Jump to content

9/11: One Day in America (Nat Geo)


Sbbruin

Recommended Posts

4 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

As a 7th grader I was pretty spooked, but mainly I was pissed that they didn't cancel football practice that afternoon.

 

Youngster.

 

I was in grad school at UT. I was in teaching a class when it happened. After class, I took the bus to Bracken Ridge Field Labs on Lake Austin Blvd where I was working. Didn't find out until I walked into the lab and everybody was freaking out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

we watched the first episode.  holy shit.  unreal footage.  so many heartbreaking lines.  "that was the last time i saw my brother Kevin."  

the Brit who was near the WTC for a meeting and helped the burned woman, then gets a call from his BIL?  jesus.

I was watching a bit earlier and got to this part but had to pause. Fuuucccckkkkkk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The most chilling account for me was the guy placing "deceased" tags on the bodies and one mangled woman responded, "I'm not dead.  Call my daughter."  I got chills.  Damn.

Yeah that was awful and he had to lie to her since she was already gone that help was on the way.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Quagmire said:

Fireman getting a standing ovation at guys daughters wedding that he saved really got me, great moment.

Same. The tears were flowing at that point. I bet Jeff Johnson had a good time before, at, and after that reception. The bride was probably involved, too. Well deserved, Jeff. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I caught some of it yesterday. I used to work 4 blocks from Ground zero(after 9/11), but many of my former colleagues experienced that day. Just hearing their accounts of that day is heartbreaking enough. Also, one former employee who was there before I started saw one of the planes hit from our office window and he instantly knew his daughter who worked on a high floor was dead…and he was right.

I lived in Jersey City for a while and it was always eerie taking the PATH train right into ground zero during reconstruction where you could see the destruction.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watched the first ep last night. Have seen most of the footage over the years, but man this is hard to watch with the additional context from other survivors.

 

The Irish guy who's sister was killed in the plane while he was helping the burned lady, wow.

Edited by LonghornSean
  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, 4th&Five said:

Last one airs tonight and will be up in the morning. 

I was able to watch them all on Nat Geo on demand.  Finished last night.  Amazing hero stories in the last one trying to recover people from the wreckage.  But one thing that struck (not really a spoiler) me was the shot of all of the doctors and nurses waiting outside the hospital to receive people, and no one was being brought to the hospital.  There was no one to bring.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Damn.  Wish I hadn't seen this thread.  I'm watching it, almost out of obligation.  Really rough first hour (duh).  Crazy about the guy in the walkin/cooler that missed the whole thing, came out, and everyone was gone.

and that dude in the cooler took the elevator down to get out of the building.  his buddy didn't want to get in the elevator.  the buddy never made it out.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

all these people still have such a look of shock, even 20 years later. their eyes are haunted. 

the one guy doing the 'deceased' tagging who came across the barely living woman...the way he described her body, and how he had her image right in the center of his 'mind's eye', how he had to work to "move her' from the front of his mind. my god.

it's incredible how much personal footage there actually is considering cameras weren't nearly as ubiquitous back then. 

also...firefighters are the real life superheroes. no hyperbole.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Rip76 said:

I recorded it to watch this week.

I have a lot of 9/11 DVDs and I still think the best is "9/11" the documentary done buy the two French brothers.

I haven't seen the recent documentary that's the subject of this thread, but "9/11" by the Naudet brothers is one of my favorite documentaries all time.  I actually watched it a couple weeks ago after having not seen it in several years, and I was surprised that it still evoked such powerful emotions. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/1/2021 at 12:34 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Its weird. To my 11 year old, its just another day in history. To me, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I can literally time line out my entire day.

A couple of years ago I chaperoned a group of high schoolers on a trip to NYC.  We went to the 9/11 museum - an amazing, gut-wrenching experience.  Not to be missed.  Of the 100+ kids with us only a handful were born before 9/11.  None, of course, had any memories of it.  That museum was a history museum for them.  For us chaperones it was all about something we lived through.  Just crazy.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

A couple of years ago I chaperoned a group of high schoolers on a trip to NYC.  We went to the 9/11 museum - an amazing, gut-wrenching experience.  Not to be missed.  Of the 100+ kids with us only a handful were born before 9/11.  None, of course, had any memories of it.  That museum was a history museum for them.  For us chaperones it was all about something we lived through.  Just crazy.

I took my daughter in 2015 when she was almost nine.  She told me that she learned about 9/11 in class, even with enough detail to know that people jumped out of the towers instead of burning to death.  She was mesmerized.  We spent about two hours in there, and could've stayed longer to see everything, but it go to be too much for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

If you want raging, read The Looming Towers, especially the latter part about the failures within the U.S. intelligence community leading up to 9/11.

Yep. The Hulu series based on the book was also EXCELLENT... and yes... makes you very ragey.... specifically at CIA's Alec Station, which knew that high-level Al Qaeda operatives were in the U.S. as early as late 2000/early 2001 but specifically withheld that information from the F.B.I.'s anti-terrorism task force.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, South Austin said:

I haven't seen the recent documentary that's the subject of this thread, but "9/11" by the Naudet brothers is one of my favorite documentaries all time.  I actually watched it a couple weeks ago after having not seen it in several years, and I was surprised that it still evoked such powerful emotions. 

Completely agree.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I lived through watching it live on tv. I’ve seen enough and read enough. I’m not sure there’s anything you can show me that will give me a better understanding of what happened that day, or what happened in the weeks, months, and years before and after. CBS Sunday Morning is doing a piece on it and that’s enough to bring me to tears. It didn’t shed any new light. It just tore at the scar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have talked about it on the NYC thread and visiting the 9-11 Memorial.  Toughest single thing for me was seeing an Etch-a-Sketch that a father had been playing with his child the day before.   I was 30 on the day it happened in a training class in Houston with 8 and 3 year old boys at home in West Texas.  In an instant, that guy's kids  had their lives changed forever...for absolutely no reason at all.  Of course I though of my kids...and all of the kids who grew up without their parents who died that day.

When we got through walking through the Memorial, I wasn't sure what was harder on me- actual 9-11 or that day of reliving the incredible loss of innocence, the love of fellow citizens, or the selfless sacrifice of those who died trying to save others.  It moved me like nothing else ever has.  It was tough.  It made me want to do better.

Edited by slorch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still working my way through this.  I keep having to take breaks because it's a lot to re-digest.  Couple of personal stories.

1) I found out about this very late.  Odd, because I've always been a news hound and known about things before most.  I had returned to school in TN to get my teaching degree.  I had an advertising class that ended at 10AM.  I would then head over to the soccer fields for soccer class that started at 11.  It was basically a pickup game.  Anyway, I guess I was oblivious to anything as I left the main building.  I changed, and went to run on the field while waiting for the others to arrive.  I got annoyed a little after 11 when I realized nobody was showing up.  Finally, at probably around 11:15, some guy shows up and says that the WTCs have fallen and we're under attack.  I thought the guy was absolutely nuts.  Another guy showed up and confirmed the story.  He also said that a plane was still missing possibly headed this way (ORNL in Oak Ridge).  A few seconds later a gravel truck dropped its load and we all hit the ground per the noise.  My daughter was 4 at the time.  That was the only day in her life that I didn't pick her up per the custody schedule my ex and I had.

2) I used to eat lunch at exactly the same time and place every day in the school cafeteria.  The main area was kind of loud, so I always ate by myself in one of the side rooms that had a TV.  Anyway, there was a group of about 15 or so Middle Easterner students that were always in the same room at the same time.  They spoke, I'm assuming, Arabic, so I didn't really pay attention to what they were saying even after 9/11.  About 3 weeks after 9/11, CNN had the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald on.  He was relating the story as to how he lost most of his employees.  The group at the other table thought it was funny and started laughing it up.  Pissed me off, but what was I going to do.  I happened to mention it to a friend of mine that worked at the FBI in South Carolina.  Of course, back then, everyone was paranoid and waiting for the next attack.  She told me to email my story to her contact at the local FBI office in TN.  I did, with a lot of mixed emotions.  I'm pretty effing far from the "Get 'Em, they don't look like us" crowd.  I never saw another person from that group again.  My guess is that the FBI must have done a sweep of expired student visas and "relieved" the school of a bunch of students.  I recall that being a thing back then.  I was just really surprised.  I'd seen this group every, single day for 6 weeks then, suddenly, gone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...