"You don't want them to suffer. They're trapped in a burning building. It's just an unspeakable horror. And then you get this 10 years later. It just changes everything."
This is a handwritten note: "84th Floor west office 12 people trapped." And for 10 years, she'd had the idea of him dying instantly.
September 13, 2012
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23 comments:
What a compelling story, to think how the note survived the fall, was retrieved among all the dust and debris, and then was linked to the person who wrote it.
Is it better to die right away in such a thing, or live to ponder life's final moments, or to, perhaps, do something heroic?
BUT, ME TRUST the POTUS Obama. He is the best. He and Hillary will save the day.
We have Americans already dead, and these thugs have a list of names of Libyans who are working with Americans, you dumb fuck.
I saw that...wondering if the cooperating Libyans know they're being hunted?
How sad. And to think they identified the blood using DNA. The story that always got me is the recording of the guy talking to 911 and you literally hear the building begin its collapse. It was heart rending because you could hear in his voice how desperately he wanted to live.
I wonder if would've been kinder to not tell her the truth. On the one hand, it is the truth. On the other, well.
That's brutal. I remember hearing about the Challenger disaster, how they didn't die instantly and there must've been a period where they were still alive, knowing they were doomed. Truly horrible.
"...wondering if the cooperating Libyans know they're being hunted?"
We don't know that the personnel didn't get a chance to destroy those records in the last moments. There was a fire, so they might just be burnt rather than missing.
On the story thread, I feel really bad for this family. To have the hope at least their loved one didn't suffer, or at least suffered little, dashed after so long. This would be like reliving the entire thing again! The had a picture of how the man died, and held it for so long, and then BLAM! Sorry, we got it wrong...your husband suffered indescribable pain before burning the lining out of his lungs, and finally succumbing without being able to even scream. I would rather just not know this myself. Nothing was added to this family except more pain.
As far as Benghazi goes, maybe it's too much 007 but wouldn't like highly sensitive files be hard to get to? And if they weren't...WTF? But Hillbilly, and Zero got this international thing down. No worries. Most useless POS ever in the WH.(and it takes quite a bit for me to call someone a POS) I mean I don't want murderers executed because they might have seen the errors of their ways(I don't want them on the street though)
AP. Jeez man. I like your schtick, but that sounded like something Axlerod would say. Not cool.
While I sympathize with this woman, I'm not sure it "changes everything."
Since I lost my wife to cancer, I talk to a lot of people who've lost loved ones to cancer.
Obsessing about how the deceased died, whether it could have been prevented, and whether the survivor could have done something to prevent it, seems to be the standard reaction.
It's entertainment.
Link fixed again. (Comments on the subject of the link instability are deleted.)
And the terrorists are still hunting Americans.
"how they didn't die instantly"
I think the notion that people "die instantly" in any given event is just a whitewash by the authorities. There there, they never knew what hit them.
For this reason, the nets never show the footage of people jumping to the deaths on 9/11, rather than wait for the flames.
Reeeally glad I didn't read this on Tuesday. Every anniversary I allow myself to read something that brings it all back and this would've really done a number on me.
Bill,
I can take just about everything but the slo-mo of the second jet hitting the south tower.
I watched it happen from my office on 14th St. and 8th Avenue.
Don't need to see that again.
This part got me Each delivers a piece of the agonizing account as though trying to spare the others.
There is a movement in ASL that conveys the same thing as 'verklempt' or 'anxiety.' It's an open hand at the throat that crunches into a fist at the throat to show a knot has formed there and it accompanies a choked facial expression, like "eekeegeekeegeek"
MadisonMan said...
What a compelling story, to think how the note survived the fall, was retrieved among all the dust and debris, and then was linked to the person who wrote it.
Is it better to die right away in such a thing, or live to ponder life's final moments, or to, perhaps, do something heroic?
There was nothing heroic they could do. The window or the flames. Those were the choices.
Shouting Thomas said...
Bill,
I can take just about everything but the slo-mo of the second jet hitting the south tower.
I watched it happen from my office on 14th St. and 8th Avenue.
Don't need to see that again.
I still can't watch it.
wild chicken said...
"how they didn't die instantly"
I think the notion that people "die instantly" in any given event is just a whitewash by the authorities. There there, they never knew what hit them.
Instand death probably isn't very common but it does sometimes happen. Back in the 1991 Gulf War, an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle saw an Iraqi helicopter with rotors turning while sitting on the ground. They weren't in a good position for a gun run (20mm cannon) and a missile lock wasn't happening, so the GIB (guy in back) illuminated it with a laser designator and they dropped a laser guided bomb. When the helicopter took off, they maintain the laser on it. It was the first and perhaps only air to air kill with a 2000 pound laser guided bomb. You can rest assured that the people on that helicopter never knew what hit them.
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/1993/January%201993/0193bennett.aspx
"There was nothing heroic they could do. The window or the flames. Those were the choices."
Twelve people, in a group, can still be heroes to each other.
We won't know what happened, but just because their world shrank to twelve individuals and their time together shrank to minutes, does not mean there was no room for heroic words and actions.
bearing said...
"There was nothing heroic they could do. The window or the flames. Those were the choices."
Twelve people, in a group, can still be heroes to each other.
We won't know what happened, but just because their world shrank to twelve individuals and their time together shrank to minutes, does not mean there was no room for heroic words and actions.
Point taken.
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