The British tribute reminded me of a story I read just days after the attacks. It is a letter from an Ensign aboard the USS Winston Churchill. It is a short but powerful story about an extraordinary gesture made by the German warship Lutjens.

FROM USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG-81)

Dear Dad,

We are still at sea.  The remainder of our port visits have all been cancelled. We have spent every day since the attacks going back and forth within imaginary boxes drawn in the ocean, standing high-security watches, and trying to make the best of it.  We have seen the articles and the photographs, and they are sickening.  Being isolated, I don't think we appreciate the full scope of what is happening back home, but  we are definitely feeling the effects.

"About two hours ago, we were hailed by a German Navy destroyer, LUTJENS, requesting permission to pass close by our port side.  Strange, since we're in the middle of an empty ocean, but the captain acquiesced and we prepared to render them honors from our bridgewing.  As they were making their approach, our conning officer used binoculars and announced that LUTJENS was flying not the German, but the American flag.  As she came ongside us, we saw  the American flag flying half-mast and her entire crew topside standing at silent, rigid attention in their dress uniforms.

They had made a sign that was displayed on her side that read, "We Stand By You."  There was not a dry eye on the bridge as they stayed alongside us for a few minutes and saluted.  It was the most powerful thing I have seen in my life.  The German Navy did an incredible thing for this crew, and it has   truly been the highest point in the days since the attacks.  It's amazing to think that only half-century ago things were quite different.

"After LUTJENS pulled away, the Officer of the Deck, who had been planning to get out later this year, turned to me and said, 'I'm staying Navy. '

"I'll write you when I know more about when I'll be home, but this is it for now.

"Love you guys."

I remember being at work, on a small street in a small sub-division. We had a three man crew. A Repairman (crew leader) myself (Journeyman) and an Apprentice. We were installing an electric service to a home being built. At that time none of our trucks had am/fm radios. The carpenters and other trades working in the house had a radio. One of the carpenters came to the street and asked if we heard about the plane flying into the World Trade Center. We kinda laughed and said we hadn't heard the joke, go ahead and tell it. He said, no joke, come inside and listen to the radio. The smell of a house being built brings the memory of 9/11 back to me. Freshly sawed boards, dry wall mud, curing concrete. I can still hear the tension in the voices of the announcers, and then the second tower was hit. There was no comment from our company on the two way radios. Nothing.....Silence. When we got to our operating center at the end of the day, still no announcement, no statement of any kind. It was not until about a week past before they said anything, and it was just a rehash of what to do and expect in case of a large natural disaster. Our duties and obligations for public safety and providing electrical power. Pretty impersonal. I had two kids in high school and two in elementary school. Trying to explain it to them was pretty hard. I still think I could have done a better job. We stopped watching tv for a while because that was an endless loop of death and destruction.