As Americans look to the election ahead, they’re also looking back to one of the darkest days in our nation’s history.
On September 11, 2001, nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists executed a series of coordinated attacks against the United States using hijacked commercial airliners. They flew American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center complex in New York. They crashed a third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, into the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was flying toward D.C. when passengers, aware of what was happening from news reports and loved ones, fought to overtake the hijackers. The plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The attacks nineteen years ago killed 2,977 people and injured over 25,000 others. They caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage and resulted in long-term health issues that have claimed more lives since the attacks happened nearly two decades ago. The events of September 11, 2001, sparked the War on Terror that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, including more than 6,000 U.S. servicemen and women.
That war is still being fought today.
9/11 remains the single deadliest terrorist attack in human history and the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in U.S. history. On that day, 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers lost their lives trying to save others.
It is a day those who lived through it will never forget.
Caleb Hunter recalls, “I was homeschooled. We were in the middle of classes when my dad called right after the first plane hit. We turned on CBS live coverage as they were trying to figure out what had happened. They thought it was an accident. Then we watched as the second plane hit. Later we watched the towers fall. I remember everything thing vividly. I also vividly remember nationwide unity in the face of a crisis. My God, how far we’ve come.”
Leigh Stallings Wood says she was doing presentations with the Gainesville/Hall County Safe Kids program for National 9-1-1 Day at Centennial Elementary School with her public safety family. “I had friends who were in one of the towers, one with the airlines and one with NYPD,” she shares.
Bailey Hindman was sitting in Mrs. Stanford’s 8th grade English class at North Habersham Middle School in Clarkesville. “Coach Vermilya came in the room and said, “the Pentagon has been hit!” she says. “Mrs. Stanford turned the tv on and we watched the news [for] the rest of class.”
Where were you on that September day? Share your story with us on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nowhabersham/.
