As the nation marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, The Log remembers those who were lost, the first responders who ran toward danger, the men and women who answered the call to serve in the years that followed and the maritime community that proved, on one of America’s darkest days, what it means to come to the aid of others.
There are dates that divide time into a before and an after.
September 11, 2001, is one of them.
Twenty-five years have now passed since nearly 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and aboard Flight 93. For those old enough to remember that Tuesday morning, the images remain difficult to separate from the emotions that accompanied them: confusion, disbelief, fear, grief and, eventually, the realization that the country had changed.
For younger Americans, September 11 is history learned through photographs, recordings, classrooms, and stories told by people who remember where they were when they first heard the news.
A quarter-century later, remembering remains important.
On September 11, families will once again gather at the National September 11 Memorial in New York to read aloud the names of those killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Moments of silence will mark the times the towers were struck and fell, the attack on the Pentagon, and the crash of Flight 93, while also honoring those who later died from illnesses and injuries related to the attacks.
For a newspaper dedicated to the boating and maritime communities, there is another part of the September 11 story that deserves to be remembered.
When Lower Manhattan became nearly impossible to leave by land, the waterfront became an escape route.
Bridges and tunnels were closed, transportation systems were disrupted and hundreds of thousands of people needed a way off the island. The U.S. Coast Guard put out the call, and the maritime community answered.
Ferries came. Tugboats came. Commercial vessels came. Private boats came.
Mariners who began that morning expecting an ordinary day on New York Harbor suddenly found themselves participating in an evacuation of historic proportions.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, more than 500,000 people were evacuated from Manhattan by water using hundreds of local ferries, commercial vessels and private craft. The operation was completed in less than eight hours without a loss of life during the maritime evacuation.
It remains the largest maritime evacuation in recorded history.
There is something deeply familiar in that response to anyone who understands the culture of the water.
Mariners help mariners.
When someone is in trouble, the first question is rarely whether assisting them is convenient. Boats change course. Lines are thrown. People climb aboard. Captains make room.
On September 11, that instinct unfolded on an almost unimaginable scale.
The people operating those vessels did not know what the day would become when they left home that morning. Many did not know whether another attack was coming. They simply knew people needed to get away from Lower Manhattan, and they had boats capable of carrying them.
The maritime response extended far beyond the evacuation.
Coast Guard personnel were among the first military responders following the attacks, providing communications, security and assistance while participating in search-and-rescue and recovery efforts. Members of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Strike Team also worked around Ground Zero with the Environmental Protection Agency to monitor air quality and support the safety of responders.
Across the country, ports and waterways entered a new era as well.
The attacks fundamentally changed maritime security in the United States. Coast Guard resources were redirected toward additional homeland security responsibilities, reservists were activated and security increased at ports throughout the nation. The Maritime Transportation Security Act followed in 2002, and new Coast Guard capabilities were developed to better protect ports, waterways, vessels and maritime infrastructure.
Those changes eventually reached every major American port, including the ports and harbors familiar to Southern California’s maritime community.
But the legacy of September 11 cannot be measured only in laws, security zones or changes in procedure.
It lives in people.
It lives in the firefighters, police officers, paramedics and other first responders who entered buildings while others were trying desperately to get out.
It lives in the civilians who helped strangers.
It lives in the mariners who brought their vessels toward Manhattan when thousands of people needed a way home.
And it lives in the generations of men and women who chose to serve this country afterward.
Some joined the military because of what they witnessed that day. Others were already serving and found that their missions, deployments and lives changed almost overnight. Service members would spend the years that followed deployed far from home, while their families carried their own share of that sacrifice.
Twenty-five years is long enough for an entire generation to have grown up without a personal memory of September 11.
That makes telling these stories increasingly important.
Remembrance should not require every American to have witnessed the attacks firsthand. It asks instead that we continue to understand what was lost, recognize those who responded, and appreciate the weight carried by the people who served in the years that followed.
For those of us who make our lives around the water, there is also something worth remembering about what boats represented that day.
They were not recreational vessels, commercial assets or simply transportation.
They were a way out.
And the people operating them became part of an enormous, improvised rescue effort because when their community needed them, they responded.
That spirit is not confined to New York Harbor.
Southern California’s maritime community includes Coast Guard crews, Navy sailors, harbor patrol officers, commercial captains, fishermen, ferry operators, towboat crews, first responders, recreational boaters and countless others who understand that life on the water comes with a responsibility to look out for one another.
The Log has spent decades telling the stories of that community. This September 11, we pause with the rest of the country to remember a story much larger than our pages.
We remember the 2,977 people whose lives were taken in the attacks.
We remember the families who have carried their absence for 25 years.
We remember the first responders who ran toward danger and those who suffered illness and injury because of their service at Ground Zero and elsewhere.
We remember the mariners who answered a call over the radio and turned New York Harbor into a lifeline.
We honor and remember the men and women of all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and the first responders who answered the call on Sept. 11, 2001, and who continued to serve in the years that followed.
And we thank the men and women who continue to serve today.
Twenty-five years have passed.
Our duty and responsibility to remember has not.
