34 20 7169 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was preparing myself for work, it was approximately 6 am in the morning, and as I do every morning I turned on the television to the Arizona morning Fox 10 news when Breaking News interrupted the regular news. Always having the volume set at a level which I can hear from a close distance I hear "A plane crashed into the World Trade Center..." I swiftly ran to the tv set to watch, the news reporter continued with " were not sure if this is an accident or terrorist related", when just moments later another plane hit the south tower and the news reporter immediately followed with " Yes, we now know we are under a terrorist attack. " This devasted me and I was glued to the television set. I woke my husband up from bed and told that America was under attack, he too was then glued to the tv set. I also had to explain what happened to my 11 year old daughter, fortunately for me she attends a catholic school and they had many individuals available to further explain what was happening and how to cope with it. Unfortunately, for me my place of employment conists of a government facility, which at the time was not at all secure. However, because we were a great risk factor for something like this to happen to our building, they decided to let us go home and like the many New Yorkers, this his very close to home and many of us were terrified and were thankful of the decision which was made. After leaving work, I went to my mothers to check on her, and boy when I explained to her exactly what was going on she quickly made comments about the attack on Pearl Harbor and started talking about canning goods, once again, and buying water, and making sure we had all necessities covered which we may need in order to survive, however never having been through anything like this before I told her that everything would be ok, that no one would go hungry, but she said to me " Girl, you just don't understand how bad it was, how many of us suffered, you need to prepare yourself, they also sent your brother home from work and I have sent him to the store already. On your way home you make sure you stop by the store." To ease her I said "ok". But, instead I picked up my daughter from school and headed home. I called my husband the minute I got home to make sure everything was ok there and continued to watch the continuos coverage about the attack. That night I had nightmares, some were absolutely unbelieveable. I guess I really hadn't understood exactly how this had impacted me. But in the days to follow, along with many others I became brave and united as one with them. God Bless America Leticia Benitez-Gonzalea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story5920.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.24.63.29 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I will never forget the moment I heard of the attacks in New York City. I just dropped off my children at school and heard on the radio of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. When I got home and turned on my t.v. I saw the unbeleviable sight of that first explosion. Then right before my eyes on that t.v. the second plane flew into the second tower. I will never forget the horror of that sight. It almost did'nt seem real. I'll never forget wanting to get my children out of school and be with my family. I don't think I'm alone in feeling that we all felt completely helpless and terrified of what would happen next. The news reports just kept reporting one after the other of other plane crahes, I've never felt so insecure about our safety as I did in that moment. I then understood what the WWII veterans must have felt at Pearl Harbor, our freedom was now compromised. Unfortunately a tragic event made me understand what freedom really does mean. I will never take for granted again what it means to be an American, and how proud I am to live in the greatest nation in the world. God Bless America!! Audri Calhoun Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story4134.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.38 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The morning of September 11, 2001, I was working. At the time, I was cleaning houses for a living and I was working away when my cell phone rang. It was my neighbor and good friend asking me if I was watching TV. I asked her what channel and she replied, "Any of them!". I turned on the TV to see the horror unfolding before my eyes. I watched as smoke boiled from the World Trade Center. Seconds later, I watched unbelievingly as a second plane crashed into the 2nd tower. I recall thinking that this surreal feeling must be the same as my mother had spoken of feeling when she watched JFK riding down the street in Dallas and saw him fall over as he was assassinated. My first thought was to gather my children. My friend who had called me had my 11 month old. My 3 year old and my 14 year old were at preschool and school at the same place. I called the school to see if my children were alright. They had heard the news and were listening to the news on the TV and the children were all upset but the plans were for them to remain at school. Then I called my husband. I remember being perturbed that he didn't seem as upset as I was. As I think back, I realize he was trying to remain calm so I wouldn't freak out. I called my mother and my sister and then my friends and on and on all day. I barely finished cleaning that house that day! That night I came home and my family sat watching the TV all night in shock. I cried and prayed and was numb because of the horror that our country was going through. In all things, Christ brings good out of evil and through this we all came together. All races, all religions, all political parties, all kinds... we came together, we prayed, we cried, we mourned and we rose together with pride for our heroes and for our country. The attacks only made us more proud to be Americans than we were before. The terrorists helped us to become one when we all were standing apart. Thank you, God, for giving us reasons, in times of insanity, to be thankful to you for showing Yourself in our lives in all situations. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story5557.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 152.163.188.6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: September 11, 2001 started much like all the previous days. My husband and I were working out in the yard. We had only moved into this house about 5 months previous. We are both retired, and came here from Ohio. We were very happy to be in Florida as permenant residents. At about 11 am on that horrible day, I went into the house for a drink of cold water. The phone rang, I answered. It was my brother, Bob, in Michigan. He immediately ask me if I had the TV on. I replied, "No, I was outside working." "Turn it on, now.....we are being attacked! Hijacked planes have hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon!!" I could not comprehend what he was saying!! I turned on the TV, switched to a news channel, and there it all was. It was true!! America had been attacked, again!! I remembered back, to 60 years ago. America was attacked at Pearl Harbor! I was young, but I recall sitting with my grandfather, listening to the radio, giving us the news. Then, as now, so many lives touched by tragedy, by some other country's hatred of us!! Why, are we so despised by these people? What have we done, for them to attack us in such a way? I still do not have the answers. The only reasons I can come up with is, our freedoms.... given by the Constitution and Declaration of Independence! None in my family were personally touched by all this. We did not lose any family members or friends......but, every American has been harmed in the respect of so much loss of life, and each has and is grieving still a year later. But, we as Americans, will stand tall, and not give up hope that America will crumble under any onslaught! God Bless, America.......and all Americans, wherever they may be!!!! For future generations.........do not EVER forget this day! Remember all the heros, living and dead that will always make AMERICA the LAND OF THE FREE.....AND THE HOME OF THE GREAT!!!!!! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story3165.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.175.70.216 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My family and I had been traveling the Alaskan highway for 4 days on route from Fort Richardson, Alaska. We awoke that morning in Canada just as before, trying to get back on the road at a resonable hour. Turning on the television in search of cartoons for our two young children I heard a voice say that all planes were grounded in the United States. I turned in disbelief as I watched the second tower get hit. My husband watched with me. I remember saying, "Oh my God, we are going to war." - and husband would be part of that war. He is a Sergeant in the United States Army. He immediately called his former unit in Alaska. We were told to continue on to our next duty station. We drove all that day thru Canada listening to Canadian news and Canadian perspectives. Whenever we stopped for food or gas, no one seemed to be affected by this news- it was a country away, a world away from where we were. But to us, American citizens & members of the military we were closer to home than we had ever been. Crossing the border into the United States never had so much meaning to me then it did on that day. We tried to prepare for what lay ahead as I looked at my son who would be celebrating his first birthday the next day. Christine Duffy Fort Polk, LA Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6651.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.38 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I woke up to the tv screaming with beeps and alerts like a storm had approached. As I woke up I began to notice that it wasn't a storm, it was a building on fire in New York City. As I kept listening on, I began to hear that a plane had crashed into the building and it appears to have possibly been a terrorists attack. I started shaking and crying. I couldn't believe this was happening. I may have been hundreds of miles away, but the horror could be felt so strongly in that RV. I continually began to watch the TV, when I got a phone call on my cell. When I answered it was my work telling me that I do not need to come to work because they are closing due to the trauma in New York. I hung up and continued to watch the TV. As soon as I turned up the volume, ANOTHER PLANE IT. I began to shake more and more. I could only think that these people of New York City do not deserve this, nor anyone in the country or those planes, and why is this happening. I know now life is really short and dont take it for granted. May God Bless all the families and those who's lives were lost in that tragedy. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story11377.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2005-04-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.64.40.135 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had just parked my car and had gotten on the shuttle when some guy said look the Trade Center is on fire. Everyone looked. When we got to the ferry dock, some guy had his video recorder out and there was a crowd of people around him so i walked over. "Whats goin on", i asked. "A plane flew into the Trade Center', he said. I couldnt believe it. I went inside and bought my tickets. Then, i walked over to the dry cleaners who had the tv on. The ferry arrives and i walk to the top and sit outside as i always did. Everyone one was looking and then we see an explosion. The second plane hit. When we got to NY the captain said "If you wanna go back to Jersey stay on the boat." To my surprise, out of about 100 people, 5 of us stayed. I tried to use a stranger's cell phone to call my mom but it didn't have any reception. Once we got back to Jersey and i started walking back to my car, i started crying. I was scared. By the time i got back to my car i had composed myself. The Lincoln tunnel was closed and there was a-lot of traffic but thankfully i was going in the other direction. When i got onto route 3 east i did about 90 MPH home. Cops didnt stop me they watched me go right by. I went to my girlfreind's house. When i got there everyone was around the tv or had the radio on. However, her sister's fiance worked around the block from the WTC and no-one had heard from him since the first plane hit. He was ok. His building was evacuated. That night, and for many nights after that, I couldnt sleep or watch tv. I always wanted to see history take place. I just wish it wasn't like this. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story434.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-04-18 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 172.158.160.228 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My home and my office each had a view of the north and south towers. I live and work five blocks from ground zero. I was at my desk working when the first plane went overhead. I ducked in reflex because it was so loud and felt so close. Then I heard the explosion. It echoed off of the buildings in the front of the office. I went to the front of the building and saw nothing. I ran to the back of the office where the WTC could be seen. The sky was filled with paper. There was so much paper in the sky and it was framed by all the smoke, and flames. Prior to the second plane striking the south tower, I went out and walked toward the WTC only to be driven back by people fleeing. I returned to the office and watched the fire in the north tower when the south tower exploded. The orange flames exploded horizontally from the north face of the south tower, violent orange flames and black smoke. I remember thinking that the south tower must have caught fire from the north tower inferno. Only later did I learn it was a second plane. We continued to watch. I could see people in the north tower above the fire waving from the windows at helicopters looking for rescue. And suddenly the south tower collapsed. My employees said later they remembered my scream. I left the office to go to my home across the street and close the windows and check on the dogs. There were no sirens. There was only silence. I returned to the office and watched the north tower burning. I watched people falling from the floors above the fire. I could see other people at the top of the north tower waving and hanging out the windows. Flailing arms with shirts in their hands. And as if in slow motion the antenna on top of the north tower moved left and right. The antennal fell to the left. I watched the people reaching out the windows as the collapse gained momentum. The smoke and dust rose to shroud them. I watched those people as they descended to their death. Within a minute we were in complete darkness. Even now I am frozen in the memory of the images and thinking about each of the victims who, as I did, just went to work that day. We shut down and went to my home. Everything on the street was covered with ash and the silence was even greater. My office remained in the frozen zone until Thanksgiving. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1841.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-07 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 216.223.200.166 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was at school in the morning im my homeroom when my teacher told us that a plane crashed in to the world trade center i was in shock and scared my dad is in thye airforce reserved he is constently away i dont get to see him that much he goes im many places he was at the airforce base that morning next the anocements came on and told us about the planes during second period the teacher had to ask who parents were in the city alto of people were getting called out so they can go haome i was to when i got home i turned the tv on and turned to the news i was in shock what i saw a was very sad and upset thath day my da is still away 9/11/02 We Will Never Foget United We Stnd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10453.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-02-25 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 166.109.0.195 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: 9/11 My Story I was on my way out of the library on 9/11 when I heard my teachers talking about planes hitting buildings so I decided to eavesdrop. While listening they said that four planes crashed three of which hit buildings. The first two of the three hit the World Trade Centers. The third hit the Pentagon. The one thing that scared me the most was that the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. I live right on the border of Pa and N.J. I didn?t truly understand what had happened until I got home. By the time I got home everyone was talking about it. I went into my house and my dad who is an L.P.N. was watching it on television. I asked him what was happening he told me to look at the television. I said who did it. He said he didn?t know. He said, ?I got home and watched the second plane hit the second tower and both towers collapse live.? About an hour later I went over my friends house and we watched everything on television over-and-over-and-over again. His grandmother came over after work covered in sweat she is a R.N. at a hospital. She told us the hospital that she worked at was overwhelmed with people who wanted to donate blood. We just sat at his house for three or four hours watching the news. I later went to another friends house to see what he was up to. But is mom said that he was at an emergency church service and she was getting ready to go to. After that I just went home to watch the news again. Well I would have watched something else except that that was all that was on. My mom was home when I got home. She just got out of the shower she is a R.N.A. and had just got home from the nursing home. She said that one of the girls at work had a daughter and husband that were in New York City the father was looking for his daughter and he was on the phone with his wife at the time of the collapse. All of them lived. In the end about 9:30 I went to bed I was very tired. I was up over half the night thinking. Listening to music. I went to school the next day and everyone was living and breathing 9/11. It got old after a while. Everything died down. Here it is a year later and everything is coming back again. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story2402.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.158.163.14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was just arriving to work when one of my co-workers came up to me and told me about it. She turned the radio on and one of the girls turned the Tv on, as I saw how the second plane hit the tower I just jumped and after my mind had a chance to react, I started crying. My life has not been a very happy one and sometimes thought to myself "why even bother living". But after seeing how these people didn't have a choice to want to die, I appreciate my life a whole lot more, and thank God that my kids and myself were not one of the passengers in on of the planes. As the day went on, I kept thinking about the plane crash and praying for the victims family. My heart ached just thinking the pain that these heartless terrorist were causing all inocent people. I had nightmares and woke up crying at night and kissed and hugged my kids while they slept. They would ask why mommy was crying and I would answer "because mommy is hurting and sometimes if you cry it would make you feel better". But to myself I would think that my tears and the whole worlds tears was not enough to stop the hurt that everyone was feeling. The terrorist wanted to tear this nation appart but instead they brought this nation closer together! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6333.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.252.105.48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: This is an e-mail that I sent to my family and friends on Sept, 21st, 2001 concerning the events of 9/11 and what they ment for me: Dear Friends and Family, For those of you that are taking the time to open this up and read it...I wanted to say thanks...thanks for letting me have my "time". I am sure that everyone is wondering why I have a "personal account" and I am sure that by the end of this some of you might be questioning my sanity. For those of you that have known me for any length of time...you know that first of all I spent 2 years as a vol. firefighter while in high school, 7.5 years after high school as a paid professional firefighter down in Virginia as well as short stints in the vol. fire service past that. I am also a photographer that specializes in fire/emergancy scenes. I have a fondness for the NYC skyline...I spent a few years living across form it in Northern NJ. I always loved looking at the WTC..and it was a frequent subject of my camera lens from all angles across from NJ......several tour helicopter flights where I took aerial shots....shots from around the city itself...and shots from a 1997 visit where I stood on the roof of Tower 2 and walked around the observation deck just below that. I also have a fondness for the New York City Fire Dept. During numerous trips in to the city over the years I have come into contact with too many FDNY firefighters to even count...both at emergency scenes and stops at their firehouses. I also had the privilege of spending a day tour riding with Engine 3 in Lower Manhattan and a night tour at Ladder 40 in Harlem where I spent that time in the firehouse and rode on calls with the firemen. Sept. 11th was just going to be a day where I was watching my daughter Lexi. I believe that my wife Jo told me the night before or that morning that it was "National 911 Day"...pretty funny since I am a 911 operator. It was my buddy Randy that tipped me off to the terror at the WTC...he is a federal firefighter down in Maryland. I was on the computer and had no clue what was going on until he told me. I turned my tv on and was shocked at what I saw. I made the decision to head to the area, but did not leave until the 1st tower had collapsed. I had thought as I watched it that only a part of the tower had collapsed....I fully envisioned getting up there and seeing a part of that tower as well as the other one still standing...but as I crossed the PA/NJ line, I heard that both towers had totally collapsed. What a shock to hear that. After making sure my mother-in-law could watch Lexi, I grapped my camera bag and off I went. I made good time until I reached the Newark Airport area on the NJ Turnpike. I shot some images from the turnpike of the smoke column and even stopped to get out of the car and take some like that. I also watched/shot several convoys of ambulances heading north into the area. I exited the turnpike and made my way through Jersey City until I had to park and walk, I had heard that Manhattan was shut down so...I could not even attempt to get into there. I made my way down to the Jersey City waterfront in an area called Exchange Place...this is where a lot of the big office buildings are located. As I walked towards there...it was a weird feeling to watch Air Force F-15 Eagle fighters flying combat air patrol sweeps overhead. It was also surreal looking at the smoke column rising from Manhattan-looked like something out of a bad movie. I arrived at the waterfront area...and shot from different perspectives in a several block area. The police presence was large and there were lots of onlookers. I was able to make my way down to an EMS triage area right on the waterfront where people being evacuated from Manhattan were coming. There is a pier there and tugboats as well as other types of boats were being used to ferry people across. All of a sudden there was a police boat that came tearing across the Hudson and when they pulled up to the pier...I heard yelling that there was a "injured firefighter on board". A stretcher was rushed down and the F/F was removed from the boat and brought to the triage area. He was checked out...put on a?heart monitor and then removed to a waiting ambulance. (I would later learn that this firefighter was Bill Butler of FDNY Ladder 6 who was one of the firefighters that was trapped in the stairwell as the North Tower collapsed-the story of F/F Butler and his company and the others that survived in that stairwell after the collapse is nothing short of a miricale). There were people around me...some had witnessed the jets slam into the Twin Towers...some had been in them and had escaped...I just listened to their stories. Although I was standing there watching that ugly column of smoke rising from Lower Manhattan...it was finally beginning to sink in as to the magnitude of what had happened. It started to sink in that there were perhaps hundreds or perhaps thousands trapped, dying or already dead about a mile from where I stood. I started to get a sick feeling in my stomach. I headed home and had to stop to get some baby food for my daughter and it was then that I almost lost it...almost broke down right there in the store. Work the next two days was hard....Wed. we fielded numerous phone calls in the morning about "aircraft flying" from a now paranoid public. Some of the callers reported seeing aircraft heading towards the NYC area. I have since learned that this was common across the country....there were military jets as well as civilian cargo planes, etc that were flying. I spoke to the FAA's NYC area office twice that day personally. Thurs. was a bit rougher for one obvious reason. The county I live in is actually not that far from NYC (I think about 70-80 miles). We have a number of people that are missing from the county that had been commuters that were working in the WTC and are now missing and presumed dead. This point was brought to light when I answered a 911 call from a family who has a missing father/husband. They had just taken a call from his cell phone and heard nothing on the line except banging. He had been working on the 98th floor of the Tower 1 which was the 1st tower to get hit. I took the info and then immediately called 411 to get a number where I could talk to the NYC Fire Dept. I was given a # for HQ, who transferred me to the Brooklyn Fire Dispatch. I was given a couple of numbers from there to get a hold of Manhattan Fire Dispatch...turns out the only one that I could get through to was the 2nd number and that actually went to the FDNY Mobile Command Center right there at the scene. I relayed the info to the dispatcher that fielded my call and then after we were done, called the family back. Turns out that the family had realized that the cell phone # had come from the cell phone that the missing father had been letting his son use...and the son was not at the WTC site. So..I had to call the FDNY Mobile Command Center back and let them know that the info that I had just given to them was not good. What a letdown.... As I was leaving work that night, I heard something that went along with the cell phone thing...a woman that I was talking to from the District Attorney's Office told me that there is a woman that works in the office is married to an FBI agent that is up there in Manhattan. He told her that they could see bodies in the wreckage that could not be reached yet and cell phones could be heard ringing and ringing and ringing. A few days later this finally made it into the news...what a sad thing to hear. Thursday night my one best friend Jeff called me from a hotel in Times Square. Jeff was my best man at my wedding two months ago and he is a firefighter/paramedic in the Chesapeake, Va. Fire Dept. He and a contingent of his fellow firefighters that had made the trip north to help. I talked to him again on Sunday (the 16th) and he and some of his F/F buddies made it in to "Ground Zero" during the night when it rained and had been in the bucket brigade removing the bucket fulls of rubble. Sat the 15th, I went to Manhattan with my buddy Randy who I have mentioned before. Our first stop was in Jersey City to take some skyline shots. There were numerous military helicopters flying about....incl. a US Air Force MH-53 PaveLow...typically seen in the company of some kind of special forces team. I can only assume since they were flying circles over Lower Manhattan that they had some sort of team onboard for a quick response should there have been an attack. There were candles that people had left...as well as a small crowd of people just staring over at the still rising smoke from where the WTC had once stood. We drove into Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel. I had several goals to accomplish...I wanted to visit a couple of firehouses to pay respects and photograph the memorials for one. I also wanted to go to the Armory which has become the HQ for "missing persons" as well as Union Square where the main gathering to leave candles, etc is. Randy had a goal-to get to Staten Island to see his buddy that is a member of FDNY EMS. Randy had spoken to his friend several times since this began...the friend actually say that 2nd plane hit and then had been busting his butt like all of his FDNY brethren trying to dig people out. We were going to take him a pizza and a 6-pack. We fist stopped at Rescue Co. 1. Randy had spent a lot of time in this firehouse and riding with the firefighters and at one point he literally broke down in tears. We next stopped at Engine 54/Ladder 4 which is near Times Square. A Canadian firefighter was there in uniform and was handing out yellow ribbons. This firehouse lost their entire on-duty shift that was on at the time-15 firefighters. From there we went to Engine 1/Ladder 24. They lost some firemen from here...but they also lost the one FD Chaplain from here...he was a monk at the church across the street. They had actually had the services for him that morning....former Prez Clinton and Hillary were there...so I am sure had we got there earlier we could have seen them. We did see a busload of monks coming back from the burial. From there, we stopped at the NYPD's Manhattan Traffic Control Task Force the next block down from Eng. 1/Lad. 24..they lost a police officer from there. We talked to a couple of motorcycle cops before they left to do "messenger service" and then to an officer that was getting ready to head down to "Ground Zero" for patrol. He told us that the missing officer was last seen trying to carry a woman out just before the first tower collapsed. We made one more stop at a firehouse...Engine 3/Ladder 12. We were heading down to Union Square when Randy's buddy called us...he had decided to go back to "Ground Zero" for another shift and wanted to know if we could meet him. So..we headed across Manhattan and then went south along the Eastside. We actually drove right by Union Square and it was packed. We met up with Randy's buddy (name withheld to protect his ID for what I am about to write) down where the Wall Street Ferry is which is literally at the eastern side of Wall St. There was an "R & R" station set up there with an Outback Steakhouse feeding center at the location. He brought us up to speed on what had been going on. He told us that he was going to try and get us into "Ground Zero", but that he did not know if it would work or how close in we could actually get. When it was time to go we walked north a few blocks and turned eastward near the South St. Seaport. "The friend" handed me his fire helmet to carry through the line as I was wearing jeans and a denim shirt while Randy had what looked to be a firefighters uniform on. We passed by a large contingent of NYPD officers being briefed and then walked through a joint Nat. Guard/NYPD checkpoint-no one asked for our ID's, but the "friend" did motion to a cop that we were with him (as well as several FDNY firefighters). Once past this main checkpoint, Randy and I took our cameras back out-had put them away so as not to look like "tourists" walking in. We were walking on Fulton St. and as we walked closer we could see the gutted shell of what remains of #5 World Trade Center-it still stands but was completely gutted by fire. We walked to Broadway where there is another series of checkpoints. Trinity Church is there...it sits catty-corner from the WTC complex. You might have seen photos of it...the cemetery sits facing the WTC and was covered by ash and papers that had been in the WTC and ended up there...blown by the smoke cloud caused by the collapse. We stayed around this area for a time...the firemen we were with had to collect their gear. We saw a shift change of rescuers...incl. some USAR firefighters from Fairfax Co. FD in Virginia. On the north side of Trinity Church is Vesey St. From there we could look down and see what was left of the collapsed #7 World Trade Center-just a large pile of twisted rubble. There was an FDNY tower ladder up in the air spraying water on the ruins. When everyone was ready-we walked through that checkpoint to Vesey and Church St.-we were now inside "Ground Zero". We were given dust masks to wear...then another one by a NYPD officer that told us this second one was better. We also passed by a box of plastic construction-type helmets and were told to pick one of those up each as well. ?One of the first things that our "guide" warned us of was actually very scary- One Liberty Plaza was damaged and is in danger of collapse. About an hour before we arrived, there was a scare and an evacuation took place as some noises were heard from the building. We were told that is we heard anything and saw people start to run that we were to turn and run as fast as we could and not to look back. They say that while people can look at the images on tv, they can't really understand the scope of the destruction without seeing it in person-they really can't. Looking south down Trinity, there is the burned out hulk of #5 WTC and just south of that #4 WTC-a burned out hulk partially collapsed on the south-end of it. There is also a section of Tower 2 visible on the end of it. That is on one side of the street....on the other is the Millennium Hotel-looking like someone took a shotgun and blasted the bottom half of it-there are so many holes. There is a dusty, burnt smell in the air...luckily the stench of so many buried bodies had not filled the air, but as I sit and now type this I am sure it has. There are numerous stations set up by the Salvation Army and the Red Cross as well as other organizations to feed/care for the rescue workers in this area, The streets are filled with firefighters, police officers, FBI agents, National Guard soldiers, and I am told some CIA people. Trucks are taking debris out..heavy equipment is being used to pick debris up. Randy and I take it all in...in somewhat shock that we actually made it this far in...in somewhat shock from seeing the devastation. There were some tents at the NE corner of what is left of #4 WTC and when I asked what they were I was told "probably a temp. morgue". We hung out there for a short time just taking it all in. From there we went back north a block to Barclay St. We stood on the NE corner of the the Federal Building there...looking down to what remained of #7 WTC.....just a huge pile of collapsed debris. The police officer at that checkpoint asked us if we wanted to go down and take a closer look...and we did. We now found ourselves standing next to a 3-4 story pile of rubble...so close that we were touching it. A NYPD Police Lieutenant with another officer came up to Randy and asked him where he was from..we thought we were busted....turns our they wanted us to take a photo of them. Since it was getting dark and only my camera has an on-camera flash-I did the honors. The Lt. gave me his home address for copies to be sent to. We took some more pics and then due to it getting to dark...we decided that it was time to go. We parted ways with our "guide" as he had to go find his team that he had come in with. Randy and I walked back over to where we had initially come in to "Ground Zero" and just stood there watching the activities for a time and then walked out to find his truck. It was a "ghost town" like feeling walking through the pretty much deserted streets of Lower Manhattan. The ride home was a lot more reserved that when we drove up...we had been at the unimaginable scene of death and destruction and it was weighing heavily upon us. It is now the 21ts...it has taken me a number of sitting to get this all typed. As we all know...the missing and presumed dead now number over 6,000. It is hard to believe that I was actually there and harder to believe that for what I saw, the scene on the western side of where the WTC once stood is much worse. I have seen some of the aerial shots on tv and in the newspapers and it is just shocking. I attened/photographed the funeral of FDNY Firefighter Louis Arena of Manhattan's Ladder Co. 5 on Staten Island 9/19. He died at the age of 27 and leaves behind a wife and two kids ages 3 and 4. He died trying to rescue a woman in a wheelchair. His entire company of 5 firemen were killed...and their fig destroyed by falling debris. I had been to the firehouse where Ladder 5 is quartered in 1994 to pay my respects after they had a fire where 3 other firemen had died. One of the other Ladder 5 members had funeral services that same morning, so F/F Arena's funeral started a bit late so as some of the firefighters as well as members of the FDNY Pipes and Drums could make it from one church to the other. Several companies of on-duty Staten Island firefighters were there also. Normally a funeral for a firefighter in NYC brings thousands of firefighters to stand in ranks and mourn the loss and the casket is carried on a firetruck. FDNY actually has fire trucks that are just used to transport the caskets of deceased firefighters, but due to the amount of deaths hearses are also being used. Also due to the ongoing rescue operation, the need to staff firehouses, etc. there were only a few hundred firefighters there. I had never seen the FDNY Pipes and Drums before (bagpipes and drums)-they marched in in front of the hearse when it was entering the area of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church playing "Amazing Grace". That is one song that can instantly bring a tear to my eye and hearing it played on bagpipes certainly did not help. The church bell chimed a mournful tune as the ranks of FDNY firefighters gave a hand salute while F/F Aerna's casket was removed from the hearse. I might add that the pallbearers were members of Ladder Co. 5 that had not been on duty that day. The service lasted about an hour. for close friends and family inside the church..and then the ranks of mourners reassembled outside as the casket was brought out while the pipes and drums played "Going Home". This is a scene that had already been done numerous times in the past week and will undoubtedly be replayed several hundred times more in the weeks to come. It is a different world that we live in now...I fear that we have not seen the last of the bloodshed on our own soil let alone what our troops that are departing now will face. I am struck by one thing I heard a former head of the CIA I believe it was said while being interviewed on tv-the terrorists could have done more easily an attack with a smaller nuclear device or some sort of biological warfare than what they actually pulled off due to the coordination involved in highjacking 4 aircraft at the same time in different airports. I believe that there are still terrorists in our country just waiting for the other shoe to drop. A sad and scary thing to think-hope that I am wrong about that. As most of you know...my wife and I are scheduled to take a delayed honeymoon in early-Nov involving flying down to Disney and going on their cruise. As of now we have not changed that plan inspite of what has happened, but will monitor what is going on and make changes accordingly. I am including a link to a map that I found on-line that shows in-depth the buildings that were damaged/destroyed. Click here: CNN.com In-Depth Specials Take care friends and family...God Bless you and God Bless us all! Stacy Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1402.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-22 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 64.12.96.135 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was taking training at the time when the episode happened. At that point in time I was working as a Contractor for Lockheed-Martin, Inc. when I heard the news. Approximately 9:30 AM that morning was when we were given the official word that the United States Government was shutdown...and that as I proceeded across the 14th street bridge, I picked up a "scab" that needed a ride back to the town I live in. As I drove South, there was a potent rubber smell as I glanced right to see the Pentagon, partially engulfed in smoke. Little did I know that my Step-Daughter's grandmother, Rosemary Chapa, worked there that it would be her last day of life. There has been a great loss in the extinguishment of her life, at least to my step-daughter...Jennifer. It has been increasing difficult in raising a Step-Daughter, due to mostly a suicide pilot, having nothing better to do than to take Human lives...whose job it is to keep the peace in this world. Thank you for allowing me to post this... Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story424.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-04-16 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 129.174.163.50 Annotation Annotations to this item. Pentagon Personal connection to someone at site Victims DC:2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was having a sip of coffee before leaving my parents home in Mobile to begin the long drive back to El Paso, Texas, my home. I had been in Mobile to be with my mother while she underwent major surgery. It was the final moments of my 2 week stay there. As I held my coffee cup and threw my backpack over my shoulder my dad said, "Look at that, an airplance just hit that building in New York." I looked up at the televison to see the smoke and flames erupting from the building on the television. I thought oh my God what a horrible accident. But as soon as I thought that, my second thought was ...no way...no pilot would have steered into that building, the water is to close. I served in the U.S. Army as an Intelligence Analyst during the Gulf War. No sooner did I get my second taste of warm sweet coffee than I watched the second plane hit the other tower. My heart sank and the adrenalin began to pump. My next thought was, "Oh My God terrorist, oh no were being hit from the inside by terrorist, not here...oh my God." I don't think I could understand what I was seeing. I couldn't watch another second of it, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to leave go home right away. I just looked at the TV the horrific events unfolding before my eyes, grabbed my coffee cup kissed my mom, "I love you...I have to go...I love you too Daddy..I gotta go, I'll call later on tonight." I got in my car found my way to freeway and tuned in the radio. It was unbelievable listening to the commentators, their voices cracking, the disbelief of what they couldn't believe they were wittnessing was so poignantly clear. I burst into tears as I crossed the Mississippi state line. I stopped at a rest stop. It was so odd everyone seemed to be in a daze everywhere you went. No smiles, everyone like zombies, all of us stricken with disbelief and heavy with saddness and perhaps a strange new horrible fear at the realization of our vulnerablity as a nation. I'm sure like the rest of America that day the questions everyone kept asking was "WHERE? Where is it going to happen next? Will it stop, is the White House next?, Why?" As the those early morning hours passed I heard the news cast of the Pentagon crash, the field in Pennsylvania. I'm sure everyone in America knew, without having to be told, the crash in Pennsylvania was not in the terrorist plans, the passengers had done something. Later we'd all find out that indeed American Heros saved our Nations Capitol and gave us all a sense of pride and determination to fight back and announce to all the world "Freedom Will Never Cower." I stopped at Wal Mart in Lousiana off of I-10. I walked in purchased a pack of four mini American Flags, packing tape and a bottle of white shoe polish. I taped a flag onto my rear antenna, I taped two more on the inside window of my car, and I wrote in white letter on the rear window of my car "Freedom Will Never Cower". I felt better driving home to Texas after that. I hope it helped people who had to drive those two days to remember that America is strong and we represent what many countries envy...Freedom...sweet sweet Freedom to live as we are and not as others would dictate. We are not a perfect nation but we tolerate our imperfections like no other nation in the world and thank God, thank Allah, thank Jesus, thank Budda, thank Jehova, thank what ever higher power exist in the universe and ourselves for it. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story8366.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-10-04 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.174.202.176 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My 9/11 experience is not just about watching the televised events of the day, the week, the month, or the year that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As I look back over the two years since 9/11, I see how I am maturing as an American and as a firefighter?s wife. I?ve tried many times to write what happened to me that day and after with months between re-visiting the attempt to finish. My story is not gory, nor first-hand at Ground Zero. Rather, as I suppose, it is much like many others who watched in overwhelming helplessness through the television. And, it was a slap to the face as a young firefighter?s wife, just before our first wedding anniversary, to realize the real danger my husband could face. September 11, 2001, was an ordinary Tuesday morning with the same routine of getting to work. The only significant thing about the day ahead was the anticipation of an out-of-town customer visiting the Long Island manufacturing site where I worked. As I scurried to get last-minute photocopies made, a coworker stopped me in the cube aisle asking if I had heard about an airplane hitting the World Trade Center. I first envisioned a little passenger plane that probably clipped its wing while filming a Hollywood action flick or skyscraper documentary. Why else would a plane be that close to the buildings? But the disheartened look in her eyes said it must be more than that. I finished the photocopying and swung by the cafeteria, where CNN is always on the televisions. Over the heads of a few dozen people in front of the tube, I briefly caught a glimpse of a Twin Tower spewing smoke from a huge hole in the side. I went back to my desk to call my husband at his work and left a voicemail for him. I mentioned it to another coworker and he replied that a second airplane just hit. Now, fifty people were congregating around two of the cafeteria televisions with images of both towers billowing with smoke and news reporters frantically trying to find new words to describe the raveling of the horrific events. The first mention of terrorism from the newscaster sent some in our crowd saying ?I knew it was terrorists? and the rest of us into utter shock. ?Chicago is next,? I immediately thought as I envisioned the Sears Tower with same horrible fate as the Twin Towers. (I am originally from Chicago, where most of my family resides.) I first thought of my sister who works in The Loop, even though I wasn?t too sure of her proximity to the Sears Tower. I dashed to the phone and caught her just as she was leaving. She said that there was an announcement a moment ago to evacuate the building, so she was just about to leave. I said, ?Good. Go. I?ll talk to you later.? and hung up. No need to prolong talk when seconds prove to be crucial. I called my aunt who works for the government and I thought also works in The Loop. I got her voicemail and prayed it was because she was already instructed to leave. I also checked my phone list and ensured there were no 212 (Manhattan) area code work phone numbers belonging to my husband?s family. I then checked my voicemail messages and returned a phone call to my husband. Chris had overslept that day and was awoken by his mother calling from Queens to tell him the first plane had hit. He had called me to relay the news and to let me know he?ll be at the firehouse, where he has been a volunteer firefighter for five years prior. (Most of Long Island fire and rescue services are fully staffed by volunteers.) After some phone-tag, he reported to me he was slated to go on the first truck dispatched if and when FDNY calls for back-up. This was my first slap in the face. I?ve been with him through five years of firefighting, but this was something completely different. This was a new enemy. I walked back into the cafeteria to hear the latest news update and then quickly returned to my desk. Now, I don?t recall the exact moments I learned of the overcome airplanes in Washington and Pennsylvania -- the sequence of events is all a blur. I called the Chicago hospital where my mother is a surgical nurse, often times removed from the outside world for hours at times. She did hear of the attacks, but knew no details. I updated her as much as I knew from the CNN updates and our family status, namely my sister?s evacuation. I also told her of my husband?s seat on the truck with as much confidence and pride as I could muster, trying to ease both our fears. My father had been asleep after a long night at work, but I called to update him, too. All airline flights were grounded by this time, and the thought of spending the preplanned day with the visiting customer seemed as insignificant as what I had for breakfast that morning. I swung by the cafeteria televisions as often as I could while trying to be near my cube phone (my link to family and friends) as much as possible. The first tower had just collapsed, and the news coverage showed live scenes of indistinguishable locations obstructed by smoke which were interrupted by instant re-plays of the tower falling. I could not comprehend the damage much less the loss of life at this point. It was all so overwhelming. While on the phone with my sister-in-law in Chicago, the second tower leaned and teetered until it too collapsed like its brother. The rest of the day was spent on the phone with family and near the television in amongst trying to look somewhat busy with work-related tasks (though work was definitely not at all productive that day). Contact with my husband was frequent but brief as he told me over the course of several calls his status: he?s going to The Pile, he?s not going, he?s going, he?s not going, the truck is going (but he?s been replaced), he?s going on a second truck, the second truck isn?t going, the second truck is going, he?s back on the first truck, etc. Meanwhile, my heart?s stopping, it?s pounding, it?s stopping, it?s pounding, it?s stopping, etc. But, like all other times with his many fire and rescue calls, I am strong for him and let him simply know how much I love him and how proud I am of him. (No need to add my worries to his thoughts at a time like this.) The last phone call was sometime in the afternoon. I was last left with knowledge that he was leaving on a truck bound for downtown Manhattan to work on The Pile. At lunch, my coworker Mike and I decided to head out of the office to clear our minds. We went to the nearby Wendy?s as we often did, but it was so eerie to see how empty it was compared to its usual lunchtime crowd. We nibbled on our lunch as I explained my husband?s whereabouts (and not even sure myself of what I was telling him) and as we tried to make sense of the attacks. I needed some more time to collect my thoughts before returning to work, so we resorted to a local craft store where I often go to escape. It didn?t work: the store was just as eerily empty as Wendy?s, and the radio newscast of the attack blared over the store?s PA system. One of the storekeepers commented how depressing the continual news was, and I mentioned the irony of how I came here to get away from it! The next few hours are so vague to recollect now, almost two years later. I remember our company offering everybody the chance to go home early if they needed to, but most people stayed (not surprising knowing how work-driven the company is). I chose to stay, and I even stayed later than my usual 5:30. I didn?t want to return to an empty house and be alone as I waited for my husband?s return. I actually tackled some work assignments, trying to escape the media hysteria. At 6:30, I left work for the 30 minute drive home. All twelve pre-programmed radio stations in my car didn?t play a note of music or a commercial advertisement. Instead, all the stations had continuing news coverage: a recap of events, estimated death tolls, speculation, history of suspected terrorist groups, etc. Among the information flying around the airwaves was the report of the collapsed Marriott Hotel next to the towers? location. At that time, reporters could not confirm nor deny if there were any trapped victims or rescue personnel, but there was strong speculation of certain deaths there. With my knowledge that Chris was in Manhattan, I tried to suppress any thought on the possibility that he could have been in the collapse. But, my mind raced and figured the timing of his arrival into Manhattan could have very well placed him in the wrong place at the wrong time. At that moment, I faced the very slim but real possibility that he could be dead. No body knew anything for sure the whole day, and nothing except seeing him with my own eyes would ease that fear. I drove to our apartment, heart-wrenched but not surprised to see his car missing from the driveway. I turned on the television, changed clothes, and decided to write a note to leave inside my husband?s car for his return -- wishful thinking. When I arrived at the firehouse to leave the note in the car, the firehouse all of a sudden became a very intimidating place to me. For five years, I strolled in and out of that building as if it were an old friend?s house. But now, it was as if it was cursed. I felt so insignificant -- I didn?t want to bother anybody who may be inside. I debated whether I should go in and ask the dispatcher my husband?s whereabouts. I didn?t want to distract the dispatcher, but my worrying got the best of me and I marched in, still with the assumption that my husband was in Manhattan. A passing firefighter informed me that an ambulance crew was in Manhattan but Chris was in the chief?s office, instead. A great sigh of relief came over me. Seven or so firefighters along with Chris had their eyes glued to the television screen in the office. (Another few dozen were milling around the station.) I silently stood in the doorway as my husband walked toward me. I took his hand and lead him to the next room for some semi-privacy. I hugged him very hard, and I couldn?t let go. But, I didn?t shed a tear. I was so pissed at him, really. Last I heard many hours ago, he was being sent into Manhattan on a death mission for all I knew. That entire time, it took every ounce of my energy to be strong for him, not worry (even though I did), and keep myself composed. All for nothing. He had been at the firehouse the entire time getting the ambulance and trucks ready and waiting to be assigned to a crew. However, knowing that it was all for nothing was a relief. There he was, right in front of me, safe and sound?well, safe anyway. Of course, he was not sound. He was ?in the zone? -- very focused, as he is with all fire and rescue calls. His concentration got the best of him while preparing the trucks, so he was unable to call me. Watching that moment of television when I walked in was the first chance he had all day to stop and sit. (I made it quite clear that, from then on, he does not ?stop? or ?sit? until he calls me to let me knows he?s alive.) God, I was angry, but I was more thankful to God for his safety at the same time. I stopped to gas up the car on the way home. Rumors flew that gas prices would sky rocket with the obvious turmoil we would now face with the Middle East, so I took advantage of the untouched price of $1.49 a gallon (which, by the way, remained $1.49 for months). Chris soon joined me at home. I called my parents in Chicago again and spent some more time on the phone. It broke my heart to hear how Elizabeth, my high school friend in Chicago, feared returning to work as a United Airlines flight attendant, especially when she told me that she had worked that tragic flight route a few times in the past. Mary, my college friend, called to make sure we were alright and to let me know her father who works in the Pentagon got out of there with no harm; luckily, his office had just been moved from the hit section because of construction. This was all becoming way too personal, too connected, too small of a world. I think we had dinner?probably nibbled on a frozen pizza. The television replayed the film footage all evening long: the second plane hitting, the towers falling, the Pentagon burning, the flight paths of the four ill-fated flights, the ever-revising estimated death toll, Mayor Giuliani?s brush with death, eye-witness stories, emerging details, and continuous speculation. Chris and I talked about the day, the events, the news reports, the attack, the terrorist bastards, what it will be like if Chris goes with a rescue crew into Manhattan. And, in our own way, we prayed that God look over the crew from our firehouse, all emergency rescue crews, volunteers, survivors, and victims. We clung to the hope that victims would be found in air pockets of the fallen building rubble, that this would be the end of the attacks, and that justice will somehow be found. We knew we were now at war. It was a restless night. The fire department pager on our nightstand woke us at 6:00 the next morning with a message calling for a new crew for FDNY mutual aid. Chris jumped into his laid out clothes, grabbed his packed duffle bag, and kissed me goodbye. I got to work early, and we continued our phone tag game: he?s going to Ground Zero, he?s not going, he?s going, etc. One more phone call to the dispatcher confirmed he was on his way into Manhattan. My heart stopped. The day at work was such a blur. The customers (who were supposed to be here the day before) were at the office, and I tried very hard to put on my professional front for them. I occasionally snuck to my phone to get an update from the dispatcher and to catch a CNN update in the cafeteria. I could not let myself worry, but I was definitely on edge. After work, I went to the firehouse. Some of those from the rig decided to go out for dinner. So there I was, in a practically empty restaurant, surrounded by mentally battered heroes fresh from the scene. Their faces were long, all of them talking, nobody really listening?just talking to try to find words to make sense of it all. Our waiter looked a bit confused at their demeanors, so I explained the situation on the sly. His eyes bugged out of his head with a look of disbelief. He soon returned with our drinks and announced they were on the house as a thank you. However, my dining companions were all talking so much they didn?t even hear his kind gesture. Our friend Laura made a notable observation during dinner: that what is happening will forever belittle anything that has ever happened on any call. She referred to a rescue call a week before when a man had accidentally fallen into the collapsed septic tank in his back yard. Our fire department was on the scene leading the grim rescue efforts. (Chris was manning the hazardous materials station, ensuring all personnel were properly cleaned after leaving the rescue scene.) After many hours of tactical rescue efforts exhausted, the body of the man was finally recovered. It was horrific news that swept through Long Island, and even my college friend in Seattle, Washington, had heard on the news. This was a big deal in the firehouse: the time, the talent, the ill-fate. To Laura?s point, what was such a big buzz was going to be so distant so quickly. Indeed even a year later, I hadn?t heard anyone speak of it since Laura at that dinner. Finally back home for the night, I thought Chris would be bursting at the seams to tell me every little detail of what happened that day -- just like he does with every other call, often times talking into the wee hours of the night. This was indeed different, another slap in the face. It took more than nine months for him to tell me what he saw that day while he was assigned to Ground Zero. It wasn?t anything gory, but it definitely was a life-altering experience. That is his story to tell. One aspect he did tell me that night has left the biggest pit in my stomach. It wasn?t so much what he told me, rather what he reminded me of. Between his work and firehouse activities, I often lose track of the details of his busy schedule. I vaguely remembered him telling me a week prior about an engineering seminar in the city for his job. But, with all the recent events flashing by, I had completely forgotten about it. Just keeping track of his whereabouts at the time was enough, much less what he was supposed to be doing instead. The awful reminder was that the seminar he should?ve attended that day (September 12) was to be held in one of the Twin Towers. It makes me nauseous even to think about it now, almost two years later, how our lives would forever be affected had the attacks been a mere 24 hours later. By chance and the grace of God, we will never know. Instead, I focus on the irony: my husband was supposed to be at the WTC on September 12 wearing his suit and tie, but instead he wore his firefighter turnout gear there. For me, September 11 poured into September 12 as one big, long day of devastation, horror, and hope. The next few days were also surreal. By Thursday, I had been so overwhelmed with phone calls and emails that I sent everyone in my email address book a mass email explaining everything, or at least what I knew at that point. The all-time worst email reply in my life was from Tom, a very close friend of my husband and groomsman in our wedding, whose uncle Herman Broghammer worked on the 78th floor of Tower Two was lost. Tom spent the following days with his cousins posting fliers all around Manhattan with his uncle?s picture and information desperate for a lead to his safe finding. Unfortunately, his uncle is still among the missing. And, other reports confirmed missing FDNY firefighters Chris knew -- Raymond Meissenheimer and Kevin Smith -- two men who also had volunteered in our fire department. However, many missed-it-by-this-much stories provided some relief, some blessings. My husband?s two uncles work within a mile of WTC. Uncle John witnessed the first plane crash and everything to follow from his office window looking directly at the Towers; he works for ComEd, and so he was required to stay at work throughout the nights and the following days to handle the electricity shortage emergencies in the vicinity. And, Uncle Pete stepped out from his building to witness the reality after the first plane hit; he works for the IT department at Time (magazine), and so he was required to stay at work to support the history-in-the-making journalism efforts. (I have since updated my phone list to include their new work numbers!) My coworker?s mother, who worked on the 50th floor, was lucky enough to be late to work that day when her WTC-bound subway train was halted just a few stops short from her destination and ordered to evacuate. My classmates and I dreaded attending class Thursday evening and were quite surprised at how our professor seemed oblivious to our lack of enthusiasm or participation. But during the class break, he explained to us that he was at a seminar on Monday (September 10) in one of the Towers and didn?t care for the guest speaker enough to go for the second day of the seminar?s morning segment. He was purposely late so that he could just attend the closing luncheon, but his WTC-bound subway train was also halted early and ordered to evacuate. I think it was Friday on my drive home when a radio disc jockey duo shed some light for me. All the radio stations for the following days played very little (if any) music. Instead, caller after caller shared stories, prayer requests, and messages of hope. However on one station, Opie and Anthony, two otherwise clowns that dominated the airwaves for the long drive home every night for the past year, seemed to have a fire lit under their asses. They were completely wound up in disgust. They tried to reach out to the audience to point out just how serious this is. One DJ?s point: what the terrorists did by hijacking the planes to kill innocent people is no different than them driving military tanks down Broadway in broad daylight and shooting at thousands of innocent people; but what makes it worse is that they had the audacity to use OUR airplanes instead of their own tanks. His passionately aggravated voice was screaming out to his listeners. Good point. Friday night, I had a tough mission. Quite a few of the firefighters were at the local watering hole, which is nothing different. But this weekend, it was a new release needed by them. You could just feel it in the air: greetings were a little friendlier and a lot more sincere; no catty chatter; a lot of generous rounds flowed. Chris and an assistant chief struck a conversation, and I felt the need to remove myself to let them liberally converse. So, I walked over to a friend of my husband who I never really ever talked much to before and thought to strike up a casual conversation. Jim is always a jovial character, and tonight seemed to bring out the best of him. After a few minutes of chatter, I innocently asked what he did for a living. Jim replied that he?s a steel worker and continued to explain how he has spent countless hours the past few days operating cranes at Ground Zero for the recovery efforts. My jaw dropped. But, I encouraged him to tell me more. He told me about the site, the feelings, the horror, the hope. Who knew such an innocent question about what he did for a living would lead to this discussion? By the end of our chat, the jukebox was almost done with its round of music selections. Jim handed me five dollars and said, ?Go pick something good.? What? OK, easy thing to do, right? I turned the lists of song choices, and everything seemed so inappropriate with some deranged connection to 9/11: ?(Going Down in a) Blaze of Glory? by Bon Jovi, ?Leaving on a Jet Plane? by John Denver, ?Free Falling? by Tom Petty, you name it! As I perused the list, I realized what an impossible mission this was: find songs that had nothing to do with anything that might trigger some connection to the week?s events. I picked some classics as best as I could and resumed conversing. Everybody had a story to tell. Again, everybody was talking and nobody was really listening. I tried to listen, tried to observe this human nature of reacting to the horror. But these weren?t just humans -- these were firefighters who were hurting. That weekend, as yet another personal epiphany of how close to home this all was, FDNY Chief Peter Ganci?s funeral was held at the church were Chris and I were married just ten months prior. Ganci lived in the next town over and was a parishioner at that church, too. Standing among hundreds of neighbors, I witnessed my husband saluting proudly with our fire department as the funeral procession for Ganci passed under the huge American flag ceremonially held up by our fire truck ladder. His casket rode on our department?s antique pump truck, the same truck Chris rode to the same church for our wedding. Early Monday morning, just shy of a week after 9/11, my emotions finally caught up to me. Moments before the alarm clock was to go off, Chris jolted awake gasping for air. I instantly awoke next to him. He had a horribly vivid dream of a building crashing down on him. I cannot even find words to describe how petrified I felt that morning. When I read the CNN.com reports at my desk at work that morning, I finally broke down into tears for the first time. I called my sister in Chicago for comfort, and she did her best to ease my fears. That night, she watched David Letterman break down into tears on his late-night television show, which made her realize the delayed reaction of many New Yorkers. And so, for the next few days, she called to check on me. I needed that. She even emailed me an article on coping with traumatic events and another article on how to cope being a spouse of a person with a dangerous occupation. Both were helpful in finding words that identified how I felt. For the following weeks, it killed me to see all the Department of Transportation electronic signs along the Long Island Expressway that usually read ?Buckle Up for Safety? when they don?t have traffic jam reports. Now, they all read: ?Avoid Downtown Manhattan? in steady bright orange. Sick. It was also tear-jerking to see the outpour of patriotism across Long Island. Every single overpass was adorned with American flags, flowers, ribbons, and banners -- both professionally printed ones and hand-made with spray-paint on bed sheets: ?God Bless America,? ?We Will Not Forget,? ?FDNY/NYPD,? and anti-terrorist messages. The overpasses with a former view of the Twin Towers were especially decorated. Another memorable d?cor was the hundreds of trees that lined the Wantagh Parkway each with a single American flag affixed to it -- a few dozen are still clinging on to this day. And, every marquee on every store, house of worship, library, firehouse, police department, anywhere had similar messages of support and hope. A week and a half after 9/11, the anthrax scares began to top the media headlines. That Friday morning, I first heard of a confirmed case. The day filled with other threats and suspicions around the country. That evening, as Chris and I headed to the firehouse to dine on some drive-through fast food, our department was called down to the firehouse for an impromptu meeting. Chris figured it was probably another update on terrorism awareness. Coincidently, there was a tone for a hazardous material situation at the United Parcel Service depot. This, in light of the anthrax headlines, put everyone over the top. I sat in the downstairs rec room to nibble on my burger and listen intently to the crew and dispatcher conversation broadcasted over the P.A. Chris, who specializes in Haz Mat calls, went to the scene with a crew. I couldn?t hear his voice in the conversation, so I had no idea where he was exactly or what he was doing. The officer of the scene reported back all the extra precautions the crews were taking while entering the building. The mood of the entire situation was peculiar -- the extra caution, the slight nervousness, the exceptional distrust in the unknown. This was beyond 9/11, and I knew this wasn?t the last of it. I was so hyped. All I could do was sit and listen and hope that the television would distract me enough to not worry -- it didn?t. Turns out, the questionable parcel was a broken gallon of concentrated acetone bound for a nearby cosmetic manufacturer. Nail polish remover is hardly a life-threatening situation, but while it was unidentified, it was treated as if it were a nuclear reaction spill -- or anthrax. Chris manned the familiar Haz Mat cleaning station outside. And, the night was left with a shrill realization that the enemy has taken on many new forms. In mid-October, a college friend living in Kentucky emailed me to see if I knew anyone wanting tickets to see ?Beauty and the Beast? on Broadway. I found it a bit odd, but he explained that a coworker had decided to cancel a family trip to NYC in light of the turmoil. He didn?t want the tickets to go to waste but didn?t know anyone in the area who could use them. I accepted the generous offer, but the owner didn?t ask for any money. He wanted it to be a gift to someone in New York who had been through so much, and so he was particularly elated to hear they went to a firefighter. However, getting Chris to take me to the show was like pulling teeth. He was less than thrilled to head into Manhattan, and it was obvious. The tickets arrived at our house via overnight mail just three hours before the curtain rose. We dashed into Manhattan, this being his second trip into Manhattan since 9/11 and my first. We usually take the train in, but with little time to spare we drove which was odd to begin with. As the skyline peaked on the horizon, it was my first chance to see with my own eyes that the landmark Twin Towers were no longer dominating downtown -- odd, sick, heart-wrenching. We parked near Times Square, and I gave a man standing in line for tickets the three extra tickets we had. Quite to his surprise as much to ours, they were fifth row! It was an excellent performance, as only Disney can do providing everyone with a few moments of fantasy. But Chris was on edge all night. At intermission, I asked him what he was thinking, trying to provoke anything out of him. He said all he could think about is the hundreds of Brothers buried in rubble a few miles south of here. In later months, I welcomed my husband home after he attended funeral and memorial services for several other fallen FDNY Brothers. (While most FDNY firefighters worked at Ground Zero, they relied on the surrounding area volunteer firefighters to represent and perform Firematic services at funerals and memorials.) Most notable to me was the memorial service of Ray Meisenheimer, who was a life member of our volunteer fire department (in addition to his professional career with FDNY). I never met Ray, but Chris knew of him through the firehouse and was a student in several of Ray?s many fire and tactical rescue classes. I did not attend the service or the following reception at our firehouse. At the end of the evening, our chief asked Chris to drive Ray?s wife and children home. In a sense, this was an honor for Chris -- to be regarded as a trusted member worthy of such a sensitive task. However, it was like no other task he has been given before. How do you take a widow and her children to an empty home? What do you say? As suave and tactful as Chris can be, I can only imagine what was running through his mind as he escorted her to her front door and said goodnight. Sometime in the late fall, Chris? firehouse friend Pat was finally home long enough to invite people over for dinner, as he and his girlfriend often do. Pat is a professional FDNY firefighter stationed in the Bronx and, on 9/11, had just been relieved from duty and on his drive home when the first plane struck. When he returned to work the next day, his work routine changed to include the standard 12 hours on and 12 hours off at Ground Zero most FDNY members were assigned. At dinner that night, it was my first chance to see Pat and hear his experiences. Indeed, there was an unfathomable dimension to what he described about what he?s been doing, seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling. At first, it was unusual to see Pat without his moustache, which he shaved off in order to smear peppermint oil under his nose to try to block out the smell of death. He told his stories with as much lightheartedness an old salty firefighter can; I guess he?s immune to how cruelty works after all these years fighting fires and dealing with destruction. He tried describing a scene for me and found trouble using the right words to express it, but he then remembered he had a picture of it. He walked back from the credenza with two envelopes full of photos he took with disposable cameras. I thumbed through the hazy pictures, not sure if the haze was from the poor camera quality or from smoke or both. But it was clear enough to see the destruction through the specks of floating ash and debris swarming around like snow falling. My first flight after 9/11 was particularly uneasy to say the least. But I was determined to go, reminding myself often that if I don?t continue doing the things I did before 9/11, then the terrorists will have won me over. A month before my trip to Chicago for Christmas, Eric, a college classmate, had a nightmare that I was killed in a ferocious explosion while trying to help people escape from a building. I had become homesick like never before, and I wasn?t going to let a little sleepless presage stop me either. I had emailed back to him that if I were indeed going to die on this trip, it had better be on the way back because I first need a good dose of home. Indeed, it was good to be ?home? for that weekend to celebrate Christmas with my family. Sometime during the winter, when Chris and I were visiting his parents in Queens as we often do, Chris went through a pile of his mail sent to his parents? address. The quarterly alumni newsletter from his high school headlined the eighteen alumni killed on 9/11. Among those listed was Mike Marti, a classmate of Chris?. I saw the distress in Chris? face as he read the newsletter. Again, this was a victim Chris knew but I did not. But it was still another kick to the stomach nonetheless. Chris spoke fondly of Mike, reminiscing of the fun guy he share homeroom with for four years. But, I can only image what Chris was silently saying: Mike is the same age as me, comes from the same background as me, is a hard worker just like me, who happened to be working in a Twin Tower. Mike never did anything to ever deserve this. It?s just not fair. Over Mother?s Day weekend of 2002, my parents and cousin visited from Chicago. For the past three years I had been living on Long Island, only one of their visits had included sight seeing in New York City. Since my 14-year-old cousin Juliana would be joining them and it was her first trip to New York, we planned a day to include the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and a Broadway show. During the discussions with my mother to plan the weekend, she had suggested a stop at Ground Zero, if I felt up to it. At first, I was against it. The very thought of it made me sick to my stomach. But, I felt it was important. It was also a once in a lifetime opportunity. I reasoned that this site will one day be as honored and visited similarly to Pearl Harbor. I went along with the idea and planned the route to walk after our stop at The Statue. This is what I emailed my college friends of that experience: ?The closer the date came to their visit, the more I felt I wanted to go [to Ground Zero]...to try to comprehend the loss, to have my peace, and to try to understand what history is being made. ?We walked from Battery Park (ferry to/from Ellis Island) up West Street toward the Financial District. This approach to the area was pretty much closed off from public viewing, so we walked around the very long block to the wire fence barricaded side. ?Indeed, as most people have said, it mostly looks like a normal construction site: bulldozers, cranes, hardhats, etc. Three of the four sides of the city block were lined with plywood sheets to block views, except for this one side. Just looked like common Manhattan construction... ?What wasn't so common... ?The fire station right across the street from the WTC site was adorned with patches from hundreds of fire departments from all around the country...and probably world. It was a powerful sight to see so many patches carefully displayed all around a posterboard listing all the men lost from that firehouse. The word "brotherhood" certainly comes to mind. ?As we continued walking, one thing that struck me was the public. Everyone seemed a bit more solemn. Not stone cold silent, just conversations a little quieter than normal. Another weird feeling was the weather. It was a clear blue day out, unseasonably warm...a day that was so beautiful and comfortable, it seems like nothing could go wrong...just like what I remember the weather was on 9/11. ?Behind us was the infamous church beside the towers that withstood the collapses. The church is surrounded by a very old cemetery and high wrought iron fence. This fence has become a sort of wailing wall...lined with posters, banners, flags, hats, t-shirts, cards, rosaries, candles, origami swans, etc. This was very moving...moving to see so many people stop to read the banners and posters: the signatures, the quotes, the written prayers and wishes by so many others. It was comforting to see so many of these items put up by so many people from around the country...Girl Scout troops from the Midwest, High School band clubs from the West Coast, Ladies Fire Auxiliary from Florida. It was a great sense of country pride and shared anguish. ?The most heartbreaking part of the visit was seeing what appeared to be a mother and her grown daughter visiting the site...tears in their eyes, tissues in hand, and walking slowly with their arms around each other. It was horrific to connect that this was Mother's Day weekend...to see a grieving mother in such pain was truly heart-wrenching. ?I didn't cry, but it hurt just the same to experience this. But, I'm glad I went. I got a step closer to really comprehending the loss of life, and I also witnessed a piece of history to something much larger. And from seeing the outpouring of mementos from around the country, I also got a little piece of inner peace.? When the first 9/11 anniversary approached, I anticipated another outpour of patriotism with the streets adorned with ribbons and banners and marquees displaying messages of support. The day came, and to my surprise, it was rather low-key. I think most people were respectful of the date, but I guess most people didn?t know how to show it without being indecent, tacky, or insensitive to those who may still be deeply grieving. I purposely scheduled an early morning visit to a vendor?s site so that I could stop back at home at 8:30 a.m. to catch the televised memorial service. Chris and I watched as family and friends of the victims braved the mighty winds together to honor their loved ones at Ground Zero. Some opening remarks, poetry readings, and music were followed by a reading of all the victims? names alphabetically. After Herman Broghammer (our friend Tom?s uncle) was announced, I figured I had better get to work. On the car radio, they were not even half-way through the alphabet by the time I got to work almost a half-hour later. Remembering that my entire high graduation ceremony with a class of 500 students was less than 45 minutes put reading 3,000 names for 9/11 into perspective for me. A week shy of Independence Day 2003, I once again visited Ground Zero. So much has changed since my visit over a year ago. It still looks like a ?normal? construction site, but there is no longer the make-shift feel to the area. The temporary plywood and chain link fence around the perimeter has been replaced with purposefully placed concrete barriers and steel grating. The sidewalk has been cleanly re-poured for the onlookers to view from. The next-door church cemetery fence is barren. An engraved list of all the victims hangs solemnly from the grating above. I?ve been keeping tabs on the proposed designs of the future site, and I anticipate a magnificent revival of the area to once again give shape to the skyline and, more so, to give honor to those who lost their lives. Since the attack, I continue to pray and hope for a justified end to this chaos. I sometimes have horrible nightmares of 9/11 and the war stirring me awake in the middle of the night. I have become practically addicted to updates on the War on Terrorism, CNN news coverage, and other current events. I firmly believe in a cleaver comment I read a while ago: War is God?s sick way of making us learn geography. I praise our military even more. I had cut a bright yellow plastic table cloth into strips to tie around our tree to welcome home the troops from Gulf War II. I still have a red, white, and blue ribbon on my car antenna (replaced a few times since September 2001). I try to assimilate and comprehend how my grandparents coped with living through World War II and my parents through Vietnam, when they would have been about the same age as me now (27). I have a newly found compassion for life, death, and widows. I am grateful that our local post office was named in memory of Peter Ganci, the fallen FDNY chief. I continue to wait patiently every time my husband runs out the front door to the firehouse to attack the enemy. And, I?m even prouder to be an American. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9501.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-09-08 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.88.133.210 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I remember trying to make it through the New York Times Sunday Paper. The Times (September, 2001) I like to try, on Sundays, to live a little. As best I can I mimic cultured characters that my father told me about in bedtime stories. I would wake and without showering I would put on a pair of old brown slippers ? leathery with dark blue crushed velvet on the inside. My pants are bulky wool trousers, like army pants from WWII, that have been worn thin enough even for summer but still keep my thighs warm in the fall. I have worn a hole where my heel steps down on them. When I walk through my flat the wooden planks in my room and down the old stair case in my building I avoid, as best I can, the nails that haven?t worn down as fast as the pine floor boards and the cracked tile in the door frames. I have a red T-shirt that I wear on Sundays that has ?Sunday T-shirt? printed on it. It is a 50/50 cotton/poly blend. Every Sunday I leave my apartment at dawn or right near then and go to the corner snack shop to buy fruit and coffee and the New York Times. I live in Kansas City in the dead area between two delapitated sections of what used to be an exciting down town. They had, I?ve heard, gone as far as they could go. The building I live in used to be a factory or something, most of the other buildings on the block still are. Except the snack shop on the corner that sells The New York Times. It is out of place. I am one of 15 people that live close enough to walk to the place, but it?s always packed full of people that come down from other parts to get the NY paper from some place other than Barnes and Noble. People that are hipper than most of the rest. I like the people that come down well enough, but to be honest, I think I?m better than they are. I go to YJ?s Snack Shop not to be cool or to avoid the main stream, but because it?s the closest place to my house to get a cup of coffee. They come, the hip and cool, on Sundays to see what The Times has in sections A through Q of its Sunday Edition. They come to talk politics with Y.J., the owner and political aficianado that has been kicked out of Mexico permanently for trying to start a revolution or something equally hilarious. As I head out of my building I notice that it seems my building should have beautiful tile and tin stamp and the like, but it doesn?t. My apartment is old wood and bricks. Sometimes, however, in the right light, right before night, my flat glows yellow and then red. When I get to YJ?s he is already yelling. ?Bush is a fucking moron, I tell you, and Ashcroft is a fucking lunatic! I don?t know when those fucks in Washington are going to get a fucking clue?? He is preaching to the choir. They listen intently. I nod and get the paper. I will come back later in the day, after I?ve read the paper. I come in and I sit and Y.J. gets me a coffee and he puts a little whiskey in it for me, because he likes me. He forces a cigarette on me, saying, ?It?s only civilized.? Then he preaches to me ? I tell him he charges too much for the Times. The Sunday before Thanksgiving I got a banana and a kiwi fruit to go with the coffee. The Times was huge that week, the week before Thanksgiving, what with all the ads and war and all. I could hardly hold all of it. After the short walk home and the teetering walk up the stairs trying to keep the behemoth under my arm from falling out all over the place, I decided to do my reading in bed. My bed is a double in the middle of an open loft. I keep it off center and unmade to confuse party guests that rarely come over. I put my coffee and fruit down on the little table next to the bed. I piled all the pillows at one end and then lied down with The Times across my lap. I like to start out by reading the front page of all the sections. This way I can know a little bit about everything. So I started out like I do every Sunday by having a look at the International, National, Politics, Business, Technology, Science, Health and Sports sections. After I amused myself with American spin control or the suffering job market or whatever each section?s front page had to offer, I would discard it to my side. What I didn?t realize, this being an oversized Edition, was what a mountain I was creating around me. I took a moment to appreciate the ?New York Region,? and ?Education,? articles. I stopped for a while in the Weather, Obituaries, Real Estate and Automobiles sections. Classifieds and Advertisements really got the paper unfolding. Macy?s had a section all its own. I?m not sure how long I was browsing in the Nieman Marcus holiday catalog, but if the phone rang, I didn?t answer it. The Special Section: A Nation Challenged full of ?Pictures of Grief,? and more war propaganda was instantly thrown out. I skipped right over the Op/Ed and Readers' Opinions. When I tried to find a place to set these sections I realized I couldn?t see any of my bed any more. Actually the paper had begun to wrap itself so high up around my body I could hardly see over the seemingly endless information. Not giving a shit I began a stroll through the cultured sections of the times. It starts with Arts and then come Books and Movies. I read through these sections and so huge sheets come off when I?m done. And these sheets flow up and around and try to spiral their way over the mountains of newspaper that now surrounded me. The Travel, Dining & Wine and Home & Garden sections lightened up my grey pre-Thanksgiving mood. One man had been to Japan to hike through the hot springs. And a woman had been to a French eatery on the Mediterranean that had the most wonderful sounding fish stew. I was about ready for a bite of fruit. I suddenly remembered my coffee and looked to see if it was even still visible. I looked right, and I looked left, but alas it was all paper. I tried to reach my hand through it but it was too heavy. I was getting a little nervous. I wanted my coffee but the only way to it was through The New York Sunday Times. Had it ever been done? Had anyone ever actually made it through an entire Sunday Times? I was getting frantic. I decided to ignore my predicament and continued as if nothing were unusual. I looked at Fashion & Style. Moving faster and getting a little upset I tore through New York Today. I about cried when the Cartoons opened into endless pages. Who gave Doonsbury the right to half a page? I want that man?s head. Until that morning I had never truly appreciated the TV pullout. They have a whole week of TV programming in there! Then, just when I though I might be to the end, Its award winning Magazine and Week in Review came from nowhere. I couldn?t help it. I had to read up on what happened last week. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Ignore current events?! What is my humanity, but current events? The Week in Review is the New American Bible of the sophisticated age! Lost and alone I looked up from the hole I created. Page upon page folded and unfolded up and around me. There was no more up and down ? no more side to side. Only me and the paper. Now some may have ventured one way through a Sunday Times, but I am quite comfortable that no man, woman nor child has read it both ways. And this, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, the paper of papers crammed with ads and stories that seem like ads and a war year no less, I was going both ways. I shit you not I was very scared I wouldn?t make it. ?No God!? I yelled, ?Somebody help me! I?m fuckin? lost in the fuckin? Times!? But no one heard my screams. I doubt they could escape the monster that surrounded me. So I started backwards. Week in Review, revisited: I walked again through award winning articles. And then again the Magazine. I was building speed, trying to find a rhythm through the Cartoons (again I didn?t laugh at Doonsbury?s political satire) and then New York Today?s calendar of hip things to do that I wouldn?t do because I was trapped under an oppressive coastal paper in Kansas City! Fashion & Style mocked my Midwestern sense of security and classic fits. ?DKNY go to hell!? I shouted as I rampaged. Home & Garden, with your uptown twist, your understated use of plants in the kitchen, do you know the way torture me? Can you taste the bile you cause in my mouth? ?How did I ever love you!?? Dining & Wine and Travel ? reminders of how stuck I am under this unforgiving pile of paper. Will I ever relax in a Japanese natural Hot spring? Not fucking likely. Movies. Books. Arts. The weight of your existence being critiqued is suffocating me. Must, again I read of Shallow Hal, of new adventures in self-exploration, of people in New York painting and singing. ?Does this paper have no end?? I tried to dump Op/Ed and Readers? Opinions over my head but the only way to the other side was through. ?Harriet? from Ohio thinks we should ?bring justice to the evil doers that don?t believe in the good God.? ?Please Paper!? I yell ?I beg of you, don?t make me face my nation! Let me through!? I started ripping through the pages. I pulled criticisms apart and made a hole to escape through. I could feel air from the outside. I tore my way through Op/Ed (Referred to as communists by ?Nick? from Des Moines). I slammed hard into the Special Section: A Nation Challenged. The paper wouldn?t let me bring any more destruction to a nation faced with so much already. I had to resort to peaceful means of getting through. I had to read about street venders getting hassled by cops for selling pins of the World Trade Towers. ?I lost my store!? Hasim Abdul Jhidomalamad said, ?They only give me bad time because of what I look like.? Fucking cops, does anyone like you? So many dead people around right now, all up in the Obits. It is page after page of death in this section. Stories of life, recovered in death, almost as if these lives were just discovered, like porn under your son?s bed. And this just in? Weather is looking up for the holiday season from the Rockies west but watch out if you?re headin? East ? it could get a little messy. In Education, teachers have problems as do students, administrators, parents and school buildings themselves. I was finally approaching the heart of this thing ? Region, Sports, Business, Politics and the front page. The region is in political chaos, Steinbrenner is gonna do his damnedest to buy another World Series for New York (in its time of need) and stocks still suck but the bottom has got to be around here somewhere. In politics, lots of people are dying, but not enough, or the right ones. On a bright note, Guliani may one day not be the mayor of New York. With that I fell out the side of the bed, the mess of Times still piled up everywhere. I breathed. It was fantastic to breath without the air being filtered through the fucking Times. I walked around the mountain, trying to take it in, trying to figure out how to get it out. I went to try to pick it up, but couldn?t bring myself to touch it, being that I was afraid it would somehow drag me back in. I picked up my coffee. It was cold now. I looked outside and noticed that the morning sun had made its way to evening. The brick walls began to glow yellow. I went and leaned against the bricks. I slid my hand over the old stone and enjoyed the warm sun and its wonderful timeless feeling. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1543.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-29 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 149.31.52.195 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On september 11 I went to school just like any other day not knowing what kind of tragedy was bout to happen in a couple of hours. I remeber sitting in homeroom with Mr. Johnston, when the teacher from next door came rushing over to our room saying "turn on the news, a plane just crashed into one of the world trade centers!" At first I didnt really know anything about the towers and didnt think anything of it really, becasue I didnt know all of the people that were just killed and involved in it. As the day went on though i realized that this was a big deal. The news was on in every class we had and after hearing them talk about it, I didnt want to believe it becasue i was scared for all of the people trapped inside and what must have been going through thier minds, if they were thinking they were going to die or thinking bout thier kids, husbands, or wifes. When the the reporter announced that the first tower had just collapsed i feared for all of those lifes trapped inside and for all of thier loved ones watching them collapse with it. Kids were leaving school becasue they were scared, and for the first time ever Disney closed. Everyone was scared of where they may strike next. I remeber being frightned that they may hit Floirda since it if one of the major tourist attractions in the United States. This was a huge tragedy and I hope that nothing like this will happen again and that we will never have to lose so many people at once again. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9225.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-04-26 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.74 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: A recap of my work day on September 11, 2001 in mid-town Manhattan. 8:10am - Sat down at my desk, 22oz. coffee and a corn muffin. 8:56am - Got up from my desk and headed for the kitchen microwave to heat up what was left of my coffee (as I always do). This is where the best view of the towers is and I usually take a glance at it every day while my coffee is heating up. Taking notice to the smoke, I stood and stared along with a few others questioning and guessing about what was going on at the WTC. 9:05am ? 3 of us watched as the 2nd plane crashed into the south tower. People in the office started running around frantically; before I knew it 20 of us were in the kitchen. I couldn?t stay there any longer, had to find out what the hell was going on. 9:15am - Went to talk to the boss.....lent me his radio.......headed back to my office...... sat and listened, while my family and friends used AOL Instant Messenger telling me what I saw from the kitchen window. Heard on the radio that all the bridges and tunnels were closed in and out of the city.........made some phone calls to family & friends before the phones cut out. 9:45am - Radio reported a third aircraft had hit the Pentagon. U.S. Capital begins to evacuate. 10:00am - Heard someone in the office yell that one of the Towers had collapsed, I had to see it with my own eyes. 10:10am - Office meeting to take a head count and talk about what to do, office is now closed. 10:15am - Went to the roof, spent the next 15 minutes on the roof waiting for the dust clouds from the first tower to clear. Up there I heard the second boom and watched the North Tower crash to the ground, that's when I began to run. The thought that either of the towers would crumble to the ground never even crossed my mind. (actually, I remember thinking about how they would ever go about fixing the hole and what the hole would look like when the fires were put out). Seeing them burn is one thing, but to see them crumble to the ground scared me. 10:29am - Back to my office to call home, phones were now completly dead, went to the stairwell to make my way down to the street and up to Penn Station to see if the trains were running before it was too late. 7th Ave. was at a stand still, running around all the cars and people, I looked down the street towards the towers, all I could see was smoke and all I could hear were sirens. 10:42am - Frantic, I ran around inside Penn Station to find out if the trains were still running. They announced one more train was leaving and that it wouldn?t leave without you. Track 15, down the stairs the train was still there, it seemed there was no room left on the train, but I managed to squeeze myself on, half of my body outside the door I held on. 10:48am - Train door finally closed and jammed packed on the last train to Jersey, I began to sweat profusely. After about another 8 minutes they told us the train was not going to leave, Penn Station is now closed, please exit the building immediately. Off to the ATM machine in Penn Station for cash, I had no idea what to do or expect next. 11:05am ? Not wanting to waste time, I began to run again, making my way up to the street level onto W33rd. Thinking I better get away from the Empire State Bldg. (on 34th & 5th) I headed towards the Hudson River. Running too close to the Post Office (which was surrounded by men with guns) I was stopped by 2 Police Officers that thought I was some kind of nut. How was I to know there was was a bomb scare there. 11:10am - Standing in a line of thousands holding cell phones at the 38th St. pier near the Javits Center, I waited to board a NY Waterway Ferry to NJ. Watching F16 fighters fly above and an endless line of emergency vehicles headed south, all I could do was wait and hope they wouldn?t shut down my last hope of getting off the Island. I honestly contemplated swimming to NJ. 11:50am - As I boarded the John Stevens, they announced we weren?t going to Hoboken (where the trains are) and that we were headed for Weehawken (Port Imperial?). We were told there would be buses waiting at the pier to take us to Hoboken. Standing at the stern of the overcrowded boat I watched as smoke billowed for miles and thought about all the innocent lives that were lost in the rubble. 12:05pm - Thank God, I made it to NJ, as we all disembarked, EMS workers were getting on. Walking to the parking area I saw the line for the bus to Hoboken.....no way was I was going to stand in another line, so asked for directions and began to walk towards Hoboken, hopefully get a train anywhere near my car or home. 12:30pm?? ? Exhausted both physically and mentally, dehydrated and tired of walking in the hot sun, I thought why not hitch hike, so I did. Picked up by an older gentlemen in an SUV, he noticed my disarray along with all the sweat and turned the air conditioning on high for me. I explained to him my situation and he happily agreed to drive me as far as he could in the direction of Hoboken. 12:40pm - Dropped off and a bit cooled off somewhere along Park Ave. in Hoboken, I began walking again, looking for a pay phone or someone?s cell phone I could borrow, I stumbled upon a restaurant that looked to be closed. Knocking on the door the women inside agreed to let me in and let me use the phone, but no luck, still couldn?t get through to home. 12:48pm - On the corner of Washington St. and ? in Hoboken, I found a payphone, this time it went through. I spoke with my Dad, told him where I was, my situation and what I was planning on doing from that point forward. 12:51pm - I entered the bar near the payphone, had a large shot of bourbon (Knob Creek) and headed down the street. Stop for a slice of pizza and a bottle of water, then slowly walked towards the Hoboken train station. 1:30pm ? I was told by a local police officer the trains were running again and made my way into the station. Before entering the station I noticed a triage set up right outside where they were helping all the injured from NY, I couldn?t look. Hoboken is the first stop on the PATH train into NJ, so a good part of the injured that made it out of the WTC ended up here. So that?s why the boat didn?t go to Hoboken. 2:11pm - The train finally left the terminal and headed for Newark because at that time the trains weren?t going to New Brunswick something to do with the electricity I guess. Looking out the train window, back at the city, that cloud of smoke seemed to stretch for hundreds of miles. The beautiful blue sky that started the day, was gone. 3:00pm - Finally a train arrives in Newark to take us all south, down the Northeast Corridor towards Trenton, hopefully stopping at New Brunswick where my car was parked. On the train I spoke with a man who work in the WTC for 22 years at Morgan Stanley, I?ll never forget his face as he told of the whole ordeal. 3:50pm - Arriving in New Brunswick, I got in my car and cautiously drove home thinking of all those innocent people who were just going to work making a living, died for no reason at all. How fortunate I was to be alive, going home to my family and friends. 4:20pm - Home at last. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10860.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2004-09-10 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.161.1.33 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I remember it being a really beautiful morning. September mornings in New York City are always beautiful. The sun glows orange and warm, it blankets the buildings in a soft, gentle light. Warming their cement and brick structures from the cool of the evening before. I've lived in New York City, in the same apartment, in the same neighborhood for all of my 33 years. I was saying goodbye to my mother who was on her way to work, when a flash of news broke onto the tv screen. They were reporting a fire at the World Trade Center. It seemd as if there had been an explosion. I was shocked, but I seriously thought it was something under control, something that NYC and it's emergency services units could easily handle, no matter how tall those Twin Towers were. We've been through alot, this tough little city, and we always seem to make it through. My mom and I commented on how terrible the fire was, and then she left for the day. Then the second plane attacked the second tower and I immediately went to my grandmother's apartment across the street. I laid with her in her bed, and we watched as the building collapsed into the cloud of dust that lingered over the next few days. I hugged my grandmother and felt terribly sad that she saw that happen in her lifetime. I went back home and called friends, and e-mailed people I knew all over the us and the world. I was worried for my family and for all of my friends. I went to the grocery store and found that it was crowded unlike I had ever seen before. The shelves were bare of water, milk and bread. But people were sweet and friendly to one another and surprisingly calm. I bought food for my family, and went home to drop it off. From my apartment, it overlooks columbus avenue on the upper west side, and there is a breathtaking view of the manhattan skyline. The Empire State Building has stood tall in my view for all of my life, and when I looked to downtown Manhattan, there loomed a massive cloud of black-grey smoke that moved eastward towards Brooklyn and LI. I was lucky that day. I had all of my family and friends safe in my sights and in my thoughts. I am sorry for all of those people lost and the families that have had to endure such tragedy and suffering. I'll never forget how the smoke from lower Manhattan proved to me how different that day was. THe booming engines of the F-16's flying overhead was very frieghtening, though I know it was meant for our protection and defense. That night, and the following nights until the smoke disappeared from the WTC site, I sat on my terrace, curled up in a blanket,and with the storm lamps lit aglow, I cried for many hours. I hope this doesn't sound awful or offensive in any way, because that is not my intention, but the smoke, though abnormal and sad with its presence, in some ways gave me comfort. For as long as the smoke was there, I knew that the WTC was still there, that I could always mark its spot in my memory. For I knew when the smoke was gone, the WTC would be gone forever as well. The one and only time I visited ground zero, was in early december. It was a cloudy, cold day and I was thinking I could deal with seeing this place, and I felt my knees shake as I climbed the steps from the subway. Nothing, absolutely nothing could prepare me for what I saw and what I felt. It broke my heart. It completely broke my heart. The tears came so quickly and they were so from my heart. I had no control over them. This sad graveyard for so many brave, innocent people. How do you tell all thses souls that you are sorry for what happened to them? Hatred did this? Why did this happen? So many questions, so many emotions. I watched the recovery workers in awe and admiration, working through the night, the cold, the rain. How beautfiful and thoughtful of them to not leave those lost souls alone in this vast and horrific gravesite.How can you nto feel for all of them? I never wanted to go back. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1404.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-22 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 24.46.242.215 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: On 9-11-01 i was working in the seafood dept of the store when i heard another girl say that we were getting bombed and that a plane had gone down in Somerset.So i rushed to the phone to call my grandmother to see if she was alright.Then she said another one went down at the trade center,and another one at the pentagon.I did not know what was going ontill i got home from work.When i got home and turned on the tv and seen what had happened i was sick to my stomach to see human beings murder other human beings.The first thing that i thought was what were they thinking and how could they do this knowing they were going to die that day too.Now on the one year anniversery of this tragic day i still ask the question what were they thinking and how could they have done this knowing they were going to die.But on this day 9-11 us americans must be strong and pull together and become united to fight for our freedom and to remember the ones who died fighting for theres.As the foundation shook and the earth gave way the foundation of our freedom,hope,spirt,and our prayers did not.We remember those who gave their lives fighting for what they belived in,remembering the rescue workers giving there all to save the ones who might be alive,the rescue workers who lost their lives trying to help get the ones who were alive out,and to every american that belived in every other american.The americans that pulled together and built the stongest foundation we stand on today.No one could ever break this strong foundation we call America.It is very nice to know that we live in a nation that cares about one another.I am so glad to be an AMERICAN.GOD BLESS AMERICA THE FOUNDATION OF HOPE, SPIRT,PRAYERS, AND TOGETHERNESS.To love is to live and for us to enjoy and happiness will follow. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story5519.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 63.147.4.254