Led Slingers

Most of us can remember it like it happened just yesterday. We remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news that the United States of America was under attack by terrorists. We also remember the horrible feeling that we experienced when watching the television coverage of the carnage that had been delivered to our doorstep by Al-Qaeda. Two thousand, nine hundred and seventy three lives were taken that day during the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and Flight 93 in Shanksville, P.A.. The devastation sent shock waves throughout the United States and across the globe. Unfortunately for the terrorists, the act that they thought would bring us to our knees ended up making us stand taller, stronger, and more united than ever.

It would be one of the first and only times my children had ever seen their father cry. I was sitting in my office on a normal, busy, summer day when my wife called to tell me that a plane had struck the WTC. Being under the impression that it was a small commuter plane that had possibly malfunctioned in some way, I replied with a simple “I hope there weren’t many people hurt”, or something of that nature. Not until the news reports started to flow in on CNN.com did I understand the scope of what was happening. I remember feeling a mixture of sorrow, anger, and disbelief while reading the steady flow of breaking news.

When I got home from work that evening and watched the coverage on TV, the emotions were uncontrollable. Like the rest of the United States, I sat in front of my television with my wife and children watching the news coverage for hours upon hours with tears running down my cheeks. It was a day I hope to never duplicate.

The outflow of patriotism in the next several weeks was incredible. Almost every store in the U.S. was completely sold out of American flags within two days following the attacks. Everywhere you looked you would see red, white and blue shirts, hats, bandannas, stickers, posters, etc. Businesses whose windows were normally bare were now plastered with patriotic posters and flags. The unity was so unbelievably strong that you could feel it everywhere you went.

When I went to N.Y.C. on September 23, I remember New Yorkers lining the streets, holding up signs that said “Thank You” and “God Bless You”. These people, who had just been through hell, were using their time to thank others for volunteering themselves. I was moved beyond words when I saw them and I still get choked up when I think of that day.

I visited the tattoo artist that I regularly use and he told me that he had tattooed an astronomical number of American flags, American Bald Eagles, and other patriotic insignias in the months following 9/11.

There was also an incredible surge in philanthropy, even from those with little to give. There were celebrity telethons on television as well as Patriotic apparel being sold online to raise money for the newly established 9/11 Disaster Relief Fund. I remember getting choked up while reading the following story adapted from The Billings (Montana) Gazette:

CBS talk show host David Letterman paid tribute to the small Montana town of Choteau when he returned to the air on Monday, September 17, 2001. The agricultural town of 1,600 has suffered from drought and tough economic times for the last three years.

“Last night at the high school auditorium, in Choteau, Montana, they had a rally - home of the Bulldogs by the way-they had a rally for New York City … a rally to raise money for New York City,” Letterman told his audience. “And if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the spirit of the United States, then,” and his voice trailed off.

In the days that followed the attacks I was lucky enough to be able to contribute, in a small way, to the WTC clean-up effort. Since I am not much of a writer, here is the story that appeared in the Morgantown, WV Dominion Post newspaper describing the trip:

N.Y. politely says no to offer of aid

John Wilfong/The Dominion Post

Brett Bennett, plant manager at Hoy Redi-Mix Co., helped haul a drilling rig to New York City to help build new piers along the Hudson River to anchor barges that will haul away rubble from the World Trade Center towers’ collapse. The ruins remains incomprehensible, he said.

BY JOHN WILFONG

The Dominion Post

Three local men delivering equipment to the World Trade Center cleanup hoped to stay and help. But they were graciously turned away.

Brett Bennett, plant manager at Hoy Redi-Mix, joined Scott Kiger, co-owner of H&K Enterprises Inc., and co-worker Darrell Bane in a big rig pulling a seven-axle lowboy, hauling the majority of an immense drilling rig.

The drill is being used to help build new piers to hold barges full of debris on the Hudson River.

Bennett is back home. He arrived Sunday morning equipped with a month’s worth of clothing, hard hat and steel-toed boots he never had to wear.

In time, Bennett found himself within a block of what is now called The Pit, or Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood. The three-man crew arrived nearly two weeks after terrorists flew two airliners into the towers Sept. 11.

The mound of devastation, even then, seemed incomprehensible, he said. The efforts to search through it, and remove it, even more daunting.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Brett said from his office at Hoy Redi-Mix. “You can watch it on TV and see pictures of it, but you can’t comprehend how much there really is. It’s just huge.”

The number of people working on the pile of rubble were outnumbered only by those lining the streets waving flags or holding signs offering thanks to the lines of people looking to volunteer to help.

The humanitarian trip was his first to the legendary Big Apple.

“It’s just a sad, sad place to be,” he said, slowly shaking his head. “It’s disturbing to see armed American soldiers in the streets of New York City.”

Lines of media vehicles, large colorful vans topped with antennae and satellite dishes, stretched along the road for at least a mile.

A fence will forever stand out in his memory, he said. Someone had tied yellow ribbons along a chain-link fence for about a quarter of a mile.

Then there was the dust. The choking, billowing dust that has all but blasted through television sets across the nation still coated everything two weeks after the towers’ collapse.

“There’s almost nine to 10 blocks just covered with dust,” Bennett said. “It’s everywhere.”

A call for help
On Saturday, the cleanup crews had worked 12 days in the debris, but the pile of broken rock and twisted metal seemed unchanged.

“They haven’t even made a dent in it,” Bennett said. “They’re going to be at it for at least months.”

That was why the crew was helping haul the drilling rig to New York in the first place. McKinney Drilling, of Delmont, Pa., requested some help hauling the massive parts of the drilling rig, calling upon Kiger and Todd Hoy, owners of H&K.

Workers from McKinney were already on scene. The drill was used to dig caissons — watertight chambers — to build a temporary pier to anchor barges along the Hudson River.

Those barges will haul away the incomprehensible mound of rubble. The endless lines of dump trucks aren’t enough for the job.

Bennett said piers will be built on both sides of the river and the rubble shipped to New Jersey and for disposal.

The threesome dropped off the rig and headed into Manhattan to see where else they could help.

At the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, the truck was thoroughly searched, as were Bennett and his friends. National Guardsmen and police had a tight grip on Manhattan.

“Security is tight,” he said. “They were crawling into the truck, checking everything out.”

Ten city blocks were barricaded heading into the city, toward the towers’ remnants. At every other stop they were completely searched and interrogated again.

“We were searched at least four times in a mile and a half,” he said. “They’re not fooling around. But they were very, very, very nice. Hey, it’s worth it. We didn’t mind.”

They reached the ninth barrier before being turned away.

Bennett said they checked with the National Guard, the Red Cross and any other agency to see if the lowboy was needed. It wasn’t.

“It’s hard to watch on TV and not want to do something,” he said. “If they would have let us in, we wouldn’t have been here today.”

He didn’t have to put on his steel-toed boots. The hard hat wasn’t used either.

But the day will come when more volunteers will be needed to continue clearing away the rubble. It has to, he said, because otherwise, New York will have to pay a company to do it. It may be three months, or it could be a year. Time doesn’t matter, Bennett said.

“It’s hard for a lot of guys to get away for three weeks,” he said. “We’re on several lists. As far as labor or equipment operation, we are all willing and capable to do both, for as long as needed. All they need to do is contact us.” There are several SG members who were in close proximity to the attacks and will never forget that day. The following are stories and quotes that a few of those members were willing to share.

Gorbachev (Seasoned Gamers Member)
I was working as a consultant with the Lehman Brothers at 9/11/2001 on the 38th floor in the World Trade Center.

I usually went to work somewhat late, well past 8:45am, but that morning I was supposed to meet with one of the Lehman Brothers developers early to prepare for a process we needed to complete later that week.

I had an old schoolmate (from elementary school) from my home country visiting me with his wife and we were running late, because New York sized studios aren’t made to have three people sleep in them and all do their morning things at the same time and because we woke up late after having a late night the previous day.

We had planned to take the subway to WTC and have my friends go do their tourist things at NYSE, WTC and Statue of Liberty and wherever else they wanted to go to in Lower Manhattan while I would go to work after sending them off with proper directions.

I’m trying to hurry my friends up, because I’m running late and I’m thinking the developer from Lehman Brothers is already there and waiting for me.

We leave my home before 8:45am and catch the downtown 6 train.

The stop before Fulton Street stop an elderly woman walks in the car we’re in and is loudly professing the end of the world and all kinds of other things about how evil people are. Me and my friends are chuckling, thinking she just another typical New York kook. She goes on and on. A child is apparently getting worried, because a younger woman says: “Don’t believe anything she says, she’s just crazy”.

The train approaches the Fulton Street stop and me and my friends are preparing to get off the train, but the train doesn’t stop at Fulton Street without any information why. I’m now getting increasingly annoyed, because I’m getting very late now. I am muttering under my breath about poor MTA service and how the subway system in New York sucks.

The train stops at the Wall Street stop and we quickly get off. I’m trying to hurry up to not be any more late than I already am.

We get out of the subway tunnel and we’re smelling the smoke and see the debris on the streets, but we have no idea what’s going on. I look up and I see a huge cloud of smoke high on top of me. It’s immediately apparent that a WTC building is on fire, because the smoke cloud is so high up.

We walk around the corner, see the carnage and we stop on our tracks. The sight from down there that close to the towers is unbelievable. The sheer size of the event totally blocks any thoughts about people dying in there for a while. We’re just staring at the towers with our mouths open…and so is everybody else. There are hundreds of people just in that one street corner gawking up. There is no shouting, crying, running or much speaking. Everybody’s just staring.

We still don’t know what’s happened. I thought one of the buildings had an explosion or some other sort of fire and it spread to the other building.

After a few minutes it dawns on me that people close to me probably think I’m inside. I try making cell phone calls, but the network is overloaded and I can’t get through. I have to get to a phone.

My friends are wondering what to do and I’m thinking it’s their vacation and they should go on and do what they planned to do for the day…well, with the exception of visiting WTC. I tell them which way to go for the Statue of Liberty ferries and off they go. Bad mistake, as I learn later.

I start walking away to back to our office to make the phonecalls. Every payphone on the way has 20 people on line. There’s a huge gathering of people near the City Hall. Around here I’m beginning to realise everything is not allright, that there are a lot of people dead and that my girlfriend and parents must be worried sick.

I catch the uptown 6 train in front of the City Hall and take off at Union Square and hurry back to our office. I try dialing friends’ phone numbers all the way from Union Square to our office, but the cellphone is not getting through. All the way from Union Square to our office there are people standing on street corners looking south. The view is disturbing.

Finally I get to the our office and I get conformation that planes hit the towers and that it was a terrorist attack. I’m now starting to realize it wasn’t such a good idea to leave my friend at Lower Manhattan, but since they have no cellphone there’s no way to contact them and to tell them to leave and go back to my apt.

I start making phonecalls. Anybody on a cellphone, I can’t get through. This includes my girlfriend. I leave a message to her answering machine at her home, call her parents who still haven’t heard the news (there is no radio or TV in their small store) and they have no idea what to think of my “Tell Ailin I’m ok”. I call a few other friends.

And then I call my parents. My dad’s just gotten back home from work and heard the news on a bus ride home and he’s been worried sick ever since he heard the news and he’s crying. He tells me my phonecall is the best phonecall he’s ever received. I ask him to tell all my relatives that everything is okay and we hang up.

The Emails start getting in now.

Someone from the New York office said after a few days that they never knew they had so many friends that cared. I got Email from all over the world. I start writing responses and copy anyone else I can think of. Some ex-colleagues in San Francisco are worried about other coworkers and I’m glad to reply them that we don’t think anything happened to anyone, though we haven’t heard from a few people yet. Answering to all the Emails takes about two hours and I’m kind of happy I have something to do. I’m not feeling like watching TV.

All of a sudden I get an IM from my gf! She’s made it to my apt and is using my computer. It’s a relief to know she knows I’m ok. She hasn’t been able to check her messages or call her parents and hasn’t heard from me at all for a few hours, so she must’ve been feeling awful.

She’s also telling me my friends are in my apt. They are shaken, covered in dust and exhausted. She puts my friend on and he tells me they got stuck in Battery Park when the first building collapsed and got totally engulfed by the dust clouds. They had walked all the way to my apt from Battery Park and are not feeling very hot. I think they stopped liking New York at some time that morning. They give me their parents phone numbers back home and I’ll start calling. I reach my friend’s wife’s mom and tell her both of them are ok and ask her, if she could phone my friend’s parents, since I can’t reach them.

I hang around in the office until the Emails stop coming in and I hear that everyone at work is okay.

Later that day I began thinking that if everything went normal that morning, I would’ve been inside the building or just getting in at the time of the first hit. I could’ve been in the elevators or the lobby when the fireball came down the shaft or I could’ve been hit by debris (or worse still, people) falling down from the towers. To this day the thought of that gives me jitters.

Thanks for my friend’s “slow” morning activities and oversleeping 9/11/2001 I didn’t have to experience, first hand, the worst of what happened that day. I consider myself very lucky.

Ndjay87 (Seasoned Gamers Member)
“I had dropped my son off at day care and got to the office around 9am or earlier. Don’t remember if the first plane hit. I got to my cube at 1166 Ave of the Americas NY, NY the 24th floor. Sitting at my desk for Marsh & McLennan and the computer system goes down. Somebody says that the WTC is on fire. Go to the window that has a view of downtown and see tower #1 on fire. We think that it must have been some sort of crash. When tower 2 gets hit we know it wasn’t an accident.

Marsh’s back office was on floors 94 - 99 or 100. Training and big meetings were held there. All of our IT department, accounting department and some human resources. They were right at the impact point. Cantor Fitzgerald was above them.

One of my co-workers who was in that day had a brother in law at Cantor.

Everyone was shocked when they fell. I still can’t forget that image. It is different when you see something unfolding in front of your eyes. It is different then seeing it on TV. It stays with you.

We had on the radio trying to figure out what was going on. Of course, your thought went out to friends and family. Is my son okay, is my wife okay?

It was the worst day I can ever remember. I was angry, sad, confused. The questions at the time was Why? Who?

I luckily did not lose any close friends, but there are faces of people I dealt with during business, a husband of an old co-worker, the woman who got me set up in the department, the IT trainer, my new next door neighbors husband.

I am still sad, angry and confused when I think of that day and those good people. How could someone do that in the name of their God?

My prayers go out to all those who are hurting due to that horrible day 5 years ago today.”

The Headhunter (Seasoned Gamers Member)
“I was on my way to Jury Duty about 5 miles from my house. My radio was tuned to Howard also. They were talking about a plane hitting the WTC. It was such a crisp clear morning that I thought they must have been joking and that it was one of the worst jokes I had ever heard. I switched the radio to another station and my heart sank. I drove to the courthouse and was stuck in a jury room with about 10 other uninformed and frightened people. The last juror to come in had brought a portable radio in. We sat and listened in shock. My wife and brother worked in Manhattan at the time but were in midtown. Of course at that time you didn’t know what the hell was going to happen next.

We actually started the jury selection process and then someone came in and whispered in the judge’s ear. The courts were closed and we were sent home. I sat in front of the TV all day with no contact from my wife or brother until later that afternoon. My parents were out of the country on a cruise. I never felt so alone as I did that day waiting to hear from someone.

When the first tower fell I remember screaming at the tv and cursing those coward pieces of shit who did it. To this day when I think about it, my eyes tear up and a rage wells up inside me.

I didn’t know anyone killed in the attacks. But I did think a buddy of mine might have been there when it happened. He worked for Lehman and at the time I wasn’t sure which building he was in. I think he was in WTC #7 and when the first plane hit they took off and were able to get a subway up town. Of course I hadn’t heard from him and there was no way I was going to call his wife to ask her. So that night we drove by the train station and his car was still parked there. It was a long night but luckily we heard from him the next day and he told us he was fine.

I’ll never forget that day.”

SG Stretch (Seasoned Gamers Moderator)
“I was in my car on the way to work when my wife called me. I was about to make a right turn onto Passaic Ave onto Harrison Avenue in the Roesland/West Caldwell area in NJ. I was listening to the radio and called her back several minutes later to tell her about the second plane hitting.

Spent most of the day waiting to hear from several friends who worked in and around the area. Luckily all were safe. I know many others are and were not so fortunate. As ndjay knows, his town, which was the same as the one my wife grew up in lost a lot of people. I think I heard that over 50% of the families in Summit were affected by a loss (family relation). My wife (and her family) knew just about everyone the interviewed on TV from the area.

When i drove home that night, I could see the smoke from the site billowing up in into the air from my apartment. Its still so surreal seeing the reports about it and seeing all that video footage again.”

SG YEKCIM (Seasoned Gamers Member)
“I was in boot camp, 7th week, running the confidence course. As we finished our Company Commanders’ told us “We have just been attacked by terrorists.” and that was it, the base was locked down, I graduated the next week, no family allowed on base, the only people there were military. It sucked going through all of that then having to walk off base to see your family. I had no idea what happened until I saw the news after graduation.”

hvy mchn gnnr (Seasoned Gamers Member)
“I was in high school when it happened. I was at the community college doing my diesel mechanics class. I remember that I was working on a truck when someone came in and told us the news. The teacher quickly turned the news station on and for the rest of the day we sat there and watched what happened. When I heard that the first tower was hit I thought it was a freak accident, but when I saw it on tv and the second tower was struck, anger and confusion came across me. To be honest I didn’t know how to react at the time but I knew I wanted to do something to help ensure that nothing like this ever happened again. I went into m.e.p.s (Military Entrance Processing Center) 3 months after the attacks and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, I graduated high school and a month later I was shipped off to boot camp. The tragedy of September 11th had a huge impact on my decision to join, but my uncle was a Marine and he was the person I looked up to while growing up. A year and a half in, I was shipped over to Iraq, I did a 7 month deployment. I’ve seen allot of friends come and go and I’ve seen allot of people I was close to get hurt while I was in Iraq, but I have never regretted joining.”

Jaleeb Caru (Seasoned Gamers Member)
“I was working at home. You could see it from my street. My wife was working ten blocks from the WTC (she could see inside the buildings) and my Father-in-Law was working across the street from the Empire State Building. I shot some bad video of the first tower falling from my place. What more can you do when you just have to sit around and wait hearing the reports and worrying? They left work and hooked up between 10 and 11 and finally crossed the Hudson some twelve hours later via ferry. I can’t imagine what it was (is) like for the people who lost loved ones or for the people who had no idea where their family members were. I was fortunate that I was able to talk to my wife before the cells were unavailable. As lucky as I was, and as easy as I had it comparatively, it was one of the most frightening days of my life. Incidentally, I was married eleven days later.”

These are just a few of the thousands of people that were affected by the tragic attacks of 9-11-01. The events of that day had an effect on every single person in the United States. Our lives forever changed that day in many ways. I still cannot read stories about the events of that day without me eyes welling with tears. I have dabbed them with a tissue at least a dozen times while reading the stories written by SG members and writing this small piece. It is not only those who were close to the attack sites that were devastated by these events. We all felt as if a part of us had died and we felt completely helpless as we sat in front of the television just wishing that there were something…anything… we could do for those in need.

It was refreshing to see the big business retail companies making large donations of food, water and clothing to the relief workers, and even more refreshing to hear that the American Red Cross had received so much donated blood across the United States that they couldn’t handle any more and had reached their supply limit. Everyone seemed to be more than willing to do everything in their power to help. It was a great time of unity during a tough time for the country.

With the fifth anniversary of the attacks upon us, we think of those 2,973 lives that were lost, and of those who were forced to endure the devastating loss of a family member, friend, or co-worker. Let these be the last innocent victims.

We also think of our soldiers, firemen, and law enforcement officials who put themselves in harm’s way to ensure our safety. Their job is a noble one for which they normally get very little recognition. I appreciate what they do for us more than they could ever realize. They are the real heroes of the world.

Ndjay said to me earlier today….
“It is funny how you don’t think about something until it comes on you. It all hit me when I was posting for that thread (where were you on 9-11-01). It really makes you appreciate what you have because 9/11 showed us all how quickly it can be taken away.”

I can’t think of a better summation than that.