20th anniversary of 9/11/01 on Saturday- Your memories.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

16 hours ago, Elessar78 said:

I live in MAGA country. Things I've heard people say about muslims, in a professional work environment, convince me this is the case. 

 

OK, I suppose that's fair. I don't see it much in the DC area. And again, despite the fact that it's ignorant, I can't imagine it's much different than < 20 years removed from the Japanese or Soviets (think early-1960s and late-1960s/early-1970s respectively). 

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

17 minutes ago, Llevron said:

 

Thats exactly what it is. 

Okay, so I'm not on an island.  The only reason why I even feel comfortable saying that 'publicly' is because nobody knows me here.  Not exactly the type of thing you bring up at a BBQ. 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Speaking broadly, I think a bit of forgetfulness is probably pretty healthy at this point.

 

And yeah, flyover state lifers who roll around with “tragedy murals” on their pickup trucks are extremely suspect in their motives.

[Bozo the kKklown]

 

[Simmsy]

On 9/11/2019 at 10:16 AM, Renegade7 said:

My girl asked me how Americans celebrate 9/11 and I told her we dont, we commemorate instead, typically reminisce every year about where we were when it happened. 

 

And we got a lot of that commeration out the way already by invading a country and dropping the body of the guy responsible in the middle of the ocean then telling everyone he had a porn stash.  Saying we invaded two countries is borderline offtopic at this point, and technically we didnt stop there, so I didnt go there.

 

Living in DC when it happened and now working a couple blocks from the capitol, yes I feel safer then I did 18 years ago. But Mayor Pete made a point that hurt my soul, by time we get to 20 year anniversary there could be people deployed to Afganistan that weren't born when 9/11 happened.

 

Were at a point that remembering 9/11 is fine but we've had enough time since then for there to be a body of work concerning our government's reaction to retrospective on.  I dont want these yearly threads to be that, but that's what I think now, was our response to 9/11 the proper one? Highly debatable with results some may say was worth it.

Where is your gf from?

[Renegade7]

1 hour ago, Simmsy said:

Where is your gf from?

Nigeria. She was 5 when 9/11 happened and not here yet.

[Dan T.]

12 hours ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

 

 

(Order with extra Onion):

 

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Dan T.

[wrilbo67]

On the flipside, Starbucks once got in trouble for this ad even though it had nothing to do with 9/11:

 

[Mr. Sinister]

I find that awfully hard to believe, just looking at that picture and everything going on in it. Especially if all that is needed to clear them of being severely ****ed up is to not specifically mention 9/11 anywhere on the ad.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

11 hours ago, Mr. Sinister said:

I find that awfully hard to believe, just looking at that picture and everything going on in it. Especially if all that is needed to clear them of being severely ****ed up is to not specifically mention 9/11 anywhere on the ad.

 

I agree - that's a stretch...

 

Then again, we were sensitive and I think the copy-write date is 2002 so it's not insane to think that people complained about two large structures being approached by a flying object... 

[China]

From Shanksville's Scorched Woods, Two Arborists Emerged as Unsung Heroes of 9/11

 

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (Reuters) - The hemlock grove where United Airlines Flight 93 hurtled to the ground in rural Pennsylvania still haunts Mark Trautman and Ben Haupt 20 years later.

 

Before the al Qaeda attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the local arborists climbed trees only to take down branches. When the hijacked airliner slammed into soil in a fiery explosion, turning the woods near Shanksville into a gruesome crime scene suspended above the ground, the two men would be called in for a task that transformed their lives.

 

For nearly a week, they clambered through the blackened canopy garlanded with wreckage and gore. They plucked down vital evidence for the prosecution of al Qaeda plotters and found remains for grieving families with no bodies to bury.

 

They were among the most extraordinary yet overlooked early responders to the attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed, including all 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers aboard Flight 93.

 

"It was the most important thing I ever did in my life," Trautman said in a recent interview.

 

The two arborists emerged from the hemlocks as changed men, one left unmoored, the other with a renewed purpose.

 

UNSUNG HEROES

A state trooper, Greg Sullenberger, was among the first responders to venture into the smoldering woods after the crash.

 

Sharp metal plane shards as big as kitchen tables had sliced into bark. Sullenberger said he heard a cracking sound above. As he stepped to the right, a branch plummeted to his left.

 

Worried about investigators' safety, he thought of Trautman, whom he had known since they were Boy Scouts. His childhood friend worked at Penn State University, tending to the grand elms shading its campus. An FBI agent told Sullenberger to call Trautman in for help.

 

Leaving his wife and two young daughters at home, Trautman and Haupt, his campus colleague, loaded up their harnesses and chainsaws and drove down. The FBI issued them yellow ID cards that said: "Disaster Site, September 11, 2001 — FBI/Penn State."

 

    The arborists roped from treetop to treetop, recovering wallets, a hijacker's ID and body parts to be identified at a temporary morgue.

 

John Larsen, the FBI special agent in charge of scouring the woods, said the Shanksville scene was distinguished from the pulverized crash sites in Manhattan and at the Pentagon by the sheer quantity of intact evidence yielded. He calls the arborists unsung heroes.

 

"None of us could do what those guys were doing, and without them we'd have been dead in the water," Larsen said.

 

Haupt, who was then 24, remembers turning to Larsen in the woods, overwhelmed after finding what looked to be baby shoes from someone's luggage.

 

"I look at this place, and I said, 'I know this isn't hell,'" Haupt recalled. "'But if this isn't, then how bad is hell?' And I just broke down. Mr. Larsen just broke down also and cried right with me out there, because it was hard."

 

Deep into the hemlocks, the agent and the arborist hugged, consoling each other.

 

Click on the link for the full story

[88Comrade2000]

Well, Saturday is the 20th anniversary of 9/11.   My memories from that sad day:

 

I lived Lewis Center, Ohio then; a suburb of Columbus,OH.   I remember 9/11 was a Tuesday, because it was my off day.  I was actually asleep when the towers were hit but woke up after 9am.  I remember turning on the TV and saw what had happened. Remember going online and posting in a couple of message boards I visited, maybe even here. I remember the horror of watching the towers collapse live TV.  Remember calling my mom.  I even went out for a bit, but it felt like I was in daze.  I was going thru a depression then.

 

Ironically, I had vacationed to D.C. the previous week.

 

If something like that happened now or during the Trump administration; it would've been real dark. 

 

I worked for Nationwide then, taking insurance claims and I remember taking several claims from near the WTC. 

 

[skinswillwin06]

I thought this article was great:

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/glenn-vogt-september-11/620030/

[Dan T.]

On 9/11/2019 at 2:54 PM, Elessar78 said:

After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were heavily discriminated against.

...

 

I don't have another "marker" but by the early 1980s Japanese cars were being manufactured in the US 

 

I'm looking forward to driving the 2025 Kabul Coupe.

[Renegade7]

On 9/11/2019 at 6:41 PM, Renegade7 said:

 

The 10 year anniversary felt kinda like an "everything we've been through" moment, especially since we had finally killed Bin Laden a few months earlier.  The 20 year anniversary, it will be a real look back at everything we've done since that day, and it won't be pretty.

 

Ouch.

[Momma There Goes That Man]

I remember I skipped school that day. Just didn’t feel like going in (9th grade) and my room was in our finished basement so my mom didn’t go downstairs and check that I had gotten up or gotten to school. So I slept in and figured I’d come upstairs and catch my earful and that would be the most eventful thing that happened that day. I finally come upstairs and see the tv on foxnews of course and she looks over at me and then just right back to the tv. Then I realized what was going on. She wasn’t even upset. She was just happy to have someone there with her. Those moments that day will stick with me for many reasons beyond what happened to America, because 9/11 pretty much broke her and she spiraled down hard with schizophrenia following that. Convinced the world was ending, the end times are here, and just got lost in the guilt of her life with piling on paranoia in extra heavy doses. Became convinced people on the tv were talking directly to her, giving her coded messages and phrases, threatening her kids lives because we weren't strong enough believers etc. Was in and out of the hospital multiple times over the next few months.  As weird as it sounds, that 9/11 tragedy I spent with her was one of the last peaceful days and moments I had with her before her suicide several months later. 
 

so while I am saddened for the tremendous loss and devastation of that day, part of me does also remember that day fondly just because of what I can only describe as that final peaceful and normal time with her. Which is honestly a strange feeling to have over such an event. I’m certainly not happy just sometimes I find a little bit of peace and comfort when looking back on it. 

[Destino]

I remember 9/11 vividly.  I rarely get to any job early but I had that day.  I was sitting in a conference room, in Roslyn, eating breakfast bagels with some coworkers watching the news.  Story was that a plane had hit a tower and we were watching when the second hit.  Sometime later someone, I forget who, noticed the smoke coming from the direction of the pentagon.  Out came the cell phones, and none of the calls could get through.  

 

Anyway if you want to read a good article on 9/11 this is a great one.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod/

 

My daughter asked me about 9/11 today and it’s hard to talk about because it’s just such an ugly subject to discuss with an eight year old.  

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

@Momma There Goes That Man

Much love, brother. 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I was at a small, liberal arts college in NC.  I had an early class, went back and had breakfast at the dining hall.  IIRC, it was a small mountain of corned beef hash.

 

Went back to my dorm, somehow I had lucked into having a single that year.  I was walking down the hall...and I don't know if this was unique to my school or if kids at other schools did this too, but some kids would just leave their doors open.  Anyway, there was this girl who was a smokeshow, her name was Kelly and I walked past her room.  Door was open, I looked in as I was walking past, no big deal.  She was sitting on her bed and turned and looked at me and said "Are you seeing this?!?" and I turned around and was like "No, what?"  And she just goes "Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center."  Her TV was on, I saw the smoke coming out of the first tower.  And I was like "Who'd be dumb enough to do that, it's so huge, how can you NOT miss it?"  And she just goes "No, they're saying it was intentional."  

 

We sat there and watched it for a couple minutes.  I don't remember what else we said, although I remember she was from Jersey and was trying to figure out if anyone she knew was there that day.

 

I went back to my room, turned on the TV, started blowing some friends up on the old school AOL messenger.  My dad called, he was speechless.  The second plane hit, I had my back to the TV, still typing to friends on the computer.

 

That whole day was surreal.  First of all, our college didn't cancel classes, but no one went.  My roommate from the previous year tried to call a news station to add our college to the list of schools who had cancelled classes (apparently in order to do that, you've got to give them a special code).  We were all glued to the TV.  People from the NYC/DC areas were trying to make sure their people were okay.

 

Later that afternoon, I went to get a soda from the soda machine that was down the hall from one of the rooms we had congregated it.  Two idiots were outside saying that America deserved it, etc.  I can still see one of their punchable faces.  I wanted to, but I didn't.  

 

 

[Forehead]

Junior year of college.  I was still asleep, or at least dozing when the first tower was hit since I had later classes on Tuesdays.  My suitemate came in and said we needed to turn on the TV.  So we did, and saw the second plane hit.

 

I remember going to class but can't remember if it was before or after learning about the Pentagon.  That freaked me out a bit because my father was working on a contract for the Army at the time.  He was in Alexandria but went to the Pentagon 1-2 times per month for meetings.  Of course, with everyone and their brother using cell phone bandwidth trying to get through, I had no way of knowing if he was alright until later.

 

Most of the rest of the day is pretty hazy.  I remember a lot of students being angry and discussing joining the military to go exact revenge (I went to college in the southern central part of Virginia).  I remember a blood drive, and also being seriously put out with the Red Cross when it was learned later on that they had to destroy a ton of extra blood supply because they couldn't store it all, and they couldn't use a bunch of it because there weren't many survivors to use it on.  I remember some of the local townie idiots arguing in a restaurant a day or two later about the NFL canceling games.

 

Ultimately, I wasn't directly affected at the time.  My wife, who I wouldn't meet until my senior year, lost her uncle that day.  He was a Vice President at Fiduciary Trust International, which was located somewhere in the 90-100 floor area of one of the towers.  A guy I knew in college had a father who worked in the Pentagon whose office was in the impact zone, but he survived because he was home that day consoling his wife who had been diagnosed with cancer the day before.  Just crazy to wrap your head around that one.

[CousinsCowgirl84]

3 hours ago, Destino said:

I remember 9/11 vividly.  I rarely get to any job early but I had that day.  I was sitting in a conference room, in Roslyn, eating breakfast bagels with some coworkers watching the news.  Story was that a plane had hit a tower and we were watching when the second hit.  Sometime later someone, I forget who, noticed the smoke coming from the direction of the pentagon.  Out came the cell phones, and none of the calls could get through.  

 

Anyway if you want to read a good article on 9/11 this is a great one.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod/

 

My daughter asked me about 9/11 today and it’s hard to talk about because it’s just such an ugly subject to discuss with an eight year old.  

I hadn’t realized that many people jumped.

 

I teared up a bit when I read about the little girl who was looking at the people jumping to their deaths and her mom trying to comfort her by saying they were birds, trying to protect the innocence her daughter already lost. 
 

 

 

I was in highschool, 10th grade I think. I was walking up the door and I could hear my teacher, loud, sounding angry exclaiming to the class “New York has been attacked, the pentagon has been attacked…” and I thought we must be doing some kind of role playing game were we talk about how to respond. Then I turned the corner and the tv was playing video of the towers still standing on fire. (It was about 11:30 so they had already fell, but it was old video) and I was like it doesn’t look too bad. I sat at my desk and as a gazed at the TV they showed the towers collapsing and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. We all just sat there quite staring at the tv. Afterwards we went to orchestra class but our teacher had left (never found out why or if it was related) so everyone just fiddled with violens for the next hour. 
 

Prior to this after school I used to watch game showes. From here on after it was the news. And honestly seeing George Bush on the pile of rubble telling the people that the people who knocked the buildings down that they’d hear from all of us soon gave me such a sense of courage and comfort that I couldn’t wait to vote for him in 2004 and two years later do a presentation in school about why the Iraq war was necessary.  
 

Without 9/11 I probably would have never gotten interested in politics at all. 
 

Edited September 11, 2021 by CousinsCowgirl84

[NickyJ]

I guess I'm the youngest person here. I was still too young for school, I just remember one of my parents calling the other from the dentist office that morning saying to turn on the TV. I was nowhere near where anything happened, so all I remember are the videos playing over and over again all day. I don't know when I finally caught on that people died. I just remember that for weeks afterwards, I used to play with my toy planes and fire engines, recreating the scene. I also use to draw pictures of it on Windows Paint. My parents never said anything, but I guess I was a pretty morbid child.

 

I do distinctly recall that soon afterwards, everyone was worried about anthrax and gas attacks. I think I was more scared when the news stations talked about needing to duct tape around windows in case of chemical attacks.

[skinsmarydu]

It started  with a coworker dragging me into the restaurant screaming about the planes in the towers & Pentagon..

I was a bartender with a regular clientele all day.  Everyone glued to the TVs. 

When I got home and locked the door, I just dropped to my knees and cried for what seemed like forever.  (I had held it together all day, and I have no idea how.)   But I thank God for my dearly departed kitties at the time, they were the best comfort.  I was never so thankful for my life, my home, and my freedom...it can be easy to take things/family/friends for granted. 

 

[Rocky21]

I was working on the 10th floor of a building in down town Richmond.  They shut work down at some time (probably Noon or 1 PM or so) and people that I worked with, mostly suburban Mom and Dad types, were flailing, running out of the building with their arms over their heads.  
 

There was talk that the next target was a mall in South Richmond!  It was extremely embarrassing.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Ugh, it's beginning.

 

So in my neighborhood, some people are already putting out Halloween decorations.  It's a bit early, but whatever.  Some of the stores have put out Halloween candy and displays, too.  I guess like anything else, people start earlier and earlier each year.

 

Anyway, there's a house down the street, these people are pretty nice.  When the fiance and I walk the dog, if they're out in their yard they say hi.  Don't know their names or anything but they seem nice enough.  They've decorated early, they have three or four life size skeletons and they set up this little scene in their yard, the skeletons are around a kiddie pool in lawn chairs, they have sunglasses and summer outfits on, their feet in the pool.  As someone who finds the majority of Halloween (and most holiday yard decorations) decorations tacky, it's not great but it's certainly better than whatever giant blow up witches and jack-o-lanterns people have.  

 

So I'm up early this morning, I take the dog for a walk and this guy who owns the house is out in the front yard rearranging things.  The skeletons are no longer poolside.  Rather, they're standing up and holding an American flag across themselves.  And they're wearing FDNY tshirts and fireman helmets.  

 

And...I get it, people want to make a tribute or something but this is just ****ing tacky.  Really?  ****ing skeletons dressed in FDNY gear holding an American flag?