Special 9/11 Remembrance Post

Fourteen years ago today, and two years before I was born, Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist group Al-Qaeda committed an atrocious act against the United States of America. It was one that I always knew was terrible by what I've heard about it, but never truly understood until today when I saw the footage of the planes bringing the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center down to the ground. It was replayed today on MSNBC.

That surreal day, in just 102 minutes, Al-Qaeda doomed four jet liners, brought the Pentagon to its knees, and destroyed the Twin Towers forever. Afterward, 2,973 American people lay dead or dying, more than the Pearl Harbor attack or on D-Day.

 At 8:00 A.M., Eastern time, nineteen men from Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes: two from Boston, Massachusetts; one from Newark, New Jersey; and one from Washington, D.C. At 8:46 A.M., Eastern time, the first plane smashed into the Northern Tower. The impact of a plane traveling 450 miles per hour is devastating, and it was felt on floors 93 through 99. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 A.M., Eastern time, a second plane barreled through floors 77 through 85 of the Southern Tower.

200 miles away and 34 minutes later, at 9:37 A.M., Eastern time, just as people were beginning to realize that the country was under attack, the U.S.A. military headquarters known as the  Pentagon was also targeted. That impact resulted in numerous government buildings being evacuated. What about the fourth plane, though? As it was soaring through the Pennsylvania sky, passengers who had heard about the other attacks stormed the cockpit, intent on taking the plane back. As the terrorists struggled with the passengers, the plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 A.M., Eastern time.

As you read this post, I hope that you look back on that fateful day and remember the heroes who lost their lives so that others might live. People like William Burke, Orio Palmer, Frank De Martini, Ed Beyea, Pablo Ortiz, and Kevin Pfeifer.

 They attempted to minimize the damage dealt by the acts of (in my opinion) horrific, inexcusable,and terrible terrorists.  I learned about these heroic people from the book America Is Under Attack: The Day The Towers Fell by Don Brown, which describes 9/11 and the heroes.

I would like to share some pictures from one of our trips to New York City:

 For those who were eager for my book  review, I am postponing my review of The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt until next week. See you next week!