Is everyone okay?

[wondersofwine]

I rewatched the documentary by two French brothers who were chronicling the probationary period of a fireman rookie with 1st Bn, FDNY. I had seen it before but it was just as sad this time around. The rookie is now with HAZMAT and Chief Pfeffer or Pfeiffer has had several promotions and is involved with Counterterrorism and Emergency Preparedness. (He lost his brother, also a fireman, in one of the towers, last seen telling people which way to go for the safest exit). My friend who suffered second-degree burns and a broken toe at the Pentagon had plastic surgery (possibly on her ears) but to look at her you would never know that a fireball rolled over her. Another friend in the Pentagon that day couldn't sleep without sleeping pills for weeks afterwards due to nightmares but I think she eventually recovered her equilibrium. Still another one did see a counselor for a time and she literally started shaking when we heard a helicopter (this in Oklahoma City at the memorial to the Oklahoma bombing victims). The helicopters recalled to her the flight from the Pentagon and the helicopters coming in to evacuate the wounded. I feel I have been affected as much by the aftermath as the day itself--the soldiers I met in the library who have since died in Afghanistan or Iraq and the stories of the others who come back mentally or physically maimed from the battlefield (if you can call it a battlefield with the random planting of IEDs). There are many serious brain injuries from the explosions. God help us.

[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 09-11-2006).]