Remembering September 11, 2001

Twenty years ago, a stunned nation watched in horror as the bright skies of a September day shattered right in front of us.New York's World Trade Center — along with its iconic Twin Towers — crumbled after two hijacked planes crashed into them, killing thousands of people as it fell to the ground below. In Arlington, Virginia, the heart of America's military — the Pentagon — came under the same attack as a jet slammed into the western side of the building. And in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, brave passengers fought to stop their hijacked plane from suffering a similar fate forcing the attackers to crash into a field. That day is seared into the American consciousness changing the world as we know it. As we pause to remember the heroes lost that day, we look back at what happened, how it's changed us, and what it means for the world today.20 years later, how have our lives changed?The events of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the lives of Americans forever.In a recent poll by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, 60% of 1,000 people surveyed agreed.Eighty-five percent polled said the terror attacks had a big impact on their generation, while nearly two-thirds said it had a big impact on their own lives.From technological advances to changes in national security, exactly what has changed in the 20 years since America came under attack?Three television anchors guided millions through horror"Turn on your television."Those words were repeated in millions of homes on Sept. 11, 2001. Friends and relatives took to the telephone: Something awful was happening. You have to see.Before social media and with online news in its infancy, the story of the day when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people unfolded primarily on television. Even some people inside New York's World Trade Center made the phone call. They felt a shudder, could smell smoke. Could someone watch the news and find out what was happening?Most Americans were guided through the unimaginable by one of three men: Tom Brokaw of NBC News, Peter Jennings of ABC, and Dan Rather of CBS. The news media has changed in the ensuing 20 years, and some experts believe the same story would feel even more chaotic and terrifying if it broke today.But on that day, when America faced the worst of humanity, it had three newsmen at the peak of their powers. Remembering 9/11 changes as the decades passAcross the vast field where the plane fell out of the sky so many years ago, all is quiet.The hills around Shanksville seem to swallow sound. The plateau that Americans by the millions ascend to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial, to think of those who died in this southwestern Pennsylvania expanse, sits just above much of the landscape, creating a pocket of quiet precisely where quiet needs to be.It is a place that encourages the act of remembering.Twenty years have passed since United Flight 93 made its final descent, chaos unfolding aboard as buildings burned 300 miles to the east. Nearly one-fifth of the country is too young to remember firsthand the day that changed everything.At the edge of the memorial's overlook, a burly man in a leather Harley-Davidson vest talks to two companions. He points toward the patch where the plane hit. It is an intimate conversation, and it is hard to hear what he's saying.But his first two words are clear:"I remember …"Survivors encourage acts of kindness to bring back togethernessSept. 11, 2001, was one of the darkest days in U.S. history. But it was also a moment that united the country as people stepped up to help others.Twenty years later, there's a nationwide effort to bring back that sense of togetherness, one small act at a time.From 9/11's ashes, a new world took shape. It did not lastIn the ghastly rubble of Ground Zero's fallen towers 20 years ago, Hour Zero arrived, a chance to start anew.World affairs reordered abruptly on that morning of blue skies, black ash, fire and death.In Iran, chants of “death to America” quickly gave way to candlelight vigils to mourn the American dead. Vladimir Putin weighed in with substantive help as the U.S. prepared to go to war in Russia's region of influence.Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, a murderous dictator with a poetic streak, spoke of the “human duty" to be with Americans after "these horrifying and awesome events, which are bound to awaken human conscience.”From the first terrible moments, America's longstanding allies were joined by longtime enemies in that singularly galvanizing instant. No nation with global standing was cheering the stateless terrorists. How rare is that?Too rare to last, it turned out.How 9/11 changed travel foreverWhen this century began, you could pull up to the airport 20 minutes before a domestic flight in the United States and stroll straight over to your gate. Perhaps your partner would come through security to wave you goodbye. You might not have a photo ID in your carry-on, but you could have blades and liquids.Back in 2001, Sean O'Keefe, now a professor at Syracuse University and former chair of aerospace and defense company Airbus, was deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in the George W. Bush administration."At the White House, I was a member of the National Council Security team," he told CNN Travel. He and his colleagues had been briefed on the al-Qaida terrorist group and understood the threat it posed, "but at the same time our imaginations simply did not give us the capacity to think that something like could happen."It had been nearly 30 years since the Palestinian terrorist attacks at Rome airport in 1973, which killed 34 people and demonstrated that air travel was vulnerable to international terrorism. "That seemed to have changed the whole security structure in Europe and in the Middle East in a way that didn't really penetrate the American psyche," O'Keefe said. "It's this typical American mindset; we have to experience it to believe it."Then on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, a team of 19 hijackers was able to board four different domestic flights in the northeastern U.S. in a series of coordinated terror attacks that would claim 3,000 lives. Flying in America, and the rest of the world, would never be the same again.The UnidentifiedRob Fazio is feeling the weight, the heaviness of 20 years."We don't know exactly what happened,” he said. “But the things that we do know are very meaningful.”On the morning of Sept. 11, his father, Ronald Fazio, was working on the 99th floor of the South Tower."He was looking out the window, towards Tower One, and he said to his colleagues that that plane just doesn't look right, it's gonna hit, it's gonna hit,” Rob Fazio said.Colleagues recalled how Fazio went from office to office, urging everyone to evacuate. But he stayed behind - holding the door for others so they could get down to safety."He kept saying 'no, go home,'” Rob Fazio added. “and that was powerful."Fazio ultimately made his way down the stairs of the south tower as Battalion Chief Orio Palmer was heading up."On Sept. 11, 2001, people like Orio Palmer led the way,” said retired New York firefighter and Palmer’s brother-in-law, Jim McCaffrey.Palmer was the first firefighter to reach the impact zone working to save lives until the very end. "What he did and what he epitomized, what he personified — that is the very definition of heroism,” McCaffrey added. “It's the very definition of selflessness.”Both Palmer and Fazio are believed to have died when the South Tower collapsed.A brave and caring father and a heroic and determined firefighter. Both were among the victims whose remains were never identified.We will live with the scars forever.Twenty years later, Jack Grandcolas still remembers waking up at 7:03 that morning. He looked at the clock, then out the window where an image in the sky caught his eye — a fleeting vision that looked like an angel ascending. He didn’t know it yet, but that was the moment his life changed.Across the country, it was 10:03 a.m. and United Flight 93 had just crashed into a Pennsylvania field.His wife, Lauren, was not supposed to be on that flight. So when he turned on the television and saw the chilling scenes of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolding, he was not worried for her. Then he saw the blinking light on the answering machine.Lauren had left two messages that morning, as he slept with the phone ringer off in the bedroom. First, with good news that she was taking an earlier flight from New Jersey home to San Francisco. Then she called from the plane. There was “a little problem,” his wife said, but she was “comfortable for now.” She did not say she would call back, Grandcolas recalls. She said: “I love you more than anything, just know that. Please tell my family I love them, too. Goodbye, honey.”“That moment I looked over at the television and there was a smoldering hole on the ground in Pennsylvania. They said it was United Flight 93,” said Grandcolas, 58. “That’s when I dropped to the ground.” All 44 people on board were killed. Lauren was 38 years old and three months pregnant with their first child. She had traveled East to attend her grandmother's funeral in New Jersey, and then stayed a few extra days to announce the pregnancy — a little “good news to lift the spirits of her parents and sisters after burying their grandmother," Grandcolas said. Remembering the firefightersHow much of a life lasts in a single photograph? How much power does a three-story tall steel column hold?For John Napolitano, pictures were all he had of his son, New York City firefighter John Philip Napolitano. He was born on the Fourth of July, 1968, and died on Sept. 11, 2001.His remains were never recovered. But the 9/11 memorial in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, gave a hero's father something he never imagined. Officers at Oklahoma Air Force base remember responding to attacksTinker Air Force Base was a hub of activity on Sept. 11, 2001, with the Oklahoma base's planes making sure nothing was flying above the U.S. that wasn't supposed to be there.KOCO spoke with three Air Force officers who were in the air and on the ground that fateful day."What? Like, 'That’s dumb. That thing’s so big. How do you not miss that thing, right?' And we thought about it for a minute, and he turned on the TV and we watched the second plane hit. And it was like instantly the entire room just changed," Col. Keven Coyle, with the 552nd Air Control Wing, said. "And he looked at me and goes, 'You need to go get your 72-hour bag right now.'""So, just like everyone else, the light bulb clicks," retired AWACS Officer Andrew Bruce said. "The unimaginable had happened at that point. But we didn’t know what that all meant, either. Just like everyone else, you’re trying to figure it out." Are we safer?After the attacks, the 9/11 Commission issued a report that became a best-seller — urging immediate implementation of a host of recommendations to make the U.S. safer.Former Congressman Lee Hamilton was the 9/11 Commission's vice chairman.“We got a lot accomplished," Hamilton told Chief Investigative Reporter Mark Albert}“I don't think there's any doubt that we are safer,” Hamilton said. “The worst thing would be to try to sit on your laurels and say we fix the problem.” “Are you saying that terrorism will never go away?” Albert asked. “It is a permanent threat,” Hamilton said.Man marks 9/11 with inspiring messageFor John Wesley, no day has a greater significance than Sept. 11, 2001. His reasons are deeply personal, powerful and inspiring.Images of his fiancée are indelibly etched in Wesley's mind, heart and soul. Sarah Clark died when terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and deliberately crashed into the Pentagon."She saw the same old world each day with new eyes, and her compassion never blinks," Wesley said.Authorities allowed Wesley to watch the boarding gate video. He saw two of the hijackers looking at a child playing with an Elmo toy, seniors being pushed onboard in wheelchairs and students securing their backpacks."For me, how could you look at that and still do what was on your mind?" Wesley said.Wesley decided at the last minute not to go on the trip with Clark because it was his first day on the job as an actor on HBO'S "The Wire.""Growing up in Mississippi, I just believe I would have fought," Wesley said.Every year on the 9/11 anniversary, Wesley visits the Pentagon crash site. He will be there this year, as well. In 2018, former Vice President Mike Pence mentioned Clark in his remarks. Wesley said her positive influence has made him a better man. He said she helped lead him back to his faith."People need help. People need compassion. And I wanted people to know that I had no malice, that I never asked God why. I just thanked him for the time that I had with her and all the things that happened with her," Wesley said.Survivors Relive and ReflectAmy Hargrave's father, TJ, is memorialized in the bronze edges that surround two large pools sitting in the footprints of what were the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.Nearly 3,000 names are cut into the bronze honoring each of the 2,977 people who died in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on 9/11.Sept. 11 was a day that changed everything about life. A day of loss and courage we will always remember. A day that still replays in the minds of those who experienced it.They were some of 9/11's biggest names. Where are they now?Rudolph Giuliani was a hero before he was a punchline. Lisa Beamer was a wife and mother before she became a symbol of Sept. 11 — and though her celebrity passed, her widowhood cannot.In the aftermath of the planes falling from the sky, America and the world were introduced to an array of personalities. Some we had known well, but came to see in different ways. Others were thrown into public consciousness by unhappy happenstance.Some, like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, are dead. But others have gone on to lead lives that are postscripts to Sept. 11, 2001. Here are a few of the boldface names of that tumultuous time — what they were then, and what has happened to them since.A burst of patriotism Twenty years ago, on a Tuesday morning, a gut-punched nation sat stunned — staring at any TV they could find, shocked.A thousand miles from Ground Zero was too close to home. But it was also too far away. So feeling helpless, Americans prayed, cried and rallied around their colors.Plenty of people waved flags. In Iowa, 6,000 created a human one. At the same time, teenagers, who couldn’t even pronounce the enemy’s name, signed up to wear the flag on the uniform.'Paulie's Push' remembers flight attendants lostA Massachusetts man is honoring the flight attendants on board the planes that were hijacked on Sept. 11 ahead of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.Retired United flight attendant Paulie Veneto is pushing a beverage cart from Logan International Airport in Boston to Ground Zero in New York to honor the crew members.“The only thing I know is I’m going to be in Ground Zero on Sept. 11. I know that deep down in my soul. I’ll carry it on my back,” he said.Veneto, 62, is using his more than 200-mile journey to raise money for the victims’ families and their foundations and collect donations for those struggling with addiction."I pushed one all over the world at 30,000 feet. The difference now is I’m not hitting elbows and knees. Now I’m hitting potholes," he said.He said his main goal is to pay tribute to those flight attendants who showed unbelievable strength and courage under the worst conditions.Muslim Americans still fighting bias 20 years laterA car passed, the driver's window rolled down and the man spat an epithet at two little girls wearing their hijabs: "Terrorist!"It was 2001, mere weeks after the twin towers at the World Trade Center fell, and 10-year-old Shahana Hanif and her younger sister were walking to the local mosque from their Brooklyn home.Unsure, afraid, the girls ran.As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks approaches, Hanif can still recall the shock of the moment, her confusion over how anyone could look at her, a child, and see a threat."It's not a nice, kind word. It means violence, it means dangerous. It is meant to shock whoever ... is on the receiving end of it," she says.But the incident also spurred a determination to speak out for herself and others that has helped get her to where she is today: A community organizer strongly favored to win a seat on the New York City Council in the upcoming municipal election.Like Hanif, other young American Muslims have grown up under the shadow of 9/11. Many have faced hostility and surveillance, mistrust and suspicion, questions about their Muslim faith and doubts over their Americanness.They've also found ways forward, ways to fight back against bias, to organize, to craft nuanced personal narratives about their identities. In the process, they've built bridges, challenged stereotypes and carved out new spaces for themselves.There is "this sense of being Muslim as a kind of important identity marker, regardless of your relationship with Islam as a faith," says Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at The University of Chicago who studies Muslim communities. "That's been one of the main effects in people's lives … it has shaped the ways the community has developed."Mistrust and suspicion of Muslims didn't start with 9/11, but the attacks dramatically intensified those animosities.