Have You Forgotten?

[Ethan Cord]

Sometime early in the year of 2001, my SASS amigo Knott Hardly (RIP) who worked at Turner's Outdoorsman put in a special order for me on a pair of stainless-steel Ruger Vaqueros in my favorite caliber (38-40). Many months went by, and as fate would have it, my guns arrived and after doing the paperwork, the pickup date was 9/11/2001. As the events that morning unfolded and the magnitude of the attacks became apparent, it was clear that America had suffered yet another day that would live in infamy. A day that should certainly not be forgotten. Based on the recent turn of events in New York and other states, I fear that far too many have indeed forgotten... Which leads me to another story related to my pair of Rugers:

 

I was using this pair of six shooters at a large match where a gun engraver happened to be plying his trade. When I told him what I wanted to have engraved on the back straps, he asked me more than once "are you sure you want that on there?" I assured him I did and said something to the effect of it's our job honor those that were lost. I've attached a few pictures below. I will be shooting these guns loaded with black powder to honor our fellow SASS member Sidewinder Pete who perished on 9/11 saving others.  I never had the pleasure of meeting Sidewinder Pete, so please read the tribute made by his friend Doc Bogan / Sheriff AD Dupree in the last comment in a post I made in 2018:  Sidewinder Pete

 

9/11/2001 Remembered - Have you Forgotten? - Darryl Worley

Have We Forgotten?

 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

Edited September 11 by Ethan Cord
typos

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

👍🤠

[T-Square]

acknowledged, and never forgotten. 

And we won't forget Pearl Harbor either.

More like "Locked and Loaded" in times like these.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

Never Forget who was running towards Hell when everyone else was running away ...

 

[High Spade Mikey Wilson]

The sad thing is, now 25 years later, there are 100 million Americans who were born after 9/11. They have no idea of the sorrow, and the lives altered, that day brought us.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

2 hours ago, High Spade Mikey Wilson said:

The sad thing is, now 25 years later, there are 100 million Americans who were born after 9/11. They have no idea of the sorrow, and the lives altered, that day brought us.

By the same token, there is also an entire generation of young men and women who came of age and grew up in a hurry on that day, and whose lives were shaped by it.  My sons are among them; we lived in Westchester County NY and lost friends, and their friends lost parents.  My employees lost husbands, cousins, brothers, sons, and nephews, many of them NYFD and NYPD.  Living through that time with multiple funerals every week for six months straight is probably incomprehensible to anyone who didn't actually live through it.  One of my sons probably decided in his mind on that day that he would live a life of service.  Many of his friends made similar decisions and enlisted in their chosen branch of the US Armed Forces, which he also tried to do without telling his parents, but he failed the medical.  He's nonetheless worked as an EMT and ambulance driver, merchant marine deck officer, firefighter and after his recent promotion, he's now a fire engineer.  The other son -- watching planes turned into weapons -- decided that he would work in the aviation sector and continues in his amazing career.  All hope is not lost.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

And much the same as High Spade Mikey Wilson said about 9/11 can be said about WW2, and was said about WW1 before that.  Most humans have very short memories, and even shorter attention spans.  Most are egregiously uneducated.  As George Santayana wrote in 1905 in The Life of Reason, "[t]hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

 

[watab kid]

On 9/11/2026 at 10:07 PM, T-Square said:

acknowledged, and never forgotten. 

And we won't forget Pearl Harbor either.

More like "Locked and Loaded" in times like these.

thank you T-square , i never forget , i dont forget the dates that both atomic bombs were dropped either because they brought my father home - he was in the 73rd that dropped them , not on that mission , 

[High Spade Mikey Wilson]

21 hours ago, Nostrum Damus SASS #110702 said:

And much the same as High Spade Mikey Wilson said about 9/11 can be said about WW2, and was said about WW1 before that.  Most humans have very short memories, and even shorter attention spans.  Most are egregiously uneducated.  As George Santayana wrote in 1905 in The Life of Reason, "[t]hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

 

That's true, but I do a lot of work within the American Legion and see and visit veterans regularly. That at least keeps me and a few others from forgetting those events in history.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

1 minute ago, High Spade Mikey Wilson said:

That's true, but I do a lot of work within the American Legion and see and visit veterans regularly. That at least keeps me and a few others from forgetting those events in history.

There are lots of great ways to remember the sad history of human indifference (or worse) to human life, some of the best being gun collecting and going to visit relevant museums.  I recently visited the Imperial War Museum - London and the Krigsmuseet (War Museum) in Copenhagen, both truly outstanding.  I've posted about those visits on another of my regular forums, Gunboards.com, at https://www.gunboards.com/threads/visited-the-imperial-war-museum-london-yesterday.1425451/ and https://www.gunboards.com/threads/visited-the-danish-war-museum-in-copenhagen-today.1426279/, if anyone is interested.