Tag: World Trade Center

9/11 2001

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9/11 2001

9/11 2001

 

By D.S. Mitchell

It was 2001 and I was an RN working at the Portland, Oregon VA Medical Center on the Telemetry Unit.  It was about 9:00 and I was finishing up the morning med pass for my patients. Most of the rooms were two man units. The guys in Room 206 were still eating breakfast and watching the morning news. As I handed the pills to one of my guys I looked up to the wall mounted TV just as a mammoth 767 jet plowed into the World Trade Center’s South Tower. “Holy shit!” our echoed commentary. Both my patients said it was probably “homegrown terrorism.” “Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t turn out to be another disgruntled vet-another Timothy McVeigh,” both insisted. At first I thought they were teasing, trying to get a rise out of me. But as they continued, I realized they were in no way joking.

The thought that this could have been perpetrated by a group of disgruntled U.S. veteran’s was both disturbing and heartbreaking. Yet, these two Vietnam veterans were both as serious as hell. I couldn’t understand the Timothy McVeigh bombing in the first place. Why would he kill nearly two hundred of his fellow countrymen? Mad at the government? Ok, but to kill innocent kids and others is just plain madness. I couldn’t understand how these two seemingly mentally stable individuals could even understand McVeigh’s rage.

The 9/11 airline hijackings and subsequent suicide attacks were not homegrown terrorism, as both my patients had insisted, but were rather 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremists group al-Qaeda. In final count, 2,750 died in N.Y., 184 at the Pentagon in D.C., 40 in Pennsylvania. Also, all 19 terrorists died. Police and fire departments in New York were hard hit, with more than 400 police officers and firefighters being killed.

After the tragic destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 2001 a  new complex was built. Several towers, a 9/11 memorial and a museum and a transit hub were built on the site. While the new complex doesn’t replicate the original twin towers, it serves as a place of healing and remembrance.  

Remembering 9/11 is important. Not just for the lives lost that day, but remembering the mistakes our government made-before and after-is just as important as remembering the attack.

9/11, Remembered

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Remembering 9/11

Remembering 9/11

 

By John Curran

My first time ever in New York, I’d been there 13 days, n I’m already hooked up with Social Services. On this beautiful early Fall morning I was on Lafeyette Street at the food stamp offices, ostensibly to pick up my ID card. I signed in at 8:45. One minute later the first plane hit the North Tower. At that moment nobody, not even witnesses knew what was really going down. It wasn’t until the second plane….so, I’m just sitting there waiting to be called back to the window to get my card n then head back to the park and another day when this woman comes rushing in. She’s distraught, she says to me n the other guy sitting there, that a second plane had just hit the South Tower. I’ll never forget her words “It’s a disaster” Well, something now is up. I’m hearing the sirens starting up outside as by this time every fire house in Manhattan has been alerted and the units are rolling a mad rush down Second Avenue to the towers. And me, I still don’t know nothing only that this is taking too long. I go up to the window and the nice lady says,  “well you can wait or you can come back later.” She don’t know anything either of what’s happening but that is all fixing to change, real fast and I did not get my card that day. So, I leave, walk outside, and that’s when it was starting to register. Myself, I still did not know anything else, but to walk back over to Thompson Park the hangout. But as I’m walking I’m catching snatches of talk now, everybody come out now, n I hear someone talking about the damn hit and that you can see the building actually on fire from over on Third Street ‘n Second Avenue, the main one way going south, where all the fire trucks were now streaming full tilt and sirens blasting. And as this was not far from where I was, I figured I might as well have a look, what could it be? Well, what it was was that famous Time magazine cover photo live right before my eyes. Both buildings on fire and the city in the process of shutting down, for the most unforeseen damn thing that anybody had seen, maybe ever. And nobody that I know, had any idea that they weren’t yet seeing the half of this, that these buildings were actually going to completely collapse from the weight of all this;  maybe some structural planner somewhere might coulda figured it out, maybe. We were bewildered, New York would never be the same. I saw it for the first time in it’s saddest time, Lord have mercy, I love New York. That’s all I can say, right now.

Remembering 9/11-Eighteen Years Later

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Remembering 9/11 Terror Attacks On World Trade Center, NY

9/11-Eighteen Years Later

By D. S. Mitchell

World Trade Center Memorial

The 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attack was commemorated by victims relatives, survivors, rescuers and officials today. The attacks were masterminded by al Qaeda and it’s founder Osama Bin Laden.  At least 2, 977 people died in the attack. It was the worst attack on American soil in U.S. history. Even the Pearl Harbor attack on Hawaii (then a U.S. territory) could not equal the death count at the World Trade Center.

High Jacked Commercial Airliners

On that beautiful Fall day, now nearly two decades ago, al Qaeda terrorists high jacked 4 commercial airliners. Two of the planes were subsequently crashed into the Twin Towers of The World Trade Center, New York City, N.Y. A third plane was directed at the Pentagon causing significant damage. The fourth and last commandeered plane was crashed into a rural field in Pennsylvania when passengers and crew fought back against the terrorists for control of the plane. Remembering 9/11 is important. Not just for the lives lost that day, but remembering the mistakes of our response is just as important as the attack.

Remembering 9/11-Sixteen Years Later

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Remembering 9/11, Sixteen Years Later

D. S. Mitchell

Thousands of victim relatives, survivors, rescuers and others gathered at the World Trade Center Memorial to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the terror attacks masterminded by Al Ouida and Osama Bin Laden that took the lives of 2,977 people and will be remembered as the worst terror attack on the U.S. homeland in history. Terrorists high jacked 4 commercial airliners, two of the planes crashed into the Twin Towers of The World Trade Center, New York City, N.Y., a third was directed at the Pentagon and the fourth was crashed into a rural field in Pennsylvania when passengers and crew fought the terrorists for control of the plane leading to it crashing before reaching its intended target, savings many lives.