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Remembering 9/11 - 20 Years On


Bjornebye
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20 years this month, still as surreal as the day it happened. I don't even think the enormity of it has sunk in for me to this day. Just watching that Surviving 9/11 on BBC IPlayer. I keep getting chills and goosebumps. Life has never been the same since. 

 

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2 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

20 years this month, still as surreal as the day it happened. I don't even think the enormity of it has sunk in for me to this day. Just watching that Surviving 9/11 on BBC IPlayer. I keep getting chills and goosebumps. Life has never been the same since. 

 

Dec02_01_88305101.jpg

 

second-jetliners-terrorists-al-Qaeda-smo 

 

GettyImages-1161124.0.jpg

 

september-9-11-gettyimages-134352247.jpg

 

 

 

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Very true Damien. It fucked the world up. I remember Her Indoors calling me and saying an aircraft has collided with a skyscraper. I just thought it was a novice farting about in a Cessna or a Piper and just inexperienced. Switched the TV on and looks, gapes. That is a B767. What the fuck is this about?

 

It's like the JFK job and covid. We'll never know the real truth but I've got a fucking good idea what country was behind this. And why. Never come out in the open though, never.

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1 minute ago, tokyojoe said:

Very true Damien. It fucked the world up. I remember Her Indoors calling me and saying an aircraft has collided with a skyscraper. I just thought it was a novice farting about in a Cessna or a Piper and just inexperienced. Switched the TV on and looks, gapes. That is a B767. What the fuck is this about?

 

It's like the JFK job and covid. We'll never know the real truth but I've got a fucking good idea what country was behind this. And why. Never come out in the open though, never.

I was in the Navy. Instructor told me two planes have crashed into the world trade centre, I stood waiting for a punchline that never came. 

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2 minutes ago, tokyojoe said:

Very true Damien. It fucked the world up. I remember Her Indoors calling me and saying an aircraft has collided with a skyscraper. I just thought it was a novice farting about in a Cessna or a Piper and just inexperienced. Switched the TV on and looks, gapes. That is a B767. What the fuck is this about?

 

It's like the JFK job and covid. We'll never know the real truth but I've got a fucking good idea what country was behind this. And why. Never come out in the open though, never.

It was the Belgians, wasn't it?

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I used to work afternoons/evenings back then, and before leaving the house I remember turning on the TV and seeing it on the news. I never normally used to do that before leaving but for whatever reason, that day I did. They were talking about the first tower while showing live footage of the smoking building, and while they were talking it showed the second plane strike. I didn't immediately know what had happened to the first tower but the second strike gave the game away. They confirmed the same thing had happened to both towers.

 

As this was at a time when I had no internet on my phone, and I was taking 2 buses to work, I didn't find out about the Pentagon strike or that the towers had collapsed until I got to work.

 

The whole day was just surreal, and you found yourself thinking if it was really happening. There really was no precident for something on that scale. The towers had been bombed in 1993 but I don't recall any other incidents related to Islamic terrorism until 9/11. That day proved the threat was real and the scary thing is that, 20 years on, the same threat is stll there. You have to hope that the complacency isn't.

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11 minutes ago, Mook said:

It was the Belgians, wasn't it?

NP would undoubtedly would think that Mark. Two countries in that part of the world that would have welcomed the massive US military involvement that followed. Which one has the most sophisticated Secret Service?

 

OK,maybe it was the Belgians, wanting the Congo back.

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Me and my mate were in Forbidden Planet in Bold Street after Uni when we heard Bush on the radio and asked what was going on, some lad said a plane had gone into the world trade centre and we were like 'a little one?' and he says 'no, a jumbo jet - and they've got the Pentagon!'

 

Mental. People were stood outside the telly shop (remember them?) And pubs watching it. 

 

It's only when you look back you realise how ace the 90s were, ten years with no 'bad guys', between the collapse of the Soviet union and the dawn of all this terror horseshit. Still, clash of civilizations predicted that would happen. Shame though, a few more years might have been nice.

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I remember my mate meeting me at the station on the way to the Boavista game and telling me Libyans had crashed a jet into the WTC. We thought "can a fighter jet fly from Tripoli to NYC - must be bollocks"? Got to Liverpool and sat in The Grapes watching it all unfold on the telly. Fucking hell. Anfield was a surreal place to be that night. 

 

The BBC docco about it (on iplayer now) is as harrowing now as you'd expect. But it perfectly recollects the utter confusion and disbelief in the immediate aftermath. There's a scene where Bush addresses the rescue teams at ground zero on 9/14: they begin chanting "USA! USA!" Seeing that now and the parallels with footage of massed jihadis chanting "Allahu Akbar" bring it into focus: This is Holy War (or at least an ideological one) with no obvious end in sight.

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Had actually flown from Manchester to Gatwick for a course with work that morning.  During the course (mid afternoon) one of the hosts came in and said there had been a change in the schedule as the fun events for the evening had been cancelled and we we're advised to got back to our rooms and put the TV on. 

Sat there shaking my head, tears streaming down my face as I watched what had happened in disbelief, thinking this can't be real? It's a Hollywood movie, right?  As someone who has been to NYC multiple times (Favourite City after Liverpool) and had been up the WTC at least three times that day shocked me. I was stood on the WTC observation deck August 2000, I chatted to the security bloke, had a laugh about stuff, shook his hand and said nice to meet you. All I could think was I hope he's ok. If he was on the observation deck it was a grim answer... 

That night in the bar with my colleagues was interesting as we all discussed the days events.  I think LFC were playing Boavista in the CL but wasn't too concerned about the game that night. 

 

Went back to NYC in 2003 and the Skyline just looked wrong.  My wife and went in 2009 and walked all around the WTC area, paying tribute to all those who lost their lives that day.  Don't think I'll ever forget that day, nor should I. 
Rest in Peace all those who perished that day. The Pentagon and Flight 93 are sometimes overlooked due to the spectacle of the WTC but they should be remembered too. 
 

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^^^
Too late to edit.

My dad has a friend who lives in Brooklyn. He saw it unfold from his house. Still has breathing difficulties to this day as  the ash blew into his direction.  

One of the images I cannot shake from my mind is people jumping from the WTC knowing it would be certain death. How fucked up is your situation if you are literally jumping from a skyscraper knowing you're gonna die??? Must've been terrifying for everyone involved that day. 

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I was working for O2 in Leeds that terrible day.
 

An abiding memory are those minutes between each of the two planes hitting the Towers. I recall the uncertainty around what was happening and some initial speculation that some kind of accident had occurred. It was only when a colleague came in to our office area and told us that a second plane had hit that it became clear something beyond dreadful was playing out.

 

When I think of that day, my former colleague also comes to mind. She was very kind to me at a time when I had my own difficulties. Unfortunately she died of Cancer some years later. 
 

Like many, I’ve been to the memorial in New York. There’s an energy (can’t think of another word to describe it) that’s unlike anywhere I’ve been before. If you’ve not been, the names of each victim are carved as holes into the memorial. On their birthday, flowers are added to the holes. The day I was there, I counted maybe twenty. It’s desperately sad. 

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I remember being at work that day and hearing the news about a plane hitting the first tower. I echo others on here who have said it that initial thoughts were of an accident but soon became apparent that it wasn't when the second hit. Once the Pentagon was hit thoughts immediately turned to a major war scenario.

 

I used to wake up to Rock FM at the time and the presenters who were usually on at the time were happy and jolly and cracking jokes but the breakfast show the next morning was, understandably, an incredibly sombre affair.

 

The world felt very strange in the aftermath and 20 years later is now a cesspit.

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