Larry Beck, center, has published a book of remembrances of 9/11 that features stories from fellow residents of the of other Stevenson Oaks retirement community. It includes experiences from Monta Noe, left, and John Cecconi, right.
Amanda McCoy
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
A quarter of a century has passed, but John Cecconi can still recall with vivid, haunting detail what it was like to be in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, the day two hijacked commercial airplanes hit the World Trade Center’s twin towers.
And just as poignantly, Cecconi can remember how it felt after that tragic day, which began a new chapter for any American old enough to witness, even from afar, the destruction in New York City, as well as at the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and in a field near Shanksville, Pa.
“We were never the same as far as our rosy outlook,” Cecconi said.
Today, the Bronx-raised Cecconi resides at the Stevenson Oaks senior living community in Fort Worth. But in 2001, he was a hospital administrator in New York City, and his story is one of more than two dozen that fellow Stevenson Oaks resident Larry Beck compiled into a new book to honor the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
When American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time on Sept. 11, Cecconi was at his office on East 72nd Street, roughly five miles north of the impact.
At first, Cecconi didn’t believe reports that a plane had hit the tower. He was a licensed pilot, and he couldn’t see how anyone could crash into the tallest building in the city on such a beautiful, cloudless day.
Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center’s South Tower. Cecconi went outside and saw a column of smoke billowing up from the tip of Manhattan.
A little more than a half hour after that, a third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, slammed into the Pentagon. Just past 10 a.m. Eastern, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville after passengers attacked the hijackers attempting to take control of the aircraft. It’s believed the terrorists meant for that plane to hit either the White House or the U.S. Capitol.
While Cecconi was surveying the devastation in New York, Larry Beck was at work at Lockheed Martin’s Missile and Fire Control Division in Grand Prairie. The retired engineer watched the immediate aftermath of the attacks on T.V. with his colleagues.
Soon, the realization set in that if the U.S. was at war, the nation’s defense industry could be targeted. Beck wondered with growing unease if Lockheed Martin was vulnerable to a terrorist strike.
He went home that day like so many others and took comfort in his family, saying he initially felt reluctant to return to work.
Larry Beck, a resident of the Stevenson Oaks retirement community, has published a book of remembrances of 9/11. His book includes stories of other Stevenson Oaks residents who experienced 9/11 in unique ways. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
In Fort Worth, Monta Noe, another Stevenson Oaks resident who shared her recollections for Beck’s book, was in her office at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The museum hadn’t yet opened for the day, but Noe was working on paperwork when she was told what had happened in New York.
Noe said stunned employees gathered in a conference room. The museum’s director was in a panic over her son, who lived in New York City and worked not far from the World Trade Center. It turned out he was safe, but emotions remained heightened among the museum’s staff even as they put on brave faces and opened their doors to guests.
Back in New York, Cecconi sent his staff home and tried to make his own way home to suburban Westchester County, but transportation and communication networks in the city were down.
Cecconi joined hundreds of people walking the 30 blocks south to Grand Central Station. By that point, a cloud of smoke, dust and debris had drifted north from the World Trade Center. Ash fell like snowflakes, Cecconi remembered, piling up ankle deep on streets and sidewalks and covering people’s bodies.
“It was like the walking dead,” said Cecconi.
At Grand Central Station, Cecconi encountered chaos and confusion. Train service to and from certain areas was suspended, and stranded passengers were unsure when or how they’d get out of Manhattan. Finally, service on the Metro-North line was restored, and Cecconi headed for Westchester.
“I was one of the lucky ones who got home that night,” he said. But he couldn’t help thinking of all those who weren’t so fortunate. In the days that followed, Cecconi wrestled with a new reality, one in which a nice, normal life didn’t seem guaranteed.
“This is a moment in history that will change everything,” Cecconi remembered thinking.
Noe felt the same way. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History commemorated the 9/11 attacks with exhibits and memorial events in the weeks and years that followed. At one of the events, Noe was working security when former Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief arrived.
To the amazement of Moncrief’s driver, Noe asked the mayor for identification before admitting him. She said museum employees joked about that afterward, but it was indicative of the heightened awareness of security that permeated all walks of life after 9/11.
In February 2011, the museum acquired a 36-foot steel structural beam from the World Trade Center as a permanent memorial. It had been part of the North Tower between floors 100 and 103, in a section of the building above where the plane hit.
The four-ton beam now stands in the museum’s entrance on Gendy Street, and the exhibit is open to the public free of charge.
A photograph of the 9/11 Tribute Exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is included in a book of remembrances of that day from Stevenson Oaks retirement community residents. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Noe had already left the Museum of Science and History for a new job by the time the beam arrived, but she said it was an important teaching tool, something to help educate younger generations about what happened on that awful day 25 years ago.
“We need these memories so we don’t forget,” said Noe.
In the same spirit, Beck went about collecting stories for his 9/11 book, which he’s going to distribute to Stevenson Oaks residents at a community remembrance ceremony Friday. Cecconi, Noe, Beck and others featured in the book are set to speak at the event.
A few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Beck returned to work at Lockheed Martin, where he helped design missile systems used in the subsequent war on terror. But when asked what he remembers most about that time, he doesn’t talk much about his work or the conflict. He talks about the sense of camaraderie he observed among people at home and abroad.
“We forget it was a period of time when the world came together,” he said. “Everybody was American.”
If there’s anything Beck misses about the dark days that followed 9/11, it’s that. He said Americans have mostly drifted apart again, and he hopes his book might go some way toward reinvigorating that feeling that we’re all in this life together.
If nothing else, the stories in the book will serve as reference points for a moment in time that recedes further into history with each passing day.
“Each story is a little snippet of life,” Beck said about the book. “Not just about 9/11, but about how we react when things happen.”
This story was originally published September 10, 2026 at 4:46 AM.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025.