On a beautiful Tuesday morning in September, American lives changed forever.
At 8:46 a.m., a plane flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the tower stood burning for 56 minutes. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a.m., another plane hit the South Tower. The South Tower stood burning for 102 minutes. Thousands of lives were lost, including some of our bravest — many police, rescue workers, and firefighters rushed into the burning buildings trying to save civilian lives.
Two-thousand-nine-hundred-and seventy-seven victims perished in the attack. A total of four planes were hijacked by members of al-Qaeda, nineteen terrorists total boarded the planes carrying knives and switchblades. One plane, American Airlines Flight 77, struck the Pentagon, two, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, hit the twin towers, and one, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania. The flight that struck the Pentagon killed 184 people. The flight that crashed in Pennsylvania is remembered for the honor and courage the passengers had taking back the plane from the al-Qaeda hijackers. The passengers sacrificed their lives for thousands of others. Although no one survived, those 40 brave passengers will be remembered forever.
September 11 is a day a majority of Americans will remember for the rest of their lives. Anyone born before September 11 will look back on a unified country, coming together and working toward a common goal. All those born after September 11 will learn about the attack in school, in movies, in documentaries. One of these movie is "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," starring Tom Hanks. It takes us on a journey following a 9-year-old boy who lost his father on 9/11. The boy is seeking the truth to find out what really happened to his father on that Tuesday. It's a heartfelt movie that brings everyone to tears, but also shows viewers the hardships and adversity people went through on and after 9/11.
Around 1,000 firefighters and paramedics responded to the attacks. Four-hundred-and-twelve emergency responders died. My uncle Brian, a city fireman, worked and still works in Ladder 25 located on the West Side. His ladder responded to the attack and eight of his friends and co-workers lost their lives. He was assigned to another company in Queens before the attacks. He very well could have been one of those eight men who made the ultimate sacrifice for civilians. Their house was and still is a tight-knit fire-family and that is one of the reasons his son and my cousin, Andrew, followed in his father's footsteps and is now a new firefighter in Midtown, Manhattan, stationed at Engine Company 54.
Many of the firefighters who had young children during the time of the attacks often see their children going into the fire or police departments, trying to make a difference in their community and to help others when they are in need.
"At first we just thought it was an accident and then once we found out when the second plane hit we knew it was an attack," Brian told me. Brian, who was 38 at the time, was in awe. He was a young firefighter who experienced something like no other. Brian has two kids, at the time, one wasn't even 1 year old and the other was 7. His initial thoughts along with his fellow firefighters located in Queens was how to get there, and as he does best "how we were going to get up there and put the fire out."
By the time Brian got to the site, both towers had fallen. The scene was "chaotic" and he wanted to help others. His first job when he got there was to set up a tower ladder and put water on the flames and debris. A tower ladder is a retractable ladder attached to a fire truck. It has a bucket at the rear, it is the safest type of fire equipment. It is connected to a hose and was used to put out flames that were out of reach. The fires from both the buildings lasted 99 days. The first month was "indescribable" the area was blocked off for a 10 block radius in all directions. The firefighters would load onto a city bus and were transported to ground zero.
"It was like a ghost town no one was walking down the street, no one was going to work or walking their dogs, it was nothing I have ever seen before," Brian told me.
My father who works as a truck driver was delivering materials to Long Island City on the day of the attack. He recalls driving on the Long Island Expressway towards the city when it happened. "I saw the first plane hit, we saw it and everyone's CB's went on and truckers were saying that the plane accidentally hit the tower," he told me.
Those thoughts were too good to be true, moments later someone came on the radio again to say a second plane has hit the second tower. "We knew then that it was no accident," he said.
We all watched the smoke and listened to the news. My grandmother called my father to tell him what had happened. She was at home watching the news and wanted to make sure my father was OK.
"On my way home from my delivery, the westbound lanes on the LIE were completely stopped, the only cars moving, which seemed like hundreds of black Suburbans, heading towards Manhattan," my dad told me.
There were no cars leaving the city, the roads were empty. The city was in a standstill, no one was allowed out and no one was allowed in. The New York Stock Exchange was closed for six days. The New York economy took a $105 billion hit. But the people did not let that stop them from uniting. As my father said, "the bonding of American pride was overwhelming."
People around the country donated blood en masse, with a total of 36,000 donations of 450 milliliters. "My boss let us all leave and for days after I watched hours of news on the terrorist attack of 9/11. I was hoping and praying I didn't know anyone killed in the attack," my father told me.
My father and my mother were both worried about my uncle's safety. Not being able to talk to him, only hearing about how he is through my aunt. My uncle worked 30 days straight, after those 30 days, he would go back on three day-night shifts. My uncle recovered bodies and put the fires out. He told me when they would come across a body everything and everyone would stop what they were doing to hand dig the body out of the rubble. It was almost like a sign of hope, everyone helping, digging and working to take the person out, hoping they could still be alive. They would bring the body or even just parts of bodies to be examined and hopefully identified. Only 291 bodies were fully intact.
I could not imagine the feelings that my uncle went through and is still probably going through because of this.
It is hard to talk about the attacks and how they helped. My uncle never speaks about what happened and I understand why. I was so thankful he allowed me to interview him because I saw in his eyes how hard it was to talk about it. So many people are sick and remains were still being found in the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island for years after the attacks.
"They told us the air was clean," Brian told me. The government told the first responders how the air was clean when they were working and going through the rubble. According to People Magazine, more than 90,000 people acted as ground zero responders. Today more than 40,000 of them are sick and suffering from at least one illness or condition because of 9/11.
When I asked Brian if he was scared of getting sick, he said, "It's not so much that I am scared, it is more of when it is going to happen."
For many of those who have not gotten sick yet, it's just a waiting game for the day that they do. Almost as many first responders have died from 9/11-related conditions as those who died on 9/11 itself. The "Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Compensation Fund Act" started helping the survivors and first responders in 2010 under President Obama and was reinstated in 2015. The act was just signed for a third time by President Trump on July 29, 2019. The new act will give money and help support those who are sick and those who are going to get sick. There are survivors and responders living all over the country. They are suffering everywhere and need help. The act will help them support their families and take care of themselves.
Many things changed after 9/11. You can read about all the changes in detail on Wikipedia here.
My Uncle Brian's daughter, who was around 1 year old at the time of the attack took a stand at her high school. On September 11, 2016, her school did not have a moment of silence for those who lost their lives that day. She stated in an email sent to her principle "This has not only been upsetting to me but many other students, so I decided to stand up for the 343 firefighters and 23 police officers of New York and the thousands of others who lost their lives that day." Many people might have even brushed off the fact that there was no moment of silence for those who did not make it out alive, yet my family comes from a strong background of loyalty and authority. Taking action so people do not forget. Forgetting is an ignorant way of letting something like 9/11 happen again. We learn and study about the past so we do not find ourselves in the same situation. Taking history classes throughout life gave us the tools to understand those who stood before us. Those who sang before us, fought before us, stood up before us, and led before us. Every day we are evoling into something different and something new but we can never forget where we came from.
Fifty-six and 102 minutes standing. But it only took 12 seconds to change the views of the American citizens forever. Twelve seconds for the buildings to fall down and to crush so many of our family members. One-in-ten Americans knew someone killed on 9/11 but every American alive during that time can tell you where they were.
A quote from former president George W. Bush sums this up perfectly:
"Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the eleventh. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funeral of our children."
No matter who you are, or what you were doing there, we will always remember those who perished on September 11th. The day will go down in history as the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Everyone around the globe should look at life differently because, at any moment, it could be your last.
