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70gto

Where were you guys today 19 years ago

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I was a rookie officer finishing my school post when my partner pulled up, yelling at me to get in the car, that the world trade center was attacked. I cant forget that day, or the smell of burnt concrete and death, digging desperately through that pile of twisted- still on fire pile of steel.  I don't agree with most of what Deblasio says, but I would have definitely lost my sh&t if they didnt honor the dead today.

One particularly sad memory was when I came home on the ferry covered in that white dust, a young mom with a baby stroller was on the Jersey side standing there by herself, for someone who was never coming home. crying telling me I was a hero, I told her I'm no hero , the hero's are still in there, and I walked away sobbing. The guys I went over with still call each other on this day no matter where we are in the world. PTSD is real. GOD bless this country  and keep it safe. Never forget, this was the pearl harbor of our generation.

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I was at work, with the towers in clear view.  I remember my wife calling and telling me that a plane hit one of the towers, at that point we all thought it was a tragic accident.  When she called to tell us that the second tower was hit we realized it was something else.

My wife was pregnant with our second daughter, and she was due any day, we were told that there may not be any hospital space to deliver her so her doctor was looking for other options.

I remember sending everyone else home and staying at work to help prepare and secure the site.  We had armed guards patrolling the perimeter, worked with local law enforcement because we were a chemical site, which, at the time, was considered a potential target..

It was a surreal day, where it seemed like everything stopped.  All we had was a radio tuned into 95.5. 

We were able to see everything from the roof of one of our buildings, I remember one of our engineers took a thermographic scan of one of the towers before it fell and it was close to 2000 degrees.

A day I will never forget.

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Listening to The Howard Stern Show on my way to a project site.  Hearing everything unfold and having my mind's eye visualize it for me was nothing compared to the images that I saw when I was finally able to get in front of a TV.  Thankfully, I was not directly or indirectly effected by the day's tragedies, but still went through a gambit of emotions.

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I was sleeping in since I didn't have to be at the Metromedia building at Giants stadium until around 11. At 8:50 my mother called to see if I knew what was going on and told me to turn on the TV.

Needless to say I spent the rest of the day following events on TV. When the towers collapsed I was convinced at least 50,000 people had been killed. Fortunately my estimate was way off.

Nevertheless, another Oracle consultant I knew was on the 96th floor in one of those towers and died that morning. Co-workers in the Metromedia building watched the whole thing unfold live.

The fact that all those people were killed was bad enough. But for me the lasting tragedy was that the spirit of national unity and patriotism that was resurrected that day dissolved within a year (or less).

And here we are 19 years later. Many of us learned nothing.

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I had just parked my car at David Sarnoff laboratory’s in Princeton. As I was about to turn the car off, I heard on the radio that the first plane hit the tower. 
Like everyone else at the time, I thought it was a small plane, and an terrible accident. 
 

By the time I walked into the building, they had announced it wasn’t a light plane and we were under attack. 
They locked everyone down in the building, and we watched the events unfold. 
One of my colleagues was stuck in the Holland Tunnel when it all went down. 
 

It was a chilling day then, and it still is today. 

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I never get tired saying the following because I am so greatfull to be able to say it. My wife worked for the PA in the towers. She was invited to a early morning business meeting breakfast at One of the rooftop restaurants. She declined and opted to sleep in a bit and go in a little late, a decision that saved her life. She was boarding PATH when it happened and fortunately was able to do a quick turnaraound a get a train home minutes before all hell broke loose everywhere. I was working on a roof when told and was fairly confident she was ok but still anxiously waited to hear from her. First thing I did was get my kids out of school to let them know everything was ok for us. Btw, she was also in the '93 basement bombing and had to walk down 82 flights in a sooty smoke filled stairway with hundreds of others.

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I was at work in Kenilworth; near as I can tell I parked and turned off my radio only a minute or two before the first plane hit.  

I was running between meetings all morning; and between each meeting I sensed that the building was getting quieter, people were gathering in groups, fewer and fewer people were actually working.  By mid-morning, I passed someone in the hall who said a light plane had hit one of the towers, an hour later more accurate information was trickling into the meetings.  Finally at noon I was out of meetings and hearing a more complete picture.   The managers were told to send our teams home, but after I did that I just sat in my office looking for news...finally found some when it occurred to me to search websites outside of the northeast, since all of the local news sites were largely unreachable.  I followed the reporting on the Miami Herald website for a few hours.

I was scheduled to give blood the next day at the site where I was based, but I remembered the blood drive was at another one of our sites on the 11th, so late in the afternoon I drove over there to donate.  The line stretched halfway across the site, and I waited 2 1/2 hours to donate, but the smoke was thick in the eastern sky, and in all that time I didn't see a single person drop out of the line.  I finally saw my first TV images of the day around 6:30 pm, on a set inside the bloodmobile.   I wasn't the first person that day to ask them if they could take two pints...

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I was senior in high school, an announcement was made and tvs were wheeled not each classroom and we watched the news until I got out at noon for work leave. I can still remember the silence in the school that day. Many kids lost one or both of their parents from my school. 

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This was the day American came together. At the site we had everything and more than we needed , food clothes water masks heavy equipment. A million thanks to the welders who cut steel from hour 1 until the job was done. Bittersweet at what happened but proud that Americans came together and gave until it hurt to help others.

1 minute ago, 70gto said:

 

 

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I  might have typed this before - here, maybe elsewhere.

Me I was working from home -( :) ) - typing a report and had an incredible feeling of dread and that I had to make a phone call - I dialed my Mothers number at her office, fast busy - fast busy?  Again - fast busy?  Dead line??

Then the scream from my wife downstairs, a plane hit the f***ing world trade center...  I as like a cessna hit the trade center.

I got downstairs, she ran to me hugged me and I saw the gaping hole from the airliner at around the 90th floor or so - I knew she was gone, so was my cousin she worked with - my friend Gerry Barber from FDNY was crushed at the command center.  My friend from grammar shooll killed up at cantor, vinny killed in the collapse helping people - well I could go on.

But, 19 years on - things never leave you:

 

1)  6 months before Alger Mgmt moved from Maiden lane to Tower 1, Mom asked is it safe in the building to be so high, I said from what?  Fire she said - I said it is sprinkled, Class E, engineered with those aspects in mind for smoke etc.  I did say all bets are off if a plane hits it though...  

2)  My now oldest daughter was 6 at the time - was about as tight with Grandma as can be - too old to not know whats happening, too young to rationalize it - Grandma lived close, and the nights after nights waking up crying looking for her, broke and breaks my heart that I could not comfort her.

One night though,not crying, kiddo was talking, right around her birthday - i slowly walked towards her room and heard a lucid conversation of kiddo describing and seemed to be showing her new American girl doll to someone as I walked in - " Dad, you made Grandma leave, but She says she is ok we should not be sad anymore"  - After that not one night did kiddo cry....

Kiddo did ask why we didn't have a body to bury - my wife told her God wanted her so badly He whisked her up and away from the building to be in Heaven....  She was six, what do you say?  Sorry Kiddo Grandma was incinerated and burned alive... Grabbing your Mom's hairbrush, toothbrush for DNA samples, taking a call thinking they found part of a pinky - well it gets a bit much too handle.

3)  Kiddo as an adult - last year wants to visit the site - finds Grandmas name and leaves flowers - as she describes, " Dad as I was walking away all I could here is someone shouting my name and saying I love you - there was no one around me, but someone was with me "  She smiles telling the story....

4)  To this day, I cannot get the sound of my wife screaming, and my daughter crying out of my head.....and it comes at all different times - that bone chilling scream - it just doesn't stop or go away.

 

 

Well there you have it................

 

No one cares anymore - like they do not care about Pearl, the Alamo, Omaha Beach - Baatan - or any other struggle the people of this nation went through - 

 

This nation is deserving of what is coming and what some will get - it is what it is......

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I was just leaving my desk for a meeting when the first plane hit. At the time not much was known so I assumed a small Cessna-type thing. Midway through the meeting someone interrupts with the news.  Spent the rest of the day watching the news.   Shortly after I joined the local VFD.  I’ll be there tonight for duty and will be spending some time at the memorial/beam we have. 
 

Also, the 9/11 documentary from the brother filmmakers is fantastic and gut wrenching. 

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2 minutes ago, voyager9 said:

Also, the 9/11 documentary from the brother filmmakers is fantastic and gut wrenching. 

I second that.  They were essentially imbedded with one of the close by fire stations.  They didn't know if the other was dead or not until either later in the day, or the next.

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2 hours ago, USRifle30Cal said:

I  might have typed this before - here, maybe elsewhere.

Me I was working from home -( :) ) - typing a report and had an incredible feeling of dread and that I had to make a phone call - I dialed my Mothers number at her office, fast busy - fast busy?  Again - fast busy?  Dead line??

Then the scream from my wife downstairs, a plane hit the f***ing world trade center...  I as like a cessna hit the trade center.

I got downstairs, she ran to me hugged me and I saw the gaping hole from the airliner at around the 90th floor or so - I knew she was gone, so was my cousin she worked with - my friend Gerry Barber from FDNY was crushed at the command center.  My friend from grammar shooll killed up at cantor, vinny killed in the collapse helping people - well I could go on.

But, 19 years on - things never leave you:

 

1)  6 months before Alger Mgmt moved from Maiden lane to Tower 1, Mom asked is it safe in the building to be so high, I said from what?  Fire she said - I said it is sprinkled, Class E, engineered with those aspects in mind for smoke etc.  I did say all bets are off if a plane hits it though...  

2)  My now oldest daughter was 6 at the time - was about as tight with Grandma as can be - too old to not know whats happening, too young to rationalize it - Grandma lived close, and the nights after nights waking up crying looking for her, broke and breaks my heart that I could not comfort her.

One night though,not crying, kiddo was talking, right around her birthday - i slowly walked towards her room and heard a lucid conversation of kiddo describing and seemed to be showing her new American girl doll to someone as I walked in - " Dad, you made Grandma leave, but She says she is ok we should not be sad anymore"  - After that not one night did kiddo cry....

Kiddo did ask why we didn't have a body to bury - my wife told her God wanted her so badly He whisked her up and away from the building to be in Heaven....  She was six, what do you say?  Sorry Kiddo Grandma was incinerated and burned alive... Grabbing your Mom's hairbrush, toothbrush for DNA samples, taking a call thinking they found part of a pinky - well it gets a bit much too handle.

3)  Kiddo as an adult - last year wants to visit the site - finds Grandmas name and leaves flowers - as she describes, " Dad as I was walking away all I could here is someone shouting my name and saying I love you - there was no one around me, but someone was with me "  She smiles telling the story....

4)  To this day, I cannot get the sound of my wife screaming, and my daughter crying out of my head.....and it comes at all different times - that bone chilling scream - it just doesn't stop or go away.

 

 

Well there you have it................

 

No one cares anymore - like they do not care about Pearl, the Alamo, Omaha Beach - Baatan - or any other struggle the people of this nation went through - 

 

This nation is deserving of what is coming and what some will get - it is what it is......

No words for this. Thank you for sharing.

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1 hour ago, Smokin .50 said:

I can't bring myself to tell my story after reading Nick's (again--I've read it before).  Hugs Nick!

~R

Who loves ya Rosie !?

 

Any man taking out an M1 ready to shoot at bogies - is a hero in my book - TELL THAT STORY !!!!!  :)

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@USRifle30Cal OK, hang-on while I cry some more.....

Here's what I posted today on my Facebook page:

9-11 isn't just "another day" for me. Armed with my M1 Garand & several en-bloc clips of .30-06, I sat in my backyard looking for crop-dusters because several were still unaccounted for. Several central Jersey airstrips are within a few minutes flight time of my house and could easily be the source of the next phase of the attack.  I was praying to NOT find any as I scanned the eerily quiet sky adjacent to the mouth of the Raritan Bay within sight of the WTC. The Cops pulled-up & asked what I was doing, so I told them. They told me to "SHOOT FIRST & then call it in on a LANDLINE since the government SHUT-DOWN CELL SERVICE"! There were no crop-dusters armed with poisonous gas / nerve agents headed for NYC!  My unrecorded effort seems a distant memory today...

I lost wedding clients working at Carr Futures in the WTC. They met, fell in love, got married (I was their Photog) and picked-up their wedding proofs. She was pregnant. They found her DNA at Fresh Kills landfill in Staten island, never found his. Both families came to my studio to make parent albums. Not a dry eye in the studio! As we cried together, I told them I'd make TWO bridal-size albums since (2) small parents albums were on the contract, and the extra expense was on the house. Today I'm reliving the joy & sadness of that encounter. This year more than usual. I have no more tears left. God Bless the souls of Mr. & Mrs. Michael Resta & their unborn child! I'm taking a Facebook break today. I'm OUT...

From today's CNJFO Facebook page:

"ALL AVAILABLE BOATS! ALL AVAILABLE BOATS!!
THIS IS COAST GUARD GROUP NEW YORK VHF-16!
REPORT TO LOWER MANHATTAN FOR EVACUATION!"

A simple VHF Channel 16 radio transmission on the official "emergency channel" so designated by the USCG. For those that don't know, it's probably the only direct communication means between our government and its' population. If it could float, IT RESPONDED! Not since the evacuation of Dunkirk in WW2 has a response been so overwhelming. Dunkirk took 3 DAYS to clear the beach of 300K Troops. On 9-11 these men & women took 500K+ off Manhattan in only 9 HOURS! Here's their story. On the 19th anniversary of this tragedy, we choose to remember the GOOD in people.  

 

 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Smokin .50 said:

ALL AVAILABLE BOATS! ALL AVAILABLE BOATS!!
THIS IS COAST GUARD GROUP NEW YORK VHF-16!
REPORT TO LOWER MANHATTAN FOR EVACUATION!"

Thanks for that.  I had never heard that side of it before. One of many uplifting stories coming from a day of absolute tragedy. 

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3 hours ago, Smokin .50 said:

@USRifle30Cal OK, hang-on while I cry some more.....

Here's what I posted today on my Facebook page:

9-11 isn't just "another day" for me. Armed with my M1 Garand & several en-bloc clips of .30-06, I sat in my backyard looking for crop-dusters because several were still unaccounted for. Several central Jersey airstrips are within a few minutes flight time of my house and could easily be the source of the next phase of the attack.  I was praying to NOT find any as I scanned the eerily quiet sky adjacent to the mouth of the Raritan Bay within sight of the WTC. The Cops pulled-up & asked what I was doing, so I told them. They told me to "SHOOT FIRST & then call it in on a LANDLINE since the government SHUT-DOWN CELL SERVICE"! There were no crop-dusters armed with poisonous gas / nerve agents headed for NYC!  My unrecorded effort seems a distant memory today...

I lost wedding clients working at Carr Futures in the WTC. They met, fell in love, got married (I was their Photog) and picked-up their wedding proofs. She was pregnant. They found her DNA at Fresh Kills landfill in Staten island, never found his. Both families came to my studio to make parent albums. Not a dry eye in the studio! As we cried together, I told them I'd make TWO bridal-size albums since (2) small parents albums were on the contract, and the extra expense was on the house. Today I'm reliving the joy & sadness of that encounter. This year more than usual. I have no more tears left. God Bless the souls of Mr. & Mrs. Michael Resta & their unborn child! I'm taking a Facebook break today. I'm OUT...

From today's CNJFO Facebook page:

"ALL AVAILABLE BOATS! ALL AVAILABLE BOATS!!
THIS IS COAST GUARD GROUP NEW YORK VHF-16!
REPORT TO LOWER MANHATTAN FOR EVACUATION!"

A simple VHF Channel 16 radio transmission on the official "emergency channel" so designated by the USCG. For those that don't know, it's probably the only direct communication means between our government and its' population. If it could float, IT RESPONDED! Not since the evacuation of Dunkirk in WW2 has a response been so overwhelming. Dunkirk took 3 DAYS to clear the beach of 300K Troops. On 9-11 these men & women took 500K+ off Manhattan in only 9 HOURS! Here's their story. On the 19th anniversary of this tragedy, we choose to remember the GOOD in people.  

 

 

 

 

...no words....and i am a wordy fu**er....

 

:)

 

we choose to forget, we choose to ignore

 

we refuse to remember, we refuse to acknowledge

 

What happened that day  and all the days that elevated the human compassion and spirit in the face of tragedy.

 

 

 

 

We do not own horror, we do not own the result of savagery...we at times have been purveyors of it as a nation....

 

When will humans realize we truly are all in this together on spaceship earth.

 

 

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That video is incredible. I was only in 8th grade and lived across the country at the time, but a few years later I deployed with an old Boatswain's Mate who told me his experiences. He was a tug boat captain and participated in these evacuations. It was quite powerful to hear it first hand. That day is what drove him to go active duty.

Also unexpected but my old roommate from the CG was in that video for a split second!

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I'm glad you folks like the writing & the video.  I'm also glad the skies remained empty and all the crop-dusters were accounted for.  The thought of being responsible for an early release of poisonous gas or nerve agent in a less densely populated area next to the water in NJ weighed heavily on my soul, but I was willing to take that risk if it meant saving millions in NYC.  The Cops that rolled-up on me no doubt felt the same way.  Prevailing wind was blowing out to sea...

My photo studio was across from a commuter lot with 24 hr. meters.  Several cars had multiple OVERTIME PARKING tickets under their wiper blades.   Seeing another one being written as I peered thru my office window on 9-14, I hastily walked across the parking lot & chatted up the Cop writing the tickets.  I suggested the owners were most probably WTC commuters and ALL DEAD, and it wouldn't be right for the town to force the loved ones left behind to pay for overtime parking.  Our eyes met, he nodded and he collected several days worth of tickets left on all the vehicles.  Slowly, one-by-one, the cars disappeared as family came to collect the vehicles.  I can only assume some of those vehicles, frozen in time, had hair brushes, lipsticks, and other materials that netted DNA used to match WTC victims...

I'm not a Hero.  I just did what little I could to the best of my ability in a shitty situation.  To be honest I feel like I didn't do ENOUGH, like my little part was of no consequence.

Later that day, as I became aware of more & more con-trails from military jets criss-crossing the approach vectors to NYC, I put the Garand away w/o firing a shot.  My insignificant role was over...

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I was home that Tuesday and when the second plane hit I started gathering rifles and loading mags!  My wife thought I was crazy but no one knew what might come next or how far the attack would go! 

May God bless and keep the victims of 9-11 and those who lost loved ones and friends in those cowardly attacks!

I for one, will never forget! Or forgive!:mad:

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14 hours ago, CMJeepster said:

Listening to The Howard Stern Show on my way to a project site.  Hearing everything unfold and having my mind's eye visualize it for me was nothing compared to the images that I saw when I was finally able to get in front of a TV.  Thankfully, I was not directly or indirectly effected by the day's tragedies, but still went through a gambit of emotions.

A group of us at work was also listening to Howard Stern at that time. We all ended up doing volunteer work for the city in the weeks after the attack.  

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My buddy called me at work and I told him the towers did not fall, maybe a piece came off. I had to Windows restaurant shortly before this, one of the nicest places in the City. My brother was on Flight 93 the day before it went down.

I still avoid thinking about that day. 

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That day I was leaving East Rutherford driving to work when the 1st plane hit and on the NJ Turnpike when the second hit. I could see the smoke all the way from the Meadowlands. Then I left work in Holmdel at around 2PM since they were closing down our building. I managed to get into the Turnpike just before they closed it down. There were about 20-30 trucks that they were stopped since they started blocking trucks due to bomb concerns. When I was getting home I spotted a gas station changing their prices to 5$ per gallon.

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