15 replies to this topic

[Scubatooth]

<cue amazing grace done by the NYFD Bagpipe corps>



Today is the 6th anniversary of the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. at 0845 EDT on 09112001 our world changed on this single day was the single greatest tragedy that we have seen on American soil. This single event even though it was tragic it has shown the strength of the American people and how good we can do when so much evil is shown. Even more so how much we were willing to stop what we where doing to help our fellow man. Even though the events of the days and weeks after have started to fade from some memories, but we should never forget as they have left a mark on our history that one would hope never fades.

I still remember where i was when i first heard the news. I was on my way to class when i heard the first tower had been hit. At the time i didnt think anything of it, but when i got home and saw the news I all of a sudden had my jaw drop to the floor and a tightness in my chest as I had family in the NYC area and I had a cousin that was flying cross country that day on American. I would later find out that he was safe and my cousins family was in Maryland with my mothers brother. So where were you when you heard then news or saw the images.

This date has a even deeper meaning to me now that I am a paramedic(all though new-one, just starting my career) in that i know that 343 Firefighters died in the line of duty along with 60 NYPD and Port Authority officers. Few outsiders understand the brotherhood that FF and PD have with, as they certainly dont do the job for the money but they do to help there fellow man; if it will a ideal of "Service to Others".


So today if you see a Firefighter, EMT, Paramedic or Police officer take the time to stop and give them a for the job they do. Remember even the smallest token of gratitude will be appreciated more then you will know.

If you see a solider do the same as it is the solider that ultimately protects our freedoms on lands far from home away from there loved ones.

<end AG, cue Taps, 21 gun salute>

[WreckWench]

May all who lost their lives rest in peace. May every person touched directly by the losses of that day have a ligher heart and find their own peace and may we one day find a way to all live together and co-exist in peace.

Today may each of us be a channel of peace by our actions and our words.

[bottomtime]

I still get tears as I think back on this morning and as I write this . All the lives taken ,,,,, and those lives given in the line of duty, as well as those who chose to helped ,when they could have saved their own,,, I will never forget those taken and the evil of those who did this,,,,,,,,, Good bye ,, Twig and Alisa ,I still miss you and pray not for you but your family and parents today ,,,,,,

[DandyDon]

I think everyone must remember where they were when they heard. I was on Roatan Island, Honduras - my first international scuba trip, watch silly cartoons or something before breakfast when the news broke on TV. I was aghast of course, so far way, so useless. It was Tuesday, I think - and we were supposed to come home Saturday, but that didn't happen.

America Attacked 9 1 1: http://attacked911.tripod.com/

[BubbleBoy]

I consider myself one of the lucky ones in this unfortunate episode. I was working on the 35th floor of Tower 2 up until about 8 months before the event. When my company division was eliminated, I took a job outside of The City and escaped the catastrophe. Two guys that I used to sit next to didn't. They went to work for Canter Fitzgerald in Tower 1 and never made it out.

When I worked at the WTS, I would often go up to the observation deck at the top. On several occasions, while standing up there, I tried to imagine what it would be like if the building fell. It was incomprehensible to me at the time. That word in a nutshell still defines so many aspects of this disaster. It is incomprehensible that human beings could be so twisted and degenerate to commit this act. It is incomprehensible what some victims must have felt when they leaped to their certain death from where I had been standing. It is incomprehensible how some involved in the rescue and recovery efforts found the will and courage to continue under the formidable and unclear circumstances they faced.

The only thing that has always been clear in my mind about this disaster from the moment it happened is that we would somehow recover and go on strong in spite of it. No terrorists can ever do anything to prevent that.

Edited by BubbleBoy, 11 September 2007 - 05:09 PM.

[Hipshot]

I grew up approximately 35 miles from the WTC. Although I didn't lose anyone in the WTC, a friend of mine during my undergraduate days was on board Flight 93. Her name was Linda Gronlund, and she was one of the ringleaders in the effort to get the plane back. This is known from a recorded phone message that she left with her sister approximately 20 minutes before the plane went down.

It was my pleasure to have known Linda, and I thought I'd share something about her on this day.

Remembering Linda

Rick

[Scubatooth]

I was going through some materials i had collected after 911 and this one especially hits home as it pertains to the profession im going into.


APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT EMS, Firefighters, Dispatchers, Police

I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children at 3 AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns.

I wish you could comprehend a husband's horror at 6 in the morning as I check his wife of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring her back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting her husband and
family to know everything possible was done to try to save her life.

I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with.

I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire "Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?" Or to call, "What is wrong with the pa tient? Is it minor or life-threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun?"

I wish you could be in the emergency room as a doctor pronounces dead the
beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past 25 minutes, who will never go on her first date or say the words, "I love you Mommy" again.

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine or unit
the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you forever to get here!"

I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. "What if this was my daughter, sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What is her parent's reaction going to be when they open the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?"

I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call.

I wish you could know how it feels dispatching officers, firefighters and EMT's out and when we call for them and our heart drops because no one answers back or to here a bone chilling 911 call of a child or wife needing assistance.

I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally, and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of "It will never happen to me."

I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain or missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, "Is Mommy okay?" Not even being able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having CPR done on him as you take him away in the Medic Unit. You know all along he did not have his seat belt on. A sensation that I have become too familiar with.

Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really means to us...I wish you could though.

KEEP SENDING THIS ON.. APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT THE LOCAL EMS WORKERS, 911 DISPATCHERS, FIREFIGHTERS, and LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS IN YOUR AREA.

ONE DAY THEY'LL PROBABLY BE SAVING YOUR PROPERTY OR YOUR OWN LIFE. WHEN YOU SEE THEM COMING WITH LIGHTS FLASHING, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY QUICKLY, THEN PRAY FOR THEM

[DandyDon]

My local dive bud got these from a friend in Lubbock....

A local park at sunrise




train load of tanks off to war

[Scubatooth]

sorry to bump this but even a year later this still applies, just add one year to the anniversary total

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

My thoughts & prayers for all who perished in this needless act of hate.

It's not just us military veterans, PD and FF who feel patriotism. Those who never served are some of the first to wave the flag. It's sad, though, that many were outraged when this happened and cried out for vengeance and/or justice, then later chose to speak out against the war on terrorism as it dragged out. Can't have it both ways! Many of us older vets feel that politics get in the way of military action in the war against terrorism, just like in a previous situation in the '60's and early '70's.....

Hammurabi had it right IMHO.....an eye for an eye.......

[damselfish]

MY SAD STORY>
At the time I was living in Pennsylvania an hour and a half from New York. I got a million calls that morning from friends and family asking me if I had heard about it and where was my husband. I reported that my husband, a Continental pilot out of Newark New Jersey had left early that morning for a 9am departure to L.A. Everyone cried on the phone. The TV and callers could not identify the pilots or flights involved and I had no idea of his flight number just that he was going to L.A. at 9am and was a Captain for Continental. It took several hours before I heard that he was safe. He was not allowed to leave the airport and was busy calming people down. His airplane was on the runway with passengers facing the first tower that got hit.
They taxied back to the airport. He wasn't allowed to leave the airport until the next day because everything was shut down.

I had several neighbors and kids friends parents that were killed in the towers.
My kids and I had just the week before been on a field trip to the Towers and Statue of Liberty. I have pictures from the week before and immediately after.
The smoke filled the air as far away from New York that I could see it from the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
Every time I went to N.Y and to Newark airport for the next year I got extremely nauseous looking over at where so many times before I had seen the Towers in the N.Y skyline.

My son was born 11/19/01.

Everyone moved from N.Y. to the Pocono Mountains in masses after 9/11. Our town was overrun with people and homeless people. Crime went through the roof. The schools were overcrowed and trailers set up, bomb threats every day, fights, drive by shootings. Panic.

I insisted we move back to Texas where I was from.
My husband hated Texas. He spent a lot of time away.
Hence I belong to singledivers.com now.

MY SAD STORY. A VICTIM OF 9/11.

[damselfish]

Oh and as a nurse Our hospital called all employees in as an External Disaster Code. New York hospitals were transferring as many patients and they could to out lying hospitals. I went in and STAYED in for three days with minimal rest and maximum patient load. The only reason I didn't go into New York to help like most of our nurses did was because I was 7 months pregnant. This went on for weeks.

9/11 I'll always remember.

[uwfan]

My son was born 11/19/01.

Hence I belong to singledivers.com now.

I will always remember 9-11-01, and getting ready to go to work with the TV on in my apartment...stunned as I saw the planes crashing into the side of the towers, and disbelieving what I was seeing...going to work in a skyscraper in Denver, to be sent home a few hours later as businesses were encouraged to send their people home. I was stunned by the news reports of additional planes targeting other areas...

I was and am thankful that this was a tragedy I viewed from far away, that no one targeted the office building where I was working then, and that I and my family and friends did not deal with much that so many had to work through. I've had my own share of tragedy and my own horrors to work through, as I am sure many have - those who dealt with 9-11 and those who did not. I pray this day we can all overcome these tragedies- NOT forget, but OVERCOME and find a way to give and share with others in the process.

Damselfish, I'm so sorry to hear of your losses. I just had to highlight a couple of things I am glad about from your post - I hope your son is happy and healthy (especially since we share the same birth month) and I am so glad you are part of singledivers.com - your picture always makes me smile.

[dive_sail_etc]

I was working for a software firm in Atlanta, a Tuesday unlike any other when I arrived. The first word was from email messages to coworkers from spouses, friends etc. of news reports that apparently a private plane had crashed into one of the towers. Looking back, such a misconception in the first minutes of the tragedy was conceivable; I called up the weather for NYC and instead of fog, rain etc. read a report of brilliant blue skies and was immediately suspect. (Don't we remember that unreal backdrop as the second plane strike was broadcast live!)

As reports poured in of the second strike, Pentagon attack and a missing plane somewhere over PA that had the Air Guard scrambling, someone in the office observed "You know, we sort of resemble the WTC." Concourse buildings 5 and 6, known locally as the King and Queen towers at the top of Atlanta's Perimeter traffic circle because of their resemblance to gigantic chess pieces, did indeed resemble onyx replicas of the NYC towers. For the first time anyone could remember, the building PA system was activated instructing everyone to evacuate the building and go home. Many of us instead rendezvoused at a local watering hole where the networks played over and again of the smoking towers, the second plane's impact, and each tower in turn collapsing into dramatic clouds of smoke and dust that Hollywood FX techs could only dream of creating.

I was physically ill twice that day.

What sticks with me most vividly however, was the eerie panorama of Atlanta's pulsing traffic web - deserted. I mean NOTHING for minutes at a time, and then only the occasional state patrol car was seen ghosting along what then appeared as runway sized rivers of concrete on the cam feeds. I skeedaddled home to the swamps of SW Georgia where I discovered another unexpected spectacle; empty skies. It had never occurred to me how much air traffic passed over my remote little corner of the world... until they stopped passing over. No trucks whizzing by on the highway near the farm. Just frogs and crickets at night, and the wind through the pines by day… And the haunting memories of horrific death and destruction under a bright, cheerful September sun.

Never again. Never.

Godspeed to those who have carried the fight to the enemy, an elusive enemy without uniforms or borders. Ironically, we've fought-and defeated-such guerilla tactics before. The key is in the strength of national will to fight dirty. No, it is not comfortable to witness, but remember it is the type of war chosen by the enemies of Western culture in general and the United States, as the pinnacle of Western achievement, in particular. I, for one, am ready and support the men and women who have drawn the short straw of history to complete these damned dangerous and unpalatable tasks.

Brad

[VADiver]

don't forget those who have sacrificed all since Sept 11...

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Edited by VADiver, 12 September 2008 - 04:29 PM.