10 Years Later

Remarkably, I'm not sure I have much to say on this 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center in New York and tore a hole in the side of the Pentagon. Retrospective pieces abound both on the internet and on TV, but I have mostly chosen to steer away from many of these. However, I did watch the National Geographic special on 9/11, in particular the interview of President George W. Bush on his recollection of that fateful day.

A few items did catch my attention, though, including this article in the Washington Post about a couple of F-16 pilots sent off to stop United 93 - on unarmed planes. The most interesting find to me was the release of recently declassified audio associated with a Rutgers Law Review study that recreated and analyzed the operational facts of the FAA and NORAD response to the attacks. From the preface:

Team 8 of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has determined the operational facts of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) and North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) response to [the] September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as reconstructed from primary sources such as logs, tape recordings, transcripts and radar data, and corroborated in interviews with key personnel involved. Set forth in this monograph is the definitive account concerning when and how the FAA gained situational awareness that each of the four commercial aircraft was hijacked by terrorists on the morning of 9/11, when and how the FAA notified the military about each of the hijacked aircraft, and when and how the military responded.

From a historical standpoint, I found the report and the audio extremely informative, and more than enough to bring back the chaos and uncertainty of that morning - a dynamic that quite a few of these 10th anniversary retrospectives seem to gloss over. From an emotional standpoint, well, we'll just leave that there for now.

In memory of those we lost, in honor of those who responded, and in gratitude to those who serve on the front lines today I simply say: God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.