The United Americans
9/11 is considered one of the most devastating days in U.S. history. Many people were killed in the attacks and many more gave their lives in an effort to save the lives of others.
New Albany resident Chad Condra remembers the day vividly.
“On September 11 2001, I turned on the TV and I saw the first tower engulfed in smoke and flames, not long after that I watched as the second plane hit the other tower,” Condra said.
The 9/11 attacks were carried out using four different planes, 16 men all together. Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations, led by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist organization. There assault on U.S. soil was in retaliation for America’s support of Israel.
“As we continued watched the coverage on the television, we saw that that there was another plane in the air that they could not account for,” Condra said.
Flight 93 was taken over by the terrorist and was suspected to be aiming for the white house or the capital, but instead hit the twin towers.
“As I made my way to work after getting my kids home and safe; all doors were locked I couldn’t believe all of the cars that were in line for gas and the crowds at grocery stores,” Condra recalls.
“As I got in my UPS truck and got to the interstate, the lines of cars at all gas stations and truck stops along my route from Louisville to Evansville was an extremely scary sight and it was at that point of the day of 9/11 2001 that I felt the most scared,” Condra said. “After I returned home safely I could not stop watching the coverage and worrying about our nation, but the more that I watched from that morning and throughout the next few months I saw a country go from being split and fractured among social, racial, ethnical, religious, political beliefs and hatred. Come together as one nation with strength, determination, and grit that I had not seen since I was a young boy. This calmed my fears, gave me pride and belief in our country and the people that inhabit it.”
Americans have been under a lot of different stresses recently, for a lot of different reasons: race, religion, politics, etc. These issues have divided American society, disallowing us to live up to the “United” in our United States.
America was once a place that was truly united, truly proud of its founding, and truly honored to have new people into this nation. Some might say that these values are still here, and they may be right. But only fractions from some of those beliefs are within our still beautiful nation. The day that those attacks on our nation is the day that America had lost a lot of its freedoms as far as privacy and sense of protection.
Deaths by areas of attack; 2996
World Trade Center: 2606
Airlines: 246
Pentagon Building: 125
Hijackers: 19
Total deaths of 9/11: 2996
WTC and surrounding area casualties; 5,388
Residents of New York: 1762
North Tower: 1402
New Jersey residents: 674
South Tower: 614
Marsh Inc. Employees: 355
Firefighters: 343
Employees of Aon Corporation: 175
Port Authority police officers 37
Police Officers (general): 23
Paramedics: 2
1 firefighter was killed by a man who jumped from one of the top floors
Airplanes; 246
American Airlines Flight 11: 87
United Airlines Flight 175: 60
American Airlines Flight 7: 59
United Flight 93: 40
Pentagon; 125
Military and civilian deaths: 125