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Never Forget 9-11

2 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Nine One One Oh One

By Lawrence C. Gibbs September 2001 It was a bright and crisp Fall morning, the day had just begun Another workday dawning, on Nine One One Oh One. In DC and in Gotham, people went their way.

Their lives they were just living but death would visit today.

Planes were off their flight paths, Worst nightmares were to come.

Buildings became targets, on Nine One One Oh One Lives in imminent danger, scores would not survive, Families torn asunder, three thousand lose their lives!

Planes crash into buildings, insanity supreme.

Random, senseless killings, the world emits a scream.

Smoke and fires exploding, volcanoes in the air.

People breathing, choking, must get away from there!

The ground begins to tremble, the towers start to fall.

With a horrific rumble, no longer standing tall.

Smoke and ash surround them, it looks like hell on Earth.

Rescue sounders make their calls, the Devil is at work.

Our capitol’s in peril. monuments at risk.

They hate that we have freedom.

The Pentagon is hit!

Another flying bomb is loose, but brave souls save the day.

They overcome those who kill, with immortal words, ‘let’s roll.’

Heroes overcome their fear, to save all those they can.

They cannot hear the world cheer, as they save both women and man!

All planes are ordered to the ground, so no more damage done.

We watch the sky all around, on Nine One One Oh One. We watch in fear and anger, the damage they have done.

We recognize the danger, and unite again as one!

They cannot defeat us, our anger, steels our will.

Remembering ‘In God We Trust’.

We won’t forget those killed!

Vigilant we must remain, in the dangerous days to come.

But we will never forget the pain, of Nine One One Oh One!

Star-Herald

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Never Forget 9-11

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 3

Remembering the fallen heroes

By CHABELLA GUZMAN Staff Reporter

Commemorative events will be held around the nation Sunday, when people take a moment to remember 9/11. They will remember the Twin Towers and those that were lost that day, they will remember the firefighters, police officers, and other emergency responders, and they will remember the young men and women, that gave their lives in the war afterwards.

The Panhandle has lost six young men, five in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. A few were already in the military when 9/11 occurred and a few joined up because of the event.

“Adrian was 15 at the time,” said Yolanda Robles, his mother. “He was still in high school. He was very concerned when 9/11 happened. He said to me ‘this can’t continue to happen mom,’ and he set his mind to be part of the military.”

Adrian was not the only young man that believed it was his duty to make a difference by joining the military. Cory R. Mracek had been in the military, but decided to go back.

His mother Pat recalls that after 9/11 people would stand on their porches and hold lighted candles in remembrance. It was during one of those nights Cory told her he was going to reenlist.

“He told me, ‘I have to go back as my country needs me, don’t be mad at me,’” she said.

Pat said that when Cory had been in the military before she worried a lot, but this time was different.

“It was like a peace came over me and I thought, God will take care of it,” she said.

“I knew what could happen, but I was worried most about him getting captured and tortured.”

Families with young men and women already in the military also remember watching the events of 9/11. James Wolf was in South Korea when the nation went to war.

“He (James) was already in the military,” said Chris, his mother. “We all knew at some point and time he would be involved. We didn’t know how, but knew there would be some involvement.”

The three young men grew up less than 100 miles from each other and may have never met, but they all made the ultimate sacrifice of giving their lives for their country.

Specialist James R. Wolf of Scottsbluff died Nov. 6, 2003, in Mosul, Iraq. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquar-

ters Company, 52nd Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo.

Army Sergeant Cory R. Mracek of Hay Springs died Jan. 27, 2004, near Iskandariyah, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery, Fort Bragg, N.C. Cpl Adrian Robles of Scottsbluff died Oct. 22, 2008, Bela Ba Luk, Afghanistan.

He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

None of the women or their families could have imagined their sons would not come home to them.

“We were devastated there are a hundred million things that go through your mind,” said Chris. “But at the same time there is no way to think as your mind is so boggled, it’s hard to have a clear thought.

It is so out of the natural order of things.

Parents shouldn’t lose children.”

Robles agrees that it is still very hard and emotional for her and her family.

“We’re gong to a ceremony in Bellevue to light a candle and for the anniversary (9/11),” she said. “I actually want to do it in memory of Adrian and then attend the 9/11 event here on Sunday.”

Pat and her family hadn’t thought about doing anything, other than just being together in Gering at the 9/11 Never Forget event, as it will be an emotional day.

“I think in this area people are more connected than in some areas,” said Pat. “I don’t think the whole country is going to get flags out and sing God Bless America, some still do, but not like it used to be.”

Chris said that everyone should thank a veteran or first responder everyday, as they do a service beyond repayment.

“I think that we should never forget the sacrifice of our military,” said Yolanda.

“What they do to just keep us safe and have privileges and be able to worship God, especially because they are still out.”

Following are three more young men that have been killed in the war after 9/11.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class David J. Moreno of Gering died July 17, 2003, in Al Hamishiyah, Iraq. He had been assigned to the Naval Medical Center San Diego, Fourth Marine Division Detachment.

Army Staff Sergeant Jason A. Fegler of Harrisburg died Nov. 4, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky. Specialist Val John Borm of Sidney died June 14, 2007, in Kirkuk, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Infantry Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Never Forget 9-11

4

Michael S. Adams Army Baghdad Special Forces

Sgt. Joseluis “Chacho” Arellano US Marines 2007 – Present 2009 – 2010 Afghanistan

Star-Herald

Lt. Col. Valerie Baker U.S. Air Force Bronze Star recipient NATO 2004 Two tours in Iraq 2005 and 2007

Proud to be American E-5/Sgt. Christopher Baker U.S. Army Iraq - 34 months 3 deployments

Natalie Barber United States Army Schofield Barracks, HI/ Baghdad, Iraq/ Camp Henry, South Korea 2006-2010 Staff SSG Dustin Bauer 82nd Airborne Staff SSG Afghanistan 2002 Iraq 2003-04

Sgt. Major Scott E. Bassett U.S. Army and National Guard Retired 2011 Eastern Afghanistan 2009

Dustin Block U.S. Coast Guard MK2 Cape May, New Jersey 2007 to present

E-5 Staff Sgt. Michael Cerny Air National Guard in Lincoln Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait E-5 Staff Sgt. in the Air Force Retired from the Army National Guard an E-6 Staff Sgt.

Captain Matthew Berry WY Army National Guard Cheyenne, WY Commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 115 Fires Brigade

Staff Sgt. Pat Closson U.S. Army National Guard 1984 - 2010

Regional West 4021 Avenue B | Scottsbluff, NE 69361 | 308.635.3711 | www.rwhs.org

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

Warrant Officer 1 Michael DeForge Nebraska National Guard CH-47 Chinook Helicopter Unit Company B, 2-135th General Support Aviation Battalion Serving in Afghanistan

Sergeant Major Lois Glynn Army National Guard Al Anbar Province, Iraq 2005-2006

Sgt. Jeromy Delgado U.S. Marine Corps 2000-2003 Specialist John Finn U.S. Army National Guard Iraq 2007-2008 and 2009-2010

Matthew Green U.S. Army National Guard 1057th Transportation in Scottsbluff

SSG Lynna Gritzfeld U.S. Army Iraq and Korea

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 5

2LT Jessica Franco U.S. Army STB, 528th Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations Airborne) Fort Bragg, N.C.

Specialist Laura Lorenz Finn U.S. Army National Guard Iraq 2007-2008 and 2009-2010

SSG Angel M. Jimenez III Served in the U.S. Army and Wyo. Army National Guard 1985 – 2010 Deployed Operation Iraqi Freedom 20092010 Security mission 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics Retired from Wyo. ARNG in 2010

Airman Jennifer Kinsey United States Air Force 555 Fighter Squadron Aviano Air Base, Aviano Italy

Cpl. Joshua L. Genua U.S. Marines Corps Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003-2007

Amanda Kirklin U.S. Navy HM – 3 San Diego, Naples, Italy 2004-2011

9/11 Plus 10: Between Memory and Hope It’s not just about the past, it’s about hope for the future.

Public Worship Service at 9:11am - Sun., Sept 11 Fall Festival BBQ Dinner and fellowship 11:00am to 1:30pm $11 adults All post 9/11 veterans are welcome at the BBQ - no charge, Please call Joyce Ferguson for tickets 635-1279

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 2012 Avenue A, Scottsbluff (308) 635-1023

Never Forget 9-11

6 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Cpl. Peter Kisiel U.S. Marine Corps Currently in Southern Afghanistan

E5 Krysta Subjeck Laity U.S. Navy Seal Iraqi Freedom 2003-present Timothy Kramer U.S. Army (Ret) Virginia, Hawaii, Germany Served two tours in Iraq 2004 and 2006

Austin Martinez U.S. Marine Corps Operation Iraqi Freedom 2001-2005

SCOTTSBLUFF

Corporal Patrick Martinez US Marines 2008 – Present Iraq 2009 Afghanistan 2011

•

TORRINGTON

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Commander Chanden S Langhofer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110) San Diego

Phillip Martinez US Navy 2011 – Present Joint Base Charleston, S.C.

SIDNEY

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Petty Officer Adam Lien U.S. Coast Guard Taclet South, Miami, Fla. 2007-present

A1C Tuesday A. McClenahan Boom Operator KC-135 Stratotanker (In-flight refueler) HQ- Grand Forks AFB, Grand Forks, N.D. 319th Air Refueling Wing Deployed- Manas Air Base, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) 2002-2006

Lance Corp.

Vincent G. Lopez U.S. Marine Corps Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Cpl. David McKimmey U.S. Army Operation Iraqi Freedom 2008-2005

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

Richard McPhail U.S. Army, 2/504 HHC PIR 82nd Airborne Div., Ft. Bragg N.C.

David Myers 10th Mountain Division, SSG/E6 Korea 2003-2004 Afghanistan 2006 and 2010-2011 Iraq 2007-2008

David Rosas U.S. Marines 2005-2008 Iraq

Senior Master Sgt Brian Moomey Wyoming Air National Guard Cheyenne, Wyoming

Lt. Col. Joseph E. Nance US Air Force Presenting at Kirtland, AFB Albuquerque, N.M Assigned to Pentagon on 9-11-01

Captain John Rose U.S. Air Force Afghanistan 838th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group

Captain Jared D. Moore United States Air Force Joint Base Charleston, S.C.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 7

MSG Todd A. Moscrip July 1885 to present Iraq March 2010 – March 2011

Lt. Col. Christopher L. Ott West Point Graduate 1994 Stationed in Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. Iraq 2008-2009

SPC E4 Seth E. Schleicher Army National Guard Afghanistan July 2010 – July 2011

Capt. Sean Shirley USAF Wyoming Air National Guard 187 AES, Flight Nurse Seven tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Qatar, Germany, and the Horn of Africa

Jess Robert Mullanix U.S. Marine Corps Iraq 2001-2008

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lawrence Quevedo Jr. U.S. Navy 1989-2009

Cpl. Dusty Southworth U.S. Marines Camp Pendleton, CA. 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines.- Motor Transport

Never Forget 9-11

8 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Sr. Airman Joshua D. Steinwart United States Air Force Stationed at Kadena AFB, Okinawa, Japan

Sgt. Kip Straub U.S. Army Branch ARNG 153 ANG 2003-2004

Cpl. Brandon Subjeck U.S. Marine Corps Iraqi Freedom 1999 – 2003

Star-Herald “Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.”

-Former President George W. Bush

111 W. 36th St., Scottsbluff 635-2019

Cpl. Nathan Subjeck U. S. Marine Corps Iraqi Freedom 2000-2004

Brian Weinmaster United States Marine Corps- 5/11 Sierra Battery Camp Pendleton, California Ar Ramadi, Iraq Served 2 Tours

Logan Vath E4 United States Navy Norfolk, Va. USS Monterey

Sgt. Nathaniel Wyatt Nebraska Army National Guard 67th ASG Lincoln Operation Iraqi Freedom Sept. 2005-Sept. 2006 March 2003June 2011

CW5 Gil Watkins, US Army, retired US Army and US Army National Guard 1971-August 2011 Operation Desert Storm 1991 Operation Iraqi Freedom 2006 Operation Enduring Freedom 2010

PSC3 Venessa Wyatt U.S. Air Force Intelligence field Stationed in Korea 2008-to present

Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 9

Security has increased at Western Nebraska Regional Airport

By ROGER HOLSINGER Assistant Editor

Prior to the terrorist attacks on the nation on Sept. 11, 2001, security at Western Nebraska Regional Airport was not really secure.

Airport Director Darwin Skelton said there was some fence around the airport buildings, while the outer grounds utilized barbed wire fences. Since the attacks, a complete security fence has been installed around the main part of the facility.

Another security measure done following 9-11 is the replacement of the existing security gates with keycard gates.

“We had security gates, if that’s what you want to call them,” Skelton said.

“Anyone that came out here on a regular basis knew that any type of a credit card or driver’s license could slide it into the slot and the gate would open.”

Those once easily accessed gates were replaced and those entering and leaving the secure areas of the airport are kept track of with the special keycards.

Prior to 9-11, airline employees checked passenger’s baggage, Skelton said, but no where close to the way it’s checked today. Through the development of federal safety measures the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was formed and now employees of TSA conduct all inspections before a person boards a flight.

On that fateful day, Skelton, who was at the airport, said there was not an immediate impact to the facility as the flight to Denver had already left.

“What really surprised me, especially when you consider our location, we did not have any planes land here. We had no diversions. I know Cheyenne (Wyo.) had some planes land there, but it was still a surprise to me considering all the air travel that happens above us,” he said.

Like many others, Skelton said he began hearing about the attacks and then began watching the event unfold on television. “It was an eerie feeling once we realized what was happening.”

Immediately following the attacks the government implemented parking restrictions for all airports. Skelton said vehicles were not allowed to park within a 300-foot area from the terminal, which meant he and his staff had to block off the existing lot and basically build a new one out in the grass and dirt field south of the terminal.

“You could drop off passengers in front, but you had to stay with your car. We got all the barrels and fence put up to keep the parking away from the building. That was the first thing,” he said.

Security measures changed quickly as armed National Guard soldiers were at the airport along with local law enforcement officers to inspect and screen people boarding flights out of the airport.

Skelton said that by December, some security measures leveled out and the parking restrictions changed allowing passengers to park closer to the airport.

By this time TSA had been formed and Skelton said the addition of TSA was something “new” for everyone to adjust to.

“The requirements that they had versus what we had prior to that was new and different, and it took some time for people to adjust to those changes,” he said.

Some of those changes including restrictions on what could be brought onto a flight including items that could be used as a weapon as well as liquid items that have to fit into a small Ziploc bag.

Other security changes implemented at the airport includes the use of security cameras that record everyone entering and leaving the terminal and property of the airport. An ongoing contract with the Scotts Bluff County Sheriff’s Department provides a deputy to be present before and after a flight arrives/departs from the airport.

Today, Skelton said most people have made the adjustments and know that they need to arrive early to go through the security check, and for the most part know what can and cannot be brought onto a flight.

Skelton said he is not aware of any problems at the airport or any breeches in security since the changes have been made.

Ten years later, Skelton said the airport is more secure.

“The airport is more secure today. There was a time people could practically drive into the airport and along the taxiways.

You can’t wander around here like you used to be able to do, and that’s a good thing,” Skelton said.

“It’s much more safe than it was years ago. People should not be worried when they board a flight out of here. Sometimes mistakes are made because we’re all human, but overall it (air travel) is much safer and people really shouldn’t worry,” he said.

Photo by Roger Holsinger

Shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, security was increased at airports across the nation including Western Nebraska Regional Airport. In this photo from 2001, airport employees work to set up barrels and fence to move the parking area 300 feet from the terminal.

10 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

Homeland Security funds help locally

By MAUNETTE LOEKS Staff Reporter

Department of Homeland Security funds have been used across the nation to help fire departments and police departments across the country since Sept. 11, 2001. Local officials said Scotts Bluff County and the Panhandle have benefited from funds, purchasing specialized equipment and meeting needs.

Prior to 9/11, the Scottsbluff Fire Department used Department of Justice grant funds for such purchases. After 9/11, he said, those grant funds were phased out, but Department of Homeland Security funds took their place. Initially, he said, rewarding of funds had been prioritized for efforts to address concerns about terrorism and protecting the public. Over the years, he said, the priority of funds has changed, allowing for broader purposes.

Department of Homeland Security funds are awarded to the state, which sets priorities for the use of funds. In Nebraska, communications projects have been targeted for funding.

“Interoperability has been the key word,” Miller said. “The focus has been on preparedness of first responders and emergency responders who would respond to manmade and natural disasters.”

Some have said that the focus on communications is derived from response at the World Trade Center attacks. In large disasters, it can be a hinderance for departments to be unable to speak to each other. In 2011, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman marked the completion of a statewide project to establish interoperable radio network.

The Nebraska Statewide Radio Project involved the installation of communications equipment at six Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) communications centers across the state and at the NPPD Operations Center; construction of two new radio towers, along with upgrades and equipment installation on more than 50 radio towers across the state; and the installation of more than 1,300 radios used by the Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska State Fire Marshal Office, Department of Roads and NPPD. The use of existing infrastructure helped the state install the system “faster and more efficiently” than other states, Heineman said.

Many police, fire and other entities have benefit from the efforts to establish interoperable communications. At the Scottsbluff Public Safety Building, a $65,000 communications tower and antenna were funded with Department of Homeland Security Funds.

“The ability to communicate quickly and efficiently isn’t only important on a daily basis, but it becomes important on a regional and national basis,” Miller said. “Local agencies need to be able to communicate with other state and federal agencies in the event of a disaster.”

Region 22 Emergency Management Director Jerry Bretthauer said the ten counties participating have benefited from the funds made available since 2002. Each year, he said, the committee considers projects submitted by departments throughout the Panhandle region, evaluating requests for standards and requirements derived to keep the focus on interoperability.

“We have funded a lot of radio projects,” he said. For many departments throughout the region, old antiquated equipment has been replaced. More than $112,000 has been spent in recent years updating and adding radio capabilities at departments, including Box Butte County, Sidney Police and Chadron Police.

Miller said other effortsinclude a push toward helping communities and agencies establish incident management plans. Bretthauer said he often leads some of the training exercises. For example, about $57,000 was recently spent in Department of Homeland Security funds for a tabletop exercise that evaluated and trained agencies on concerns that could be raised by flooding within the Panhandle.

“The effort has tweaked the flood plans already in place,” he said. “We have to consider what would happen and how we would recover after a flooding event. Recovery is a long-term process.”

Training and equipment needs have also been funded through Department of Homeland Security Funds. For example, the City of Scottsbluff funded the purchase of its new aerial truck with Department of Homeland Security funds. Federal authorities funded $712,500 of the purchase, with Scottsbluff picking up the remaining five percent. It took the Scottsbluff Fire Department four years to receive funding for the aerial purchase, but its multi-use capabilities are an asset.

“We try to take advantage of whatever opportunities we can to make our local dollars stretch,” Miller said, adding that Scottsbluff has received close to $1.5 million over the years for projects that would not have been possible without Department of Homeland Security Funds.

Department of Homeland Security funding – Panhandle Region 2007 –

$304,680

2008 –

$266,160

2009 –

$596,352

2010 –

$264,244

Source: Jerry Bretthauer, Region 22 Emergency Management Photo by Maunette Loeks

A new aerial truck in use by the Scottsbluff Fire Department was paid for with Department of Homeland Security Funds. Equipment purchases and replacement have been made possible with Department of Homeland Security funds, Scottsbluff Fire Chief Dana Miller said.

...the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and honor those who lost their lives and those who put themselves in harms way.

Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 11

Nebraska National Guard fight began on 9-11

By RICK WILLIS Staff Reporter

As fighter jets patrolled the skies on 9/11, the Nebraska Air National Guard sent up a refueling tanker to help protect our country. As troops hunted for Osama Bin Laden on the ground, Wyoming National Guard Army Chief Warrant Officer Gil Watkins, of Scottsbluff, spent two tours of duty overseas patrolling the middle eastern skies.

State CSM Eli Valenzuela, senior enlisted advisor to the Adjutant General, is the highest-ranking sergeant in the Nebraska Army National Guard. Valenzuela grew up in Scottsbluff moving away in 1984 to become a state trooper in Seward. Valenzuela has deployed twice since 9/11.

“I enlisted in 1979 when the Scottsbluff unit was field artillery,” Valenzuela said. “I’ve been deployed twice since 9/11. In 2002-2003 to Bosnia and to Iraq in 2006-2007.”

Since that first day of war, the Nebraska National Guard has deployed more than 6,000 soldiers overseas and 2,600 Air National Guard. The mission hasn’t changed for the Guard but the attitude and structure of the Guard has, according to Valenzuela.

“It’s changed for the better. It’s a much better force as we go forward and we’ll try to sustain that,” Valenzuela said. “For most young soldiers today, the Guard is much different than when I signed up. They are signing up knowing that they are going to go to war. When they come back we need to keep them busy as they are used to the op-tempo (operational tempo).”

Watkins, who retired from the Guard on August 31, said that the guard is a much more professional force now.

“The operational tempo has increased dramatically since I joined the Guard,” Watkins said. “Now deployment is part of the package. The National Guard is a lot more professional now than in the 1990s.”

Watkins said he spent roughly 37 or 38 years active duty and Guard duty during his years of service to the country. Watkins last mission to Afghanistan was part of Operation ODIN, Observe Detect Identify and Neutralize.

While Watkins is home for good, the war is still going on in the Middle East and the National Guard from the Panhandle continues to play a part in the conflict. While Valenzuela said the flag of the 168th Quartermaster Battalion in Scottsbluff has not flown overseas since 9/11, one of its subordinate companies, the 1057th Transportation Company from Scottsbluff, Chadron and Norfolk is expected to mobilize for duty overseas next year, even as the Iraq campaign is winding down.

“Both conflicts are in different stages but hopefully we’ll be out of Iraq by end of year,” Valenzuela said. “It took years to get all of our equipment in and it will take time to get it out.”

Valenzuela said that transportation battalions are among the most valuable units.

“Of the different units, transportation units are important as they haul supplies to and from the battlefield to sustain troops,” Valenzuela said. “They are very valuable to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Valenzuela said the support of the nation and families has kept the morale of the soldiers intact and made the long deployments bearable.

“Our families back home and their letters, cards and boxes of candy mean so much,” Valenzuela said. “We are so fortunate to have the support of the American people behind us as they have always supported the soldiers who have been called to fight.”

That support has enabled the once weekend warriors to step up when called upon and prevent the unthinkable.

“The alternative is not acceptable. We’re here to prevent the war from coming onto our soil again,” Valenzuela said. “I’ve been in the Guard for 31 years and I’ve seen a big change in the Guard, it’s definitely better for our soldiers and the nation.”

AP

In this Sept. 13, 2001 file photo, an American flag flies over the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center buidlings in New York.

12

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

Agriculture continues in spite of 9-11

By SANDRA HANSEN Ag Editor

In many ways, the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the United States brought changes to all our lives, whether of major consequence or a minor irritant.

Even those in the world of agriculture have adjusted to the new situation.

Chemicals had become a concern long before Sept. 11 after Timothy McVay used ammonium nitrate in his bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Although chemicals were not used in the New York City tragedy, the mixtures were put under closer scrutiny.

Roger Keller, marketing manager at Simplot in Scottsbluff, said the company had quit carrying ammonium nitrate long before 9-11, so there was not a lot of impact from that event. The ammonium nitrate became more of an issue with meth dealers.

The main difference, he said, has been stepped up security, such as identifying unknown buyers for some products. He said there are tighter controls on inventory, also.

“Overall, security has increased at Simplot,” Keller said. “Since 9-11 security assessments on our products for the government have increased. There’s more awareness in crop production, but not a large change in our operations.”

The same can be said of livestock producers. According to Paul Miller, owner/operator of Miller Cattle and Feedyard at Torrington, Wyo., 9-11 awareness of strange vehicles or unfamiliar people is heightened, but other than that, feedlots have not experienced any major changes.

Greater security is also the main difference in agricultural water systems. According to Dennis Strauch, general manager of the Pathfinder Irrigation District, security has been stepped up around dams and other facilities, and access to some has been closed. The cost of doing business has increased in order to cover some of the expense, but so far it hasn’t been a noticeable impact on local irrigation districts.

“I’d say the main difference is the heightened awareness,” said Strauch, who also serves on other committees dealing with water issues along the North Platte River.

“Things like a pickup left sitting on a dam, or anything out of the ordinary, will be checked.”

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305 W. 27th, Scottsbluff, NE 308-632-5353

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Never Forget 9-11

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 13

Pastors get behind event for 9/11 anniversary

By CHABELLA GUZMAN Staff Reporter

Like most people the members of the Valley Evangelical Pastors Fellowship can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.

“I was actually in a class on terrorism,” said Mike Mead, pastor of Center Cross Community Church in Gering.

“I was a police officer at that time and I can honestly say it was that day that I decided to become pastor.”

He remembers seeing the images on TV and thinking they were part of the training. Like many people Mead was in disbelief.

Memories and the fact that 9/11 fell on a Sunday this year got the pastors that make up the VEPF thinking about a special service about a year ago.

The original plan had been to have a community service, but the pastors decided to create a community event to honor emergency responders and the military.

“We talked about how it (9/11) is on a Sunday this year,” said Schick. “It started from there and has grown to include the community as it touches everyone and is not just a church thing.”

The event will be held Sunday at Five Rocks Amphitheater in Gering.

A motorcade or vehicle procession will lineup at Bluffs Middle School in Scottsbluff. The procession will leave at 5 p.m. for Five Rocks, where the public will be able to visit from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. with the drivers of the emergency vehicles.

We really wanted to included the emergency responders said Phil Ransom, president of VEPF. They responded to all the events of the day 9/11, the Twin Towers, Pentagon and just keeping everyone safe, he said.

The group hasn’t gone it alone. They have received help from the Cities of Gering, Scottsbluff and Terrytown, as well as businesses and organizations.

Each pastor admits part of the reason for making a commemorative event for the 10th anniversary is also to make sure people don’t forget.

“We want people to get out of it (event) the positive aspect of remembering,” said Mike Mead a member of VEPF. “It’s great to appreciate our military, emergency responders, and law

Photo by Chabella Guzman

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 will be remembered at the event 9/11 Never Forget that the Valley Evangelical Pastors Fellowship has been planning for the past couple of months.

enforcement, and remember their sacrifices.”

A memorial concert begins at 6:30 p.m. and Ransom said the concert will include patriotic songs from the Gering community band and a choir comprised of members from churches and schools.

The group also believes they are giving back.

“Our community is very generous, ten years ago we had a great outpouring of support,” said Gary Hashley, a member of VEPF. “We have to continue that support and not just on special occasions.”

The hour-long event will include readers, narratives and 60 seconds of silence. The Scottsbluff Fire Department’s Tower 1 will raise the American Flag while the “Star Spangled Banner” is played.

“People have short memory spans,” said Gary Cole a member of VEPF. “You have to keep memories alive, never forget and always remember.”

Valley Evangelical Pastors Fellowship is made up of area pastors: Phil Ransom, president, Gary Hashley, Leroy Wrye, Gary Cole, Mike Mead, Dennis Stewart, Tyson Lambertson, Mariano Menendez, Darryl Potts, Dan Anderson, Phil Parker, Jake Roberts, Shane Coop, Ken Trevithick, Tony Bergmann and Garry Schick.

14 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

10-year Pearl Harbor anniversary reflects 1950s US HONOLULU (AP) — After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, newspapers from Boston to Bakersfield, Calif., reached into the distant past to find the words to capture the moment for their front pages. One typical headline blared: “A New Day of Infamy.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had used the same word to describe the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor — “Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy” — and invoking it for 9/11 is just one example of how many Americans drew parallels between the two attacks.

Now, as the nation prepares for the 10year anniversary of 9/11, a look at how Americans marked the same milestone for Pearl Harbor shows that the way people commemorate events sometimes says more about their own times than a bygone era.

“They may be looking back at an event that happened years or decades before, but the way people think about them is governed by what’s going on in their own historical context,” said Michael Slackman, who has written books about Pearl Harbor.

“Each generation will give different meaning to the same historical events based on the issues that they’re concerned about,” he said.

In 1951, it was communism. Thousands of Americans were dying on the front lines of the Korean War, the U.S. was in the early years of a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union and cities were holding air raid drills to prepare for atomic attacks.

Pausing to remember Pearl Harbor didn’t dominate the news, nor, according to anecdotal newspaper accounts, was it at the forefront for many Americans.

On Dec. 7 of that year, the top headlines told of the latest news from Korea.

Many newspapers put the Pearl Harbor anniversary on their front pages, but they squeezed it in among the dozen or so stories commonly crammed on a page in those days. Many relegated it to the bottom of the front page.

LIFE, a weekly magazine that was among the most prominent publications of the time, made no mention of the anniversary in either its Dec. 3 or Dec. 10 editions, said Emily Rosenberg, a history professor at University of California, Irvine.

The only mention of Japan, Rosenberg said, came in a story about American servicemen from the Korean War seeking respite at Japanese baths attended to by “‘plump Japanese girls in pale blue play skirts.”‘ There were several ceremonies in Hawaii to remember the attack.

The one at Pearl Harbor was only for the Navy, which had recently installed a small platform and flagpole at the sunken

AP

This Dec. 1941 file photo shows heavy damage to ships stationed at Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian island on Dec. 7, 1941. The most comparable attack against the United States was the surprise Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, that plunged the U.S. into war. The nation marked the 10-year anniversary of Pearl Harbor much differently than now. Just like the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, how the nation experienced the anniversary of Pearl Harbor was shaped by what was happening in the world in 1951.

wreck of the USS Arizona. Other memorials, including a Catholic mass at a cathedral and a ceremony at a national cemetery in Honolulu, remembered the Pearl Harbor dead alongside those killed in World War II and the Korean War. Some even had trouble remembering Pearl Harbor at all.

A reporter for The Springfield Union in Springfield, Mass., found that only three of 23 people interviewed on the city’s main street remembered why the day was significant. Even in Hawaii, some were unaware. A reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin found that six of 15 people polled on Dec. 7 didn’t know it was the anniversary.

Rosenberg noted Pearl Harbor was the opening shot in a long war in which more than 400,000 Americans died. She said few in the early 1950s felt a need to elevate those who died on Dec. 7 when so many had been killed in World War II and the Korean War. “It’s only later on I think that it comes to have this singular status,” said Rosenberg, whose book “A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory” examines how Americans have looked back on the attack over the years.

Editorials recalled how the day

marked the beginning of World War II for the U.S., but they also cited Pearl Harbor as an example of the peril facing the nation from communism and the Soviet Union.

“We still — and without logical cause — are deluded into thinking that we can meet the Red menace without sacrificing any of the luxuries of peacetime living,” said the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s Dec. 7 editorial. “If we persist in this delusion we are heading as surely as the sun rises in the morning toward another Pearl Harbor — and one from which it will be

even more difficult to recover than it was 10 years ago.”

There are obvious differences between the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11. For one, Japan, a nation-state, aimed only at military targets during its bombing in 1941. Sixty years later, al-Qaida, a terrorist group, hijacked commercial airlines and flew them into civilian targets, as well as the Pentagon.

Some argue the comparison has caused the nation great harm.

John Dower, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of Japan, argues in a 2010 book “Cultures of War” that “pervasive” use of the analogy helped Americans believe they could thwart the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks with “brute force” the way the U.S. and its allies had defeated Japan, Germany and Italy in World War II. This contributed to America turning to fight al-Qaida with conventional military force, instead of primarily treating the terror network as a group of criminals, he wrote.

“More than undiscerning and counterproductive, this response was a disaster,” he wrote.

But for New York City firefighters who visited the USS Arizona Memorial in August, the comparison was immediate and irresistible.

“In New York, we have monuments set up in all the boroughs with the names of the fallen — first responders and civilians,” said John Carroll, a retired firefighter who was in Hawaii to promote a threemile run honoring a fellow firefighter who died in the attacks. “So when you see the names on the memorial here, it brings back a lot of similarities and feelings of sadness.” “Everybody pulled together to make sure anybody that was injured or survived was helped, that people were taken care of,” he said. “People were coming out of the woodwork to lend a helping hand and do whatever they could, just like what happened here back in 1941. Everybody just pulled together.”

Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

Never Forget!

America the Beautiful Area-wide Choir with Audience

5:00 pm

Five Rocks Amphitheater Pavilion open for family picnics, etc. during sound checks (park along west edge of parking lot)

5:15 pm

Emergency Vehicles arrive at Five Rocks Amphitheater then on Display with uniformed personnel giving vehicle “tours”

6:00 pm

Pre-concert Music: Colin Lundstrom, Director of Campus Music Ministries, Frontier School of the Bible, LaGrange, WY

6:30 pm

America The Beautiful Gering City Band, Randy Raines, Conductor

Opening Ceremony

Fire Department Honor Guard, Parrish Abel, Captain

Welcome

Gary Hashley, Pastor, Calvary Memorial Church, Gering, NE

On This Day in 2001 –

Includes 60 Seconds of Silence Gering High School Speech Team 2011 Nebraska Class B State Champions, Oral Interpretation of Drama Amy Christensen Miranda Doremus-Reznor Darrin Gonzales Samuel Eastman Coach: Mr. Tyler Thompson

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 15

Verse 1 O beautiful for spacious skies For amber waves of grain For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain America, America God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea Verse 3 O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life America, America May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine Verse 4 O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears America, America God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea © Public Domain Katharine Lee Bates | Samuel Augustus Ward

Never Forget 9-11

16 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Invocation

Star-Herald

“What Are Alley Jets?” (mini-drama)

Senator John Harms

O God Our Help In Ages Past Area-wide Choir with Audience

This hymn opened the Prayer Service at Washington Cathedral, September 14, 2001, three days after the attack.

Mrs. Arlene Barnes, Teacher, Community Christian School Caylen Calderone, Community Christian School alumnus

The Pledge of Allegiance All

Emergency Responders, We Will Never Forget You! Today We Remember GHS Speech Team

Prayer for America

Verse 1 O God our help in ages past Our hope for years to come Our shelter from the stormy blast And our eternal home Verse 2 Under the shadow of Your throne Your saints have dwelt secure Sufficient is Your arm alone And our defense is sure

Darryl Potts, Pastor, New Beginnings Church of the Nazarene, Scottsbluff, NE

Sacrifice

Tyson Lambertson, Pastor, ROCK Church, Scottsbluff, NE

This Wasn’t the First Time!

GHS Speech Team

Verse 6 O God our help in ages past Our hope for years to come Still be our guide while troubles last And our eternal home © Public Domain Isaac Watts | William Croft

AP

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 17

Our Trouble Is, We Do Forget

Battle Hymn of the Republic Area-wide Choir

Gary Hashley

Salute to the Armed Forces Medley

This song was played on September 14, 2001 at the Washington National Cathedral and at Saint Paul’s Cathedral during memorial services for the victims of the September 11 attacks.

Introduction: Mike Mead, Pastor, Center Cross Community Church, Gering, NE Area-wide Choir Veterans, as your theme song is sung, please stand. We salute you!

Audience – Refrain:

Background: the Star Spangled Banner

Glory, glory Hallelujah, Glory, glory Hallelujah, Glory, glory Hallelujah, His truth is marching on.

Flag Returned to full Staff

© Public Domain Julia Ward Howe | Wm. Steffe, Arr. by Peter J. Wilhousky, © 1944, Carl Fischer Music Co.

Edwin Mayo, Mayor, Gering, NE

Fire Department Honor Guard

The Star Spangled Banner Area-wide Choir

Conclusion and Dispatch Call to Duty Gary Hashley

Where Do We Get Such Resolve?

GHS Speech Team

Prayer

Randy Meininger, Mayor, Scottsbluff, NE This prayer was read to open the new session of the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka, KS, January 23, 1996.

God Bless America

Solo: Colin Lundstrom, Area-wide Choir, Audience Words and Music: © 1938, 1939 by Irving Berlin, Copyright assigned to the Trustees of the God Bless America Fund. Lyrics not published due to copyright restrictions

Stars and Stripes Forever

Gering City Band Stars and Stripes forever, by John Philip Sousa, is the official march of the United States of America

Patriotic / American Folk Music Grace Chapel Praise Team #1 Rory Vernon, Leader

18 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Never Forget 9-11

Personnel: Event Chairman: Phil Ransom Dignitary Coordinator: Donald Overman Emergency Vehicle Coordinator: Mike Mead Logistics Coordinator: Scott Hodges Audio Coordinator: Richard Castro Logo Design, Pre-event publications, Program: Scottsbluff Star Herald Website Design and Hosting: Hale Multimedia

Be sure to visit www.nf911.com for post event information and pictures.

Today’s choir represents: Bethel Baptist Church Calvary Memorial Church Center Cross Community Church Frontier School of the Bible Gering High School Monument Bible Church Valley Voices WestWay Christian Church

For copyright compliance reasons, tonight’s performance was not recorded.

Thank you! to the countless -often anonymousvolunteers who worked far in advance and behind the scenes to bring Never Forget from a mere idea into today’s reality. Your expression of American generosity is what makes our country the greatest in the world.

On a personal note – Thank you for coming today. You are here because you remember and want never to forget September 11, 2001. Pausing to remember can be difficult, and there will probably be some tears today, so thanks in advance for being kind if someone near you is overcome with emotion for a moment or two. Remembering teaches, encourages and motivates. We’d like it to do that for us today. If you have young family members who were not yet born or are too young to remember 911, I hope Never Forget provides a means to teach them

Star-Herald

about a dark day in our recent history, and offer perspective on the war we are in today.

Today gives you the chance to honor family, friends, and all who sacrificed so we could enjoy freedom (privileges we sometimes call rights). It’s a chance to thank those who come to our rescue every time we dial 911. When you applaud today, don’t hold back! Cheer! Whistle! When it’s time to say “thank you” shout it at the top of your lungs! It may be a while before we have this many of our heroes in the same place at the same time, again, so seize the moment, okay?

Let them know!

While today is not a church service, we’re going to include prayer in Never Forget! for a couple of reasons. One, you may be interested to know that a dozen or so area pastors gather every Thursday at noon to pray for our community, each other, and each other’s churches. This event grew out of one of those meetings last spring and it seemed incongruous as we planned, to pray every Thursday but not today. If prayer isn’t your thing, I hope you’ll quietly wait-out those moments and move on with us to the next item in the concert. Two, believing God hears and answers, as many of us do, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to pray while so many of us are together today. I personally believe prayer is our first resource, and I endeavor to start there – always.

If you’re discouraged, I hope you find hope today. Let Never Forget! remind you how lucky you are to live in the USA, where you can express your views without fear, where you enjoy things others in the world only dream of, where people stand up for each other when adversity strikes, where we celebrate life every day and are willing to sacrifice to keep it that way! You’ll also hear about a long-range, permanent hope today. I hope it’s yours already. If not, seize the moment when it arrives. You’ll never regret it.

So thanks for coming! If you know someone who volunteered their time or skill, reached into their pocket, went the extra mile to make Never Forget! happen, be sure to thank them. Events like this may take place in other countries, but Americans really know how, and the people of Wyo-Braska have pulled together to make Never Forget! the best we have to offer! It’s been a privilege to lead today’s teams and see this event take shape.

I hope you never forget today and that today’s spirit of community and cooperation lasts a long, long time.

Phil Ransom, Event Chairman

Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 19

Facebook users describe memories of Sept. 11 (AP) — It’s the question that’s often first asked or first told when the subject of the worst terror attack in the nation’s history comes up: Where were you?

What do you remember most? The Associated Press posted an inquiry on Facebook asking people around the world to describe their most vivid memory of Sept. 11, 2001. A sampling of their verbatim responses follows.

——— Jennifer Smolen, 35, from Everett, Wash., lived in San Diego at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Received a phone call that morning from my parents back home, telling me to turn on the news. I was living out of state at the time but didn’t have cable (nor an antenna) yet. Had to run out to try to buy rabbit ears antenna, and was nearly in tears there and back from the store. This was only after I ran around my apartment packing whatever US Army gear I could gather.... I had just graduated Army basic training a couple months earlier, and kept thinking the next moment, or the next, would bring my call to deploy.”

——— Joe Prostrollo, 54, from Sioux Falls, S.D., was living in Denver at the time of the attacks.

“Working in a television newsroom. When the second plane hit, many of us didn’t know if that was live or tape from the first plane hit but a different angle. Control room was screaming—LIVE, LIVE, LIVE. The strangest thing then happened. It got real quiet with no scanners, monitors or anyone talking—just glued to the newsroom monitors.”

——— Jennifer Owsiany, 27, from State College, Pa., was living in Naples, Fla., at the time of the attacks.

“I was a senior in high school. our morning announcements just went off and the TV usually turns black. this time it went straight off and to the news where we saw the towers smoking. we had no idea what was going on. i was in physics class and my teacher said that the towers were built to never fall...and then they fell. i heard of the plane crash in PA and thought about my cousins. next class was english and our teacher would not let us watch. i was so mad. that night we had our band photos taken. i remember hearing on the radio for people to put their lighters in the air, so i took out my car lighter and did that. it was such an ugly day in florida.

——— Kristen Smith, 30, from Roseburg, Ore. “I was 19, still living at home with my parents. We live in Oregon, however, my mom was at a business training in Boston. Her coworkers woke me up frantic to know her wherabouts at the time. Her hotel ended up a crime scene, as they thought terrorists had stayed there the night before. They ended up leaving the training early, and because there were no airports really functioning, they rented a car and drove across the country home.”

——— Joshua Hoyos, 18, from Parsippany, N.J. “I remember being in the 4th grade and sitting in my classroom watching the towers get hit and later come down. My father took my sister and I out of school early and we waited at home for my mother to come home. Beyond that the most vivid memory is that night when my family got in the car and drove through Jersey City and we could see the smoke come out of ground zero. It remains to be the most haunting memory of my life.

——— Nancy Collins DeBaere, 49, from Longmont, Colo., was planning to attend a career placement conference on Sept. 11. “i was at home, getting ready to go to a career placement conference that i had been attending that week. as usual, while i was getting ready to go, i was watching NBC news .. the today show. when i turned it on, they were talking

about a plane had just hit one of the towers. Katie Couric was speaking ... and they were showing the building burning ... and they were talking about if it was an accident or something else. the next second, the second plane flew into the other building .. on live TV. it was complete shock. and then someone said, “well i guess we know the answer to that question” or something like that. at that second you knew that this was “on purpose” and not an accident. i listened to the radio on the way to the conference and heard about the explosion at the Pentagon ... etc. everyone at the conference was distraught and dumbfounded ... they let us go home. i will never ever forget this.

——— Adam Culver, 29, from Huntington, W.Va., lived in Bluefield during the attacks.

“Going to class at 10am and everyone who had been in classes since 8am had no idea what was going on, and I had to explain it to them. Also, months later visiting NYC for the first time, not paying attention to where my group was headed, and being startled by the sudden silence as we emerged from the subway a block away from Ground Zero. It was like the traffic wasn’t even making noise, and the air felt heavy, and walking around the corner to see that blue.tarp stretched out for what looked like forever, covered in memorials. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.”

——— Tom McCool, 52, was in his hometown of Lafayette, Ind., during the attacks.

“Hearing that a plane hit the second tower and realizing that the first was no accident. All the TVs on campus were on the news and everyone just stood in silence and watched the events unfold. I went to my church and prayed.”

—— Gene Bachman, 34, from Yarmouth, Mass., was living in St. Paul, Minn., on Sept. 11.

“I was at work picking up clients bringing them back to the day program when I turned on the radio, after the first plane hit and I just kept thinkin it was a radio spoof, then my boss called on my cell phone and asked if we had clients in the van to shut off the radio and he explained what had happened,when we got back he had moved a tv into his office and we all took turns goin in all day to see what was happening ——— Coy Ferrell, 19, from Jeffersonton, Va., remembers the sound of fighter jets.

“I live about 60 miles outside DC on the Virginia side - I was 9 years old on 9/11 - and at least here they had a constant patrol of fighters all throughout the region from soon after the attacks to weeks after the attacks. Whenever I hear a jet fighter I still cringe. I will always remember that.

20 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

The day that ‘changed everything’ Gone is the brownstone in Brooklyn with the tiny garden but room for little else, and 10-hour days devoted to building careers. Gone are the social lives filled with close but mostly childless friends, and a biological clock that seemed on snooze.

For Gillian Caldwell and Louis Spitzer, these things disappeared along with the towers, when terror struck home on a September morning 10 years ago.

Now, a decade later in the lives of this couple, there is a Queen Anne Victorian in a close-knit Maryland suburb with a yard big enough for a dog and seven chickens. And days filled with soccer, karate and school. And lives keenly focused on family and, most of all, love.

And, of course, there are Tess and Finley, their children, who embody a series of life changes brought on by a tragedy that moved their parents to reprioritize and adjust.

“It was like a total reset,” Caldwell says of the 9/11 attacks, an experience so traumatizing and disorienting that she and Spitzer chose to dramatically transform themselves — and the direction of their lives. It gave her “a clarity about who and how I wanted to be in the world.”

Americans still think of 9/11 as the day that “changed everything,” but how many of us did it change in any sort of lasting way?

For a time we may have felt more patriotic and united, more vulnerable and wary, more appreciative of life, more concerned over the state of the world, but then we settled in to our “new normal” and went back to routines modified for us — not by us.

When asked how the attacks changed us, one commenter on a Yahoo message board replied: “9/11 didn’t change my life, it changed the world.”

But some did set out to change their own lives. Some moved. Quit jobs. Started foundations. Found God. In Texas, an estranged daughter reconnected with her parents.

In Rhode Island, a high school junior traded medical school for the Air Force Academy.

In Pennsylvania, a shy hardware store owner volunteered to retell, week after week, the story of one of the doomed flights.

And in a brownstone in Brooklyn, literally within days of the attacks, a New York couple decided to have the children they

knew they wanted one day, because 9/11 made “one day” suddenly seem too far off.

——— It was a life-is-too-short moment for us all, a shock to the system that forced us to stop, take stock and think about what mattered most.

After 9/11, many needed to act on what they were feeling by adapting their lives in big ways and small. Some wanted something good to come from evil, or needed to change to help themselves heal, or simply felt a responsibility to rethink the direction of their lives.

“I felt the need to earn the rest of my life by serving,” says Nicholas Mercurio, who was a high school junior in Providence, R.I., on his way from home room to physics when a classmate ran up to him and said, “They blew up the World Trade Center.”

Just 16 years old, Mercurio had known exactly what he wanted to do in life — until that moment. Before 9/11, he planned to become a cardiovascular surgeon and was readying college applications to Harvard and Columbia. After 9/11, he was consumed with thoughts of service and sacrifice and what it all meant. Watching a football game on television, he saw the men and women in military uniforms on the field, and felt a conviction he’d never had about becoming a doctor.

He decided, “I could continue on the current path of my life and not sacrifice anything and have a pretty good life. But what would that feel like?”

He didn’t know anyone killed in the attacks, but that didn’t matter. After speaking with his parents and his grandfather, a World War II vet, Mercurio said goodbye to Harvard and Columbia and applied to three of the military service academies.

Ten years later, he is a first lieutenant in the Air Force who returned this summer from a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. At 26, he is no longer that bookish kid who loved microscopes and mock trials. Mercurio changed when he rerouted the course of his life.

“I’m more confident. I carry myself differently. I became a much more self-assured person,” he says.

He’s seen things men his age, or any, just shouldn’t — and yet he has no regrets. He can’t even picture himself as a doctor now.

“When I’m in uniform in airports, at least a handful of people will come up and thank me. I don’t really know

AP

In this photo made available by the U.S. Air Force and taken on Jan. 15, 2011, U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Nicholas Mercurio, left, stands with U.S. Army Capt. Ryan Oliver of Atlanta, Ga. in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. On Sept. 11, 2001, at just 16 years old, Mercurio had known exactly what he wanted to do in life - until that moment. Before, he planned to become a cardiovascular surgeon and was readying college applications to Harvard and Columbia. After 9/11, he was consumed with thoughts of service and sacrifice and what it all meant. Watching a football game on television, he saw the men and women in uniform on the field, and felt a conviction he’d never had about becoming a doctor.

what to say.”

But Mercurio knows how that makes him feel. “I’m proud.”

It’s difficult to know just how common, or rare, stories like his are. Five years after the terrorist attacks, a USA Today/Gallup poll found that only one American in five felt they’d permanently changed their lives because of the events of that day.

Yet they are out there, these tales of

transformation — on the Internet, in local newspapers, in a new book focused on the very idea of post-9/11 change.

Wendy Stark Healy wrote “Life is Too Short: Stories of Transformation and Renewal after 9/11” after being inspired by a pastor who spent five months volunteering at ground zero and later became a social worker and a counselor after seeking counseling himself to heal from the horrors he’d seen. The book features the Rev.

Star-Herald Tom Taylor and 12 other people who changed direction after 9/11.

There’s the financial consultant who became CEO of the September 11th Families’ Association. The Wall Street trader who, after losing 17 friends on 9/11, moved his family to a coastal community in South Carolina for a more serene life.

The fashion designer who became a disaster response expert after distributing supplies in the days after 9/11. The aspiring actress who became a Buddhist and a spiritual healer.

“People said here’s the ‘aha’ moment. I don’t even know if it happened that way for some of these folks, but they all had a little caveat,” says Healy, recalling one person who told her, “I no longer take hellos and goodbyes for granted, because when I say goodbye to somebody I realize they may not come back.”

Healy herself was inspired to write this, her first book, because of the attacks and the many people she met afterward when her own life changed. She went from writing annual company reports to working for Lutheran Disaster Response of New York.

“It’s like something stirred in us,” she says. “How can we not be changed?”

Susan Russo of Pearland, Texas, was moved to reconnect with her parents, from whom she’d been estranged for years after a sibling died. Now, she calls them every day and visits twice a year. “I told myself I wanted to know my mom and dad before they died,” says the 53year-old administrative assistant.

Sept. 11, she says, “completely changed my life.”

Karl Glessner, who lives near the field in Shanksville, Pa., where United Flight 93 went down, was prompted to carve out two hours every Saturday to serve as a volunteer at the memorial. The 60-yearold hardware store owner tries to answer whatever questions visitors might have.

“They want to know what I experienced when the plane crashed,” he says. “I’m getting used to it by now. ... For a shy, quiet fellow like me it wasn’t the easiest

Never Forget 9-11 thing in the world.”

“I’m changed,” he says, “but I was kind of dragged along kicking and screaming. ... Nobody here wanted it.”

Still, Glessner won’t quit the work.

Though hard, “it’s one of the best ... and most rewarding things I do.”

Lawrence Calhoun, a professor of psychology at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, co-wrote a book about what he calls post-traumatic growth, examining how and why some people seek out change in the wake of tragedy. A trauma such as 9/11 challenges our core beliefs, he says, sometimes leading individuals to confront questions not previously examined.

“Most of us do not go around thinking, ‘What am I going to do for the rest of my life?”‘ says Calhoun. But a “confrontation with mortality or potential major loss,” as on 9/11, “may represent a place where people focus on fundamental priorities.”

As Healy said of the individuals she wrote about: “These people ... got the chance to change their lives. Three thousand people never got that chance. When you think of things that way, it’s easy to make a change.”

——— They’d returned to New York from a vacation in Italy on Sept. 10, 2001 — two 30-somethings eager to get back to careers they both loved.

Louis Spitzer was the director of research and development for an upstart wireless technology company; Gillian Caldwell was executive director of WITNESS, a nonprofit organization started by musician Peter Gabriel to use film and video to bring attention to human rights abuses.

They had moved in together a year earlier, committed to building a life and, eventually, raising a family. But the couple were like many in thinking, “Now’s just not the right time for kids. We have so much still to do professionally.” They worried about the financial stress that comes with having children, and the commitment.

Says Spitzer: “We couldn’t envision carving more space out for a family at that time.”

On Sept. 11, he was at a Starbucks on the Upper West Side when the first plane struck. She exited the subway in Tribeca, only blocks from the World Trade Center, and saw the gaping hole. When the second plane hit and the towers fell, Caldwell stood on the street still, able to think only: “My God. Everybody in those buildings is dead.”

Ten years later, just saying the words brings her to tears.

The couple became part of the alternative universe that was New York, and America, in the days that followed. Everyone was traumatized, mourning, questioning. Some were angry. Some paralyzed.

Spitzer and Caldwell took a half-glass-full approach, talking about whether something good — hopeful, even — could come from the death and destruction.

Their conversations were vague, at first. Then, a week after the attacks, Caldwell went out for drinks with a friend whose best friend’s brother had been killed in the towers. They talked for hours about the state of the world. The next morning, Caldwell awoke with a feeling of absolute clarity. She went to Spitzer and asked, “What are we waiting for?”

Only a few weeks later, she felt a strange pain in her abdomen, took a home pregnancy test while Spitzer slept — and then hurried to wake him up.

Tess arrived on June 23, 2002, a child born not of some newfound sense of mortality but rather a choice by two individuals to put love and family first in their post-9/11 lives, no matter how drastically that altered their world before that horrible day.

“In response to something like this, you can either say to yourself, ‘Who would want to bring a child into a world like this? What a terrible place to be.’ Or you can say, ‘Well, the only thing that really matters is love,”‘ says Caldwell.

It was the first of many transformative decisions. Spitzer became a stay-at-home

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 21 father. Meanwhile, Caldwell’s focus at WITNESS suddenly included finding someone to succeed her as executive director.

In 2005 their second child, a boy named Finley, was born. Two years later, the couple moved to the Washington, D.C., area when Caldwell went to work for a group lobbying for solutions to climate change, a move driven by her desire to leave a better world for her children.

Today, the family lives in Takoma Park, Md., where Caldwell, 45, works from home running her own consulting business. His world view reshaped by both 9/11 and his role as a father, Spitzer, 48, works at a nonprofit fighting to end extreme poverty.

Finley is a sandy blond 7-year-old, full of questions. Now 9, Tess loves hip hop dancing, gymnastics and martial arts.

She also plans to start her own soccer team that she will, of course, coach.

“She’s very entrepreneurial,” her mother says, laughing.

It’s hard for Caldwell and Spitzer to imagine how different their lives might have been if not for 9/11 and the choices they made because of it. Maybe they would, one day, have had children. Or maybe they wouldn’t have been able to conceive by the time they got around to it.

Maybe they would have adopted. What they know is they wouldn’t have Tess and Finley.

They have told Tess the story of how she came to be, but it’s a story they know they will tell again when she’s older.

There’s no way to think about how their daughter was conceived without thinking about Sept. 11. It’s part of the narrative of all their lives now.

Still, the narrative isn’t that Tess was the consequence of hate or evil, or the aftereffect of some unthinkable act. Rather, says Caldwell, she is the product of one beautiful decision that came from all of that, the choice “to give love and life another chance.” When the time comes to recount the story once more, that is what she’ll tell her little girl.

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22 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

Newseum in DC 1st to show FBI evidence from 9/11 WASHINGTON (AP) — In the decade before 9/11, a period when terrorists bombed the World Trade Center for the first time in 1993 and then U.S. embassies in Africa, most Americans had never heard of Osama bin Laden.

Even when he declared war on the United States in a television interview, bin Laden remained a stealth-like figure and his importance largely unknown.

Many clues that were later uncovered about the 9/11 mastermind’s activities, which have been stored in the FBI’s evidence lockers, are now going on public view for the first time at the Newseum in Washington. The journalism museum is expanding its current FBI exhibit with a new section, “War on Terror: The FBI’s New Focus.”

Among 60 new artifacts on view are engines and landing gear from passenger planes that crashed into the World Trade Center and hiking boots that would-be bomber Richard Reid rigged in December 2001 to explode aboard an airliner. Ten years after the attacks, the Newseum said it was time to examine the impact.

“They call it evidence, we call it artifacts,” said Susan Bennett, a Newseum vice president who oversees exhibits. “Just as we have the Berlin Wall as a reminder of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, we think it’s important to use these artifacts to tell the story of 9/11 and how it changed our lives.”

The FBI loaned an extensive collection for the exhibit, which will be on display through the end of 2012. The Newseum will offer free admission on the weekend of Sept. 10-11 to mark the anniversary. Newseum exhibits director Cathy Trost said the objects would “connect people emotionally to the story.”

It begins with the handcuffs used to restrain Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted in 1997 of the first World Trade Center bombing that killed six and injured more than 1,000, and details of how bin Laden was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list in 1999.

Just two years later, when 19 hijackers boarded planes in Boston, Washington and Newark, the 9/11 attacks quickly became the largest investigation in FBI history. Within hours, agents found evidence tying the hijackers to al-Qaida through their passports, credit cards and cars left at airports. The FBI released their names two days later.

Jet engines found blocks away from the World Trade Center hang as a stark reminder of the planes used as weapons to kill nearly 3,000 people.

In New York, 2,753 people were killed as a result of the attacks at the World Trade Center, while 184 were killed at the Pentagon in northern Virginia and 40 were killed in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

There are personal items on view, such as a wallet of Ruth McCourt of New London, Conn., who was taking her 4-year-old daughter Juliana to Disneyland on United Flight 175 before it crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center, and cell phones found in the rubble that rung for days after the attacks as family members tried desperately to find their loved ones.

“You take that family and multiply it by 3,000 and you begin to understand and comprehend the enormous tragedy,” Bennett said.

A rake and a shovel used by FBI investigators to comb through debris at the Pentagon crash site also is on view, while other items from the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania crash site will go on view Saturday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

AP

This undated handout photo provided by Sarah Mercier/Newseum/FBI Tour, shows cellphones and pagers were found in the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center towers in New York. Recovery workers reported that the phones rang for days after the crash as people searched for missing relatives and friends, which is among the 60 artifacts that is part of the Newseum’s , “War on Terror: The FBI’s New Focus”.

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Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 23

While the Newseum exhibit details how the FBI and others were criticized for failing to share intelligence before the attacks, the agency decided to make the items public for the first time to show how the FBI has changed to fight international terrorism, said Dan McCarron, an FBI liaison to museums.

“Before 9/11, you’d say, ‘Well what’s the FBI’s job?’ We’d say to investigate,” he said. “After 9/11, we’d say our job is to prevent.”

Some of the changes came quickly. By December 2001, Reid, the would-be shoe bomber who tried to ignite explosives in his hiking boots during a flight from Paris to Miami, was restrained by passengers and the crew when his intentions became clear.

On view are the hiking boots Reid packed with explosives, as well as the belts that passengers used to strap him into his seat and a syringe used by a doctor on the plane to sedate him.

“The Reid case, for instance, really shows how everyone even that soon was working together,” said the FBI’s McCarron. “Someone put a bomb in a shoe and not long after, airports were making us take off our shoes.”

The exhibit also includes video interviews with FBI agents and former ABC News correspondent John Miller, the last Western reporter to interview bin Laden in 1998 just two months before two U.S. embassies were bombed in Africa, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans. In the video, Miller recalls having guns held to his face before the interview.

“You very quickly think, ‘Am I going to die here ... to interview some guy no one has ever heard of?”‘ he said.

Navy seals killed bin Laden in his Pakistan compound four months ago.

The Newseum expects to host thousands of visitors during the weekend of the 10th anniversary of the attacks. It will have kiosks for visitors to share their remembrances and will show televised ceremonies planned in New York and Washington. It will also display comic strips planned by 93 cartoonists for Sept. 11 newspapers with 9/11 themes, as will museums in San Francisco, Pittsburgh and New York City.

AP

This undated handout photo provided by Sarah Mercier/ Newseum/FBI Tour, shows the hiking boots laced with explosives that Richard Reid attempted to ignite during a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001, which is among the 60 artifacts that is part of the Newseum’s, “War on Terror: The FBI’s New Focus”.

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This undated handout photo provided by Sarah Mercier/ Newseum/FBI Tour, showing engine parts from United Airlines Flight 175, which struck the South Tower., which is among the 60 artifacts that is part of the Newseum’s, “War on Terror: The FBI’s New Focus”.

24 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

Holes remain in flight school scrutiny after 9/11 ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, government screening has made it harder for foreign students to enroll in civilian flight schools as a handful of the hijackers did, banking on America being inviting and a place to learn quickly.

But the most rigorous checks don’t apply to all students and instructors, so schools and trainers have to be especially alert to weed out would-be terrorists.

“Prior to 9/11, I wouldn’t have had the phone number and name of my local FBI agent posted on my wall. I do,” said Patrick Murphy, director of training at Sunrise Aviation in Ormond Beach, Fla., near Daytona Beach.

Hundreds of U.S. flight schools fiercely compete for students. In Florida, some still pitch the good weather as a way for students to fly more often and finish programs faster. The 9/11 hijackers sought out U.S. schools partly because they were seen as requiring shorter training periods.

Florida schools have reason to be careful: Three of the 9/11 hijackers were simulating flights in large jets within six months of arriving for training in Venice, Fla., along the Gulf Coast. Mohamed Atta, the operational leader of the hijackings, and Marwan al Shehhi enrolled in an accelerated pilot program at Huffman Aviation, while Ziad Jarrah entered a private pilot program nearby.

The terrorists obtained licenses and certifications despite rowdy behavior and poor performance at times.

The U.S. commission that investigated the attacks said in its report that Atta and Shehhi quickly took solo flights and passed a private pilot airman test. The two later enrolled at another school, where an instructor said the two were rude and aggressive, and sometimes even fought to take over the controls during training flights. They failed an instruments rating exam. Undeterred, they returned to Huffman. Meanwhile, Jarrah received a single-engine private pilot certificate.

Hani Hanjour obtained his private pilot license after about three months of training in Arizona. Several more months of training yielded a commercial pilot certificate, issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. In early 2001, he started training on a Boeing 737 simulator. An instructor found his work substandard and advised him to quit, but he continued and finished the training just 5½ months before the attacks, the commission said.

Today, it would be tougher for the four men to enter U.S. flight schools.

There is a stricter visa process for foreign students seeking flight training in the U.S. They cannot start until the Transportation Security Administration, created after Sept. 11 to protect U.S. air travel, runs a fingerprint-based criminal background check with the FBI’s help and runs their names against terrorist watch lists. TSA inspectors visit FAA-certified flight schools at least once a year to make sure students have proper documentation verifying their identities and haven’t overstayed their visas.

Plus, TSA shares intelligence with other agencies and has other layers of security to catch people before they can do harm even if they slipped through the cracks and were able to get flight training in the U.S. The stepped-up measures involving flight schools are not foolproof or uniform, however.

There are numerous flight instructors with access to planes and simulators who don’t all get an annual TSA visit, and are subject only to random TSA inspections if they train only U.S. citizens. The TSA has access to a database of all student pilots that is maintained by the FAA. But TSA said it only runs the names of U.S.-citizen students against watch lists, and not necessarily before those students can start their programs.

TSA said the fingerprinting and criminal background checks done on foreign students before they can enter U.S. flight schools are not done on U.S. citizens.

TransPac Aviation Academy in Phoenix tells domestic applicants they need proof of citizenship, a high school diploma or college transcripts, a medical card, a driver’s license and any pilot licenses already held. Other schools do the same, said Tom Lippincott, TransPac’s vice president of business development.

AP

In this photo taken Aug. 24, students attend class as instructor Demetriou Stelios, back center, teaches at the Sunrise Aviation flight school in Ormond Beach, Fla. Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, government screening has made it harder for foreign students to enroll in civilian flight schools like a handful of the hijackers had done, banking on America being inviting and a place to learn quickly.

And one security measure never employed by the government, despite interest from the 9/11 commission, was requiring that transponders that help officials locate commercial planes can’t be turned off as the hijackers did. The FAA said if there is an electrical fire or malfunction, pilots must be able to turn off the transponder for safety reasons.

The shortcomings have led schools to self-police.

Andre Maye, vice president of administration at Phoenix East Aviation in Daytona Beach, pays attention to red flags including inconsistencies in addresses applicants provide and discrepancies on financial statements. He monitors the size of wire transfers from students when they pay for their tuition, which can total $46,000 or more, and looks for consistency in the transactions.

James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association, a trade group for aviation service businesses including flight training companies, said the industry is open to more rigorous and uniform vetting of students.

The safeguards in place haven’t deterred foreign students from flocking to

Freedom still reigns.

We salute those whose lives were lost, those who survived and those who put themselves in harms way on 9.11.01

Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

25

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.

We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.

It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. ~Ronald Reagan

On September 11, 2001 terrorists attacked America at multiple fronts, reminding us about our human mortality, the fragility of life and the preciousness of our existence.

AP

In this photo taken Aug. 24, Patrick Murphy, Director of Training, looks out on the flight line from a hangar, at the Sunrise Aviation flight school in Ormond Beach, Fla. Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, government screening has made it harder for foreign students to enroll in civilian flight schools like a handful of the hijackers had done, banking on America being inviting and a place to learn quickly.

the U.S. — Sunrise Aviation’s Murphy said the majority of students are international at many flight schools, including his.

They come because the training industry is more developed and efficient than programs at home. Also, pilot hiring in the U.S. is stagnant, while growth in Asia has fueled a need for pilots there. Students often come to the U.S. with their own money or financing.

Akshai Stephen, 27, of New Delhi, has been at Sunrise about five months. He said the month it took him to go through the approval process and start training didn’t discourage him.

“What I thought was, just tell the truth, ‘I want to fly. I want to fly,”‘ he said.

“If you are truthful and have good intentions, you have nothing to worry about.”

Of the 41 recommendations in the 9/11 commission’s report, none specifically addressed flight schools. Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor who chaired the commission, told The Associated Press the feeling at the time was that the federal government already was working to close that loophole.

Huffman Aviation, where Atta and Shehhi trained, closed after the attacks.

Owner Rudi Dekkers said in a recent interview that considering what he knew 10 years ago, there is nothing he could have seen that would have alerted him to what his students were planning.

And despite the enhanced government screening today, he isn’t convinced the same thing couldn’t happen at another school.

“You have someone who doesn’t behave, you think that makes them a terrorist?” Dekkers asked. “Then half the country is a terrorist.”

We are reminded during this 10th Anniversary that our bravest heroes did not come home.

We will not forget.

Join us in honoring and remembering our heroes of that day those who survived, those who answered the call, those who searched and supported, those who lost their lives and their families and friends that still grieve.

26 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Never Forget 9-11

Star-Herald

AP Interview: Post-9/11 politics of Rudy Giuliani NEW YORK (AP) — He was the living symbol of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a hero to a traumatized nation seeking leadership in a time of crisis.

Walking miles through the streets of Manhattan, Mayor Rudy Giuliani urged New York and the world to be calm, said the city would survive. With empathy and restraint, he said the number of 9/11 dead would be “more than any of us can bear.”

“It was the worst experience of my life. It was the most devastating experience for the city I was responsible for,” Giuliani told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview.

A decade later, the man most connected with 9/11 — earning the enduring moniker of “America’s Mayor” — parlayed his experience into a lucrative security consulting career. But he proved a flop as a presidential contender in 2008, when the heroics of 9/11 didn’t translate into a plausible strategy for winning the Republican nomination. And he says he’s bothered by suggestions that he profited from his 9/11 fame.

Giuliani says he’s considering another presidential bid in 2012. But he’s found it hard to reclaim the mantle of greatness he earned on the city’s darkest day.

——— His most searing memory was watching a man fall from the sky.

Giuliani arrived at the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11 minutes after a second plane slammed into the south tower. He was headed for the command post beneath the burning north tower when police asked him to look skyward to avoid falling debris.

“I kept looking up and I saw a man, on the 101st floor, put himself right in the window and he just flung himself right out,” Giuliani told the AP. “I saw the fire behind him. I just froze and watched him because it was so incomprehensible.”

There was no time to stop and absorb what he had seen. He strode through lower Manhattan, flanked by his administration, directing security and rescue efforts, visiting hospitals and trying to prevent the city’s operations from falling into more chaos.

“We’d handled everything — airline crashes, building collapses, fires, hostage situations, other terrorist threats,” Giuliani says now. “But this was so far beyond what we’d contemplated, there must have been a moment where I thought, we can’t handle this.”

In the afternoon, he stepped before cameras to describe the breadth of the devastation.

“My heart goes out to all the innocent victims of this horrible and vicious act of terrorism, acts of terrorism,” he said. “ Our focus now has to be on saving as many lives as possible,” Giuliani said.

Asked how many had died, he said, “The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear, ultimately.”

With that, Giuliani had become the national spokesman for the tragedy. His reassuring and authoritative presence eclipsed that of President George W. Bush, who had flown out of Florida shortly after the attacks and was kept on Air Force One and out of view for much of the day.

——— Before the attacks, New Yorkers had seemed eager to be rid of Giuliani, a lame duck weighed down by ebbing popularity and a series of personal crises.

The soap opera-like unraveling of his marriage to second wife Donna Hanover and his relationship with a mistress — his now-wife, Judi Nathan — had begun overshadowing accomplishments as mayor, particularly his widely praised rehabilitation of New York after decades of decline. He was first elected in 1994 and won a second term in 1998.

Giuliani’s marital woes, which surfaced as he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, forced him to abandon a likely Senate bid against Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. The turbulence left Giuliani, then 57, facing an uncertain future in the final months of his second term.

But then came the attacks on his city. The plaudits he received that day made him a wealthy man after he left office in early 2002.

Giuliani became a rainmaker at a major international law firm now called Bracewell and Giuliani. He formed a security consultancy, Giuliani Partners,

AP

In this Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 file photo, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, center, leads New York Gov. George Pataki, left, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., on a tour of the site of the World Trade Center disaster.

which advises businesses and governments on how to manage their security needs. He delivers paid speeches on security and economic issues in the U.S. and around the world. And he supports several charities, who sometimes auction off rounds of golf with America’s Mayor for as much as $40,000 apiece.

Today, Giuliani says he’s “a little sensitive” to critics who suggest he has profited from his 9/11 fame.

“I was pretty successful before Sept. 11 and fully expected that when I left being mayor I would be very successful,” he said, adding he’d always planned to practice law and form a security concern.

“What did Sept. 11 do? It took me from 60-70 percent name recognition as mayor of New York to about 90 percent. Of course it had an impact. But it’s not the only reason I was successful,” he said.

——— The national political stage is one area where Giuliani’s been decidedly unsuccessful.

He entered the 2008 presidential race with great fanfare, leading all national polls of Republican voters despite his moderate positions on social issues like abortion and gay rights. He stressed his credentials on security and terrorism in the campaign — so fervently that then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, competing for the Democratic nomination, mocked him in a nationally televised debate.

“Rudy Giuliani, there’s only 3 things he mentions in a sentence. A noun, a verb, and 9/11,” Biden said, to laughter and applause.

Giuliani’s campaign also made serious strategic errors, eschewing early state contests like Iowa and New Hampshire in favor of Florida, whose primary came weeks later. He went down to an embarrassing defeat, dropping from the race after spending nearly $59 million to win just one delegate.

Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

Today, he says he’s learned from the experience.

“There is a reality to the primary process and you don’t win primaries by being ahead in national polls. You win them by winning Iowa, by winning New Hampshire, by winning South Carolina, winning Florida,” Giuliani said.

“There were a hundred other mistakes but maybe the hundred others we could have overcome.”

——— Giuliani says he’s seriously eyeing another run for the nomination despite the spectacular failure last time. He’s critical of President Barack Obama, saying the Democrat has made a faltering economy even worse.

Giuliani would focus mainly on winning New Hampshire, a state whose Republicans are more moderate than those in Iowa and where independents can vote in the primary. The issue environment has vastly changed since 2008, and Giuliani insists he’s got the credentials voters are seeking.

“I wouldn’t de-emphasize (national security) but right now you have to talk about what people are concerned about, and what they’re concerned about is the economy,” Giuliani said. “I do have the economic credentials. I ran one of the most complicated economies in the United States and one that was in terrible trouble. And I turned it around.”

Giuliani said he wouldn’t make a final decision until well after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, probably the end of September. Several other top contenders, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are already campaigning for the nomination.

“I’m going to sit down and talk it over with Judith, wake up one morning and have a decision,” Giuliani said. “Part if it will be how the other candidates perform and whether I have confidence one of them can beat President Obama.

I’m not sure of it yet.”

——— Sept. 11, 2001, was primary day in New York City, and voters were heading to the polls to choose candidates to succeed Giuliani.

The primary was postponed because of the attacks. And in November, another Republican, billionaire media executive Mike Bloomberg, narrowly won a close race against Democrat Mark Green in part because Bloomberg received Giuliani’s endorsement.

With Bloomberg stepping down in 2013 after three terms, would Giuliani ever consider running to reclaim the post that made him famous? He laughs and says no.

“I don’t go back, I go forward,” Giuliani said. “You also have to realize, been there, done that.”

He added, “Going back and doing something over never works. All my ideas, all my thoughts, all my experiences are set in a certain time period. New York City probably needs something different now.”

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In this Friday, May 4, 2007 file photo, Republican presidential hopeful, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani greets potential supporters after speaking about small business issues with local Republicans in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was the living symbol of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a hero to a traumatized nation seeking leadership in a time of crisis. Walking miles through the streets of Manhattan, Giuliani urged New York and the world to be calm, said the city would survive. With empathy and restraint, he said the number of 9/11 dead would be “more than any of us can bear.”

Never Forget 9-11

28 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

Star-Herald

Lenses shield 9/11 photogs as they capture history People look at some news photos shot on Sept. 11, 2001, and wonder how those who took them could bear to keep working in the face of such tragedy.

——— For Richard Drew, the second week in September always meant just one thing: Fall Fashion Week.

After 35 years in the business, he still looked forward to the twice-yearly fashion show as part of the “diversity of my job” as a New York-based AP p h o t o g r a p h e r. D r e w, w h o shared in the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, had long since learned there was no such thing as a routine assignment.

As a 21-year-old shooter for the Pasadena IndependentStar News, Drew was at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, where Robert Kennedy, fresh from winning the California Democratic presidential primary, was shot. Drew was one of only four photographers to capture Kennedy’s last moments.

On Sept. 11, Drew was perched on a riser at the end of the runway, waiting for the fashion show to begin, when his cell phone rang.

“A plane’s hit the World Trade Center,” photo editor Barbara Woike said.

Drew rushed to the subway and took the No. 2 train to Chambers Street. Emerging from underground, he could see smoke now billowing from both towers. He took up a position near a line of ambulances to wait for casualties when suddenly a paramedic shouted, “Look! There’s people coming out of the World Trade Center.”

AP

In this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, people covered in dust walk over debris near the World Trade Center in New York.

But she wasn’t pointing down the street. She was pointing up.

“I just sort of clicked into automatic pilot,” Drew recalled, “and started taking pictures of the people falling out of the building.”

There is a cruel mechanics to capturing such tragedy, and the camera became his filter.

The bodies tumbling from the towers were moving very fast, and he worked to keep them in focus.

When he downloaded his images, one stood out: A man in black pants and a white jacket, one leg bent as he plummeted headfirst. It would become known simply as “The Falling Man.” To Drew, it was not a violent image, despite the inherent

horror. It was “a very quiet, peaceful moment.”

The photo would launch a quest to discover the doomed man’s identity — and a public debate about whether such intimate moments should be offlimits. Of all the images from that day, it is one of the least often republished.

Drew thinks he knows why: “I think people react to it, because they can relate to that it might be them.”

——— Sept. 11 started out for photographer Doug Mills like most days covering President George W. Bush on the road. Wake up before dawn, and go for a run.

This day, it was at a golf course in Sarasota, Fla. Then back to the hotel for a quick shower and off to the day’s first event

— a visit with kids at Emma E. Booker Elementary School.

The motorcade was en route when Mills overheard snatches of a deputy press secretary’s cell phone conversation. By the time they reached the school, they knew that a plane — no idea how big — had hit a New York building — no idea which one.

Mills and the other journalists were herded to the back of the classroom. Mills began shooting wide, to capture the president and the children arrayed in front of him.

About five minutes into the event, the classroom door opened, and White House chief of staff Andy Card stepped inside. Mills’ antennae immediately went up: Card almost never attended events like this.

Making eye contact, Mills mouthed, “What’s going on?”

Card merely held up two fingers.

“We had NO idea at the time what that meant,” says Mills.

“So, like, ‘Two minutes, we’re leaving?’ ... Or, ‘I’m going to talk to him in two minutes.’ ...”

Mills sensed that Card was waiting for the right moment to go up to the president. He quickly switched to a longer lens, and prepared to zoom in tight on Bush.

After a few moments, Card walked to the front of the room, leaned in and whispered something into Bush’s right ear. The president’s face went blank.

Soon afterward, as the motorcade raced to the airport, Mills edited and sent his images. The classroom event was

Star-Herald not televised live, so the AP photo desk grilled Mills about the president’s reaction — his words, his facial expressions.

When they asked what Card was telling Bush, for the caption, Mills could only say that it was about the planes hitting the twin towers.

“Great job, kid,” he remembers AP Washington photo editor Bob Daugherty telling him.

It was only after they boarded Air Force One and began watching CNN that the full import of that morning’s event came into focus. A classroom visit that had started out as a routine “photoop” was now a moment in history.

“If the attacks had happened while we were at the White House,” Mills says, “we would have not been there when Andy Card walked into the Oval Office and told the president.”

Later, Mills asked Card what exactly he’d whispered into Bush’s ear.

“Mr. President,” Card said, “a second aircraft has hit the World Trade Center.

America’s under attack.”

“When I hear those words,” says Mills, who went to work for the New York Times in 2002, “and when I even say them myself, I get chills.”

——— Ohio-based AP national photographer Amy Sancetta was in New York City to cover her 10th U.S. Open tennis tournament. She’d spent the week breaking in a pair of brand-new, super-fast Nikon D1H cameras, and was looking forward to some free time.

Sancetta was kneeling on her hotel room floor, stowing her new cameras, when her phone rang. The desk had a report that a plane might have hit one of the World Trade Center towers and asked her to head there.

Her first thought was, “Oh, great.

Some guy has driven his little twin-engine plane into the trade center, and it’s going to take up my whole day off in the city.”

She caught a cab and rode down

Never Forget 9-11 Broadway until a police barricade stopped her from going farther. By then, the second tower was already smoking. The buildings must be packed, she thought. She got out her 80-200 mm zoom lens and began scanning the rows of windows of the south tower for faces.

Suddenly, she heard a thunderous rumbling. She watched through her lens as the tower’s top “kind of cracked and started to fall in on itself.”

She could squeeze off only about a half-dozen frames before the tower disappeared. With her subject gone, Sancetta’s sports shooter instincts kicked in. When covering a basketball game, it’s long lens for the far court, short lens for the near court. She whipped out her other camera with its 14 mm, wide-angle lens and began firing away.

People were rushing past, buffeting her as they ran pell-mell from the rising debris cloud. As the camera whirred and clicked, her mind raced. “I hope my straight ups and downs are straight up and down.”

The D1H had a 40-frame buffer, after which the camera would freeze so it could reacquire the images. As she waited, Sancetta suddenly realized that the debris cloud was about to overtake her, and she turned to run. Hurtling down the street, her thought was, “Jeez! If I get hit by that cloud, it’s going to ruin my beautiful new cameras.”

She ran about half a block, then turned into a parking garage — just as the cloud whooshed past.

When she finally emerged, she stepped into what looked like a “winter wonderland of debris.” She began picking her way back toward the trade center, shooting as she went. When she heard a second rumble, she lowered her camera and ran.

At last, she reached the office and was able to see what she had: the beginning of the south tower’s end.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 29

AP

In this Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, Chief of Staff Andy Card whispers into the ear of President George W. Bush to give him word of the plane crashes into the World Trade Center, during a visit to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla.

And her straight ups and downs were straight up and down.

——— Gulnara Samoilova’s shift in the AP photo library didn’t start until noon,

and she normally slept late. But this day the wail of sirens woke her.

“It just went on and on and on,” recalls Samoilova, a native of the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan.

Never Forget 9-11

30 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 She turned on the TV and was watching at 9:03, when the second plane struck.

Samoilova’s apartment was just four blocks from the World Trade Center. She grabbed her camera and a handful of film, and headed into the street.

Entering the south tower, she quickly decided the scene was too chaotic to shoot, and retreated.

Back outside, she was standing right beneath the south tower, its smoking bulk filling her 85 mm lens. She saw the tower begin to crumble and got off one more shot before someone nearby screamed, “RUN!” The force of the collapse “was like a mini-earthquake,”

knocking her off her feet.

People began trampling her.

“I was afraid I would die right there,” the 46-year-old photographer says. She got up just as the cloud was about to envelop her. She dove behind a car and crouched.

Like “a strong wind,” the storm of debris rocked the car, filling her eyes, mouth, nose and ears.

“It was very dark and silent,” she says. “I thought I was buried alive.”

Suddenly, she could hear the fluttering of thousands of pieces of paper. Her sight returned. She had survived.

She changed film and lenses, and as she looked down Fulton Street, other sur-

vivors began limping out of the mist. She stepped out from behind the car and began shooting.

In the most powerful image from that sequence, a line of about a dozen people fills the frame. One man holds a jacket over his mouth, while the woman next to him tries to brush debris out of her hair.

“I love that photo,” Samoilova says. “To me, it looks like a sculpture. Like, frozen.”

She was shooting in black and white. People have asked her if she wishes that photo had been in color.

“It wouldn’t matter even,” she replies. “They were all covered in dust — the gray dust.”

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Star-Herald

AP

In this Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, pedestrians flee the dust-filled area surrounding the World Trade Center following a terrorist attack on the New York landmark

Star-Herald

Never Forget 9-11

AP

In this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo, the twin towers of the World Trade Center burn behind the Empire State Building in New York.

When it was over, Samoilova went back to work in the library.

Often after Sept. 11, her job in-

volved going through AP’s photos from that day.

“I was crying almost daily.”

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011 31

AP

In this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo, the south tower of the World Trade Center begins to collapse after a terrorist attack on the New York landmark.

Eventually, it became too much. Samoilova left the AP in 2003.

Now, she runs her own photo studio, focusing mostly on documentary-style wedding shoots.

“I love weddings,” she says. “I get to be part of the happiest days of people’s lives.”

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