19 years ago the September 11th tragedy shocked the World. I have watched several documentaries on what happened that day but nothing compares to the detail presented in Garrett Graff’s book The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11
The book is entirely made up of quotes from what people experienced on 9/11. From victims in the Twin Towers, from family members who received frantic phone calls from passengers on the doomed planes, from government officials, and more. “I’ve spent three years collecting the stories of those who lived through and experienced 9/11—where they were, what they remember, and how their lives changed,” the author writes in the introduction. “The book that follows is based on more than 500 oral histories, conducted by me as well as dozens of other historians and journalists over the last seventeen years.”
I found the stories to be very compelling. In what was supposed to be a normal Tuesday work day people were suddenly thrust into confronting life and death decisions. Others by sheer luck were saved. “Well, not with that shirt. You’re not going to put on a red and blue tie with a green shirt.” one businessman relates a conversation with a co-worker who had given him a new tie to wear for a presentation in the Windows on the World restaurant atop the North Trade Center tower. “As we left the restaurant at the Marriott, I said, ‘I’m going to go back and change and put on that white shirt. It will look better with this tie. Go on ahead without me.’ I set up an ironing board and ironed the white shirt. I put that shirt on with my new tie. As I was waiting to go from the seventh floor back down to the lobby, I felt a sudden movement in the building…” By chance this businessman survived; his co-worker perished atop the North Tower.
The bravery of the firefighters stood out to me. “They were directing people out, up through Borders and out toward Five World Trade,” said Jeannine Ali, controller, Morgan Stanley, South Tower. “There was a fireman—he couldn’t have been more than 19 years old—with a hose on his shoulder. I remember looking at him and saying to him, ‘There is nothing you can do. Don’t go in there.’ He said, ‘Lady, it’s my job. I have to do it.'”
This is a very small sample of the 9/11 stories in the book. While the hijackers represented the worst of human nature, by far these stories reflected the best of people. There many heroes that day. Read the book to be inspired and to wonder, as I did, would I have acted as courageously?
