Remembered
A bell struck for the time of each
tragic event. |
At
8:46 AA Flight 11 hits the North Tower
At 9:02 UA Flight 175 hits South Tower
At 9:40 AA
Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon
At 9:59
South Tower Collapses
At 10:06 UA
Flight 93 crashes into field at Shanksville, Pa.
At 10:28 North Tower Collapses
Talking about September 11, 2001 is so sad. But talking about
the heroes on September 11th makes us so proud. There was not just horror on
that day but also bravery. There are many stories Here are a few about
some angels we call heroes...
At the WTC many of them were police officers
and firefighters. There were many success stories because of them.
One of the stories that is told is about the 6 fire fighters who survived.
They are known today as the Lucky Six. They survived because of one reason only; they were
helping. Tommy Falco, Sal D'Agostino, Mike Meldrum, Matt Komorowski, Captain Jonas,
and Bill Butler were the firefighters who saved Josephine Harris by carrying her down from
one of the burning towers.
Other rescue workers, police officers and
firefighters worked around the clock to try and find survivors among the tons of
steel, concrete and glass. A most miraculous recovery involved pulling a Port Authority
police officer to safety from a 50-foot hole filled with rubble. The officer had been on
the 83rd floor when the tower collapsed.
 
L to R
Jeremy Glick, Mark Bingham Todd
Beamer and Tom Burnett Jr.
In addition to the heroes in the Twin Towers in
New York, there were also people on the airplanes that made important calls to let people
know what was happening to them. Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett Jr., and Jeremy
Glick were just a few who made phone calls from the flight UA 93. Some to mothers,
some to wives, and to a GTE Airfone operator, but all gave some clues as to who the
people who hijacked the planes were. Todd Beamer said, "They've knifed a guy
and they've said there's a bomb." He later was heard to say, "Lets
Roll". All these calls helped the people on the ground to understand what was
happening so that the airports could be shut down.
Flight Attendant Madeline Amy Sweeny was on
the first plane to hit the Towers, but she stayed calm. She called a control station
at Logan International Airport. She told Control where the men who were taking the
plane had been seated, which helped to reconstruct valuable pieces of evidence in
reconstructing the hijackings. She said the plane was flying too low and then, in
her own amazement, "Oh my God." The plane struck the tower.
Two New York fire marshals and a volunteer
firefighter helped many people on Sept. 11.
One of them is 49-year-old, Ling Young from central New Jersey, who worked on the 86th
floor in the second tower of the World Trade Center as a tax auditor for the New York
State Department of Taxation and Finance. She credits volunteer firefighter Welles
Crowther, Fire Marshal Ronald Bucca and Fire Marshal James Devery. Devery was the only one
of her three rescuers to survive. Although Young escaped the south tower with her life,
she was burned over approximately 20 percent of her body and had surgery five times.
They were also at the Pentagon. You
don't hear their stories. Maybe because they were government workers or our Armed
Forces personnel. But you know they were heroes too!
Back at the WTC Father Mychal Judge of
Manhattan rushed out to help his firefighter friends, to give any who might need it last
rites. Debris struck him in the head and killed him.
We'll never know of the heroes that stayed
behind to be with their fellow workers who couldn't leave their offices. Or those
who could have made it out, but returned to help others.
There were angels that day too called
"man's best friend".
Mr.
Rivera, a computer technician who is blind, was in his office with his guide dog
"Dorado" lying under the desk on floor 71 North Tower at the time the plane hit
it. He unleashed his faithful friend, so that the dog might escape. "I hoped he
would be able to quickly run down the stairs without me and get to safety. I thought he'd
be so scared he'd run. But then the unexpected occurred, in the form of a familiar,
fuzzy nudge from knee-high.He was prepared to die in the hope he might save my life."
says Mr. Rivera. It took more than an hour for Dorado, Mr. Rivera and a
co-worker he met on the stairs, who also helped, to descend those 70 flights of
stairs.
There were many heroes that day.
Our President GeorgeW. Bush
New
York Governor Guiliani
Todd Beamer's wife who spoke
of her husband and made
us think, if she could cope, so could we!
Today let us not forget those
in the Armed Forces who are still
fighting for our countries' safety.
May God Bless America!!
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