Exactly 11 years ago on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a devastating tragedy struck in New York City, New York that effected our nation. Many people have no clue what happened, but all have felt the impact it had on our country.
On September 11, there were a series of four attacks aimed towards Washington D.C. and New York. 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four U.S. planes. Two of the planes were American Airlines, and the other two were United flights. Over 3,000 lives were lost in the series of attacks, that includes over 400 police officers and firefighters. September 11th was the deadliest day for firefighters in NYC, 343 were killed. Later it was confirmed that over 6,000 lost their lives.
The first attack hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. The South Tower was hit at 9:03 a.m. While New York was in shock, the Pentagon was hit at 9:37 a.m. At 10:03 a.m. the passengers of Flight 93 tried to over take the plane that was headed for the Capitol. The plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, PA. No one survived any of the four plane crashes. 2,977 people lost their lives in the plane crashes, not including the 19 terrorists.
Some countries aren't huge fans of the United States, because we are the "superpower" of the world. That may soon change though! al-Qaeda was lashing out at America, because we got involved with the Persian Gulf War, and then we stationed some of our troops in the Middle East. It didn't go over very well with them. Many of the terrorists had lived in the United States and were taking commercial flying lessons. Others came into the country only a few months before the attacks. The terrorists smuggled box cutters and knives through security at the East Coast airports. They had chosen the four flights, because they were headed to the West Coast and were loaded with a lot of fuel.
I have to wonder what the flight instructors thought. They trained many of these men to fly commercial flights without knowing their intentions. I have never heard anything about any of the instructors. Many teachers want to think each of their students have potential. Many of them do, but some don't. The terrorists probably had potential in the eyes of the instructor, which is why a wrong thought never crossed their mind. Do you believe their reaction after hearing about the attacks was shocking? Do you think the instructors had an intuition about these men? Any suspicions? 
Osama bin Laden was the leader in the attacks. Initially he denied being involved, but eventually admitted that he did have a part. American troops had been searching for him for many years. American troops found him in Pakistan. His death was May of 2011, and he is supposedly buried in the Arabian Sea. There is a book out written by an American solider that had been on the front lines of closing in on bin Laden. The title of the book is "No Easy Day". A few random facts about bin Laden are that he was married 6 different times, all ending in divorce. Between all his wives, he fathered about 20-26 children. Many of them fled to Iran after the 9/11 attacks.
Following the attacks, airport security raised the alerts. No one knew how the terrorists were able to smuggle the weapons through. Security should have caught that, but they missed it. Several countries, including the United States, raised their security. Many countries suspended flying from their country. Some mourned the loss and attacks with the Americans. Orders were sent to find al-Qaeda. Our stock markets were not open on that day, but they reopened on the 17th of September. $2.8 billion dollars were lost in the three months after the attacks. 18,000 people developed diseases from the toxic air. The air wasn't back to "normal" until June of 2002.
The One World Trade Center building should be completed by 2013. It will consist of 104 stories. The damaged part of the Pentagon was repaired and people were in it within a year after the attack. The memorial for the Pentagon was completed in 2008. The President usually attends this ceremony. There is a memorial at the Shanksville, usually the President's wife is to attend the memorial there. Every anniversary of 9/11 the names of the victims are read out with music in the background in New York.
In April of 2012, I was able to go to NYC and tour the memorial site. It was very interesting to go through. Around the fountains there are the names of all of the people who died during the attacks. It is sad to think of all of those who lost their lives. Inside the gift shop, they had different displays of items left behind and pieces of the buildings. On the wall, there is a screen playing a video of people who lost their loved ones. Todd Beamer was the man who gave Flight 93 the go ahead to try and stop the hijackers. Flight 93 was the flight that overtook the hijackers, but ended up losing their lives anyway. In 7th grade, we went into that flight's detail. We listened to audio clips of the shouts and screams. There were videos about the family, and how they felt.
I would have been 5, almost 6, when this horrific event took place. I don't remember much about it. For me, it seemed like a normal day, but little did I know, it wasn't. My brother told me that he remembered it, because it happened on a Tuesday, and the next day we left for our church convention on the Wednesday. As I have gone through the years of school, I have gained more knowledge of what happened, what caused it, and how it effected the people of our country.
9/11 Memorial from Emily on Vimeo.
The first picture is the paths the planes took in order to hit the targets. The second is how the planes crashed into the Twin Towers. The third photo is of the One World Trade Center building. The video are some of the pictures I took when touring the 9/11 Memorial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_September_11_attacks
http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks
Comments
It would feel very awkward to have been one of the flight instructors of the hijackers. I would feel a bit responsible even though they would have had no idea what their plans were.
Excellent job Emily!