12 Years

It's been 12 years since the madness of the attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11. The nut who started the mess has been found and killed - as have thousands of others, many not in any way connected to the events and some even born after. In my cosmology, he'll have to account for this in a new order; others think we'll all just have to continue to pay a price in this one for his decision.

12 years makes things seem so far away. I'm listening to the FDNY and PANYNJ audio of the event today, but it still has a feeling of a different world, almost like a fiction read in a book. I know it's not. I finally visited the site of the Twin Towers in June and paid my respects at the memorial. A month ago we had an instructor from Rockland County in for training and he spoke of his time working with Andy Fredericks at the county training center.

It is a different world, structurally and mentally. We are all worse for it. I think inside those of my friends who were adults or adolescents at that time are more nihilistic, but outside we just pretend all is well and nothing has changed. Innocence lost. Not so much with my kids, but at the same time they deal with the ripples of that day: bags are checked everywhere, flying isn't fun like it was, violence in places unthinkable and off limits seems easier. I don't think they have the same doom in the back of their mind I have, but they'll have to deal with this brave new world.

I listen to the end of the innocence. I think of the souls in those planes and firehouses and towers and the Pentagon. I think of them in the hour or half before all this happened, getting on their flights for their adventure, having coffee, shuffling reports and tossing out old newspapers to make room for that day's issue with the latest on the Chandra Levy case or how the tax refund checks were doing.

Today I'll do what I do to remember those not here to enjoy life: I tip a shot of whiskey and down a beer for those brothers, medics, cops, office workers, bystanders, and naval and military personnel who can't anymore. As my friend Pete mentioned, also all those lost in the wars and attacks that followed...

9-11 time, again.

Having severe OCD issues, this time of year I start reviewing information I've gathered about the the emergency response to the attacks on the Twin Towers. Several of the instructors at the firefighting school I went to in the '90s were from FDNY, and while no one I knew personally was on duty that day several other firefighters and instructors I knew through reputation were and lost their lives. There's a practical side to my obsession (at least I like to think some good can come from it), and that's to analyze who did what where and why. What did the first responding units find? Where were they sent? Why was this unit or that unit parked or tasked or staged wherever? So, I save stories from survivors, newspaper articles about conditions in the building, and try, try, try to find photos taken before the second collapse. The latter has become something of a fools errand.

Google locates scads of sites dedicated to showing that the 9-11 attacks were a home-grown conspiracy. The number is astonishing - I can't imagine the manhours it took to create these sites, not to even go into the postings and responses on fora. It is mindboggling to consider what could have been accomplished had the time and creativity been spent in something a bit more useful.

Fortunately, I did come across at least two sources when I searched "wtc1 'command post.'" One was the McKinsey report for the City of New York which looked closely at response and command issues: http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/mck_report/index.shtml

The other is the compilation of work done by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology: http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/
In addition to what is listed there, Google revealed some PDFed PowerPoint presentations used at different Project meetings. (Research subjects were divided into "projects;" i.e. Project 7 was Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications. There are eight projects to wade through.) Searching through Google using the phrase: "project 7" site:wtc.nist.gov will reveal Project 7's material. There are also presentations from conferences. Most notably one held in 2005 can be found using the search: "wtc" (and/or "towers")site:wtc.nist.gov/WTC_Conf_Sep13-15/session# (#=1-8)

The latter led me to a collection of photos taken by John Labriola. Mr. Labriola was employed by the Port Authority and took photos on his way to work on the 71st floor of WTC1 (the north tower - first one struck, second to collapse). As he evacuated he met firefighters on their way up at around the 35th or so floor and fortunately (IMHO) began taking photos once again. Some of his collection is at the Smithsonian Institution's site: http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection/record.asp?ID=62

Some different shots are posted here: http://tampabaycoalition.homestead.com/files/0911FirstMomentsPics.htm

I'd be remiss in not mentioning the oral interviews conducted by the city that are available from the New York Times': http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html
along with recordings of some of the emergency communications.

However, this Port Authority recording from their much maligned repeater holds much more detail than what the city reluctantly released: http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/firefighter-tape.htm

My wife, Colleen, asked my why I do this every year. I told her it was just in case I had to deal with something like it. Why lose all those lessons learned at so high a price?

This rainy September 11 will be spent in honor of the murdered the way I spent that sunny day six years ago. I'm going to ignore the news and play with my kid.