By Goose
by an enemy that the word evil just doesn't quite cover. A part of our soul was robbed from us. This
wasn't just an attack on three buildings. It was an attack on a way of life. People that got up and
went to work like they would any other day, people that got on a plane to go somewhere on
business or perhaps to see some family, or just on vacation, were brutally murdered by people with
no military objective in mind. Their only objective was to kill, period.
We witnessed horrifying images of smoke and fire coming out of the twin towers, people leaping to
certain death choosing not to be burned alive. We witnessed men of unspeakable courage run into
the buildings to save complete strangers. They didn't run from the unimaginable challenge, they
ran into the fire. Think about that. They ran into the fire. We watched in awe as the massive towers
crumbled and fell. We watched New Yorkers run from a massive cloud of debris and smoke. We
saw the distant shots of the massive amounts of smoke flooding the streets of Manhattan. We saw
loved ones standing together with pictures of people that were lost hoping somebody had seen
them. Hoping somehow, somebody would see that picture and recognize the person and tell them
that they are alive and in a hospital somewhere.
We have since heard many stories of the heroes of that day. I want to tell you about one of them.
Rick Rescorla was a Vice President of Security for the Morgan Stanley Dean Whitter in WTC tower 2.
He was born in England in 1939, and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1963. Upon completion of basic
training and OCS, he attended airborne school and was assigned as a platoon leader in B
Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. 7th Calvary; That was
Custer's regiment.
He was soon sent to Vietnam, and was a hero of the 1965 Ia Drang Valley battles described in the
book and hit movie "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young." Co-author, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, portrayed
by Mel Gibson in the movie, described him as "the best platoon leader I ever saw." Rescorla's men
nicknamed him "Hard Core" for his bravery in battle, and revered him for his good humor and
compassion towards his men. At that time, he wasn't even an American citizen. Having a love for
this country, he later did become a U.S. citizen. He also earned college and law degrees while
getting married, raising a family, and continued to serve in the Army Reserves until he retired from
the Army in 1990 after having obtained the rank of Colonel. In 1985, he went to work for Morgan
Stanley as part of the Corporate Security team.
On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Rick Rescorla ignored officials' foolish advice to stay put
and began the orderly evacuation of Morgan Stanley's 2,800 employees on 20 floors of WTC 2, and
1,000 employees in WTC 5. An evacuation that he insisted the company rehearse many times in
the years prior to 2001. Rescorla constantly reminded everyone to "be proud to be an American,"
and sang "God Bless America" and other songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as
they left the building. Rescorla had most of Morgan Stanley's 3800 employees and people working
on other floors of WTC 2 safely out of the buildings by the time United Airlines Flight 175 hit WTC 2
at 9:07. After reaching safety outside the tower, he then returned to the building to rescue others
still inside and do his final sweep. He was last seen heading up the stairs of the tenth floor of the
collapsing WTC 2.
Vice President, Security
Morgan Stanley Dean Whitter
Evacuating the 42nd floor of
World Trade Center Tower 2
September 11, 2001
honorably for nearly 30 years. He calmed the spirits of scared people running for their lives by
singing "God Bless America" over a bullhorn on a day unlike any we have seen. He successfully
evacuated some 2600 people. Then, after getting out of that hell safely, he ran back into the
building to save more. He ran back into the building.
An online petition has been started to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rick Rescorla. I
invite you to sign the online petition by clicking here.
This is just one example of some of the greatness that was lost on that day. When you hear "some
3,000 people died on that day" it registers somewhat. But when you know someone that was lost
that day, it means something more. That's why I've introduced you to Colonel Rescorla. So many
people have forgotten what happened on September 11th. I've introduced you to this story so you
might remember. So you might remember what was lost on that horrible day four years ago.
9-11-2001 Essays & Articles
#1
9-9-2004: Adam Keener
for the first time. I wont be writing the amount of articles as my partner in
conservatism, but occasionally my un-grammatically and un-politically
correct self will be writing thoughts or articles on current or past events.
Thanks for visiting us and enjoy the site. The following article is very
long in length, not trying to lose readers, just letting my feelings be
known to the fullest extent I can on this subject.
the History Channel and it sent my mind back to the first few horrible
hours of 9/11. Thoughts of that day and the days following came back just
as vivid as they did that morning. Most of us were at our jobs, some
probably in school, some on other flights across the country that were
grounded. No matter where you were, everyone remembers where they
were when they first heard about Flight 11 smashing into the North Tower
of the WTC on the 93-98th floor. It was 8:46 AM on 9/11/2001, and none of
our lives would ever be the same. I was sitting in my office and someone
came in and said, “An airplane just crashed into the World Trade Center.”
My first thought was, mechanical malfunction, there’s JFK and La Guardia
nearby, something happened and that was the unfortunate landing spot
for the doomed flight. Then 16 minutes later, United Flight 175 crashed
into the South Tower on the 78th-84th floors. When I realized it wasn’t
just an accident, it’s one of those moments when you just have to be
sitting because if not, you would probably end up on the floor. Just
thinking of the possible 50,000 people (approx. max capacity of the office
workers there) that could be in it, how many had already been killed and
how many were trapped above the crash sites, I cannot imagine having a
loved one in that situation or what it would feel like myself.
At work people were trying to load news pages and all were completely
swamped visitors and sites were crashing and couldn’t be updated fast
enough. Everyone wanted information, and it was coming in slowly. All
we knew was that someone had just declared war on America, no one was
sure who yet, but it was obvious someone had. For most of us, we
thought this was the worst of what could happen and that the attacks
were over, short of more small explosions in the towers, at least I know
we all hoped for that.
At 9:38am UA Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon in Washington, killing
around 125 civilians and military officers and employees. A section of the
Pentagon is destroyed but luckily it is also a section that was being
remodeled and had minimal office staff. Then again at 10:06 we hear of a
crash in Pennsylvania, now it hits me even harder because the planes are
getting close to my home, with the crash falling less than 80 miles by air
from my house. Not like it hit a next door neighbor, but its still close.
Rumors start about how the passengers on Flight 93 took down the flight.
You hear names like Beamer, Glick, Burnett. How Todd Beamer was on
the phone with the Verizon Operator Lisa Jefferson and how she heard
and told us all about the immortal “Lets Roll” call which set the
passengers in action against the terrorists.
Let’s roll. Two words could have possibly saved one of the greatest
buildings in the country. Whether it be the Capital Building or The White
House. I don’t believe it was ever determined where the final target was,
and I don’t know that it ever will be determined, but either way, the
bravery of these passengers, to save innocent people on the ground by
risking their lives, ranks up, in my opinion, with any military personnel
willing to go to war to defend out country. These passengers, however
many took place in the uprising, saved American lives by sacrificing their
own.
While these events were going on, President Bush was at a Sarasota
Florida Elementary school with a class reading a book. He found out
about the events while the children were reading. This president had
been in office for only 9 months. But he had the ability to stay calm, not
worry and scare the children and keep reading with them for
approximately 7 minutes. Now, the liberal media and campaign were
making an issue out of this. “How dare he sit for 7 minutes and do
nothing!” Say what? He didn’t flip his lid and worry the kids; he stayed
calm, kept reading with them and evaluated the situation in his head. He
then addressed the nation from this school saying, “We have been
attacked by faceless cowards.” Since 9/11 I think that is the best
reference to Al-Queda yet. They’re tapes aren’t even straight to the point
or visually correct; they edit the tapes to the point they look like a 1st
grader did the editing on it. I don’t know where the democrats get off
telling us how dare he sit there for 7 minutes, 7 MINUTES?? What was he
going to do? In 7 minutes, really, it would take longer than that to get set
up for a press conference or even to get a hold of the right person in that
situation. Anyway…I digress…
I have been a volunteer firefighter for 8+ years and was during the time of
9/11. Members of some of our county fire departments signed up to
volunteer for the Shanksville search that the FBI had requested people
for. Some were chosen; I was not.
They talk about heroics of the FDNY charging into the building as others
charged out, how they saved thousands of lives and how brave they
were. I guarantee you not one of the fireman that perished in the twin
towers or on the ground below were ever thinking “if I get wounded here
I will be able to get medals and be honored all over the city and country”
or “we’ll be remembered for a lifetime after this day.” Those men were
thinking, there are people in that building, we have to get them out and
save anyone we are physically able too. Those men walked up hundreds
of flights of stairs, some taking over an hour to get through the building.
They were dedicated to the cause. Their goal was to get everyone out of
that place no matter the cost, if they had to risk their own lives to do it, by
god they were going too. People tell me they have great respect for us
being firemen and doing the things we do. The 343 Firefighters, NYPD &
Port Authority Police Officers that perished on 9/11 are the ones who
deserve the most respect.
After the tragedy people kept saying, if they had better communication
they wouldn’t have perished, they didn’t hear the call to abandon. In my
mind, I cannot imagine how a firefighter sent in to save lives and put out
the fires, that I can guess would only be rivaled by the flames of hell on
the upper floors of that building, could leave just because the chief on
the ground gave the get out signal.
You have to understand the chief’s position. They’re job is protecting
their crew and CYA: Cover Your Ass. The chief has the responsibility of
every person’s life at that scene in his hand. If someone gets killed, they
are ripping the chief apart figuring out why. My father was Fire Chief at
our department for 8 years and thankfully never had to deal with that. But
I know it also wore on him worrying about it due to people not practicing
the right safety procedures; i.e. proper get, etc. But the FDNY chief who
told them to get out on 9/11, in my mind I still think he knows in his heart
most of them aren’t coming out without someone. Picture this…. you’re
trained to save lives. You go into a building, you see hundreds of people
trapped that you have to cut open a door to get them out. In the process
of cutting that door open, you hear the air horns blowing (get out signal)
and a call on the radio stating to leave the building, the roof is going to
collapse or worse. What would you do? I personally haven’t been in a
burning house yet; I haven’t had too due to having all the properly trained
people on scene. But if I was the person cutting that door, could you
ever live with the guilt of leaving those people behind? We would be
imagining them in that fire, but not being able to get to them, and having
someone tell you to leave them and go. No Man Left Behind. It’s the call
of more than one fire department and military organization.
The thing that disgusts me the most is that people like Mr. Al Gore, telling
the country George W. Bush betrayed this country. And that they had
plans to do the things they did even before 9/11 happened and that they
know 9/11 was going to happen. How dare he?
I know we have freedom of speech but that’s pushing it, you’re in a time
of war, and the democrats hate W so much, they’re ripping him apart in a
time of war. This is a time to come together as Cary says in his column;
did they do that to FDR in WWII? No. The modern Democratic Party has
some major issues. Thank god for democrats like Zell Miller. He may not
completely agree with W, I’m not saying anyone does. In fact, I bet W
regrets some decisions he’s made. We have a right to say what we want,
but to rip apart a president? Come on…you have to have a complete,
almost hate, of your country to do so. He’s our commander-in-chief. He
makes more life altering decisions in a week that the rest of the people
complaining about him make in a decade. He may mess up, he’s human,
no one is perfect except our almighty father that people also seem to
have a problem that W worships. Quick note, for those of you who didn’t
know it, at the GOP Convention, the artist who sang the song “There She
Stands” prior to Gov. Pataki & W speaking on Thursday night is a National
Contemporary Christian Recording artist, Michael W Smith. Go ahead
liberals; rip it apart, oh and also, Jaci Velasquez that was invited (and I
hope attended) to sit in VP Cheney’s box is also a mainstream Christian
artist. Our president is an avid Christian who prays, and I thank god for
that. Who else can you go to in a time like that? Our father in heaven can
give you peace and understanding like no other. Whether or not he talks
about it in speeches is irrelevant to me, but I’m sure glad he is a Christian.
The opinions in this email are mine solely, any information on the timeline
can be crosschecked with the following site: http://www.
unansweredquestions.net/timeline/
Feel free to email me with any comments, don’t take anything in here
personally, its how I feel and hopefully some if it makes you think, till next
time, god bless.
After UA 175 Impacts South Tower (below)
#2
9-10-2004: Adam Keener
Tribute a day early due to not broadcasting on a Saturday. It was one of
those things that you almost shouldn’t listen to when driving. It starts to
bring back emotions of anger, hope, love, inspiration and fear.
On 9/11 we started hearing, we will never forget, let us never forget, etc.
This was a day that would be in the minds of every American and many
foreigners’ minds as well for the rest of their lives. At the time
compassion and caring were at an all time high throughout the country
and world, families became closer when they had a slap in the face of how
quickly their lives could be torn apart. Americans in general cared more
for each other in that time than they have for a long time. At that time, as
both candidates in this current election have stated, there were no
Republicans or Democrats, there were only Americans.
We will never forget…why then does it seem like now, 3 years later, over
half the American public seems to have forgotten why we’re in the war we
are in. Why we have lost 1000 troops. Those troops have not died in
vain. They are here for the greater cause and for preserving the lives of
everyone back here in the great U S of A. At 8:46 when AA 11 crashed into
the north tower of the World Trade Center, America was a changed land;
along with the citizens of the 30 other countries that had citizens perish
in the attacks.
3 years later we again are hearing stories of families torn apart, the calls
from the passengers on the flights who had no idea of their final fates.
One story is of a conservative writer who called her husband collect and
later her flight; AA Flight 77 dove into the pentagon. The heroes of Flight
93 had the information of the previous crashes to go with and took out
their assailants. Many people were supposed to be at the twin towers for
meetings, some as tourists. The ones you hear of now were the people
who missed taxis, had to cancel for other reasons, or just simply were
running behind.
On this coming 3 year anniversary of 9/11, I know I will be thinking about
the events that unfolded that day. A beautiful September day, much like
is forecasted for this September 11th. We all need to be in a continued
mood of prayer for the 2700+ victims from NYC, Washington DC and Flight
93. I know after that day and seeing how everyone came together to help
out, I’m more proud to be an American than I ever have been before.
Until next time, God Bless you, and God Bless America.
