America's Dunkirk: hundreds of private boats spontaneously organized a rescue of 500,000 people from Manhattan island on 9/11.
Nobody organized anything. People just did what needed done. It was the largest maritime rescue in history.
There's also a book about the rescue.
One of the best documentaries about that day, yet it got little air time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for remembering it and posting it.
Yeah.
ReplyDeleteSeems to be a lot of that going around, once you turn off the fakenews.
https://gunfreezone.net/index.php/2018/09/11/this-is-the-greatness-of-america/
I didn't start working on tugs in New York until 2010. When I saw this video, I was amazed that I know most of the men who were speaking and have worked with most of them. Humble guys who you'd never guess did something extraordinary. Robin and Herb, the brothers who were featured prominently- the guy missing his front teeth and the heavyset guy, especially. I worked with them about once a week for two years. Never knew, until the video came out. It's just not spoken of. I suppose it is viewed as just having been the right thing to do. Doing the right thing and finding a quick and practical solution to mitigate hard times comes naturally to some, and not to others.
ReplyDeletePaul, Dammit!
ReplyDeleteWhat you describe of Robin's and Herb's reactions is what most Medal of Honor recipients, and other major award recipients, are like. They don't consider themselves heroes. It's always the other guy...
Which, of course, is the mark of a real hero.
Thanks for posting. I take the ferry to work in downtown NYC frequently. I was somewhat aware of the role they played on 9/11. They also rescued the passengers from flight 1549 in Jan. 2009. I saw the plane in the Hudson River from my office.
ReplyDelete