Monday, May 2, 2011

Ten Years Later

Ten years ago this September I drove back into DC fifteen minutes after the attack. I will not forget that scene or my co-worker's wife who lost all her fingers from severe burns. He said to me, "My wife loves to crochet." Still chills me to remember.

24 comments:

Randy Johnson said...

I was making preparations for work when the first inklings that something strange was going on started to filter through television.

One doesn't usually rejoice at the death of another human. I can make an exception this time. I'm sure some of the extremists will be outraged, but I can remember numbers of times seeing people dancing in the streets at the death of Americans and I'm not bothered.

Scott D. Parker said...

After having food poisoning the previous night at the pre-natal class my wife attended, I was home from work. At the news of the first plane crash into the WTC, remembering the crash of a plane into the Empire State Building in the 1930s, my first thought was "Well, it was bound to happen someday." Then, the other plane hit and I started thinking about the end of Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor. It was extremely troubling to be one month away from bringing our boy into the world when people fly planes into buildings.

Last night, I watched some archival 9/11 footage to remember the absolute helpless rage and fear I felt on that day. Makes this come full circle.

One thing to note in the video coverage of the American celebrations last night: the images I saw were mostly of young people. These were the kids in school ten years ago when 9/11 changed their lives like we don't even know. Interesting tidbit that...

Ron Scheer said...

I watched the President's announcement last night and then turned off the news because I didn't want to hear endless analysis. I can think for myself. A comment like yours, David, is all that needs to be said.

David Cranmer said...

Randy, 9/11 is our Pearl Harbor someone told me that morning. A time and place of where you were that is unforgettable.

Scott, I found the number of young people gathering outside the White House to be an interesting facet of the news this morning.

Thanks, Ron.

And, yes, now the endless politicking will begin. A damn shame.

Scott D. Parker said...

Politicking will commence. But, you have to wonder what facet will they focus on? Dems can crow that they did what Bush couldn't. The outcome is what GOPers wanted anyway, so what's to discuss on that front?

And, speaking of the obvious Pearl Harbor and 9/11 comparison, respectively, if you extrapolate the days since 9/11 and the wars we've waged back to WWII, this date happens in *1951*, when we're at war again, after a 5-year post-war period. That's a sobering thought, too.

David Cranmer said...

I felt Obama and W took the right tone in their speeches. They gave credit to the elite force and intelligence community in general.

Charles Gramlich said...

I had just got to work and my secretary was watching the first scenes on the news when 911 happened. I'll never forget the horror.

Ron Scheer said...

The politicking is anyone's guess at this point. But it occurs to me that Obama could come out of this as a new Joe Louis defeating the Max Schmeling of our day, finally surmounting color to legitimize his American identity more than his birth certificate ever could.

David Barber said...

Having stood atop those towers in that magnificent city I felt for every single person that day and still do now. We'd just landed at Manchester Airport as the first plane hit the WTC. A sad day for the decent people around the world!

Let's hope terrorism will now be on the decline!

Jay said...

That day seems so vivid even after ten years. It seemed to take a long time to get to work. Seeing the smoke column and the smell of burning jet fuel will never go away.

AC said...

I remember waking up with the television on in L.A., seeing the first tower smoking. While rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, it looked like a smokestack. I smoked a cigarette and 'cursed my poverty' while standing on the fire escape. When I came back into my apartment, the second tower had been hit. I couldn't figure out what was so important so I turned the volume up and figured it out. L.A. was quiet that day. No planes overhead. People looked down and minded their own business. I remember those jerk-offs dancing in the streets in the middle east. I hope they're watching Americans dance in the steets today. Deserves got EVERYTHING to do with it...

David Cranmer said...

Charles, Memories that are forever burned into the consciousness.

Ron, SEAL Team Six and the CIA should get most of the recognition in my book. Not to take away from Obama or W, but these guys and gals are the real deal.

(Your Joe Louis defeating Max Schmeling is an intriguing analogy.)

Wow, David. That had to be too close for comfort.

Jay, Following you in that day as you held your badge out the window is seared into my mind. And crossing the Theodore Roosevelt bridge and seeing the smoke from the Pentagon ... I remember Howard Stern had the best radio coverage that morning as we went in.

AC, You shot another memory back and that was the sonic boom from the fighter jets over DC.

pattinase (abbott) said...

My feeling is this: I am very glad he is finally gone; however, I will not celebrate anyone's death because it diminishes all of us; nothing will change because we've just excised the tip of the scalp of a horrible monster; I pray for our future.

David Cranmer said...

I liked Dana's comment on your blog where Mark Twain is quoted. Twain said:

"I have never wished a man dead, but I have read several obituaries with great joy."

G. B. Miller said...

When the event happened, I was at work inspecting rolls of microfilm.

When the news came on the radio, sad to say that my first response was, "An old time radio program on that this time?"

Once I got off my ass and actually listened to the radio, then later watching it unfold live on television, I became really numb.

We were dismissed early from work and I spent the rest of the day glued to my television.

One of those things that you'll always remember where you were when it unfolded.

David Cranmer said...

9/11 and the Challenger are embedded on our generation's consciousness. The Where Were You moments. Sad it is always the horror that sticks.

David Barber said...

David, your last comment is bang on. It's hard somtimes to remember where you watched your favorite sporting team/person winning something BUT you always remember the horror. I was sat on a balcony in Spain, soaking up the sun when news came that Diana, Princess of Wales had been killed.

I just hope it's the end of Al Qaeda but, sadly, I can't see it. They'll be another extremist nutter in the wings, hence the majority of my answer to #5.

Ladens death SHOULD be celebrated though! I wonder if the Devil had 50 virgins waiting for him? I doubt it.

David Cranmer said...

Besides the horrific moments everything else fades. I guess you would have to go back to the Moon landing for the last BIG blissful moment stuck in the public memory.

George said...

I wish we'd taken bin Laden out in 1997 or 1998 before he was able to put together the 9/11 team. As Patti hints, this story will go on and on.

David Cranmer said...

Agreed, George.

AC said...

The first space shuttle launching is lodged in my memory. I was in the third grade. The big news stories of the year surrounding the launching were the gunning down of John Lennon and the attempts on Reagan and the Pope. The joy and excitement and wonder I felt watching the shuttle launch, hearing how that would bring about the age of commercial space travel, stays in my mind to this day. Sadly, all that promise was shattered just five years later. But the memory, the good memory, remains right alongside the tragic memories.

David Cranmer said...

I remember the shuttle launch as well. I always loved the space program and followed it very closely. But it doesn't seem to be remembered today by the general public on the same level as the Challenger, Lennon's death, or 9/11.

Scott D. Parker said...

The ironic thing about the space shuttle program is that folks likely forget that we lost Columbia, too.

Here's a bit of history for you. 1981 saw the marriage of Charles and Diana and the Columbia's inaugural launch. Back then, the shuttle program seemed like The Future! Now, 30 years later, we witnessed both the wedding of Diana's son but the last of the shuttle missions. Like I told my dad, I wasn't supposed to live long enough to see the end of the shuttle program...

David Cranmer said...

Sad that Columbia is a forgotten disaster to many.

One opinion is the space program is backwards. The shuttle should have come first and then the Apollo missions and landing on the moon. But what next?