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Remembering what was can be good.
Or not so much.
The first time I ever saw the World Trade Center was from an aircraft. It was December of 1991. My brother and I had driven my car down to Bayonne, to have it shipped to Germany.
We had driven down to Bradley, in Connecticut, where we left my brother's car. We would fly back from New York, pick up his car and drive back to my parents' house from there. I remember well that it was snowing like crazy when we left.
It was clear by the time we got to Bayonne.
After a taxi ride from Bayonne to JFK, we boarded a small aircraft for the return trip to Bradley. I didn't realize it, but this was my brother's first plane ride since we were kids. (Mom and Dad would take us to the local air show every year, where Dad would pay for my brothers and I to go flying for a half hour or so. Good times.)
As we headed out, first we went west of the Hudson, as I recall. We eventually turned on a heading for Bradley. From the aircraft I looked towards Manhattan, and there they were, the Twin Towers. First time I'd ever seen them, it was also the last.
They were truly magnificent. This was my second trip to New York, the World Trade Center hadn't been built the first time I was there, tallest building at the time was the Empire State Building.
After our return from Germany, and my retirement from the Air Force in 1999, my oldest daughter went to New York with the high school band. She went to the top of one of the Towers, I don't remember which one. So for various reasons, I felt a connection with those buildings.
Fast forward to a beautiful September day in 2001. Word spread quickly through my place of work that a plane had crashed into one of the Towers.
I was outside having a cigarette (for I was a smoker in those days) and my first thought was of the time a B-25 had flown into the side of the Empire State Building. But that had been a very foggy day, this day was brilliant, clear skies, Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited (CAVU). So it had to be something else.
And so it proved to be. My parents' generation remembers where they were when Pearl Harbor was attacked, mine remembers where we were when the World Trade Center was attacked.
For some years after, The Missus Herself and I had occasion to travel by aircraft, often passing through Newark. That hole in the New York skyline always made me remember that day.
Then one day, as I looked over towards New York, I saw something different.
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It felt strange to see something there, it filled the hole in the skyline, but it didn't fill the hole in my heart. It's hard to explain. I wasn't sure how I felt about it then.
To this day, I still don't.
One thing is certain, on this day I remember what happened that day and the many things which followed in the wake of that day, I will never forget.
And, God help me, I will never forgive.
I don't like the new building. They should have put up two towers, to show the sum they accomplished NOTHING long lasting.
ReplyDeleteConcur.
Delete+1 Boat Guy
Delete+2
DeleteGood post,Sarge. NoIwill NOT forget nor EVER forgive!
ReplyDeletejuvat
Amen.
DeleteThere's no reason to EVER "forgive".
DeleteBoat Guy
👍
DeleteHey Old AFSarge
ReplyDeleteI recall seeing the buildings in 1998 when we were in the area and I thought they were majestic, and that day in 2001 was a shock, and the various apologist for that day like we deserved it still makes my blood boil. No I still can't forgive that day. I was there again in 2011 when my son was there for his band competition and I saw the Freedom tower and I also visited the memorial where the towers once stood and said "Hi" to the tree that survived.
We must never forget the infamy of that day and the days that followed.
DeleteI too will never forget nor forgive Sarge, well written.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteWell remembered, and well said.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteI had just dropped the kids off at school and had a whole day of cleaning ahead of me. I had the radio on when news of a plane hitting one of the towers. Turned on tv in time to witness the second. Didn't do any of the things i was supposed to that day. I sat numb by what i was watching. A day no one will forget.
ReplyDeleteYour Friendly Neighborhood Chef.
Not a lot of work got done at work that day, as I recall.
DeleteLike you, Sarge; I' m not sure what to think about the new building. If the didn't rebuild the twins, the perhaps one tall tower flanked by two on one side and one on the other for the imagery of it.
ReplyDeleteMy 9/11 was the Pentagon. The fairly rapid repair provoked mixed feelings too; yeah we're up and running again, but it also seemed to cover things up - it took too long for the memorial, such as it is. In the early days, looking at the hole filled me with resolve; then it became just another construction site, hard-hats required!
Looking back at the whole thing, I'm not sure what we accomplished except killing a bunch of people who needed to be killed and sacrificing friends and people I'll never know to do so.
Boat Guy
I think we made a number of politicians and businessmen rich, that's about it.
DeleteI was set to fly to OKC for a work project that day. Didn't need to be in town until 1100. Sitting at the kitchen table, first thought was the B-25 in the 1940's. Then another airplane hit the other one. I told my wife this was going to be a long day. On the way in to town, they hit the pentagon and there was another one missing. Wound up driving to OKC for the project. Visited the bombing site there the next day. Very somber times.
ReplyDeleteI was in Houston when they started flying again. In the penthouse of the building working on a repeater, when I hear a big jet over the noise of the fans in the room. My blood ran cold. Almost dropped my tools.
One of things I'm struggling with forgiving is the plutocrats just up and quitting. They spend blood and treasure like it's endless, then when they get bored, they just drop everything and leave. They did it in Vietnam, they did it in Libya, Afghanistan.... They don't suffer, but everyone else does as a result. Same ire in me for them as those that started it.
The plutocrats need to pay, in this life and the next.
DeleteSarge, I remember precisely where I was: crossing a bridge on my morning commute. By the time I got to work in the next hour there was rolling series of updates and within the hours, we were sent back home lest the major city I was working in was target. By the time I got back home, both of the buildings had started to fall.
ReplyDeleteThe Ravishing Mrs. TB has been to the memorial. I am ambivalent about it; I would like to go to Shanksville.
In terms of the rest - I am not one often given to opinions on such matters, but just a simple review of the history suggests a great many poor decisions were made in which a great many of my fellow citizens died and billions of dollars were spent for ultimately little to no purpose. By any means, that cannot be defined as a success.
I too would like to visit the place where Americans didn't go down without a fight.
DeleteI had just entered the office for our company calibration lab where I worked as an engineer. I was a little bit late because of an errand I had to run that morning. Folks had heard that an airplane had flown into one of the World Trade Center Towers. I remembered the B-25 that flew into the Empire State Building. That was an accident. I thought that this was another accident. Maybe it was a light plane whose pilot had a physiological issue and had run into the building; I had seen some of those over the years in General Aviation. But when we started getting more information and even got a TV going and saw or heard what else occurred, I got angry. Not screaming, yelling anger but that anger that burns in you. In the ensuing days when I saw some pictures of the "jumpers", I cried. And as much as anything, I prayed to God. I prayed for those souls lost in the devastation and for a way forward.
ReplyDeleteThat burning anger still abides in me. It always will.
DeleteI was starting the day in Bemidji MN, at Busters Front End Shop. The radio was on and they broke the news that a plane had hit the Twin Towers in NYC, I thought the weather must be crappy there... I thought that until the second plane hit.
ReplyDeleteIt was an abstract event in my life, it was big & changed things but I had no personal attachment to anyone who had anything to do with the actual towers. I asked but the Coast Guard did not need me back.
My new wife took me to NYC in early 2020, we went and saw the hole in the ground. She was affected by the attack, she had friends who lost people (her brother had not been at work in the towers that day). I was saddened by the visit to the site, my wife was deeply moved.
I have a number of personal attachments, people I knew died that day. When they shouldn't have. For me it was, and still is, very personal.
DeleteI will never forget nor forgive.
ReplyDeleteMy ideas for revenge and retaliation include turning parts of the Middle East into hot, glowing, radioactive glass. I value their people as much as they valued ours.
I have no mercy, or forgiveness, for people who would conceive and then carry out such actions.
Not only did I know folks who died in the Towers, I have taken care of several who were in the various fire services who went and worked on The Pile afterword, and as a result, have been afflicted with various cancers and life-ending respiratory issues.
There are STILL Americans dying from what was done that day on 9/11!!
You speak Truth.
DeleteAmen to all the above. Especially never forget, never forgive.
ReplyDeleteBoth punitive and preventive measures were justified, and necessary. We got a lot of the punitive part right, but then got sidetracked on a fool's errand to force tribesmen and women, content in an oppressive 9th century religion and culture, into a 20th century western culture totally repugnant to their ways. "Under the starry flag, civilizing with a Krag" all over again, and eventually we saw the folly of our ways and (in my opinion rightfully) left, but in a colossal failure of an evacuation.
Next time, and there WILL BE a next time, go full kinetic on the punitive aspect, with damn little concern over collateral damage, and then let the survivors rebuild the rubble any way they like, and without a dime of American money, or a single American on site to assist in any way.
YMMV, be we have proved that "nation building" is not our skill set, and we are so bankrupt as a nation we cannot afford essentials at home, let along subsidizing any one in other countries, especially the ones who hate us (but love our handouts).
Thanks and prayers to all who have served on the global war on terror, you did your part, and any shortcomings are the fault of the political class.
John Blackshoe
Amen.
DeleteNor should we! My cousin was in the towers, he worked for Merril Lynch. We didn't didn't find out till 5:30 that night whether he and Elizabeth made it.
DeleteDid they make it out?
DeleteFor the sake of those who didn't, I will remember, and not forgive.