9/11 A Day of Rememberence

[Steve Dwyer]

Recalling the event, it was hard to comprehend when I received a call while pulling off Rt 81 North in upstate New York on a clear blue sky day in September. Having a private pilot license the first thing that came to mind was this had to be intentional. Later reality set in and the world changed forever. On a lighter tone a friend was returning to Syracuse on a flight from Ohio in his Aeronca Champ using only a hand held radio. He was unaware our airspace had been shut down ordering all aircraft to land immediately until a F-16 pulled along side of him in near stall with the pilot motioning him to land. He has a picture, it's now a classic we will never forget. We all experienced something on that day we will never forget.

Steve

[Rusty]

I remember 9/11 just as I do the Challenger explosion, only I saw the Challenger with my own eyes.  On 9/11 I was at work and we saw on the computer that a plane hit one of the towers.   We had a TV at work and was given time off to watch the news that day.  I still could not believe the horror that occurred.  They showed video then that is not shown now.  I saw several people jump out of the window in top of the towers to get away from the fire.  I saw both tower collapse.   During some of this I talked to my Dad who was a fire department lieutenant.  He was totally shocked watching it. 

That aftermath is just as unbelievable in how the firefighters were treated when it was known they were poisoned by the dust and the US invading countries that had nothing to do with 9/11. 

I pray for the families of all the people worldwide that have suffered due to 9/11 crimes committed against us. 

[John Carrodus]

From down here in the South Pacific, miles away from the USA it was a hammer blow that shook the world. The US was a secure house of strength, the seat of Western Democracy. Strong on every level, backing it's foreign policy of upholding democratic process and human rights was the American Way. The American culture of patriotism , open-ness and trust has been both a strength and a mortal weakness. Such is the price of freedom. It was not only a tragic blow to those families friends and loved ones of those innocent victims, it was as if the roof had been blown off the Western World. This roof to a large extent is still missing. Some say the world has changed and moved on. Has it? We have systems in place now, everyone is playing their part and paying their share. Are they? There are still those who would forcibly
take that which they desire simply because they can. There are those among us of privilege, a product of our Western success who would turn upon and abuse these engines of progress, and those from outside who despise what we are. It's as if we have upheld success, security, strong economies, freedom and prosperity as the measure of man. Important and vital qualities yes. Perhaps more important and telling, is what intent is deep within the heart of a man that creates or destroys good things.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.

[Brett Buck]

I was at work, we followed it on the internet. We then spent A LOT of extra time trying to help our customers because the first few days, there was a whole lot going on that they needed to deal with as a result of the attack, and some of the, er, "options" that were being considered as a response.

    I was one of the first people out of town when the airspace opened back up as well, which was interesting, because I got upgrades to first class on all the legs. I looked around on one flight, and it looked like the offensive line of the 85 Bears was riding. It finally dawned on me that what they were doing was stacking first class with the biggest guys they could find, presumably to block access to the cockpit. I am not a small guy, and I was in decent shape at the time, but I looked like the "before" picture in a Charles Atlas ad compared to some of these guys.

    Brett

[Dan McEntee]

  I worked second shift at that time, and had to be up early, (for me) to take care of some business that I can't even remember now, so I set my alarm for 8am. It went off, and the radio was blaring something about an airplane hitting a building in New York City. I had in mind that B-25 that hit the Empire State Building after WW-II, with it's aft fuselage sticking out the side of the building, and thinking that there were cameras everywhere these days, I got out of bed and turned the TV on. The commentators were just jabbering away while the image of the first tower burning was on the screen. That seemed a lot more intense than what I was expecting and did not look good at all. Then the second plane hit the other tower and I knew that this was no accident. I was sitting on the edge of the coffee table in my underwear and really had to go to the bathroom, but I was afraid to move out of concern that something else was going to happen. As each report of other hijackings came in it seemed normal to expect things to get worse. When they started to show the screen of the sky being cleared of all aircraft, then it really hit hard that we were under attack. That had never happened before or since, but people today think nothing of it, other than the inconvenience it might cause them. But that was a very big deal in my mind!! When I finally decided that I was going  to go into work that afternoon, I purposely went by Lambert Field to see what it looked like. From the view that I had, I could see almost every square foot of empty ramp at the airport, and it all had jet airliners parked on them. Taxi ways also.  It looked like it was a used jet airliner sales lot! It's amazing that this situation doesn't bother some people or they don't see the seriousness of how this affected the whole country. We are 22 years down the road from that day, and lots of people have put it out of their mind. People born after the event, and are in later grades at school or in the work force just don't seem interested, because it didn't directly affect them.  That's the mind set that concerns me the most. We have people from generations in places of power and judgement that have never had anything like this affect them. These people just can't understand how bad things can get when it all goes wrong and the @#$% hits the fan! I was working at a large commercial printing plant at that time that was busy as could be. All the big bosses and sales people were up in Chicago at a big bi-annual print show, and after the Twin Towers fell, no one could get home. They couldn't even rent a pair of roller skates if they had to. When they finally did get back to the plant a week or so later, it was just a few weeks after that when all the sales people had to start dealing with contact cancelations. Work across the board started to dry up, and the layoffs started soon after that. Ask anybody in the airline industry or any tourism or transportation related business what it was like for them. That event plus the coming of age of the internet triggered a huge change in our economy and how business was conducted  We had just set a sales record that year at work, something in the order of 2 or 300 million dollars, and all 5 web presses that I worked on were manned on all 3 shifts and working 6 and 7 days a week. By the time we got into the deepest part of the recession  in 2008 or 2009, we were working on consolidation of the sheet fed and web press operations into one building and the work force had been reduced by 2/3. We had 8 or 9 guys in the maintenance department, but by the time we moved into the new building, it was just me on 2nd shift and the day shift man. In December of 2010, I remember the hot dog and hamburger party they threw when they managed to climb out of the hole and hit $40 million in sales that year.  I managed to stay employed and scratched and clawed my way to retirement, forced into that by the pandemic a little early and not exactly at a financial stage that I had planned. In my mind, it all started that morning with that first plane crash into the first tower. It started the world spinning in the wrong direction and look where we are now. What would things have been like if our government had looked into those middle eastern guys that applied to some of our aviation colleges and schools, just to learn how to fly an airliner , just a little bit, and sent them packing back to where they came from? Maybe this all could have been prevented.
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[Rusty]

"The US was a secure house of strength, the seat of Western Democracy. Strong on every level, backing it's foreign policy of upholding democratic process and human rights was the American Way."   Well, on or about 9/11/23 Western Democracy took another hit.   Mr. Putin noted in his public speech that US politics are "rotten."  He further stated that US politics proves that democracy, as America tells the world to use is a failure.  He expounded that because Mr. Trump was arrested due to being a political opponent proves the America political system is corrupt.   (paraphrased to the best of my ability) 

I remember hearing my grandparents talking about the Soviet Union president one day when I was a child.  My grandmother told my grandfather that their president predicted America would fall without a bullet being fired.  She thought it was the most stupid thing she ever heard.

With what is going on today, I can see America collapsing from our own defects, especially regarding what Mr. Putin spoke about. 

[john e. holliday]

I too will never forget that day.  I had just pulled into the driveway when my daughter came out the front dorr and asked me if I heard the news.  I rsponded I had not as I just got off the night shight at the telephone control center down town.  I was off the next shift and stayed up to watch the report on the tv.  I couldn't really beleive it until the plane hit the scond tower.  Then reports of plane hitting pentagon and another going down out away from a city.   Then the towers fell and all I could think of was the people that died in that cotastrafry.   Now to realize that those that were captured and sent to Cuba were never executed.  Now I sit and watch our polititions destroying what is laeft of our great land.  Now they are starting another virus scare.  Haven't they made enough profit off the worthless masks they made people wear.In reallity I think our whole political regime need to be replaced with people that have some commn sense if there is any.

I guess those thatb were in the planes never thought about their own people that were in the towers.