Also wanted to add my thanks to the original poster and for the bump. No adequate words can convey how thankful I am to this man and so many Americans like him.

Guppy said:

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Also wanted to add my thanks to the original poster and for the bump. No adequate words can convey how thankful I am to this man and so many Americans like him.

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You nailed it with "so many Americans like him".

There are still men and women in Ricks mold. A lot of them. The California National Guardsmen who ignored the firefighters wave off to rescue 100 people by helicopter when it was too dangerous to fly recently come to mind.

Media of all kinds (corporate and social) tends to focus on the negatives, but this is a country full of amazing, selfless, and quiet heroes, and Rick is a nice reminder of that fact.

I know its a couple days early, but with everything that happened this year I'm sure the upcoming anniversary of Sep 11 is on many of our minds.

May we all live (and die) like Rick.

It is wild to think there are adults who never knew a pre 9/11 America.

Think I'm just going to bump this one yearly.

BenderRodriguez said:

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Think I'm just going to bump this one yearly.

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I'm in favor of that.

Yearly bump. Be like Rick.

God bless America.

the follow up book is great too. he revisited the vattlefield in the 90's, spent a night there, and met a lot of the soldiers from the other side.

Yearly bump

Aggieangler93 said:

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I was on 34th street that day and will never forget that week as long as I live. I am humbled to think the Lord spared me. So many good men and women died. Never forget!!

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My office was on the corner of 34th and 8th Ave. I saw the first tower come down from our 30th floor conference room. Something I will never forget for as long as I live.

To the comments about everyday people stepping up to help, one of the extraordinary things I witnessed happened that afternoon. My colleagues and I commandeered a work van to see if we could get people who didn't live in manhattan home. As we drove across town on 34th, every intersection we came to had everyday people directing traffic. With the river of people walking on the avenues north from downtown the traffic lights were inadequate to manage these intersections.

Some had made cardboard stop and go signs. Some simply used hand signals. But literally, at every single intersection there were 4 ordinary people just trying to help.

None of these were true heroes like Rick, but in that dire moment it was comforting to see people from all walks coming together