09/12/2026
We asked John Houchens for permission to publish his brief remarks given at the Propeller Club of Savannah Members Meeting for the 25th Remembrance of 9/11.
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25th Remembrance of 9/11
Twenty-five years ago, our nation was attacked.
At 8:46 am American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Cantor Fitzgerald. Marsh & McLennan (muh-LEN-un). Windows on the World. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
At 9:03 am United Flight 175 hit the South Tower. Morgan Stanley. Aon (A-on) Insurance. Dow Jones. Top of the World Observatory.
At 9:37 am, American Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
At 10:03 am United Flight 93 nose-dived into a field near Shanksville, PA, after passengers and crew fought the hijackers.
2,977 lives were lost that day. We remember them.
We honor the first responders who ran toward the fire. And we pledge, again, that we will never forget.
There is a chapter of that day that belongs especially to us, the maritime community.
When the towers fell, the bridges and tunnels closed. Hundreds of thousands of people were trapped at the water’s edge in Lower Manhattan. A Coast Guard lieutenant named Michael Day was supposed to be in a ten o’clock meeting at the World Trade Center that morning. Instead, he was on the water, on a pilot boat in New York Harbor. Around a quarter to eleven, he put out a simple call:
“All available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard. Anyone wanting to help with the evacuation of Lower Manhattan, report to Governors Island.”
They came. Ferries. Tugboats. Sightseeing vessels. Fireboats. Private craft. About 150 boats and some 800 mariners. In nine hours they moved as many as 500,000 people, half a million, to safety. The largest water evacuation in history. Larger and faster than the evacuation from Dunkirk in WWII.
They did not wait for orders. They did what mariners always do: they went where they were needed.
That is the spirit of this industry, that’s the spirit of America, and it is the spirit we honor today.
May God bless the families of those we lost 25 years ago; may God bless those who rescued others; and may God bless those who still keep watch on the water today.
Stay in your seats, and we will take 30 seconds of silence to remember and give thanks.
30 Seconds of Silence
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John here again. If the "Boat Lift" is new information to you, or, like me, information long forgotten, I highly recommend this 11-minute description narrated by Tom Hanks:
Tom Hanks narrates the epic story of the 9/11 boatlift that evacuat...
