24 years on, we still remember 9/11/2001…
Each of us remembers it in our own way, where we were, what we were doing, etc.
For some, it’s visual… Anheiser’s 20th year ad, played once, just like the original.
And for some, it’s music…
The Royal Marines and Sound of Silence, for those who will never speak again.
I remember CAPT Larry Getzfred, CDR Jack Punches (USN Ret), ans AW1 Joe Pycior who all died in the Navy Ops Center in the Pentagon.
RIP LCDR DeConto my old XO , He died at the Pentagon , very nice man.
In the Chicago Loop that day and one of the last groups of people to leave. Eerie empty city on the 2-mile walk home to the S Loop. Lost no one I knew, though I was on the phone with a trader as the second tower came down. Could hear it. He escaped.
Boats- Amen.
Frankns- Thanks for sharing that.
Getting ready to go to work at Raytheon Missile in Tucson when the attacks happened. Like Frankns, I didn’t lose anyone I knew. However, many years later working at AF OSI, worked with many folks who were retrieving parts, pieces, and literally tons of Classified materials scattered in the aftermath of the strike at the Pentagon.
And mourning the murder of Charlie Kirk today doesn’t help things.
We’ve transcended the ballot and soap boxes, opening up the cartridge box…
And people are still dying from that horrible day. From mental stress, suicide or illnesses from the dust cloud or working on The Pile or even just cleaning up their apartments afterwards when it was supposed to be safe.
Never forget those who died that day, and those who are still dying.
Best cover of TSOS ever
https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4?si=LeLv1neVhrq5-F8L
Lots of memories of that day. What remains these years later was the absolute failure of our government agencies to miss, or worse, ignore all the red flags. Let us start with flight instructors telling the FBI some of their students were bizarre; only wanting to learn mid air flying and indifferent to landing and taking off.
I was inspecting regulators at Yaggy storage field.
Wife and I were in a grocery store in Abu Dhabi at the time. Another Embassy employee came running into the store and told us to report back to the Embassy immediately. I remember for days afterward the FSNs and locals that we knew would come up to us when we were out and about and expressed their sorrow.
All- Thanks, and yes, over 48000 have died of ‘9/11 related’ cancers and other things…
Yeah, I was on duty to fly an EMS helicopter that night.
We didn’t get a call.
And I was glad.
GB- I imagine so…
After the second tower was hit, I knew who’d done it. Was walking to my boss’ office, looked out his window, and saw the plane hit the Pentagon. Impact, black smoke, flames, no sound. The concussion hit our metal and glass building, shaking it, just as a co-worker screamed, “Oh, my god! The Pentagon!!”
I called my folks and warned them we’d be offline a while, and sure enough, shortly thereafter the phones were shut down. Learned later my sister got hysterical when told the impact was on the Army’s side, and other nurses had to medicate her. She’d forgotten we’d moved out for the renovation four years prior. She did not know we were supposed to move back on 12 Sep. We moved back a year later.
The roof beams burned for three days, but we still went to work in the other parts of the Pentagon that were not on fire. For months, I worked in our Crystal City office building, in the Army Operations Center in the Pentagon basement, and inside a mountain in a nearby state. It’s still surreal to me.
Saw an interview of one of the pilots sent out looking for other attacking planes. These were apparently the on-call(or whatever they call the first out of the box responders)(AF) planes. It was quite clear from the discussion that they were going out unloaded, ready to commit suicide to prevent further damage.
What I want to know is whether the policy of having the first responder forces sitting at ready UNLOADED is still in force. If so I suggest lining the applicable generals/admirals up against a wall and shooting them. I believe that any first responder force that cannot come out of the gate shooting is derelict in their duty and needs to have their decision level officers bounced.
We have established that our enemies will give us no warning. I see no reason to give them more time to kill us by having our forces pause to arm up.