jdtalley / blog

tuesday, september 18

Bush

The President viewing the damaged Pentagon

Heros: Mark Bingham, Thomas Burnett and Jeremy Glick

died on board United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark bound for San Francisco, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania last Tuesday.

Before taking heroic action in the final minutes of the flight, Glick called his wife, Lyzbeth, and according to the New York Times, she said her husband told her that he and three or four other passengers planned to overpower the hijackers. Government officials believe their heroism denied the hijackers from crashing Flight 93 into the White House or Camp David, which were both possible targets.

MSNBC: A heroic last stand
NY Times: Flight 93 Hero Heard Before Crash
DallasNews.com: Trapped in the skies, captives fought back

Heros: Michael Benfante & John Cerqueira

On the 68th floor, they came upon a distraught woman in a wheelchair. They carried her in a special chair down 68 floors to safety through black smoke. The two men helped her out of the wheelchair into a special chair in the stairwell designed for such emergencies. They strapped her in and began an hour-long journey down as the building blazed. Others pitched in to help carry from time to time, but it was Benfante (5-feet-11, 175 pounds) and Cerqueira (5-feet-11, 200 pounds) who never let go. After making it outside, they placed the woman in an emergency van. She asked Benfante for his business card, but broke down crying. And could not stop. Then, Benfante looked up. He'd only been on the ground for a minute or two. But he saw the inevitable: the building was going to collapse.

"In the back of my head, I could hear my mother telling me to get the heck out of there," Cerqueira says. "But I had to help."

USA Today: Some surprised to find themselves heroes

Hero: Unnamed

A blind man was led to safety for more than an hour with his hand on an unknown woman's shoulder down 70 flights of stairs of a tower of the World Trade Center after it was slammed by a hijacked plane.

He unleashed the dog to let it escape, but with glass falling around them, the animal led him to an emergency exit and stayed by his side as a crowd of people descended the stairs to escape the building which collapsed soon afterward.

'I stood up and I could hear how pieces of glass were flying around and falling,'' Rivera, said in a quiet voice in a peaceful garden somewhere in New York. 'The dog was very nervous, and he ran off but came back and kept by my side. He didn't bark.'

'I took hold of her arm. She went down on my right side and the dog on my left. When it became narrow and people were pushing and shoving more, she went in front and I just held on to her shoulder' said Rivera, who is from Bogota, the capital of Colombia.

'At first there was panic, and some people tried to run and go first. But really most people behaved quite prudently and grasped what was happening, so we walked down in an orderly fashion, but it was slow-going.'

Reuters: Woman, Dog Guide Blind Man Down 70 WTC Floors

Vengeance

As I watch the breaking news of the terrorism attacks I can think of one thing: Vengeance. Those responsible must pay severely.

There are many things that made me angry today. The senseless killings in New York and Washington by cowardly terrorist first and foremost. Then as I watched this tragedy unfold, people I know would laugh and carry on. Is my generation so desensitized to violence and so self absorbed that we find amusement from tragedies such as these?

It should be noted that not everyone is this shallow. As a matter of fact, the Alexandria Hospital where Dave tried to donate blood was too full to accept him.

God bless those who lost their lives and god bless our leaders who will decide how to achieve justice.

Band of Brothers

Last night I watched Band of Brothers with some friends and it was amazing. Dave and I decided to order HBO yesterday specifically to watch this 10 part mini series. The series is executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks who also created Saving Private Ryan. Band of Brothers is based on the Seven Ambrose book by the same name about the involvement of the 101st Airborne's Easy Company during WWII.

I was weary of inviting people over at first because I really wanted to watch this without people distracting me. Our small group worked out well. This won't be an event like my Survivor Shindigs but I may have a few friends over every Sunday. For dinner, Dave cooked Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti.

Disco Bowling

Disco Dave