An updated repost. There is a line from a Paul Simon song, “these are the days of miracle and wonder.” One might not think to apply that lyric to the events of 9/11, 22 years ago today. Yet for at least part of that strange and horrible day, they fit.
The great New York boatlift was part of the “miracle and wonder.” The wholly unplanned boatlift was the spontaneous maritime evacuation of an estimated 500,000 people trapped in Lower Manhattan in less than 10 hours. The boatlift has been under-reported by the media, which is all the more reason to remember the mariners of New York who stepped up to perform what has been called the largest sea rescue in history.
To me, the attacks of 9/11 do not seem to be 22 years in the past. Everything remains too vivid to be that long ago, and yet the evidence of the time slipping by is all around me. My sons are now 31 and 27. They were 9 and 5 when I picked them up from their school, directly across the water from where the towers had stood that morning, but by noon were a billowing maelstrom of flame, ash, and smoke.
I recall vividly the phone call from my wife, telling me something terrible had happened at the World Trade Center. She had been on the mezzanine level when the first plane hit. I went outside, stepping into that beautiful September morning, and turned the corner of my block, to see from across the river, the incongruous sight of a black gash in the upper floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The gash was rimmed with orange flames and a long gray-black plume of smoke streamed out on the northwesterly breeze. Minutes later I saw a huge orange blossom flame erupt from the South Tower as the second plane hit.
My wife made it safely to her office, only to be trapped by the dust, debris, ash and smoke that filled the streets when the buildings came down. Then, several hours later, she heard that boats were running on the East River. She and her colleagues wrapped towels around their faces and walked down Wall Street to the river, where boats waited to take her home. I will always be deeply grateful for everyone involved in the amazing boatlift.
Here is a wonderful short documentary that captures a sense of the boatlift. If you have already seen it, it is worth watching again. See also our review of American Dunkirk, The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11 by James M. Kendra and Tricia Wachtendorf.
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Thanks for this. I didn’t know that you and your wife were so personally affected.
The President, Every politician, and elected official repeatedly, and very sincerely said Never Forget
Go to the airport and the TSA treat you like you’re bin Laden, and Omar Abdul Rachman!
Meanwhile all of our borders are wide open?
The words Never Forget are totally meaningless!
taa, capt rick! here’s more grist for the little-known-miracle 9/11 dept c/o
Margaret Anna Alice… http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000S1M7JS/ Heart of a Soldier
by James B. Stewart
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 278 ratings 4.3 on Goodreads 493 ratings
From Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart comes the extraordinary story of American hero Rick Rescorla, Morgan Stanley security director and a veteran of Vietnam and the British colonial wars in Rhodesia, who lost his life on September 11.
When Rick Rescorla got home from Vietnam, he tried to put combat and death behind him, but he never could entirely. From the day he joined the British Army to fight a colonial war in Rhodesia, where he met American Special Forces’ officer Dan Hill who would become his best friend, to the day he fell in love with Susan, everything in his remarkable life was preparing him for an act of generosity that would transcend all that went before.
Heart of a Soldier is a story of bravery under fire, of loyalty to one’s comrades, of the miracle of finding happiness late in life. Everything about Rick’s life came together on September 11. In charge of security for Morgan Stanley, he successfully got all its 2,700 men and women out of the south tower of the World Trade Center. Then, thinking perhaps of soldiers he’d held as they died, as well as the woman he loved, he went back one last time to search for stragglers.