Tragedy, 20 Years Later

[jttheclockman]

Hard to believe but next Saturday will be 20 years to the day that such a horrific tragedy happened that not only had such a huge impact on so many lives here in the States but around the world. We mourn so many lives these days due to this Pandemic and it too will become etched in all our minds as to the where and whens they happened. But on a fantastic looking September morning of the 11th, 2001, all our lives were changed and had another image implanted in our brains of such senseless destruction and cause of lose of life that to this day it is still hard to understand the whys. As we move further and further away from this horrific day in history we must not forget and so many young people not even born then must still learn of this. Just as with this Pandemic which will be written about in history books, so must this story of what happened to this country on 9/11/2001. So many people are still suffering from this event weather emotional or even physically due to working on the pile or even around it. To all I say my prayers are with you and the losses will not be Forgotten.

I write this with a twofold agenda. The first just to remind everyone and the second to reflect back individually as members of this great site. If you feel up to it maybe you could share your thoughts and even experiences of that horrible day. I would also like to make note of a great documentary special tonight on CNN about 2001 and this Tragedy. 8:00 PM eastern time. It is a must watch and puts it all out there as raw as can be.

For my story I will keep it short but as with everyone I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. Working on an office construction job working on some security work in Piscataway NJ. Bright sunny morning and you could see for miles. Happen to be working on some alarms for doors when a AC guy working on the roof leaned over and shouted down that a plane hit the Trade Center. Now he did not see it but heard on the radio. At that point everyone who had radios on heard the news flash and were tuned in. Now from the roof you could actually see the Twin Towers as clear as if they were right in front of you. It was that clear of a day. In a short time you could see the smoke from the tower. Right then we knew it was no small plane. I went to the roof to see for myself and as it happened the second tower was hit. Now we could see the towers burning. to shorten this we watched as the first tower fell and could not believe what we were watching. Panic was setting in on the radios and all over. Just then a whole fleet of FBI and State Troopers pulled up to our new construction site as well as the main building which we were building this annex to. to shut it down and guard it. Evidently this building had government ties and security was at the utmost important. We all decided to go home but worried about crossing bridges and other roadways but we all did leave. Went home and watched the rest of the day on TV and just could not believe what was unfolding. As I watched, in my mind I was flashing back to my time spent working in NY for 6 years back in the 80's. I use to walk right past those towers everyday as I walked down to wall street. At that time so much construction was going on all over NY. Worked on many highrises that you look out the windows and you saw those beautiful towers and knew many members that worked on them when being built.

To wrap this up and bring it back to the pen turning portion I always wanted to make a pen commemorating this event and have a few ideas and I gathered some props over time but as with many of my projects they get sidetracked. I know there have been a few pens done over the years depicting this event and they were well done. you could do a search here to see some. I really did want to be done for this anniversary but it did not happen so I will post a photo of a scrollsawn piece I did around that time of the event. I did sell a few of these back then. It is red oak with a blue stain glass background to represent the clear sky of that day. Hope others chime in. We Will Not Forget!!!!!

 

[TonyL]

Beautiful work JT.

I was a uptown (50th and Broadway). I see you were probably close too. Lucky to be alive. Lost many friends and colleagues.

I believe the US should not only never forget, but get even for every life killed on that day and every service person lost. We are now being controlled by a civilization that hasn't progressed since the 6th century. Total garbage!

 

[Rob]

JT, thanks so much for your thoughts and words on this topic.

I posted the below note on IAP 3 years ago. I still think of the events each day even though I'm long out of the warfight now. God bless and protect those that are our nation's "sheepdogs"...the defenders of the defenseless.


"Interesting topic. I've retired twice. Once as a federal agent. On 9-11, I was five years into my second career as a fed, this time as the Director of Emergency Services for a very large and diverse federal facility on the east coast. That morning I had just finished a meeting concerning security requirements for a facility that had weapons grade nuclear materiels within. I walked out of the meeting and was pulled aside by a member of my intel section who told me about the first plane. I returned to my office and turned on the TV. My secretary stood there with me as we watched the second tower get hit. She teared up and said she just didn't understand why someone would do what we watched. A few minutes later my boss (roughly equivalent to a town mayor ) came to my office. As we talked I brought senior staff (police chief, fire chief, etc) into the office. It was clear our nation was under attack and we were now players. As a federal facility, we shut down roads, air traffic, boat traffic (we had waterfront property) and nothing moved without approval. An absolute nightmare for the 10s of thousands of people that lived and work on our facility. Not to mention we were on the glide path between NY and DC and had things that if hit by a plane would have impacted the whole mid Atlantic region. Lots of sleepless nights for me for a while, but had been blessed with more than 600 cops, firefighters, EMTs, 911 dispatchers and support staff that really stepped to the plate. Our lives and the way we had done things changed forever that day. I attended a fairly high level meeting in DC a few days latter with federal counterparts. Some of us were sent to NYC the next week. One of my most prized possessions is small glass vial that contains debris from Ground Zero. It will forever remind me of those that were lost and those that gave their lives trying to save others."

 

[jttheclockman]

I just had to bring up the 2 most prominent pens shown that dealt with this tragedy. For those that do not remember them or those that never seen them here they are. The first by Eric ( Buzzzz4)

https://www.penturners.org/threads/9-11-tribute.125944/

The second was a fantastic hand made replica of the Twin Towers and Lower Manhatten by Steve ( Skiprat) I am still amazed at this work.

https://www.penturners.org/threads/lower-manhattan-wtc-revisited.115859/#post-1591079

 

[MPVic]

I had just boarded the elevator in our condo building to go out shopping when a gentleman got on & asked if I had heard about the attack. I had not, but as I drove to Costco, every station on my car radio was jammed with coverage of this unbelievable tragedy. When I arrived at Costco, I could barely get in the front doors for the crowd that had stopped in front of the TVs. Every TV in the entertainment section displayed the horrific scenes & people stood transfixed - you could have heard a pin drop, despite the sobs of a few overcome with emotion.
No, I will never forget!

 

[studioseven]

I work a rotating shift and on 9/11 of 2001 I was working the midnight shift. I watched the news that morning and saw reports of the first plane hitting the tower and wondered how something like that could happen. At the time I thought it was an accident. I went to bed and woke up around 2pm to learn of the other 3 planes. Definately a day I will never forget. I do love General Schwarzkopf's quote when asked about forgiveness to those involved in the planning and execution that brought down the towers.

"I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting".

Incidently I'm giving my age away here but 9/11 of 1973 I enlisted in the Army.

Seven

 

[CjG78]

20 years later, it still feels surreal. Never have I witnessed something so traumatic on television. Me and my family wept in disbelief.

 

[Bats]

I was living in Boston at that point, having moved back earlier in the year after a number of years on the Lower East Side. I was still asleep when the first plane hit (I kept late hours in those days for most of my life) when my girlfriend ran into the room yelling that someone had blown up the World Trade Center and fighter jets were circling Manhattan. My first response, thinking this was just a ploy to get me out of bed and having never much cared for the towers - or that corner of the city in general - was to mumble something awful along the lines of "Good. Stupid eyesore on the skyline". My second, on reaching the living room with the TV on (this was unusual in itself, as we only got half a channel), but still half asleep, was to ask whether she'd just let me sleep through the beginning of the end of the world.

By the time I had to head to work, I was starting to process the fact that this was really happening (a slow process that may have taken several weeks). Along the way I got ambushed by a basement bar in Harvard Square and spent several drinks staring goggle-eyed at the news on a big screen and trying without much success to reach friends in the city on the phone. Eventually I made it to work, promptly went out to grab a couple 40s, and instead of making leatherwear my boss and I spent the day on laptops drinking and trying to reach everyone - or anyone - we knew.

It took a long time to get word (the cell networks were swamped and all but useless), but I got amazingly lucky. It turned out I only had two friends working in the towers. They'd been out drinking together (this was something of a recurring theme in my life) the night before, and both ended up sleeping in with raging hangovers (this too). One saw the first plane hit from a cab on the way to work - the other missed both planes completely, and woke up to a changed world.

I spent the next week or so trying to find someone willing to drive me into the city to help out. In retrospect I have no idea what help I thought I was going to be, me not having any sort of emergency training, but I was younger and dumber and caught up in the urgency of the moment. Maybe for the best (probably for the best, considering the long term health issues suffered by the first responders), I was never successful. The next time I made it back to NYC was in the spring, by which point the Tribute in Light was lighting up the sky - but seeing it on the skyline was as close as I ever made it to Ground Zero.

For Christmas that year, my girlfriend's parents got my a big 9/11 coffee table picture book. I wasn't sure how to react. I'm still not.

 

[greenacres2]

Horrid stuff that was, yet over the past 20 years that attack has proven to be a catalyst for much in my life. That was a trigger for me to become a volunteer firefighter, which in turn led to many years of getting to serve in motor sports rescue, grant writing for my department and several others, serving on our Congressman's public safety board, and more lifelong friendships than I can count. Awful day? Certainly, but what we made of it defeats the intent of that attack.
Earl

 

[sbwertz]

I work a rotating shift and on 9/11 of 2001 I was working the midnight shift. I watched the news that morning and saw reports of the first plane hitting the tower and wondered how something like that could happen. At the time I thought it was an accident. I went to bed and woke up around 2pm to learn of the other 3 planes. Definately a day I will never forget. I do love General Schwarzkopf's quote when asked about forgiveness to those involved in the planning and execution that brought down the towers.

"I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting".

Incidently I'm giving my age away here but 9/11 of 1973 I enlisted in the Army.

Seven

9/21 1961 for me. I'm REALLY giving away my age!

 

[Lmstretch]

I was in the Air Force station in Japan and in my on-base apartment taking a nap on my couch. it was late at night when I received a phone call for my boss telling me to look at the news on the tv. I turned on the tv in time to see the 2nd airplane strike the tower. Like most people, it was like a movie, it just didn't seem real. Like most people in the military, my life changed. Deployments to Mindanao Philippines, Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations!

 

[TonyL]

I was in the Air Force station in Japan and in my on-base apartment taking a nap on my couch. it was late at night when I received a phone call for my boss telling me to look at the news on the tv. I turned on the tv in time to see the 2nd airplane strike the tower. Like most people, it was like a movie, it just didn't seem real. Like most people in the military, my life changed. Deployments to Mindanao Philippines, Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations!

Thank you for your service.

 

[sbwertz]

I was out of the service on 9/11, but I was in, stationed at West Point, when JFK was killed. The whole post went on red alert.

 

[sorcerertd]

I was working a late shift and still sleeping when the first plane hit. My wife called to wake me up and tell me what was happening. I too thought this was an accident and remember sleepily saying "How do you not see something like that?". When the second plane hit, the answer became quite clear. Most of the USA stood frozen, staring in disbelief. Many sprung into action. I still cry when I really think not only about all the death and destruction, but also the heroics and self sacrifice that day. This was certainly the biggest tragedy in my lifetime and I pray that it remains so. I was past the age where I could have re-joined the Marines, but sure wanted to be part of the wrath unleashed on those responsible.

I'll refrain from any politics, but would like to point out a very interesting book from a religious perspective, The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. I didn't care for the style it was written in, but it was an easy read and the information presented is definitely food for deep thought.

 

[Stephanie]

I work a rotating shift and on 9/11 of 2001 I was working the midnight shift. I watched the news that morning and saw reports of the first plane hitting the tower and wondered how something like that could happen. At the time I thought it was an accident. I went to bed and woke up around 2pm to learn of the other 3 planes. Definately a day I will never forget. I do love General Schwarzkopf's quote when asked about forgiveness to those involved in the planning and execution that brought down the towers.

"I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting".

Incidently I'm giving my age away here but 9/11 of 1973 I enlisted in the Army.

Seven

Thank you for your service.

 

[Stephanie]

I was getting ready for work. 9/11 happens to be my birthday. I had the news on for the traffic report when instead I was hearing about the towers. At first I thought it was some sort of "what if" scenario. It also took me a bit to wrap my head around what was happening. I live on the west coast, but I will never forget how quiet the skies were with everything being grounded, except for the military jets flying in and out of the airport.

 

[Stephanie]

I was working a late shift and still sleeping when the first plane hit. My wife called to wake me up and tell me what was happening. I too thought this was an accident and remember sleepily saying "How do you not see something like that?". When the second plane hit, the answer became quite clear. Most of the USA stood frozen, staring in disbelief. Many sprung into action. I still cry when I really think not only about all the death and destruction, but also the heroics and self sacrifice that day. This was certainly the biggest tragedy in my lifetime and I pray that it remains so. I was past the age where I could have re-joined the Marines, but sure wanted to be part of the wrath unleashed on those responsible.

I'll refrain from any politics, but would like to point out a very interesting book from a religious perspective, The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. I didn't care for the style it was written in, but it was an easy read and the information presented is definitely food for deep thought.

Thank you for your service.

 

[Stephanie]

I was out of the service on 9/11, but I was in, stationed at West Point, when JFK was killed. The whole post went on red alert.

Thank you for your service.

 

[Stephanie]

Thank you for your service.

Yes. Thank you for your service.

 

[sbwertz]

On 9/11 I was at home and a friend called me...said "turn on the tv" and hung up. I turned it on just before the second plane hit. Sat there for hours watching it unfold....just numb.

 

[pshrynk]

I was just walking in to the psych unit and passed the TV in the patient lounge. ABC was just getting geared up that there was something awful going on when the second plane struck. That was one of the quietest days ever on the unit, as everyone, even those in the IPU was just too stunned to react.

My brother in law was walking into the Tarrant County Court House in Fort Worth to get his divorce. By the time he left, the whole building was on lock-down and he had to pass a gantlet to get out. He was informed of the attack by my wife, who was on her treadmill, watching GMA when it happened.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I was out of the service on 9/11, but I was in, stationed at West Point, when JFK was killed. The whole post went on red alert.

Was working in Houston in 2001, I think I was on the way to work when the first plane hit, my wife called after she got to work on the other side of Houston and said to look at the TV.... we all saw the second plan hit the second tower....

I also remember that when Kennedy was killed I was standing in the bilge storage area of my ship handing up spares to be inventoried as we went into dry dock.... I had a pretty heavy box over my head handing it up to the guy on the deck above when someone came running in and started jumping up and down saying "Kennedy's been shot, Kennedy's been shot".... my reaction was "I don't care whose been shot, somebody take this box".... we climbed out and went to the mess deck where we had a TV and all stood around and watched as they took him to hospital and reported his death.

 

[TellicoTurning]

9/21 1961 for me. I'm REALLY giving away my age!

9/21, 1960 for me...2 days after my 19th birthday. Got out 8 days after Vietnam was declared an official police action... makes me a Vietnam era veteran by 8 days.

 

[TonyL]

9/21, 1960 for me...2 days after my 19th birthday. Got out 8 days after Vietnam was declared an official police action... makes me a Vietnam era veteran by 8 days.

Don't know how anyone came back from that experience and mentally survived. My heart and prayers (and donations) are with them.
Some of today's teens and 20-somethings (even older) can't survive a C on a report card or a job interview. I was born in 63...maybe maybe young adults were just as fragile back them. Thank God, my parents were not.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Don't know how anyone came back from that experience and mentally survived. My heart and prayers (and donations) are with them.
Some of today's teens and 20-somethings (even older) can't survive a C on a report card or a job interview. I was born in 63...maybe maybe young adults were just as fragile back them. Thank God, my parents were not.

Tony didn't mean to imply I was in 'Nam... I was Navy....never got any closer than Guam... I was in communications and did read and forwarded a lot of sitreps from there though before I was transferred back to San Francisco to a picket ship out of Treasure Island.

A lot of good men were lost there and a lot did come back messed up...

 

[TonyL]

Tony didn't mean to imply I was in 'Nam... I was Navy....never got any closer than Guam... I was in communications and did read and forwarded a lot of sitreps from there though before I was transferred back to San Francisco to a picket ship out of Treasure Island.

A lot of good men were lost there and a lot did come back messed up...

You served...thank you.

 

[sbwertz]

The other one I will never forget was the day the Challenger exploded.

 

[Bats]

The other one I will never forget was the day the Challenger exploded.

That one I largely missed out on (or possibly "That trauma I managed to avoid"). I may be outing myself as a bit of a young'un around these parts, but after a few years at a public school that would bring everyone together in the library with a TV to watch all the shuttle launches (and with parents who would occasionally let me stay home to watch morning launches), I was at a new school (anyone in Michigan remember the "open" schools?) and only vague rumors trickled in. It wasn't until the bus ride home, when all the schools got kinda dumped together, that we got the full story (filtered through the usual deranged childhood lens, of course - "I could see body parts flying off!" and such).

And then, in short order, the jokes about "Needs Another Seven Astronauts" would begin. Kids are [ resilient | insensitive ].

Somewhere I think I've still got a Challenger mission patch and a tube with a half dozen or so of these "A Tribute To Our Heroes" posters that eventually ended up all over the place at the school.

 

[sbwertz]

I was sitting in the waiting room of the local VW service department waiting for my car to be serviced and watching the launch coverage on tv when it happened. There were three of us in the room and all of us were absolutely stunned. The TV coverage just went silent. For several seconds not a sound from any of the reporters. Then havoc. None of us could believe what we had just seen in real time.

 

[sbwertz]

I have a t-shirt I bought at Comdex in Nov 2001 that shows the twin towers with big yellow bows tied around them and the caption is "Gone but not forgotten." I wore it for a year after 9/11 then put it away and I have worn it every September since. It is getting a bit threadbare, but I still wear it. Having been stationed in the Pentagon, it was really hard for me to see the destruction.

 

[leehljp]

Kennedy: I was a freshman in high school, and a bunch of us were ready to go join the Army/Marines to go fight a war for who ever did that.

Challenger: We had just been in Japan for about 3 months and had to decipher news events on the TV as we did not have any English TV news, nor could we speak Japanese at that time.

Hanshin (Kobe) earthquake, Japan, 5:46 AM Jan. 17, 1995 (6000 died) We were there in the Osaka area (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto are one metro area) , people were shocked, walking around for two days before the country was able to respond. Immediately, within 5 minutes of the quake, I called my parents in the States to say that we were OK. Within 10 minutes, phone calls were nil and for the next 10 days. We had cracks in our house but it was still structurally sound enough to inhabit.

World Trade Center: We were still living in Osaka area. Oldest daughter called from Arkansas and said "turn the TV on, WTC has been hit." I clicked on USA news on my computer, saw it, and then the TV. Our middle daughter had just arrived back two days before to begin as a teacher for 1st - 3rd grade students at a school near us. Our youngest daughter was a sophomore in high school. We stayed up well into the AM there. We had CNN and BBC in our cable TV plan so were were able to watch that in English. We did listen at times to the Japanese news and quite often got a different view point on it. A secondary anxiety was that grounding of all flights and the awareness that even in family emergencies, there was no way to get home, and the concern of how long before we could get back in the case of an emergency. That only lasted about 7 or 8 days, but it was a long 7 to 8 days.

 

[jttheclockman]

I just wanted to say thanks to all the Brave men and women who go where the unthinkable go and protecting us from foreign terrorists so hopefully another event like this does not happen not only here but abroad. Again without getting political I sure hope that tragedy does not also come from within. The closeness around the world from friends and allies and right here in this great USA was on full display. we need to get back to that. I am sure we all have watched or are still watching some documentary, film or just news cast dealing with this horrible event and we are remembering the sacrifices from that day and days that followed and still are following. Taking a moment to reflect and say a prayer is the thing to do. We also can not forget those brave souls on Flight93 that saved countless more lives and even further destruction.

I also wanted to thank all those that joined in this thread to share some thoughts and even experiences. Hard to believe it has been 20 years. Downtown Manhatten looks great and the memorials are well done. It is probably one of those bucket list things to do and visit for all.

Not to go off topic but we as a world are facing an invisible enemy that has no sides and is effecting the entire world and we need to fight this just as if it were a terrorist attack. Please consider vaccinations to help fellow mankind.

Again thank you for reading and being a part of this. We Shall Not Forget. God Bless.

 

[Buzzzz4]

I created my tribute pen with tears and thoughts of those going through the tragedy. I am a nurse and have been working through many tragedies as of late. Even though I am on hiatus from penturning, I come back every year on this day. I don't know why other than to see if this pen makes an appearance. Thinking of those who gave their lives and lost loved ones on this day 20 years ago.

 

[TonyL]

I created my tribute pen with tears and thoughts of those going through the tragedy. I am a nurse and have been working through many tragedies as of late. Even though I am on hiatus from penturning, I come back every year on this day. I don't know why other than to see if this pen makes an appearance. Thinking of those who gave their lives and lost loved ones on this day 20 years ago.

Thank you for your service and tribute. Maybe, all need to be reminded of your commitment and the lives irreparably damaged or lost, when some decide to advance their personal agenda and mock this country and desecrate our flag and anthem.

If someone calls my mother ugly, he/she is certainly exercising their freedom of speech (which 10s of thousands gave their lives to protect), but is that really they right and most respect way to exercise it?

 

[jttheclockman]

I created my tribute pen with tears and thoughts of those going through the tragedy. I am a nurse and have been working through many tragedies as of late. Even though I am on hiatus from penturning, I come back every year on this day. I don't know why other than to see if this pen makes an appearance. Thinking of those who gave their lives and lost loved ones on this day 20 years ago.

I remembered the pen very well. I mentioned this way back when you did it that it should be on the front page for at least a week before each year. But just my opinion.