On the 25th anniversary of September 11th we remember the heroes in New York City, in Shanksville and at the Pentagon.
Many USFIA members remember the clear blue skies on the East Coast. It was a fall day that started out just like any other day, until everything changed. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who lost someone that day – family, friends and colleagues. If you have any memories of 9-11 that you would like to share with us, anonymously or attributed, please add them here.
PEW Research Center surveyed U.S. adults and found that, 25 years later, 93% of adults over 35 remember exactly where they were or what they were doing the moment they heard about the attacks on 9-11-01. See the graph below:
Where were we? At that time USFIA (then called USA-ITA, the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel) was headquartered in New York, just a few minutes from the World Trade Center. Luckily everyone was going in late that morning because it was primary election day. Here in D.C. we were at USTR when the plane hit the Pentagon. Of course, the hearing was cancelled, and on the way back to the office we saw people evacuating the White House.
We want to share with USFIA members a few remembrances of that day 25 years ago.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection shared perspectives from 9/11 in the latest edition of Frontline. CBP’s Executive Assistant Commissioner for Trade, Susan Thomas, shares her experience while meeting in World Trade Center Building 6. She captures the story of many in NYC that day.
Executive Assistant Commissioner for CBP’s Office of Trade Susan S. Thomas was also at World Trade Center 6 that fateful September day. At the time, she was a U.S. Customs Service import specialist for textile enforcement, making sure textile and wearing apparel imports were lawfully declared or prevented from entering the United States commerce if not admissible. She had traveled from her headquarters office in Washington, D.C., to a meeting in New York City. It was a trip she made frequently, but this time she couldn’t get a reservation to her go-to hotel near the World Trade Centers. Still, staying a little further away gave her a chance to enjoy the perfect weather during the walk to World Trade Center 6.
“I still remember what the sky looked like that day – just how blue it was, how clear it was, almost the perfect fall day,” Thomas said. “If I was staying next to the World Trade Center, I may not have seen how nice of a day it was. I always try to see the positive in every situation.”
As the meeting was kicking off, they felt the building shake. Some thought it could be an earthquake; others thought it was due to furniture on the floors above them being moved. But people who had been there in 1993 for the first bombing of the World Trade Center knew better.
“Someone from the leadership team in New York said, ‘You all need to get out!” Thomas said.
Still confused about what exactly had happened, Thomas soon found herself in the plaza area of the World Trade Center.
“The second plane came from behind me,” she said, hearing the full-throttle roar of the passenger jet. “I turned my head and just watched the plane go full-force into the second tower.”
The daughter of a fireman from Pennsylvania, Thomas knew she needed to get out of the area. She saw the flames and smoke pouring from the building and even saw people jump to their deaths to escape the carnage.
“I saw things people should not ever see,” she recalled, 25 years later.
Unable to use the subway in that area, Thomas took a much more somber walk to her hotel, that was fortunately far enough from the attacks.
“I lost part of my shoes. My feet were bloody, but I made it to the hotel, just as one of the towers was falling,” she said.
Harper’s Bazaar published a look back from the Fashion Week perspective that highlights the impact of the day.
WWD shares a look back at the impact of 9/11 from the tenth anniversary.