The Morning of 9/11: A Coastie's Account of Tragedy and Heroism

It was a warm day, it was nice and sunny. A good day to be out on the water to conduct the mission. We started off our day in North Cove Marina where we usually go out to get a cup of coffee and something to eat before we head out on patrol. We kind of heard a low rumbling as we were getting underway. We didn't know what it was and the sound was getting louder and louder. Once the sound became almost deafening. At first we thought it was an accident. When the second plane hit that was jarred. It was um yeah that was jarred. It was just chaos. There were a lot of vessels that were moving north and south with no direction and this is when the towers were aflame. When the towers collapsed it was smoke, papers, soot. It was a horrific sight. When the towers collapsed and you saw all of the people that were on the island coming towards the shoreline along the wall on the Hudson, that's when you saw the majority of the Good Samaritans really start to act. Amongst the chaos that was on Channel 16 you heard the call saying if anybody wants to help go to Governor's Island. Vessels coming from Long Island, coming from New Jersey, coming from the Outer Bridge Crossing. People came in to assist and it was a concerted effort that actually worked and it was it was it was something to see.