The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

These chapters explore the theme of The Psychological and Emotional Impact of Terrorism through the distress of emergency workers confronting the acres of destruction where the WTC complex once stood. Structures and vehicles that were symbols of strength are reduced to crushed ruins: “You’re looking at a fire truck—which most people view as incredibly strong and incredibly indestructible—these things were broken like little kids’ toys. It was like they were made out of papier-mâché and then stepped on” (609). This illustrates the immense destruction and the heat of the fires. NYPD Captain Jay Jonas, who spent hours after the collapse trapped in a stairwell, was stunned to see the extent of destruction when he finally emerged into the rubble pile: “It was beyond our wildest imagination, how bad it truly was” (682).

The poignant sight of empty hospital stretchers, ready to receive an influx of injured patients, symbolizes the immense loss of life: “At the hospital, there were stretchers and gurneys and tons of nurses and doctors, but no new arriving patients” (635). Similarly, emergency workers hoped to recover the living at the site but instead found endless fragments of bodies: “We were finding plenty of body parts, but we weren’t finding anybody who was rescuable. We kept doing that all day long” (609).

This section explores the discrimination experienced by Americans of Arabic ethnicity (introduced in previous chapters) through the recollections of seven-year-old Hiba Elaasar: “After that day, my friend came over and said, ‘We can’t be friends anymore, Hiba. My mom said until this is over, we can’t be friends anymore’” (641-42). Hiba was vilified and excluded because of events that had nothing to do with her, because some Americans failed to see the distinction between Islamic people living in the US, many of whom are patriotic Americans, and Islamic terrorists, leading to increased discrimination. Similarly, classmates of eight-year-old Manar Hussein made him feel ashamed and self-conscious because the terrorists were Islamic, like him:

‘Suspected al-Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist group, hijackers…’: the news anchor tried to explain that we were under attack. The words were foreign to these third-graders, but the word ‘Islamic’ they knew very well—it was the word I had used to introduce myself in these early days of school. A couple students started to look at me, riddling me with hard questioning stares. I couldn’t help but feel ashamed and apologetic for something that had nothing to do with me (643).

For many Americans of Arabic appearance, 9/11 marked the beginning of a period of fear and terror: Instances of exclusion, unjust profiling (especially at airports), taunting, and hate attacks increased significantly. These traumatic memories are also instances of the psychological and emotional impact of terrorism. Other children, now adults, recall the stress of that day; for many, 9/11 is their earliest memory and was characterized by stress and confusion. Alma M. recalls that “[a]ll the adults seemed weird. They were all on edge and something was wrong, everything was so quiet” (640). This speaks to the national mood of fear, discernible even to three- and four-year-old children. Dan Shuman, who was 12 years old, had a sense “that something horrible and incomprehensible had happened that had already changed things forever” (647).

These chapters further explore the theme of The Tragic Randomness of Decisions in Dictating Life or Death. Linda Krouner, who evacuated the South Tower, objects to being told that she was “so smart to leave” because she believes that, on 9/11, “there’s so much luck involved in this, in who lived and who died” (675). The NYPD’s Mark DeMarco feels immense guilt over the randomness of his own survival, dwelling on how easily he might have made slightly different decisions:

If I had made a right instead of a left, if I had been five minutes or two minutes slower, if I had gone to a different team. There were so many variables. Everybody who was there says the same thing: it was luck, nothing more than luck (675).

His reflections illustrate the challenges that people faced when confronting their own survival when so many others died.

The theme of Resilience and Heroism in the Face of Adversity is again evident in the nation’s response to the attacks. President Bush’s tone was one of determination: “He said, ‘I want everybody who’s listening to this SVT’—which means secure video teleconference—‘[to know] that no faceless thugs are going to hold this country at bay’” (661). Similarly, press conferences from the Pentagon on the evening of 9/11 took place, despite the smoke still filling the hallways, in order to send a message that the government and the military was still functioning: “We wanted to send the right message to the rest of the country” (693). Similarly, Secretary Rumsfeld’s declaration that September 12 would be a normal work day at the Pentagon displays and embodies resilience in the face of adversity.