15 years after 9/11
For investment manager Bruce Salvog, running late to his meeting in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001 saved him.
“Another five minutes, and I wouldn’t be here talking with you,” said Salvog, who was 53 on that day and who now splits time between homes in Bend, Ore., and Palm Desert, Calif. He was supposed to be giving a presentation at 9 a.m. at the famous Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on that Tuesday morning.
He had planned to arrive early to eat breakfast at the event, but this time he skipped it. Instead, he was riding down the elevator of the Marriott Hotel at 3 World Trade Center which connects the two towers when the American Airlines AAL, -2.19% Boeing ( BA, -3.29% ) 767 of Flight 11 out of Boston hit the World Trade Center North Tower at 8:45 a.m.
“The elevator shook on its way down and stopped,” Salvog remembered. “When I finally got out, you could see taxis outside on the street dodging fireballs, debris and bodies falling from the tower,” Salvog recalled. Not 15 minutes later, Salvog watched as the South Tower was hit and then collapsed just before 10 a.m. “I saw rescuers drag (FDNY chaplain and the first-recorded Sept. 11 victim) Mychal Judge from the North Tower where I was headed,” he said.
It took just one hour, and like hundreds of thousands of Americans, Salvog’s life was forever changed. And within a month of the attacks, he decided more change was needed, too. “I was in line for a promotion, but I figured the big guy [upstairs] was telling me something. There may have been a plan for me, but it didn’t include going back to work,” he said.
Despite not having enough money to retire, Salvog walked away from his high-paying finance job. “I was at the peak of my earning years and I left a lot of money on the table career-wise, but it was a gift to walk away from the attack and I felt I had to take advantage of the time that I had,” he said.
While Salvog was lucky to be able to walk away, and was able to manage financially, for some 9/11 survivors, the trauma of the attacks has left them with money troubles even 15 years later.For investment manager Bruce Salvog, running late to his meeting in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001 saved him.
“Another five minutes, and I wouldn’t be here talking with you,” said Salvog, who was 53 on that day and who now splits time between homes in Bend, Ore., and Palm Desert, Calif. He was supposed to be giving a presentation at 9 a.m. at the famous Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on that Tuesday morning.
He had planned to arrive early to eat breakfast at the event, but this time he skipped it. Instead, he was riding down the elevator of the Marriott Hotel at 3 World Trade Center which connects the two towers when the American Airlines AAL, -2.19% Boeing ( BA, -3.29% ) 767 of Flight 11 out of Boston hit the World Trade Center North Tower at 8:45 a.m.
“The elevator shook on its way down and stopped,” Salvog remembered. “When I finally got out, you could see taxis outside on the street dodging fireballs, debris and bodies falling from the tower,” Salvog recalled. Not 15 minutes later, Salvog watched as the South Tower was hit and then collapsed just before 10 a.m. “I saw rescuers drag (FDNY chaplain and the first-recorded Sept. 11 victim) Mychal Judge from the North Tower where I was headed,” he said.
It took just one hour, and like hundreds of thousands of Americans, Salvog’s life was forever changed. And within a month of the attacks, he decided more change was needed, too. “I was in line for a promotion, but I figured the big guy [upstairs] was telling me something. There may have been a plan for me, but it didn’t include going back to work,” he said.
Despite not having enough money to retire, Salvog walked away from his high-paying finance job. “I was at the peak of my earning years and I left a lot of money on the table career-wise, but it was a gift to walk away from the attack and I felt I had to take advantage of the time that I had,” he said.
While Salvog was lucky to be able to walk away, and was able to manage financially, for some 9/11 survivors, the trauma of the attacks has left them with money troubles even 15 years later.
