Remembering 9/11

[BonzoMontreaux 1033]

Working in Austin...hopped in the car to drive to work and was listening to the Zone.  They were talking about the North tower getting struck by an airplane.  At first, everyone was like well, it was just a bad accident, then they announced that the south tower had been hit as well.  Right then and there, you knew this was deliberate. 

 A friend of mine was from New Jersey.  By the time we had gotten to work that day, the planes had already crashed into the buildings.  When I caught up with him he was visibly shaken up.  His family had not heard from his brother.  He was working in the South tower when the first plane struck.  

I remember hanging out a work for a few hours and then headed back home.  Stopped by the church and prayed.  Picked my daughters up from school and work.  Went home and just watched the events unfold repeatedly on CNN.  I remember going for a walk that night as kind of a "Ain't scared" gesture.

Next day or the day after... talked to my Jersey buddy and found out his brother was OK.  After the north tower was hit, they were evacuated from the south tower.  They made it to a rally point hung out for a bit and then the powers that be decided to head back to the south tower.  They were making their way back when the second plane hit.  I think his brother spend the next 24 hours just trying to get back home.

The following Monday, I started a new job in Houston.  I remember the anxiety I felt leaving my family behind and worrying about if we were attacked how would I try to get back home.

 

[You don't know me 1161]

I was on 183 getting onto 35S heading to work when I heard about it on the radio.  Office was just maybe a half mile away at that point.  When I got there, we all gathered around the TV in stunned silence.  Later that same day, I met my wife at her OB GYN and we got confirmation that she was pregnant with our first child.

[SDG 3319]

Cool thread reading about the K9 rescuers.

 

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

1 hour ago, Sbbruin said:

This is the type of image that still haunt me

  Hide contents

 

 

Dammit, I knew before I clicked and I clicked anyway.

[BabaYaga 15205]

30 minutes ago, SDG said:

Cool thread reading about the K9 rescuers.

 

Myself and many, many other upland bird hunters who are all friends (and across the nation apparently) gathered up all the Kevlar/nylon reinforced foot booties we had for dogs and sent them to NY.  Bird hunters use them to protect the dogs feet from cactus, stickers, sharp rocks, etc.  During the aftermath the ground was so hot, sharp, and dangerous the dogs couldn't move around well in the wreckage.  

Never forget

Like these:

[InkaUtexas 25486]

Powerful moment New Zealand firefighters honour 9/11 first responders with a stirring haka on the 18th anniversary

 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7452831/New-Zealand-firefighters-honour-responders-9-11-terror-attacks-stirring-haka.html

[El Diablo 4232]

2 hours ago, BonzoMontreaux said:

 The following Monday, I started a new job in Houston.  I remember the anxiety I felt leaving my family behind and worrying about if we were attacked how would I try to get back home.

I think a lot of people began to rethink things like this, I know I did. What if you had to hike? What about keeping a bugout bag available? Rendezvous points? Communication plans, contingencies etc... Doomsday prepper companies didn't suffer, I'm pretty sure.

[elfenix 34169]

Cool thread reading about the K9 rescuers.
 

Really dusty here today

[lemonlime 5503]

I was on vacation in Australia.  It was late at night and I'd had a few beers.  First and so far only time I could understand how news could sober you up quickly.

[Trey3216 15325]

Just got done watching, ESPN 30 for 30:  The First Pitch, again.  Damn dusty in my office.  

[RPM 26208]

I was watching Regis when the first plane hit then they went to network and I watched the 2nd plane hit. Then I had to go to work and deal with freaked out people.

[Aqua Buddha 14501]

4 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

A friend of mine who is a UT alum and now a very successful investment banker worked in the Whitehouse at the time.  He is the one who sent a page to Ari Fleischer about the attack.  Fleischer then told W while he was reading to those kids.

Really shitty attempt at a humble brag and ill timed as well.

Edited September 11, 2019 by Aqua Buddha

[BillyGoatHill 4276]

I lived in Tacoma, Wa. then and knowing I didn't have a shift the next day, I stayed up late watching the Mariners beat the Angels the night before. I got up around 0730 on 9/11, turning on the TV wanting to watch Sportscenter for highlights. I started flipping through stations as each and EVERY channel had video of the WTCs on fire......it took a minute or two before I noticed the ticker at the bottom of the screen stating that they had already collapsed. My wife called from work about that time and asked if I had the TV on....

...there was a screen shot from street level and on the audio, you could hear all of the firefighter's PASS devices going off. Still eerie, thinking about/listening to that.

RIP to all 2997 killed that day, especially the 343.

 

 

 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

16 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Really shitty attempt at a humble brag and ill timed as well.

What the fuck ever.  

[AUS-97HORN 11669]

Ive posted my story a few times on other 9/11's no need to rehash.

First time Ive talked about that evening.

I met up with a coworker friend at a well known sportsbar in Overland Park, KS around 6pm.  got hammered, had a steak.... 15 diff TVs showing every angle variation of the 2nd plane hitting.  place was very quiet, just all of us numb and getting number on alcohol.   Then Bush finally came on the TV

 

if it was possible it got even quieter, we just listened.   right after Bush said

The search is under way for those who are behind these evil acts. I have directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbored them.

 

The entire bar cheered like we all did 5 years later when Vince scored, I'm talking full throated yells.  FUCK YEAH, FUCK YOU.

 

Because there was no fucking doubt Bush just told the world we were going to on a rampage against every mother fucker who wanted a piece of the U.S.

[Aqua Buddha 14501]

Seen this before but it still breaks my heart.  I wonder what ever happened to Jules.  Here's hoping she's lived a great life.

 

[alincoln 2364]

Julie has since remarried, and she and her husband now have two children together. For nearly a decade, she has also volunteered at the 9/11 Tribute Museum, a family-run center that highlights the stories of victims and survivors of the attacks. She credits the museum, and the network of people she has met through it, with helping her grieve.

“Moving forward does not mean you have forgotten your past. I don’t use the word closure, I don’t believe in it, people throw it out there all the time. You don’t ever close the door to something like this,” Julie says. “It’s one day at a time. That’s all this life is, one second at a time.”

[Aqua Buddha 14501]

11 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

In 2001 I worked on the 9th floor of 301 Congress, 6 floors above the Bush 2000 campaign HQ, and they were still very much in operation, winding down from the campaign in September. So we were conscious that our building was a potential target. It closed around lunchtime on 9/11 and I seem to recall that it was closed for a couple days, but it may be that I just chose to work from home. At any rate, eventually we came back and things quickly returned to something like normal.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of September 20th the fire alarms in the building went off, and people egressed to the stairs. I was in a boot for a stress fracture at the time and moving slow, and was amazed that not only were people not rushing or pressing in the stairwells, but there were people stopped in nearly every landing keeping order and assisting in an orderly exit. And as I went down, at least 20 people offered to carry all 250 pounds of me down the stairs. I’ll never forget it.

I read this every year on 9/11. You should too.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/02/11/the-real-heroes-are-dead

It's been years since I've read that and I was thinking about it the other day.  Had no idea on even how to start looking for it.  Thanks for posting that.  I still the conclusion.  That's how you stick an ending to a story:

You see, for Rick Rescorla, this was a natural death. People like Rick, they don’t die old men. They aren’t destined for that and it isn’t right for them to do so. It just isn’t right, by God, for them to become feeble, old, and helpless sons of bitches. There are certain men born in this world, and they’re supposed to die setting an example for the rest of the weak bastards we’re surrounded with.”

[Aqua Buddha 14501]

[InkaUtexas 25486]

6 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

In theory, we could have soldiers in Afghanistan, who were born after 9/11 (or at least born in 2001).

It’s one of two events I remember with such clarity (the other being the Challenger)  

Now I know how Armybrat feels when he talks about the Spanish-American War.  

Remember the Maine! 

[hayden_horn 11360]

well, since everyone is sharing...

i graduated from texas in 2000. had a brief stint as a teacher at a pretty fly-by-night private school which had fallen to pieces, then had entered the professional workplace at a web-based start-up. on september 10, the web-based start up did what a lot of those did, and realized that they had x funding and y staff. they laid off a whole bunch of us that day. most were simply out the door layoffs, but i was retained through october to finish a project i was working on that was deemed necessary. 

i remember driving into work the next day, already sort of numbed by being laid off, even though i got an extra month out of it. i want to say i was listening to 101x at the time and they mentioned the first plane, but like others, the news seemed to implicate that it was a small commuter plane accident at first. i was almost at work when the news broke of the second plane and the tone on the radio got very serious very quickly.

i walked into work feeling very weird. 

i tried to pull up cnn, but the internet had broken. we had the best broadband money could buy on south first street at the time, but the problem wasn't with our throughput, it was with the number of request the host sites were trying to handle. for the longest time, cnn had a placeholder with a picture of the towers burning that said something like "america under attack."

i think i must have felt like those who first heard the news about pearl harbor. the difference was we knew we were under attack, but not by whom. then the news hit about the pentagon, and that's when the real numbness set in. we didn't know what had happened, just that there was an explosion at the pentagon. as i recall, we didn't know that it was a plane at the time, but the pentagon was under some kind of attack. what the actual fuck was happening? was the white house next?

somehow a tv appeared; i think someone actually brought a whole set up from home. we all gathered in the office and just stared at the tv. i think it must have been hours, but it didn't feel like it. then all of a sudden the first tower fell, and i actually think that's when it sunk in how devastating this actually was. a fucking building, one of the biggest in the world, and full of people just...fell. that's when the first tears in the room started, but not quite yet for me. 

then the second tower fell. then the ceo just called the day. go home, be with your families, he said, but my wife was teaching school. she wasn't going to be home. 

i went home and laid down on the couch and just numbly watched tv. all fucking day. didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't drink. just watched tv.

then my girlfriend to later become wife came home, and i tried to tell her all the news, but i did a terrible job, even though she knew most of it. 

then, weirdly, we still kept a dinner date with her parents at pf chang's of all places, downtown. even there, they had the news on and were were the only people in the place. i think we went to dinner to try and feel normal, but it didn't work. i was 23 years old, and had really just become an adult, and the world was about to drastically change in so many ways.

Edited September 11, 2019 by hayden_horn

[Brisketexan 104537]

On 9/11/2018 at 1:59 PM, Brisketexan said:

I saw some of 9/11, the French brothers' deal, but that's it.  I haven't seen Flight 93, or Falling Man, or any of that.  Don't want to.

I watched it unfold live.  I sat glued to the TV for nearly a week.  I burned with rage for years.  No thanks.  I don't need to see any of that again.  I saw plenty as it happened.

I posted this last year.  I still remember it.  I've thought about it a lot.  I felt that way.  And for what?

In the immediate wake of 9/11, I wanted to think that the experience made us better.  That it would make us all better.  That it would ultimately strengthen us as a people and a country.  I was naive.  I was immature.  My reaction was.  My hope was.  My anger embarrasses me.  My misplaced and overly inflated sense of patriotism embarrasses me.

Now, remembering 9/11 just makes me sad.  I have such respect and empathy for the individual experience -- the bravery of many, the horror and loss of so many others, the natural fear.  Everyone's individual experiences are so real, so personal, and so powerful.  It fucking breaks my heart, every time, all over again.  But, shit.....3,000 dead.  Ripples of pain from those losses stretched across the world.  Wars of vengeance.  More death.  Fires of hate against people, stoked to an inferno.  Death begets death.  That's what 9/11 is to me, in my memory.  Death begets death.   

[Knoxtnhorn 5929]

What was weird for me that day was that I was just about the last person in America to find out what had happened.  And, that's coming from someone that has always been on top of the current news cycle.

Taking classes near Oak Ridge, TN.  Had advertising until 10:30.  I somehow made it out of class and to the soccer fields without knowing anything was going on.  I generally worked out/ran for 45 minutes until soccer class started at 11:30.  Still no clue.  Got pissed around 11:30 because it appeared as if we wouldn't have enough to play a full 11-v-11 game.  About noon, some random dude comes up to me and tells me we're under attack.  Of course, I thought the guy was nuts.  Popped on the radio in my car.  Wow.  The entire country had changed without me knowing for almost 3 hours.

[Queen Bitch 1692]

To go along with the rescue dogs... there were also two very, very good guide dogs who escorted their owners from 70+ stories up.  I learned of them last night, and I've thought about them all day today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_and_Roselle

 

[Gale Snoats 242]

I was a 3L and we lived in a garage apartment on 26th across the street from the law school.  I was just getting out of bed when my roommate came running up the stairs yelling to turn on the tv.  We watched for a few minutes not really knowing what was going on yet and then headed across the street to class.  I can't exactly remember the sequence but I have a few very clear memories from either that day or the next few days.  I think it was that same day when the FBI or something like (several serious looking guys in sunglasses and dark suits) that came to the law school that day and lined everyone up and not letting anyone leave until we checked in with them with our name and ID.  I remember a day or two later sitting in a pretty large class and a classmate running in and yelling mid lecture that they'd found white powder in the library and that everyone needed to get the fuck out of the school.  We all grabbed our shit and hauled ass out of there but turns out the powder was from some construction guys drilling something in the floor the floor above.  Also a girl I had just started kind of dating lost one of her best friends who was in the WTC.

[staboner 4956]

39 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Now, remembering 9/11 just makes me sad.  I have such respect and empathy for the individual experience -- the bravery of many, the horror and loss of so many others, the natural fear.  Everyone's individual experiences are so real, so personal, and so powerful.  It fucking breaks my heart, every time, all over again.  But, shit.....3,000 dead.  Ripples of pain from those losses stretched across the world.  Wars of vengeance.  More death.  Fires of hate against people, stoked to an inferno.  Death begets death.  That's what 9/11 is to me, in my memory.  Death begets death.   

yeah man. for me its the downfall of America. not from the cowards that did the act but from the internal destruction we have done to ourselves and our ideals ever since. not popular to say, i know, but its already Sept 12th for me so there. 

i was 25 when it happened. the 90s were some golden era for the US and the world. not much anymore and that makes me sad every goddamn day i live

i sat on the tarmac at Heathrow for 4 hours on Sept 12th 2001.  no one said SHIT. no one. I landed 5 hours east in the Med with family. some family were still in shock and couldn't believe it. other family were happy and said shit like "good, you deserve it". that trip woke me up in more ways than one. that hatred, that resentment, that anger. seems to be with us now ever since. or maybe i just got old

RIP

[Incredulity 11541]

Posted this over on the Stern thread as well.

I was on a long drive to a business meeting.  Listening to Stern.  Watched/listened to this as much as I could bear this afternoon.

I recommend it, quite a window into the gut response of non-newscasters to the attack and subsequent chaos.

 

[The People’s Elbow 707]

The footage from this documentary crew that just happened to be with one of the fire crews during the time is powerfully humbling and chilling. It’s hard to watch, but you should.

Watch the entire thing  

 

[Aqua Buddha 14501]

As 9/11 again comes to a close, let me say this.  I knew three people directly who died in the OKC bombing but didn't even know anyone who knew anyone who was effected from 9/11.  From the OKC perspective, I know there's a special hell on these days for people who lost someone close.  It's an annual reminder that everyone feels the need to share but you would rather it stay private.  Some people speak about it but a lot go dark for that day and even though, you can't avoid it.  

That being said, as you pause and remember, saw a prayer for the ones who can't forget.

[Deej 76524]

I just can't believe it's been 18 years. So much has changed, and not for the better. I was 32 years old, and it made me fired up and angry.  Now, I'm approaching the downside of life and just saddened by it all. So stupid and pointless were the attacks and everything that followed. We have kids been sent over to fight a war that started when they were born. 

[HRSchenker 2258]

I was an ignorant 6th grader so when I heard "world trade center" the only thing that popped into my mind was the one in Dallas that my mom was heading to that morning. When our principal made the announcement that a plane flew into the WTC I instantly thought my mom was dead. Teacher turned on the TV and we saw the towers. "That's not the world trade center"! I had no idea there was one in New York that was so iconic. We watched the first tower burn and our teacher turned it off because she didn't want to look at it. We all yelled at that bitch to turn it back on so I went up to the TV and turned it back on. As soon as the screen lit up we saw the second plane fly into the other tower. Then we heard that a plane flew into the pentagon. "America is under attack". Holy shit. Then they said another plane was hijacked on its way to Washington DC. My mom picked me up early from school like so many other parents did. Everyone was scared as fuck.

I think the worst part about it was getting gas with my dad that night. There was a long line around the block of our small town so we had time to listen to the radio and chat. I remember asking him "what happens now" and he just didn't know. It was so weird because my dad is the man. He knows what's going on and is always prepared so as a kid hearing my dad not know what's going to happen next was scary.

[Dbeasy 14962]

9/11 impacted me in a weird way. I had been working my way towards founding my first company for 15 years. I’d worked in other startups, developed a network of contacts and investors, and had finally launched my startup with three other cofounders in the summer of 2001. In August we closed our seed funding. It was amazing.

And then 9/11 hit. I was in Galleria tower with the VC’s that I had been working with to help them review another startup that was presenting. After the second plane hit, I knew that my company and the startup that was presenting would never get the funds to move forward because of our product area of focus. The investment landscape for the startup world completely changed that day.

[UDontKnow 10439]

1 hour ago, Deej said:

I just can't believe it's been 18 years. So much has changed, and not for the better. I was 32 years old, and it made me fired up and angry.  Now, I'm approaching the downside of life and just saddened by it all. So stupid and pointless were the attacks and everything that followed. We have kids been sent over to fight a war that started when they were born. 

Point taken. But 50 is the new 40, Deej.

[Deej 76524]

Just now, UDontKnow said:

Point taken. But 50 is the new 40, Deej.

Tell my failing body that, please.

[Hank Scorpio 17721]

12 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

9/11 impacted me in a weird way. I had been working my way towards founding my first company for 15 years. I’d worked in other startups, developed a network of contacts and investors, and had finally launched my startup with three other cofounders in the summer of 2001. In August we closed our seed funding. It was amazing.

And then 9/11 hit. I was in Galleria tower with the VC’s that I had been working with to help them review another startup that was presenting. After the second plane hit, I knew that my company and the startup that was presenting would never get the funds to move forward because of our product area of focus. The investment landscape for the startup world completely changed that day.

So the actual 9/11 was also your metaphorical 9/11. 

[Beau Vine 53978]

Already posted this in the baseball thread, but this is one thing I really remember about the aftermath:

No one knew when the next attack was going to occur and everyone was uneasy.  And then you have the  World Series in Yankee Stadium with the President wide open in a field... what better time for a terrorist to make a statement?  But Bush walked out to the very top of the mound, gave the crowd a big thumbs up, and threw a strike.  The place went nuts.  What a moment.  

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

Already posted this in the baseball thread, but this is one thing I really remember about the aftermath:
No one knew when the next attack was going to occur and everyone was uneasy.  And then you have the  World Series in Yankee Stadium with the President wide open in a field... what better time for a terrorist to make a statement?  But Bush walked out to the very top of the mound, gave the crowd a big thumbs up, and threw a strike.  The place went nuts.  What a moment.  

Awesome. Forgot about that. Man the political landscape is sooo different

[Queen Bitch 1692]

I listen to the Stern broadcast every year on 9/11. Incredible document of a group of people witnessing and coming to grips with the world changing in front of them. 

[HiggyBaby 2513]

The world showing support for the US in the days after really stuck with me

[alincoln 2364]

13 hours ago, staboner said:

i was 25 when it happened. the 90s were some golden era for the US and the world. not much anymore and that makes me sad every goddamn day i live

Completely agree.  The 90s were truly the halcyon days of yore.  Not only pre-9/11 but also pre-smart phone and pre-social media and pre-broadband.  

[HouTex 1850]

No, the 80's was the golden era.  60's and 70's were great too.  

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

For anyone that cares, this was my experience in Washington DC on 9/11. I will try to tell it in Surly style:

It was 2 days before my 25th birthday. I lived in a shitty neighborhood called Columbia Heights (I hear it is now a very nice place) more or less at the tip of the diamond that makes up DC proper. I was working in the music industry as a recording engineer and my typical hours were late at night and therefore I would usually sleep until 11 am. I am awaken by my cell phone (the first one I ever owned) ringing. It was my mom telling me to turn on the TV, that something was happening in New York. I turn on the TV in time to see the second tower collapse. I tell my worried mother that I am fine and that I need to call a friend in New York who was working in Tribeca.

[surly]This friend was my college girlfriend's old roommate. Tall blonde with amazing knockers. Just 5 months earlier I had traveled to DC and NYC to interview at two recording studios. I got in touch with her and she said I could crash at her place in Hoboken where the studio was located. She was training to be a chef and that night she cooked me an amazing dinner and afterwards we took the train to the city and exited the The World Trade Center station near the restaurant she worked. We walked to Little Italy and got some canolis. It was late and I needed to be back in DC early the next day, so we went back to her place and I gave her the best 3 minutes of her life. I ended up taking the job in DC instead of Hoboken, but had I gone to Hoboken, I would have been right there watching the towers fall [/surly].

All telecommunication on the east coast were hit or miss for hours, and I didn't get to a hold of her until later that day and she was ok.

I grabbed my camera (a 1976 Canon AE-1) and jumped on my mountain bike and headed downtown towards the White House. I didn't know at the time that my camera was malfunctioning due to an eroded light seal on the film door. I could see the smoke from the top of the hill in Columbia Heights so I decided to head towards the Arlington Memorial Bridge via the White House. Everyone that worked in the city but lived in Maryland or NOVA was fleeing the city and most of the folks who lived in DC were outside on their porches just watching them leave. I got to the intersection of 16th and I st. where the street was taped off and a police car was sitting. As I took this photo of the White House, the cop blasted his siren and gave me a gesture that meant "get the fuck out of here". I wish I had gotten the cop car in the frame.



I then headed towards the bridge and snapped this of the smoke across the Potomac:



I crossed the bridge into Virginia and got about 200 yards from the Pentagon where police had taped off the area and were not letting traffic through. There were several journalists there and one interviewed me. I don't know if my comments ever were published. I got this photo and am lucky that it developed at all since light was leaking into the camera.



After awhile I headed back to DC and canceled my studio session for the evening as I was just spent and in awe of what all was going on. A couple of months later I started dating this gal who lived in NOVA.[surly]Many of y'all are familiar with her work, otherwise known as the ex-girlfriend who whores around on her husband and likes to show off[/surly]. I would go to see her and on the way home would sometimes take the route by the Pentagon to see them doing work on the building. And yes, as you drive down 395, you ask yourself how in the hell a plane got so low and didn't crash before hitting the relatively low profile Pentagon building.

I moved back to Austin the following April. I really should go rescan the negatives and edit them more carefully.

[SHOOTER12 8787]

On 9/11/2018 at 10:45 AM, jimmyjazz said:

Buscemi is an old soul.  Watch him in interviews -- he doesn't want any conferred glory about those days.  It had been his job, and he returned to that job because he was more qualified than most.  That was it.  He would have been handing out sandwiches and water and doing whatever else otherwise.  Just a good dude doing what he could.

It's amazing but I have never known that he had done that. Definitely deserves a tip of the hat from this old man.

[Murfdogg21 4412]

Del Ottmers wouldn’t cancel his 12:30-2:00 Unit Ops II class that Tuesday “unless Faulkner shuts down the university.” I think he even threatened a pop quiz so people wouldn’t skip class. 

[InkaUtexas 25486]

[Gooby 633]

I was managing a group of radio stations here in Texas when it happened.  I'm a huge news junkie, so I was sucked in by the story...how can you not be...and was consuming it for what seems like months.

Nowadays, I prefer to kinda quietly observe the day.  I put the flag up before I left the house and just kinda stood there for a minute and let the memories of that day wash over me for a bit.

I managed to stay off of social media all day long yesterday, and avoid all the nimrods trying to out-Murica each other.  I know everyone is gonna mourn or reflect in their own way, but posting an assload of memes on your Facebook page seems kind of hollow.

[InkaUtexas 25486]

I drink a beer. But I get what you are saying. 

 

[Trey3216 15325]

5 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

I drink a beer. But I get what you are saying. 

 

that you Luke Bryan?  

[BillyGoatHill 4276]

21 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

It's been years since I've read that and I was thinking about it the other day.  Had no idea on even how to start looking for it.  Thanks for posting that.  I still the conclusion.  That's how you stick an ending to a story:

You see, for Rick Rescorla, this was a natural death. People like Rick, they don’t die old men. They aren’t destined for that and it isn’t right for them to do so. It just isn’t right, by God, for them to become feeble, old, and helpless sons of bitches. There are certain men born in this world, and they’re supposed to die setting an example for the rest of the weak bastards we’re surrounded with.”

Wow. I knew the backround of him and his story (especially Vietnam exploits) but never in this detail and hadn't seen or read this article. Thanks for sharing.

[Parliament 14121]

Coming up on 20 years.  What do people <25 years old think about 9-11?  How much do they know about it?