Visited the 9/11 memorial today

[NoobTubes]

This month I am in New York for a medical school rotation. My family is from here but I hd never been before. I took a walk around the memorial and these were some of my thoughts, which I figured I'd share here as I'm sure many of our members work in public safety.

Being here in New York for the anniversary of September 11 has really helped me understand the significance of this day to the fire service. Living on the west coast my whole life I never understood why it has always felt personal to me.

Standing at the memorial and seeing the engraved names it finally hit home for me: even though in 5 years I was never called to something like this I know exactly what I would have done if it came. I know that this is a truth shared implicitly by those who work in public safety: "If it had been a different year, a different place, it could have been my name."

I think this is the special bond shared by folks working in emergency services: we go where we are called to try and help regardless of what might happen. We may be doing this at a cost to ourselves and we promise to come anyway. Seeing the names in brass of all the people who paid that cost was a powerful reminder of what that promise means.

This year marked my complete retirement from the fire service/EMS as medical school takes me all over the country, but I want to take a chance to thank all of my friends still out there keeping that promise.

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[WAYNO]

I was in New York a couple days ago. I'd be fine if I never went back.

But, what I will recognize, is they will never forget 9/11. It is very foremost in their thoughts and conversations.

 

[2506]

Never forget man's best friend and their contributions during this horrible time in our history.

Amazon.com

 

[308]

Were the pink abortion lights atop the building illuminated?

 

[WAYNO]

Were the pink abortion lights atop the building illuminated?

If they were, I was unaware. i took dozens of pictures of the NYC skyline at night, and although none of them turned out well, I still saw nothing that was obviously pink.

 

[titsonritz]

I was in New York a couple days ago. I'd be fine if I never went back.

But, what I will recognize, is they will never forget 9/11. It is very foremost in their thoughts and conversations.

Apparently not foremost enough to put a priority on border security.

 

[titsonritz]

On September 11, 2001, Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney in an F-16 at Andrews Air Force Base. She had her orders. She was to take down down United Airlines Flight 93. The hijacked plane was headed toward Washington DC. Three other planes had hit targets in New York and Washington, and Flight 93 was destined to become the fourth.

Penney was the second combat pilot in the air that morning. The idea of shooting down a civilian aircraft, even a hijacked one, was troublesome enough–but Penney had no missiles or live ammunition. All she had were her orders and her plane. She was going to take the plane down the hard way.

"We wouldn't be shooting it down. We'd be ramming the aircraft," Penney said of the surreal moment. "I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot."

Her Mission was to Take Down Flight 93 on September 11th. Her F-16 Didn't Have Any Ammunition.

 

[Dungannon]

The wife and I visited the Flight 93 memorial in September 2015, on our way to visit relatives back east. I'm glad we went into the museum first, as it gave us time while walking the grounds to deal with that lump in the throat. The emphasis is on each of the passengers and crew members. Pick up a phone at various locations and you can hear the recorded calls that passengers made from the plane, minutes or moments before it went down.

 

[clearconscience]

The wife and I visited the Flight 93 memorial in September 2015, on our way to visit relatives back east. I'm glad we went into the museum first, as it gave us time while walking the grounds to deal with that lump in the throat. The emphasis is on each of the passengers and crew members. Pick up a phone at various locations and you can hear the recorded calls that passengers made from the plane, minutes or moments before it went down.