"September 11, 2001 May We Never Forget"
By: Cap Loves Hank and Kel
This is a tribute done from Hank who is well retired by now and he is looking back on that unforgettable day. Hank will be in canon as much as possible here.
Nothing "Emergency!" belongs to me. If it did, I'd be blissfully married to Hank, Mike, Marco and Kel.
September 11. 2001 is a day that in many ways has gone down in infamy in many people's minds. I know it has in mine and that why I feel moved to write this.
Never will I ever forget the first plane going into Tower 1. My first thought when I heard it was that it had to be a mistake; guidance system might have failed or something like that, never even imagining it was on purpose. It couldn't have been.
I turned on the TV and I had just caught Tower 1 coming down. My heart was immediately in my throat and hot tears of anger came down my face. My thoughts went immediately to the first responders and the many others who were trying to help inside the building before it came down.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Then, another plane comes into Tower 2 and it suffered the same fate as Tower 1. I was stunned, scared and couldn't believe this was happening on American soil. It was so hard to digest. At one point, in my shock, I tried to convince my brain that all we were seeing was a flick from Hollywood that was so good, they were trying to scare everyone with it.
Later, we were to hear about the Pentagon and Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and how those brave souls kept even more evil and disaster from happening. Why? Why was this happening? America has fought for peace for many years and we were at peace when it happened.
I remember a picture I was to see later of a man jumping out of one of the towers and he was jumping to certain death. Could he have known that or was just "get the hell out and now!" going through his mind? We'll never know but that image has never left me. It to me is an icon of the day.
My thoughts go to Todd Beamer, the leader of the heroic bunch that brought Flight 93 down in the field in Pennsylvania. His last words were "Let's roll" and that's exactly what they did. How selfless and amazing as they stood staring at the beast of certain death yet didn't much care about that. They just didn't want any more damage done that had already been done.
Twelve years later, I'm still dam angry about it. Who the hell did those spineless, cowardly bastards think they were, coming to MY country to destroy untold thousands whose only "crime" was being at the wrong place at the wrong time? What was the point of taking mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles and children from their families? Oh yeah I know what it was now. After death to be surrounded by seventy virgins. I think by now you figured it out it didn't quite happen that way and my only hope is that you are being charbroiled and toasted in a very hot place for the rest of your miserable, cowardly lives because that is all you deserve. That and to know that the death count wasn't as high as originally thought and even though we lost way too many, thank God we didn't lose all that we thought we did.
My thoughts go back to Todd Beamer and to Neil Young who after the massacre wrote a really great song "Let's Roll" in honor of Todd and the brave folks on Flight 93 that fateful day and this is how I am going to end this:
"Let's roll for freedom
Let's roll for love
Going after Satan
On the wings of a dove
Let's roll for justice
Let's roll for truth
Let's not let our children grow up
Fearful in their youth
Time is running out
Let's roll."
September 11, 2001 May We Never Forget.
End