this is a view from the wooden gate between the marble walls....it shows the path of the jet, as it hit the ground at near 600 mph...upside down. it stopped at the chevy cavalier sized rock at the end. i am a well composed man. i have the "Craig family tolerance for pain" it takes a lot to make me tear up. i figured i would be fine! wrong-o it was all i could do to stop from welling up as we walked up the path to the wall. then as i saw a big..bad ass biker (there were a lot of bikers there yesterday) in tears walking down the wall touching his fist against each name...i couldn't hold it anymore. ...im tearing up as i type this. my thoughts and hearts go to the families. ...the heroes/victims dont need our sympathy...those whom are still here do! the actions of the flight 93 heroes saved countless lives on the ground and earned the hijackers nothing more than a smoking hole in the ground. we won this battle. thank you flight 93 heroes...
The alarm went off that morning just as it does today, at 7 minutes past the hour and I listen to Laura Ingraham for a few minutes just before getting up and off to work. But that morning she was uncharacteristically solemn. I switched on the TV... Then dashed off to work. The second plane hit while in shock driving to the office and listening to the radio. Rumors of something hitting the Pentagon... All the Televisions were on at work and no one got anything done that day. Phones didn't ring and a lot of shock expressions on coworkers faces. Management felt we needed to tape up the windows since we were in a State office building. That day changed the face of America, and at first it seemed for the better. But now I see that that was only temporary. What was tragic and initially fired us up has now become a magnet for all those who accumulate power to use as an excuse to regulate, investigate, probe, search and seize power for themselves. Government has grown exponentially beyond how "safe" they have made us. Yeah the war on terror has succeeded to the point that we have nearly squashed what was at one time a huge subversive organization. But at what cost? We are now very distrustful of the government (and rightly so), forgetful of those who gave their lives for our country and nearly as divided as the days prior to the Civil war! It is indeed time for a change. But REAL change this time.... and back to what made America great. Back to a time when we honored our heritage and those few who fought back on that horrific day! A day we should never forget!
Those are some good common sense ideas; we seem to be missing this kind of thinking from our national leaders unfortunately. I'm a displaced distribution manager and I work 2 jobs currently driving a school bus and clerking in a store.......waiting for the economy to improve and hiring managers to come to their senses,lol.
9/11 was a day that changed my life, as it did every American. All of a sudden, the unthinkable, the incredible, the unfathomable had happened. We were actually attacked and what's even more soul touching, was that my apartment in the city was only about a mile from Ground Zero. That infamous morning, I was giving the mother of a friend of mine a ride back from the Catskills to Newark Airport so she could head to her Florida home for the Winter. I'm on Rte 17 and I see a sign that says "All bridges and tunnels to NYC closed". I'd never seen anything like that in my life, so I tuned to 1010 Wins, the news station to find out what was going on. By this time, both towers had been hit and the first one was down already. As I got on the turnpike south from where there is a huge vista of the city, I saw the one remaining north tower with massive billows of smoke pouring out of it. About a minute later as i'm watching, the North tower goes down. It was so surreal; my brain was telling me what my eyes were seeing, but it was also telling me my eyes have to be screwed up as this couldn't possibly be happening. I couldn't believe I actually was watching the tower collapse in a huge column of dust and smoke unlike I've ever seen before. I didn't know what to think or what to do, so we just proceeded to the airport which was pure chaos. They had shut down all flights in and out and people were walking all around with these stunned looks on their faces, also not knowing what to do. After 45 minutes, we finally made it out of the airport and I took Mrs Dobrow back to my Cranford house where she stayed until Friday when Newark opened again; I think she was on the 2nd plane out. Immediately after I got her safely on her way home, I headed over to my little apartment on Jane St in the Greenwich Village section of the city, as I say about a mile from Ground Zero. The Holland Tunnel was closed and the city was at a dead stand still. 7th Ave is a major uptown/downtown thoroughfare in Manhattan and believe me, you could've played a game of football on it, it was so empty. Nothing, no cars, no trucks, no buses and very few people. Those that were walking around, myself included, had a look on their faces like they had just gotten punched in the stomach. There were thousands, literally thousands, of posters tacked and taped onto any vertical surface. All of them had pictures of missing loved ones with pleas if anybody had seen this person to please call the phone # and let them know. I knew, heartbreakingly, that not many phone calls would be placed. In my local gin mill, all of us sat around with nary a smile in the place. We all were recounting that fateful day and sharing with each other how many friends/family we lost. I was fortunate that I only lost one friend and a neighbor from Cranford, but every place I'd go into, be a deli, a bar, a newspaper stand or whatever, it was the same scene, all the people were sharing this horific experience and helping each to mourn their losses as they grieved over their own. Slowly but surely, the city started to shake itself off and began its attempt to return to normalcy, though that normalcy would never be what it once was. For the next year or so, whenever a plane would fly by, so many of us would look up and think, "Oh no, that seems to be a bit low" or "Let me keep an eye on that until it's out of sight", reactions heretofore unthought of. Each morning on my way to work heading south on 7th Ave, I would see the huge void where those once proud towers stood, commanding all of the financial district and the southern quadrant of Manhattan. Their abscence reminded of someone who had just gotten their teeth knocked out, or a yard that had recently had some stately 100 year old trees removed. Only now, when I can see the Freedom Tower rising from the ashes, is that huge hole starting to fill back up. The innocent people and the first responders that we lost that day can never be replaced nor will I ever be able to muster up one iota of forgiveness for those subhuman humans who could mastemind and carry out such a heinous crime against all that is right and holy. The Lord's supposed to be all forgiving so I'll leave that for Him, but I daresay He most assuredly had a hard time with it as well.
I was at work and when I heard a plane hit one of the towers and I related that in 1945 a military plane had hit the Empire State Building. We had no TV at work but soon knew what was going on. My niece was in NY on the 10th and had stood on top of one of the towers at about 10 am. She flew back to Ca. that afternoon. I'm still shocked today and we all hear about the loss of life and the 343 rescue personnel lost but not many know that those people saved over 20,000 that morning. I think the world was attacked that day. People from 93 countries perished that day.
That's ok Snoot, I couldn't imagine actually seeing something like that first hand. Your account helps put it in perspective.
I was announcing at the All Ford Drags at our local track this w/e....about 2pm on Sunday....it hit me like a ton o bricks what the date was !! So i asked everyone to shut down thier cars and all...and asked for a moment of silence in memory of the day. We have quite a few USA drivers at the event...I just thought it would be a nice gesture .. seeing they were good enough to come up for the w/e. I had quite a few come to the tower and thank me.
