It's night Side with Dan Ray.
I'm WBS in Constance met Radio.
We want to tell you what we know as we know it. We just got a report and that there's been some sort of explosion at the World Trade Center in New York City Center.
You can see the fireman assembled here, the police officers ATBI Agency, and you can.
See the two towers. A huge explosion now raiding to prey on all of us. We got get out of the way.
The actual incident, the actual impact is the site of this huge building in golf in plane with this massive cavernous hole on the side of it.
And in one eight we have a report of a plane crash somewhere in the area of the Pentagon.
We're trying to get further.
I need you to roll over to one game in.
Details are slowly surfacing.
What we know at this hour is that United Airlines Flight ninety three from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California, pressed here this morning, killing everyone on board.
The far power suddenly explodes in flame.
Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.
Was twenty three years ago today would have been actually probably just about this time, he spoke to the nation. We're back here on Live now. This is September eleventh, twenty twenty fourth, thank god it's not September eleventh, twenty two thousand and one, and I wanted to spend about an hour talking about your recollections of this day. Those of us who were baby boomers, we heard about Pearl Harbor, and we heard about the attack by the Japanese Air
Force on the US ships in Pearl Harbor. But nine to eleven for those of us who are baby boomers, people born either during, you know, during World War Two or after World War Two, the generation this was our nine to eleven was our Pearl Harbor. The attack on nine to eleven was actually worse than the attack on Pearl Harbor in terms of fatalities. Obviously, one led to a war on terrorism, the other led to a World war. The war on terrorism has gone on now for over
twenty years. It's still continuing. It's still going on. So what I'd like to do is just for those excuse me, I don't know, under the age of twenty five or better yet, no, let me see under the age of twenty eight or maybe under the age of thirty, you have a very faint memory of what happened that day.
So as time moves on, the American people who stood together on nine to eleven, two thousand and one, I don't ever remember a time during my lifetime when this country was as stood as one they as we did on nine to eleven. If you can think of another time, I mean I can think of other tragedies in my lifetime, certainly the assassinations in the nineteen sixties of President Kennedy, Martin, Doctor Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy Junior, which
appalled people. The Vietnam War was a period of time where there was a lot of dissent in the streets, and there were people who supported what Lyndon Johnson and subsequently Richard Nixon were doing during their term as president, and many others who were demonstrating. I remember Kent State University when four students were shot dead four days in Ohio. But nine to eleven just brought us together. And as I looked back and think about that day, I know
where I was. We were actually outside a voting place in Denham. I was working the morning news at the time, and it was an election day. On September eleventh, there was a Tuesday, beautiful day. I'm sure all of you remember. It was the day in which Steve Lynch won the Democratic nomination to succeed the late Joe Moakley, the congressman
from South Boston, who had died earlier that summer. And we were sitting in the van and someone said, hey, there's a small plane that hit the World Trade Center. And you didn't think anything of it. But when you heard there was a second plane, everybody knew that this is something that is going to change our lives. George Bush was the president. He was speaking with student I guess first grade students at an elementary school in Florida,
and he did speak. I remember the video tape of Indy Cart, former state representative from Holbrook here in Massachusetts, who had become his chief of staff at the White House. And Card approached him and whispered in his ear that the World Trade Center had been hit by a second plane. And I remember the picture of Bush. You could see him just kind of digesting that information in his mind, shaking his head. And he didn't want a panic, he said later on, he wanted to finish what he was
doing with these children, and then he did speak. Wasn't live. But the first we heard from President Bush was early that morning. And Rob, this is cut number fifty one. This might stir some memories in people's minds. This is President Bush just moments after being told by Andy Card that there was a horrific two horrific events in New York City which show we were under attacked. For the first time, the United States of America was under attack.
Pearl Harvey, remember was not a It was part of Hawaii. But Hawaii was not a state, it was a territory at the time of December seventh, Cut fifty one.
Rub.
Today, we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. I have spoken to the Vice President, to the Governor of New York, to the director of the FBI, and I have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act against our nation.
Will not stand. There were, of course, today events in New York, events in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, events at the Pentagon, and there were events at our own Statehouse. Madison Rogers filed this report of the names of two hundred and six victims from Massachusetts. Two hundred and six of the three thousand who died that day, cut number fifty two rub at the blueness of the skies, and in the warmth of summer, we remember them.
In the sunlight on the State House steps, two hundred and six names were read aloud, each of them carrying the weight of the world.
And John Bread Kahill, my beloved brother, and my beloved son, William Christopher Hunt.
State leaders and families have come together to honor those with Massachusetts ties who lost their life lives twenty three years ago today and all two thousand, nine hundred and ninety six victims.
As long as we live, they too will live, for they are now a part of us as we remember.
Them today and every day at the State House. I'm Madison Rogers WBZ, Boston's news radio.
And there are people dying every day. It was twenty nine hundred ninety six people who we know of who died on September eleventh, two thousand and one, but there are firefighters and police officers and citizens of New York City who breathed in fumes and god knows what toxins, and over the last twenty three years, their lives were ended as a consequence of what they endured on September eleventh,
two thousand and one. And of course, as a country, it became it became controversial in terms of the efforts that the Bush administration took to go after the terrorists
and shake Muhammad still sits in Guantanamo. Earlier this summer, there was an arrangement made where he could plead guilty, accept life in prison, and avoid the death penalty, and there was outrage from the families of the nine to eleven families, and thank goodness, the Secretary of Defense Defense Secretary of Austin overrode that decision and that was taken off the table. So what I'd like to ask as a question, and I think it's a question that I
think I know the answer to. Why is it that it seems and is it just the passage of time
that we are forgetting that day? And I'm not talking to people under the age of thirty because they can't remember that day, But why is it that we people in our thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies and beyond do not feel the same passion we have US troops, despite what Vice President Harris said last night, in the line of fire in the Middle East, trying to keep track of what isis might be doing as they reorganize the war on terrorism might have left the front pages of
the newspapers. However it continues, and there are young men and women, many of whom were not even born on nine to eleven, who are now bearing that burden and potentially paying the price of what's going on in the Middle East. The three soldiers who earlier this year lost their lives in an attack from Iran, the Hooti Rebels. All of that, Will we ever ever regain our sense of identity? Or are we still so fractured as a
nation that nothing will ever bring us back together. The scenes from New York today were lovely, seeing President Biden, Vice President Harris, along with former President Trump his running mate Senator from Ohio jd Vance, standing there, only separated, I think by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Why how have we lost that feeling as Americans? Of what happened that day. It could have been any of us. If you've ever flown on an airplane, it could have
been you. It could have been a family member. I want to open up the phone lines and give people an opportunity to recall what they were doing, where they were, how it affected them. Is it still important? I think it is. I think it should be six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three one ten thirty, triple eight, nine to nine, ten thirty. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside. We'll talk about the debate beginning at
ten o'clock. I want to talk about nine to eleven because nothing, to me on this day is more important than us trying to rekindle the spirit that all of us felt that day, the outrage that we felt, the cohesion that we felt as a nation, and the concern that we had for people of all backgrounds, of every religion, including people who died on those plains and in those buildings, who were from every ethnic background that you could imagine, and every religion. It didn't matter to the terrorist. They
hated America. They hated everything that we stand for in the world, and they were intent on taking US down. They did take down the World Trade Center, both buildings and a smaller building as well. They took out a good part of the Pentagon. It all emanated from Boston. Two of the plains went out of Boston, one of them came out of Newark, one of them came out of Dallas Airport. Join the conversation. I think it's a serious topic and it's one that all of us, I
would hope, can agree upon. Maybe not, Maybe we can never come together as we did in the days following nine to eleven as a nation. We'll be back on nightside after this.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World.
Night Side Studios on WBZ, the news Radio.
Well, we have a bunch of callers, which is always good because I can tell stories. I can tell you where I was two nights before nine to eleven. I was at Fenway Park Sunday night baseball, Red Sox Yankees Mike Mussina came within one out of a perfect game. Carl Everett looped a little single into left field. He pitched hit. He was the twenty seventh batter. Up Yousina
was dealing that night. He looked, I mean he looked unhittable that night, and Everett just kind of looped one over shortstop and in the scorebook it was a single. It was a one hitter from Mike Mussina. And two days later, well actually not two days later, excuse me, it was nine days later, because we've seen him pitched on the second and this was in the eleventh, so it was nine days later. Everyone's world changed. Let's go
to the phone. It's gonna go first off too, Patricia in Austin, Hi, Patricia, how are you welcome?
Oh?
Hello, Dan On a first time caller.
All right, Patricia, thanks, yes, very much.
Yes, And I want to give a shout out to my uncle Gregory Ash and Georgester.
Oh I know, greg you're kidding me. Absolutely one of my favorite he is not a first I caller. But we got to give you a round of applauses. It's the solution we have here.
Okay, thank you.
I love that sound. Well anyway, Dan, I was a flight attendant for close to thirty years, twenty eight years actually, and I happened to be in Scottsdale, Arizona, at my home at the time, and my brother Jack called me at about oh heck, it was very early in the morning. But it was like at nine am here and I had just blown in from Mauie the night before, and he called me and said, oh my gosh, Patricia, a plane just flew into the World Trade Center and it was and it woke me up and I was startled,
and it was it was just terrible. My whole you know, a work world anyway changed. That first thing I thought of was my brother Dan, who's I b E W. Dan Day. He was working at a building called the World Trade Center in Boston. That was correct. Now I've been living away for like twenty years, and I was like, oh my god, is he okay? He said, Danny's fine. But a plane just flew into the World Trade Center in New York City and it just it just it was just devastating as a flight crew member.
Sure, were you with American Airlines? By that her chancel with another airline?
No, I was with American Trans eir APA. They were very popular in Boston, and but of course I was flying out of the Western US. But you know, like I said, the whole oral changed, and the whole industry changed.
What I remember, and I bet you you can identify with this Patricia. I remember being at Logan Airport the next day covering what was going on at Logan Airport, and the airport was eerily quiet. There were no passengers, there were no flights coming in, there were no flights coming out, and you'd step outside and you look up at the sky and realize that nothing, nothing was moving. What awful a week before they actually allowed commercial flights or you know, to get back up in the air.
Oh.
Absolutely, because I actually missed one of my scheduled flights. But I think I took off again on Sunday after that. Oh my gosh. And I was in Arizona and there's a big air Force base nearby, and all I could hear and see were a fighter jets flying around.
It was I don't know, get I forget the name of that air Force base, but I have been out there and it's a very It's that's not mcdill's in Florida.
What is that?
Do you recall the name of that base?
I'm trying to Oh, in Arizona.
Oh, someone will someone will call and tell us that.
I'm got to remember in like, you know, fifteen seconds. Yeah, it's a pretty big one. There are a lot of Air Force Bass out there in the desert.
I've vacationed a lot in Arizona, particularly in terms of going especially.
In Arizona now. But I have to tell you, Yeah, Dan, my father John Daly had passed away and Christmas of nineteen ninety nine, and I said, I just like thank God that he didn't see this, He didn't experience it because it came from Ireland and he was so happy to be and so proud to be an American citizen and you know, raise a big family here in Boston, and it just would have broken his heart, because I think all of our hearts were broken on that day.
It was incredible to realize what the passages did on flight ninety three taking that plane down.
Oh yes, it still gives me chills just even thinking about it now.
And they knew that they were taking that plane down to. It was Lukyapase in Glendale, Arizona.
Yeah, yeah, in like eight yeah, avon Arizona, Oh, which is a beautiful state too.
Hope people go.
Out and visit the Grand Canyon, you know, it's.
Yeah, absolutely, Well, Look, I appreciate your I appreciate you calling in. Please say hi to Gregory Uncle Gregory for me. Uh, and I hope you'll become a regular listener and indeed a regular caller as well.
Well, I'm definitely a regular listener, and who knows, I may call again.
Thank you Dan so much.
You have you retired? Are you no longer flying? Or is that career?
No?
No, I'm working in an art museum now for like ten years.
Okay, Well that's okay, Well, a little bit more of a normal schedule, I get that, okay. I always admired the men and women who not only fly the planes, but also the crew of the planes, flight attendants, all the stuff that you folks have to put up with amongst us.
Oh, of course, you know, Dan, I've got my eye on the sky constantly. Flight Radar twenty four is my favorite an app I feel. Oh, I just like to see planes flying.
And yeah, well I hear you, I hear you.
Tri Sure great to make your acquaintance, and we will talk again soon. I hope.
Thanks absolutely, Take care, Jain, great, good night.
All right, here's the news at the bottom of the hour. We're a minute or so late, but there were anow the first time caller. If you like to join the only line open right now with six one, seven, two, four, ten thirty. We just filled too late. We got full lines. I'll let you know when that opens up. We're coming back on night Side. Feel free to join us talking about your memories of nine to eleven, two thousand and one, and why as we as why do we as a nation?
Why have we lost that feeling of unity and camaraderie and kinship with our fellow Americans. It's it's gone. I don't know what we can do to bring it back back. Right after this, you're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio. Okay, you're going to pick the pace up a little bit here, Ron and Newton. Ron, you were in Nightside, go right ahead. Where were you twenty three years ago today?
I again, thank you so much for caring this on. I was part of the team that was the first federal team inside the Krandoff area, and we set up five medical aide stations, the first at the Burg Manhattan Community College Diagona across the street from Stuyvesant High School, then the Amex building, then a blown out Delhi and then another free standing tent where we triaged and cared for firefighters and all others who are in the Krandoff area.
For those who who do not know my friend Ron, I'm not going to identify him, but he's a member of the medical community here in Boston and he is on a an absolute emergency alert team where you folks, get to whatever airport you got to get to and fly to the place that needs help.
Yeah, we we have We're out the door in four hours. Usually it's faster than that. I get the call at eleven thirty, about eleven thirty that morning, was at mass Journal. At one in the afternoon, we our team gathered. We then went from there to Bedford the A lowered up our trucks, and then drove to Fort Stewart Airbase, Newburgh, New York, u N. Until about five thirty in the morning. Then went from there to Chelsea Pierre in New York City and from there into the Korandov area.
Tell you just how bad was it to get there? You must have got there just about as nightfall came.
We got Yeah, we got We arrived in the Cordondoff area at us All a little after midnight on the thirteenth, the twelfth. We were in We were actually in New York city. The amazing thing in all that I remember, the images are truly as fresh now in my mind
as they were then. But the amazing thing was that as we unloaded our gear and from the rider trucks, there were people that we never met before, and we formed a human chain transferring our gear and all kinds of things from the truck and also from this divers in high school. There were metal racks, there were ivy polls, there were lots of gods and bandages, and so it was a human chain, one of unanimity that I haven't seen since then. It was just amazing people we never
met before. And then we disbanded after we not us, but not us as a team, but then the other folks that we just were just there at the time. So and then we had promised that we would set up by seven hundred it's like one thirty in the morning, and we beat our timeline. We saw our first firefighter at six ten in the morning and provided some respiratory time.
How many days did you guys stay in place down there on?
We left on September twenty third, we demobilized it that Moore came back to Boston.
Wow, wow, Well, I hope that that your health is not impacted, because I think we always think about the three thousand people who died that day, but there have been people dying every day ever since who had been
exposed to some of the toxins. And I know from talking to you previously and privately that that is something that everyone has to be concerned about, because you hear about all these firefighters who twenty years later or fifteen years later pass away from medical complications that are directly related to what they were exposed to during that month of September two thousand and one, and you were down there in the midst of it as well. So thank
you for your courage, and thank you for your commitment. Thankfully, thankfu for the work that you do, my friend.
Okay, thank you, Dan, We'll talk soon.
You bet your thanks.
Thank you.
Let me go to Alex who is joining us from Millis Alex next time nights Ig gordhead Alex.
Hey, dank Hike grieving. I want to share my memory. I was working for UPS and I was fout of My route included the Hancock Power which is kind of like the financial center so to speak, back then, and it was around nine uh nine ten or ninetifteen when I you know, was in the getting ready to go in the building to do the deliveries to the financial companies, and all of a sudden, they said, uh, uh, you have to evacuate the building. Uh, you know, they sent
us out. And also if I uh, back in the eighties, this is like ironic. I had visited my cousin in New York and they took us up to the towers you know how you would go up to the Prudential here in Boston.
Oh yeah, absolutely. It was a big tourist attraction, absolutely, yeah, And I still.
Have the photos. And then, uh, you know, at towards towards the past few years, I had the opportunity to visit uh you know, Ground zero, and you know, it was kind of ironic looking at the pictures before and after. And also there's a little Greek chapel there that survived the you know explosion, and now they rebuilt that. So it's very you know, moving for me every time I go there, I just like, you.
Know, well, you just you know, somehow, some way we need to never forget what it was like. We have to never forget the people who who lost their lives that day. It could have been any one of us on those planes. It was interesting that the planes that were hijacked, whether they were planes out of Boston or Newark or the one out of Dallas, they were all headed to the West coast. The Newark flight was headed to San Francisco. That was the United ninety three that
crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The two flights out of Boston were American Airline flights, both headed to LA. One was Flight eleven, the other was Flight seventy seven. And then the one that came out of Dulles was well, excuse me strike that. Let's strike that the seventy seven came out of Washington Dulles to LA. The other one f went out of Boston was the United Airline flight that was heading also to LA. So, I mean the hijackers
knew what they were doing. There's no question they knew what they were doing, and they and they wanted to be on flights where they could have some time to accomplish whatever, well what they were going to try to accomplish.
Bright real quick, this is interesting. I have some friends. They had a liquor store in Brighton, right by the where you take the on wrap for the mass Pac into Boston, and they told me that the you know, the FBI had been in there, the two terrorists had gone into their establishment and purchased whatever I don't know, and that it was like they couldn't believe it, you know. And these two terrorists had were responsible, two of them, I guess, or I don't know how many they were.
They had visited their you know, their well.
Not only that they had stayed at the Ramada Inn, the Remina Inn in Brighton, which was right next to WBZ. I drove by there it probably I don't know, for a quarter of a quarter of four in the morning, because I was reporting earlier that day. They partied there. They partied with hookers with a lot of alcohol and liquor and drugs, and unfortunately, they caused quite a commotion at the Ramata In. It's just too bad that someone at that hotel had not alerted police. Now, there were
others who stayed in Maine. Muhammad Ata stayed in Maine. They took a flight down from Portland, Maine. There were others who obviously were in Newark and amongst the nineteen, they were spread out. But the folks who spent their final nights at the Ramada inn. Uh it was party central time. So this is the first I've heard of them picking up their booze at a at a at a liquor store near Brighton. But that works with the
what I've heard about. You know, their their They're very interesting pre weekend activities at the remount of end Alex. I'm up up my break, I gotta let you go. It is always an interesting call.
Thank you so much, Thank you, bye, doct you soon.
We'll be right back, Harriet. We got Eugene and Linda already. We're going to get you all in if anyone else wants to try to sneak in the only lines that are open right now. Six one, seven, ten. Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. All right, let's keep rolling. You're going to go next to Gene and Randolph. Gene, we got pack lines. I want to try to get everyone in. You tell us what your recollection was of
September eleven, two thousand and one. Hygiene, go right ahead, Hello, Hygiene, Welcome.
Hi. Hi.
Yeah, I you mentioned earlier about people not remembering, but I see it seems kind of strange, but I think about it more than I probably should should sometimes. I know it's kind of weird, but I always think that some people like you go about your everyday life. Those people are on their way to work, saying goodbye to their families, you know, just living their everyday life and then to go into work that day and never knowing
what was going to happen. And true, yeah, you know, and I don't know why, but every once in a while, especially when people are like them complaining about things, that always comes into my mind, like I want to say to them, like you know, you're really going to complain about this or that you know when this could happen or that could happen. But I was working at the time for a publishing company and we were in a meeting.
I remember it so clearly. We were in a meeting and the boss somebody was trying to call into the conference room, and the boss finally told the receptionist when I'm not taking any calls, I'm in a meeting right now, and she actually, thank god, she came upstairs and opened
the door. I mean, she was obviously upset. She said, you know, plane went into the twist, and we had a lot of custom We had a lot of clients that were from New York, and my daughter at the time was a student at botom and I just wanted to run out of there. I mean I just wanted to run out, get in my car and you know, try to get you know, try to drive down to New York. But thank god, talking to other people, I you know, calmed down, got home, but I could not
get through to her at all. I couldn't get through to her for quite a few hours.
Thank God. That look, I had the same experience I am. I was basically told that, you know, get ready to get to work early tomorrow. But you know, there was nothing we were going to do. The story was in New York, and I went checked on my kids' schools to make sure that nothing had happened to them, just to make sure that their schools were in operation and everything was everything was fine. So it's.
I think a lot of I'm not really sure because my other daughter was in high school and I remember that she got this mister early and she was driving home. So I'm trying to get in touch with one in New York, one, you know, one on her way home. I don't know if the public schools in that because she went to a private school at the time high school students. But my biggest fear, I think I wanted
to get to New York. I try to get to New York because I remember that day thinking to myself, like, what if this isn't all they're going to do?
You know?
So I hear you, but but there's no way you were going to get into New York either, because you know, Gina got full lines. I got to try to get a couple more in Thank you so much for your call. Is very similar to my own experience.
That's all I want you to know.
I'll never have a great night night.
Let me go to Harriet in Tewksbury, Harriet next on nights.
I go ahead, Hi, Dan.
We certainly our family certainly remember this particular day. My husband Dreck and my other daughter Rebecca, we were going to a marathon out there at black Horse and we were actually going to fly out on Tuesday, and my daughter Rebecca said, let's go out earlier so we can do some things around La and then as a marathon was in Basto and then you know, do the marathon. So we were there, and about six in the morning, I get a call from my other daughter Rob. It all upset.
Did you hear?
I meant, six in the morning, Leslie, know what you mean? Well, his uncle let the Pentagon. Well, my my brother did work for Department of Defense, and you did go into the Pentagon quite frequently. And I said, I don't know what are you talking about, didn't you hear?
No, we didn't.
Planes had, you know, going into the Pentagon, and the plane had gone in there, and all these other things going on, and it was very, very upsetting. And of course they then canceled or rescheduled the marathon. They weren't going to have it, so we were kind of stuck there. Everything was closed. We're walking down where she will shear Boulevard and they kept these big signs showing the plane going into the TI ways over and over again. I mean, oh, it was horrible. Uh people, thank.
God that you went a day or two earlier.
And yeah, that's the two of that was Benico. If we were stuck there and nothing was flying back. And and then the other pod on Tewksbury had two people that we're.
On one of the flights, and I believe one of the pilots.
If I'm not mistaken, he was from drake It.
But these were two rights.
That's okay, I missed. I thought I knew it was up in that direction, right, Harry. I want to try to sneak one more in here before or before my break, and I'm I'm so glad that you you live to tell the tale.
As we would say, Well, I just quickly want to say that the daughter of one of the ones that died on the plane. For twenty years now we've had celebration and rememberance at Trucksbury and we have a monument there. She gives a wonderful speech. In fact, tonight she also did, so they do remember in Trucksbury.
Let us never forget. Thank you, Harry, appreciate it very much. We've got less than a minute left, Linda. You've been waiting the longest.
You got it.
Go ahead, Lindy. We got less than a minute because we got the news your recollection. Yep, go ahead.
I was working at the government center at the JFK building and the word came out and people got all needless to say, all rattled. We couldn't leave until we got the clearance with management. And there was one goal. She said, I don't care, I'm getting out of here, and I don't know. I'm sure she whatever, But we we were all afraid because we were in a government building, and so we eventually got released out and we had to hang around into the courtyard.
Well, they probably should have cleared you, cleared you sooner than later, because you obviously could have been a target as well. You just met. You never knew. Lindia got it in. Unfortunately I am up against it right now. The minute is up. Thank you for calling in that. We will talk soon. Okay, thank you so much. All right, for those of you on the line, we'll take your calls in the other side if you want. We are going to talk about the debate, but we'll also take
you calls on this, so stay there. Here comes the news at ten.