It’s mind-boggling to realize that it’s been 25 years since the day 19 Islamic terrorist hijackers took over four planes and horribly irrevocably changed America. 9/11 is a day that, as Darleen put it, we must DARE to remember. And should do so TRUTHFULLY.

The skies that morning were a vivid crystal blue. Then the first plane hit.

Raw 9/11 footage by Park Foreman / taken from near State and Clinton Streets, Brooklyn. United Airlines Flight 175 was the second plane hijacked on September 11, 2001, and it crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Many people weren’t even born yet, while others… pic.twitter.com/1ka6nHQAps

— Adi (@Adi13) September 6, 2026

Soon, another one slammed into the South Tower.

8:46 AM American Airlines Flight 11 strikes the North Tower, 1 World Trade Center

9:03 AM United Airlines Flight 175 strikes the South Tower, 2 World Trade Center 

9:37 AM American Airlines Flight 77 strikes the Pentagon 

10:03 AM United Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania 

In just over an hour, America as we knew it was changed forever.

It was then that I knew war had come to us.

No one, especially those who were right there will ever forget the black smoke flooding the air, the holes in the towers and the Pentagon, and the scar in the field where Flight 93 hit.

Phones were down. Communication was spotty. And the skies emptied as flights were diverted to wherever there were places for them to land.

One of the most haunting visualizations of September 11, 2001: watch as the skies over the United States suddenly empty as the FAA grounds all flights. pic.twitter.com/XD0O4ziMgz

— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) September 7, 2026

When the Twin Towers came down, they carried hundreds of civilian, police, and FDNY lives with it.

All twelve of the firefighters who were on duty in my husband’s firehouse died on 9/11. The “riding list,” handwritten in chalk, listing all the men working that day, still hangs on the firehouse wall, forever preserved in glass. Engine 40 Ladder 35 #NeverForget911 pic.twitter.com/UA3PEz4Wzm

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) September 11, 2024

Leaving thousands of people, children, and babies stranded in Manhattan. Daycare workers saved children by finding shelter in a church, a hospital, and a grocery store. Others broke through doors and plate glass windows to escape the debris from the falling towers.

A Coast Guard Captain in New York’s harbor put out the call for boats to ferry people from midtown Manhattan. This boat lift was the largest in history, greater than Dunkirk, and was accomplished within hours.

An eerie silence of shock and horror went across the land. The streets, stores, and homes got very quiet. Families and friends were frantically trying to find out if their loved ones were on the planes, at the Pentagon, or in any of the buildings of the World Trade Center complex.

In the ensuing hours, days, and weeks, we started hearing about the calls from those in the Twin Towers and on the planes. We found out about the FDNY running full tilt to the Towers, cops working to get people to safety, and more.

The haunting sound of hundreds of PASS (Personal Alert Safety System) devices chirping in the rubble after the towers fell. Each one represents a fallen hero. I can't get that sound out of my head. pic.twitter.com/oiYpHi5SGE

— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) September 10, 2026

These weren’t passenger jets that accidentally took a wrong turn. There were 19 hijackers involved. Because of them and their backers, Osama bin Laden and the rest of his terrorist vermin, 2,753 people were murdered that day. Men, women, and children. Murdered because of Islamic terrorists.

America got righteously angry that day. With VERY good reason. Islamic terrorists plotted, planned, trained, and then hijacked four planes. 3,000 people were murdered because of them and their hatred of America.

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the evil assault and spiritual leader of the death-worshipping al Qaeda cult, issued a 1998 fatwa calling it the “individual duty of every Muslim” to “kill the Americans and their allies, military and civilian.”

Just because bin Laden is dead does not mean the fatwa is dead. It continues.

Yet, in the last 25 years, we’ve seen the horror and reality of that day and the cause of it dismissed, diminished, or erased. Fairfax County VA school district is one example.

The guide by the school district, which sits only a few miles from the Pentagon and several military bases, mentions military families only three times and first responders only once, saying at one point, “Many families of military personnel and first responders experienced loss and hardship.”

Meanwhile, it has 30 references to Islam, “Muslim families,” “Muslim students,” “anti-Muslim racism,” “anti-Middle Eastern” rhetoric, “Islamophobic rhetoric” and “Middle Eastern students” and families. It includes a bulleted list of “critical considerations” to challenge anti-Muslim bias.

What an infuriating disservice to those who were murdered by the terrorists that day. We must use the correct language to describe the events of 9/11. The “Falling Man” didn’t choose to jump that day. He and the others were given no choice. 

As Dr. Hirsch spoke about those who died in the impact zone where the planes hit, someone in the group made a reference to “the jumpers, the suicides.”

~Snip

He put his hands flat on the table in front of him and said, “Never use those words. Never.”

They were pushed out, he explained, by flames and smoke.

Men and women were standing on the sills of the World Trade Center hoping for a miracle rescue, struggling for air to survive.

They were clinging to the window frames, straining toward the sky to draw breath.

Some lost their grip; some were forced to let go.

The correct terminology is not suicide. It is homicide.

Fire fighters looked on helplessly as people jumped from the twin towers.

I’m not going to let you forget that CBC didn’t want Canadians to call 9/11 terrorism. pic.twitter.com/N66UAECjg1

— Scarlett Grace (@ScarlettGrace92) August 31, 2026

9/11 taught Americans a painful lesson that day. Evil is REAL. There are people out there who hate America because of our freedoms. That day we found out that they’ll do anything to destroy our freedom and way of life.

Now, they are doing the same in more insidious ways. Including crafting lesson plans that ignore and erase the reality of that day. Too many don’t know nor understand that those responsible were radical Islamic terrorists.

Whitewashing that day through the media, schools, and elsewhere is a grave insult to those who were murdered, to their families, to the children who grew up without their parents, and to the generations who are growing up with no first-hand knowledge of that day.

We must show the next generations the photos, videos, and news reports from that day. We must teach them about the courage and heroism of the police, firefighters, and those on Flight 93.

We must be unequivocally truthful about who did this to us on 9/11 and why. We here at Victory Girls will continue to bear witness about 9/11.

Feature Photo Credit: Original artwork by Victory Girls Darleen Click