Unbelievable story... Part 1

This is amazing...written by a young man, Chuck, who experienced first hand, the horrors of September 11, 2001. He was in the heart of it all. Chuck's address was not given. It was sent to me by someone whose friend sent it to her. I know you've probably heard lots of stories, but this story really makes you feel that you were there.

September 11, 2001

Well, today began exactly like yesterday, but I'm sad to say that it didn't progress with the same tranquility as the previous day. I'm in New York City attending the FIRRM class as part of my commissioning process, and up until 9:10 AM today that was exactly what was happening. I was sitting in class, trying to pay attention to the teacher, and follow the concepts he was presenting, which was the term structure of interest rates. As I was looking out the window from time to time, I noticed that a lot of papers were falling from the sky past the windows. I remember thinking that it was probably a bunch of newspapers that had fallen off a rooftop or something.

Then there was a loud sound, like a muffled crash or explosion, and my world, my being, will never be the same again. Looking outside, hordes of people were moving quickly in the same direction, towards the southern part of Manhattan. The class left their seats and pressed against the window, and then we all left the building en masse for the street. It was baffling at first to see virtually everyone moving in the same direction with panicked looks, and anguish on many faces. Then I heard someone say that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center.

I don't know what happened inside of me, but I just began walking towards the Trade Center buildings, against the flow of literally thousands of people. I had to tuck myself in, and take the brunt of several impacts, as people trying to flee bumped into me. But I continued onward, and within a few minutes I was looking at the twin towers, each with a gaping hole in them and blackened floors, and black smoke and flames billowing out of them. The scene on the streets was chaos, and the emergency personnel were too stunned to pay any attention to the few people like me that were moving closer to the carnage.

Eventually I wound up standing next to a building for shielding from the pieces of wreckage that continued to rain down, and I stood and looked at the buildings burn. Once I was ushered away, I headed down to the next block and cut over and moved back towards the towers. Heading down one street, I began to notice strange-looking debris all over the ground, and on cars, and draped across fruit in fruit-stands. Dimly, from somewhere deep within the recesses of my mind I knew these were human remains, but my brain didn't want to comprehend it, and instead I told myself it was damaged fruit. In fact, it was all so badly mangled and in such small pieces that you couldn't really identify what any of it was.

Intermingled with these mangled bits of what I was trying to tell myself were fruit, were other items, flotation devices from aircraft, and pieces of fuselage, and a mangled cell phone, and bits of clothing, and shoes. All sorts of various items were strewn about everywhere. A limousine parked on the side of the road had a metal rod impaled through its hood and engine compartment. That was a sobering sign, as I was standing on the street next to it unprotected.

I wound up standing next to a guy in a suit who was trying to use his cell phone, and I told him it was fruitless, as I'd been trying to dial different numbers all along with no success. We then chatted a bit, and he informed me that a second plane had hit the other building, and that it was a terrorist attack. He asked me something that I can't remember now, and I wound up telling him that I was unfamiliar with the area, as I was visiting from Richmond VA. He gave a dry laugh and said welcome to New York.” He said his name was Rich. I shook his hand. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do, I guess. What is appropriate when the world is exploding around you?

As we were talking, he looked up and said “oh no, another one jumped.” And I looked up and watched a man falling backwards through the air, close enough for me to see his white shirt and tie, and black shoes. He was motionless and in a backwards sitting position. And he just fell and fell, it seemed like forever that he dropped through space. I watched him, frozen in horror, right up until he passed out of my sight behind part of the structure, and then there was an amazingly loud crash, perhaps he landed on a car, I'm not sure. I looked down at the ground, stunned and in disbelief, and that’s when I saw the first recognizable item on the ground; a human foot.

Do you see this face?

And the figure behind it?

Rich asked me if I thought the buildings could possibly collapse, and I said that I didn’t think it was possible, and I mentioned the time that a U.S. bomber had flown into the Empire State Building. And in fact the twin towers didn’t look like they were weakened, although several floors were burning badly on each side of them.

I really can’t remember what I did for the next several minutes, I just looked around at the carnage, spotting more grisly remains, and pieces of aircraft, and personal effects, and the like. Then a group of fire-fighters passed by us, heading towards the building, and I remember looking into some of their faces, and wanting to tell them to be careful. I was looking up the street away from the twin towers, and I saw Rich and another guy who had been talking a little bit suddenly look terror-stricken, as they apparently were watching another jumper fall through the air. The sound of the impact was so shocking, and Rich actually grabbed the other guy for support, and said “oh my God, he landed on a fire-fighter.” I turned around and saw the group of fire-fighters dragging the two away, the jumper in a deep blue pinstriped suit, and the fire-fighter who had been struck by him. The jumper’s body moved in impossibly pliable ways, and I watched, transfixed, as they dragged them both past me.