Harvest Moon Tonight and Tomorrow

The 2011 Harvest Moon is technically in the five o'clock a.m. hour of September 12 but it can be see as full both tonight and tomorrow night.  The autumnal equinox is on September 23rd and the Harvest Moon is the moon that is full closest to this date, which means that some years it occurs in October.

The moon rises earlier during the Harvest full moon and it appears to be brighter and bigger as a result of it shining lower in the sky.

The sky is bright and blue right now just as it was ten years ago and I will be taking a walk later this afternoon.  I didn't think I wanted to read or watch coverage on the 9/11 ten year date.  But as I sat at the computer and clicked on a Yahoo story, which led to another story, I couldn't stop reading about an incredible story of Rick Rescorla whose job was VP of Security at Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter in the South Tower that day for a reason: to help save the lives of thousands of employees working on 20 floors.  He was supposed to have the day off but filled in for someone else.  Only a few in his firm perished.

I will be reading several books soon about this incredible man, a colonel and a hero defined by how he lived his life before and after he became an American citizen.  And who on 9/11/01 performed his last, but not his first, act of heroism.  (it's easy to find many articles googling his name).

Mr. Rick Rescorla (and his best friend) told the Port Authority of NY and NJ (owner of the WTC)  in 1990 that an attack on the WTC from the garage was likely and they told him to just focus on his floors of Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter and so he did.  It was his job to think like a terrorist.  During the terrorist attack in 1993 he evacuated all employees and was the last to remain.  He knew that the terrorists would try again in the future but this time from the air.  He asked his firm about moving the whole office to a different location but the lease wasn't up until 2006 and so he initiated practice evacuation drills several times a year.  He always told the employees that if there is fire in a building you go down and not up.  On 9/11/01 in the South Tower he ignored the Port Authority's advice to stay put after the North Tower was hit, and evacuated the 2,700 on 20 floors (including 250 visitors that day there for training).  He also instructed for 1,000 employees in another nearby building to evacuate.

It wasn't easy to take investment bankers away from their computers but he did this drill for years and on 9/11/01 they were prepared.  As they systematically went down the stairs in pairs he reminded the employees to "be proud to be an American," and sang "God Bless America" and other songs over his bullhorn to help evacuees stay calm as they left the building such as these words from a Celtic military song:

Men of Cornwall stand ye steady;
It cannot be ever said ye
for the battle were not ready;
Stand and never yield!  

By the time the second plane hit the South Tower just 17 minutes after the first tower was attacked, most of the employees were already out of the building except for three.  He and two other security men headed back up.  Out of a total of 3,700 employees, six perished including Rick Rescorla.  He spoke to his wife when the evacuation began and told her he was a happy man and that she had made his life.