9/11 Tribute - Part IX

Frank A. DeMartini - A Hero of 9/11/01

Frank DeMartini had a passion for old cars, motorcycles, sailing and everything Italian. He also loved restoring Brooklyn brownstones, and was fascinated with the World Trade Center. Mr. DeMartini, an architect, started working at the twin towers when he was hired to assess the damage from the 1993 bombing. He stayed on, becoming the construction manager, the man to see when you wanted to move a wall or rearrange the plumbing. Mr. DeMartini's wife, Nicole, also worked in the towers, and their children, Sabrina, 10, and Dominic, 8, could often be seen splashing around in the pool at the complex's Marriott Hotel.

Compact and athletic, Mr. DeMartini, 49, once used a baseball bat to chase away an intruder who had picked the wrong brownstone. "He was really very fearless," said Michael Prager, a longtime friend. When the north tower was struck, Nicole DeMartini was just leaving her husband's office on the 88th floor. Finding a stairway that was still intact, he ushered her to safety. But he refused to follow just then because others needed help. "He saw himself very much as a protector," Mr. Prager said. -- Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 1, 2001. (Source)

In regards to the Towers' immense solid steel construction, Frank A. DeMartini, Manager of WTC Construction & Project Management stated in an interview back in January 2001:

"The building was designed to have a fully loaded 707 crash into it. That was the largest plane at the time. I believe that the building probably could sustain multiple impacts of jetliners, because this structure is like the mosquito netting on your screen door - this intense grid - and the jet plane is just a pencil puncturing that screen netting. It really does nothing to the screen netting."

Frank DeMartini died on September 11th a hero. After accompanying his wife down 88 flights of stairs from his office in the North Tower, he went back up with fellow WTC worker Pablo Ortiz and rescued over 70 people. DeMartini and Ortiz - both 49 years of age - perished in the collapse of the North Tower. (Source)



Frank DeMartini                                                         Pablo Ortiz
(Source)

9/11: Heroes of the 88th Floor is a must see!

Infinite Beer!

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9/11 Tribute - Part VIII

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Meanwhile, In...

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...well, wherever it is that hoodlums who attack riot police wear masks like that.

Crazy thing is, I'm not sure whether that's a phone number on that sign in the top left, but if it is, that's a San Antonio area code. Not San Antonio, though.

Yep - Everything's Bigger in Texas

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Poor Ron Paul..

Just Had to Post This Picture of Mike Portnoy's Clear Kit

CTE!

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9/11 Tribute - Part VII

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System Warning Light

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I think mine comes on sometimes, but by then I may not be able to read what it says..

P-p-patience is a Virtue

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9/11 Tribute - Part VI

Yeah I forgot my 9/11 tribute post last night, and I apologize. So I guess it will be 10 posts in 11 days. Sorry about that!



Click the image, sit back, and remember..

Nice Tat!

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It seems she realized the fact before getting the tattoo. Afterward, I'm not so sure..

Texas Labor Day 2011 Wildfires Seen From Space

CTE!

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Great Pose, Ladies!

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You have to wonder if this was intentional..

Ain't That Right!

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The Beerbulance Has Come to the Rescue

In reference to this post, and this post, I now give you what may just be the best variety of all:


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9/11 Tribute - Part V

Rick Rescorla - A True Hero

If you never heard of Rick Rescorla, you are missing out on one of the best stories of an "American" hero.

Born born Cyril Richard Rescorla in Hayle, Cornwall, in 1939.

During WWII the 175th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division was headquartered in Rick's hometown. Being a typical young boy he fell head over heals in love with the American G.I.s. He grew up an athlete, excelling in boxing.

Image Source

In 1957 Rescorla joined the British Army The Parachute Regiment and also serving with intelligence. Upon leaving the military he served various jobs as a police officer.

He moved to the United States and joined the United States Army in 1963, wanting to go to Vietnam to fight. In 1965 he was a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and fought in the Battle of Ia Drang - the battle recounted in the book and depicted in the movie "We Were Soldiers (Once ... And Young)"

While serving in Vietnam Rick earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, a Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. And didn't come back to the United States to throw any of them on the White House lawn, nor did he join The Winter Soldiers and undermine his military brothers still fighting, bleeding, and dying in Vietnam.

Rescorla was a very bright and astute man. He was a critical thinker. In 1992 he warned the World Trade Center's Port Authority that the massive structures were vulnerable to (what we call now) VIEDs in the basement parking garage, but his warning was not heeded. In 1993 the first terrorist attack on the WTC happened. Rick helped evacuate the building, and was the last man out.

Rescorla became director of security for Morgan Stanley headquartered in the World Trade Center in 1997. Feeling the WTC was too vulnerable a target for terrorists, Rick recommended Morgan Stanley leave the structure and find new office spaces. But they were locked into a lease. So, Rescorla then made certain all employees of Morgan Stanley train and practice in emergency evacuations from the WTC building, drilling them every three months.

On September 11, 2001 Rick Rescorla was supposed to be on vacation. Instead, he was filling in so one of his deputies could go on vacation.

This [at the beginning of the video], I believe, is one of the last known pictures taken of Rick Rescorla on 9-11-01 as he coaxed and lead the evacuation of Morgan Stanley's staff and employees out of WTCT2 and WTC5.



When all the Morgan Stanley employees were safely out, Rick went back inside to help more people escape the inevitable doom he had feared and predicted years before.

On the warm, bright, sunny morning of September 11, 2001 Rick Rescorla was not the last man out of the World Trade Center.

Rick Rescorla's birth certificate may have said England but he was an American hero through and through - in every cell of his body, and every fiber of his heart and soul.

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Hope He Doesn't Have a Dog!

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Freedom?

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Labor Day 2011 Will Be Remembered For Fires All Over Texas

Click the image to go to the site.. (Thanks Marsha!)

This one was in North San Antonio:
Source

This one in Bastrop was absolutely HUGE. From what I've been reading, I think they are searching for more firefighters to go help with this one:
Source and accompanying article

Here is a slideshow of viewer photos of the Bastrop fire..

The link at the top of the post doesn't show the one in North San Antonio, and now I'm hearing one has just sparked in the Schertz area not too far from Retama park. Yikes!

UPDATE: Here's another slideshow added to an area news site with over 200 more images..

Impersonations by Kevin Spacey

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9/11 Tribute - Part IV

On Sept. 11, 2001, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan. A third hurled into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. But a fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark, N. J., to San Francisco, never made it to the hijackers' destination.

The 40 passengers and crew members realized their flight had been hijacked, and from air phones they learned about the attacks on the other sites. According to accounts from the phone conversations, the group took a vote and vowed to take back their plane, which crashed into a field in a remote, rural area near Shanksville, Pa., never to reach its possible target, the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. -- only 20 minutes flying time from the crash site.

In 2005, relatives of those who died on Flight 93 helped select Paul Murdoch's winning design for a memorial out of some 1,000 entries. The remote area proved a challenge. It is a former coal-mining site that required major soil and water cleanup. There also were landowner conflicts and a controversy over a crescent in the design that some took to be a Muslim symbol in the original plan.

To quiet debate, the design was altered from the original crescent shape, and the project eventually will feature a 93-foot-high Tower of Voices containing 40 wind chimes -- one for each passenger and crew member who died -- and 40 groves of red maple trees that will line a circular walkway that follows the natural bowl shape of the land, a result of the surface mining.

The $62 million plan includes 2,200 acres. Visitors can follow the flight path, and in phase one, they will view a slab of white marble inscribed with the names of the 40 victims. A concrete structure will form a gateway for visitors, separating the parking area and the memorial plaza, which extends along the edge of the crash site.

Continue on to the rest of Yahoo's article, and be sure to click the link that takes you to the photo gallery of the memorial (it looks like the pic above).

Or to skip the article, and go straight to the photos, click here..

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Theater Review

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Priorities

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