<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Amanda McCoy<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM<\/p>\n
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<\/a>, the day two hijacked commercial airplanes hit the World Trade Center\u2019s twin towers.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were never the same as far as our rosy outlook,\u201d Cecconi said.<\/p>\n Today, the Bronx-raised Cecconi resides at the Stevenson Oaks<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n At first, Cecconi didn\u2019t believe reports that a plane had hit the tower. He was a licensed pilot, and he couldn\u2019t see how anyone could crash into the tallest building in the city on such a beautiful, cloudless day.<\/p>\n Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center\u2019s South Tower. Cecconi went outside and saw a column of smoke billowing up from the tip of Manhattan.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s believed the terrorists meant for that plane to hit either the White House or the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n While Cecconi was surveying the devastation in New York, Larry Beck was at work at Lockheed Martin\u2019s Missile and Fire Control Division in Grand Prairie. The retired engineer watched the immediate aftermath of the attacks on T.V. with his colleagues.<\/p>\n Soon, the realization set in that if the U.S. was at war, the nation\u2019s defense industry could be targeted. Beck wondered with growing unease if Lockheed Martin was vulnerable to a terrorist strike.<\/p>\n He went home that day like so many others and took comfort in his family, saying he initially felt reluctant to return to work.<\/p>\n In Fort Worth, Monta Noe, another Stevenson Oaks resident who shared her recollections for Beck\u2019s book, was in her office at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The museum hadn\u2019t yet opened for the day, but Noe was working on paperwork when she was told what had happened in New York.<\/p>\n Noe said stunned employees gathered in a conference room. The museum\u2019s 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\u2019s staff even as they put on brave faces and opened their doors to guests.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s bodies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like the walking dead,\u201d said Cecconi.<\/p>\n 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\u2019d get out of Manhattan. Finally, service on the Metro-North line was restored, and Cecconi headed for Westchester.<\/p>\n \u201cI was one of the lucky ones who got home that night,\u201d he said. But he couldn\u2019t help thinking of all those who weren\u2019t so fortunate. In the days that followed, Cecconi wrestled with a new reality, one in which a nice, normal life didn\u2019t seem guaranteed.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a moment in history that will change everything,\u201d Cecconi remembered thinking.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n To the amazement of Moncrief\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n In February 2011, the museum acquired a 36-foot steel structural beam<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n The four-ton beam now stands in the museum\u2019s entrance on Gendy Street, and the exhibit is open to the public free of charge.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need these memories so we don\u2019t forget,\u201d said Noe.<\/p>\n In the same spirit, Beck went about collecting stories for his 9\/11 book, which he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t talk much about his work or the conflict. He talks about the sense of camaraderie he observed among people at home and abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cWe forget it was a period of time when the world came together,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody was American.\u201d<\/p>\n If there\u2019s anything Beck misses about the dark days that followed 9\/11, it\u2019s that. He said Americans have mostly drifted apart again, and he hopes his book might go some way toward reinvigorating that feeling that we\u2019re all in this life together.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cEach story is a little snippet of life,\u201d Beck said about the book. \u201cNot just about 9\/11, but about how we react when things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published September 10, 2026 at 4:46 AM.<\/p>\n 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 <\/p>\n
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 <\/p>\n
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