Live - Overcome WTC tribute

[verdicries]

i just had to share this b/c i still cry whenever i watch it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=533LKNYgeRs

that day is burned into my memory forever...my dad came home covered in ash...but he came HOME. he watched that horror from his office (1/2 a block away...had to evacuate) and STILL went back the next few days to help w/the recovery.

[icnmgrjill]

Very powerful.

9/11 was a rough day. Out here in CAlifornia, I first heard about a plane hitting the WTC when I turned on my bedside radio. I then ran to the family room, turned on the TV and was horrified. I honestly can't remember if I saw the second plane hit ... or if it had already happened. But, I remember going out side and listening to a completely silent sky. We're in the landing pattern for both Oakland and SFO and, though the planes are still quite high, we see atleast one every half hour. So, for them to stop was crazy.

My father had had heart surgery just a week earlier after a heart attack and the most powerful moment for me was watching him watching the news reports on TV with utter fury in his face. Though he is elderly, he has the spirit of a young man in him who wanted to help and to fight back. He was in WW2... and I saw that spirit in him... the rage... the agony of seeing our country being attacked. He was desolate that he couldn't defend our country.

Here on the ICN, the first thing I did was put up a tribute on the front page of our site and began a support string here in the boards... and we had IC patients whose husbands worked in the WTC who still didn't know if they had survived. It was agonizing to "be" with them that day as they waited for news.

What a powerful day. Now I understand why my dad watches, constantly, WW2 shows. I feel absolutely compelled to do the same for 9/11.

Jill

[SharonA]

My hubby just fixed my audio and I was finally able to listen to this video. It is very moving. Thank you so much for posting it.

We must not forget what happened on that day...September 11, 2001.

Hubby and I were in San Diego on a business trip. We went down to the hotel restaurant for b-fast. The waitress who had been working the morning shift since we had checked into the hotel asked me if I had been watching the morning news. I told her, no and that I had not turned the tv on. She then told me that we had been attacked and that we were at war. The restaurant was so quiet. On our way back up to our room, we stopped in the pub to watch the tv in there and to see what was happening. That's when the second plane went into the second tower. OMG...I could not believe what I had just watched. It looked like a movie but it was real.

Later that morning, the news stated that all fights were stopped in and out of the US. Our room was on the 10th floor of a hotel that was across the freeway from the San Diego Airport. It was so eerie...no airplane noise...no activity. Then I noticed a lone white private jet with no insignia take off from the runway. I have often wondered who was in that jet. It had to be someone very important to be able to take off when everything had been shut down.

Since we had flown in to San Diego, we had to drive home after the conference was over. I had just been diagnosed with IC and was experiencing a great deal of pain. Hubby kept the back seat empty and that is how I rode back home to the Memphis area.

I will never forget that day as long as I live. I now know what this country went through when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

[LeeAnn]

I can't watch that without crying. Thanks for sharing it Tracy.

I was 23 and was in my first year teaching. I was driving to work in Texas when I heard about it on the radio. My college roommate Karen is from NYC and she's one of my best friends. She worked at the WTC but I didn't know which building. She was okay it turns out, thank god, she was in a different building.

But my dad is a helicopter pilot so I know there is no wayyyyy a plane accidentally flies into airspace such as NYC much less accidentally hits a building too. My dad was flying his helicopter in the Gulf of Mexico that day and even his flights were grounded, so wow, that person in the white jet probably was important, maybe even a member of the president's cabinet.

Less than three weeks after 9/11 my husband's Army Reserve Unit was deployed. It was a tough year but I can't complain compared to what some families went through. He was in a military intelligence unit.

When I watched the video I couldn't help but remember how we were all so proud to be Americans at the time. When my husband's unit was driving all of their gear & armored vehicles to the port of Galveston to be loaded onto cargo ships. He said everywhere they went people smiled, waved and cheered. It made them feel good.

It's not like that for military families anymore, which is unfortunate because soldiers and their families sacrifice so much.

P.S. My husband's eight year contract expired shortly after he got back home from the first deployment. He didn't renew it but he did consider it.

[dg2901]

I havent gotten the courage up to view this video yet. This date is such an awful memory. My brother works for a defense company and travels quite often with his job, flying to/from DC, etc. I finally got ahold of him on the phone; while he was safe in his office, he was waiting on a phone call from 4 of his coworkers who were traveling that day. They were aboard one of the flights.
I can feel the anger and sadness sweep over me as I type this!

[verdicries]

i understand. it may be theraputic to watch. i used to go into nyc nearly weekly, esp. when i lived in northern nj. i just love nyc. then all this health crap got worse and i haven't been in awhile...but i don't think i could go to ground zero. i would break down and i just can't bear it.

[SharonA]

Oh D, that must of been heart breaking for your brother. I am so sorry that he lost his friends. Yes, I understand about the anger and saddness. I feel it, too.

I have another 9/11 story to tell. My husband and I know a man here who used to work in the Towers. He had retired from that job a few months before the attack and moved to this area. After the planes hit, the cell towers were overloaded with people trying to call in and out of NYC. Since he knew the people on the floor that the plane went in and they could not call local, they called his cell to talk with him while the fire spread. They wanted someone to talk to while the fire raged. It gives me chills when I hear this story.