Posted on 09/11/2015 3:23:44 PM PDT by LS
Every year, on the nearest class to the anniversary of 9/11, I show videos to my college classes. There are two---one for more general classes and one for my military history class.
The best video I have found for a general class is by HBO called "In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11" and features Rudy Guliani, who granted access to the producers to interview his staff. It makes extensive use of hundreds of news services and individual photographers to portray the events in NYC that day (it does not deal with the Pentagon or Flight 93). Underscored with a haunting musical score, this video does not hold back and includes footage of the people jumping. Guiliani is terrific as the touchstone for the story.
For my other class I use "Clear the Skies," a Brit video that deals with the FAA and military's incredible task of clearing the skies when it the attacks started. It features interviews with the four F-15 pilots who were the only ones on active air defense duty in the sector (there were only 24 active air defense crews in the entire nation assigned to protect American airspace, so remote was the threat considered). This video includes material from the Pentagon, Flight 93, but also simultaneously tracked George W. Bush as he was hustled aboard Air Force One. For those of you who remember, the Secret Service had received information that "Angel" (the code name for Air Force One that day) was itself a target. So Bush was hustled from Florida to Louisiana to Offitt then finally demanded to return to Washington that evening. While far less emotionally gripping than "In Memoriam," it does have its moments as when one of the F-15 pilots tears up discussing the possibility that he was going to have to shoot down a planeload of civilians rather than let it fly into D.C. With access to the control centers at several Air Force Bases and interviews with Denny Hastert, Porter Goss, Bush's security team, and reporters, it is also a compelling video.
Showing one of these videos, once, is emotionally draining. Watching one of them twice and the other, once, makes for a very difficult day. Of course, we all know teaching is easy.
Class length meant that I could not finish either. I found an appropriate place to stop "In Memoriam" for the first class. Students had many, very good, and very sober questions.
By the time I showed it to the last class---upper level students---I found a good place to end and asked if there were questions. The students just sat there intent, absolutely quiet. I've never seen them that quiet.
From the three classes, more than a half dozen students came up and thanked me for showing the films, frequently saying, "We didn't know."
They showed me 9/11 videos when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Very sad.
Thanks for teaching this important lesson.
For some reason, this year feels different. I am hearing more mentions about 9/11 than I have since the 10-year anniversary, and I don't mean on the news. I wonder why that is?
Thank you for the links. Watching In Memoriam right now. The jumper and the second plane always get me.
Makes me so mad to think about the current mayor, Warren Wilhelm and our current president B. “Peace in our time” Obama.. I can’t imagine how either would deal with something like 9/11.
bump
They never ever show these things or talk about them like they should. Thank you for doing it. Can you BELIEVE, those of you over 40, that after 9/11 such a Day of Infamy is practically kept from our children?????
BFLR
Glad you saw them. My son was 4 and crawled into my bed while I was crying, watching it on tv (it began at 6 am here). I told him he would remember this day his whole life. And he has.
I remember our local library in Long Beach, CA had a display of all the elementary aged kids’ drawings of 9/11. They were all working through the horror in their childish ways. Drawing buildings on fire. Crashing. Planes flying into them. Seeing all the versions in crayola was somehow just so painful. They needed to work through this, but how you wish they were coloring frogs or flowers.
If you are younger than my son (18) then you grew up completely after 9/11. I hope your generation (I have two younger kids too) is miraculously spared any tragic day of national horror. Boring is one of the best things we can wish for our kids.
I’m older than 18. I was in Kindergarten when it happened. I do remember it, though.
I just noticed that my daughter in college posted on her facebook the picture of President Bush with the megaphone. Maybe it helped that we used your book “A Patriot’s History of the United States” in our home school.
Our elected officials obviously have forgotten. More likely they don't care.
Thank You!
They would have been in what, 5th grade? Since then, you are correct, the story has not been told.
bfl
Another story that has not been told is the EMT story. Saved thousands of lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRw8HkwwLVw
Thanks. Surely didn’t hurt.
I guess because I wrote a novel, “September Day,” in which I researched the fire department’s procedures and methods (they estimated it took almost a minute for a man with full gear to go one flight up WTC, which I find long, but then again, I don’t have to carry the stuff), the firemen HAD to know they weren’t getting to the fire for an HOUR. They also had to know there was no pumping system available that would give them the water to fight that at the 89th floor. So the shots of the firemen walking up, plus Beth Petrone’s interview, really do it for me.
We have a fire science department at the school I teach at and I know a few firefighters casually, and I know their gear is heavy.
There was also, I believe, a lack of ability for firemen to communicate once they got into the towers. Many never heard the call to withdraw.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.