Friday is September 11, 2015

[tampa24]

God Bless the USA!

 

[louis33705]

I cannot watch this video without crying all the way through it.

 

[louis33705]

My Father gave me this flag in 1976 as a housewarming gift when Linda and I moved into our new home. Before 9/11 I only displayed the Flag twice a year on July 4th and Veteran's Day. Since 9/11 I display it three times a year. This is a recent picture. Although the flag still looks new today, it has been battered through the years. I have painstakingly hand stitched it each time.

 

[mtfrc81]

The above fight should be in private. Something as emotional as 9-11 shouldn't be distracted from its original post.

Couldn't agree more... 9/11 is about those that were killed that day... not about distractions.

 

[mtfrc81]

This is a report of what I posted here a year ago. Ironically, I started that thread also. I started this thread early because my mourning of the events of 9/11 begins every year on September 1st. Read my story and you will understand.

"My Father and I were news buffs. If I heard something in the news I would immediately call him and vice versa. He became extremely ill during the summer of 2001. Eventually, my sister moved him and my mother into her house to help my mother care for him. I had plans to visit a friend in New York City that august. Because of his condition, I was hesitant to go. I spoke to him the week before I was to leave and told him of my hesitation. He said, "Go, boy. I'm not going anywhere." (He always called me "boy") I spent a week with my friend at his place at Gramercy Park. The entire time I was there I was very apprehensive about my Father's condition, calling him a couple of times a day.

My Father died on Friday, September 1 2001. Because that was the labor day weekend, his funeral was delayed till the end of the following week. I went back to work on the morning of 9/11/01. I arrived around 7:30 a.m. like I normally did to get the office opened, make coffee for the staff, etc. I was dreading that day, knowing people would be parading through the office to express their condolences. The office staff arrived at 8:30. The office was very serene until my daughter called me at about a quarter to nine to tell me a place had crashed into the one of the Twin Towers. While we were talking I remember her telling me, "Oh my God, another plane just hit the other tower!!!!" I told her I'd call her back. I immediately called my Father to tell him to turn on the news. My sister answered the phone and then it hit me that my Dad was gone. The remainder of the day was chaotic. They set up the big screen TV at the college auditorium and the staff and students spent most of the day watching the events unfolding.

That day halted my mourning process. We had family who had come from Texas and Connecticut who got stuck in Tampa because planes had been grounded.

9/11 robbed me of the normal mourning process a person goes through when they lose a loved one. I finally crashed the following February. My Father had this ritual where he would call each of his children on their Birthday at the time of their birth to wish them a "Happy Birthday." February 26, 2002, 5:21 a.m. No phone call. I crashed and went into a deep depression for about a month.

9/11: It has become my own "Day of Infamy."

Not only do I think of the victims of that frightful day (Two of which were graduates from the college where I worked and worked in the towers) but also the ones who have sacrificed their lives in war since that day.

God Bless the USA!

Louis"

There's no doubt that 9/11 is my "Day on Infamy" as well. i was talking to a couple of people in the fire station this AM who are only in their early twenties. They don't see this part of history the same way as me. I guess I get that since they were so young on 9/11. I pulled a bunch of videos and timelines to show them. I was not alive 12/7/1941. But I remember as many details as possibly can (I'm a WWII buff... but the real reason is out of respect for those that died). In my case these were people in my profession... they need to remember it as Americans, but the need to remember it even more because they are firefighters. These guys don't see the emotional side of a fire chief very often, but when I talked about timelines and some of the footage they could hear the sadness and my voice cracking. Hopefully that made them pause a little to remember some of those of the 343 that were heroes to me... Mychal Judge and Chief Raymond Downey (and at least a dozen more). FDNY has had it's crazy problems, but there no different than any other place. But some of these guys were (and still are) leaders in the fire service.

 

[stowe1]

Spent a lot of time today watching various cable channels and the programs about 9/11 that had been produced over the early years. Then I watched the NBC Nightly News and saw its remembrance of 9/11. And looking at the new tower I wished that the powers that be would have stuck with its pre-2009 name of Freedom Tower. To me the perfect address would have been Freedom Tower at One World Trade Center. The name for the tower standing at 1776 ft. high to me symbolizes that the freedom we embrace as a country and have fought for since the founding of the Republic will prevail ultimately because as JFK said in his inaugural address, "We will pay any price and bear any burden... support any friend, oppose any foe... to assure the survival...of liberty".

 

[louis33705]

That is a beautiful quote by JFK, Stowe. Thanks for sharing that.