Ten Years Later - Connecticut On September 11th

EMAIL FROM JAKE:

Hello, I may be sending this email too late for you to incorporate it with your show, but I'm going to write anyway.

I am 19 years old, and I commute many miles every weekday to get to and from school. During these hours of driving, i listen to NPR occasionally. Lately, i have been listening to your station more than ever. And since you have been covering the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I haven't been listening to any other station.
The September 11th attacks bisects the time i have been alive; half my life was before 9/11, and half my life after. Being so young when the towers were hit, l did not understand the gravity of the crisis. But, with every year after that has passed, I've learned more and more of what it all meant. And as every anniversary comes around, i feel more anger, more sadness, more emotions than the year before.
Because of this, I feel that people my age have contrasting feelings of 9/11 compared to adults. Although i know they will never forget, I have watched the emotions surrounding 9/11 fade slowly over a decade in the older generations. Unlike the adults who could grasp the intensity of the tragedy a decade ago, the emotions of my generation rage greater every year.

This viewpoint is one which gets little publicity and i feel like i had to share it with someone, even if it does not go on the air.

Tommrow will be 10 years after the most significant day of my life, even if i didnt know it then.

Thank you for your time

WTC Memories

In the 70's I worked as a manager in three different restaurants in the WTC. Now the name of the one I worked in longest has a tragic meaning for 9/11-Skydive, on the 44th floor. The complex was amazing and exciting; the second tower still under construction. I once went up to the roof above Windows on the World, and stood at the edge by the window washers rig. There, the majesty of NYC lay out before me at cloud level. On the day of the attacks I watched the towers come down with my fifth grade students at West Middle School in Hartford. The intimacy of knowing the throngs of people that coursed through those buildings each day brought the horror of the event to me in a way that is actually indescribable. I continue to ask myself, how could it all be gone? How could they all be gone?

EMAIL FROM DENNIS:

I am not sure if I can get to call in today but I wanted to share my unique story about the WTC and the events of of 10 years ago.

My father, Jack Wainwright was hired as the building superintendent for the World Trade Center in 1968. This was during the "pre-construction" phase. As you may imagine, it was a bit of neighborhood prestige that my father was working in what was at that time going to be the tallest buildings in the world.

My brother and myself would frequently ask to go with dad to work whenever we had days off from school. We enjoyed the excitement of of taking the the Long Island Rail Road early in the morning when it was still dark outside and when we finally made the destination above ground at he towers to see the morning sun up.

Dad took us up to the 104th floor prior to its enclosure and we walked across the steel girders and walking platforms to peer out from the building to street below. More than once my brother and myself described the view as the cars looked like "Match Box" models and the people "look like ants" from this perch at over 1000 feet in the air. we were also able to share trip-s with some neighborhood friends after the building was open..and I can distinctly remember one Sunday Afternoon with our friends playing touch football in the lobby of 1 WTC. The carpet made a perfect field with sidelines and end zones at the respective edges and a wonderful part between two sections that was the mid field marker.

I visited the buildings many times while dad was there. He was responsible for the work of a crew of 73 men in the skilled mechanical maintenance and building operations group. When I went in to work with him as I was getting older, I would shadow some members of his team. One man, Frank Crida began his career working for my grandfather (dad's dad) and finished up his career at the buildings after my dad left the WTC. I spent a lot of time with Frank during my visits. Of the things we would do and see, I was allowed to operate the machines the cleaned the intake screens for Hudson River water that was used to work the air conditioning equipment for the complex. The river water station was quite fascinating to me as I hoped to see some fish and other wildlife which I could release back to their "home".

When I was old enough to get my drivers license, from time to time I would bring some friends or a date (as luck would have it back then), to the buildings. Outside of the maintenance shop was a ramp that was wide enough for 2 vehicles. One was were the Building Superintendent parked and one was left open for visitors (me sometimes) or vendors to park in. This was where the van was parked in 1993 that was full of the explosives that was detonated in the first bomb attack.

Dad stopped working at the WTC in 1983 and went on to manage several other buildings in the city, including 410 Park Ave, (NFL HQ) and The Equitable Building on 51st St near Rockefeller Center. He kept in touch with his colleagues over that time and many people who worked with him have had their careers progress and speak with great fondness of my dad's influence on their working lives.

As the news broke on the events of a decade ago I was as shocked and stunned by the horrific nature of this crime. I imagined the catastrophic losses of life and injury. Simultaneously, I disgustedly wondered who could be so devious, ugly, callous and stupid to do such a thing. I recall that I received many calls that day from friends who shared adventures and experiences with myself and my dad at he buildings. In the days after the occurrence I found out from dad one story that shook him especially. A man named Vito Deleo was working at the buildings. My dad had hired Vito prior to his leaving and knew him fairly well. Vito and his partner David Williams had made the journey from the buildings through the utility tunnels to the river water station after the first plane struck. . Vito and David had brought people from the lobby to this sub terrainian "haven" which was about 2 city blocks from the buildings. Vito and David went back to get more people out from the lobby through the underground labyrinth to safety. Unfortunately, Vito and David did not make it make it out from the collapse of the first tower. The man who took my fathers place was named John Griffin. John went out of the office to find the members on his team who were out in the mechanical rooms doing their work. John along with 2 other men he was looking for are resting eternally somewhere in the complex.

It took 2 years before my Father could feel comfortable enough to go down to "Ground Zero". He says a part of him still can't believe the buildings and the complex are gone.

In 2006-2007 I was given the opportunity to study Industrial Safety and Hazardous Waste Removal Operations at a class held at the grounds of The National Mining Academy in Beckely, West Virginia. My group spent a lot of time studying the safety procedures and the process of the clean up of the WTC and we were taught by people who were on site during the aftermath. My knowledge of the events are intimate and melancholy.

I can remember in my early 20's returning from a road trip from Florida. One of my travel companions was a friend who played and toured with a club band. As we approached Elizabeth, New Jersey in our cruise North on the Turnpike he turned to me and declared "You know as soon as you can see the Towers, you know are home". It felt profoundly true to me then as it is now that I write it.

EMAIL FROM CAROL:

Hi Colin:

I remember you coming over to the Red Cross in Farmington to donate blood on 9/11. I never saw so many blood donors in my life! 9/11 was an incredibly surreal day. Having a 102-degree fever and pneumonia that day likely added to that feeling.

My 18-year-old thinks the 10-year anniversary is hype. She also believes in many of the 9/11 conspiracy theories. Interesting to try and see it through the eyes of a kid who was just 8 at the time it happened.

Red Cross held a blood drive in Greenwich the Sunday after 9/11 and I found myself alone in the Red Cross chapter house there when a woman came in with her husband's hairbrush. She was offering it so that it could be tested and placed in the DNA base of those missing from the WTC. That's when it became real for me.

I have reservations to visit the 9/11 memorial in NYC next Tuesday.

Hope you are well. Thanks to you and John for today's program