9-11 at 22 Years: What do You Remember?
An Open Thread
United Airlines Flight 175 Crashing the South Tower of the World Trade Center
I cannot believe that it has been 22 years since the day that 19 Muslim terrorists connected to Osama Bin Laden’s Ql Qaida, mostly from Saudi Arabia hijacked four airliners, killing their pilots and turning them into modern Kamikaze suicide aircraft.
At 8:46 AM American Flight 11 a Boeing 767 bound for Los Angeles from Boston with 76 passengers and 11 crew members aboard was flown by Mohammed Atta directly into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. It struck between the 93rd and 96th floors obliterating all in its path as it exploded. The explosions ripped down elevator shafts to the floor, killing most people in their paths, as jet fuel cascaded down stairs and through ceilings.
Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 AM United Flight 175, another 767 originating in Boston bound for Los Angeles crashed into the South Towers of the World Trade Center. Aboard were 56 passengers and 9 crew members. People, already in shock from the first crash screamed in horror as the aircraft hit the building, striking between the 77th and 86th floors, parts of the aircraft and the and engine came out the other side landed six blocks away. At 9:59 AM, just 56 minutes after being stuck by Flight 175, the South Tower collapsed amid a cloud of ash, dust, and debris.
As flights 93 and 175 flew towards the Trade Center American Flight 77, a Boeing 757 with 58 passengers and 6 crew took off from Washington Dulles bound for San Francisco was hijacked over Ohio and turned back towards Washington, DC. As the WTC towers burned and first responders worked feverishly to evacuate survivors and treat the wounded, Flight 77 flew at nearly ground level into the Pentagon, at 9:37 AM, exploding and starting fires, killing 125 people, including first responders. One of those killed was Army Lieutenant Colonel Karen Wagner, who I had served with when we were both young Medical Service Corps Captains at the Academy of Health Sciences.
Lieutenant Colonel Karen Wagner.
By now word was out and the FAA issued an emergency order for all aircraft to immediately land regardless of how far they were from their destination, also ordering a ground stop and directing all international flights out of US airspace. This had never happened before.
However, United Flight 93 out of Newark bound for San Francisco was hijacked between 9:28 AM not far from Cleveland, Ohio. By now the passengers were alerted by call from friends and family members of other attacks. At 9:57 passengers led by Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, and Jeremy Glick led a revolt against the hijackers, breaching the cockpit as the terrorists put the aircraft into a vertical dive into farmland in Somerset County, Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM. Todd Beamer’s last words before his cell phone disconnected, were, “Are you ready, let’s roll.” Their actions possibly kept the aircraft from hitting the Capitol Building or White House. Air Force F-15s and F-16s were scrambled to shoot down the aircraft, some launched without missiles, prepared to ram the aircraft if necessary. They arrived too late, keeping their pilots from having to take the awful step of taking down a civilian airliner.
At 10:28 AM the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
Two-thousand-nine-hundred and ninety-seven people, including the 19 terrorist-hijackers were killed.
I was serving as the Chaplain of Headquarters Battalion, Second Marine Division stationed at Camp JeJeune, North Carolina. I had just completed 20 years of combined service in the Army and now the Navy. The morning started off like any other. I had finished a counseling session with a young Marine and was about to go to the gym to work out, shortly before 9:00 AM. Just before I closed my internet browser I saw a headline that said a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I shook my head thinking that a private pilot had accidentally hit the building. When I started my car a radio talk show host was screaming “Oh my God, another airliner hit the second tower!” The shear panic in his voice was shocking. Since there were televisions at the gym I sped over there to see the news. A few minutes later I was looking at a television that was surrounded by numerous Marines and Sailors. Seeing what was happening, I rushed back to my office, threw on a uniform and sped to our command post where I joined the Battalion Commander, Executive Officer, and Operations Officer. It was about 9:25. We discussed the situation and knowing that we would be alerted and the base would likely be locked down, I rushed home, grabbed extra socks, underwear, and uniforms and raced back to base. Shortly afterwards, the base was shut down and we received orders to help secure the base.
We didn’t leave the base for four days. Three months later I had transferred to the guided missile cruiser USS Hue City, and shortly thereafter embarked on my first combat deployment. Since I am keeping this to my 9-11-2001 experience, I end my story here.
Where were you? What are your memories? Please comment, this post is open for comments from all, not just paid subscribers.
I was quite young - I'm part of that weird pseudo-generation that remembers 9/11 itself, but has no real sense of "what life was like before", which can make it hard to contextualize the changes. I do remember the day, though, because instead of getting on the bus to the YMCA afterschool program like usual, my mother picked me up directly when school let out. I remember some concern that one of my mother's coworkers would need to stay over at our house, but that didn't end up happening. Of course, later I would learn about the struggles my father and stepmother went through, working in New York as they did, and my aunt's family, who lived in Brooklyn. I had actually visited the World Trade Center with my father some time in the prior couple of years. My memories are very hazy - just an image of a large, floor-to-ceiling window, looking out from very high up.
I remember watching Bush's speech that night on the tiny CRT my mother had, which I believe is older than I am. The speech seemed short to me - if he had so little to say, at this point, why make such a fuss about saying it? To this day I question the value of having federal officials make immediate commentary on local, singular events, no matter how momentous.
There is one other memory, or pair of memories, that I associate with 9/11 and its aftermath. I remember my grandmother, in the kitchen, talking about the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for Bin Laden, saying that the military had said they had found a very tall man, and dropped a bomb on him, and this might have been Bin Laden. And I remember some time very soon after, I was very confused, because all the news stories were suddenly about Saddam Hussein and Iraq, and Bin Laden and Afghanistan had seemingly disappeared.
Working as an Election Poll Worker at a local public school,
the news spread in pieces as it unfolded. A teacher came to tell us and l thought the terrorist attack was a rumour. When the second building was hit l thought it was an inside job by the Bush administration because they hated New York City so much!
I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the way the hijacker’s coordinated attack and carried it out with no actual weapons.
One of our friends had been a career soldier and he happened to be near the Towers. He told us later that he immediately realized what was happening and fled for his life. That’s when l realized how out of touch l was!