BLUF: 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks

Today marks 25 years since September 11th 2001, and given our focus on national security, we could have extensive conversations about the tragic events of that day, the counterterrorism mission that followed in Afghanistan, and the work of national security professionals to keep the nation safe. But instead, we will leave you one of the many many many stories that gives us hope.  

At 10:45 AM ET on that fateful day, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a call for "all available boats" to assist in the evacuation of Lower Manhattan. But even before that call went out, tugboats, ferries, dinner cruise vessels, and water taxis had already begun racing toward the burning skyline on their own — captains and deckhands who saw the smoke and made the decision to go. In less than nine hours, approximately 800 mariners aboard 150 vessels evacuated nearly half a million people from Manhattan. It was the largest maritime evacuation in the history of the world. 

And what stands out: nobody ordered those captains to go. Nobody organized them or told them where to dock. They went because they were Americans, and because there were fellow Americans who needed help. That was enough of a reason to act.

That impulse, the unglamorous, uncoordinated, and entirely ordinary spirit of everyday Americans doing extraordinary things — is one of those intangibles that makes America truly special. 

On one of the worst mornings in our history, hundreds of ordinary people turned their boats toward danger and helped get half a million strangers home. The best of this country lives in moments like the story of the American Dunkirk — unannounced, uncoordinated, and yet unmistakably American.

God Bless the United States of America.

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