Lest We Forget: My 9/11. . .and the Day After

My 9/11 and the day after

Sept 11, 2001

My 9/11
in the fall of 2001 I was working at a VA hospital in a major city. The TV in the patient waiting room was always on. I came in to get a patient when someone said, "Hey Doc, . . .you gotta see this." (I am not a doctor.). The first plane had just struck.

We all assumed that a tragic accident had happened. Someone mentioned that a WW-II bomber had crashed into the Empire State Building at one time. I came back into the waiting area about fifteen minutes later to get another patient and the second plane hi while we watched. Some old veteran there said, "Well we're at war with somebody now."

As the morning unfolded (the Pentagon, flight 93) there was a palpable sense of frustrated anger. One patient there that day was a WW-II era Army Ranger. I will always remember his stifled anger and the silent tear; as he was remembering the young man he once was and wishing he could rise from his wheelchair to again be the fierce warrior who had assaulted the cliffs of Pont du Hoc at dawn on D-Day.


Sept 12, 2001
The Next Day
At the end of the work day on September 11th, 2001 we all knew that the world had changed, but it wasn't clear just how or how much. In the locker room, I chose to bring my work keys and work ID home with me . . .usually I did not.

The next day, 9-12, I drove in extra early, and sure enough there was a line of cars down the street from the gate and around the corner. Someone in authority had decided that only persons with documentation would be admitted. I was working at the VA hospital in Houston, a 500 bed facility, and there must have been 1,500 employees reporting to the day shift between 7 & 9 AM. Most had left their ID at work. Patients too were being asked to produce proof that they had business there that morning. What a mess! All of it understandable. No-one was prepared to secure the 40 acre site like a military base, yet it seemed to be the prudent thing to do. Who would have thought the World Trade Center was a military target? Was the hospital now a target too?

I finely got into the parking lot and through the one and only door in the front that was open. As I walked into the front lobby, I glanced up from my paper and saw a fit young man in a white lab coat standing with his arms folded across his chest. His eyeballs were scanning the crowd like he was speed reading. Avoikding eye contact I looked back at the news paper.

Another quick side glance as I walked past showed empty lab coat pockets; not a pen or note book in sight. No stethoscope draped over his neck. This was not a doctor.

Back in the X-Ray Department where I worked, I buttonholed the Radiation Safety Officer. He was part of the overall security/safety/emergency response organ at the hospital. As the RSO he reported to the Director of the hospital. I told him right off that I was going to say something and that I did not need or want a response .

"There is a spook in the lobby." I said. "He is trying to look like a doctor but he is scanning the crowd and has no stethoscope. The Lab coat has no custom embroidered name over the breast pocket. A doctor always has something to read or consult in his hand and wears hard shoes, not trainers . . .and he has an ear-bud that is not a hearing aid.."

Then I told him that I thought that the young guy should push an older man in a wheel chair, pointing out that they can put communication gear or weapons in the bag that folks hang on the back of the chair, or under a lap blanket. The RSO just gave me a small grin and nodded to let me know he had heard me. I [medially left his office.

Later in the day the young "doctor" was not there in the front lobby. There were plenty of older men in wheel chairs though . . .as usual.

Wow ICU 812, your story is moving. Thank you for sharing. Remembering 9-11...

In memory of the over 6,000 victims of the 9/11 attack 18 years ago, each one of us should take a moment of silence, pray for their surviving families and for the countless men and women in our military who fight and sacrifice every day to keep our country and the world safe and free from terrorism and oppression, especially those who are still serving in Afghanistan, the longest running war in U.S. history.

The official casualties count is 2,977 dead, not including the 19 hijackers, plus 6,000 injured.

Also not included in the official count are 3,000+ casualties on the ground when the towers collapsed.

As of 2018, there are still 1,111+ bodies and 10,000 bone fragments that have not been identified to match any one of the official victims list.

Unbelievable facts and knowledge of this day...thank you for sharing!

Those terrorists were told they will become martyrs, go to heaven where they will get to fuck 72 virgins...

I hope they are in hell instead and 72 non virgins are fucking them 24/7/365.

I posted in the Dallas section.

Semper Fi

I say Never Forgive

... and lives are still being lost every day since that day 18 years ago:

9/11 lingering's effect has taken a physical toll on New Yorkers as firefighters, police and others have fallen ill due to exposure to the wreckage and the toxins unleashed in it.

The casualty count goes up every day as first responders are now starting to drop like flies as asbestos and chemicals poisoning catches up with them.

That's what those brave men and women get for running into danger while most were running from it ... heroes every single one of them.

While research continues into whether those illnesses are tied to 9/11 toxins, a victims compensation fund for people with potentially September 11-related health problems has awarded more than $5.5 billion so far. Over 51,000 people have applied.

Around 18,000 people have been estimated to have developed illnesses as a result of the toxic dust released in the attack.

Truly a moving recount of the events. Thanks for sharing.

I was just parking at the local high school, going in to do some IT work, when they broke in on the radio and said it appeared a small plane had hit one of the towers. I was done and packing up to leave when they came on the P.A. and said the school was on lockdown, no one in or out. I didn’t immediately connect the two. After some time, the lifted the lockout and I was able to leave. More details on the radio on the way home, now both towers had been hit. I got home and flipped on the tv in time to see the first tower fall. It was just insane. I remember going there not long after they were completed, I was about 10 and my uncle took both our families to NYC and we went up to the observation deck.
I didn’t know anyone at any of the sites who was killer, but my cousin worked in Manhattan and took the PATH train that went through the WTC station. His regular train was the one that got stranded below the towers, but that morning, his infant daughter was being fussy and he missed his regular train and had to take a later one.
Something I will never ever forget. “If This Is Goodbye”, a song by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, is something he wrote after hearing the message a woman trapped in the tower left on her husband’s answering machine. You have no soul if you can listen to that song and not get at least a little choked up.

Thank you for sharing

If read the internal memo sent out 5 weeks before would know not to go there.