Patriot Day 2011

[bjornolf]

A good Patriots' Day to everyone today. On this, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I just wanted to take a moment to remember all those who lost their lives in NYC, at the Pentagon, and in that field in Pennsylvania. You are not forgotten. I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of the men and women who risked their lives in the service of others that day, as well as those police, firefighters, medical personnel, and military and government who continue to do so today. You are not taken for granted, at least not by me.

I remember 10 years ago very clearly. My wife and I heard about the planes hitting the towers and left work, only to hear a horrible sound a few blocks away as we made our way to the metro to go home. As we passed Reagan National Airport on one of the last trains to get through that day, we looked back and saw a huge plume of smoke rising into the air. I remember saying to my wife, "Oh my god, I think that's coming from the Pentagon."

53.gif Washington
53.gif New York
53.gif Pennsylvania

[Olympic Fan]

While I salute your efforts to remember the victims of 9/11 and to salute the heroes of that tragic day, I have problems with calling it "Patriot's Day".

We already have a Patriot's Day ... it's an official holiday in Massachusetts (and Maine) to honor the opening of the American Revolution at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Originally April 19, the holiday is now the third Monday in April.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't make 9/11 a memorial holiday of some kind, we just need an original name for it.

[hurleyfor3]

Yep, Patriot's Day is in April.

[Bluedog]

Congress declared September 11th as Patriot Day as part of joint resolution 71 in a 407-0 vote in October 2001. President Bush signed it into law later that December. However, Patriots' Day (with an s) is indeed in April. A bit confusing for sure. I didn't realize 9/11 was officially Patriot Day until Google calendar told me so.

[bjornolf]

Yup, you're right. I misread my calendar. But it says it right on my calendar, "Patriot Day".

And seriously, Olympic Fan, you're gonna bust my you know what over that today of all days?

And hurleyfor3, I'd appreciate you putting my heading to Patriot Day. I don't see where, as a moderator, you can change my title just because you don't like it. I admit I'm wrong about it being "Patriot's Day", so please make it Patriot Day. Moderators are there to make sure people aren't offensive and to combine threads that are redundant and to protect the peace. Congress says it's Patriot Day. I have every right to title my thread as such. As a guy who was once a moderator and has been a member of this board for well over a decade, I cry foul on that one.

Thanks.

[Son of Jarhead]

10 years ago. Hard to beleive it has been that long, the memories so fresh, the pain still felt so deeply. I, like many, still remember where I was when I found out about the first plane to hit the WTC. I was dropping off my youngest daughter at daycare after having taken the oldest to elementary school, as was my usual weekday morning routine. Standing outside the classroom, the father of my daughter's best friend told me about it in obvious disbelief. I went on to work and the rest of the day was a blur as the shock set in, so I don't remember any other details, besides knowing I watched the TV all night. But I do remember every detail of that conversation in the daycare hallway. Now that I think about it, I do recall worrying about family & friends, and wanting to protect my girls from this world gone mad. In a broader sense, I will never forget what happened to us all that day. God Bless those that died, those who lost, those that suffered, those that still suffer, and those, our fire fighters, policemen, EMT's, first responders, & military men & women, etc., that work & fight to protect us. We owe it to them all to Remember 9-11 Forever. ...And God Bless the USA!

[Channing]

I was waking up for a day of classes when my next door neighbor (in Few Quad) knocked on my door and told me and my roommate we had to turn on the TV right then. I remember watching in shocked disbelief.

[Rich]

I was working in NJ offices for a NY-based company so I had to go into NYC every few weeks. On 9/11/2001, I was on a NJ Transit commuter train going into NYC Penn Station for a conference. From the train we saw smoke from that part of Manhattan, but it was tough to make out specifically what was going on. I was on one of the last trains in before they closed all of the tunnels. Once I got into NY Penn Station, I saw on the news on a TV at a coffee bar that the North Tower was hit by a plane, but at that time no one knew what was going on specifically. It was generally thought it was a commuter or small plane. I made my way to my company's offices, which are on 42nd and Lexington, near Grand Central Station, where we were able to piece together the horrific events of the day, but I remember we could not get TV or internet coverage and there were lots of rumors freaking people out. At one point I remember hearing a report that there were 50 planes in the air that were unaccounted for. Since we were located near the UN, we feared that would be a target. From the high floors of my building we could see downtown. I remember the first time seeing the skyline without the Twin Towers from there. Just smoke.

Since all entry in and out of NYC was closed, I had to walk to my brother-in-law's apartment on the Upper East Side and spend the afternoon and evening there. I remember the streets being crowded with people walking aimlessly uptown in the middle of the afternoon. Bars were full of people trying to make sense of the day's events. It was totally surreal. I finally was able to catch a train home at around 10pm. By then the streets of NYC were eerily quiet, like I've never seen before or since. For those of you familiar with NYC, even at 3 am on a weekday, there's activity. It was like a ghost town.

The really weird thing that I noticed a few days later was that the brochure for the conference I was planning to attend (that was obviously canceled) had the date of the conference, September 11, 2001, and a picture of the Twin Towers on the cover, even though the conference was not going to be held in those buildings. I guess they put them on the cover as a symbol of NYC. I kept it as a remembrance.

[duke74]

We were in the WTC until the first attack in February 1993. (My office was on the 100th floor, facing the Lady of the Harbor. I remember the walk down in the dark and smoke). We then moved temprorarily to our midtown offices on B'way and 50th Street. Thank goodness, my managing partner decided NOT to move back to the WTC - a gutsy decision based on client and political pressures, but a wise one in retrospect and one that considered the employees of the firm. We moved across West Street to the World Financial Center.

On September 11th, I was in London for a series of meetings. Someone came back down to the conference room and said that a plane went into the Trade Center..and had to make the point that she was not kidding, based on our reactions. We spent the next day trying to reach our families, crying and watching CNN. My wife was on the BQE (for those o/s of NY, that's the Brooklyn Queens Expressway) heading to work and saw the planes hit. My son was in his senior year at Duke.

I headed off to Zurich for another meeting, since I couldn't get back home anyhow. I ended up being able to get back to the States on Saturday, but with the "lottery" of air availability, flew into Pittsburgh. Luckily my travel service was able to get me a rental car at Pittsburgh, and I started the long ride back to Queens. Stopped in PA for the night, eyes almost closed from fatigue and emotion. On Sunday morning, I crossed the Verazzano Narrows Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn and saw the smoke rising from what was the WTC complex. Tears again...pulled off the road until I composed myself.

This is NOT about me, but my life has not been the same since - professionally or personally. My wife (an atty by profession) is a volunteer with the cops of the NYPD, and has embedded herself even more into that group of heroes to help any way she can. I went on an intellectual journey, and went back to school at NYU at the age of 53 for a masters in int'l relations. (We suddenly learned that something was out there..and I had so much to learn on the subject.) My son decided that he was "coming home"...he graduated Duke in 2002 and went to law school in NYC. The magnet was there. He now is a asst DA in Queens. What got to him was some non-NYer's moronic comment in a class shortly after the attacks - something to the effect of "why is everyone so upset? They were only buildings!"

My office looks RIGHT out on the site, so I have seen the last parts of the clean-up and the rise of the new structures and development of the memorial on an almost daily basis. It hits me each and every day what was there, but thankfully, also what is now rising from those (literal) ashes. I watched yesterday's ceremonies, and stuck through the entire reading of the names - daubbing at my eyes as kids, parents, spouses, significant others and other loved ones read 10 names and then read the name of their lost loved one. Needless to say, it was overwhelming to me.

God bless the victims, the first responders, and those who we have lost since that day. And God bless those who protect us here and abroad.

Sorry for this long (and hopefully coherent) posting...It is the longest one I have ever composed for DBR. It's just taken me a day to get it together.

Herb

[kmspeaks]

I was a freshman in high school in the DC suburbs. Our principal came on the pa and told us what had happened after the second plane hit the WTC. He came on later and told us about the Pentagon. I remember years later being shocked when my college classmates (mostly from Tennessee and Georgia) talked about watching the news all day in all their classes. We were told you could go to guidance if you needed it but otherwise continue on like a normal day. There were plenty of kids whose parents or family members worked in DC and the Pentagon so I guess it might have been too much for any of them to see it. I remember my english teacher was half an hour late to class trying to get in touch with her husband who worked in the Pentagon. Turns out his office was totally destroyed but he happenend to be on the other side of the building in a meeting.

I didn't know how to get home. My mom dropped me off at school and then picked me up after volleyball practice. I had to go find my coach at the end of the day and she looked up my bus number online. When I got home we watched the news for about an hour but then it was just too much for my 14 year old brain to comprehend. I remember trying to watch Sportscenter, the Disney Channel, anything, but everything was just more news. I went outside and shot a basketball for hours. The next night my brother had a little league baseball game and everybody held candles and sang the anthem. On class color day in October the juniors changed from yellow to blue so in our pep rally the gym was red white and blue.