The terms "New York's Finest", and "New York's Bravest" may not have meant a whole lot before 9/11. But it sure does now, doesn't it? It really makes you appreciate the job police and firemen do for your community. When everyone else is running out of a burning building, they're running in.

 

It was not only NY. I know plenty of NJ and PA FFs who went in and never came out.

 

Yeah, I know. But hopefully you got my point. Firefighters in every city/town are called that city's "Bravest". Most of us never really thought twice about it. And I'm not sure if it meant anything to most people before 9/11. But it does now.

I mean, when you have a building that's just been hit by a jumbo jet full of fuel, burning out of control, it takes a brave person to run INTO the building when everyone else just wants to get as far away from it as possible. Don't forget, these FF's knew they were going to have to climb up about 100 stories worth of stairs just to get to the fire. Then the real job of putting the fires out starts.

I wasn't intentionally singling out NY firefighters. All firefighters have the same job. And shouldn't be taken for granted.

 

Well I'll add my "where were you" in. I was working in the city, a little bit from the down town area, and we heard about it from some co-workers watching the news in the break room. We basically all crowded around in any office with TVs and watched. Eventually we all started to get back on with our days and try to get back to work, but after a bit, out the office window (at a distance) we saw an air plane that looked like he was in the process of turning, we couldn't figure out what it was doing, turns out that was the plane that was bound for the Pentagon, they flew up into the NE portion of Ohio, and turned back for Washington. We found out the next day from a co-worker who has a family member that works in Air Traffic Control at Hopkins (CLE) that they intercepted the radio communication from the hijacker on that plane that said they had a bomb on board and were headed back to the airport (he meant to say it to the passengers, but it went through his radio instead). My aunt also saw one in her area (Elyria) and took video of it, that was the plane that crashed into the field in PA (that was apparently bound for the capital).

 

I just started a new job and it happened while I was driving into work. There was a TV in the break room and people were glued to the TV. At first, to me at least, it looked like an accident and a small plane (Not a full sized passenger jet) hit, then I continued to watch the coverage and then I knew this wasn't any accident. I got home from work and was glued to the TV until I went to sleep that night.

 

In Portland, Oregon: At the time of the attacks, I was asleep. I had to leave for work at 7am (started at 7:30) and I had gotten home at around 2am that morning after a night hanging out with my friends playing counter-strike at a local internet cafe (this is when it was a fad and has since gone bye bye like many fads). I was woken up around 6:25am when my phone rang. I picked it up, groggy, and said "hello?" My friend was on the other line saying "Get up Dustin! Dustin get up and turn on your TV!" I'm like "dude, wtf are you calling me at 6 in the morning for?" He repeated for me to get up and turn on the TV, so I went downstairs and turned on the TV. What I saw, I was in disbelief. Both towers were on fire. We started talking to each other and it was an obvious terrorist attack. No way was it an accident. While we were talking on the phone, we both watched in utter disbelief and horror as the south tower collapsed. After the silence, I said to him "if that tower collapsed, the other tower is going to also." I was on the phone with him until about 7am and then I had to get off the phone and went to work. I had dropped my parents off at the airport the day before because they left for Las Vegas. They were stuck in Vegas until the FAA allowed aircraft to start flying again.

What's weird is that morning, when I went to sleep after I had gotten home at 2am, I had a dream that I was in my living room and heard the engine's of a plane that was flying so low that it shook the house. I ran to the front window and at that moment, I saw a plane slam into the neighbor's driveway across the street and skid into the house behind it. I woke up an hour or two before my friend called me after this dream and went back to sleep.

 

Thanks Guys, I worked downtown for 13 years....never really liked the 1-1.5 hour commutte to the City...but recently I moved to a data center job in NJ...less then a half hour drive commuting...thought it was what I wanted, but ya know what they say be careful what you wish for...I am going to try to return to Manhattan as I do miss it even with the long commutte...

Irregardless I plan to go back soon to visit the memorial and museum...I think they did a wonderful job on it after seeing it on TV....

God Bless everyone we lost that Tragic Day.

Joe