Never Forget ~ In Remembrance of 9/11

It was 16 years ago, when those terror attacks struck and killed 2,996 people in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. On September 11, 2001, I was a student at Southern Adventist University and remember being in class at the time when the campus contacted all professors and staff to spread the news. The administrators cancelled all classes and activities for the rest of the day, and if I remember correctly, I believe everything was cancelled for the rest of the week.

The news was shocking and confusing and generated a very real fear. We wondered if this was the beginning of a war and perhaps even our tiny college town could be attacked from the air. There was so much details of what was happening that were unknown. I immediately went with other students to the student center to see the news reports on television. I remember thinking of my friends Ashley and Steven Sikora who were living and working in New York at that time. I remember praying for them to be safe, and praying that God would help those people who were in danger and comfort the families of the people who were already dead. A plane hitting a building was a pretty tragic sight to see, because the fire and explosions made it clear and undeniable that the people in that plane could not have survived. Then my thoughts turned to the people who were at work inside those buildings. There had to be people killed inside the building too. At first there was no evidence that the tower would collapse. But, those moments when the second tower was hit, and then both towers collapsed were when the magnitude of this very horrific situation became so much more terrifying! When I witnessed that live on television, it was so terrible, I began to cry and pray and feel such sharp painful shock and disbelief and sadness. It was the absolute worst thing I have ever seen in my life.

My memories of 9/11 always come flooding back to me on this day each year. I will NEVER FORGET!  I could NEVER FORGET!  It was too terrible to ever be erased from my memory. A deep, jagged pit in my memory was formed that brings back the images and impressions of the terrible suffering and sadness and shock I felt in those moments of watching the horror of reality right on that TV screen.

People who lost their loved ones were the feature stories that kept pouring through the TV shows and magazines and newspapers and websites. I remember stories about the people who were killed, and stories of people who were still missing. I remember seeing the piles and piles of memorial items people left at the Ground Zero area and the signs posted showing the people who had lost their lives and those who were still being searched for by their loved ones. It was numbing. It was never easy to look at, and it brought tears to my eyes and a feeling of sympathy and grief. I did not know anyone directly who was killed on 9/11, but there was always a story that touched my heart and made me feel so sad.

It has taken many years for the floods of stories to start to run dry. So many people died and even more people were injured. Countless books were written about their lives, news reports featured their experiences, and stories were printed in newspapers and magazines. So many people had to go on with their lives without their loved ones. So many children did not get to live their lives with a Mommy or a Daddy or an Uncle or an Aunt or a Grandparent. So many children had their tender lives snuffed out. The US and actually the whole world was wounded on 9/11/01 and that wound was very deep and very painful and very life-altering; and that wound left a permanent scar. But just as a wound heals, we have healed, but that scar serves as a reminder of what we have been through and how in the blink of an eye the whole reality of peace and safety can be shattered. NEVER FORGET!

Recently, I was really touched and amazed when I found out that the US Navy has a ship made partly from materials from the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed on September 11, 2001.

The boat's name: USS New York
The ship's motto: Never Forget

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up. It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."

This modern marvel was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center twin towers.
It is the fifth in a new class of warships and is designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It is able to carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

NEVER FORGET