Never Forget

Remembering 9/11 Twenty Years Later

Written by: Joe Ludwig

I will never forget that day.

On September 11, 2001, two commercial airplanes deliberately crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. When the first plane struck the north tower at 8:46 a.m., everyone thought it was a horrible accident. But then, 17 minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., when the second plane struck the south tower, everyone knew that this was a deliberate attack.

MY MEMORIES OF THAT DAY

I was in the sixth grade at the time. It was just a few days before my birthday. I remember the day started like normal. I remember the beautiful blue September sky, not a cloud in sight. The school bus came around 8:25 and it took about 20 minutes to get to school. If we arrived “early”, we went to the cafeteria until the staff dismissed us to our classrooms. On this particular day, we happened to arrive early, so I did just that. 

My friends sat at one of the tables and I talked to them. They told me that something terrible happened, but they didn’t have a lot of details. About 15 minutes later, after school announcements, our teacher turned on the TV (on mute) and it showed two buildings on fire. She told us to pray for the victims and then turned it off. After that, we went on with our day like normal. Before each class, we would pray for the victims. 

When I got home, my mom was watching the news. I learned that both of the buildings collapsed earlier that day, that it was a deliberate attack. My mom also told me that two other planes were hijacked. One hit the Pentagon and the second, heading for the White House, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania because the passengers fought back. I was horrified to learn all of this, but I didn’t fully grasp the severity of the situation.

AFTERMATH

In the days and weeks that followed, I remember pretty much every house had an American flag hung up at the front of their house. We were a united country, united in sadness and anger at whoever did this to us. There was never fear though. GoFundMe or any of the alternatives didn’t exist back then, but I remember donating money to the victims’ families. We sent money through the mail. 

In high school, I learned more about the details of that day. I watched a documentary called “9/11”. It was about these two French filmmakers who happened to be in Manhattan filming on that day. And they were inside one of the towers as the building collapsed. They survived and the footage that they captured was horrifying. I think this is the only video footage of what happened inside the towers because, at that time, the internet was in its infancy. There were no smartphones. Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter didn’t exist. My family still had dial-up internet. Americans got their news from the TV, radio, and newspapers, though my family never subscribed to the newspaper.

THE 9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM

In 2018, Caroline and I went to New York City to enjoy everything that it had to offer. We went just a few weeks before Christmas so the city was full of lights and cheer. We ice-skated at Rockefeller Center, toured Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (though we didn’t go to the top). We saw Central Park, Times Square, and several shows on and off-Broadway. 

We also visited the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, which details everything that happened that day. Outside the museum, there’s a memorial of where the two towers once stood. Around the memorial, they have the names of all of the victims. On the victims’ birthdays, they put flowers on their names.

The museum was a very sobering experience. Although there weren’t cell phones that could take video and pictures back then, they still had a lot of documentation about what happened that day. I was surprised at the level of detail. For instance, they have a picture of the New York City skyline that was taken just minutes before the first plane struck the north tower. 

The exhibit had archived recordings of voice mails from the victims on the hijacked planes and in the towers calling their loved ones, some for the last time. We also heard the 911 calls from some of the people trapped in the upper floors. We saw horrifying pictures and videos of people jumping from the towers. When the towers collapsed, there was a ball of dust that spread across many city blocks. Everyone fled for their lives. Journalists who were on the ground captured all of this.

There’s a self-guided audio walking tour available, narrated by Robert De Niro. He walks through the timeline of what happened in New York, the Pentagon, and on United Airlines Flight 93 (the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania). He tells the story of the people who died that day; those on the planes, in the towers, and the brave men and women who ran into the burning buildings, knowing that there was a possibility that they wouldn’t come out alive. He talks about some of the items that they found at ground zero such as the radio antenna that was at the top of one of the buildings, a firetruck that was at the base of the building, and one of the elevator motors.

As I said, it gets very detailed. If you ever go to New York City, I highly recommend seeing it for yourself. Just be prepared for what you might see.

REFLECTION

My heart breaks for the lost moms, dads, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers who died that day. They were taken from this world too soon because of the actions of hateful, evil people. 

It’s been 20 years since that day and the mantra all along has been “never forget”. I hope we live up to that promise as time goes on. I hope we never forget the men and women who needlessly died that day but I also hope we never forget the unity and American pride that came from everyone, from seas to shining sea, in the days, weeks, and months after. Never forget to be kind to each other and help out when someone is in need. And never forget we are all a part of the United States of America, “the land of the free and home of the brave”. 

I will never forget September 11, 2001.

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