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StumbleSept. 11 attacks:
Man recalls father’s words before second tower was struck
Andrew Levine’s story a part of fundraising efforts for police, firefighters
Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun
Andrew Levine laughs with golfers as they head to the course Friday morning to tee off for the annual charity tournament in honor of his father at Boulder City Municipal Golf Course. Levine’s father, Robert Levine, died Sept. 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center’s South Tower in New York.
Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 | 9:21 a.m.
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- Andrew Levine on his father's death on Sept. 11, 2001
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Beyond the Sun
Andrew Levine doesn’t cry when he tells the story of his father’s death in the second of the Twin Towers to fall on Sept. 11, 2001.
He’s told it 10,000 times, he says, and he will tell it 10,000 times more. With each telling, “I become less attached and less emotional. It’s more a fact of life for me,” he says.
But there are moments when he is recalling the morning that he listened on the telephone while his father stared down a United Airlines flight heading into the South Tower. There are moments when his voice catches a little. When the memory touches a place that is still tender.
He expects to tell the story many times today during the third annual Robert Michael Levine Foundation Golf Tournament at the Boulder City Golf Club. The event, named for his father, is to keep the memory alive, to help with his healing and to raise money for local police and firefighter causes.
People will ask, and he will tell the story something like this:
The general manager of a sports bar in Alabama, he was awakened after working a night shift by a call from his grandmother. Have you talked to your father, she asked. He had the night before, but not that morning. It was 7:53 a.m. in Alabama. He had been in bed.
His grandmother had received a call from Robert Levine from his office in the Twin Towers. Andrew turned on the television. A minute later, Andrew Levine’s phone rang. It was his father calling while he was evacuating.
“He was on the 78th floor. It’s one-half sky lobby, one-half offices,” Andrew Levine says. “Employees were going to the express elevator. My understanding is they were holding hands in a line and my father was the last in line.
“Dad broke off and went back to his office for some personal effects and company stuff. The Port Authority was telling people it was OK to go back into the South Tower, that it was stable.
“I told him it was time to get out. I said, ‘I’m watching people jumping out of the building.’ He said, ‘I am too.’
“He turned and looked at the Statue of Liberty and saw United Flight 175 make that hard left turn into the South Tower, and he stared it down.
“He said, ‘Oh my God, Andrew, take care of the family.’
John Gregg and Eric Webster, of the Henderson Police Officers Association, pump fists after a putt during the annual charity tournament hosted by Boulder City resident Andrew Levine at Boulder City Municipal Golf Course. Levine's father, Robert Levine, died Sept. 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center's South Tower in New York.
“Then I heard the roar of motors and windows shattering. At 9:01 in New York, my father died.
“And that seven-second time delay — seven seconds later, I watched it on TV.”
Andrew Levine has come a long way since the moment he fell to the floor and curled up into a ball. That moment when a Desert Storm veteran had to call his friends and ask them to rescue him from his grief.
He would rather tell the story of how eight years later, he has moved to Boulder City and at the age of 39, with an MBA already under his belt, he is preparing to go back to school to become a firefighter. He would rather talk about a future where he sees healing in the act of helping others day in and day out. He would rather talk about how, in the tournament’s first year in Boulder City, it has gained enough community support to almost sell out.
“People care about causes and rally around community here,” he says.
But today is a day for remembering, and not enough people are doing that.
“Nobody is talking about 9/11 now,” he says. “I watch the news, and all people are wondering about now is whether they will get fined for not having health coverage.”
He knows that when he tells his story, it touches people in a way the news never could. It reduces the 3,000 miles that separate Manhattan and Boulder City.
“It’s heartbreaking,” says Minddie Lloyd, executive director of the Injured Police Officers Fund, one of the charities that will benefit from the tournament. “It makes it a little bit more personal. It makes me very grateful for the family I have.”
“It’s gut-wrenching. I don’t know how he could ever get over it,” said Mark Sugden, a retired Metro police officer whose son is a firefighter. “It brought it home for me. I have two sons, and I can’t imagine being in his shoes.”
Today is a day to revisit the pain, and in doing so maybe gain another bit of healing.
Today he will tell his story as often as people ask. And he will raise money for the Injured Police Officers Fund and the Firefighters of Southern Nevada Burn Fund.
Today, he heads for the links to honor his father. To help others remember what he cannot forget.
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Dear Mr. Levine - I want to thank you for sharing your deeply personal and devastating story. Every September 11, I stop to reflect on the events of that terrible day in 2001 and the aftershocks that we all continue to feel in different ways and at different times. I hope you and your family can find some comfort in knowing that people have not forgotten. Although I did not know any of those who were injured or lost their lives on 9/11, that tragedy has had a profound impact on me. With sympathy and sincere condolences... WE REMEMBER.
Sept. 11th will always be a day of remembrance.
Federal officials are trying to change the focus and label it a day of service. Here is Politico's article on HHS Secretary Sebelius on her words of service.
http://www.politico.com/click/stories/09...
we remember alright, we remember how the whole thing was a set-up
it's really sad that liberals want this to happen again to our country.
stevem, this really isn't the place to put your off-base comments. Shut up.
stevem must be in a vile mood today. ugly stuff.
the ACLU is taking legal action to get photos of CIA agents to show them to terrorists. these CIA agents are on the front line, keeping us safe, and the liberals want the terrorists to win.
I wonder how well the "liberals want this to happen again to our country" pitch is working for the real estate business?
stevem yet again makes a stupid comment. Don't feed the trolls people.
Mr. Levine, it's not about people not remembering. They do. Things are kinda hard these days, so to dwell on 9/11 compounds it. I am thankful today felt like a regular day. I am so sorry for your loss. 8 years later, this is still really hard to talk about. I got choked up just reading the article.
hey stevem...
that could be the most retarded comment of all time on these boards!!!
In a way stevem is right; all the things that have been implemented since 9/11 HAVE prevented terrorist attacks. the liberals have been crying about stuff from the beginning that this isn't right or that isn't, we're rewriting the Constitution, blah blah blah, we can't torture terrorists blah blah blah. Obama closed Gitmo for gods sake! But thank God the liberals didn't win and becaue of that, we have been safe and hopefully will stay that way.
Im with y ou Grayback. I couldn't even watch anything about it yesterday; brings back a lot of bad memories even though it is always in the back of my mind. And wonder why Vegas never got hit. But I think we know why. those hotel penthouses don't have a lot of Americans staying in them.
Det_Munch, those who sacrifice freedom for security will receive neither.
If you want to sink to the level of the terrorist's by torturing 12 year old boys and holding innocent people without any charges, then fine by me. Just don't take the rest of the country with you. If you want to go to war in Iraq and ignore the actual Taliban in Afghanistan, then fine by me. Just don't take the rest of the country with you.
I also find it cute that your timer only starts after 9/11 as opposed to the months beforehand when Bush did nothing.
Vegas simply isn't a target of importance. Plus Nellis makes it a hard target along with the internal security offices of every major strip hotel.
its funny everybody is all over stevem, but nobody responded to Lenny-V's absolutly STUPID drug induced comment about how it was a set up....show some respect Lenny.....you know as well as everybody else in this world the truth..but you refuse to stop your lies and trying to blame anybody but TERRORISTS...in my opinion people like you are just as bad as them or worse for not showing respect for the dead and blaming the murdering terrorists....way to take their side....hope nothing like this ever happens to anybody in your family.....if it does I hope fools like yourself step up with more stupid comments......YOU ARE PATHETIC
Smoke14, When I read the posts, I was very offended by Lenny, It looked to me like Stevem's comment was simply a reply to Lenny's offensive post.
God bless you Mr. Levine.
Every time I think of 9/11, I will think of your dad.
I wanted to thank all of you for your posts as well as your prayers. Even though we are all entitled to our own opinion, the fact remains that not only did I lose my father but we lost and have been losing lives every day since September 11, 2001. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family's of everyone who has lost someone that day and have lost someone since we started a war which seems to have no end in site and only the most severe consequences.
I think the article was very well written and I thank all of you for taking the time to read it. Let us not forget that we are all Americans regardless of race, color, creed or political views. I will say this as it is my constitutional right of freedom of speech, I think that the comment made by Lenny is absolutely disrespectful, atrocious, self-centered unpatriotic and who's sentiments are shared by only a few and I thank God that they are not the majority.
Again thank you for your thoughts and prayers,
Andrew