9:11 World Trade Center Survivor Joe Dittmar

I knew this would walk in and sign in at your office that they had an iPad there or whatever okay and I was kidding about the fact that we used to have a chisel as mr. King told you well first of all you can tell because you all are from here you can tell from my lovely southern accent that oh not okay not originally I know four degrees in the city of Philadelphia Pennsylvania and I went to Temple University I'm sure that most of you are getting ready to graduate a whole bunch of you are getting ready to go on to college in your college whatever good for you I guarantee you I don't have anybody in here that's going to Temple University right okay I knew that was almost a safe bet black marlin and I'm sold that was at radio and television communications majors I'm sold my dream when I got out of high school was to be okay but that was my goal okay and that didn't work out my dad was in the insurance industry his dad was in the insurance industry his dad was in the insurance industry so I basically didn't stand okay so it was decided before me by me predestined for me to be in the insurance industry and that's exactly what I think you know what it was a good decision for me to make I've been in the business for 38 years it's been terrific to me it's allowed me to have a great life and to be able to move to probably what is the greatest state in the Union here in North Carolina I love this place okay I'm not leaving you can't get rid of me matter what you want to do I'm one Yankee that's not going away the World Trade Center was basically like a mecca for the insurance industry so it was not unusual for somebody like myself in that industry to be asked to go to a meeting there virtually every insurance organization in the country probably in the world had offices there at the Trade Center so in August of 2001 a woman by the name of married women this woman was an extremely powerful woman she smashed through the glass ceilings of what still exists in our business today in the air ladies I have three doors okay okay I hit on your side Mary called me and she asked me to attend the meeting the following month I didn't want to go to our meeting I wanted to go to another type of insurance meeting that involves aluminum or titanium sticks this law little metal heads on the end little white balls in the grass like this this was the type of meeting I wanted to attend but Mary did to me what every woman has been doing me since the day I was born she threw good old-fashioned Catholic I understand no problem you don't want to come to my meeting you know you know nobody from CNN company nobody's gonna be there it's okay hey don't you work for the president of the company Joe is hidden yeah Thank You Larry report they didn't directly she said that's great the next time I see them I'm gonna make sure he understands that you good nice and stop again again and I'll be there okay I've lost my dad four years ago almost to the day but I had the chance to move him from Philadelphia down here he fell in love with Chatham County he fell in love with North Carolina and he had a lot of savings and he had a lot of stories most of which I can tell him here okay but the one saying that he did have that I remember great at the time Mary was harassing me list plan your work and work your plan probably have parents that tell you that you probably heard that somewhere along in life but it's a good adage plan your work work your plan okay I can do that her meeting I can go to the golfing I can do it it just kind of plan its up the Friday before the Tuesday September 11th 2001 was over Tuesday Friday before the Tuesday I went back to the from Chicago where I lived at that time and when that Friday visited with my mom and dad on Saturday visited with my sister something that I still don't enough of today and on Sunday I went to the Philadelphia Eagles st. Louis Rams when they were the st. Louis Rams football game I'm a season ticket holder for the Philadelphia Eagles since 1978 I must use it to get all there for the Philadelphia Eagles and I still pay for the tickets and my son and grandson still sit in this and then a great day over there what a great deal thank you dad never closes okay just so you know okay the bank and when we came out of the game my son who was with me he's about my height but unlike me he's in great physical shape it's actually even a little smaller okay but in great physical she works for Valero oil he works on the pipelines in South Jersey okay and even what you would call like a roughneck there's an explosion there's a fire something goes on out and on the pipelines he leads a team out they go and make sure that they fix the problem do whatever they have to do to make it you know good that tough work that rough work makes him think that he's really macho you know make something that he's really a tough guy so it's really kind of interesting we're walking through that parking lot this kid gives me this big giant hug as we're about halfway through the parking lot paddy any whispers in my ear I miss you dad and I pushed back and see a little tear in his eye and I knew he wasn't crying because of the game the Eagles beat the Rams everybody okay I guess it was a pretence of what was about to occur and we just didn't know I got my car he got his truck I went down to southern New Jersey to this beautiful resort where we were gonna have a cop round next morning and I woke up the next morning had some fun had some fun at lunch then we have a real business meeting on Monday afternoon we had kids it isn't all fun and games okay and after the business meeting we were going to have a dinner I told the folks at the dinner that I couldn't stay up with them all night long like they liked to do because I had a plan plan if you remember anybody ever visited New York City okay anybody come from the New York there you go okay this she knows to be true if you're going to New York the one thing that you don't want to have to do is drive into New York City it's brutal absolutely I wasn't about to do that myself I have a plan my plan was to go back from where I was in Jersey to Philadelphia to Amtrak take the train from Philadelphia back up to New York City and that's exactly what they did it get on the 3:30 in the morning drove back to Philadelphia got there about 5:30 bought my roundtrip ticket for the train the train pulled into the about 6:00 a.m. I ran down the steps to put both my suit coat took off my backpack I don't use a briefcase in the backpack took out my laptop turned it on put it on my laps got new training sat down and did what all of us insurance these do at 6:00 a.m. in the morning of the Metroliner training on the way to do you work for their laptop so on on our laps asleep it was 6:00 a.m. in the morning I'm very very tired all we went on the trip we're about two-thirds of the way up with my cell phone I am a room full of people predominantly don't know you're like since the day you were born right yet probably were baptized with a phone in your ear this is the way like this now for those of us that remember back in the day us to remember back in the day when you were going on a trip like this right yeah ahead plan you had happen on an itinerary that itinerary was on a piece of paper told you where you were gonna be what meetings you were gonna be at what hotel you were staying at okay why hotel room what the phone number was for the hotel so that people could call you okay and then you took this thing called an AT&T long-distance card with you because God forbid you had to pay for long-distance calls back in the day okay brutal now you have you know national plans international plans you go today for nothing okay this wasn't the way it was but after the day you had to have a plan what cell phones okay just hit me up with a cell phone right that's all you need just hit the other side um wasn't a whole lot different in 2001 cell phones were okay and everybody basically always happy so before this trip I said to my wife listen I've got a meeting in New York on Tuesday I'm going to go back to Philly visit the family go to the game with Joe okay oh it's my wife and she said I'm very sorry didn't mean to wake you up I said no that's okay trains about ready to pull into Newark and I gotta get off but it's a lot easier to get to the World Trade Center if you take the PATH train from Newark because it stops right underneath the World Trade Center so I'm gonna and so that morning I told my wife exactly where I was going I got off that train dutifully with thousands of other New Yorker New Jerseyans in New Yorkers and got him to the bath rain and making my way into the World Trade Center and when we got to the South Tower the building that I was in people were absolutely Pro they seem to know who belongs in those buildings simply by looking at your face do you know that in that building there were at any point in time as many as 25,000 people and yet these people seem to know who the wall and beautiful there was a bombing in 1993 at the Trade Center 9/11 event wasn't the first event there okay so there was a bombing and in 93 and so I'm sure that's what made those security people so good for that time so I walked in the building the guy looked at me immediately he saw it I didn't belong because need a little Wiggly finger I go over to the security desk and he took my picture electronically he transferred that picture onto a little way Cardinal in that part was my name the company that I was going to visit a corporation the floor that I was going to 105 how long the card was good for it was good until 912 2001 and a barcode and the barcode was the most important thing on the part not just because it contained all that equipment that I just mentioned electronically but that also was the way that you would swipe your way through the electronic turnstiles that separated you from the elevators in the building both buildings were identical both buildings were a hundred and ten storeys high 110th floor in the North Tower was the windows of the world restaurant unfortunately 110 to the 107 floor in the South Tower the building that I was in they were observation decks thank God it was too early they were not open okay the other floors that I didn't mention about what a 5 in both buildings heating ventilation air conditioning elevator with an elevator cabling no human beings we were going up to 105 eyes occupied level of the South Tower at that time we got through the term styles of elevator banks of elevators that you had to go to I went to the one that was at the far left it went on an express basis to the 78th floor at that 78th floor same as on the 44th floor and both buildings but at that 78th floor was what was known as a sky lobby each of the buildings had three lockers one at the ground one at the 44th floor one at the 78th floor you can't build elevators that go up 110 straight floors not possible it's not an engineering possibility you're all probably smarter than me and probably already knew this but so these were built so that you had three lobbies we went up to 78 high sky lobby level and switched off onto a bank of elevators it took us up to 105 and when we got in there and the elevator doors opened up Mary we the woman that I had mentioned earlier that had shamed me into being at this meeting and there she was she's standing in front of us and it was kind of an interesting moment because there she is she's got a spray bottle Murphy's Oil Soap in one hand and a rag in the other she's not Suzy homemaker by any stretch of the imagination okay but this was how important the meeting was there she wanted everything perfect and he had enclosed conference room that she was about to take us to right down to the furniture when she was policy this was important to her she escorted this internet conference room that conference room was probably about just a little smaller than the classroom or in here today but unlike this classroom four walls no windows the meeting was supposed to commence at 8:30 is beginning to the insurance industry one of the things is if you're always late you'll like the insurance industry because there's never any meeting that starts on time this thing was no different 8:30 game and white people drinking the Starbucks and talking about kids and soccer and football whatever okay and then 848 flex player that's it just a flicker of light we couldn't see anything couldn't hear anything we didn't feel anything just this flicker of white almost immediately died by the name of Rick blood from the M corporation bound into the room and he said hey it's been an explosion in the North Tower we got to evacuate 54 intelligent human beings all did the same thing at the same time looked at or rickets and a man it's New York stuff happens what's in the word of you stuff happens let us have our meeting and you looked at the city said man you don't understand I'm a volunteer Fire Marshal for 105 104 103 I can't leave it to all you need we can't leave and I know you got everybody out of that room that day because I was the last guy he took this wall to the nearest fire stairwell on 105 and that's where he proceeded to tell us that we were now but you can walk down everybody did the same thing they reached into their pocket or to their phone or to their to their hips or whatever I need to weigh the line and pull down their cell phone any of you have with what everybody get smart all right but back in the day with the flip phones you flip them up you look at the screen something interesting no service service service the main cell tower for all of southern Manhattan was on top of the North Tower at the first building to be day and you know we were all smart we thought okay maybe we can get on a regular phone a landline yeah that's good okay good idea except that think about this everybody in New York City and then how long does landlines call on their mom dad sister brother al to make sure that they're okay even more incredibly everybody in the world there's a lot of stretch folks everybody in the world that knows somebody in New York City is now calling in on those landlines sister brother self-service was interrupted landlines couldn't handle all the communication traffic I understand that there are some of you that are on their way to the Armed Services in here where are the services thank you sir you're gonna find this out one of the things that you do now know when you attack the enemy one of the first things you do is to cut the lines of communication whether it was waiting around winning all the lines of communication will cut so now you have this group of 54 make big personalities communicate with anybody on their cell phone and they're doubly Nick talk about what's going on I'm sure you're thinking yourself everyone else in the world you weren't quite old enough to actually remember but virtually everyone else in the world knew exactly what was going on outside and inside those buildings that any of us that were right there we had no starting to make our way down the steps we got down to the 90th floor the fire stairwell door on the 90th floor was in a position it wasn't supposed to be open okay it was propped open I'm in the fire insurance business and I know better than to get out of the fire stairwell right your parents tell you you're absolutely positively not something what do you usually do yeah okay come on tell the truth right okay same thing same event and I'm 45 I walk out one to the 90th floor I don't know whether I got to get through another fire stairwell whatever that's nowhere I experienced the worst 30 20 seconds in my life to look out those windows to the north to see these gaping black holes through the sides of that other buildings brave black billows of smoke pouring out of those holes flames rather than any red I'd ever seen before my life licking up the side of the building and beyond the roof level and I remember being able to see clearly through that smoke through that fire into those huge black holes and seeing the fuselage of a large plane lodged inside the other building I immediately thought to myself my god how did the pilot not see the building how did he miss the building see all that you see furniture paper people being pulled out of the building against there was an incredible awesome I knew it wasn't an xbox game I knew it wasn't a made-for-tv movie I knew this was reality I just wanted to leave people were on that floor frozen whether they were frozen in fear mesmerized by what they saw screaming at the top of their lungs and yet they couldn't seem to move I I had to get out I turned to leave one of the guys that was in the meeting with me loved Carol from Zurich insurance company he's behind me decent human being complete middle linebacker at University of Pittsburgh I almost knocked them over with my stubby little body because I was in such a hurry and he looked at me grabbed me and he put his hands on my shoulders they said what are you gonna do man I said Oh get the heck out here what are you gonna do he looked at me and said you know what that's a really really good idea but before I go I'm gonna go and he pointed to the closest manager that simple decision to use the restroom that simple delay his departure awesome back up to the top of the fire stairwell door they're making an announcement the events been contained to the North Tower the South Tower is considered safe if you work in the South Tower we suggest you return to your workstation if you are a visitor we suggested to stay where you are until further notice if you feel you need to leave please proceed with caution doesn't sound logical right but it made tons of sense there's a woman or man in the rising building security somewhere on the ground level of that building at that point you know there's a cop and firefighter on either side they're looking at this person saying you're as many as 25,000 people in your building we can't let them outside screening concrete steel or bodies what do you want to do and I'm sure this person thought to themselves elevators are going up and now electricity is on ventilation systems working it's just wait and see what's going on who would have ever thought that within 18 minutes the same exact thing what happened to our pillar I was leaving I wasn't hesitating I didn't know how careful I was going to be I got down to 78 that sky lobby level that I mentioned before Mary Weiman the woman that I've mentioned several times she's screaming for me to go to the elevator and finally my pea-brain my god my common sense finally hit me and I thought you know what I don't think they should get an elevator building stay the dress fire mm-hmm fail to yell oh yeah I know something building and I turned and went back to the stairwell arguably the best decision I've made and one is still my life because I was somewhere between the 74th and the 72nd floor when the plane second plane fell through powerful that plane went through our buildings between fours 78 and 82 on an angle we were just a few short stories below the strike zone never felt anything like that never want to have to feel anything like that again this concrete bunker this fire stairwell that we're inside starts to shake so violently from side to side I'm not an engineer I can't tell you angles but it's shaking in angles it should be shaking the concrete sputtering out the handrails breaking away from the wall the steps literally like waves in the ocean under lenient undulating underneath our feet and we feel this heat ball blowing lives we smell this jet fuel and this thing's just rocking back and forth back and forth it feels like forever maybe it was seconds maybe a minute and it finally stops and settles and you would think that there would be this craziness this massive pandemonium and you have an excess air well there was nothing nothing silence we all tried to grab for our cell phones again thank God they weren't working because at that particular point in time ignorance truly was bliss what we didn't know couldn't hurt us so we started to make our way down the steps tell you some funny observations on the way down those steps for instance at one place in one time I have never seen so many pairs of women's shoes now you think about it you're 70 flights of steps above ground you're in three or four-inch heels like they say in ooh you forget about it by barefooted women okay if you wanted a new laptop computer boom that was your deck okay more electronic equipment ditched inside that fire stairwell than an old bankrupt appliance I mean backpack so it was the briefcases back to community everything just ditched inside but we were one two three four people wide if anything was in our way he kicked it out of the way and we're all heading in the same direction until the thirty that's that's the chance we had for the first time to encounter the police the firefighters and the paramedics from New York City and the Port Authority never have that situation we look at some light and they look back at you when you look into each other's eyes you never say a word and get the whole story installed right we had that moment just the looks in their eyes tell the story just know what's in their eyes they knew that they were going up those steps to try to fight a fire that they couldn't beat they knew that they were going to push that's to try to save life they couldn't see they knew that they were marching into the bowels of hell and they knew that they were going to and he knew that they were never never you know to beat that rate to be that strong right at the same time there was a guy walking along with its meanings guy from the bill had a nametag over his pocket I forgot his name he was carrying with the one of the most annoying inventions God ever allowed us to create the next telephone with the walkie-talkie signature okay and this thing has been incredibly quiet the entire time just walking along with us all of a sudden this thing starts to belch beep make all kinds of noise and we hear this voice scream and we're out 82 we can't get down we don't know what we're gonna do and this kid he stopped she's not much older than you guys he stops dead in his tracks spins on the balls of his feet he's to my left I looked at I said what are you gonna go man what are you gonna do and he looked at me he said you know I don't know but I gotta save my friend I submit to you that name was me that is a true American hero Batman who was willing to lay down his life to save that emigrant I can only go to the cops and the firefighters and that building turned him around the day made him leave when we got down to the lobby level bill they couldn't let us out on the street you're looking at crumbled concrete twisted steel red blotches on the ground and you do what those red blotches were they made us go down into the underground the concourse level of those buildings in that plaza and you're in this underground that's a rat maze of cars every store known to mankind like the biggest mall all in all the world underground ok signs that mean nothing to you unless you're from New York one two three four red blue green yellow I mean you have no idea where you're supposed to be going right we're seeing people that are really hurt by the event people with missing limbs beings true loving God stuff your human nature makes you want to reach out and try to help you could there were so many cops firefighters police there that day to help those people I've never seen such an outpouring of caring of concern of love and that's lessen things total outpouring applause so the people that needed help we're giving to helping those of us that were okay we're on our own the herd mentality takes over I hear a guy at the front of my guard say we want to get to the northeastern end of the complex it's the furthest away from the buildings my internal GPS it sounds good to me we followed we start winding our way through that underground set of quarters we're about ready to make our final left there it is Starbucks and it's open and there are people in line I kid you not okay I'm a card-carrying member of the Starbucks nation okay but I don't know how much double triple it just goes to show you that not even in the greatest of moments the greatest minds are where they need we got to the farthest end of that complex we go up the escalators that are no longer escalating they are plowing back everything I mean everything it's grotesque with these Bobcat bulldozers they're screaming at us don't stop don't stop run run run you get across the street in front of Trinity Church and you have what you would call a Sodom and Gomorrah moment you stop and turn around and you look at this unbelievable sight mr. cake the concrete ceiling bodies on the way out I was fortunate enough to run into a friend of mine David Duffy he's a guy that I work with all the time in New York he was in the building we met together it was fate he said what are you gonna do I said I don't know I'm supposed to get on a train go back to Philly get a rental car drive to the Philly Airport fly back to Chicago I don't think that's gonna happen he said you know what my wife works on the 40th floor of the North Tower I haven't heard from her I want to get home make sure she's okay why don't you come with me I said sure where do you live and he said Upper West Side 111th Street wow that's a long way ladies you got something better okay let's go we were only eight blocks north of the building eight minutes commercial laundry doors thrown wide open WI in us the all-news radio station blaring you know this was an all-purpose terrorist attack our jaws just drop to the ground not here this can happen here but it was the next couple of sounds that are the ones that want us every day the sound of twisting steel and probably concrete of what once was the north the South Tower the building that we have been in just eight minutes prior coming to the ground even more hauntingly the sound of millions of viewers all screaming the same blood-curdling scream all the same time we were able to get into a friend David's flat in the Tribeca section of the city tried to make some sense of what was going on by watching the TV about five hours in one of the true American heroes of that day that the mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani he got on the TV and he started to talk and one of the things he said was I know everybody just wants to go home go look at the pictures guys pictures of people walking across the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey walking out the Long Island Expressway and the Long Island Railroad onto the Long Island they had shut all forms of transportation down the only they need to do is walk and Giuliani understood that everybody just wanted to get home and my buddy David who was with me said come on we're going I said where is it to the subway we're going back to my place Empire State Building maybe it's the next part if we didn't know don't be wet we got on a subway we were only two blocks up two steps tops off pardon me and there's 32nd Street cam traffic the way I got me in the way that I wanted to get out even if it was just a fillable we both got out of the Train together didn't talk to each other there's a woman from Amtrak she sees me because we look like tourists and she says wait you don't honey I said I need to get the Philadelphia says three is it raining out here at the table and I reached into my pocket to give her my return ticket I had a round-trip ticket and she wanted me to know you in sweetie we're not collecting tickets today some things never change in New York okay so I maybe that I got down in the Train you go underneath the Hudson River you come up on the Jersey side you look back at what was once the greatest battle and 80 minutes on the train people crammed in sitting standing where it was no words the city when I got down the filly got out of the Train got into a rental car at goal I had a car and I was gonna make my trip up to my parents house in Northeast Philadelphia that day and when I got there my mom was waiting for I promise you I'm not gonna cry right now okay guys love your mothers there's my mom she comes down all the steps give me a hug that's my head sobs my baby didn't have the heart to remind her that I was the oldest one and my mom did for me at that moment my mom continues to do to this day yeah my mom's Corolla she don't she healthy and she when I got out the next morning I called the office let them know that I wasn't going to be in it was a good thing because they thought I was dead and I may be 14 and a half hour trip back to Aurora Illinois about eleven and a half hours so if you're going to be law enforcement I just wanted to get home when I got home my wife had called me and said that they were going to have a massive part of local church nice it's a good place to be when I got to the church and they opened the back doors of that church I don't know whether I was more afraid then or the day before you see this thing over to the right the Pew were really sitting Roman Catholics we only sit the same view okay they here's my wife a couple of my kids some friends my wife who is a very non demonstrative person jumps over the back of the Pew runs to the back of the church gives me man before the music started so I'm really happy I was able to tell it all the story about the trip and leave you know time to ask me any questions can I can I tell you something really seriously something you're in the midst of watching a presidential election I am NOT political about this in a non-political about anything but you're in the midst of a presidential election and a change in human spirit here in the United States okay but the one thing that they candidates are proving beyond a shadow of a doubt is that our generation hasn't done such a good job that stuff you really have when I look at you you need to understand you are a future it's hard to hear hard to say you're a future and we are counting on you Academy to do it better than we have done to make it better than we have made it give us a better world and just remember one thing really really important everybody everybody in this room loves we need your help moving your next class be good be strong and I hope you take some of the story

Channel: Robin Mashburn

Views: 575,656

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Id: zBBQft37_vk

Length: 37min 55sec (2275 seconds)

Published: Mon May 23 2016