9-11 Ten Years Later

With ten years having passed since our country was attacked on our own soil, I find myself asking questions and looking for some answers.  Here are a few interesting facts that I found.

Did you know that 2,403 people died in the attack at Pearl Harbor or that 168 people died in the Oklahoma City bombing.  Well, really there were 171 lives lost in Oklahoma because three of the women were pregnant when they died.  And then there is 9-11.  This was the largest loss of life on our soil and 2,976 people lost their lives as a result of these attacks.  Of these that died 236 were foreigners which makes the total number of America lives lost to be 2,740.

Four commercial airliners were involved with 19 terrorists who hijacked those planes.  Each group had at least one qualified pilot.  They crashed United Airlines Flight 175 which hit one tower and American Airlines Flight 11 that crashed into tower two.  The third airplane was American Airlines Flight 77 which smashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia and the fourth plane was United Airlines Flight 93 in which the flight crew and passengers wrestled the terrorists literally to the ground where the plane crashed into a field near a Shanksville town in Pennsylvania.

All of the 246 people died on the planes.  The other 2605 people who died were either in the towers or on the ground when the towers fell.  There were 125 people who died in the Pentagon attack.  Of all the fatalities 343 were New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers.  There were 24 people still listed as "missing". These numbers of course do not account for any homeless or people who were traveling or visiting who didn't have family to report them as missing.

What a sad day for our country.  Today there is a memorial in the spot where the towers stood and a new building is being erected that will reach 1,776 feet into the sky.  It will be called 1 World Trade (formerly the Freedom Tower).  The World Trade Centers were 1,368 feet.

Here was a good video that had some great images from that terrible day in our country's history.  God Bless America!  I Believe - a 9-11 Tribute