The Death of Osama Bin Laden

History was made last night when President Barak Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden is dead. After a firefight in Pakistan, where he had been hiding, a small team of American forces killed Bin Laden and took possession of his body. His death came 15 years after he declared war on the U.S. Al-Qaida was also responsible for the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa that killed 224 people and the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 24 soldiers in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some that were successful and some that were not.

When I heard the news it caused me to think back on my remembrances that I have of 9/11. I wrote about it in a blog entitled "My 9/11 Memories" dated 9/11/08. What a sad and awful day that was and the following days where spent in trying to absorb the shock of what had happened in our country.

I always considered myself fortunate that I had the opportunity to see "Ground Zero" and the surrounding neighborhoods when I visited New York City about a year after 9/11. Even a year later, the scars of that day were still visible.

Then some time later I had the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. for a meeting. What a privilege it was for me to be able to touch the flag that draped the Pentagon after it was hit by a plane that same day.

The Pentagon flag was originally unfurled from the roof of the Pentagon on Sept. 12, 2001, when President George W. Bush arrived to view the damage from the Sept. 11 attacks. The flag hung at the Pentagon for 30 days before being lowered and folded with full military honors on Oct. 11, 2001.The Pentagon garrison flag came to the Museum on loan from the U.S. Army Center of Military History and was displayed where the original Star-Spangled Banner once hung.

The September 11 attacks, often referred to as September 11th or 9/11, were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both towers collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into The Pentagon in Arlingto, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C., to target either the Capitol Building or the White House. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

Nearly 3,000 victims and the 19 hijackers died in the attacks. According to the New York State Health Department, 836 responders, including firefighters and police personnel, have died as of June 2009. Among the 2,752 victims who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center were 343 firefighters and 60 police officers from New York City and the Port Authority. Another 184 people were killed in the attack on the Pentagon. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries. In addition, there was at least one secondary death—one person was ruled by a medical examiner to have died from lung disease due to exposure to dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center.

I will always remember 9/11 as it was a living history for me. When my grandson reads about 9/11 it will be history read from a book. It will be no different than my son who read about the Vietnam War in a book when that was living history for me also. What will the death of Osama Bin Laden mean for the future? No one knows and only time will tell. I may be writing about something that someone did as revenge for his death one of these days. I hope not. I hope that nothing that tramatic ever strikes the U.S. ever again.

-------------------------------------------My friend Tricia who was with me at the Smithsonian and touched the Pentagon flag also reminded me today that we also saw a melted phone that had been on the plane that hit the Pentagon.