JediMaster 451 Posted September 11, 2011 As I mentioned in the other thread, my cousin was there at the WTC. She wrote an article many years back detailing her experience. Original story: http://old.911digitalarchive.org/stories/details/9348 The shoes she donated are here: Shoes: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033352/9-11-Relics-tell-heart-wrenching-stories-victims-survivors-rescuers.html She wrote a follow-up 10th anniversary document, which I'll attach here. Like many other tragedies, many who lived through that day do not want to discuss or be reminded of it. She did, but felt it important for both herself and others to finally share it. 9-11 article.rtf Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ShrikeHawk 384 Posted September 12, 2011 That's a great story, Jedi. Thanks for sharing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Dave 2,318 Posted September 12, 2011 JM Thank you for sharing this. I can not explain in words what this story alone has meant to me. Hell I can't even come to grips with this 10 years later..............I still have anger........it still brings tears to my eyes. I have been trying to make peace with it.....but I do not know how..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slartibartfast 153 Posted September 12, 2011 (edited) Very moving... thanks for sharing As to me I was asleep as I was working nights, I wasn't after that one as my ex-boss called me to put me on notice (I had been out of the military for 18 months but was on reserve) and my brother followed by a bunch of people I knew in the military... Edited September 12, 2011 by Slartibartfast Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JediMaster 451 Posted September 12, 2011 I never got the story from her straight, in one piece, before. She was pretty reticent to bring it up and I only ever had bits and pieces. Had she not decided to get up and leave the instant the first tower was hit, she'd not be here today, as she was still only 2/3 down when the 2nd plane hit and IIRC her office was above the impact line. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stingray72 6 Posted September 12, 2011 (edited) It is important to share, absolutely, although it is understandably painful. Most of the men in my family, including myself, are veterans of some conflict somewhere. I myself was deeply involved with the tragedies of 9/11 for the next few years working in different capacities, first on the homeland side, then in the Gulf. Each and every day it seems that somewhere along I will find myself replaying the images of the 2nd plane hitting the tower on the messdeck of the ship I was stationed on, looking around at my shipmates knowing instantly that we as Coast Guardsmen were about to be affected in our day to day routine. The 110' patrol boat Sanibel spent the next 4 months making patrols solely in the East River and Hudson river area. Each time we rounded the point that is the lower Manhattan to head north up the Hudson we would look and see the burnt hole where a national monument had stood. the worst of it for me was the escorts of tanker ships into Kill Van Krull. We would always pass a metal scrap yard there, and you could see fire trucks that had been pulled out from under the rubble across the river, each broken truck representing a sacrifices that I have not been asked to make. I found myself crying on the bridge of the ship silently while I was on watch, and looked around and saw that I was not alone. During these patrols we would tie up alongside the USS Intrepid museum, and there was a memorial going inside of the museum, people signing pillars showing their support for the families who were changed on 9/11. A few of us made the pilgrimage to the church a block form the site where the Twin Towers fell and visited the memorial that was there as well, but I did not have heart or will to go to the actual site myself. Just seeing all of these had moved me, and I did not feel the need to visit the grisly remains up close, having seen it from afar and seen the results. Almost two and a half years later I volunteered to join the roughly 250 other Coasties who had also volunteered to go overseas and do what we could. the US Coast Guard has 6 110' patrol boats, each crewed by the most motivated people in the Coast Guard. You see, we have to ask to go help fight a war, and we know we will not probably see action; it is not war mongering, it is the thoughts of 9/11 and knowing that some Soldier or Marine or Airman is sleeping in a tent somewhere over that hill maybe, or for the Sailor who hasn't seen his family for 8 months on the grey ship I can see a few miles away. that's what makes a handful of us each year ask for this assignment. We remember. We remember 9/11 like it was yesterday at times To those who have been touched forever by this, the families of those who perished in a tower or a cornfield, those who didn't come home from taking the fight to the terrorists, and to those who have sacrificed even a even the littlest bit for this cause, I salute you. ~Rob Edited September 12, 2011 by Stingray72 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MAKO69 186 Posted September 12, 2011 (edited) I had a friend Linda George a buyer for TJX Corp. on Flight 11 that perished on 9-11. Another family friends daughter who worked in the same building as your sister. She talkes about how she knew she had to get out because somthing wasn't right, she worked lower in the building and witnessed the second plane hit. The wave of emotions that rip through ones body, are still undescribable. Edited September 12, 2011 by MAKO69 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
