Memories of 9/11

Memories of 9/11

From 1987 to 1988 I worked for Marine Midland Bank as a computer programmer on their funds transfer system. Back in those days I programmed in the C language on the old DEC VAX mid range computers. I left that company for a better opportunity.

Years later I had a job interview with a brokerage firm named Cantor Fitzgerald for a position as a programmer analyst. I forget exactly when that was but I think it was sometime in 1993 when I got laid off. Suffice to say I didn't get the job. I was disappointed but that didn't matter because I got a job elsewhere.

I didn't think about either of these places for quite a long time until 9/11/2001. Both of those companies were located at the World Trade Center aka WTC in New York City. Marine Midland Bank took up several floors in the WTC. I was on the 23rd floor where my cubicle was located. It's hard to believe those buildings are gone. I remember spending a lot of time walking the halls of those buildings. I was there practicaly everyday. Downstairs in the lower levels there were shops and restaurants where I spent a lot of time. There was a large subway station in the basement of the building where I use to go to take the train home after work. I had dinner once in "Windows on the World" a restaurant on the 109th floor where you got a beautiful view of all of New York City especially at night. What was impressive was the restaurant would revolve slowly around 360 degrees in a circle so you saw the entire city. I also visited the roof of the WTC where the view was spectacular. I was fortunate to be there on days when the weather was clear so the views were perfect but I didn't have a camera with me at the time so I have no pictures of either experience.

When I heard about the attack on the WTC I was living and working in Boston. I was at work in the office when someone said they heard that there was something going on in New York City. I don't recall if it was from the radio or the internet. I went on the internet to look and that's when I first found out that an jet plane had crashed into the WTC. Then someone brought out a TV set and everyone watched the horror unfold. I remember crying that day while watching the burning buildings and feeling helpless as my hometown was being attacked. All my co-workers watched in shock and many were crying.

I immediately called my sister and brother to find out if they were okay. They were fine and they were no where near lower Manhattan. The person who was closest to the incident was my sister-in-law. She said that she heard an airplane fly really low over her apartment building and she wondered why a plane would fly so low over Manhattan. She went out to the balcony and looking toward downtown Manhattan saw one of the jet planes crash into one of the towers of the WTC. She ran in and got her camera and came back out and took pictures of everything that was happening. She saw the whole thing from start to finish. My brother told me later that he was in Brooklyn on the roof of one of the buildings where was doing some work. He saw the whole thing also from across the East River. He said when everyone saw the second plane crash into the other tower everyone knew that it wasn't simply an accident.

The office I worked at was near Hanscom Air Force Base and I remember hearing and seeing two F-15 fighter jets roaring across the sky from my office window. Later I learned that they were headed for New York City.

Later on I found out that three people I knew had died or were missing after the terrorist attack on the WTC. They were not people I knew very well. One of them I did not find out that he died until years later.

The first two I learned were girls from a church I had attended back in New York City called Chinese Evangel Mission located in chinatown. When I stopped attending that church I never saw either one of them again.

One of them was only a little kid when I was attending that church. I knew her father relatively well. When I saw him I gave him my condolences for losing his daughter. It was a shame because she had just graduated from college and the company she was working for at the WTC was her first job out of college. She died young.

The other girl who died was someone I hung out with a little bit but never got to know very well. She was only a few years younger than me. We even worked for the same company at one point but didn't have much contact because we were in different departments. I remember she worked as an accountant and liked to travel.

From what I understand their bodies were never found. I heard that many bodies were not found because the fire that burned was so intensely hot that it disintegrated almost everything and left very little behind.

When I reconnected with my old college friend Gerry Lo I found out from him that a fellow we both knew and spent a lot of time with back in college had died at the WTC attack. His name was Sal Gitto. Like me he grew up in Brooklyn. We were in a lot of the same classes during college and we both majored in engineering and we were both in Air Force ROTC. I lost touch with him after I graduated college.

I was thinking that if I had not quit Marine Midland Bank or had Cantor Fitzgerald had offered me a job it could have been me. I heard that Cantor Fitzgerald lost all their employees at their WTC location. They weren't a very large company so it was a substantial loss. I could have been caught up in that disaster. This may sound selfish but I could not help but think of how lucky I was to have not been there. What's the saying "There but for the grace of God go I."

I have gone back to New York City many times and whenever I go to where the WTC once stood, things around Wall Street are not the same. I feel a bit of nostalgia for the days when I use to frequent that area. There's a huge empty hole where the towers once were. Looking at it gave me a huge empty feeling.

My condolences go out to anyone who has lost somebody on that tragic day.


--ktlam--
September 11, 2009

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