A 9/11 Survivor Story

I've been living here since oh one so what is a 20s I've been here for 17 years love the Midwest you guys are the great area in the country and unfortunately or maybe even fortunately I was involved in 9/11 so I got to experience the World Trade Centers which is unfortunate for everyone in the world especially Americans but it's fortunate in the way that I was able to feel and experience it and I'd be able to relay my story to everyone and there was thousands of people there who were doing the same thing every day telling the story but what makes it little unique three is I'm out here and there not a lot of people in Chicago in the Midwest who would who got caught up in the World Trade Centers so I am 49 so when 9/11 happened I was approximately like 30 too much I was single and I'll kind of go through the day I know you guys are under a tight timeframe I'll go through the day a real quick and then I love opening any questions so I want to hear what you got any questions you might have the media has done a great job of talking about it it's not really a polarizing issue where we're seeing in politics right now everyone agrees 9/11 was a bad event so here we go so 9/11 it was a beautiful day kind of like today really kind of brisk it was windy and it was just a nice like fall breeze even though it was tough summer but fall breeze coming down and so Manhattan looks like Florida or it looks like a padded salon it's an island but it kind of looks like there's Downtown Midtown or the Empire State Building is downtown is where the World Trade Center is and your Stock Exchange and then in the middle it's this kind of gap where there's really just smaller buildings so if you ever have you guys have ever been in New York or seen it from from the air you could see it like there's downtown and the gap but then there's Midtown and then there's Central Park then there's Harlem then there's like George Washington Bridge and the Bronx so it's it's a very easy laid out city so the it's early it's around 8:45 8:50 a.m. and the stock market opens up at 9:30 a.m. and that's when a lot of people like myself I'm involved in the stock market that's when our that's when it's game time 9:30 that's kick-off like you have to be at your desk ideally before it but you've got to be at your desk at 9:30 so usually before then you're running around you're doing research again and coffee and breakfast and having to be right before 9:00 o'clock so I'm running around I didn't need basement of the World Trade Center so the World Trade Center it should be really called the World Trade Centers is two huge towers the size of the Sears Tower or Willis Tower there's two and they're right next to each other and then in the basement or they call it the concourse it's another five floors so it's a taking a mall in putting it underground that's how big this this whole area is and then there's like a main road called the West Side Highway and across the street there's I got another mini World Trade Center complex called the World Financial Center bar this is confusing to anyone when you work there it's really easy and you're right on the Hudson River and then there's New Jersey right across the river and so we're all kind of running around everyone's doing their thing the market hasn't opened up yet market mean the stock market and all sudden I'm in the basement of the World Trade making my way up to the World Financial Center where this briefcase was and I was around the 10th floor or working in the World Financial Center waiting for the market to open but here I'm in the World Trade Center making my way up and there is a long glass tunnel that a bridge that connects the World Trade Center to the World Financial Center so if you ever been to oval the train station downtown there's this glass like bridge that connects you to sort of like the Chicago it was the same thing so I'm in this bridge and all of a sudden here comes you hear this boom in your life and you knew it wasn't normal it didn't there's a lot of noises in Manhattan but it wasn't so being it's a glass bridge you instinctively looked or the noise camera but it sounded like it was coming from Midtown so you're sort of looking north but really because of the way sound works that's where it was it hit right above us to the point where you had a look this you could see what we've all seen on TV the big hole in the in the World Trade Center and all sudden you're like now here's the weird thing we didn't know what was a play I plain until that's six hours later so so here now pause I was caught up in the world trade center in the first line when I was in the basement and I was on the hundred of lurgha for Deloitte and Touche I graduated college I was like and that was scary only a couple of people died which is tragic but it wasn't nearly what 9/11 was going to turn into so being that I was already been through this thing I'm like I'm out I don't know what that was I put that whole thing looking over this but it didn't look good I know we're all kind of like dude it was and the market was about to hold it in a half hour so you can't tell your boss oh there was a hole in the wall I can't go to work remember this is before 9/11 so there was no like precedent for anything like this okay I'm the go around I'm gonna go outside and I'm gonna hang out for a little bit because I don't want to go through it I went through seven years old so I just looked literally walk that was the first one outside I went down the escalator walked outside so if the World Trade Center was that white wall right there there was a big Street and I was standing basically a ring here imagine it's doubled in size and all of a sudden the first fire truck pulls up this is where I get it it's a little motional thing you see these guys and then there's like three or four or five fire trucks coming and they're all coming in here miles away and they're all looking up and they're right and they know they're gonna have to go yep people and I learned later when a firefighter sees a fire on a high floor there's a good chance of death for the firefighter because there's no way they're going to make there's there's no like parachutes so they're basically looking up to their grave and that's what the media said and they were accurate so all the sudden I'm hanging out here by this point there's probably hundreds of people coming out and we're just sitting here going what do we do I did have cell phones just kind of came out I had one on me my briefcase is sitting in my office and my friend from New Zealand calls which is 24 hours of what you know 12 hours of terms of time and he goes hey mate what just happened we're army and I said the World Trade Center what happened he goes and then it went dead because the antenna for all cellphones is the world tracer so anyway I still had no idea what's going on a lot of people are coming out and then these fire trucks were pulling up and if you and that's when people and I've seen this because it's on TV people start to jump from the top of the World Trade Center or the whole woods and so if you want underneath the firetruck you can kind of see what would happen because the people were luckily we didn't look I mean the fire truck because they would be hitting where that couch was or maybe with the parking lot so we stayed there a little too long so a lot of people were running they were running back away from the buildings I was single I didn't have kids my girlfriend dumped me the night before so I was literally I was just like I'll just hang out here I don't think work is gonna happen but I don't have anywhere to go I just want to see what happens so the second plane hits which everyone's a lot of people saw on TV where I was standing I was too close to the World Trade Center to see the plane hitting other World Trade Center they do remember a big thing of fire she down but I guess I we didn't know that was a plane so remember guys we still didn't know maybe's a couple thousand of us now we didn't know it was planes we thought it was a missile with Zook going or a little Cessna we didn't know so then this cop on a bike came up to me there's maybe about 100 of us left and he's out guys this building is going to fall you have to leave so we're like okay so that cop turns out save my life so we just turned around and we started walking fast up the West Side Highway which is that the main drag that slits the World Trade Center from the World Financial Center so we like walking up one of the main roads and on State Street or Chicago so we're just walking up and now there's hundreds of hundreds of fire trucks and police cars and I do remember jumping over a wheel and it turns out it was the wheel to an airport I didn't realize at the time I thought it was like a fire truck or something but it was I remember a big axle on it so I think it was the wheel to one of the airplanes so I remember looking back and we were probably bout six seven blocks away so maybe like more than golfing is the golf course over by the intersection we're by that far away from if this was the World Trade Center romera looking back and everyone's pointing out and this part it was like burned in my memory that's when you see the whole World Trade Center collapsed and it came down like a domino that you do do too and then the second one still up but it's on fire and it would have just wiped us out that would have just taken everyone down at the bottom there and then it came over and then this big tidal wave of dust and all that stuff came over us and then we just started running but it was windy enough where it was pushing in south so we got dirty but nothing like those guys and gals who got you saw in the news they were all dirty and stuff they were stuck down in the right by the water so we were about five blocks away we got dirty but nothing nothing like that and then remember cell phones weren't working and odd people didn't have cell phones so here's where it gets kind of crazy I bump into a guy in that I knew from London to be having he owned a flat an apartment in Greenwich Village which is near downtown I go hey mate can I borrow your phone yeah so I go to his apartment and call my parents my parents are Molly and Emily I'm alive which one they're like you told us you're the windows little world restaurant which I did I was supposed to be there the whole month of August and the whole month of September which is a restaurant on the top floor the World Trade Center for training purposes and no one survived and that's the first thing that hit the news that was no survivors of Windows in the world because to get there it took three elevators and the plane broke the elevator shaft and also took out the steroids so there was no way of getting down and I do remember looking up to the top floor again it's like looking at the top of the Sears Tower it's pretty far away and all the waiters who I got to know those are the month of August were waving their pizzas in China what do we do unfortunately they came down but I forgot to tell my parents I didn't forget I didn't think they would care that I wasn't at the windows of the world starting after Labor Day so they thought I got caught up so when I called them they got emotional I don't know I'm not booking guys the Olympics had to get about they sell like I'll see you when I see you I don't know how to get out of here because Manhattan did a very smart thing there shut down all the bridges all the tunnels all the trains because they weren't sure where the bombs were where the terrorists were they didn't know anything and all you heard was has never hit the news is he's fighter jets and you guys ever seen the air water show how allowed those Jets are those Jets and this wasn't for fun this was for like war they were certainly minute men-hattan which doesn't take takes wake up 5 seconds in the jet they were just circling the island and they were below and they were just there or sea and they were setting up all the car alarms because it was such a loud noise when these jets and also in you're like what do I do I mean as friends I can stay with but you're kind of like there's millions of people going alright it's around noon now right three hours oh the the second building I apologize second building falls at that point I'm I've been saved I'm in the safe area and I'm like what do I did so they ended up I had a friend in New Jersey right across from the World Trade Center which turns out was the closest spot you can be without being in the war zone so you're actually allowed to go there so for anyone going to New Jersey which is millions of people they turned big cruise ships that usually dock in the Hudson River they turn them sideways and you would walk in one side and you keep on walking and then then they would reverse the ship into the Jersey side that you just walk off in the middle of like some weird doctor there's up to unify and then people who live the Brooklyn they would just walk over the Brooklyn Bridge people live in Connecticut or Westchester County that's equivalent living here working downtown they just walk there's no public transportation so that was 9/11 awful day so I lose my briefcase I thought I'd lost this briefcase and my building because when the World Trade Center came down it took out all the windows on the first 20 floors and my window was right above George Bush's head there's a famous picture of my favorite picture George Bush the president with that retired firefighter with a megaphone and the window of my office is right above his head and that window was a blown out I think there's a US flag hanging over action and so I just figured this was gone it turns out they found this briefcase about a month later it blew out the window when the World Trade Center came down and it pushed it into down by Wall Street they say there was near a cemetery so they found this thing I get this box now at this point I moved to Chicago I get this in a move the Sears Tower of all places but I get this box and it's all wrapped up this paper box what is this there's a couple guys who kind of gather around me from work and what is this thing I cut it open and inside was my brewskis and it was empty and all it had was my business card they tracked me down in Chicago so I don't know who to thank I I mean they just found it it was immense it was full of all that dust and everything so I used it for about 10 years after so this is like my little momento so I'm trying to make this quick I usually did it to make it longer but I want to hear all your questions I on the next day on 9/12 I have to be staying next to the only newspaper shop that was putting out newspapers so I happened to get these newspapers so these are like some of the newspapers from that first morning after 9/11 so these are here's a New York Times I mean imagine and they all these they couldn't run the Crescent in the head of Gordon Lake Pennsylvania to run this to get these newspapers because all their presses and all their media was in downtown with that so these are some for London you know to see you guys are definitely not for you so here's two copies here's the Wall Street Journal and then so that that is so that's the that's when the second plane hit the second tower I was on the other side down here so I was able to see that plane dead so that was a now 9/11 four planes hit the two planes at the World Trade Center one plane hit the Pentagon and one plane crash landed in Shanksville Pennsylvania which was supposedly targeted for Washington for the White House so it was a really bad day for everyone I happen to be in it but I'm no hero I just happened to be there it was just a really sad day for America what a lot of people say it was our generations Pearl Harbor because it really was the first mass casualty on United States land since Pearl Harbor so with that I know you're in a tight tight tight deadline here I'd love to get any questions about yep my friend from London kid was funny I hadn't talked to him since I haven't talked to him since 9/11 so you uses a mu as a casual friend my Fuhrer from New Zealand is still alive I haven't talked to him since 9/11 a lot of people ask me what were the people around you like when I was running from the World Trade Center when that cop who against it my life and saved all our lives because we were a lot of people still there people were buried about like New Yorkers are really they're tough on the outside but they're really good people because they just to live in New York was tough it's expensive it's kind of dirty it's it's hot it's cold it's expensive people compete two to three hours a day one way just to work in there so people are pretty resilient that obviously was a crazy day but everyone around me was pretty mellow there was one woman on a bike but she looked kind of crazy and I just remember her biking on this like three-speed bike it's a long stringy hair and she had this tackle she's like there are bombs on the street there are bombs on the street so all the sudden you're thinking that sounds crazy but then again this whole day's been crazy why wouldn't there be bars on the street so then people start like freaking out they weren't they weren't sure where to run people are running on the streets in front of the fire trucks because that's where the new was safe as fire trucks I do remember a lot of ambulances and cop cars coming back out of the ground out of the World Trade Center was blown out windows with people who were injured or maybe dead on top of the cars because there was no way impulses they were just driving with these people I do remember walking past a lot of hospitals and this has really sad all the hospitals were open and they had all the surgeons and all the doctors from the ER line down the streets ready for all these mass casualties there were very few people got hurt because a lot of people either made it out or people unfortunately went down I knew a couple people I knew had them through other people who made it out and then went back in to help their friends our church in Connecticut we'd have a our pastor did a really nice statue for we lost six people on our parish any one in the New York metro area which is huge like three four times the size of the Chicago area everyone lost no one no one got through 9/11 without losing a dad I'm still friends with song from a high school class she lost her brother just down there like a week earlier and then you heard the other side of the stories you hear stories of mine that I was supposed to be in there but I wasn't so it is what it is it's just a bad bad day yeah oh I forgot that point great question so I walked across this fairy cruise ship I was staying in Hoboken New Jersey which is literally a golf shot a very long shot a couple football fields of the world trade zone so I got off I walked about five miles south back down to where I was staying and it's a younger area young single area said Linkin Park so there was nowhere else to go but to go to the walk and I don't mean like to have fun but did one like sit on your couch wanted to be out commissural so I I found the first bar I walk in there and there was a young bartender who's just being him he's like yeah look up there's a TV and that's what I noticed he was so I noticed it around five o'clock four o'clock that afternoon Bush spoke that evening he looked like he was a deer headlights he looked much better the next day I remember weird things like the next morning it sounds so callous and shallow but I remember being on the treadmill in the apartment complex I was staying at running on the treadmill staring at ground zero which was a big cloud of smoke but you're like just kind of stay in your routine I guess there's nothing else to new work was canceled for the week I had a wedding that weekend that he actually ended up having but there was very few people there were jets circling a whole week after 9/11 so you know car alarms going off for a week I know it sounds minor but if you hear a bunch like 30 car alarms it starts to you start to go nuts and then all all you could see for a week until I got out of there was a big cloud of smoke over ground zero I mean that night you could hear just a hum of all the equipment and all the renewables doctors big big huge spotlights that lit up the whole downtown that was focused on these people just taking apart all the rafters and all stop trying to find survivors if you make it to Manhattan must if you're you have a good stomach you gotta go to the 9/11 museum it's it's brilliantly done I waited my whole adult life to take my whole family there and I go there lunch to that for work and I'm from there but I finally took my three kids and my wife there and I thought it was a it was a big deal to me emotional I took them all down I told my three kids this is where I stood and kids being kids died dad you know the bathroom I need water and he pretzel when I'm like with it but this is like where I stood so it was kind of a nice humor it was kind of broke up the seriousness of the days you forget if you guys weren't in it or you weren't born it's not as significant as for us older people who lived through it and if you asked anyone who's an adult your life were they were on the morning at nine eleven I guarantee you they will tell you as long as you just stay patient they'll be there 20 minutes a half hour an hour they will tell you where they were because there are certain events in your life that you will never forget where you were I wasn't born yet but when JFK was shot that was the big deal every every adult of that generation knew where they were when JFK was shot everyone in our generations know where they were on 9/11 right for the older people everyone knows where they were now now it's ridiculous so in my opinion it's it's rare to actually live to live through something that conspiracy theory is how the question was like everything else there's a lot of conspiracy theories one was like it was done by Israel they wanted people there was one that didn't really happen it was an illusion and then we were the next morning I'm waiting in line to get some food and a woman turned and says well guess what America deserve and that's not a conspiracy theory that's just a first statement hey it's America you're allowed to say that but that's the equivalent of burning a flag the day after I mean it's like and I remember I was like quitting speak I was so shocked by it and this guy behind me reaches over taking wraps and then she's so you hear statements like that that you're like King like two thousand plus people innocent for what cause I don't wanna get political but I mean just so you do hear a lot of comments beyond the crazy conspiracy theories that are more like if once you leave American soil go to Europe you'll hear a lot of things like what you had a comment or whatever that gets me I guess it should get there towards that yeah yeah good point so they call it post-traumatic syndrome and just and I thought that was a tough guy I thought I didn't have any of that I do remember I was staying at a friend's house in Georgetown decent Washington DC and its cobblestone roads in parts of Georgetown and I remember this big turn out to be a garbage truck went underneath his window he paused it was like a year out and I jumped out of bed and I ran into he was married I ran into their master bedroom and I'm like guys did something just hit me some just he goes let me check and dance background music no no we're fine but just are you okay I'm like am fine but I remember being very I got nervous around loud noises and then I stole this day I'll be dead I worked out of town in Chicago and there will be big airplanes that are allowed to fly right over the loop and I'm still looking and I still stare at those a little most people because that's what it looked like I never saw live when that sort of looked like on TV where the planes hit and by the way it was just announced that we are moving to the 85th floor of the Chicago yeah I think I was a Shanksville yeah I remember that I think there was a lot of theories I do remember running that was the theory of hurt later no I don't think I think that was a theory but I do remember when I was running from the World Trade Center there was a lot of different rumors like the White House was bombed Bush is dead the Pentagon was hit which turned out to be accurate just a weird stuff and not you don't blame people remember like you guys are all used to having cell phones this is back when there was nothing I murder passing by bars in downtown Manhattan and there were people literally like trying to watch the big eater of flatscreen super big TVs just to see what's going on in their own area because there were so many cops and ambulances and fire trucks the firemen were so busy you can't really ask that so it was a it was different for you for the younger generation it was just information or yeah hit Chicago even though it's coming again I still had to wait we all yeah I mean people a lot of people I've worked with quit because they refuse to work and a lot of people moved back to where their parents lived is when they get home so I could your Lunas Alabama here I got out I'm done I moved away because I've been through it twice and I needed to change anyway I was single was the centermost everliving super high you know what it felt like it felt like being at a stadium at Soldier Field or United Center and you kind of felt the movement towards the exit like there was a general flow so where I was standing there was a general flow to the north which would be a way for the World Trade Center but you could have easily just stayed there and not you would be pushed it's like I stayed there too long but I wasn't like caught up in the crowd where I was being pushed away there were still enough space that if you wanted to do anything you could but there was a vibe where there was a general like people if you just followed the sort of emotion that would lead you away there was a group of people near me it's a great question I've never talked about this there was a group of people near me that went to the Hudson River which I know is hard when I'm thinking where I'm standing which would be like you know where those trees are way over there that was the Hudson River and there were boats and there's YouTube videos on this or faceting all the boats from everywhere in the Hudson River private commercial ferries tugboats they all came to this little area and people were jumping on and they were just getting people away getting care where they going just get you away from Ground Zero because they didn't know if there were bombs or there's more planes coming and that's a great you could you - but you could find it it's easy Tom Hanks Ericsson the one that's really popular but so there was a flow of people go into the water people were jumping in the Hudson there was a flow of people that we're moving away from it there definitely was not a flow of people going into the building obviously or eating going around they were just getting yeah yes when they find themselves in a situation they may not have control or they may not know where to go or what's my next that shirt it's a great question all the way so two things to answer that question in all buildings downtown they have to have a every I think three months or six months the fire department comes in you do a fire or an evacuation we used to call them in our generation of fire journals but now it could be anything an evacuation drill terrorist attack people are grudgingly like they they always kind of go to these things and my big boss so it says just talk to Steve talk to plaughter he'll tell you how serious to take these things and then that's what everyone kind of finds out my past but you've got to listen to you know you could take it really seriously before you walk in a movie theater look to where the exits are I personally don't mean you should but panic is the worst thing and people realize I've got all these airplanes that issues people throw all their logic out the window and they just do what's natural which is scream and run and grab things you definitely don't want to walk in high heels you definitely don't want to carry anything with you like in the first bombing in the World Trade Center for people who are on the hundredth floor we don't walk out a hundred flights of stairs people at that point weren't high heels they were carrying like water and all sudden it's inevitable it's going to spill so people were slipping there was a pregnant lady who passed out and that was oh and not virtualize didn't work so you had a hundred flights of stairs which is that's and then you had firemen walking up one side of the stairs with big hoses that were waiting about a flicker panels so my advice to anyone is trying to take a deep breath think logically try not to panic and don't grab anything nowadays you need to grab your phone but don't just grab your kids if you can and move just get away don't stay around the guy just get away you'll watch it on the news whatever is happening nowadays people are out there videos just get away yeah so on September 11th I stopped talking to some of the teens about 911 this is actually how it all came up to and bye thank you so much for being here yeah one of the things I was trying to explain it was so hard is how things changed pre 9/11 post 9/11 yeah well for example so I was involved in World Trade Center twice and I have no problem in the Sears Tower works at one of the top floors you can work in in the country in the world in the world I have no problem I think it's safer then it has been ever I think people take it more serious I think people look around now when they and I'm working I've always worked in big buildings you know people don't let just anyone look at people what they're waiting by the door and you might have a pass and you kind of look and you just have to ask them like Oh is there anything I can help you with I'm looking for John Doe okay let's talk about grab a seat let me go in here I'll be happy to grab like those things I don't think existed before not a lot of it or before all these other sort of bad things I've been happening so I think people are much more aware and I think what's great about human beings is that we do have a short memory in a way that we have to exist and we evolve and we just go through life and we learn from our lessons that we just try to get bigger and better but you can't hide this is my opinion you can't use 911s excuse to sit in your basement play for mentorship I know a lot of you guys would love to I know my kids would love to but you have to get out there and you have to live life and you can't be afraid of what's around the corner you just have to accept it and if it's your time it's your time yep no no you know it didn't I fly a lot for work it does I don't ever think about it you know I'm not obviously a Signum big I'm 65 I kind of had this feeling like I'm American no one's going to tell me what to do I do get nervous sometimes but that's just what everyone else would get you know for obvious reasons but yeah I'm very blessed very lucky that way I don't have any post-traumatic stuff it's actually quite the opposite I feel more vigor if you're not taking my country from me I became much more patriotic I believe in we have a great country each other what do you mean by patriotic meaning that it's especially for all our generations we didn't have a war we didn't have Vietnam for many of us right so we never we never had a fight for our country I mean physically I mean some of us did but in the big big Wars so to me 9/11 was the first time where we could really say to ourselves we had people attacked us and for many of us that that we felt it was wrong that's why and this is a great country and their statement was this is sensitive but I mean we want to get rid of America we want America gone that was what they believed and I'm like along with everyone else like no this is America this is our country we're standing tough you're not going to take our America away from us so that's taiking about patreon yeah you know that's a great way it was that's that that an elementary middle school couple years ago and I hate to say it no can you repeat the question oh did I ever think about going back into the building and helping and the answer was I have to admit didn't cross my mind I don't feel bad about that I just know it wasn't like there was a door that was there and you would run in but that may be an excuse to the answer's no I wouldn't plane hit I was like in this couple floors oh you couldn't see the plane you could hear it forever like me when you make when you hear a car go really by fast you always kind of look back and it's hurt you over there or when you hear a plane in the sky it's always like we're here same thing even when is that low you hear it but you look like where it was but when it hits the building I can't remember to shut it up but it was so loud that you knew something wrong happened in these big cities that mean when you make noises us echo so you're kind of used to noises but this one was there was no mistake there was something bad and that stuff was falling stuff was constantly falling down yeah and then it smelled like you here in lobbies cases recently where people are they have a lot of lung issues people dying because people who were there all the firemen and all the first responders they were breathing and all this at bestest all this bad stuff and but I took pictures after so these are pictures five days or four or five days later because passes around this was taken from where I was staying in Hoboken and that's ground zero that's smoke then that smoke stayed there you know this password that smoke stayed there for about three weeks so now all that stuff was being was being breathed in for about a month and this is before people yeah so this is my World Trade Center ID card you could tell that was a little luck you'll hear that yeah so but yeah so you can see that smoke that smoke was what people were breathing in for months I think I took tout a week later you still see all the smoke yeah I think it's a goodbye that's crazy so my first job in 1991 was over for Deloitte Katusha on the 100th floor of the World Trade Center so I was 22 remember were standing in those narrow windows on the hundredth and first floor going and this is before 9/11 going how crazy this building fell and we just always thought the building would fall this way but it falls like a I think we're okay coral yep anymore there's a question yeah you bet for the part of her that first firetruck shown up there is a fight if you ever make it to the 9/11 memorial there is a firehouse that is right next to it in all the fire houses in Manhattan especially lower Manhattan all have those beautiful memorials for all the guys they had lost some houses like the one right by the World Trade lost more than half our guys so that first fire truck pulled up which i think is one of the ones that's in the which is one of the ones in the museum if you go to the 9/11 Memorial Museum they have a fire truck that was caught up in that we got crushed but they took it out of world they took it out I put it in the museum and it's amazing that's all blown out and stuff so those first five or six fire trucks never got crushed when that first building fell ya know anything I'm sorry the question was do I ever think it could happen again especially where I work in big buildings and the answer is no I honestly don't but we just took a tour if I do floor 5th floor and I'm on the 54th floor now which is pretty high up now on the 85th floor so you can see Wisconsin do you see Michigan but but you could it is weird because you're higher than the plane so you can see players getting out of hair and you're like looking I mean you're looking over them and then the planes at Midway however looking at you can see the pilots I mean they're right there so it's kind of its kind of freaky and a lot of the guys I was with how to stay away from the window they got like so the answer is I know the answer's no but now my new building you might be you know one of the things that I wanted you guys to think about is how many people do you know relatives or friends who joined the military military because before 9/11 joining military was not something a lot of people did there there wasn't a major conflict and we were still rebounding from Vietnam inspire is still retaining the respect the military should have and I wonder if any of you guys have relatives cuz your cousin's any goal or sees yeah that's great okay yeah you're right okay hit and and I think that you know before this happened a lot of people would say I don't know anyone who directly serve but now I think we all in some way we know somebody Isaiah who is one of our unit directors he he's hurt in Afghanistan that movie so so it now it's more common and people wanted to do it and they couldn't keep them the they kept the recruiting stations open 24 hours a day because the lines are out the door this is the first year I just heard this on the news ironically enough a couple days ago this is the first year since 9/11 since 2001 that they couldn't fill their quarterly and before 9/11 like you were saying it was always a struggle that often sends more money and it's the first year so 17 years they're able to fill their quota every year and then summer tell us and that's almost like a whole generation yeah yeah do you what you guys think about where we live in our country and you know there's a lot of goofy things that go on but are you glad to live in the United States and then I ask that seriously because there are many countries where we wouldn't be able to save the things that we say we wouldn't be able to give an opinion about what we think about the president without having some type of punishment come our way we could be doing this right yeah it does he talk to you about help how it's different here and as we talked about living here in a good way yeah you know I'm trying to get some perspective because my so yeah let's like so now so don't have legs so it was like really weird to meet something like I'm happy I don't like like you know okay you know having six year old who's like you can't honestly cloud any like we got fix off and I'm like no we don't obviously we're going to sleep in the dark at night you know I'm grateful that we have a roof over our head there's so many people don't and just explaining that and so six-year-old like you didn't get it but you mean my cell phones like I'm so custom to have all these things to have a building you know there's people who live in huts and sleep on thirds and you know to be grateful to have you don't know what [Music] I do I mean I much much much different perspective just slightly reminded me there was that storm so we had a three hour commute to get almost like this Metro basis normally a 42 minute Express turned into three hours okay I remember people freaking out and I do I didn't learn her a couple things remotely a lot of things all of America but I do remember saying at times like a Miss a flight or something I'd like you know these are these are good problems you've got to sit on the train that's air-conditioned I have all my electronics and I missed my daughter's volleyball games yeah life could be a lot of doors I was thinking about this person he's got a text message follow the sister of the gentleman her brother who died and I was thinking of her going yeah I mean that it's okay to be three hours delayed out of the building fair question no one junkie yeah I was 30 June thirty one no I'm 49 49 now so that's 32 no I did not think of it that doesn't mean I like to I read all the SEAL team blocks I see a little bit I'm like your guy who's like the armchair quarterback like I so I'm definitely guilty of that I have been told oh if I was younger I would have done that I swear I would have done this I would have done ROTC Reserve Officer Training Corps I would have done ROTC at my school that I would have went into the military because I do believe in it I think it's a great great place to go I'm sorry guess I do not know just to see who will be your picture yeah on the side of the house food company oh that's so fun well I feel very strongly about the flat mm-hmm so I feel that's America I believe and everyone is a lot of free speech you can't yell like you know houses on fire you can't do that kind of thing if your house is not on fire but there's certain things I just think are sacred and I just think the us-wide is sacred but I also admitted that that's just my belief so I do think there certainly I mean so I think there's forums and there's places that people could express their views and help with the respective communities that they are focusing on I don't think when it comes to like the flag or something that's not that's my opinion but on the flip side I can see their argument which is like well this gets the most attention so I'm gonna do it I'm okay with it but I would love to know how many those people actually follow through with it and actually are really doing work with whatever cause upper point question I know that you're a spiritual person in philosophical and I think some of our teens are spiritual as well and I'm wondering as you went through your journey in 9/11 did you ever think of you know a higher power was it work yeah we are both friends with Karl tiberina so Tim Rainer is a colonel degrees he's also head of the chief O'Hara one of my best friends and he's very spiritual and he's one of mine there's a rule of thumb that you should always have role models does that be Paris or City could Joe I I try to have like certain friends that are just I look up to hopefully they look up to me but I look up to these guys and Tim Raiders one of my spiritual eyes and he spoke he flew he was offered to fly for the Blue Angels fighter jets and he chose to get air to Cooper instead he would never ever sleep but I got it out of like you're a really good fighter but I mean I had to get out he would never tell me and I said what was it like he's like I saw behind the curve and he goes I saw death I saw people flying next to me that they're just as slow or they get shot down or they make a wrong turn and they bump into their other friend in the gym they both wow that's heavy heavy stuff and you go Steve you saw some heavy stuff - I said I know but I wasn't fighting for America you were fighting for it he goes he knows something in this wicked spirit he goes don't ever forget and I'll insert his opinion don't ever forget that America God puts on a pedestal it's a special place this is Tim's opinion but over the years I've started to almost see it like like he believes and they would mind sharing with me shows that it's a special place and God is a special place for America because it was created it was almost in his mind and many others it's such a special place how was created and it's new is new country versus and God has like a wing towards America he looks out for me and I'm like that was really kind of cool and I know it sounds kind of selfish like what about the other countries but I've always thought about that I don't think he has any idea that I ever even remembered that story but I think about it how special we have it in this country and if you don't have a special because we all have family members or even ourselves any who life's thrown some bad curves it is a great country to get started America is the only place you get to go to declare bankruptcy I'm talking business all summer you could go straight people actually respect okay just try again you can't declare bankruptcy in other countries they look at you you look down here it's like you go for if you fail to go again go again people love those kind of stories like the guys who started Amazon Google they all tried 10 times and then they made a big it's like that's the American dream so there's a lot of kind of took it sideways and there's that question but there's a lot of I do think there's a wake up call and I do think there's a lot of connections - fake baby what happened one thing I want all you guys to think about is the fact that you live in the United States like you won the lottery in the world's population okay you have more resources available to you in this country the ninety five percent of the people in the world water this comes out of the tap you have a rule and even though you may think or people may tell you that you don't that you're not something special or that you are not good enough to be what you want to be don't let them plan that in your head but you are here for and you have a tremendous amount of opportunities ahead of you and what 9/11 was about you know one of the things is that other countries want to take away some of the freedoms that we have other countries want you to think like they think here we have a chance to choose how we think you have a chance to take a knee during a national anthem if you want to do that and that because we live in this country that gives us these freedoms and you guys have the ability to really make yourself who you want to be so don't don't let other people discourage you from following your dream if you still have that out you guys won the lottery your seat believe it or not people would pay there is someone out there some country that could pay you a million dollars right now don't that's how much your seat so make the most of it Boys and Girls Club one thing that we want to expose you to people who challenges challenges and have mr. Fleury come talk to us about surviving so thank you for your attention today to all of you thanks for being here [Applause] absolutely he said in a love I feel it's my duty as an American citizen to share my story and to share with others who may not know so yeah [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: BGCDT - Boys & Girls Clubs of Dundee Township

Views: 113,907

Rating: 4.8350787 out of 5

Keywords: 9/11, bgcdt, boys & girls clubs, guest speaker, teen center

Id: bZpzmBI-N5Q

Length: 63min 41sec (3821 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 03 2018