I was at work doing some paperwork, and overseeing a construction project we were doing at the plant.. We heard a story on the news that a small plane had hit one of the towers..Alittle later, I was heading back to the main office and was listening to reports of the second plane, the Pentagon, and finally the Shenksville crash..My oldest brother worked on Wall St..He walked to Grand Central, and got on a train home..It took 2 days..
The owner of the company I worked for at the time had a brother who was working in one of the towers that morning..Somehow he made it to Jersey City and spent the next week drunk at a bar there..
I used to work in Brooklyn at Chase Manhattan..The towers were not that far away, and the crew I worked with knew people who were building engineers there..We were all in the same union local..Most of them died that day trying to get people out..
Mikey, Billy, Will, and I made it to Ground Zero a couple years ago..We saw the hole in the ground where the towers were, and some still damaged buildings around the site..Across the street from the site is a small church which was undamaged when the towers fell. It was amazing it was still standing....Inside there are pictures and artifacts of that day..Pictures of missing people, ribbons, stuffed animals, etc..It was very moving to say the least..
I remember the mixed emotions I had that day..I remember confusion, anger, sadness, outrage, resolve, and finally hope.
There are some who think images of that day shouldnt be shown on tv..I think thats wrong..We should be reminded, lest we fall into complacency.
RIP to those that died that day and to all those that have passed trying to defend the freedom of all of us..