It’s been 14 years now. The longer it’s been, the closer I become to that day. I remember it all so vividly, events unfolding on the TV screen and once I realized what was afoot, as I made my way from my quarters on base to my Squadron, as a skeleton staff assembled. Granted, we didn’t know much, but it was obvious whatever did happen was going to involve us, so my mind was on the tasks at hand. We were in crisis response mode so there was no time for emotion.
Now, I can take it all in. Now, I can grieve, and I do. My youngest who wasn’t even born yet on 9/11, came home from school yesterday and told me his homework was to talk to me about September 11, 2001. I showed him the Towers, I ran him through the timeline and told him about the needless deaths that day and the heroes who saved so many. I told him of friends lost fighting this war. Then, I said to my son, “Now I’m going to show you the one thing you need to always remember about that day,” and we looked at pictures of the jumpers and as I explained their choice. Then, after he went to play, I wept.
Please join me in remembering those we lost on September 11th, 2001 and over these ensuing 14 years.
“OneWorldTradeCenter” by Joe Mabel – Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
We’ve rebuilt the structures they destroyed but we’ll never be able to replace the lives they took. America is a resilient, vibrant nation. But, we’re in danger of ignoring what a dangerous place this world is. The threat isn’t gone. We must remain vigilant. We must never allow another tragedy to befall our people.
I continued serving for several years after that day, retiring, eventually working in industry. Over time I began to process the tragedy. I’ve dealt with it little more each year as I grow further and further the events.
One thing has remained.
I will Never Forget and I will Never Forgive.
I’ll NEVER forget that day, or what they did to us, as long as I live.
It was the worst day of my life and it changed my life. Forever.
RIP to the 2,977…
Its impossible to forget. I was on Capitol Hill when I saw the TV attack unfold and then on my way back to the office drove right into the Pentagon attack moments before the plane hit. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I worked the crash site all day. However, we remember because we fight. The rest just like the idea of wars. We should not be so hasty in our revenge until the right sucker is in our sights. RIP to the almost 8,000 Americans total lost since 9/11
I graduated MCRD PI Sept 7, 2001. I will never forget my father calling me and turning on the tv to see the second plane hit…… I will be waking my oldest son up for elm school this morning a little early to have some special prayers, hugs, and father son talk about evil in this world. Never forget.
Thank you SSD for sharing and prompting us all to reflect.
My room mate and I were about to head to work and depart on yet another trip to SOF pads at JRTC that morning. I had gotten out of the shower and heard him call my name in a tone that I knew meant something bad. So i grabbed some shorts and ran out to see what kind of first aid I was going to have to administer. Instead, I found him transfixed in front of the TV. He said the network had just cut away from morning programming to cover the first impact. Being aviators (albeit rotary winged),we both knew it was not an accident. We were both standing there debating possible culprits / motives when the second plane hit. It was seconds after that when the pagers went off and we knew JRTC had been, in an instant, relegated to an afterthought.
In the time since, I have experienced the depth and breadth of human emotions. The warmth of sharing a flask of contraband with men whom I care profoundly about after having flown all night and then landing into a rising sun. And the gut wrenching, overwhelming grief of standing on the deck of a C-17 and saying goodbye to 16 flag-draped coffins. Many of them men I cherished and had known for years.
In the moments following the sight of that second impact on 9/11, I was struck by the thought that what really had happened was that America had just had it’s naivet’e stripped away. There was no way, in my mind, that life for us would ever be the same again. But I was wrong. America wept, but it didn’t take long at all for the attention defecit to once again take over. It was back to the shopping mall, the jersey shore, and kardashian land once again. Bread and circus.
For all who’ve done their part to protect and preserve this last great place in the days since 9/11, I say thank you. And I charge you all to always remind those who can’t see, of the dangers we face. Never let them forget. And never let us forgive.
Never Forget…
I was in Greenwich Ct where from my slip in the marina all was calm, a stunning clear blue sky on a glorious fall morning… the yard was preparing for the upcoming fall hauls and winterizing… the radio played in the back of the shop… they announced a plane struck the towers… silence.
We went out onto on of the larger yachts and turned on the TV… as the events of that day unfolded we felt helpless (my partner in the business was a retired fire fighter and his son one as well in NYC)… Many of our customers work in downtown and some in the Towers…
We all lost some much that day and the amazing resolve that followed was nothing less than amazing… the flags were flown out side ever home and business…
Never Forget…
Never Forget
My wife, young son and I were standing in our defensive training business in a little town called George, South Africa.
My, soon to be, new country was viciously and cowardly attacked that day 14 years ago.
Now we are all proud Americans.
We pray every day for our United States of America.
Never forget, never falter … Always Strong.
Jesus will always protect us. Trust in Him!
The world changed for so many of us that day…
Like other have already said, never forget and never forgive.
Powerful words. Thanks for sharing, Brother.
I follow your blog daily, and so I have been doing for the past free years. I am an Italian, born in the US (Dallas, TX) to Italian parents (father military stationed in the US) and immediately upon birth I was brought back to Italy where I grew up, Rome, IT. For my entire life, I felt closer to the US, no Italy. I never fully integrated in Rome, where I grew up. In the sense that, I never really felt it mine. Not my thing, not my people. Conversely, I always felt USA was MY thing. Still remember that day, I was in my office in Rome. I was speechless. Since then, much has happened in my life but one of the best things was to move to the US, from where I am writing you now. I would die for America. Thankfully yours, Filippo F. Olivieri, Southern California
“Forgive and Forget” is the a Christian reference I was raised with in my formative years. While in certain instances I can forgive(‘turn the other cheek’), I have also learned to never forget(‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’). On September 11th 2001, I came to understand that there are other historical instances wherein one can NEVER forgive and one must NEVER forget. Upon careful introspection I can say that my expression of “NEVER Forgive and NEVER Forget” is made with the truest of convictions and without enmity. I have no quarrel with Islam, it’s followers or it’s traditional teachings. However, like any ‘radical'(and calling Jesus, Mohammad or any other prophet a ‘radical’ does not apply here), I will never agree grant any form of ascendancy to fundamentalism(in this case “Wahhabism”). Several Imams I’ve spoken to have acknowledged that this so-called ‘interpretation’ of the Muslim faith is a warped and twisted view, fraught with fear, hatred and misogyny. Recently, the Syrian city of Palmira was cited to me as a perfect example of this brand of ‘fundamentalist extremism’ – beheading a gentle kind man who’s only sin against Mankind, Allah and God was his steadfast willingness to guard and protect some of history’s great historical treasures. After brutally and slowly beheading this curator and gentle man, ISIS then set about blowing up several of historical buildings and sites this curator guarded with his life and ultimately, gave his life for. Like the great stone Buddhas that were destroyed at Bamiyan(in Afghanistan), these fundamentalists want to destroy and erase the world that all of our forefathers built and now want the entire world to become their “Caliphate”. Shades of the 1941 Nazi Germany that our fathers and grandfather sought to destroy… As for the two thousand, nine hundred and seventy seven souls who were summarily murdered on September 11th 2001 and every evil deed done by Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban since that terrible September day – all of this, I can neither FORGIVE nor will I ever FORGET. The biblical reference of Ezekiel 25:17 well applies here… I bear no ill will to any man or woman(regardless of denomination) who peacefully pursues a greater change for the good of all mankind but to those who would perpetrate evil and violence against those that constantly strive for the ‘greater good for all mankind’ – I will do as I was taught to do to people like that – kill them all or die trying.
My deepest condolences and sympathies to those that lost loved ones on September 11th, 2001 and to those who do everything they can to protect us from terrorist harm since that terrible and unforgettable day, thank you.
A 9/11 anniversary notification for all elements of Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban; you will never understand Sir Winston Churchill’s reference of “We will never Surrender” but we’re coming for you and you will completely understand…after your all dead. In the mean time, prepare to join the ranks of Hitler, Mussolini and many other historical despots – we’re coming for you and we’re going to eradicate every last one of your kind.
ERRATA CORRIGE Sorry reposting my message after a few corrections. Should have rechecked my text before submitting.
I follow your blog daily, and so I have been doing for the past few years. I am an Italian, born in the US (Dallas, TX) to Italian parents (father military stationed in the US) and immediately upon birth I was brought back to Italy where I grew up, Rome, IT. For my entire life, I felt closer to the US, not to Italy. I never fully integrated in Rome, where I grew up. In the sense that, I never really felt it mine. Not my thing, not my people. Conversely, I always felt the USA was MY thing. Still remember that day, when this all happened. I was in my office in Rome. I was speechless. Since then, much has happened in my life but one of the best things was to move to the US, from where I am writing you now. I would die for America. Thankfully yours, Filippo F. Olivieri, Southern California
I was just starting the second grade out in Washington State. We were 3 hours behind New York so my mother woke me up early and we sat and watched the news feed. I remember watching all the events unfold and asking my mom why this was happening. She didn’t know exactly what to say to my 8 year old self. She just sat and I will never forget the look of fear on her face. As I left the TV to get ready for school, I could hear her quietly begin to cry. Later on at school, our teacher sat us all down and explained the situation to us. I remember still not fully understanding the gravity of the situation and I had a hard time grasping how someone can be so evil.
My father is career Air Force and was in the active reserves when this happened. He came home from his civilian LEO job that night and explained to my family and I that he may have to deploy because of this. It would be the first time he has deployed since I was born. Sure enough, he was on a plane east within a month and came home 8 months later. I never truly understood this attack until I got a little older and started paying attention to the world we live in.
Both my father’s service and this cowardly attack on our country drove me to enlist in 2011, less than a month after I graduated and I finished basic training the weekend of the 10th anniversary of the attacks. This is a day in our history that we will never forget when we were attacked by an enemy that we will never forgive which started a mission we will never give up on. We will continue to prevail because that’s what Americans do. Our country was born out of a war in which we defeated the greatest superpower of the 18th century, our country has defeated the world evils twice in the 20th century, and we will crush terror worldwide before we are done.
May we all join together today, regardless of race, politics, religion, and remember those who died in the event and in the effort to extinguish our enemies. May we never forget this day and may God continue to bless America.
In my area, the weather is almost exactly like it was that day, one of the rare days when the sky’s a blue that you can’t describe. I was up early and went out to refill my hummingbird feeders, and one came to within inches of my hands, for the first time ever. Hummingbirds don’t get the respect they deserve, fierce, territorial, agile, fast and not afraid of anything.
I had started, as the superintendent, a basic police academy class several days earlier. Three times that morning I interrupted the class to ask if any of the cadets had relatives in NYC, the Pentagon or on the East Coast. Outside of earshot of the class, my instructor and I discussed what, if anything we should do – we decided to press on, that the training we were providing was more important now than ever, and that we couldn’t teach the students to stop when things get bad. That is was critical to stay focused and on task, no matter how difficult.
After checking on my kid’s school, rumored to be closed, I worked out the rest of my shift, but what really sticks in my mind was, while I was working in a very rural area (Flight 93 would have past within maybe 75 miles and flew over a co-worker’s jurisdiction) that I’d look up in that amazingly blue sky and for the first time that I ever realized, I didn’t see one contrail – none. Never happened before, hasn’t happened since.
I’d like to say that I enlisted immediately, but even with exceptions my age and mileage precluded it, and few people realize the impact it had on LE agencies – Guard members and Reservists were getting called up, and younger guys were going to the FAMS and other federal agencies, so when I have grandkids who ask what I did during the war I’ll tell them about avoiding paper cuts, breaking up domestics, and listening to cadets when they returned from their tours.
On 2001/09/11 I was barely starting high school as a freshman when the teachers in my first class brought in TVs to show us what was going on. I was angry (still am to this day) I already knew it was Osama bin Laden, and I wanted to enlist that day. Of course I was too young and the days of lying about your age was already long gone so I had to endure another 4 years of BS known as public school. I went to boot camp July of 2005, graduated 3 months later and served 8 years with 2 Iraq, 2 AFG deployments and an honorable discharge. I am proud I served, made Taliban die and unlike many Americans I never forgot and I will never forgive!
Sept 11, 2001 I had stepped off a plane at 3:00am. Drove home and went to sleep and woke up and watched the tv while talking to my father as the second plane hit.
I am 50 years old now and this day I will never forget and it hits home since I use to go up the towers many times to its Windows of the world restaurant. My mother dealed with more horror, since she was about a half of mile from WTC that day. I deployed three times in support of GWOT due to these events.
Thank you Eric, for educating your children on the service and sacrifice of all those that have given their lives both on the 11th and the years thereafter.