Posted on Saturday, 11th September 2010 by Patrick Dorwin
I wrote this on the second anniversary of the September 11th attacks against The United States, and on this, the ninth anniversary, I repost my thoughts of that horrific day. Feel free to share your memories with us.
September 11th 2001
The newest date which will “Live In Infamy”.Being in my mid 30′s I have heard people talking about remembering exactly everything that happened as big events unfolded, but until September 11, 2001, I never really understood how that happens. People can tell you minute by minute what they lived through the day President Kennedy was assassinated, but until that sunny September morning I had no such memory. Now, two years after the most deadly day in America since the Civil War, the memory comes back as fresh, maybe clearer than the day it happened. This was my day…
It was just another sunny early fall Tuesday morning. I drive elderly and disabled people and this day was like every other. I had just dropped a group off and was starting a long ride across town to drop off Ricky at his day care center. Since the van was quiet I turned the radio on and heard something strange, some sort of news broadcast, I thought they must be talking about something from the past and switched the station, and it was the same broadcast and he was talking about plane that had just hit the World Trade Center and the huge fireball it made, then moments later, I realized, it wasn’t one, but two planes that hit the towers, this turned the already sick feeling in my stomach into a real knot as I realized that we had been attacked and were at War!
About this time our company radio started coming alive, drivers wanted to know if we should keep delivering people or not, but since most of our early morning work comes from group homes, we had to take the people to their centers or no one would be home for them. So I along with every one else kept going, even though I know I wasn’t alone in wanting to go home and call friends and family.
When I got to the day care center with Ricky, they had all the clients in one room while the staff was watching the news, this was my first view of it, they kept showing the second plane hitting the tower as the first tower burned. The first thing I said when seeing the carnage was “Oh My God”.
I’m not sure how long I stood there, but as I watched it happen over and over again, a rage was building in me. I wanted to lash out at whoever had done this to my Nation. I remember telling one of the staff members that we are at war and we need to kill every SOB involved, this isn’t a crime, it’s an act of war and it was HERE!
I remember going back to my van and going back to work as President Bush made his first address. I remember telling the radio it wasn’t “an apparent terrorist attack”, it was an act of WAR!
A few minutes later, there was a report of a small explosion near the Pentagon and the White House and Capitol were being evacuated… I thought to myself that it’s not over yet.
Next I heard over the radio, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” as another announcer said that the World Trade Center’s South Tower has just collapsed… “It’s just gone” he said, those words sent a chill down my spine.
I continued to drive with the radio on, but there wasn’t much work that day, most places that had not yet opened, never did, so I was sent home for a break early in the day, before I made it home, the North tower came down as well. I could only imagine what it was like, but when I got home and turned on the TV, the reality was so much worse than I had imagined. They were showing replays over and over of the towers coming down and the plane crashing into the tower, and even people jumping from the top floors, what a hell it must have been if they thought jumping was the better option…
All this was interspersed with new reports of hijacked planes that might still be in the air and more information about the Pentagon, it wasn’t a small explosion as first reported, it was another jet that had flown into the building, this was an attack on Our Capitol City! How Dare They Do This!
I remember during the time I was home I was able to call family and friends, a few words with them was all we could do at the time, but it helped. The rest of the day was spent at work with the radio on, it was a short day as everyone wanted to get home. We learned of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania and all the heroic Firefighters and Police that raced into that death trap and were lost to us.
Later that night, I stood outside and just looked to the sky, it was so quiet even here in a big city like Milwaukee, the Nation was glued to their TV, but I had to step away and breathe. As I looked into that clear night sky, I thought to my self “There’s nothing up there… When was the last time the sky over America was so empty”. Sure, there were military aircraft up there over parts of the country, but it was So Very Empty.
Today, September 11th 2003, as I put my flag out in front of my house before going to work, I didn’t put up the flag that I usually fly. Today I took the flag that was given to me by my Grandmother a few days after my Grandfather passed away. It was the flag he flew every day, so it has a special meaning for me, but so does this day, and this day that flag flew proudly once again! Tonight I will fold it again and save it for another day of special meaning, I just hope it’s not another day that comes with the sadness of this one.
Please, I ask of you all, DO NOT FORGET!
Today is one of those special days when my Grandfathers flag will fly. I hope I see a lot of flags today, because we must never forget. Those that ignore the past are condemned to repeat it.
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3 Responses to “Where were you when the world stopped turning, that September day?”
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September 11th, 2010 at 9:02 am
The video rekindles the disbelief and rage that is difficult to manage - the desire for revenge that has not been sated by our campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and in large part because the 9-11 attacks did the greatest damage to our internal unity and sense of purpose. Watching the video clarifies that it is insanity to even discuss permitting a “Ground Zero Mosque” or to believe that Islam is a religion of peace. Remember the words: “even those without swords can still die upon them.” And that is the goal of a significant, indeed a critical mass, of muslims - that we should die upon their swords.
G-d help us if we don’t find a wartime Commander in Chief to replace the dithering, fatuous fascimile who now places us all in peril…..
September 11th, 2010 at 10:02 am
This was an attack against innocent civilians on our soil by cowardly bastards, and cheered on by cowardly bastards, and MUST be avenged until such bastards no longer exist.
“In war, there is no substitute for victory.” - General Douglas MacArthur 04-19-1951 Address to Congress.
September 11th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
The History Channel is running (and has been) some very good shows revisiting 9/11.
One interesting tale, previously unknown to me, I heard early this morning while sucking down my coffee.
A Korean 747 with some 230 passengers was flying over Alaska (and NORAD) in the time after the towers had been struck. The 747 was transmitting a signal indicating “hijacked”. Two F16s were scrambled to chase the jetliner. Via NORAD command ATCs ordered the jumbo jet to perform certain maneuvers, which the F16 pilots confirmed were being performed. Still the big plane’s signal chirped “hijacked”. Authorities were baffled and weren’t sure what they had or who was flying the 747. The jetliner was ordered to land but had to fly 700 miles south of it’s current position for an airstrip that could handle the big plane. The F16s were glued to it’s tail with orders to engage if it strayed.
Not until the jumbo jet was down and after the plane’s crew had been surrounded and taken by M16-toting Marines was it learned that the pilot, a Korean who spoke extremely poor broken English, was merely trying to transmit an message of acknowledgment of the news of hijackings that had occurred.
There are those - including our current pathetic president and our former not-so pathetic but completely wrongheaded president - who insist we Americans are not at war with the so-called Religion of Peace. If such thinking is allowed precedence it will surely be the undoing of what we know to be the free world.
And in that, perhaps those who continue to believe the false notion that Islam is not the core of the problem are correct.
Americans alone are not at war, the entire world is.