Boat Lift off Manhattan 9 - 11

[LovelyLadyLux]

I personally never saw anything related to the boat lift of people off Manhattan following the 9/11 attack. This was all very new to me.


BOAT-LIFT OF 9/11

We certainly were busy watching the news right after 9/11, but we never saw this......BOAT-LIFT OF 9/11.....

You know, in the 11 years since this happened, this is the first time I've ever seen this...I don't even remember seeing/hearing about this evacuation on the news!

The fact is, it was all done in 9 hours...500,000 people!

This is a video well worth watching. The guy at the end (same guy who is at the beginning) has some great words to live by for all of us.

We will never forget what happened that day.

phpBB [video]

[Grandad]

That is new to me as well LLL. Strange because that was such a big and unplanned operation. The comparison with Dunkirk really puts it into perspective, and that was a planned operation albeit with dozens of 'Little Ships'.

Was 9/11 the most momentous day in the history of America? I think so!

[Horus]

I must admit to feeling quite emotional watching the response by those boat owners, it restores your faith in human nature and the way that decent human beings will react to adversity, in stark contrast to those evil religious fanatics that would kill and maim in the name of their god. Maybe that is what will always overcome the destructive intent of such vile people and that is the willingness of the majority to help their fellow countryman and friends in times of need. Thank you for posting, this action should have received more publicity, but I suppose that at the time the greater atrocity overshadowed every thing else.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Watching the video clip was emotional for me as well. It really showed what the average guy going about this business did and experienced when there was a sudden disaster/attack. No knowing the whys, where to fors or anything about what was happening these guys really were heros to go rushing in.

Personally I guess I knew Manhattan was an island but I never once thought about people being rescued from or taken off the island and had no idea this type of rescue was mounted.

I was in the USA when this happened and this event coalesced all Americans into being one against an enemy. Never saw anything like it.

I'd driven a friend up to the airport that morning and when I entered the office I hadn't heard anything about what had happened and was quite verbally accosted by several in the office as 'my' country had allowed terrorists (not the word they were using then) but 'my' country had allowed men in who were now attacking them. Emotions were really high and I had to leave the office for the day. Everything mellowed out over time but that morning when it all happened was felt strongly by every American.

[Horus]

The only thing that I found a bit disingenuous about the video was the comparison being made between the British evacuation of the Normandy beaches during WW2 in only rescuing around 350,000 people over several days, whereas these guys transported 500,000 of the island in 9 hours. It is only fair to point out that the British rescue boats were mainly small craft that had to cross 22 miles of open water known as the English Channel in bad weather whilst being strafed by German aircraft and once they reached the open beaches were then subjected to land based machine gun fire and they had no harbour wall to board the thousands of soldiers off the beach. In their case the soldiers were having to wade out to shoulder height into the water and then be pulled into the waiting craft that had braved the seas and gunfire to get there, many several times, whilst being constantly strafed, bombed and machine gunned by the German defenders from their pillboxes. Whilst I applaud the action of these American boat crews and ferries in stepping up to the plate when they were needed, I hardly think it even merits being in the same category as the little flotilla that emptied the Normandy beaches, but there again it is American and they do love to twist our history to their own advantage.

[Grandad]

I remember the events of that Tuesday afternoon SO well. There was an announcement on the kitchen radio that an aircraft had flown into the World Trade Centre in New York. Mrs G called out to turn on the TV......and then for several hours we watched aghast as the horror of that day unfolded. The day showed how events around the world can be shown as they happen, live, all around the world.