The Voices of 9-11: The Story of the FAA and NORAD Response to the September 11, 2001, Attacks
Recordings From: FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), NORAD (North American Aerospace Division Command)
Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
Even now, a bit of a slug in the gut…
The first time I listened to The Voices of 9-11 I’d just been futzing around, wanting something interesting, but not really caring about what it was I picked. Then I picked this audio/recording, and I wound up staring at a wall with tears streaming down my face, totally zombified with emotion.
And that was in 2013, 12 freakin’ years AFTER!
Okay, so well, PHEW! It’s 2019, 18 freakin’ years, and while I’m not crying, the whole thing did indeed stir up many, many memories. As a society, if we were around then cognizant and not at our mothers’ apron strings, we ALL have memories of that day.
And this audiobook adds to the feelings by giving the listener a behind-the-scenes view of what was going on. As it’s recordings of air traffic control towers, of airline personnel’s phone calls, of military interactions, the tapes are a trifle hard to hear (Best if you listen with headphones/ear buds, so you can hear people talking around the phone), but it’s SUCH a worthwhile listen that I urge you to stick with it.
It all happens so quickly too. From the beginning, where nobody has a gosh darn clue (And you knowingly start screaming for them to Just Get the Planes Outta the Sky!!!), going through to where warnings are sent out, blanket-style, for more cockpit security cuz there are a couple of situations, all the way to the very end, where one person pretty much sums the whole day up, the next several years… decades? up.
There are lines that’ll kill ya like: “Does anyone know what that smoke is coming from lower Manhattan?” to “Person: That plane is down. Other person, happily: Oh! It landed? First person: No; it’s down” all the way to a scrambling of jets after the confirmation: “This is real world, not exercise.”
While I didn’t feel quite as body slammed now as I did in 2013 and while I’m not crying now, I still feel like I’ve been through the wringer. There was sooo much confusion! Sooo much misinformation! Soooo much energy and passion and hope and despair!
The end is very, very hard to hear as there’s a lot of distortion, but you can kinda sorta hear the background people talking, and it’s all worth it as a summation:
It was a very, very long day that turned into some very, very long years….
Free at Audible, this short compilation of recordings was definitely worth the time.
Included in the Audible Plus Catalog with free listening for Audible Members.
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