Thread: New York's Ground Zero -- Before and After 9/11 (God Bless America)

Remembrance is worthless without resolve. Resolve is useless without action. Here is how “Never Forget” is practiced 24/7/365 by ordinary Americans taking extraordinary steps to ensure 9/11 doesn’t happen again:

Sgt. Desion Fulks watched the World Trade Center towers come down on television from Fort Rucker, Ala. He re-enlisted three weeks later.

Capt. Joseph Mason, a reservist at the time, immediately volunteered for combat duty after watching what happened in New York and Washington, D.C. He deployed to Iraq two years later with the first wave a troops.

“I was sitting at home, looking at the television, seeing the carnage of the Pentagon and the Trade towers, and I felt I had to do something,” he said.

Both men, and about 5,000 other soldiers with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas begin training at Fort Irwin on Thursday, the seven-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and one other commercial jet. Many of the soldiers, who will deploy to Iraq at the end of December, said the images of Sept. 11, 2001 still flash through their minds.

“I will never forget what happened on 9/11,” said Sgt. 1st Class Mark Linares. “It’s been so long since 9/11, but it is still in my mind like it was yesterday.”

Linares, who was with the 82nd Airborne Division when the attacks occurred and knew he would be one of the first soldiers on the ground where ever they had to go. Some soldiers in the 82nd Airborne were in Afghanistan the next month. Capt. Jennifer Bowersox was part of a unit that went to Kuwait when the ground war in Iraq began in 2003. She said then soldiers talked about Sept. 11 as their reason, and they still talk about it today.

“It must be on every soldier’s mind. It’s certainly on mine,” she said. “You’re wearing the American flag on your sleeve. You’re thinking this happened in my nation, and we can never allow it to happen in the United States again.”

And here’s how NY National Guardsmen who served as first responders at Ground Zero are putting “Never Again” into action:

New York Guardsmen in Afghanistan to Commemorate Terror Attack Anniversary
By Army Lt. Col. Paul Fanning
Special to American Forces Press Service

CAMP PHOENIX, Afghanistan, Sept. 10, 2008 – Men and women of the New York Army National Guard who served at Ground Zero are commemorating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in Afghanistan this year.

A ceremony is planned tomorrow at this base in the Afghan capital of Kabul, and it will be timed to coincide with the first plane strike at the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. EDT.

More than 1,700 members of New York’s 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are serving here with Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix, part of Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan. Its mission is to mentor and train the Afghan National Army and police, and provide assistance to the government of Afghanistan and its people.

The task force is led by Army Col. Brian K. Balfe, who is also commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which took over command and control responsibility April 26.

The task force is composed of nearly 9,500 servicemen and women from all U.S. branches, coalition partners and civilian professionals serving at nearly 260 forward operating bases throughout Afghanistan.

“The New York National Guard is the only part of America’s military team that has literally gone from Ground Zero to the Sunni Triangle [in Iraq] and is now here amid the mountains of Afghanistan,” Balfe said. “Soldiers from this brigade were among the very first to respond to the attacks and served at the World Trade Center on 9/11 and for weeks later.

“At least a third of the team that came from New York has also already served in Iraq,” he continued. “For those of us who were there, [who] served at Ground Zero, 9/11 is deeply personal.”

When the World Trade Center collapsed, hundreds of New York National Guard personnel were on the ground. By evening, 1,500 were there and thousands more were poised at more than 63 armories and five air bases around the state.

For the first 40 hours, Guard personnel were on the debris pile, conducting search-and-rescue missions alongside fire department, rescue, police and other emergency personnel. The New York Guard’s Civil Support Team for Weapons of Mass Destruction was the first unit of its kind to respond to a terrorist attack and was quickly mobilized.

On the second day, the civilian incident commander — the New York City fire chief — directed the Guard to establish a security perimeter and then sweep the pile to clear all personnel to better organize the search-and-recovery effort.

In the weeks stretching into months that followed, New York National Guard personnel performed a myriad of homeland defense missions in state active duty, federal duty under state control, or Title 10 active duty.

At the mission’s peak, when recovery and security operations were running concurrently, more than 5,000 New York troops were on duty in New York City; at 19 commercial airports; at bridges, tunnels and train stations; at nuclear power plants; and at military installations.

Not since World War II had the New York National Guard been deployed in such numbers for such extended time participating in both state homeland defense missions and federal military operations.

(Army Lt. Col. Paul Fanning serves in the Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix Public Affairs Office.)

Originally Posted by DrHolliday

My co-worker friend and I were talking about how it was going to be a mistake for Obama to select Biden. Not only would it hacked off the Hillary supporters, but Biden is a gaffe machine.

Yeah BIDEN is a real goober.

I've noticed he seems to be very impressed with the sound of his own voice.

Ground Zero etiquette: A tale of two roses

It’s a small gesture, but gestures matter at the hallowed grave site of so many murdered innocent Americans.

Barack Obama flings a memorial rose at Ground Zero like he’s a kid tossing pennies into a fountain at the shopping mall — or a spectator tossing flowers at a bullfight.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing.

(Clueless NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg copies him.)

By contrast, John McCain and his wife kneel and gently, somberly, place their roses down at the foot of the 9/11 tribute.

Tons of you e-mailed me about this. Here’s the vid for the rest of you who didn’t see it. It’s a telling cultural and generational distinction between these two men vying to be commander-in-chief of our nation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkLHCtSz_rM

Watch closely the first 30 seconds showed that Obama could not take the time to shake hands with the uniformed firemen (John McCain took the time) nor the construction worker with the American flag hardhat…He was painfully uncomfortable at this ceremony!

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Ground Zero etiquette: A tale of two roses

It’s a small gesture, but gestures matter at the hallowed grave site of so many murdered innocent Americans.

Barack Obama flings a memorial rose at Ground Zero like he’s a kid tossing pennies into a fountain at the shopping mall — or a spectator tossing flowers at a bullfight.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing.

(Clueless NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg copies him.)

By contrast, John McCain and his wife kneel and gently, somberly, place their roses down at the foot of the 9/11 tribute.

Tons of you e-mailed me about this. Here’s the vid for the rest of you who didn’t see it. It’s a telling cultural and generational distinction between these two men vying to be commander-in-chief of our nation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkLHCtSz_rM

Watch closely the first 30 seconds showed that Obama could not take the time to shake hands with the uniformed firemen (John McCain took the time) nor the construction worker with the American flag hardhat…He was painfully uncomfortable at this ceremony!

how tragic...

I have no respect for the person who claims to be American yet refuses to acknowledge the symbols of the US.

Solemn rituals mark seventh anniversary of 9/11
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 11, 6:55 PM ET

Familiar rituals of grief marked the seventh anniversary of Sept. 11 on Thursday as thousands paid tribute at the attack sites, the presidential candidates laid flowers at ground zero and children mourned parents they can barely remember.

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama called off their campaigns for the day, and in the late afternoon descended the long ramp into the pit of the World Trade Center site, bowing their heads and leaving the flowers in a reflecting pool.

At the Pentagon, 15,000 people turned out for the dedication of the first permanent memorial built at any of the three sites where hijacked planes crashed. It includes 184 benches that will glow at night, one for each victim there.

"Thanks to the brave men and women, and all those who work to keep us safe, there has not been another attack on our soil in 2,557 days," President Bush said at the outdoor dedication.

In New York, the crowd fell silent in a park just east of the trade center site at 8:46, 9:03, 9:59 and 10:29 a.m. — the times when two hijacked jets slammed into the buildings and the twin towers fell.

Alex, Aidan and Anna Salamone — now 13, 11 and 10 years old — wore old soccer jerseys belonging to their father, broker John Patrick Salamone, who was 37 when he was killed. They recalled playing in the yard with a toy wagon. "He was strong. He was funny. He always made me laugh," Alex Salamone said. I wish I could remember more, but we were so young when he died."

"We love you, daddy," said Anna.

Still others chose to forgo the public observances altogether and mark the day in quieter, more private ways. Kai Thompson Hernandez toasted her late husband, Glenn Thompson, at a beach, with his favorite brand of beer. "I try and celebrate his life rather than mark the place of his death," she said.

Family members of the trade center dead and students representing the more than 90 countries that lost citizens in the attack — Azerbaijan to Zambia to Vietnam — read the names of the 2,751 victims killed in New York.

Others descended seven stories below street level to pay respects where the towers once stood. A giant crane, an American flag hanging from a hook, overlooked the anniversary ceremony from ground zero, where office towers, a memorial and transit hub are under construction.

The New York memorial is years away from completion. Some of the mourners worried the progress on it would prevent them from being allowed to pay respects next Sept. 11 on the ground where their loved ones died. "When you walk through the site, you really feel like you're right where they were, and it's very raw," said Dennis Baxter, whose brother, Jasper, died while attending a conference at the trade center. "I think the spot should remain raw."

Many family members reading names paused to thank the troops fighting the two U.S. war launched since Sept. 11, 2001, drawing applause on several occasions. "They took from us innocent lives in the names of their God," said Rosaria Reneo, whose sister Daniela R. Notaro was killed on Sept. 11, "and it seems some people have forgotten what happened here seven years ago."

Edward Bracken said to loud applause that his sister, Lucy A. Fishman, was "murdered by coward men using their religion to say they are right and we are wrong."

In Shanksville, Pa., McCain attended a simple ceremony held in a large field near the point where United Airlines Flight 93 slammed into the ground — driven down, investigators believe, when passengers who rushed the cockpit to prevent another attack on a building.

Grieving family members and a few dignitaries sat in front of a chain-link fence adorned with flags and mementos that serves as a temporary memorial while a permanent one is constructed. Bells rang as the name of each victim was read. McCain said those on Flight 93 might have saved his own life. He said the only way to thank those who died on the flight is to "be as good an American as they were."

"We might fall well short of their standard, but there's honor in the effort," the Republican Arizona senator said.

Obama, in a statement, recalled that after the attacks, "Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims, to donate blood, to give to charity, and to say a prayer for our country. Let us renew that."

In New York, relatives of victims began arriving at dawn for the memorials, wearing their loved ones' pictures on T-shirts and holding signs saying, "We miss you," "We love you" or "You will never be forgotten."

As in years past, two bright blue beams of light were to rise from lower Manhattan. But many family members said they wished there were more of a memorial. "It's still very hard for us to come here. It doesn't get any easier," said Norma Linguito, a relative of Sept. 11 victim Michael Diehl. "I just wish they'd get the memorial up so we can have something, a marker, to remember everyone."

Associated Press writers Matthew Barakat, Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Jennifer Peltz and Colleen Long contributed to this report


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080911/...xG7KzCMtdH2ocA

A Michigander's perspective

we have family in NYC -- each of our family members, and friends (dh is from nyc) traveled along the routes of the D and F trains from Bkln to Manhattan daily...going to school, going to work, going shopping.

9/11/01 was an exciting day for my family -- it was our first official day of homeschooling, after I pulled our youngest daughter from the crappy Ohio public school district we were in.

And I got a call from my husband telling me to turn on The Today Show, that the WTC had a plane crash in it.

For me, not a native NY'er, it was very surreal. I was mesmerized. I couldn't take my eyes off the TV...and then I started to remember, like a dream...where is my extended family???

were they on the trains that were caught underneath the WTC (because that was a stop along those subway lines)? Were they alive? Is everyone accounted for? Did they leave late for work or school? The more I sat, the more questions I had that would remain unanswered for 1 whole day because telecommunication lines were jammed.

With each family member accounted for, we then asked the same questions for our friends -- and what we found was devastating and heartbreaking -- 2 of them were victims of the WTC attacks.

In the years that have passed, the attacks are never too far from our minds, even though our physical homes are 850 miles away now. Each year, as hard as it is, we do our best to relive that day -- where we were, what we were doing, what we were feeling, the anxiousness, the anxiety, the emptiness --
because it is important.

Last year we went to NYC for New Years for a week -- in a city that never sleeps, constant noise and hustle / bustle of the holidays... the hallowed ground where so many families were severed and crushed is silent. It's deafening. You can hear a pin drop even though there could be over 200 visitors there with you.

If you close your eyes and listen with your heart, you can hear their desperation and screams still -- at that time 6 years later. It is a travesty that one should never forget or take lightly.

It is forever hallowed ground -- it is forever in our hearts and minds and souls.

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Ground Zero etiquette: A tale of two roses

It’s a small gesture, but gestures matter at the hallowed grave site of so many murdered innocent Americans.

Barack Obama flings a memorial rose at Ground Zero like he’s a kid tossing pennies into a fountain at the shopping mall — or a spectator tossing flowers at a bullfight.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing.

(Clueless NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg copies him.)

By contrast, John McCain and his wife kneel and gently, somberly, place their roses down at the foot of the 9/11 tribute.

Tons of you e-mailed me about this. Here’s the vid for the rest of you who didn’t see it. It’s a telling cultural and generational distinction between these two men vying to be commander-in-chief of our nation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkLHCtSz_rM

Watch closely the first 30 seconds showed that Obama could not take the time to shake hands with the uniformed firemen (John McCain took the time) nor the construction worker with the American flag hardhat…He was painfully uncomfortable at this ceremony!

that is disturbing.

Originally Posted by atprm

how tragic...

I have no respect for the person who claims to be American yet refuses to acknowledge the symbols of the US.

just curious but are you for obama? you have the little thing under your name that says his name but you seem to "say" the opposite. tia