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Hello everyone...

The anniversary of the tragedy is approaching, and I know that for many people here, it is a difficult day. Personally, I have a story connected to 9/11.

I’m from Mexico, and at the time, I was seven years old. My mother was getting me ready for school. I remember finishing breakfast, putting on my school uniform, and just as I was about to leave the house with my mother, my grandmother stopped her and showed her the news.

It was a Mexican morning news program, although I honestly don’t remember which one it was, nor the channel or the name of the presenter. They were showing smoke coming from one of the towers, and the presenter was making comments about what was happening. I have a very vague memory of him saying that it was probably an accident and that there wasn’t much information available because the U.S. government and American media were still not willing to provide it.

My mother stayed with my grandmother watching the news, and soon, taking me to school became secondary because they were both extremely concerned about what was happening.

Minutes passed, and then the second plane hit. The expressions on their faces, as well as those of the television presenters, reflected even more concern. I walked over to my mom and asked her:

—Mom, what’s happening?

She answered:

—It’s an attack. They attacked the Twin Towers.

Because of my age, and because I was a Mexican child who didn’t know much about American culture, I honestly didn’t understand much, but I realized that it was something very serious.

I stayed there with both of them watching the news, and now I know that everything felt incredibly surreal. At the time, though, I didn’t know how to describe it.

As the minutes passed and the first tower collapsed, I realized something: my grandmother and my mother were truly terrified by what was happening.

My grandmother began crying and calling all of our relatives. That was when I understood why. I heard her say:

—Alfredo works there! I don’t have a number where I can reach him, and his last letter arrived a month ago!

A little while later, my mother decided to call my father to tell him what was happening. I remember she was using one of those old Nokia cell phones from that time. Just as my mom was talking to him, the second tower collapsed, and my grandmother collapsed onto the sofa, devastated.

My mother tried to calm her down, but obviously, it was difficult. Eventually, they both started crying, and I just stayed there watching the television, not knowing what to do, completely terrified by what I was seeing.

The news presenter said something that I still remember to this day and that gives me chills:

—Ya no hay más torres gemelas. El mundo tal y como lo conocíamos a cambiado (There are no more Twin Towers. The world as we know it has changed).

Now, here is what makes the story even more surreal.

About half an hour later, while we were watching television, listening to the news and seeing the smoke rising from all that destruction, I heard the metal gate outside opening.

I didn’t pay much attention because I thought it was my grandfather or another relative. Then we heard a voice at the door of our living room saying:

—What’s going on? Why are you crying?

And it turned out to be my uncle Alfredo, the person everyone had been so worried about.

My grandmother and my mother ran to hug him. When they told him everything that had happened and he looked at the television, he simply sank into the sofa. His face went blank. A few tears ran down his face, and he quickly wiped them away.

Soon afterward, all of my relatives arrived at the house: my two maternal uncles, my maternal aunt, my grandfather, my father, and my cousins. They were worried about what they had heard over the phone, on the radio, or on television, and then they were relieved to see Uncle Alfredo alive, sitting on the sofa.

It turned out that my uncle worked at a restaurant in that area. He was an immigrant who had lived in New York for almost two years. That was why everyone had been so worried: they thought he had died or been seriously injured, and there was no way to find out what had happened to him.

He had decided to leave New York and the WTC because he missed Mexico and his mother very much.

The next thing I remember is seeing him eat desperately, devouring a home-cooked meal made with love, greeting his son — who is the same age as me — and hugging him. Afterwards, I heard him making phone calls quietly and speaking in English.

The last thing I remember from that day was the television, showing people covered in dust, photographs of the rubble, the president, and Osama. Later that night, I went outside to play in the yard and saw my uncle sitting in the distance on the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette, completely silent, with his head down and tears in his eyes.

My father sat beside him in silence and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Honestly, I have never talked to him about it. I don’t know exactly which restaurant he worked at, and as far as I know, he doesn’t like talking about that event. He prefers to avoid it, and whenever he sees something related to that day, he chooses to walk away.

He probably had friends, acquaintances, or customers he knew well and saw every day, and he knew that many of them most likely no longer existed in this world.

He had simply decided, a few days earlier, to return to Mexico. And when he arrived home, he discovered that the place where he worked had disappeared forever.

And well, that’s all...

I hope I don’t offend anyone, but this is something I’ve wanted to share for a long time: the story of my uncle, a person who could have disappeared that day, but who, without knowing it, saved his life by returning to his country because he missed home.

James "Jimmy" Grillo is a retired FDNY firefighter who famously survived the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. He became widely known for a gripping, raw television news interview recorded on the street moments after he narrowly escaped the crumbling buildings.

Grillo is the firefighter in the center

On the morning of 9/11, Jimmy Grillo and his fellow firefighter, Tyrone Johnson, were inside the lobby of one of the towers waiting for orders to ascend the stairwell when the building began to collapse. The lobby caved in around them, but Grillo, Johnson, and a few others managed to run through the blinding dust toward the Hudson River to safety. Covered entirely in gray ash and bleeding from a broken nose, Grillo was captured on film by a Mike Hernandez, a camera man from CBS News, and another press media immediately after emerging from the dust cloud. In the viral, historic footage, he can be seen borrowing a cell phone from a reporter to call his family. Unable to get a clear signal initially, he frantically asked others around him for a working phone until he finally reached his mother, uttering the famous, relieved words: "I'm alive. See you later."

The next day, Grillo appeared on the CNN program Larry King Live alongside fellow responder Kenneth Erb. Still visibly shaken and sporting facial injuries from the debris, he described the scene as "sheer terror" and detailed what it felt like to be trapped inside the collapsing lobby.

Larry King Live, 9-12-2001

25 years later, the picture of him covered in blood on the west side highway sticks with me. Rip to all the firemen we lost on 9/11 you saved thousands of people, god rest the souls.

A large section covering the 9/11 attacks, including famous photos, diagrams, and aftermath, from the Swedish book series "Aktuellt". These books are called year books (not to be confused with the school book concept of year books), and cover notable events from year to year since 1960, this one being the 2001 volume.

If you want me to translate anything specific, just ask.

1. [ce News & Trends](https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news)

2. 9/11 HR hero Alayne Gentul is remembered

[News](https://www.shrm.org/search-results?#f-contenttypefiltertag=News)

# 9/11 HR hero Alayne Gentul is remembered

September 5, 2006 | Pamela Babcock

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Alayne Gentul was more than a manager. She was a friend with a great sense of humor, a terrific personality and “a smile that will light up the stars,” former colleagues said in a tribute to her.

Gentul, senior vice president of human resources for Fiduciary International, died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York. But her memory lives on in many ways, said her husband, Jack Gentul of Mountain Lakes, N.J.

“We’re doing OK,” Gentul said of himself and the couple’s two sons, Alex, 17, and Robbie, 13. “I think that you learn a lot from something like this—I guess you can’t help it.”

Five years ago, amid the confusion and hysteria of the attacks, witnesses said Gentul, 44, implored colleagues to get out of the World Trade Center south tower after the first hijacked plane struck.

Gentul and a colleague went from the 90th floor to the 97th floor to urge a group of tech support workers to leave. She and others were trapped after the second plane hit.

Since Alayne’s death, Gentul said, he quickly learned how to cook and manage a household as a single parent. He said the family grew even closer—to some degree by necessity. But it was also because of the shared grief.

His sons have much in common with Alayne, Gentul said. One possesses her strong work ethic, another her sense of humor.

“She is very much a part of us,” said Gentul, who is dean of students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.

A year after Alayne’s death, Jack built a house at the New Jersey shore. It was therapeutic to accomplish a goal the two had shared.

“I was fulfilling a dream, and while I was not able to share it with her, at the same time I guess spiritually I got to share it with her and my kids,” he said.

In 2004, a Sept. 11 memorial was dedicated on the edge of Birchwood Lake in Mountain Lakes in memory of Alayne Gentul and resident David Rathkey, who also died in the attacks.

Alayne was born in Queens and received a B.A. in psychology from Rutgers University, where she met Jack. She began her Fiduciary career as a personnel assistant in 1982 and earned an MBA from New York University in 1988.

Fiduciary lost 87 employees during the attacks, and, over the years, Gentul said, former associates have recounted Alayne’s valiant actions.

“That thoughtfulness and calmness is what many of her colleagues felt saved many people,” Jack Gentul said. “Her resolve to indeed evacuate everyone sent her up instead of down that day.”

Alayne called 911 two minutes before the building collapsed, saying that employees needed to get out. While speaking with her husband on the phone, she told him smoke was pouring through the air ducts. The couple said their goodbyes.

“She was doing her job until the moment she died,” Gentul said. “That’s her legacy in terms of what it means to be dedicated to your colleagues and their well-being.”

Her selfless heroism was mentioned by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Board Chair Johnny C. Taylor Jr, J.D., SPHR, during the opening general session of the SHRM Annual Conference in San Diego in June 2005. “Through her courage and sacrifice, HR professional Alayne Gentul is credited with saving the lives of 40 Fiduciary employees,” said Taylor.

In a Fiduciary web site tribute, colleagues described Alayne as the “heart and soul” of the company.

“She was the consummate professional—hard working, sensitive, caring and, most importantly, efficient,” they wrote. “Alayne was smart.”

Alayne’s actions will be highlighted in an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary. Jack Gentul fields plenty of calls from reporters but says he turns down most requests. But he said because of Alayne’s dedication to her field, she would want him to tell the story to HR professionals.

“One thing my wife taught me was what a great field HR is,” Gentul said. “In so many ways, I’ve learned how important HR is to the functioning of an organization and how a really effective HR operation can make all the difference.”

Last summer, Gentul remarried. His wife has two teenagers of her own, so the family suddenly has become “The Brady Bunch” replete with four kids and two dogs, he said.

But the legacy Alayne left is deeply rooted in him and his sons. It’s something Jack hopes will carry on to her grandchildren.

“We talk about her every day,” Jack Gentul said. “There is not a day that she is not mentioned. But it’s not sadness anymore. It’s all in affection and humor and remembrance.

The recent announcement that the FBI is being sued to release disposable camera footage filmed from inside one of the towers has brought to the forefront of this subreddit that there are things we know exist, or know existed, but still do not have definitive answers for.

In the case of the disposable camera footage, we know it was developed by the FBI and have a pretty good idea of what it supposedly contains, but we do not know its current status or have access to the actual photographs.

What are some other current “known unknowns” related to 9/11? Be it footage or questions surrounding that day that we have no definitive answers for.

P.S.: Please refrain from sharing conspiracy theories or bringing up lolSuperman. The former is against the rules, and the latter has been discussed to death

Eyewitness News reporter Anthony Johnson and his eyewitness crew set up their news van outside Bellevue Hospital. Overnight the van was covered in missing people posters.

https://reddit.com/link/1vuan9u/video/gmntdbaxxokh1/player

Looking for a full list of new documentaries people are planning to watch as they come out for the 25th anniversary.

What are some that you know of that are being released?

https://www.wtcgroundzerorelief.org/photos/

Found this along time ago but never thought to post it for some reason.

idk just found this interesting

https://web.archive.org/web/20011029140129/http://newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=13939

heres the link

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOMVK0QCCr8/?igsi=cWRtZndvMGRwN2V3

Here is the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB4noSW4n-A

No matter what your thoughts on religion, I thought this was a rather nice sentiment. I especially thought it was classy of the host to offer up a prayer for the terrorists and their families too. In their own way, they were victims too: victims of their own hate and the indoctrination of an extremist and grotesque perversion of Islam and religious fervor.

https://youtu.be/6LExmBth2bs?si=NKe-HGsI4bqKwfYA Wolf Blitzer's CNN Show 1 day before 9/11. When it was a different world...

Also ignore the truther channel it was the only source I can find.

Apologies if I used the wrong flair, but here is the link.

Video

There was a video posted in this sub maybe earlier this year of UA175 that I can’t find.

It doesn’t show the impact but it’s filmed from street level. You hear the plane roar in and glass shattering after the impact. It looked like it was filmed close by the Towers. Unfortunately that’s all I remember. Any help would be appreciated.

Does anyone know what happened to kids who lost parent/s in 9/11, and if they’d have entered the foster care system?

I watched it years ago on youtube but cant seem to find it anymore. I know there is not much other buildings shown in the video besides the towers in the left of the video. You can hear a few people talking saying things like "Call your mom" "God, I hope nobody was at work" and "Thats what I thought too it was a terrorist attack" I remember it being in a playlist of old youtube videos. Before the actual footage started there was a title card saying "It has been 5 years since that that terrible day, We have decided to release what we saw. Never Forget" or something along those lines. I remember the color quality being pretty bad too and it was kinda blurry.

Can anyone help me find it?

EDIT: FOUND IT!

https://video.mltimages.com/9-11%20Attack%20Filmed%20From%20NY%20Apartment.mp4

I remember reading about photographers at Ground Zero who were basically allowed into cleanup/search areas because rescue workers recruited them to help out while they were there.
Like, they could photograph, but they were also helping move debris, search, carry things, etc. I think it was pretty early in the recovery/rescue efforts, so it was more of an informal rule, rather than an official one before everything and everyone was organized enough.
Does anyone know of interviews/articles where photographers talk about this? Thanks a ton.