Damn, 21 years already. :(
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Hard to believe.
I recently found out that a guy I used to work with was in one of the World Trade Center towers that day. He wasn't really a friend or anything, but I knew him enough to say he was a good guy.
He didn't make it out. I understand he managed to call his wife from the tower before the collapse. No idea what was said, but it must have been heartbreaking.
I even had business dinner with him and a few other workmates, about four years before the attack at "Windows on the World." That was the restaurant on the top floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
So even after all these years, the events of that day have become personal.
^That is terrible. Sorry.
I never ate at Windows on the World, but I did take multiple school trips to the observation decks over the years where you could stare straight down.
I was about 1/2 a mile from ground zero on 9/11. I was one of millions trying to leave the city. I had to walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn (I lived in NJ at the time). I did not know anyone who died that day and I did not get hurt.
My then fiance (now The Wife) did not know what happened to me for about 12 hours because the phone I was on had the line cut around 10:30.
I did not get home until the night of 9/12 after staying with my mother, accounting for all my friends, my father and sister.
My wife admits now that yes, she did think that I may have died. She never really talks about it. It was 9/11 that was the catalyst for us to get married...our wedding was on 9/1/02.
A very good friend of mine was a wargamer at Maxwell AFB. Lt. Col Ted S.
We regularly played Warhammer Fantasy and 40k, and did a bunch of chits historicals. Great guy.
He got transferred up to D.C. in 2000. And yep, his office was almost dead center where the plane hit.
Ted got hung up in traffic dropping his daughter off. So many weird stories like that.
He came back to Maxwell in '02 and we met up for a 40k game. He was known for his Squats army that was at that point sent to pasture by 3e.
I asked him about it after our game. He had a look on his face that I really really wish I didn't see. All he said was, "Yeah, I didn't get to work. My staff did. I keep thinking I should've too"
Then he said he didn't want to go into it anymore. Clearly.
Always haunts me and brings it home for me. Ted's a great guy, got his bird before he retired, I still talk Warhammer with him occasionally. I'm glad he missed work.
^Similar for me. I started grad school on 9/10/01. On 9/11 I had class after work so got to work early, around 730. Not sure what would have happened to me if I didn't have class scheduled for that evening.
Quote from: Gusington on September 20, 2022, 07:56:40 PM
^Similar for me. I started grad school on 9/10/01. On 9/11 I had class after work so got to work early, around 730. Not sure what would have happened to me if I didn't have class scheduled for that evening.
Yeah...lots of misses.
Worst part for Ted for me was that everyone he worked with daily died. There was the extra layer on him that he was their CO. They were in the office to work with him.
I can only imagine the wheels in his mind as a career military man that must've turned knowing they were there and their CO was in line to pick up a kid at school.
It was no fault on him but he obviously felt fault.
I'm glad he's there though. His daughter's out of college and he knows his grandkid. He's super happy the Squats are back. He now has the coolest 40k Army ever, he never sold his old minis.
'Survivors guilt' big time.