I remember a day just like today 20 years ago. A cool crisp September day, I had enjoyed the morning walk to the ferry dock in Highlands NJ, my home for almost 30 years at that time. The ferry was fast, superior in every way to the Jersey Coast Seashore Train into Penn Station, just a 35 minute ride to the ferry dock at Water Street, a quick walk up Fulton Street to Gold Street. My company had me on contract with the Mayor’s Office City of New York, the City of New York had government offices at many different locations around lower Manhattan, I was using one on Gold Street to make some last minute changes to a presentation I was giving at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in their conference room located on the 72nd floor Tower One, World Trade Center at 9:00AM. I was in my Gold Street office by 7:15 AM and completed my changes and ran through the presentation and headed over to the North Tower at 8:15 AM, I stopped by my Companies offices located on the 54 floor for a free cup of coffee, some office watermelon chat and to let them know I was headed up to the aviation conference, I exited my office on the 54 floor, facing west out the windows the North Tower, I stood there enjoying the view, I could see Kennedy and follow the traffic flow for both arrivals and departures, it was spectacular view, not unlike out the front window of a commercial aircraft, In all my years as a commercial pilot that view of what so few actually get to see is what keep me excited by aviation for so long. I realized that I have to get a move on to get to my meeting and get set up and was reluctantly moving toward the elevator, still looking out the window, something caught my eye and I scanned and identified it, an aircraft heading towards the Tower, I’m thinking what controller vectored this guy over the City, I watched and realized that he was low, very low, as he closed the distance I realized it was a commercial carrier and I began to wonder if he would clear the Tower. The building rocked, all that stuff they stick up into the false ceiling in office building came down, along with the false ceiling, I realized that the plane had hit the north tower. I ran back inside of my office and told everyone, what had happened and to exit the building, to take the stairs to the street. . We got out onto the street. There were dead and injured on the street. I walked down Fulton to the corner of Fulton and Gold there was a Hospital Annex on the street corner, I told them they were going to need a lot of help and I could help, I was a medic in Viet Nam and an NJ EMT. I spent the next 24 hours, clearing airways, washing out eyes, treating minor cuts. Ferry service to Highlands, NJ never stopped running, carrying people out of Lower Manhattan to buses to get them to their final destination, EMS and supplies in. I took the next ferry to Highlands it was 10 AM September 12, my wife met me at the dock, she was crying, because the ferry parking lot was still full with cars still parked from the day before because the owners hadn’t gotten out of the building in time and we knew many of them as friends.
