20 years ago I was in 5th grade sitting on the classroom floor listening to my teacher, Dr. Jones lead us in reading our monthly book. After awhile Dr. Jones stopped reading and told us that she had something we needed to hear but that we might not fully understand. “Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City” she said. “Does anyone have family in New York? Yancey, my classmate raised his hand. Unfamiliar with New York City or The World Trade Center and not quite old enough to grasp the gravity of her remarks I just sat silent. An hour or so later my mother picked me up from school and as we drove off campus I saw more police cars on the street than I’d ever seen before.
Years later I’d come to learn that while I sat silent, unknowing of the situation unfolding, brave men and women executed some of the most remarkable tasks ever accomplished in the whole of human history saving the lives of thousands of people.
“All available boats, this is the United States Coast Guard aboard the Pilot boat, New York. Anyone wanting to help with the evacuation of lower Manhattan, report to Governors Island”, is the radio transmission from the US Coast Guard on the morning of September 11, 2001. At the time this radio transmission was made hundreds of thousands of people were attempting to escape the island of Manhattan…
