I weep for those innocent lives lost.

Memories of hearing about the attacks, running to a TV, watching the second plane hit WTC…they are all still very fresh and painful in my mind. I will never forget what happened that day, and I am very mindful of how this sparked a dynamic change in many of our lives. How we see ourselves, how we see those around us, and how those who volunteered to wear a uniform of any variety and respond forcefully to the assholes (and their kind) who attacked us were permanently impacted.

Time does not heal all wounds…

I remember it being dark. We had just started a maintenance availability, so the XO put the ship on "tropical" working hours. Officer's call was at 0545.


We (Officers and CPOs) were all lined up on the flight deck. I had a new division officer who had reported onboard a days before. ENS Frank was a limited duty officer (LDO). An LDO in the Navy is an officer who started out enlisted, rose through the ranks and had a specialty in a specific area. ENS Frank, if I remember correctly, had been an OSCS and reported to BUNKER HILL (CG-52) as our Air Defense Officer.

Anyways, we were all waiting for the XO. He walked out on the flight, we all came to the position of attention, he said "At ease" and we got ready for another day in San Diego. All of a sudden, one of our OS2s (Operations Specialist 2nd Class) runs out to the flight deck in front of all of the officers and chiefs and says in a very loud and excited voice, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center!" Because he worked in the Operations Department, everyone looked at me (I was the Operations Officer) as if to say, OPS, why is one of your junior POs in the middle of the flight deck during officer's call? The Chief Engineer may even have been laughing. Anyways, ENS Frank looks at me and said, "I got this", walks to the young man who has the undivided attention of all of the ship's leadership, puts his arm around OS2s shoulders and immediately gets him off the flight and back into the ship.

We thought in that moment that we would be starting just another day.

We had no idea how wrong we were.

Not two minutes later, ENS Frank walks out back onto the flight, straight to the XO and says in that unique voice that Navy Chiefs seem to master, "XO, we are done here and need to get to the wardroom NOW." Its one thing for a second class petty officer to interrupt the XO. But when one of your LDOs does it, you pay attention. And, nobody argued, We all left the flight, went to the wardroom, and watch in shock as an airliner hit the world trade center. We saw the second one live.

This post would be pages long if I went in to detail about everything that happened that day.
Maybe I'll write more about it over the next few days.
But, September 11, 2001 was the day that changed everything.
Note - I had no idea and I never in my wildest imagination would have thought that less than six years later, I would be on the ground in Afghanistan.

I worked in a "cube farm" at the time. My pal Bill (RIP) spun his chair around, looked at me, and said, "Some dumbass just ran a plane into the World Trade Center. We were confused, thinking it was a little two-seater or something... "how do you not see a building that stinkin' big?" was the general thought.

In the next minutes we realized just how wrong our assumption had been.

Never forget. I still remember exactly where I was (driving in to work) when the radio broadcast the news about the first plane to hit the tower and assumed it was an accident. We plugged in an old portable TV in time to be shocked at seeing the second plane hit the other tower and realize it was indeed no accident.

Growing up on Long Island as a 14 year old, that was a day.

Let's not forget the sixty-seven Brits, twenty-four Canadians and eighteen Irish citizens who died that day.

Also, heart-wrenchingly poignant, over two hundred Claddagh rings were recovered from the World Trade Centre ruins.

The traditional Irish symbol of friendship, loyalty, and love was a poignant reminder of the Irish-American community's presence and the personal connections to the attacks, as many of the rings belonged to victims and rescue workers. The discovery emphasized the themes of friendship, loyalty, and love, resonating with the spirit of resilience at Ground Zero.

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
Let's not forget the sixty-seven Brits, twenty-four Canadians and eighteen Irish citizens who died that day.

Also, heart-wrenchingly poignant, over two hundred Claddagh rings were recovered from the World Trade Centre ruins.

The traditional Irish symbol of friendship, loyalty, and love was a poignant reminder of the Irish-American community's presence and the personal connections to the attacks, as many of the rings belonged to victims and rescue workers. The discovery emphasized the themes of friendship, loyalty, and love, resonating with the spirit of resilience at Ground Zero.

I did not know that, thanks for sharing.

I will certainly never forget it. I was across the street from the Pentagon when the plane hit.

I had a team that was performing software development. I was on the phone with the client when someone came running down the hall, saying a plane hit the World Trade Center. Like many others, I thought it was just a terrible accident. While I was on the phone, I was trying to call up CNN on my PC, but I couldn't get it to come up (The internet traffic was massive and preventing quick response). Eventually I got through on CNN and completed my phone call. I was reading about the crash, and then someone said the other tower was hit. Then, of course, everyone knew it was some sort of terrorist event. The office went nuts - everyone trying to understand what happened, and talking about it and sharing what each person was finding out.

Then, we all heard a muffled "boom" and the building shook slightly. We couldn't see the Pentagon directly from the floor we were on, so we weren't sure what happened. Someone actually joked, "Maybe they bombed the Pentagon". Then it became obvious another plane had hit, and several of us went to an office higher in the building where we had a direct view of the Pentagon. It was a mess. The smoke from the Pentagon drifted across the street and collected in our underground garage.

At that point, I told everyone to go home if they preferred - whatever they felt would keep them safe. I eventually left as well. What was normally a 45 minute commute in rush hour became a nearly 6 hour drive to get home. It was total gridlock. While trying to get home I had the local news station on. There was talk of a fourth plane that had been hi-jacked but no one knew where it was headed. Everyone was scared and nervous.

I had been trying to call my wife on my cell phone, but all circuits were busy intermittently. Both my kids were in elementary school at that time, and my wife went to the school. Half the parents came and got their kids out and took them home - it was a big panic.

Of course, we were all safe, but we all knew life had changed.

I was sitting in my squad catching up on paper work from the previous day. I went in the station right when the second plane hit. My Sgt looked at me and said, “when are you leaving?”. This is no shit, my cell rang and it was my senior from the 9th ASOS. “Hey Johnny, what ya doing? nothing much Brad, just watching tv here at the station. Well, call your wife, and tell your Sgt you’re going to be gone for a while.”
We went on VOCO’s for the first week, then activated. Remember the scene from the 12 Horseman when he walked into the chaotic office? That was real.
Brad calls me every anniversary at the same time and asks the same question.

Never Forget