The National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey has opened an exhibit recalling the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and chronicling the New Jersey National Guard’s response. “September 11: The New Jersey National Guard Response” is open through Oct. 3 at the museum’s annex at the National Guard Armory at 151 Eggerts Crossing Rd. in Lawrence Township and main museum at Sea Girt Avenue and Camp Drive in Sea Girt. “Within moments of the first plane striking the World Trade Center, elements of the New Jersey National Guard were mobilized in support of security and recovery operations,” said …
On Sunday, Rider University hosted a service to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and remember the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – eight of whom belonged to the “Rider family.” The service - held at Rider’s campus at 2083 Lawrence Rd. (Route 206) - was attended by Lawrence Township police officers, volunteer firefighters, and emergency medical personnel, along with Mayor Greg Puliti and members of the township council. Soldiers from the New Jersey National Guard also took part.
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. The light was unmistakable. Not from the flames, dripping through the ceiling of an abandoned hallway, but from the sun, the actual sun. And there in the stairwell, at nearly 1,000 feet above the ground, a soft breeze carried the air – fresh air from the east – in through a gaping hole in the side of the skyscraper on a cloudless morning in New York City. Reflecting on that day nearly a decade ago, there’s a …
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. "This is the hour of lead Remembered if outlived, As freezing persons recollect the snow — First chill, then stupor, then the letting go." —Emily Dickinson Colleen Meehan Barkow and her mother JoAnn Meehan spent the weekend before Sept. 11, 2001, happily shopping for towels and linens for the 26-year-old's new home in the Poconos. Colleen and her husband Daniel, married less than a…
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. As a poet from a working-class New Jersey background who teaches at a small community college tucked into the Northwest corner of his home state, BJ Ward is accustomed to being ignored. Which makes the public’s awareness — and gratitude — for one of his poems, For the Children of the World Trade Center Victims, all the more remarkable to him. Ten years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Ward still hears from the …
Lawrence Township Police Sgt. Mike Yeh can still see the Air Force fighters rocketing overhead. East Windsor Fire Co. #1 Chief Kevin Brink can remember trudging through the ash that in places was as deep as snow drifts. Both men can still recall the horror and disbelief they felt when they first set eyes on the mountain of twisted steel and shattered concrete. Ten years have passed since the two first responders raced up to Lower Manhattan in the hours immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. As members of New Jersey Urban Search and Rescue Task …
Editor's Note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. Steve Napolitano, who was the General Manager of the George Washington Bridge and Bus Station on Sept. 11, 2001, remembers standing on the sidewalk the day after the terror attacks, staring at the American flag workers had just unfurled on the bridge "while car horns beeped as they drove beneath it." “It was really important that we do that; that we hang that flag," Napolitano said. "Not only for us to …
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. As John and Barbara Sullivan unfolded an 8-by-12-foot American flag, they became emotional. It had been 10 years since they looked at the flag that was signed by thousands just after 9/11. “This is even hard for us,” John said. The couple, owners of American Eagle Flag, LLC on Lacey Road in Forked River, never anticipated that their product would become a hot commodity and under the circumstances, they …
Lawrence Township residents are invited to join the Rider University community Sunday afternoon to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and remember the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – eight of whom belonged to the “Rider family.” The service will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday on the new Academic Building Plaza of Rider’s Lawrence Township campus at 2083 Lawrence Rd. (Route 206). Lawrence Township police officers and volunteer firefighters, as well as soldiers from the New Jersey National Guard, will take part in the service. And at 2 p.m. Sunday, the Princeton Brass Band …
Jennifer Gardner knew the instant her husband died. “(The tower) hadn’t fallen yet but I knew he was gone,” Jennifer recalled. “I felt him leave me, slam out of my chest like an astronaut hurtling into space with a torn lifeline.” Her husband, Doug Gardner, 39, was an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, an equity firm located on the 105 floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. The day was Sept. 11, 2001, the day two commercial airplanes were hijacked by Islamic terrorists and crashed into the New York landmarks, killing nearly 3,000 people and leaving the world in stunned disbelief. …
Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by the Mercer County administration. Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes will be joined by county residents, first responders from around the area, and other local officials in a solemn ceremony at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, in Mercer County Park in West Windsor Township to dedicate the new September 11th Memorial that has been constructed there. The ceremony is open to the public. It will include performances of the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” by One Voice, comprised of members of the Trenton Children’s Chorus …
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. Hoboken resident Howard Turoff remembers thinking it was a clear and beautiful day as he walked to the local PATH station on his way to work on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. He had no idea he was about to step onto the last train into lower Manhattan, to the biggest terrorist attack ever in the United States. The cars of the train were full. People were standing shoulder to shoulder, Turoff said, like any other …
Editor's Note: The following is a news release issued by Grounds for Sculpture. Grounds For Sculpture, the 42-acre sculpture park and arboretum in Hamilton, N.J., enthusiastically and gratefully invites all first responders — including fire, police, and emergency medical technician personnel — and their immediate families to visit free of charge on Sept. 11. With valid ID, all first responders and their spouses/partners and children can enjoy the tranquil beauty of the park for a day of contemplation and remembrance as tribute and thanks for their selfless service and to honor the memory of …
It was time for a change. After terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and slammed two into the World Trade Center buildings, one into the Pentagon, and another into a field in Pennsylvania, the way professionals approach security for mass transportation needed an overhaul. For NJ Transit – which operates 2,027 buses, 771 trains and 45 light rail vehicles over a service area of 5,325 square miles – that meant a change in mindset. “In the past we only focused on crime and great service to customers, but now, here at NJ Transit, what we try to drive home to all our officers is that their …
Editor's note: Many New Jersey residents saw firsthand the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Now, 10 years later, we've asked some of them how the event changed their lives. Ron Viola laughs when he talks about the nicknames firefighters give each other. “Everyone has a nickname: Joey Bag of Donuts, Frankie Love Handles, Billy Bones,” Viola said Then growing serious, he pauses to add, “But on 9/11 they all had one name: Brother.” Everybody has a story about where they were when the planes hit the World Trade Center. If you’re old enough to remember the events of that day then you…
Like all Americans on that fateful day 10 years ago, South Brunswick resident Atiya Aftab was going about her normal daily routine on Sept. 11, 2001. She had just sent her eldest child off to kindergarten on a beautiful Tuesday morning, as the new school year had begun days earlier. "I remember sitting at home watching the Today Show with my newborn, and then witnessing the second tower falling," Aftab said. "Like most people, I had this feeling of 'oh my God what is going on.' I had just sent my child off to school and I was scared for my relatives in New York City. I was just sitting there…
During the summer, Patch began collecting readers' photos of the World Trade Center, a growing gallery in tribute to the Twin Towers. As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks draws near, we'll be remembering New Jersey residents who died that clear September morning. But we also wanted to pay tribute to the towers—iconic symbols of hope and prosperity—when they stood tall and proud, dominating the New York City skyline. We asked and you delivered, sending in more than a hundred photos statewide that represent your favorite memories: the shimmering skyline at nightfall, the view…
"A Letter to Caitlyn" "You asked your mom why everyone is so sad around your birthday and you wonder why you never got to meet your Uncle Johnnie. I hope I can help you understand. "Before you were born, there were two really big buildings in New York City called the Twin Towers. Your Uncle Johnnie worked on the 104th floor of the building, almost at the very top! He worked with bankers and had lots of friends who worked with him. "A week before you were born, a group of men who did not like our country, did a very bad thing. They hijacked airplanes, which means they forced the pilots to let …
