9/11 Heroes

This picture shows how all the firefighters who went into the collapsing building are heroes. It shows them with their heads down and sad respecting all the firefighters who died when they went in to save people. Even the firefighters who died are still heroes in this situation because they showed courage and put their lives at risk to save someone elses. This picture shows the significance of firefighters to the event of 9/11. This firefighters are a first-hand survivor of the attack. I chose this photo because it showed the affect the attack had on firefighters.


This picture shows surviving firemen putting up the flag after the attack at ground zero. They are covered in dust and debree and are giving respect to the country and all the people still trapped in the towers. These firemen are heroes because they survived the attack and have saved many other lives in the process of going into the collapsing towers and risking their lives. I chose this photo because it shows the respect these firefighters have.


This picture shows a note that someone wrote to a firefighter who went in and died. This picture shows how much these firefighters meant to people and that many had families and other people in their lives to worry about too. These firefighters were truly heroes with how strong and courageous they were when they stepped into that building. I chose this picture because I think that it shows really well how much these heroes meant to people and that they had other people in their lives and they were so selfless when they walked into that building.

http://www.9-11heroes.us/
tho those who died when the towers crashed down
A deep memorial in our hearts,
of pain, of shame, of love, of blame,
In these mixed feelings we must admit.
Thou know none who's gone in vain.
Though people think they died in vain,
yet their legacy still lives today.
Of valour, of peace, of love, of courage,
These men gave their lives to serve and save.
This poem shows how other people perceive the heroes of 9/11. This gives us a better understanding of what the heroes did to help the country on September 11,2001. This poem tells people how much the people in the tower had to go through to help others in need. This shows the characteristic of selflessness and courage that many heroes possess. I chose this poem because I really liked what it says and the message it portrays.
A Hero
A charity song for children who lost
a firefighter/police parent in the 911 attack.
The morning froze in silence
as the terror filled our hearts
we stared in disbelief at what we saw.
Through the dust we felt so helpless,
wishing that we could have known.
We hold our families close, as we watched them fall.

Some people didn't waiver, they had a job to do.
There was nothing that could keep them away...

Oh, it's a special kind of hero
who would sacrifice themselves - so I could spend another day with you.
And for all the fallen heroes who saved a life that day
your courage unites a nation, and we'll remember you.

So many people crying, walking in a daze
holding pictures of their loved ones
through an empty haze.
Our Heroes didn't falter, they held out a helping hand
remembering their own children, as they rushed inside again.

They didn't waiver, they had a job to do
and some never made it home that day.

Oooh well remember you. We honor you, salute,
respect and cherish you.
Not many people can do the duty that
you knew on that cold September day.
He knows his dad was a hero; seven survivors of the World Trade Center came forward to say the young lawyer saved their lives at the expense of his own.

Has it been seven years? Not for everyone. It's been 6 1/2 years for Jason Zucker, born a few months after his dad, Andrew, disappeared in the South Tower's inferno. He knows his dad was a hero; seven survivors of the World Trade Center came forward to say the young lawyer saved their lives at the expense of his own. But stories are one thing and having no father to kiss is another. Now the boy will have a Torah to kiss, a new Torah with his father's name inscribed on the velvet.

In Riverdale Jewish Center completed the writing of a new Torah scroll in honor of Zucker, the local hero. It was read for the first time on Sept. 11, 2006, a Monday, and was read for the first time on a Shabbat later that week on the actual yahrtzeit, Elul 23. An Israeli silversmith has crafted silver rimonim (pomegranates), a stylized evocation of the two towers, to adorn the scroll's two wooden handles.

Erica Zucker, Andrew's widow and Jason's mom, said: "Andrew was very connected to the shul, and we still are. I like the idea of something tangible, for something of Andrew to be there; something for Jason to see and touch as he grows up, to see the community's love for Andrew. I can always tell Jason about Andrew and how amazing and supportive the community was and is, but this is also a chance for Jason to see it -- the community writing a Torah in memory of his father."

It is Elul, the season of visiting cemeteries before the New Year. Student groups that fly to Poland to see death camps can now take a subway to Chambers Street. There is a messianic legend that when the Third Temple is built it will descend instantly, whole and complete from Heaven. Now we have a new apocalyptic legend -- a death camp that descended on New York; klieg lights suddenly glaring through the a pale, smokey night haze; noses sensing a stench that couldn't quite be placed; soldiers rolling by on lorries; the sense of souls piled upon souls beneath ash and palsied metal.

On Beekman Street, a few blocks from the hallowed ground, Rabbi Meyer Hager, spiritual leader of the Wall Street Synagogue, anticipates the return of that most haunted day. He takes a black hat down from its shelf, the hat he wore on that morning five years ago. The hat is splotchy with an odd pale soot. As if pointing to an object on the Seder plate, he says: "This is the debris. I shook it off but then I caught myself. I thought, maybe I should keep it the way it is, so someone can see and learn what it holds for the future."
This song is really meaningful and thoughtful and really makes you look at what the heroes had to go through and what the survivors and families had to go through to get through this tragic event. This song really hits the spot at what happened to the people who had to live through the attack. This song will really comfort kids who have lost a firefighter/police parent when they went into save others over their own lives. This song shows the characteristic of a hero that they are caring. The heroes cared for their families and were always there for them. I chose this song because it was really thoughtful and was really nice to help kids who have lost someone close to them.


This video gives tribute to those who suffered from the 9/11 attack and shows the impact that the attack had on New York City. This video shows it up close with pictures and clips from people who saw it right there when it was happening. This video shows the characteristic of a hero that they are respected by others. The heroes of 9/11 had enough people who respect them to do this video for them. I chose this video because it is eye opening and gives you a real insight into what happened on September 11Th.


This video shows another view at what happened at 9/11. This shows what the heroes of 9/11 had to go through to do their job. The firefighters and police officers had to do something that many of them probably never thought that they would be involved in. This shows the characteristic of courage and always being ready for anything. I chose this video because I thought that it was a good one and really showed what the heroes had to go through to just do their job.


Voices join 9/11 artifacts
Survivors share their stories for planned museum
NEW YORK - The artifacts awaiting their place in the Sept. 11 museum sit in storage -- crushed emergency vehicles, dust-covered purses, a giant steel column covered with victims' pictures. Now, voices will bring them to life.
There's the recorded voice of FDNY retiree Peter Bondy, who put Sept. 11 firefighter Jonathan Ielpi's picture on the 62-ton "last column" at the ruined World Trade Center site in 2002.

And John Abruzzo, a quadriplegic, telling how he was carried down 69 stories of the north tower by his colleagues in a special wheelchair.

And Michele and John Cartier, siblings talking about how they found each other in the chaos before the towers fell, and about their brother, James, who did not make it out.

These are among hundreds of Sept. 11 stories -- taped remembrances, even podcasts playing on the Internet -- being collected by museum planners who want to connect physical relics of the nation's worst terrorist attack to memory.

They hope the multimedia library -- already containing more than 800 oral histories -- will have special meaning in what has already become one of the most exhaustively documented events ever.

"This is a story that one-third of the world's population lived through in real time," museum director Alice Greenwald says. "We can't tell people what they already know. There are so many living witnesses."

When the museum opens -- by 2012 at the earliest -- visitors may be able to listen to a fire fighter's account of removing the memento-covered steel column while looking at it. There will be a library in the museum where visitors can find stories by computer and listen.

Some survivors waited years to tell their stories and then spent several hours, leaving no detail out, chief curator Jan Ramirez says. Their stories often focus on sense memories: the smell in the air, the struggle to see through smoke. One woman saw glass popping from one of the huge trade center towers and likened it to a run quickly forming on a stocking.

Michele Cartier told her story a month ago. She and her brother, James, each worked in a trade center tower. Her building, the north tower, was hit by a hijacked plane first. Cartier, an administrative coordinator at an investment brokerage, began walking 40 flights down. She tried calling James and couldn't get through. It was hot, a little smoky.

"We just kept going down. I don't even remember where we exited," she says.

On the street -- Church Street, on the east side of the trade center -- she saw another brother, John. She had no idea why he was there. James had called him and told him to find Michele and he came on his motorcycle. Before a plane hit his building.

They looked and looked for their brother.

"We waited in the crowd trying to find him, praying. Anyone that looked similar to James, I'd scream out his name," she said.

The south tower collapsed, and the siblings ran, tearing John's T-shirt to form small masks to breathe through the sooty air.

Seven years later, Cartier, now 37, thinks James somehow is responsible for John finding her in the crowd and helping her to survive.

"The chances of me finding John in a crowd of thousands was just an act of God," she said. "John was there to help me and James was the instrument that got John there."

James Cartier, 26, was trying to evacuate from the 105Th floor of the south tower when it collapsed.
This article is about how survivors are all telling their stories about a museum from the artifacts of September 11. This shows how the heroes and survivors of this attach want to show others more than they could ever see from just watching what happened on TV. This shows the characteristic of helping others heroes portray. These heroes want to help others understand the true impact of the attack on peoples lives. I chose this article because it shows how the heroes are really giving back.

Personal accounts from people in the building
110TH FLOOR
Steven Jacobson, victim
WPIX
Portraits of Grief: A Transmitter Marvel

Steven Jacobson was a transmitter engineer for WPIX-TV and had an office on the 110th floor of the north tower, just below the station's rooftop antenna. When the first plane hit that tower, a friend and colleague at WPIX, Victor J. Arnone, called twice from the station to see how he was doing. This is his account:

I punched in his extension. I said, "Steve are you O.K.?" I was shocked the phone lines were still working. He said,`` It's getting hot up here. What happened?'' I told him to get one of the one air packs we had. After the 1993 bombing, we got these air packs. They're the same kind that the coal miners use when they need air while they wait to be rescued. They give you like five hours of air.

The second conversation was just after the second plane hit. I said ``They're terrorists. They hit the other tower. Try to get to the roof.'' But he said, ``It's too hot to leave the room. Get me out of here. Send help.'' And then the line went dead.

106TH FLOOR
Hagay Shefi, victim
Gold Tier Technologies
Portraits of Grief: A True Partnership

Hagay Shefi was the founder of Gold Tier Technologies and he was attending the Risk Waters Group conference at Windows on the World on the 106th floor of the north tower. At 9:04, he called his wife, Sigal. Friends have described Mr. Shefi as an eternal optimist but his wife said she could tell right away that he was very concerned, and that it was very serious.

``He told me there was a bomb and there is a lot of smoke,'' she said. ``He was very calm, but I got the feeling that he knows it was very severe conditions. He knows he will not get out. The way he was talking. He was very heavy. He was like saying goodbye.''

105TH FLOOR
Mike Pelletier, victim
Cantor Fitzgerald
Portraits of Grief: Private Language

After the impact he phoned his wife, Sophie, at 8:51 a.m., according to cell records, and a mutual friend reached him at 9:24 a.m. His wife recounted those conversations.

He went by Mike. He's French Canadian. I'm French French. He was a commodities broker.

He's only been at Cantor almost a year. He sort of switched around a lot.

He took the 6:04 train from Greenwich, Conn. That's the time he went in that morning. He was at his desk by 7, 7:10 every morning.

He kissed me goodbye. I have a two-and-a-half year old daughter. And our son is 11 months. And he was 3 months at the time.

That morning was a blur. I remember him kissing me goodbye.

It was our daughter's first day of nursery school. I videotaped it. I drove to her nursery school and I parked in the parking lot.

I was just getting Sydney out of her car seat when the car phone rang.

I picked up. And it was him. And he was just in a panic.

He just said, ``Soph, an airplane just went through the building. I don't know what we're going to do.'' He said he loved me.

And it took me a second to just realize what was happening. I said, ``Oh my God, is there help?'' He said, ``We don't know. We don't know. We can't tell.''

I said should I call 911. He said, ``Yeah, yeah, yeah. Call 911.'' That was it. He told me he loved me.

I called 911 from my cellphone and ended up getting Connecticutt 911. They were laughing. They hadn't heard. They said, ``Oh yeah, we'll make sure we pass along the message.''

His friend got through to him on his cellphone. Randy. He said, ``Thank God, Randy, thank God it's you. It's bad.''

Randy told him it was a terrorist attack. Mike started swearing. Mike was relaying information to everyone. Randy could hear him relaying information to everyone. He could hear people in the background.

Mike just said, ``We're not injured, we're just a little bit disoriented because of the smoke. Because we're getting air through the window.''

He said, ``Don't hang up. Don't hang up. You need to get an engineer on another line who knows the building to tell us how to get out. Because we don't know how to get out.''

They died alone. No one was there to help them. No one was there to hold their hand. But they were brave. They did everything they could to get out and they fought with their heart and soul and there was just no way out, and that was torture.
These three dialogues are of people who survived the crash and are telling about their conversations with people who were important to them. This shows the characteristic of caring and courage that a hero has. These people were caring to talk to their loved ones up until the crash came and were courageous by living through the collapse and sharing their stories with others. I chose these dialogues because it shows how the crash impacted people personally.

Survivor who ignored advice
By BBC News Online's Chris Horrie
A New York survivor has told BBC News Online how he was advised to get off the street and go to his desk in South Tower of the World Trade Centre minutes before it burst into flames.

His decision to ignore the advice and run saved his life.

American Express worker Richard Wadja's decision to enjoy a leisurely walk on a "beautiful, calm" late summer morning made him a fateful few minutes late for work at his desk in the Center's South Tower.

"For me it was a normal day. Everything was calm. Then I was walking right outside the building about to enter when I heard an explosion - I had no idea it was a plane - it was a huge explosion, a strange sound.

'Nothing but flames'

"I looked up and saw nothing but flames and fire in the first tower, right above me - and things are falling down from the building.

"People were just standing around and looking up - I got hit on the head and I started to run across the street. People were running and screaming as though it was an earthquake."

"When I got across the street I looked back and five or six storeys were in flames."

Mr Wadja immediately phoned his office in the still unaffected North Tower and was told by a receptionist: "It was a plane... they just made an announcement on the loudspeaker."

Canary Wharf

"She told me 'get over here - we are OK'."

Mr Wadja does not know if the "stay put" announcement was made throughout the building, or just in his own office.

This is the worst fire I've ever seen - I'm going home - and you'd better out of there

Richard Wadja
After the first plane hit the World Trade Center it is likely that many others in the South Tower were likewise told to stay put - making them sitting ducks for the second plane, already making its turn to attack.

The advice to stay inside - to avoid the deadly rain of debris already falling from the North Tower - was not necessarily unusual.

This was, for example, exactly what people were told to do in London's Canary Wharf tower when it was hit by an IRA bomb attack in 1996. It was seen as much safer for people to stay inside than expose themselves to the danger of flying or falling glass in the streets.

Canary Wharf: people told to stay put

Adamant

Ignoring the pleas of his office Mr Wadja said he was not going to come into the building - mainly because the streets surrounding the base of the Center were already full of burning debris following the first plane attack.

"Standing there, I then saw a body fall from one of the windows up way high on the North Tower and of course it didn't look like one at first because you are in shock - but it was a body."

He told the receptionist: "this is the worst fire I've ever seen - I'm going home - and you'd better out of there".

Second Crash

Instead of heading for the "safety" of his own office, Mr Wadja - now in a state of deep shock - phoned his mother who advised him to "just run, run, run - get out of there".

"I'm glad I listened to her because otherwise I might have just stood their watching, stunned and not knowing that it was going to get worse."

Mr Wadja had started to run away from the scene when the second plane crashed into the South Tower, housing the office to which he had been directed only minutes before.

I said to everyone - we can't stay in this park. We are too close to the United Nations. If they hit the Pentagon they are definitely going to hit that

Richard Wadja
"People started running in every direction as though it was from a horror film.

"They ran so fast that I got knocked over - somebody actually stepped on me. And then somebody else helped me get up. I kept running and I kept thinking to myself 'why did I stop to look - I wasted minutes'."

Collapse

But many others, Mr Wadja remembers, stood stunned and staring with amazement. They are likely to have been among the victims crushed when the towers collapsed half an hour later.

Just before that time Mr Wadja and other survivors had made it to the relative safety of a park several blocks away.

By now, news of the attacks on the Pentagon and attempted attacks on other buildings had convinced many in the traumatised crowd that other suicide planes were on the way.

"I said to everyone - we can't stay in this park. We are too close to the United Nations. If they hit the Pentagon they are definitely going to hit that."

As Mr Wadja was saying this the South Tower began to collapse.

"Don't walk - run!"

"The sound was one I can't even describe. We couldn't believe it. We were in denial."

Victims then began heading towards the 59th Street bridge convinced that they must get off Manhattan island and out of the centre of the city.

When Mr Wadja reached the bridge hysteria was such that people were shouting "don't walk - run. Who knows - the bridge might be a target too."

Pain

It took him six hours to reach the home of his babysitter on the outskirts of the city, driven on by the idea he had to get his baby child out of a city which, he believed, was being subject to an all-out military attack.

"The next day I was in agony but at the time I didn't feel the pain - I was just numb".

At the time Mr Wadja spoke to us, many of his colleagues at American Express were still unaccounted for.

"The ones that thought nothing was going to happen were the ones that perished," he says.

"That's the way it is."
This article shows how one man didn't go with what everybody else was saying and had enough confidence in himself to go his own way and get out of there on his own. This man showed the characteristic of confidence in himself by going his own way and getting out of there safely. I chose this article because I think that it shows how just not following the rest of the group can benefit you in many ways.

A Firefighters Account From inside the world trade center
he south tower of the World Trade Center has just collapsed. I am helping my friends at Ladder Company 16, and the firefighters have commandeered a crowded 67th Street crosstown bus. We go without stopping from Lexington Avenue to the staging center on Amsterdam. We don't talk much. Not one of the passengers complains.

At Amsterdam we board another bus. The quiet is broken by a lieutenant: "We'll see things today we shouldn't have to see, but listen up, we'll do it together. We'll be together, and we'll all come back together." He opens a box of dust masks and gives two to each of us.

We walk down West Street and report to the chief in command. He stands ankle-deep in mud. His predecessor chief earlier in the day is already missing, along with the command center itself, which is somewhere beneath mountains of cracked concrete and bent steel caused by the second collapse, of the north tower.

Now several hundred firefighters are milling about. There is not much for us to do except pull hose from one place to another as a pumper and ladder truck are repositioned. It is quiet: no sirens, no helicopters. Just the sound of two hoses watering a hotel on West Street — the six stories that remain. The low crackle of department radios fades into air. The danger now is the burning 47-story building before us. The command chief has taken the firefighters out.

I leave the hoses and trucks and walk through the World Financial Center. There has been a complete evacuation; I move through the hallways alone. It seems the building has been abandoned for decades, as there are inches of dust on the floors. The large and beautiful atrium with its palm trees is in ruins.

Outside, because of the pervasive gray dusting, I cannot read the street signs as I make my way back. There is a lone fire company down a narrow street wetting down a smoldering pile. The mountains of debris in every direction are 50 and 60 feet high, and it is only now that I realize the silence I notice is the silence of thousands of people buried around me.

On the West Street side the chiefs begin to push us back toward the Hudson. Entire companies are unaccounted for. The department's elite rescue squads are not heard from. Just last week I talked with a group of Rescue 1 firefighters about the difficult requirements for joining these companies. I remember thinking then that these were truly unusual men, smart and thoughtful.

I know the captain of Rescue 1, Terry Hatten. He is universally loved and respected on the job. I think about Terry, and about Brian Hickey, the captain of Rescue 4, who just last month survived the blast of the Astoria fire that killed three firefighters, including two of his men. He was working today.

I am pulling a heavy six-inch hose through the muck when I see Mike Carter, the vice-president of the firefighters union, on the hose just before me. He's a good friend, and we barely say hello to each other. I see Kevin Gallagher, the union president, who is looking for his missing firefighter son. Someone calls to me. It is Jimmy Boyle, the retired president of the union. "I can't find Michael," he says. Michael Boyle was with Engine 33, and the whole company is missing. I can't say anything to Jimmy, but just throw my arms around him. The last thing I see is Kevin Gallagher kissing a firefighter — his son.
This article tells the story of one heroes quest to get out of the crash. It shows how others dealt with it and what people did to get through it. This shows the characteristic of caring in a hero. It shows people what heroes do for other people before themselves. I chose this article because I think that it is insightful and really interesting.

Conclusion
What I found while researching heroes I found two types of heroes from September 11,2001, people who were actually in it and are survivors from it and people who witnessed it or news reports. The people who are survivors are the strongest heroes there are from this event because they had to go through that day and live their life after it. These survivors are the people who can give the most real and personal stories of this day. Survivors were heroes in ways that not many others can say. They lived through this, they helped others while getting out, they cared for others in the building, and are respected by others in our country. While researching the people who lived, most of what I found were stories or dialogue from 9/11. The dialogue and stories that these people told to others are amazing to read and it really shows a person how much they lost and gained while having to live through something like that. Survivors are truly heroes from this day and will always have their story to tell someone. The other kind of heroes from this event are people who witnessed it and the news reports that people sent in.The people that witnessed this event give others who weren't there a story of what it was really like to stand there and see the towers collapse right in front of them. The witnesses are stronger people from seeing this event. Families of the people inside the tower were also witnesses of this event. These families had to see the towers collapse on their loved ones if they couldn't get out. Families are heroes of this event becuase they are respected by others, helped others standing and watching, and cared for others who were there and who lost someone else in their families. The news reports from this day gave people all around the country a sight at what was going on in New York. Without the news reports and pictures and videos that people sent in, people all around the country would have never known what was going on. The news reports were heroes to many people all around the country by giving them insight on what was happening where they couldn't see. All these things that go along with this event are heroes in their own ways. The survivors, the witnesses, the families, and the news reports all did something to help others in all different ways. Many of things give others who weren't there an insight on what happened and helps them better understand what others had to go through. In finding these artifacts, it really shows how much a hero can do for a country and how much it can change the way which people look at something/someone.