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Remembering September 11th 2001

W

Wakadowakado

Guest
My wife phoned me and said she was watching television and the news flashes showed the horror of the aircraft impact on the towers and said she
could not believe what was happening as she packed our belongings for a
holiday to Cyprus. As the news spread my colleague said 'I bet you will not get a flight from Luton'. The outcome was two hours late in departure the next day Link up soon WAK
 
I happened to be at home, and the TV was on but I was not watching it, in fact was in another room. I glanced at the set in passing it and thought that the scene of an airliner crashing into an office tower was a film, then when I heard it played again it began to dawn on me that this was real, now.

There have been aggressive acts which have resulted in heavy civilian death tolls before, the sinking of the Lusitania; the Oceanic, a hospital ship; the City of Benares, a children's evacuation transport; and the Wilhelm Gustloff (this last alone with the loss of 9,400 lives); and of course the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings but they have never before been watched world-wide, live, as it happened. The all-seeing power of the media now ensures that whenever action takes place on a war battlefield, or in the case of a public genocide like '9 11', it will be shown on your television almost immediately, wherever you are on the planet.
 
Late morning on the 11 September 2001, I was at home when my husband rang me to tell me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I immediately rang my daughter-in-law as her father (Tito) worked as an IT Consultant in the World Trade Center, and was regularly called to both the North and South Tower as needed. I knew that he was working in one of the two towers that morning but I didn’t know which one.

I thought it was an awful accident, and that a small plane that had crashed but didn’t realise the full horror of it until I switched on the TV and watched with disbelief at what was happening. I couldn't tear myself away from watching.

My daughter-in-law tried to contact her father on his mobile, but didn’t have any luck for some time. She was desperately trying to reach him. Eventually she managed to contact him. Tito had just finished his night shift working between the twin towers. He had finished sorting out computer problems in one of the buildings (the first tower to be hit), and was due to go off duty soon. He had gone back to hisoffice which was in the other building. He was sitting at his desk having a quick bagel for breakfast before going home, when suddenly there was a loud explosion. Looking out of the window he saw that it was the tower that he had just come from. He saw windows blowing out, objects of all kinds, glass and metals etc flying out of the windows, and his immediate thought was that it was a bomb. He said to his supervisor that he was getting out straight away. His boss said “Stay where you are until they tell us to move”, but Tito said ‘No’, and with other colleagues left his office straight away to get out of the building. They were on the 52 floor or maybe higher, I can't quite remember. The lifts weren’t working so they started to run down the stairs, and were joined by many others fleeing the building. He isn’t a young man and so it must have been hard for him, but I suppose his adrenalin had kicked in and all he thought of was escape. On his way down he helped and encouraged others to keep moving down the stairs.

When he eventually reached the basement everywhere was chaos and panic. He didn’t know which way to turn. He saw a policeman standing there, and this man directed him the right way to go to get out into the street. He now says that his guardian angel was with him that day.

He ran as fast as he could and shortly after he got clear, the second Tower went down. He kept running, making his way to Manhattan where his wife was working. They eventually made contact and managed to meet up, but couldn’t get out of New York. All the exit roads were closed, as were the subways and ferry etc. Not knowing quite what to do, they found a church and went in. They spent the night there and next morning, tired and shocked, managed to make their way home to New Jersey.

The world was left in shock after this day.
 
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Because of the time difference between New York and West Coast of Canada, three hours, it was fairly early in the morning when my son came into our bedroom and said "Switch on the TV" to CNN. We did and at first it looked as though a small plane had hit one of the Twin Towers.
It looked dreadful and we soon became aware of a dark shadow which was the jet hitting the other tower. My daughter, who was living in London and working at Discovery Channel, was on the phone in no time. Some of her friends were in New York on business and she was very upset at what we were all viewing. I sat in front of the TV practically all day watching the unfolding of this tragedy. I eventually wrote on a blog in the US that asked what people were doing on that day and was contacted by a man who had been working close by to the Twin Towers and he related his own story which was all encompassing as to how he tried to help and how no casualties were turning up at the first aid stations. He had to go into counselling eventually. Up until a couple of years ago he would send me an e-mail on September 11th. I would watch the very sad video that was circulating at that time with music by Anya.
 
We live in California & were still in bed when a neighbour phoned & told us to switch on the TV .we were devastated ,even more so when we saw the sadness of people trying to find their loved ones, I remember also a week later someone said on TV that this would change peoples lives all over the world more than any other event in history. and he was right , Just think about it when we travel extra security & many more things we have to be aware of since that terrible day. God bless all the soldiers everywhere who are trying to make a safer world for us all.
Jean
 
We had been in our garden, digging out a site for our pond. I had come into the house to make coffee and I put on the kitchen radio. Steve Wright was dee jaying the afternoon programme, he said that reports were coming through of a plane crashing into one of the Twin Towers, but he couldn't verify it. I made our coffee went out into the garden and told my husband what I'd heard. We both thought that it was a mistake until we went back into the house later in the afternoon when every station on TV and Radio were telling of the shocking news. We tuned into CNN and watched with horror. I think all of our lives changed for ever that day, we none of us could ever be certain of being safe again. We have all learned to live with that, maybe we are all a little more uneasy when we see a parcel or a bag left unguarded. Forget? never. I can understand America being stunned Norma, we have been bombed in England in my life time, our cities including Birmingham have been the target of the IRA bomings. No reason to feel that you were complacent, no country deserves what happened in New York on 9/11, and neither should you ever have had to expect it.
 
September 11 will be remembered as a particularly dramatic form of terrorism largely because of where it happened and the fact it was captured on film. More significant historically will be the fact that the response of Bush and the neo-con nutters was to make the whole world a much more dangerous place by ill-conceived, unintelligent responses starting with George W's State of the Union speech with its axis of evil rubbish, pronouncing a war on terror (by definition unobtainable) and not understanding that Al-Qaeda was an ideology and not a world-wide organisation. He seemed to have forgotten that Oklahoma City was bombed by a home-grown American terrorist and that many Irish-Americans gave money generously to IRA armament. Not to mention state terrorism practiced by the US in many parts of the world since 1945. BTW I was in New Street, Birmingham waiting for a bus three hours before the Birmingham pub bombers struck all those years ago.
 
I agree totally Norma, we have to live our lives, not let fear overtake us. We were on our way to London Kings Cross en route for Eurostar to Belgium, when the Kings Cross bombing happened. We were turned back home, but next day we travelled to London again and caught the train.
 
I was looking after my grandson while my daughter did a bit of shopping. She came rushing back and said put the tv on - I thought it was a film at first, then realised it was real, watching it in horror. I said to her it would change the world and so it has, in ways we could not have imagined. We seem to live in a world dominated by fear and threat but I refuse to live like that and carry on as normal and yes I still travel by tube. Peace begins with love not fear.
Sheri
 
My Alan do I agree with you when you say:

'September 11 will be remembered as a particularly dramatic form of terrorism largely because of where it happened and the fact it was captured on film. More significant historically will be the fact that the response of Bush and the neo-con nutters was to make the whole world a much more dangerous place by ill-conceived, unintelligent responses starting with George W's State of the Union speech with its axis of evil rubbish'
 
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I remember my Nephew sending me a Post Card featuring The Twin Towers while on a Honeymoon Trip to New York with his new Wife a few weeks before.
 
We had gone to the caravan that day and as per usual Peter put the telly on before even unpacking. I was putting away our clothes when he shouted me and I wondered what on earth had happened. We just couldn't take it in as you say Beryl because of where it happened. We watched a programme last night about the plane that crashed after some brave passengers took the terrorists on. Although they were only actors it made the hairs on my back stand up. If they repeat it it's well worth watching as it realy brings it home to you. Jean.
 
Jean, we watched that as well. Flight 93 - it was a film you couldn't stop watching, and it brought back all the memories of that terrible day. The horror of it all is unbelievable.
 
The USA and the Coalition would have been very soft to have ignored it all.
Perhaps I did not answer correctly , I was completely Shocked as I was with the Birmingham Pub bombing.
 
Firstly: Alan/Beryl - Please keep political opinion to yourselves in open forum. If you wish to talk/debate/discuss the politics of 9/11 do it in the snug. Further political discussion will be deleted without warning.

Secondly:

I remember that day quite vividly. I was off of work quite ill with glandular fever. I was lying on the sofa in the lounge talking to my mother when the story struck across the BBC News that there were reports of a plane hitting the WTC.

We watched in horror unfold for the next 4 or 5 hours, and I will be quite honest that it shook me so much that I sat here and cryed with my mum. At about 6:00pm local time I recieved a call from my boss informing me that one of our collegues was missing and that was it for me, I curled up in a ball and shut down for a few days.

---

I have always said, that I personally will never, ever know the pain that relatives of those lost felt and still feel today, but what I can say, is that my heart did, and still does go out to each and every one of them.

Keith
 
9/11

This time of year I'm sure it is difficult for many and some may want to forget and not reflect on this day. I can very well understand those feelings, because through my child eyes it brings back memories of horror and destruction of World War 11, so I do realize the responsibility of reflecting on those who lost their lives as we do every November 11. It certainly makes one realize how fleeting life can be- Of course we should remember the past, but at the same time with this gift of life, we should forge ahead by promoting peace, and by being the best one can be!
 
It was the start of the ward round,I remember prehaps a little selfishly that I would like to turn of the ward tv's so that we could concentrate on the job in hand.Later I thought maybe I should have been a little more sympathetic to the Dr's. When I got home the first thing we did was to phone our friends in Winsconsin,their son was at military acadamy.He'd been woken up by loads of phone calls from concerned relatives.It was a world changing day which no-one will forget.
We were in Hayle three weeks ago and saw the memorial to the cornishman Rick Restormal who died in the towers.
Barb
 
The world changed dramatically that day, I remember at first thinking it was some dreadful accident, and then the full horror and realisation of what had happened sunk in. We should all have a moment of contemplation tomorrow,and think of those still grieving for those that they lost on that fateful day .
 
We visited the site about 2 years ago , & some buildings were still blackened, we were told by the guide that there was damage from the blast over a very wide area , but what amazed us there was a church at the back of The Towers not one pane of glass was broken!!!!
May God bless & comfort the families & friends, and may their loved ones rest in peace.
Jean.
 
I was working for a cable company in Oxford at the time and we had TVs all around the walls of the offices with the sound turned down.
I went in for a meeting and suddenly someone said that there was a live feed from the States showing the twin towers with an aircraft approaching.
The sound was turned up. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched a TV nearest to them.
Over the next few minutes we saw the horror unfold. No-one could be bothered to carry on with their work.
I remember thinking "is this for real?" "What's happening with the world today?"
I phoned as many people as I could (as I'm sure loads of others did) and told them to switch on their TVs.
 
I had been in Brum all day and surprsingly heard nothing until i got to school to pick up my children, someone mentioned that there had been 'bombings' in America, so i thought it would be something along the lines of a Car Bomb or like Brum had experienced, buildings. When i got home and turned on the TV shock is putting it mildly. An aweful and tragic day for everyone, so many people lost, i just pray that anyone connected to that finds peace now, i can't imagine what it was like for any of them. My friend who used to work in a building opposite there and had watched the Towers being built, she like the rest of us i suppose, just couldn't take it all in. It surely is a mad world we live in... you just don't ever comprehend it all... i remember when my children were young going into Brum and we were under threat and seeing for the first time ever Police with automatic guns by Rackhams, it really hit me, and i felt really scared.... we shouldn't have to live in fear :(
 
Like all straight thinking level headed people I was appalled and disgusted by this atrocity. I X-Sitched three smallish pictures onto one piece of material. The top picture was a pair of doves of peace. the middle picture was a pair of praying hands and the bottom one was a row of about four or five heads of different nationalities. A white kid with freckles, a chinese child, a black child and two asian children,one wearing a turban. At the bottom was a verse which read something like 'A prayer for all those who survived, and a thought for all those who died'. It was accompanied by a letter of condolence. The then Lord Mayer of Birmingham invited me to his chambers to see my work. He said he was going to New York in January following the September tragedy and he would take it as luggage and give it to the Lord Mayer of New York. I was not able to find out if it ever went. I spoke to Professor Carl Chin about it and he gave me a phone number and a name. I phoned and was told it was encumbant on New York to tell me they had recieved it. I still have no idea what happened to my picture.
 
I remember my wife and I spending the whole night nursing our sick Old English Sheepdog Penny. We were so worried as we watched TV, we knew that the world had changed with that act. I heard Bush say the words "You Woke A Sleeping Giant" I cant ever remember feeling so sad as I did at that moment.




Two great towers of stone and steel


Stand now only in the minds eye


Wrought in hell was that deadly appeal?


A sunny morning nemesis out of a blue sky​



What twisted reason to maim and kill with such devotion


What lies festering to breed such hate


You woke a “sleeping giant” with such a notion


You defined the meaning of retaliate​



The players gather to take their next turn


Chess pieces wait with furrowed brows


Stillness and peace for which our hearts yearn


All hopes shattered with savage vows​



What now for this sad world so changed


Who will wipe the orphans tears


The new world order abruptly rearranged


Can your faith allay your fears​



Rod Birch 2001
 
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Those few lines are beautiful Rod. We cant talk politics on here as you know but those words are so true.
Trevor.
 
You are right Rod the world did change.
I was at home and the phone went my son said turn on the TV, I just could not believe what I was seeing and hope we never see it again. Mo

Peace be with you all.
 
This is the USS New York built from 24tons of scrap metal from the World Trade Centre. The Ships moto 'Never Forget'.
 
I was baby sitting my 2 year old grandson while my daughter went to the shops - she saw the start of it in a TV shop and came rushing back shouting put the tele on - we cried and I said to her the world has changed today which it has - although we must not forget there have been many other atrocities.
Happy Christmas and Peace to our beautiful world.
Sheri
 
I was working in London and saw it on the bbc news website. I told my american colleague and he accused me of having a laugh. I could see the tears welling up when he realised I wasn't kidding. A very sad day.
 
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