9/11 twenty years after

[vreihen16]

I don't think that I have ever shared my 9/11 story here.

The SCCA National Championship was taking place in Topeka, Kansas. Half of the classes were running on Tuesday/Wednesday (9/11-12), and the other half on Thursday/Friday. My class was running Thursday/Friday, so I was packing up to leave home (NY State) on the morning of 9/11 for the drive to Kansas.

My apartment at the time was under the approach to Stewart International Airport, with a view of the Hudson River. As I was loading the last of my racing tires onto my tiny tire trailer, I saw a large twin-engine commercial jet flying south down the valley at approach-path height. I thought that it was strange that air traffic control would let a jet cross the approach like that, and had never seen it before.

When I got into my car to start the trip, the regional radio station had one of their owners on the air by cell phone saying that a King Air twin-engine plane had struck the World Trade Center. He was obviously wrong about the plane, but was giving everyone a live report for a bit.

I made a call to the SCCA National Office, to see if they were cancelling Nationals to save myself the long drive. They said that there was no news from the event site, and that they told me to assume everything was still on.

My trip included a detour to the NJ Meadowlands to drop something off for a friend, but I gave up on that and headed west once I crested a hill in NJ with a view of the NYC skyline and smoke.

As I was driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76), there were cars with "NYP" (NY Press) license plates blowing past me like I was standing still in a race to get to the scene of the Somerset, PA crash of the 4th plane. I had just been to Somerset a few months before for a car gathering, and knew where the town was. Keep in mind that I had a 1-2 hour head start on them, to give you an idea of how fast they were driving.

When I reached Ohio, I needed to stop for fuel. Lots of panic buying, and I had to pay over $5/gallon.

The sun was down by the time that I reached Indiana on I-70, and it was creepy to be driving on a clear evening without the lights of an airplane in sight. The only thing that I saw that entire night was a helicopter flying low along I-70 to the east in Indiana.

If anyone knows the NJ Turnpike near Newark Airport, I-70 passing Lambert Airport in St. Louis is almost a twin. It was shocking to not see planes lined up in the pattern for miles, as was usual whenever I passed Lambert (or Newark for that matter).

When I arrived at the main event gate the next morning, the SCCA's registration RV and everything else were parked outside the fence. Apparently the military shut the event down the day before just as the first heat finished their first runs, and gave everyone 45 minutes to pack up the event's equipment and every competitor's paddock spaces and vacate the site. The airport that we were using as the Nationals site is joint military/civilian, home to military aerial refueling tankers, and a divert site for Air Force One that was in the air all day with the President on-board for safekeeping. I can understand why they wanted the tarmac cleared of 2,000+ civilians in a hurry! Picture what could have happened if someone grabbed one of those tankers and did a similar terrorist attack...or Air Force One needed to land!

Having driven through the night, I checked into my motel early in the afternoon tired and turned on the TV. This was the first time that I saw the video of the towers falling, having listened to the radio for the past day. They also showed the flight paths of each plane, and I quickly remembered seeing the low-flying jet going down towards the World Trade Center the day before when I saw those maps. Little did I (or the people on-board) know that they would die crashing into the WTC about 10 minutes later.

Back to the event, the local chamber of commerce and military apparently worked out a deal for us to have one of our two championship courses on Thursday/Friday. Four days of drivers on two courses, crammed into 2 days on one course. Nobody complained about only getting three runs, because quoting Roger Johnson at what was scheduled as the Wednesday evening awards banquet, "we're not going to let the bastards win."

(To be continued.....)

[vreihen16]

The area where I live is full of NYC police and firefighters, who make the 1-2 hour commute so their families can live away from the city. Just about *everybody* had a neighbor or friend who perished on 9/11. One that was memorable to me was a NYFD fireman who used to come out to our local autocross events with his teenaged son.

More on topic for this forum are Linda Gronlund and Joe DeLuca. Linda was in charge of Environmental Compliance at BMW, and both were active SCCA members in event management as well as volunteers in the community. I only had a few passing interactions with them, not knowing them personally. Both were passengers on Flight 93 (that crashed in Somerset, PA), and I have no doubt in my mind from the roles they served in the SCCA that they would have been the people who led any charge on the cockpit to put the plane into the ground to stop it from hitting its planned target.

One of the uncounted victims of 9/11 was my sibling. His company sent him into lower Manhattan on 9/11 for an extremely rare customer visit. He came out of the PATH (underground train) station near the WTC, and saw the first tower burning and jumpers, um, splattering around him as he ran north towards Penn Station to get out of NYC. When the second plane hit, he was burned on his back and neck by the heat of the fireball. The burns were apparently not serious enough to need medical treatment, but I can only imagine the psychological scars from seeing the second plane crash and people jumping to their deaths from the street below.

Like I said above, almost everyone in this area was impacted by 9/11 and will never forget.....

[The Libertine]

Such a horrific day in our history.

Wife and I watched United 93 retelling the story of the passengers who fought back, and I cannot imagine what those poor souls went through - either on the planes, in the Twin Towers, or the Pentagon that day.

May we never forget the lives lost.

[Oldgixxer]

Was running a job in Jersey City in the Newport section,having 9am coffee break w my men on 9/11. Saw way too much. I'll leave it at that as certain imagines I cannot un-see.

[Oldgixxer]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

The area where I live is full of NYC police and firefighters, who make the 1-2 hour commute so their families can live away from the city. Just about *everybody* had a neighbor or friend who perished on 9/11. One that was memorable to me was a NYFD fireman who used to come out to our local autocross events with his teenaged son.

Lived in Monroe for 20+yrs and,knew so many NYFD and NYPD folkes who lived there also like you said. Hearing their stories still remains very unsettling.

[TrevorM3]

was in middle school science class. she said "a couple planes hit a few buildings"





dont know what kinda fucking answer that was...

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

was in middle school science class. she said "a couple planes hit a few buildings"





dont know what kinda fucking answer that was...

I should have been in middle school science when it happened, but I was at home sick with a fever. Glad I was, friends that were at school said the teachers said nothing of it. They could all tell that something was up, but did their best to act like all was normal. It wasn’t until parents started showing up to take the kids home that really anyone knew anything of it.

I remember my mom called the house phone and I was so frustrated that I needed to get out of bed and wake up to see who was calling the house so many times. She tried telling me what had happened, but I just couldn’t grasp the gravity of it all. I went downstairs to turn on the TV. Our “normal” TV was at a repair shop, so all we had was this old set with no remote and the dial on the front to change channels. It was surreal. The situation just felt…fake. With the TV set I’m looking at, it was as if I was huddled around watching us land on the moon. As soon as I turn it on, I watch the second tower get hit live. Boom. That’s when the gravity hit.

What’s disappointing is while I was out yesterday, I think I was the only person wearing anything remotely patriotic - a hat that says USA across the front. It was surprising just how quickly we forget.

Live like it’s 9/12 folks.

[2000cs]

During 9-11 I mentioned we had clients in from Japan who had coworkers in a tower office. We watched together on the TVs in our office. En-route to join our meeting was our partner from London, who was diverted back to London. Of course we scrambled to get our field people home, mostly with rental cars, etc.

Some time later (I can’t recall how long) I went to London to meet with our partners there. I stayed next to Hyde Park and it happened there was a concert in the park that evening. It was symphonic but I don’t recall if it was the London Symphony or another group. Anyway the conductor took the podium after the usual formalities, announced that this was the first concert since 9-11 and said much heartfelt about the special relationship and kinship between our two nations and people. And then to commemorate, honor and kick off the concert, without naming the piece he noted its relevance to both nations, turned and led the orchestra in Sousa’s Liberty Bell March. In this way he both honored and acknowledged the events and added a light, humorous touch.

For those who don’t recognize it, Liberty Bell was written by Sousa to commemorate our Liberty Bell and used as the theme song for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

[MsGoGoMoto]

Chilling at work got laid off …
Came home updated resume on monster.com
Husband and kids ignored my news and GLUED to the TV. (Walked in just before 2nd plane. I had NO idea about anything going on, w.w.wait… why is everyone home?)

4 mos later….. postman hand delivered Manila envelope? report for muster duty…. The kind of muster that put me back in the sand.

[dmatre]

I was at our company's factory in Germany on 9/11. We were running production tests for a potential customer, and had just wrapped up the trials.

In the middle of the afternoon I got a call from a colleague: "You need to find a television - America is under attack" were the words I heard.

I went to the company's guest house (only about 1km from the factory), and turned on the TV just minutes before the first tower collapsed. That was the most depressing, stomach-turning thing I have ever witnessed in my life.

There was no sleep that night, as the TV was 24-hour coverage, and what was stuck in my mind was all of the people inside when the buildings collapsed.

I was supposed to fly home the next day (Wednesday 9/12), but all flights were cancelled, so the only option was to remain.

This is where I found that we were all one on 9/12, regardless of nationality.

On 9/12, at the time of the first impact at the WTC, all work in our factory stopped for one minute. The sound of silence in a factory which has always been loud and bustling was deafening. Nobody moved for the time of the silence. To say the mood was somber would be a gross understatement.

As I was to depart on 9/12, the factory had booked other potential customers in the guest house - but we were notified that all future bookings would be moved to local hotels, and that we would stay at the guest house, because it was felt we would be safer and feel more comfortable.

Walking the streets of the small German town, we were stopped by many locals (who we had never met before), and they expressed their sorrow and solidarity with us. (In a small German town, the Americans tend to stand out).

Going for dinner at the local Brauhaus, the owner took us in to a table in a private room (we were still quite shaken only 24 hours later). He made the comment 'normally we will have a band here in this room, but today no-one wants to dance'. The pain we felt was felt by all.

I was lucky enough to have status with USAir at the time, and was able to get on the first flight back to the US from Amsterdam on Saturday 9/15.

Security was stifling. Passport check and frisking to enter the terminal, the normal metal detector/x-ray after checking in. Another ID check and frisking to enter the gate, and yet another on the jetway as we boarded.

The flight home was uneventful, but dead silent. No talking, no movement around the plane, everyone sat still through the entire flight.

As we descended for Philly, we passed just south of Manhattan, and the fires were still burning, smoke clearly visible from the sight of the former towers.

The only words I heard after the safety briefing at the start were from the pilots upon taxiing to the gate: "welcome home". There was only silence as everyone left.

Then the rage came. After clearing customs in Philly, when passing through the metal detector and x-ray station to re-enter the terminal, the idiot supposedly manning the x-ray machine was asleep. 4 days after terrorists hijacked 4 planes, this SOB decides to take a nap on the job.

The Dutch had far more concern for my safety than the security services (private at that time) in the US.

My heart goes out to all of those affected by the events of that horrible day. My ordeal was not 0.0001% of what they went through, but it was real to me. The one thing that does lift my spirits is the feeling of unity that I felt in the days following 9/11. Not only from fellow Americans, but from the world.