Days After 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, a WWII Veteran Reflected. 25 Years Later, We Remember — Herb Weiss

– Herb Weiss, contributing writer

(Originally published in September 2001, 6 days after September 11th, Herb Weiss’s article captured one veteran’s thoughts as America confronted a new national tragedy. Weiss spoke with WWII veteran, Owen Mahony, on the disaster that day. Mahony passed away in 2021 at the age of 95.)

Using hijacked plans as deadly weapons, terrorists have brought death and destruction to the shores of our nation. Not since the American Civil War has this nation seen bombed out buildings or civilian causalities in its cities and towns. The United States may never be the same again.

Television has brought the horrors of a terrorist war up close to the American public, states 75-year-old World War II veteran Owen Mahony. In that war the nation was never directly hit, except Pearl Harbor, he said.  The former Rhode Island assistant director of the RI Dept. Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals and former executive director of the United Way Organization in Rome and Niagara Falls, New York, saw extensive military action oversees from 1943 to 1946.

“During World War II civilians had little and no direct awareness of what was happening to the soldiers in the battlefields,” says Mahony, a long-time Warwick resident. “Of course, my family in Woonsocket lived through gasoline and food rationing. Those suffering the death of a loved one would signal this with a flag with a gold star, hung from their window,” he said.

The veteran of the Normandy D-Day landing saw a lot of terrible things in battle that his family did not experience, Mahony said.  “They could look at the battles in the Pacific and Atlantic from afar,” he said, adding that at this time Americans really had little fear that the mainline would be attacked.

Today, “it is a different world”, Mahony quipped. “Everybody has either seen or visited the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. Or maybe they have flown on American or United Airlines,” he added. But through television, the vivid images of the horrific bloody acts of terrorism in New York City and Washington, DC, [has forever changed] the way we view our world. The terrorist war is here.”

Owen Mahony

Mahony, the father of 12 children, a grandparent to 29 very young grandchildren, many of whom are elementary school age, notes that it is most difficult to make sense of last week’s terrorist attack. With such a large family, he was on the phone for six hours tracking all his family down to make sure they were safe. “I was like the center of the communication hub, bringing the latest information so that everyone knew each other was safe.”

(Editor’s note: When Mahony died in 2021 he had 34 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren).

Meanwhile, some of his adult children took their youngsters out of school immediately after the attack so they could pray for those who lost loved ones. Throughout the evening, Mahony’s family and circle of friends, from their respective homes, offered prayers of Thanksgiving for those who made it safely out of the bombed-out Pentagon or World Trade Center, or to those who died and to their surviving loved ones.

“The biggest problem my children had was how to interpret to their young children what is going on,” Mahoney stated, noting that several of his grandchildren were upset and crying at what they saw during the intensive news coverage. “How do you explain to young children how the hate of a terrorist brings the individual to plow a plane into a building.”

“The surprise attack will bring out the best of our people,” Mahony predicts, just like it did after Pearl Harbor.”

Millions of other Americans are bringing comfort to their children and grandchildren, assuring them that even with evil people willing to kill innocent strangers for a fanatical cause, most people are good, he says. “We all know that love absolutely subdues evil.”

Publisher’s Note: Six days after 9/11, a World War II veteran believed the attack would bring out the best in the American people, just as Pearl Harbor had. As we will reflect 9,131 days later, it seems that we never truly moved beyond that terrible morning. World War II ended with surrender, homecomings and new beginnings. The wars born of 9/11 ended less clearly, while fear, anger and suspicion burrowed ever more deeply into the American spirit. To this very day. Let us think on these things.

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To read more articles by Herb Weiss, go to:  https://2×8.ea2.myftpupload.com/herb-weiss/

Herb Weiss, LRI, 12, is a Pawtucket-based writer who has covered aging, healthcare, and medical issues for more than 45 years. To purchase his books, Taking Charge: Collected Stories on Aging Boldly and its two sequels, visit herbweiss.com.