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9/11 coverage
I just tuned into the coverage on MSNBC and it's has barely started and I'm already getting really emotional. I feel like I owe it to those who died and their families to watch but it's so hard to see.
I also feel like I need to watch to remind myself how it could have been my dad. I know I've told this story before, but it's so fresh on my mind today. My dad flew out of Boston directly behind United 175 (plane that hit the second tower) and flew over NYC in between the two crashes - he saw the smoke, fire, etc. He was eventually diverted and grounded in Atlanta and it took him almost a week to get home since he had to find a rental car and drive. He traveled (and still does) almost weekly for work, often going to CA, and it scares me to think of how easily he could have been on one of those planes.
Re: 9/11 coverage
I am right there with you being emotional...I JUST turned it on and they had thier first moment of silence and I have tears welling up in my eyes! I can't believe its been 10 years...
The Biography channel has been doing specials all week and I've been watching as many as I can. I also feel like it's some type of duty/obligation to watch them.
Kara, I can't imagine how scary that was for your family and what a relief that must have been to know he was safe on the ground somewhere.
I also find it hard to believe it's been 10 years. I can close my eyes and be brought right back to the emotions of that day. I was at work when my coworker let us know something was going on. We went into the conference room and watched on the barely working tv. One of us had to stand there hold the antennae to make it come in and we all took turns doing so. Our bosses didn't send us home or anything and eventually we went back to some type of work.
That evening I got together when a bunch of friends, it just seemed better to be together.
The following days seemed surreal to me. I lived next to the airport (the Portland one where the hijackers flew out of) and was very used to the constant taking off and landing of planes. In the days after when there was no air traffic at first it was weird, then I got used to that too. I remember when the planes started flying again how I'd be nervous each time I heard one take off or land, convinced something terrible was going to happen.
This day is so etched into my memory and all of our history. There really aren't words.
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Kara, I'm so glad your dad is ok. I agree that the coverage is bringing back some strong, visceral emotions.
My dad worked for a company whose parent company is based in Japan and as a result went to Fuji Bank located in one of the towers on a regular basis. At the time, I wasn't sure if he was scheduled to be there that day or not (it was the following week he was going that month, he had been there on Sept 11 the year before). He lost many colleagues that day. He never had to travel for work again - the bank was gone.
I was in grad school and attending a heart failure conference a couple of miles from the Pentagon staying a couple of blocks from the White House, and it took three days to get home on the train. We had to walk several miles back to our hotel from the conference in our suits and dress shoes because traffic was in gridlock leaving the city. For days there was noone on the streets but the National Guard in humvees parked at almost every corner. My boyfriend broke up with me two weeks later because he is first generation American of Pakistani descent and he went into a depression and said I would never, ever understand what it felt like to be him (I agree, just seeing how people looked at him on the street).
My best friend was sitting in a plane on the tarmac in Philly waiting to take a flight to CA. He was going back to grad school, but he ended up staying about a month.
I know how lucky I am that none of us were directly in harm's way although a twist of fate could have changed that, and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who suffered a loss that day and after.
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I watched a special yesterday. It had me bawling. I wrote a blog post:
"I don't think any of us will ever forget that fateful day. All of us who were old enough to comprehend what was going on will always remember that day and what we were doing. Those images will never leave us.
My day started off as any other. I was up at zero dark thirty getting ready for work. I always watched the news in the mornings so as usual I had the TV tuned on to a local news cast. What I saw was a tall building on fire. My family is from New York, I was born there, I had been there countless times but I had no clue what the World Trade Center was. I didn't think too much of it at first. I remember the newscasters saying they thought a small private airplane may have hit the building....then the second plane hit right there before our eyes. My jaw dropped. I knew then something was terribly wrong. I looked down at my uniform and knew...
I had a newborn at the time and a husband overseas in Japan. My baby was only a few months old. As I was about to head out the door I looked at her sitting in her car seat and told her I was sorry. After seeing what I saw I was sorry she would have to grow up in such a chaotic world. After I dropped my daughter off at daycare I headed into work with the news blasting in my car. I was still in shock. I knew we were under attack. We were vulnerable. I was scared. As I drove through the back gate of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton the distressed radio DJ was yelling that the Pentagon was hit. I knew....we were under attack. I remember staring up at the sky during the rest of my drive to work waiting for a plane to hit us too, to hit the airfield right across from where I worked.
Many of us Marines in my shop were in a state of stunned shock. We didn't get any work done that day. We huddled around the radio listening to the coverage of the horrific events unfolding. We were at war and we knew it would be us who would be at the forefront of the fight. In the days, weeks, and months that followed the morale was high. Everyone was ready to go. The atmosphere on the base was charged. We were ready.
It was a tragic day. A day meant to hurt us. A day meant to kill our morale. So many innocent lives lost for no good reason. A heart wrenching day. The attack did hurt us. It did kill our morale but not for long. As a country we came together as one. The events of September 11, 2011 will always be remembered by us. We will always remember the victims even if we did not know them personally. We will always remember and honor those who have fallen serving our country before, during, and after (military, fire, police, emergency personnel). We will always remember the men and women who were there to help. We will always remember."
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Wow Kara, that's incredibly scary! I think that's one of the reasons that I always know what the flight numbers are for my family members when they travel.
For me, it was my freshman year in college. My mom called and woke me up to tell me to turn on the news, that a plane flew into the world trade center. I turned it one and you could just tell from the size of the hole in the side of the building that it wasn't a small plane as was first speculated, it HAD to be the size of a commercial jetliner. I had turned on the TV just in time to watch the second plane fly into the second tower.
I was glued to the TV until I had to go to class. Had it not been the first week or so of classes and had it not been a small class that I had to go to, I probably would have skipped going. I remember sitting there during the entire class thinking "oh my goodness, I don't think anyone else in this room knows what's going on."
Eventually class was over and I went back to the dorms and watched the coverage for the rest of the day. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the week and the dorms - since they were among some of the tallest buildings in Milwaukee - were on lock down. There is a parking garage under the 4 towers and that was closed and inspected for car bombs.
I am thankful that I was old enough to remember and understand what had just happened.
So scary Kara--
I knew several people who worked in the Twin Towers or around the area-- all made it out ok. I was home from college because my grandfather died the day before. It's really hard to grieve and be so traumatized/ scared/ etc at the same time. It was a huge struggle.
I also experienced some PTSD from the suicide bombings I was in in Israel. My very dear friend (we were roommates in Israel) was in college in DC and her family had to relive that day all over again-- to an even greater extent (both daughters were in DC then). It brought a lot of the feelings I had experienced 4 years prior flooding back and I was just numb.
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