In Loving Memory of The 2,996 lives lost on that sunny and calm Tuesday morning, when a normal day turned into hell on Earth.
We Salute You, We Miss You, and We Will Never Forget You.
Rest in Peace.

 

Amen

 

This tragic and senseless loss of innocent lives should never be forgotten.

The loss of 343 fellow firefighters really made it a personal matter for me.

Rest in Peace

 

As Oldblue said, amen.

A personal story from that date in time. I left Detroit on Sept 10 on a (supposedly) nonstop NWA flight to Beijing. We had work to do in central China near the Terracotta warriors site. We had a snafu in Detroit and we got out late. Part way into the flight we were told that the flight couldn't fly directly to Beijing because the Russians were doing missile testing in our flight path so we were going to stop at Narita and fly into Beijing the next day. During the long flight I got to talking with the off duty flight crew. Once we landed at Narita we were taken to a hotel and I was having, I think dinner.... I say think because you tend to lose track of days and time when you're flying those long flights. In any event one of the NWA flight personnel came out of the bar quite distraught saying we needed to go watch the TV in the bar and see what was going on back in the USA. We walked in as the 2nd aircraft hit the tower.

When we got up the next morning I saw the flight crew in the restaurant and they told us that they were told not to fly back to the US and that they would be instructed as to when when the air space was open once again. We still had to go into China so we got another flight to Beijing. The project we were working on was going to take about 2 weeks to complete and our game plan was that once we were done we would get flights that would have us ending up in Hawaii and waiting until the air space was opened up again. The US airspace was opened back up just prior to our departure from Beijing so we flew back to Detroit.

What people may or may not know was that when that happened the US cut all forms of communication into and out of the Continental US. That being said, our families and the company we worked for had no idea where we were. I was divorced and have 3 daughters, when one of them called my office to find out if anyone knew if I was safe and where I was our receptionist at the time freaked out and told my daughter that she needed to talk to my boss who wasn't available at the time but he would call her back when he was able. Not a good thing to tell a 17 year old.

That ordeal has been etched into my brain along with some things I had been through while I was in the service, I was flying Navy from 72 - 76, the tail end of Vietnam. I was there for the fall and among other things helping to ferry people out in anything that would fly, but, that is another story for another place and time.

Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing at that time in history.

Again, amen and rest in peace.

 

We felt that day in Canada as well. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. Sad and tragic. Rest in Peace.

 

A guy with my name was killed in the Pentagon. I was less than 3 miles away from it at the time.