Sept. 11, 2001 was the darkest day in 21st century American history, when 19 al-Qaida terrorists highjacked four commercial jetliners to destroy four different targets, each a symbol of American greatness.
Those targets were the North and South Twin Towers of lower Manhattan’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Arlington county, Virginia, and either the Capitol Building or the White House in Washington, D.C.
Nearly three thousand Americans lost their lives that day, including 343 firefighters, 71 law enforcement officers, eight paramedics, and 55 military personnel.
Here are some of the notable heroes of that day, listed in alphabetical order.
“Let’s Roll!”
Todd Beamer, 32, boarded United Airlines flight 93 in Newark, N.J., on a business trip to San Francisco. It was intended to be a short, “there-and-back” trip and he expected to return home to his pregnant wife Lisa and their two sons, Drew and David, that very evening.
But then fate stepped in.
Forty-six minutes after departure al-Qaida terrorists took control of the flight deck and announced to the passengers and crew, “We have a bomb onboard, so sit.”
Those on board who were able to call home soon learned about the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and a third aircraft that had targeted the Pentagon.
They realized they were in for a similar fate, and they were headed toward target-rich Washington, D.C.
Beamer made a call to a United Airlines call center and spoke with supervisor Lisa Jefferson. He told her that he, along with other passengers and flight attendants, had decided to storm the cockpit.
“If I don’t make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them,” he asked her. Jefferson then heard him say to the others, “Are you ready? OK, let’s roll.”
Rather than reaching its intended Washington target, Flight 93 crashed in a Shanksville, Pennsylvania field, taking everyone onboard with it.
From Executive Chef to Marine Hero
Benjamin Clark was working as an executive chef on the upper floors of the World Trade Center’s South Tower wren it was struck by United Airlines Flight 175.
Clark knew the protocol: Head to the ground level and exit the building as quickly as possible. But avoid the elevators — use only the stairwell.
Clark didn’t make very far before he was confronted with a woman in a wheelchair. At that moment he stopped thinking of his personal safety. His previous experience as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps kicked in, along with its motto: “Semper Fidelis,” Latin for “Always Faithful.”
Benjamin was last seen on the South Tower’s 88th floor with three other people assisting the woman in the wheelchair.
Semper Fi, Marine.
“Guardian Angel”
Welles Crowther, 24, was an equities trader on the 104th floor when United Flight 175 struck the South Tower. After leaving a voicemail message for his mother, he made his way down to the 78th floor sky lobby, where he encountered other survivors sitting in shock.
That’s when his teen year experience as a volunteer firefighter kicked in.
“Everyone who can stand, stand now,” Crowther told them, and directed them to a stairway exit. “If you can help others, do so.”
They survived, but he didn’t. Crowther’s body was recovered alongside firefighters in a stairwell heading back up the tower with the “jaws of life” rescue tool.
“He’s definitely my guardian angel — no ifs, ands or buts — because without him, we would be sitting there, waiting [until] the building came down,” survivor Ling Young told CNN. Crowther is credited with saving at least a dozen people that day.
A Tour Guide Answers the Call
Army Spc. Beau Doboszenski, a former volunteer firefighter and trained EMT, was working as a Pentagon tour guide when the building was struck by American Flight 77.
He didn’t hear the crash as he was working the opposite side of the building. But he got to work when a Navy captain explained what had happened and asked for anyone with medical training to lend a hand.
Doboszenski had to run around the building to get to the crash site, where he was stopped by police. He eventually reached a medical triage station where he rendered first aid to numerous victims.
Afterward, Doboszenski joined a six-man team that went back into the inferno to look for more survivors.
From that point forward, he alternated between treating the injured and searching for more victims inside the building.
Doboszenski was singled out for his valor by then-Vice President Joe Biden on the 10th anniversary of 9/1l.
Always on Duty
NYPD Officer John Perry was filing his retirement papers at police headquarters when he heard that United Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
He had every right to finish his paperwork and head home — he was off duty. Instead he rushed to the scene and assisted with rescue operations. Perry was killed when one of the towers collapsed. ??
Perry had served with the NYPD for eight years and was assigned to the 40th Precinct. He is survived by his parents, brother, and sister. ??
He was posthumously awarded the New York City Police Department’s Medal of Honor for his heroic actions.
The Soldier’s Code
Rick Rescorla took his responsibilities as vice president for corporate security at Dean Witter Morgan Stanley very seriously. He fought in conflicts with both the British and U.S. Army — the latter as an officer in Vietnam.
Rescorla was there during the 1993 World Trade Center attack, and led the company’s evacuation that day.
He was convinced that the terrorists would return, and put together and rehearsed a disaster contingency plan for the company in that eventuality.
On September 11 he put his years of planning into action and again supervised the evacuation of Morgan Stanley’s employees from the burning building. He is credited with saving thousands of lives — lives that he calmed by singing patriotic songs such as “God Bless America.”
There were only 13 Morgan Stanley employees and consultants who perished that day — Rescorla was one of them. He was last seen making a final climb up the stairs to check for other employees before the building collapsed.
Rescorla lived and worked by the soldier’s code: leave no man behind.
“Don’t Look! Keep Moving!”
Officer Moira Smith, NYPD, was the only female New York Police officer who had given up her life that day to save the lives of others, and her heroism is remembered by not only the people whose lives she saved on Sept. 11, but also the husband she left behind, a fellow NYPD cop.
Ed Nicholls was one of the very few survivors from the South Tower Sky Lobby that day, and he and Smith were memorialized in a famous photograph depicting Smith assisting a bloody and battered Nicholls out to safety.
“She grabbed ahold of me and was helping me over to this area, to just sit down on the sidewalk and wait for an ambulance,” Nicholls recalled, and then she went back in to search for more survivors.
One was Martin Glynn, who met her on the Plaza Level.
“She was barking out instructions. ‘Don’t look! Don’t look! Keep moving, don’t use your cellphone. Keep moving!'” he remembered.
“I got about five minutes away when the building went down. I turned around just to see the building go down. I thought of her right away,” he added.
Tunnel to Towers
Firefighter Stephen Siller‘s amazing, heroic story was the inspiration for a foundation that honors fallen first responders and military.
On the morning of Sept. 11, he had just finished his shift at Brooklyn Squad 1 and was heading home, looking forward to a round of golf with his brothers.
Then, when he heard about the assault on the Twin Towers he went back to the station and grabbed his gear to lend his support.
Siller got as far as the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel entrance, where he was stopped. Due to the attack, the tunnel was closed to all vehicular traffic.
Undaunted, Siller threw his 60 pounds of gear on his back, ran through the tunnel, then on to the towers on foot, where he met his death.
Author and family friend Jay Price wrote, “Every momentous event, even a tragedy, has its symbolic figures. September 11th was no different; it just had a few more of them.”
And 24 years later Siller’s legacy of heroism lives on.
He’s the inspiration behind the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which pays off mortgages of the survivors of first responders and military members who lost their lives serving fellow Americans.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He’s also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz’s Reports — More Here.
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