Y Ddraig Goch

Sept 11 - We Remember, We won't forget

Prompt: The 9/11 terrorist attacks killed 2977 people and changed the world as we knew it. Write about your feelings and the consequences of this historic day.

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To those that lost their lives, and to the loved ones they left behind - we will remember, we won't forget.

9/11 was the defining moment of the 21st Century.

I think it was my generation’s Pearl Harbour in the sense of impact, significance, and complete unbelievability. But it was also so different. It made the world stop and hold its breath; in disbelief and fear and anger.

I was nineteen years old at the time. A baby really. Up until that point there hadn’t been something this monumental. My brother had fought in the 1990 Gulf War. I’d been evacuated from Saudi because of it. By dad’s base had been hit by a missile. But for some reason, this felt different - bigger. This felt like the world was at its tipping point. Everyone seemed to know, instinctively that there was no coming back from this.

It wasn’t wrapped up in the context of a military strike or war. It was targeted on civilians. On people just like me and you.

The magnitude of it was unprecedented. It wasn’t just those innocent people on the planes. It wasn’t just those innocent people at the targeted locations, or the firefighters and first responders. It was all of them, and their loved ones. It was the repercussions and lasting effects, both physically and mentally, of those that survived and were left behind.

The world watched in horror, an unwilling bystander, unable to do anything to stop it. We watched the second plane hit; we watched the towers fall… In real-time. There is no unseeing those things. There is no unfeeling those things. They are etched permanently in our memories.

And it happened (partly) in New York – a city larger than life, and tough… A city and country that had felt untouchable. All of a sudden it wasn’t.

I think something in us all broke that day as we stared at the TV screens, watching it all unfold like some John Grisham novel. It didn’t matter where you were in the world. It triggered an international sense of grief and outrage and vulnerability that lasted decades and is still felt to this day.

Flights were grounded. Aviation changed forever. People were scared to fly. People were left stranded in cities and countries that weren’t their own. Amongst the chaos, we also all came together. People opened their doors and homes to those stranded. The very worse in humanity, also often brings out its best.

World leaders vowed to stand united. In the UK, we saw both houses of parliaments unanimously and unequivocally standing together. We went to war – the whole world. It is the only time in history that Article 5 of NATO has ever been invoked, and it was to stand with and by the United States’ side. There was no question or hesitation.