General

My neighbor for twenty years, Norman Hughes, who lived but 150 feet from my home in Covington, Indiana, passed away on Sunday:

Norman Dale Hughes, 71, of Covington, died unexpectedly Sunday (Aug. 1, 2004) at home.

He was born Nov. 1, 1932, in Covington, the son of Oscar and Gladys Hershberger Hughes and was a life resident of Veedersburg and Covington.

He was a 1950 graduate of Veedersburg High School and a Navy veteran of the Korean War. He was employed many years at Fountain County Co-op in Veedersburg and the VA Hospital in Danville in maintenance, where he retired. His memberships include: First Baptist Church where he served as a trustee, VFW Post #2395, American Legion Post #350, Fountain Democrat Club and Covington Senior Citizens. He was an avid Cubs fan.

Norman married Donna Dewlen on Oct. 26, 1958, at Covington. She died June 10, 2001. Surviving is a daughter, Sarah (Tim Taflinger) Keller of Catlin, Ill.; two grandsons, Jacob and Cole Keller; mother-in-law, Lenore Dewlen of Covington; a brother, Dean (Shelby) Hughes of Attica; an aunt, Goldie Yerkes of Danville, Ill.; and several cousins. His parents preceded him in death.

Unfortunately, it was my brother Steve who found Norman’s body.

In all of the years I knew Norman, I never knew that he was a veteran of the Korean War – and a Navy Vet at that.

As I make my way through the 9/11 Commission Report, two paragraphs about the FDNY response to the World Trade Center fire stuck me:

Immediately after the second plane hit, the FDNY Chief of Department called a second fifth alarm.

By 9:15, the number of FDNY personnel en route to or present at the scene was far greater than the commanding chiefs at the scene had requested. […] several other units self-dispatched. Third, because the attacks came so close to the 9:00 shift change, many firefighters just going off duty were given permission by company officers to “ride heavy”.. […] Fourth, many off-duty firefighters responded from firehouses separately from the on-duty unit [..] or from home.

And then this about leadership in the FDNY:

After the South Tower collapsed, some firefighters on the streets neighboring the North Tower remained where they were or came closer to the North Tower. Some of these firefighters did not know that the South Tower had collapsed, but many chose despite that knowledge to remain in an attempt to save additional lives. According to one such firefighter, a chief who was preparing to mount a search-and-rescue mission in the Marriott, “I would never think of myself as a leader of men if I had headed north on West Street after [the] South Tower collapsed.”

Where do we find such men? And how fortunate we are that we have found them….

From today’s New York Times:

Of the 33 passengers on the plane who were not hijackers, at least 10, and two crew members, spoke to people on the ground. At least five of the calls included discussion of the World Trade Center. At 9:57, about seven minutes before the end, one of the passengers ended her conversation saying: “Everyone’s running up to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”

The report indicates that Mr. Jarrah, at the controls of United 93, did what many airline pilots have fantasized about since the hijackings: tried to maneuver the plane sharply, rolling and pitching, to keep control of the cockpit. It apparently did not work; the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

The report does not clarify whether the hijackers’ goal for Flight 93 was the White House or the Capitol, but indicates that the hijackers tuned a cockpit radio to the frequency of a navigation beacon at National Airport, just across the Potomac River from the capital, erasing any doubt about the region of their intended destination.

At three seconds after 10 a.m., Mr. Jarrah is heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: “Is that it? Shall we finish it off?”

But another hijacker responds: “No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off.”

The voice recorder captured sounds of continued fighting, and Mr. Jarrah pitched the plane up and then down. A passenger is heard to say, “In the cockpit. If we don’t we’ll die!”

Then a passenger yelled “Roll it!” Some aviation experts have speculated that this was a reference to a food cart, being used as a battering ram.

Mr. Jarrah “stopped the violent maneuvers” at 10:01:00, according to the report, and said, “Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!”

“He then asked another hijacker in the cockpit, `Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?’ to which the other replied, `Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.’ ”

Eighty seconds later, a hijacker is heard to say, “Pull it down! Pull it down!”

“The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them,” according to the report, which seems to indicate that the hijackers themselves crashed the plane. “With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes’ flying time from Washington, D.C,” according to the report.

Currently weeding my way through FEMA’s Independent Study Course (IS-195) on the Basic Incident Command System – yes, it’s 11:55pm and I’m still studying. Yes, it’s really for work.

And, to my surprise, I found out that they offer college credit for doing these. How about that!