Remembering 9/11

Off Topic
41

[quote]Mod Laurie wrote:
rainjack wrote:

If I remember correctly, rrjc5488 lost his dad to the terrorists.

His story will make you cry.

You’re right, rrjc5488 did lose his dad on 9/11.

Ryan, I hope you don’t mind that I repost what you wrote here on T-Nation, on the 9/11 anniversary 2 years ago. You, my friend, are in my thoughts and prayers today.

Here’s what rrjc5488 wrote:

[/quote]

Jesus, I’m not sure how I missed this information for the past 7 years… Ryan, I don’t even know what words to say, I’m sure you’ve heard everything at least once by now. I’m sorry.

Having my Birthday on September 11th is an odd way of remembering the events. I know I’ll never forget it.

42

[quote]dre wrote:
rainjack wrote:

If I remember correctly, rrjc5488 lost his dad to the terrorists.

His story will make you cry.

Really, wow, that’s horrible.

If you are reading this thread rrjc5488, my condolences for your loss. [/quote]

My condolences also.

A former collegue had a brother who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the north tower. He was one of the people who decided to jump to their death. He left a message for his family on his home voicemail, stating his love for them and his final decision. He lept from his south facing window. Some remnants of his body were identified on the roof of the Marriott Hotel.

Of all the horror that took place that day, the images of those jumpers are most disturbing to me, and are forever burned into my mind.

43

[quote]kellerdp wrote:
I just think that it is as important to remember the events that lead or may have lead up to 9/11, as it is to remember 9/11.
[/quote]

This is not the correct thread for that. If that’s your intention, you need to start a new thread in the Politics and World Issues forum.

Further off-topic posts in this thread are unnecessary and won’t be permitted.

44

[quote]Bauer97 wrote:
Ryan, I don’t even know what words to say, I’m sure you’ve heard everything at least once by now. I’m sorry.
[/quote]

Same here. I’ve been sitting here typing and retyping, but nothing seems fitting.

Ryan, thanks for sharing that with us.

(And Laurie, thanks for reposting it).

45

I was in 8th grade and live about 15 minutes from the city. There’s a big park behind my house, and from the top of the hill you can see the skyline on a clear day. I remember getting home around 10AM because I was picked up from school. I remember the fighter jets screaming over my house, and feeling like an earthquake just hit when they flew over. Later that day and for a couple of days after I think you could see the smoke in the air from my backyard.

46

[quote]Mod Jump’N Jack wrote:
kellerdp wrote:
I just think that it is as important to remember the events that lead or may have lead up to 9/11, as it is to remember 9/11.

This is not the correct thread for that. If that’s your intention, you need to start a new thread in the Politics and World Issues forum.

Further off-topic posts in this thread are unnecessary and won’t be permitted.[/quote]

Thank you.

DB

47

Rrjc, I’m sorry, words will never be enough, but thanks for sharing that, and thanks ModLaurie for reposting it for us.

9/11 changed the course of my life drastically. I was in the Navy, had graduated the arabic language program and was a month away from finishing tech school. The demand for my particular field shot through the roof almost instantly. All I did for the next several years was travel- multiple shore missions in 5 different mideast countries, 10 different ships, averaging 1 month in each place, for years on end. I could fill pages with my experiences. Also, my family who had not supported my decision to join the military (and turn down a full ride engineering scholarship), many of whom would not talk to me after I left home, on 9/11 all instantly decided that they’d supported me all along, commenced with the bragging rights, and acted as if nothing had happened, despite being told repeatedly over the years that I was a selfish uneducated loser and a bad example to my siblings. Funny how fast things can change.

I left that career field recently, in order to do something that suits me better, but the people I have worked with and who have sacrificed so much have had a profound effect on me. I want to spend the rest of my career serving these heroes of mine, which is why I have decided to go back to school and become a nurse, and work for the VA eventually. I’ve got stories as crazy as anyone else there, and these guys who have lost limbs and left pieces of their former innocence strewn across the desert sometimes have better outlooks on life than I do. They inspire me greatly.

9/11 made what I did more important- REALLY important. It made me grow up really fast. It threw me into a crazy world and tested me- gave me the opportunity to find out that when the shit hits the fan, I’m one of the few who takes charge barks orders and does what needs to be done, and stops to shake only after the fact, where most others panic and don’t know what to do.

Nothing about 9/11 was good- man, I was really pissed and saddened about how my teachers and arab friends were treated here in the states back then! But as a result of 9/11, I am immensely strong, I KNOW just how strong I am, and that knowledge is absolutely priceless.

Rick Rescorla is absolutely at the top of my hero list.

We all have the capacity to do great things and make the world a better place. Today is a great day to remember that as well.

48

I was in Applied Electronic Principals class doing a lab when my instructor told everyone to go into the conference room and there on a 60 foot projection screen I saw an airplane fly into the second tower.

49

[quote]Mod Jump’N Jack wrote:
kellerdp wrote:
I just think that it is as important to remember the events that lead or may have lead up to 9/11, as it is to remember 9/11.

This is not the correct thread for that. If that’s your intention, you need to start a new thread in the Politics and World Issues forum.

Further off-topic posts in this thread are unnecessary and won’t be permitted.[/quote]

Thank you Jump’N Jack

50

I was a freshman in college at the time, going to school in Hoboken, right across from lower Manhatten. My roommate woke me up and told me to go across the hall and look out the window, and I got there just as the second plane hit. The rest of the week is pretty much a blur.

51

I was getting ready for work and was watching the news where they had reported that a plane had hit one of the towers. At the time they didn’t know much in the way of details, I figured some inexperienced pilot screwed up. By the time I got to work, the second plane had hit. I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem real.

Someone had setup a TV in the break room and everyone was in there watching. When the towers fell, most everyone went home. I remember getting home and my Mother was just crying.

I was in shock that day. I actually still didn’t think what I saw was real until I woke up the next day and it finally set in that it actually happened.

52

I remember coming into work that morning ready to talk about the Monday night football game where Ed McCaffery(sp) had broken his legs. I walked in the door and headed straight to my buddies who I talked sports with only to find them huddled around a computer monitor.

At this time it was being reported as a small plane, we made light of how drunk a pilot had to be to hit a giant building, not thinking someone other than the pilot could be hurt. Thats when CNN.com refreshed and the first pictures came through, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing, unreal.

My supervisor wheeled a TV set into the office and we watched TV thats when we saw the second plane hit, we all knew this was not an accident.
The scarriest part, the part that really hit home was when I went outside, I work in down town Kansas City, not LA or NY traffic wise but busy, it was as still as my Aunts farm. No planes in the air, no people or cars on the street, like I was the only person on earth, I cried and prayed for a long time that day.
To all those who lost that day, those prayers were and are still with you.

7 years all to fast.

53

[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
dre wrote:
rainjack wrote:

If I remember correctly, rrjc5488 lost his dad to the terrorists.

His story will make you cry.

Really, wow, that’s horrible.

If you are reading this thread rrjc5488, my condolences for your loss.

My condolences also.

A former collegue had a brother who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the north tower. He was one of the people who decided to jump to their death. He left a message for his family on his home voicemail, stating his love for them and his final decision. He lept from his south facing window. Some remnants of his body were identified on the roof of the Marriott Hotel.

Of all the horror that took place that day, the images of those jumpers are most disturbing to me, and are forever burned into my mind.

[/quote]

I can’t fathom having to have to make a decision like that. Just unreal…

54

It was a sad day; never to be forgotten.

However, I don’t like how its ALL over the news today. Like, yesterday was a happy normal news day; as will tomorrow. But today they act like its a funeral. This is only to get ratings too…that part of today sickens me. That the media sees it as a ‘hook’ to get more people to look at them.

Hopefully they will build something in its spot soon too.

(alot of these thoughts are things I agree with that I heard on teh Opie & Anthony show this morning)

55

When the first plane hit, I was in my 9th grade geography class. I laughed, because I thought it was like some fight-club stunt where they clear everyone out of the building and then blow it up to make a point.

The second plane crashing and watching a bunch of people jump put lie to that belief.

And yet for some reason, I walked around with a chip on my shoulder for the next couple of years, diminishing the suffering of many around me with the perspective that, as bad as 9/11 was, it was a drop in the bucket as far as world suffering goes.

It took me a few years to gain some maturity. My heart goes out to those whose family and friends died seven years ago.

56

I was on my way to my discussion for my ENEE381 class with Dr. Orloff listening to my Walkman. I was listening to DC101 with Elliot in the Morning. They were talking about the first airplane at this point but I had thought there were screwing around and thought “this isn’t a very funny skit.”

Only after continually listening to the broadcast in class did I start to realize that this was happening as I sat there in class. I raised my hand and informed the professor of what I thought was going on. At which point the professor looked very shaken and told us he was cutting discussion short that day.

My class after this class was his lecture for the same class so I walked over to the next class listening to the radio. Trying to figure out what was going on at this point. My professor shows up in class and informs everyone of what he has learned and cancels class so that people can go find a TV or a phone or whatever they need to do.

I walked home after this just numbly and not even aware of what was going on around me. I watched TV all day, I honestly don’t remember what happened that night but I must have fallen asleep in front of the TV. I tried to call my parents a few times because they both live in NY and stopped…because I told myself I’m just tying up phone lines I’m sure they are fine.

The next day I was finally able to get in touch with my family and everyone was fine. Throughout this whole experience I just felt numb like “this can’t be possible” type of feeling.

57

[quote]Backlash79 wrote:
I was on my way to my discussion for my ENEE381 class with Dr. Orloff listening to my Walkman. I was listening to DC101 with Elliot in the Morning. They were talking about the first airplane at this point but I had thought there were screwing around and thought “this isn’t a very funny skit.”

Only after continually listening to the broadcast in class did I start to realize that this was happening as I sat there in class. I raised my hand and informed the professor of what I thought was going on. At which point the professor looked very shaken and told us he was cutting discussion short that day.

My class after this class was his lecture for the same class so I walked over to the next class listening to the radio. Trying to figure out what was going on at this point. My professor shows up in class and informs everyone of what he has learned and cancels class so that people can go find a TV or a phone or whatever they need to do.

I walked home after this just numbly and not even aware of what was going on around me. I watched TV all day, I honestly don’t remember what happened that night but I must have fallen asleep in front of the TV. I tried to call my parents a few times because they both live in NY and stopped…because I told myself I’m just tying up phone lines I’m sure they are fine.

[/quote]

are they?

58

I remember walking into first period current events class and the TV was on with a reports that a plane crashed into the WTC. No more than 10 minutes later in flys the second plane and watching that live is something that I will never forget.

I thought ‘oh my lord tens of thousands of people are going to die today.’ Then the news broadcaster came on and said something to the affect ‘this clearly is no mistake, America is under attack.’

Finally some good news on the war on terror, we may finally get the bastards that are responsible for that fateful day 7 years ago.

59

[quote]thosebananas wrote:

are they?[/quote]

Yes, I’m sorry I didn’t complete my thought before hitting Submit, I’ve fixed it now.

60

I was in my 8th Grade Algebra class. The first plane had hit and My teacher had explained to us what had happened. At that point everyone was thinking it was an accident until the second plane hit.

Went to my next class which his my History class. TV’s were already on in the upper corners of the room. We sat there and watched the TV during the entire class. We ended up with an early dismissal.

I still remember my mom bugging out because my dad was doing construction at Philadelphia Int. Airport and supposedly there were threats at that airport. He ended up fine.

To this day it still seems like it didn’t happen. I was dumbfounded at the time. Then it turned into extreme hatred for those responsible. If I had been of age at the time I would have immediately joined the military.

My condolences for those who lost someone that day.