American Memory

September 11 with always be remembered as 9/11, where the terrorist group Al-Qaeda made 4 attacks on the United States on Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001. The attacks targeted the North and South towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by hijacking planes. The fourth plane never made it to its target and crashed in an empty field.

The planned attacks ended up killing 2,977 from 93 nations. 2,753 of those people were killed in New York. 184 people were killed at the Pentagon and 40 people died on the plane that crashed in the field. August, Dittmar, remembers “gaping black holes through the sides of that building … gray and black billows of smoke pouring out of those holes, flames redder than any red I’d ever seen before in my life, flicking up the side of the building.”

An anonymous interviewee commented, “I was at Target shopping with my 2 children. People around were talking about planes hitting into the world trade centers. I went home and my husband was home working out. I turned on the tv and watched the events happen. The towers falling and all the smoke and debris in the streets. Then the Pentagon getting hit and the plane in Pennsylvania. Glad that my husband was home because people couldn’t get home. It was just a very scary experience.” This was the story for many others.

 

After the events of 9/11, the American President Bush sent out a 25 million dollar bounty on bin Laden. Bin Laden was the leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. The US Military tracked bin Laden up into the mountains in tribal lands and lost the trail. US Intelligence eventually found bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, 2011. American President Obama gave the order to the US Navy Seals. They attacked the compound and shot and killed bin Laden.

It has been 19 years since the 9/11 terrorist attack. This year, New York decided to initiate a memorial for the 9/11 attacks by recreating the damaged twin towers using lights. The lights recreate the buildings where they originally stood. American President Donald Trump visited all the memorials to pay respect to all the people we lost. The New Yorker Firefighters held a moment of silence for the fallen firefighters who were heroes in this tragic event.

In the District of Columbia, the House of Representatives stand on the steps of the capital and pays respect. The US military held a ceremony at the Pentagon in remembrance of the fallen firefighters and those who died in the attacks. In front of the White House, a miniature American flag was placed for each life lost on the tragedy of 9/11.