9/11 NEVER FORGET

Very  early on 9/12 I arrived at ZERO-will never forget that day.
Think about it  often, at odd times- some stuff never goes away.
NEVER FORGET.
That attack has come to define America in a changing world IMHO.
Took a bunch of photos there and they were loaned out often and then never returned- might be a good thing.
 

May they rest in peace and we "Never Forget".

My daughter commuted by subway there every morning. They stopped the train and she got out in a rain of dust and paper up on the street. Friends of hers got video of the second plane and the towers collapsing from their apartment window.  I got her the h--- out of there a few days after-  Took a 1/2 day for her to get through and tell us she was alright.  She never went back. I volunteer with vets with PTS, can't imagine how many cases, including  my daughter's is derived from that day.  Can't imagine what this country would be like if we hadn't gone to Afghanistan and Iraq.  It's easy to assess blame in retrospect; much harder to move forward and be the best people we know how to be. RG, I've  thanked you before, you have my utmost respect and thanks along with all the other selfless responders.  An odd point, is the real estate/mortagage debacle bubble that came back to bite us also kept our heads above water when we almost had world economic collapse.  The terrorists won't get such a cheap shot again.
     I performed music at a church gathering on Sunday afternoon with  a very talented vet who hadn't been able to play in front of an audience since he was blown up in '03 in an un-uparmored Humvee in Iraq.
He was in tears after we pulled it off. I was near them. He said it was like a evil spell had been lifted from him.  
    Remember, be vigilant, be kind.

I was starting my day at NYS Zone 3 Police Academy (Westchester, Rockland & Putnam) when reports came over the radio.  Some twenty minutes later a good friend called saying a he was on the Westside Drive and saw the plane hit one of the towers.  I said that I had heard that a small plane struck the building.  He immediately said "it was no small plane, it was a commercial airline."  At that moment everything came to a screeching halt.  A decision was made to suspended police recruit training for the day directing all recruits to respond to their respective agencies.  I was ordered to take the police launch with a subordinate to put in at George's Island, a Westchester County boat launch, which was just down river from Indian Point.  I still think about sitting in that craft a few hundred yards from that reactor wondering what the hell were we to do if another plane ditched into the cooling towers.  We stayed mid river until dark returning to port a short time later.
The next day me, my lieutenant and an officer from the academy took the departments' armored personnel carrier down to ground zero.  The sights, sounds and smells will stay with me until I take my last breath.  What everyone saw on TV the days, weeks and months following that day could not, did not, compare to seeing the destruction first hand.
God bless those lost, those still fighting and those who lived through that terrible day.  
Never Forget!

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I shall NEVER FORGET.