Thursday, September 12, 2024

America's Dunkirk

I was going to post this yesterday, but ASM826 posted about the victims of that day.  But this story is exceptionally well-told and deserves to be remembered.

No training.  This was just what people did that day.

- One of the captains that evacuated Manhattan on 9/11 

It's not quite fair to call this "America's Dunkirk", since the English Channel is a lot wider than the Hudson River.  And the Luftwaffe had something to say in 1940, that they didn't have in 2001.

But this is a great story, well told by Tom Hanks.  About the time that the Coast Guard sent out a radio message to all boats that can help evacuate Manhattan.  This is the story of the boats who responded, and evacuated a Million people in a day.

 I've posted about this before.  But this seems somehow apropos.  And click through to that post to see the comment from Friend Of The Blog Paul, Dammit! who knows a bunch of the people interviewed in this.  It's worth your time. 

2 comments:

  1. That it is. And typical of American will to do the 'right thing'...

    ReplyDelete
  2. With all due regards to the Coasties, the ferry captains and charter boats were well under way before they showed up. They did organize the mess and for that they do deserve kudos.

    ReplyDelete

Remember your manners when you post. Anonymous comments are not allowed because of the plague of spam comments.