The Only Plane in the Sky - a review

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A gripping, detailed account of 9/11, from the survivors on the ground.

I never read a book so fast. A real page-turner, because it was real, not some Tom Clancy novel.
The whole thing is only transcripts of interviews of survivors of 9/11.

I was turned off at first by the format. Each paragraph of only 1-4 sentences flipped from one person to another – I got ADD real fast. But I soon realized this was purposeful. It helped the reader get in the mindset on the ground: what’s happening? The lack of knowledge is a key part of the story, and just getting little blips of information is how it happened, and conveys the confusion of the day.

One striking thing is that after the last plane went down in PA, everyone assumed more was coming, even though it was “over.”

Garrett Graff the editor does a masterful job interweaving normal office people in the Pentagon or the World Trade Center with senior leaders like NY Gov. Pataki, VP Dick Cheney in the bunker, President George W. Bush on Air Force One, and senior staff to congressional leaders. He sticks with a cluster of related people for a while then moves to another cluster.

EVERYONE should read this. People under 30 should read it to understand the terror they’ve only heard of second hand, and to grasp the “boomer” politics that ensued. People over 30 should read it to recall and learn anew what all actually happened that day, beyond what they saw on the TV.

It isn’t for the faint of heart. There are a few expletives, and brief descriptions of body parts. But the way it conveys the reality on the ground is unbelievably well done. The fire departments of New York and Arlington are not lauded for merely sentimental reasons – they lost hundreds as they went up into the flames of buildings that were about to collapse, and rescued many. Rudy Giuliani and Don Rumsfeld stuck out to me as quite heroic on the ground, but even more so were the emergency workers and office co-workers who wouldn’t leave without rescuing people from the rubble, often at the cost of their own lives.

Should we be pursuing enemies of the USA beyond our borders as vigorously as we do, when we have so many domestic problems? Don’t answer that question until you read this book.

May God bless America, in His mercy.

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