On the morning of September 11, 2001, Heather “Lucky” Penney was sitting in a routine briefing at Andrews Air Force Base when someone entered the room with shocking news: A plane had hit the World Trade Center. Then came the second aircraft.
Colonel Marc Sasseville looked across the room at the 26-year-old F-16 pilot. “Lucky, you’re coming with me.” But there was a terrifying problem. Their F-16s weren’t armed for combat. There wasn’t enough time to load missiles before another hijacked aircraft could potentially reach Washington.
So Penney and Sasseville prepared for a mission with almost no precedent. If they found a hijacked airliner threatening Washington, their own F-16s might have to become the weapons. Sasseville would aim for the cockpit. Penney would take the tail. There would be no ejection at the last second. They understood what the plan could mean. Penney later recalled believing it might be the last time she ever took off.
At 10:42 a.m., their fighters became airborne and began searching the eerily empty skies around Washington. They never found Flight 93. Because nearly 40 minutes earlier, at 10:03 a.m., the aircraft had already crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The passengers and crew had fought back themselves.
Penney later realized that without their counterattack, Flight 93 could have reached Washington before her fighter was even airborne. She continued flying missions that day and later helped escort Air Force One back toward Washington.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 46-year-old elevator mechanic Charles “Chuck” Costello Jr. was working at a hotel in SoHo, twenty blocks north of the World Trade Center. It was a rare day for the New Jersey father of four to be working in Manhattan, but as a Boeing 767 slammed into the North Tower and hundreds of thousands of people began fleeing Lower Manhattan in terror, Costello did the unthinkable: he jumped out of his work site and ran over two miles straight toward the burning towers. When his coworker desperately urged him to stay back, the humble Navy veteran and devout Christian simply replied, “I’ll be fine. Just keep your cellphone on,” before disappearing into the thick smoke.
Inside the burning complex, stalled elevators had become horrific death traps, locking hundreds of panicked occupants inside pitch-black shafts filled with jet fuel smoke. While official contractors withdrew their crews from the chaos, Costello voluntarily charged into 1 World Trade Center to offer his technical expertise. Working alongside firefighters and police officers, who quickly came to know him as “the elevator man”, he used his specialized tools and knowledge to override controls and manually force open jammed doors, freeing trapped workers line after line. After extricating countless people from the North Tower, he refused to seek safety for himself and instead ran directly into 2 World Trade Center to perform the exact same life-saving operation.
Costello’s tireless efforts saved hundreds of lives before the towers collapsed, but his refusal to abandon those trapped inside came at the ultimate price. On January 5, 2002, search and rescue crews finally recovered his remains deep beneath the rubble in a South Tower elevator shaft, resting side-by-side with a firefighter and a police officer. In his pocket were his driver’s license, union card, and rosary. Today, his son carries on his legacy as both an elevator mechanic and a volunteer firefighter. While the world remembers the overwhelming tragedy of that morning, Chuck Costello’s quiet, self-sacrificing courage stands as a testament to the highest order of human love, serving as a poignant reminder of how easily extraordinary human stories can be overlooked.
@ShakesandBerry posted, “I was a classroom teacher on 9-11. Our principal told the twelve of us who taught second grade to put two classes together in six classrooms and declare the day a ‘free fun play and movie day.’ Under no circumstances were we to show fear in front of our little ones and NOT to let them know what was happening. Six teachers stayed in their empty rooms and recorded from 9:00 am through the rest of the school day.
“Teachers took turns taking the kids outside to the playground and coming back in to watch cartoons and children’s movies. Some parents who were terrified of the news, came to pick their kids up early to take them home. I left school that afternoon after removing the full tape, and inserting a new one to keep recording. When I got home, I recorded all night long and kept recording both there and when I went to school the next day.
“It took me five or six years before I could watch all those tapes. I cried through them all. I still, after all these years, remember the LOUD thuds of human bodies hitting the ground.
“Americans must continue to honor lives lost by VOTING OUT every Muslim in our local, state and federal governments, and getting them OUT of our country.“
Genelle was on the 64th floor of the North Tower when the planes hit. She tried to escape by walking down the stairs. She got to the 13th floor when the tower collapsed. She was thrown to the ground and pinned under thousands of tons of concrete and steel. Her head was wedged tightly against a concrete pillar, her legs were completely crushed beneath thirty feet of debris.
Genelle had been raised by a devout Christian, but had walked away from the faith. Lying trapped, broken, and in excruciating pain for hours, she begged God to give her a second chance and promised that if He saved her she would dedicate her life to Him. She prayed, “God, You know this. I know You can do miracles, from what my mom told me. Testimony of what I’ve heard and seen — I know You can do miracles. Just show me a sign that You’re there. Just show me a sign that You’re listening to me.”
Just as she was about to completely give up, a hand took hold of her left hand. A man called her by her name and told her his name was Paul. He held her hand and kept telling her that she was going to be all right and that help was getting close. Paul stayed right by her side until a search dog named Trakr led rescue workers to her. Then, he disappeared.
Genelle was the last person saved. She had been buried alive for 27 hours. Genelle believes Paul was the guardian angel God sent to give her hope. She spent a month in the hospital and endured four surgeries to save her crushed right leg. Keeping the promise she made to God, she was baptized later that same year and married her boyfriend. She later wrote Angel in the Rubble to share her testimony.
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