA. When people become aware of what was happening, several of us went up on the observation area on the top of our building. It was a beautiful, clear day. We could see smoke rising from the Pentagon Building.

We went back into the building and found someone had pulled out a little portable TV set. We all watched in horror as the World Trade Center building went down. Several of my co-workers had spouses or kids that worked in the Pentagon and they couldn't get them on their cell phones. That was really scary.

Our executive director called a meeting, briefly went over what he knew, and allowed non-essential personnel to go home.

Traffic was really bad and my ususal 45 minute commute took over 2 hours. The scene was surreal, like something out of a sci-fi movie. Since it was such a nice day, most people had their car windows open and were listening to the news on their radios. We noticed the absence of commerical airplanes and many more military planes than ususal.

When I finally got home, I spent the day and evening glued to the TV. I don't think I got a wink of sleep that night but did go into the office the next day. For several weeks afterward, I would wake up in the middle of the night and turn on CNN. I just had this awful feeling something else was going to happen.

Tonight, the Pentagon is unveiling their 9/11 memorial. I plan to go down and see it sometime soon. Here's a link that tells about it:

Pentagon Memorial
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Old 09-11-2008, 02:16 PM   #10
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On that day, my DH had packed his bags for a trip to Chicago. He was at work and would be leaving for the airport around 11 a.m. Then it happened.

Fast forward seven years. My FIL died. A tribute was made to him by friends of ours. The male friend is retired from FDNY. They made a donation to the burn unit honoring my FIL.

Shock, fear, gut wrenching sadness, anger and feelings of pride for the heroes were my emotions.

I try to concentrate on the heroes. This lessens the pain for me.
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Old 09-11-2008, 02:23 PM   #11
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Those pictures of the missing people still make me weepy . I remember desperately trying to call my son who lived in Manhattan but all the cell phones were not working . Luckily ,I heard from him about eight o clock that night . My nephew and his wife were supposed to be on the flight to Calif .that crashed but they changed to a later flight the day before because his wife did not want to get up so early .
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Old 09-11-2008, 02:52 PM   #12
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I remember when someone finally reached my brother in Manhattan that day. None of us could get through for hours.
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Old 09-11-2008, 03:17 PM   #13
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I was working at 13th and 5th Ave - came out right after the first plane hit and saw the flames - I saw the 2nd plane go in -

3 people I knew died.

I started walking uptown to a friend's apartment, because I didn't think I could get to Brooklyn.

I called my brother out of town (collect) from a pay phone at 35th street. That was about when the first tower went down.

I didn't have a cell phone at that time, but I remember everyone on the streets looking at their phones in amazement because they weren't working -- and most of them weren't noticing the pay phones on the corners!

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Old 09-11-2008, 03:42 PM   #14
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I was in our WA office that AM, was supposed to fly out around noon for a business trip. Needless to say, I didn't get out for a few days, all the airports were closed. We all spent most of 9/11 glued to a TV set, no one even tried to get any work done.

My most vivid memory is of the people jumping from the WTC to avoid the flames. When the towers collapsed I remember thinking that life as we knew it had changed forever. We were at war, the terrorists had struck on US soil. The US would not stop until those responsible had been eliminated.

My heart goes out to those who lost family and friends in that terrible tragedy and the ensuing war, and to the brave men and women of the US Military who are keeping us safe here in the US and making a difference in the middle East.

Thanks, LGFNB, for the memorial pictures. That was a day we will never forget.
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Old 09-11-2008, 05:51 PM   #15
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I remember that it started as such a beautiful day. The sky was blue, without a cloud. The air was crystal clear and not too hot. I was in a good mood as I walked from Grand Central Station to my office at 3rd and 55th.

I was just stepping off the elevator onto my floor when the first plane hit. (We had an unfortunately great view of the top 40-50% of the WTC towers from our offices). I heard one of my other early-arriving colleagues yell "holy sh*t". I ran into his office and he pointed at the north tower and told me a plane just flew into the building. I really could not believe it and thought it must have been a traffic helicopter or small plane, although the hole seemed too large for that. Smoke was just starting to stream out of the stricken building. Seconds later, another colleague ran in and said he had watched a big airliner fly into the building.

We immediately tried to get online to CNN or MSNBC to see what had happened, but we were unable to do so. We didn't have a tv or radio at hand, so we just stood at the window and watched the smoke build and stream out to the east over Brooklyn. We didn't see the second plane (because it came from the south), but we saw the fireball when it struck. It was at that moment that I finally realized it was not just a tragic accident.

As more and more people arrived to start work, we all lined the the south facing windows watching the towers burn. At one point, I looked around at all my watching colleagues. The people who did not have tears streaming down their faces bore stunned expressions. When the south tower collapsed, there we cries of "oh my God" and people started sobbing. It was repeated again when the north tower fell.

We didn't know what we could possibly do to help, but we wanted to do something. Some of us went down and across 3rd Ave to the blood donation center at the Citicorp building. The line was already estimated to be four hours long, so I walked up to Lenox Hill hospital, but they also had a line. All along the way there, I saw knots of people gathered around storefronts or open car doors, listening to the radio or watching the tv. Except for the sounds of the news reporters, it was incredibly quiet on the street. Returning to my office, I noticed that most of the the churches along the way were opening their doors. I went in one and prayed for a while.

I really wanted to go home to Connecticut, but the trains had stopped running, so I went back to the office. A friend who lived in the City called me and I went to his apartment and watched the tv. When we heard the trains were running out of 125th Street, I left his place to go home. The streets were so completely devoid of cars and taxis that you could have laid down in the middle of any avenue with impunity. I finally caught a city bus going up 1st avenue and walked across 125th to the train. The train ride home was silent and somber.

I have never lived through a more surreal experience.
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Old 09-11-2008, 07:15 PM   #16
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I had just started a three-day leave on 9/11 as I burned leave prior to my June 02 retirement. I woke up early and turned on the TV just in time to see the first tower collapse. Surreal.

Our alumni magazine had an article by a shipmate who was stationed in the Pentagon. He said that after the first plane hit the WTC and the news spread, people from all over the Pentagon converged on a particular command center to watch the monitors. Of course it was the command center that was about to be destroyed by a third plane.

The room soon filled to overflowing, and stunned silence began to build to a thunderous babble of commentary and orders. The watchstanders were starting to get a lot of phone calls and official business but it was also difficult to move around or to hear yourself think.

Eventually an O-5 or O-6 on the watch team loudly declared that "All you mother$%^&ers not on watch" would have to clear the room so that the watchstanders could get some work done. (This phrase is frequently heard on sea duty, not so much on shore duty.) Even at the Pentagon, people obey orders from that rank-- so the room quickly cleared.

And just a few minutes later the plane hit. It's claimed that one pissed-off watchstander, using a famous naval saying, saved dozens of lives just so that he could get his work done.
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Old 09-11-2008, 07:17 PM   #17
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I was working from my home office that day. I wound up on emergency calls with clients. It was insane. The calls went on for hours and days for one of the nations largest banks as well as a major brokerage house. We were involved in moving cash nationwide to keep bank runs from occuring and keeping the ATM's full. Full emergency procedures at data centers from Wall Street to San Francisco and in and out of FEMA and Fed Banking calls. The TV stayed on for days on end and I fell asleep in my office chair after about 36 hours.

Luckily no one that I routinely worked with was killed or injured.
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Old 09-11-2008, 07:40 PM   #18
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By the way FD great thread !
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Old 09-12-2008, 07:23 AM   #19
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A beautiful cloudless blue sky day.

I was in a class for new forensic software in Leesburg, VA. DW and I had just signed a contract for a new house in WV two days before and I was thinking of what life would be like retired a year from then.

Then came the news - instructor went out and bought a small TV, set it up in a corner of the room, and left Internet access turned on (normally only on during breaks).

My first thought was it was an accident - hydraulic system failure from a blown engine? Second plane erased that thought, then thinking about what country was going to get nuked and the aftermath of that. Also wondering if we were going to be a target - FAA has a regional control center in Leesburg near the class we were in. Finally reached DW to tell her to get out of the FDA building she worked in, but she was already home. Started thinking that WV would be a less likely target than where we lived then.

One of the guys in the class lost his sister - she worked in one of the towers. He left immediately.

The son of a good friend of mine who I'd worked with for 20+ years had just quit a job in one of the towers the previous week. He was near tears.

Still can't get my head wrapped around the idea of that happening to so many people in one place, at one time. I don't want to.
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