On the eleventh day of September 2001, terrorists attacked The United States of America causing a global Shock and Awe.
The whole world was watching as airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center, the financial American symbol of New York City. The Pentagon headquarters for the United States Department of Defense and a symbol of the U.S. Military and Flight 93 that crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania, near the tiny town of Shanksville, at 10:03 a.m., at a speed of around 580 miles per hour. In its final moments, the plane rolled over, and it crashed flying upside-down and at an angle of 40 degrees, with its right-wing and nose hitting the ground first. Everyone on board was killed.
These images are representative and shocking because no one in NYC, or anywhere else knew where destiny would take them on that fateful day. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the WTC North Tower. CNN broke the story, like an accident, but once United Airlines Flight 175, hit the South Tower, everyone realized America was under attack.
As it turns out, minutes earlier, I had said goodbye to my journalist girlfriend Nami Yamamoto, who was on her way to a news interview at the same WTC location, and I was headed to my office at AP Television. To add to the drama and ensuing tension, her parents were visiting from Tokyo and were worried about her safety and whereabouts. At my AP office, I was dealing with the biggest news story of my life, while attempting to keep her parents calm and updated on the telephone. Imagine my relief when I learned that she was safe and when I finally saw her she was covered with ashes, similar to the image above. She never made it inside the building.
Our divided nation is eleven days away from the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Now that we are out of Afghanistan and that war is over, it is up to each and every one of us to make sure no one will be able to weaken our resolve or deter us from our effort to help build a lasting and secure peaceful world. This is what everyone wants and expects from America.
The family of victims of Sept. 11, 2001, airplane attacks asked a government watchdog to investigate their suspicions that the FBI lied about or destroyed evidence linking Saudi Arabia to the hijackers. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sept-11-victims-families-push-us-watch…
Reporting 9/11 and Why It Still Matters https://youtu.be/QKINev5gyPM
In "America After 9/11," veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team trace the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the devastating consequences across four presidencies. Premieres 9/7. https://to.pbs.org/3sJQB2x
WTC IMAGE RUTH FREMSON
