On September 11th, 2001, Americans and people around the world were completing their daily tasks as usual, but in a split second all this changed. Word spread that the North Twin Tower was struck by Flight 11 at 8:46 AM. The plane was fueled with ten thousand gallons of fuel at the time of impact. The impact of Flight 11 hitting on the North Tower was a wide hole in the north wall and east wall that extended from the 92nd floor to the 98th floor. As people were racing from the building, unexpectedly at 9:03AM, Flight 175 had also stuck upon the southwest face of the South Twin Tower. Extremely large fireballs were emerging from the southwest, southeast, northeast, and east faces of the tower. Thirty-four minutes later a plane known as Flight 77, hit the Pentagon. By this time the head officials knew this had to be work of terrorists who were in control of these planes. Shortly the fourth and final plane known as Flight 93, was believed to be heading for Washington with terrorists on board. It didn’t quite make it to the destination that it had hoped to make. As passengers on the planes tried to over power the terrorists, one of the back passengers yelled, “Let’s roll”. This slogan “Let’s Roll” was printed on shirts, hats, and other merchandise as a remembrance of this tragic event. Many people throughout the world were wearing this slogan in loss of their loved ones and for just the lost of the fallen members. The invaders had already killed the two pilots. When the disturbance started the plane crashed in Pennsylvania and killed all that were on board. A little over 3200 heroes, passengers, workers, and others lost their lives on September 11th, 2001 in a time span of 102 minutes.
In the hours, days, and months Americans came together as one. Most people thought that their freedom in the United States was violated by the terrorists behind these tragic and planned attacks. We knew then that we could not just sit back and let them take our freedom and homeland away. People demonstrated their freedom by praying together and flying the American flag everywhere. In a poll that was taken 8 out of 10 Americans state that they feel like we have less personal freedom than before the attack of 09-11-01. Our safety was and still is a very big concern of our President. All persons entering and leaving our country on planes were checked. Military personnel were stationed at every major airport. Everyone was watching for anything suspicions around them. The country was put on “High Alert”, meaning that everyone was being looked after. After the huge and horrible attack of 9/11 it was stated that, “our safety should never be taken for granted!” Still after 10 years, a lot of the measures that were taken on 9/11 are still in practice. Americans are more cautious concerning things like this.
Al-Quaida took credit for all these attacks and promised more to come. We all felt that our privacy was invaded. We actually trained the terrorists how to fly planes. They came over here pretending to want to better themselves by going to schools. They knew exactly where to fly the planes to cause the most damage. They were told what to do by Osama bin Laden. After the attacks, President Bush declared war on Iraq. We still have troops fighting for our freedom. Some of the soldiers who are fighting for us now were just small children when this happened. Some of them had loved ones killed in the attacks.
Ten years after 9/11, many people have become closer to their families and the people around them. People are still hurting, but trying to heal from the pain of loosing loved ones. We can be proud to be an American in the United States. We are the best nation in the world. Please continue to pray for the families of the ones who still have not been identified. Remember all of the fallen heroes, workers, and the passengers on the planes who lost their lives that day. Keep them in your thoughts and remembering them as you lay your head down tonight. Keep all the firefighters, police, and military in your prayers. Don’t forget to thank them for keeping us safe every day of our lives. Remember how lucky we are to live in such a nation.