re: 9/11 Memorial Thread - Always Remember!

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I was in college. I worked early mornings - four AM start - at a logistics terminal as a Quality Assurance Manager; easy gig where I dealt mostly with drivers, many of whom were vets.

I was filling out a hazmat report on damaged shipment when one of the drivers made a commotion, saying a plane just hit the Trade Center in NYC. We flipped on the dock TV and I watched the second plane hit. I was dumb, but these older cats were somber and looked fearful, and it told me that shite was about to change forever.

I went home, skipped class, and watched the towers collapse. My old man called and told me to go fill up my car because the gouging would soon commence; the old boy sure was prescient.

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I was a freshman in college. We were just wrapping up in boxing class when one of the gym staff ran in to fill us in on what happened. Classes were not actually formally canceled (I don't think my school has done that in like 50 years) but no one went. We all gathered in the common areas of our dorms to watch everything unfold. About a third of the student body was from the City, Long Island, or North Jersey, and many had parents and older siblings working in the towers and nearby buildings downtown. It was a while before anyone was able to get through to their loved ones, so everyone was freaking out. ROTC students were recalled and instructed not to display any signs of affiliation with the military until further notice.

It was a freakish time. Student body was united for about 15 minutes before it became clear that President Bush was going to take military action. Then they all became rabidly anti-war.

I was in Washington DC that day. I lived there at the time. I've told my story before, and I won't repeat it again because it's whatever.

I will say this: For whatever reason, at no time during that day or a couple days after did I feel like I was personally in danger. And I was on Capitol Hill at the time the second plane hit. I guess it was capitol hill. I was in the US Supreme Court.

Over the next year or so, though, the stress of living there was fairly significant. I was happy to leave that aspect behind.

Sorry for the length of this post, but this is my (hopefully) short story about an FDNY firefighter I had briefly met.

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When I was 13 in June 2001, my cousin Peter got married in Sea Isle City on the Jersey Shore. He is my cousin on my mom's side, and that entire side of the family is from the Philadelphia/New Jersey area. For my brother and I, having been raised in the south, we always enjoyed any opportunity to see that side of the family, mainly because their speech, their actions, their characteristics, etc. were so different from us.

Peter is a personal trainer in Manhattan, and at the time, had just opened his brand new gym on the Lower East Side. Business for him was booming. He was getting married to a half Peruvian/half Italian bombshell that we had never met before, and their wedding was the most extravagant thing we had ever seen. The turnout for their wedding was massive - my entire mom's side, her huge family, all their friends, and many of Peter's clients, who he had apparently formed very good relationships with. Almost everyone at the wedding was from either NYC or New Jersey.

As the wedding reception went on, I met more and more New Yorkers. Most of the people who were there were in their late 20's - early 30's, and I began to notice that most of the men in attendance were absolutely jacked. I asked my mom if they were all Peter's clients, and I remember her saying, "Yes, he trains mostly firemen with FDNY." That was so cool to me - all these firemen from the biggest city in America - all right here.

After my cousin and wife cut the cake, everyone went out to the dance floor. I stood to the side, watching my cousins' hilarious dance moves. As I stood there, a man came up next to me.

"Having a good time?" I remember him asking.

I told him I was and that Peter was my cousin. Like all the other guys, this dude was super Italian and super big. I asked him if he was a firefighter too and he told me he was. I then asked him his name.

"Everyone calls me Angel," he said. I kind of laughed at that, the thought of a guy this big being named Angel. I didn't realize it at the time, but Angel was hammered. His wife (who was hot as hell) then came up and tried to get him to go dance. He told her that he was going to sit this one out, and that she should take me out there. I remember getting all shy, but then she laughed and pulled my out to the floor.

I was intimidated as shite, and probably had a huge pubescent boner popping up, but Angel kept yelling to me, "Put your hands on her arse! Grind on her! She'll love it!" I guess I suddenly got fearless, and so I did - I put my hands right on her arse as she danced in front of me. Angel was laughing his arse off, and suddenly all these firemen were cheering me on.

After the song ended, Angel came up and threw his arm around me, telling me how funny that was. He yelled over to Peter "your cousin is the shite!" and everyone laughed. Angel was the man.

For the next few weeks, we all talked about how great the wedding was. We were happy for Peter, he had a great business and got to train all these firefighters.

When September 11th happened, things seemed different for me. When the news talked about all the firefighters who perished, I could picture the faces of all the guys I met at the wedding. I hoped and prayed that Angel wasn't one of the guys who disappeared. My cousin, who was in shambles, stopped answering any calls from my family about his friends. He didn't even know which guys made it and which didn't, so we left it alone.

As the years went by, I stopped thinking about 9/11 in terms of how it affected NYC, and more about how it affected the world.

Two years ago, my family rented a beach house in North Carolina, and almost everyone from my mom's side came down. One night, I sat on the backporch getting drunk with Peter. We talked about all sorts of things, and the conversation turned to his wedding. After years of not talking about it, Peter said to me, "It was hilarious watching you dance with Angel's wife. That was such a good time."

I asked him if Angel was doing okay, if he kept up with him at all.

"Angel died on 9/11," he said. "I still can't believe it, to this day."

How shitty it was to hear that.

I sometimes catch myself thinking about that day. About the images of those firemen walking into the WTC, determined to rescue everyone they could. I always wonder if Angel, or any of the other guys I met that night, were the guys in those pictures. How brave they were. We'll never forget their sacrifice.

First plane had hit but i did not know because at work doing legal stuff. Noticed I could not connect to a lot of news websites for some reason. Got a text from a friend asking me if I had seen what had happened at WTC? One TV in one of our conference rooms. Turned it on about 30 seconds before second plane hit. Wife called freaking out because she had just heard about the Pentagon and asking if we should get our 4 month old from daycare.

Spent that day and the next few vacillating between rage and profound sadness.

frick that gutter religion.

Senior year of high school and principal comes on speakers and tells us news while in Computer Lit class. I won't forget that day. Everything just stopped, TVs were turned on in every class just watching.

So much has changed since then as these bastards robbed us of all the freedom and carefree mindset before all this. Before then, no one was worried about boarding a flight. People weren't looking at arab people and wondering if they had bad intentions. You didn't have to pass through an hour of checkpoints just to travel. It was a simpler time before 9/11 and a time much less stressful. So much has changed since that day.

Slowly over time you adapt and your memory of those days before 9/11 fades away more and more, but the younger generation needs to remember just how 9/11 changed the everyday life of every American for the worse.

Never forget.

I was in 8th grade at Jesuit, and on 9/11 I remember walking into my speech class which was the second period of that day. I walked into class to see the lights turned off and the news on. The headline read "American Airlines Flight hijacked." My speech teacher was a guy who loved to talk/crack jokes, but on 9/11 he was silent for the entire 50 minute period.

Never forget.

Lt. Michael Scott Lamana. Scott lost his life on Sept. 11 2001 while serving his country working Naval Operations in the Pentagon. Scott was good Navy man and a Hell of a Tiger fan. He left behind a wife, and a boxer dog named Nieko.

Scott was, quite simply, the greatest man I have ever known. The world has been a little less special without him.

Lt. Michael Scott Lamana. He Stood the Watch.

watching he show on the history channel reminding me the craziness of flight 93.

Bush ordered that any plane not responding to be shot down.
Pilot leaves from Maryland to intercept 93 and has no ammunition whatsoever, so he took off with the expectation that he would have to pretty much kamikaze himself to take that flight down if necessary

Can't imagine the feeling of those in power when they heard that 93 was down, and they probably figured we shot it down.

I was sitting in my 6th grade Spanish class on Long Island when my teacher first told our class "the twin towers were hit by a plane." She continued by saying she wasn't allowed to say anymore. During lunch, the middle school band director came to me and said "your dad is going to take you home today because your mom is stuck in traffic" (since she worked in Brooklyn). I didn't put two and two together until when my dad met me and told me how we were attacked. He took me to a nearby elementary school about 5 minutes away. It was on a bay and as the crow flies less than 10 miles to where the towers were and we could see the smoke. I'll never forget that. The enormity of the situation finally got to me when we got home and I saw ESPN was showing coverage of the twin towers.

10 years later, I got to perform in the most emotional performance in my musical life. LINK Playing Amazing Grace with the LSU band thousands of miles from home and so many years later yet still hearing silence really made me feel like this happened to all of us regardless of distance. It was the first time I got to stand on the field at Tiger Stadium during a game without a hat obstructing my view and truly see how big it was and how many people were there. I barely got through that performance. That is a moment I'll remember forever.