September 11

[Goatman]

@LD17 - good job Officer.

I was in the Pentagon in June 2001, the guy we visited then lost his XO and his secretary when the other flight ploughed in there.

Fast forward to 2016 , some pr1ck on a filmset (who was probably about 5 years old when it happened) started telling me how it was all a hoax.....I bit, then had to walk away.

Thank you for taking the time to share your personal recollection. And seconded - it deserves a wider audience.

 

[LD17]

My bold... for some reason I only spotted this today despite it being written a week ago and have just read it all.
A really great first hand account of probably one of the most infamous cowardly attacks on civilians by brainwashed religious scum in the name of their evil, distorted religion in history.
My memoirs in comparison covers a 3 year period, where yes, there were times I was in danger, friends & acquaintances of mine were killed & maimed but most other times I was having and living a normal life as a policeman, ok in a very different environment to the UK & USA. But never in such a brutal concentrated time scale as your memoirs and very few if any of us in the NRP suffered the longer terms health problems that you & your colleagues suffered.
It is a really good and gripping read and you should try to get someone to publish it. My little a/c of my time in the NRP was thankfully picked up by the British Empire website and got a little more exposure to the world. Perhaps "Time" magazine should run it instead of putting the toxic Meghan & Harry on the front cover.

@ex_colonial
Thank you, I always enjoyed your stories from your time with the NRP, I often feel it my experiences are similar in that we were part of a moment in time that we can never go back to. I picked ARRSE to relate my story because I felt that, aside from NYPD members, this audience would understand the most of what I was trying to get across, how it felt to be down there and what we were thinking (we never thought those Towers would fall). Now there is a lot more moments in time that I can relate.....not everyone did their job that day, but I will save the criticism and judgement and instead focus on the guys/gals who did. For instance, my friend Nummy (radio name) who happened to be asleep at his girlfriends house a block away at the time, awoken to the first plane hitting the Towers (yes her building was that close) he dressed, put his Shield (in the NYPD it is always a Shield, not a badge) around his neck on a chain and went down there in shorts and flip flops (he was out the night before and still a little under the weather. He helped evacuate countless numbers of people and had to dive under a firetruck when the South Tower fell. (between Nummy and the movie Die Hard, I always keep a pair of sneakers near my bed wherever I go!)

 

[Richard Headicus]

@LD17 Whatever words I use to express what you, and yours, went through back then, would be totally inadequate. Thanks for sharing with us, much appreciated.

 

[LD17]

Incredible account. I watched a programme last night on The Two Towers, back in the 60’s when the idea was conceived the architect who was picked the building of them right through to the collapse, they were less than thirty years old.
Earlier in the week I watched four programmes, now been an ex Met cop I said said to my wife ”what must have it been like been on duty there? Well we have some idea now thanks to @LD17 .
The Met set up a charity where we could sign over an hours pay to go to The NYPD I can’t remember how much was raised, and reading this reminded me of it, did @LD17 hear of this and if so how it was used?
A lot of very brave people that day, both in and out of uniform.

@Gout Man

I forgot to mention, this man...out of uniform at the time....managed to single handedly save 2,000 plus people that day....

Rick Rescorla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Gout Man]

@Gout Man

I forgot to mention, this man...out of uniform at the time....managed to single handedly save 2,000 plus people that day....

Rick Rescorla - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Thanks for posting that, what an interesting life. He featured in one of the 9/11 programmes but they didn't go into his background in such detail. A very brave man indeed.

 

[LD17]

Thanks to @dingerr ..

So both my old Unions sent out commemorative magazines. I have liberally taken some snaps so I could provide some visual context to the story....

P.O. Moira Smith, her gunbelt and shield backing were on display at the Police Museum until it closed due to Hurricane Sandy in 2013 (the current occupant of the Mayor's office, an arrogant & ignorant twit, refuses to re-open it)

A representative picture of the amount of ash/dust we were covered in.

 

[Proff3RTR]

Please stop now.

How did that work out for ya

 

[Proff3RTR]

Thanks to @dingerr ..

So both my old Unions sent out commemorative magazines. I have liberally taken some snaps so I could provide some visual context to the story....

P.O. Moira Smith, her gunbelt and shield backing were on display at the Police Museum until it closed due to Hurricane Sandy in 2013 (the current occupant of the Mayor's office, an arrogant & ignorant twit, refuses to re-open it)

View attachment 609560

A representative picture of the amount of ash/dust we were covered in.

View attachment 609562

Thank you,

We all remember where we were that day (I was in Germany teaching a 30mm course) and we all know what we did following it. But to have someone recount the events of that day as they saw them through their own eyes is truly a great thing. Thank you for taking the time to put down your memories of that dreadful day.

 

[LD17]

Looking west toward Church Street

After one of the Towers fell, again a representative pic in a deli (similar to the one I mentioned in which wewere able to get the parents & kids into when the North Tower fell)

 

[LD17]

The red arrow pointing down is where we initially formed up before Mike and I went to the roof. The other red arrow is the roof we were on. This was the North Tower collapsing (the first one hit and the second to collapse)

 

[LD17]

How it looked after both Towers fell, I believe this was West Street

The bucket line...

 

[LD17]

So a representative pic, again, to show the tight spaces some of us that were short in stature would crawl into if we thought someone was in there.

 

[Proff3RTR]

The red arrow pointing down is where we initially formed up before Mike and I went to the roof. The other red arrow is the roof we were on. This was the North Tower collapsing (the first one hit and the second to collapse)

View attachment 609565

That’s a pretty powerful picture, brings home the true extent of the event.

 

[LD17]

Finally..... Mike (on the right) and I (on the left) after the first Tower fell and we got off the roof, heading South toward the Towers on Church Street

Mike (left) and I (right) leaving Beekman Hospital after we had our eyes washed out. You can still see the liberated table-clothes around our necks

 

[Robbo_the_duke]

Don't know how i missed this thread, incredible read.