Send Us Your Twin Towers Photos

From now until Sept. 11, Patch will be collecting user pictures of the World Trade Center, a growing gallery in tribute to the Twin Towers. We've started with a picture taken by Oakland veteran Ben Cascio just two weeks before the towers fell.

The photo became a symbol for the Marine Corps in the months and years after 9/11.

As the summer draws on, we'll be remembering area residents who died that clear September morning.

We also want to remember the towers when they stood proud, so please either upload your photos here or email them to ariana.cohn@patch.com with a short story about the origin and date of the picture.

Here is the story of the picture, in Cascio's words:

"We were returning to Teterboro Airport, having shown the aircraft at the Sussex Air show that weekend," Cascio wrote. "Flying up the Hudson River, prior to making our final approach, I took out my pocket camera and snapped the usual touristy photos of the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, the Intrepid and the [George] Washington Bridge, never intending to get the wing in the photo."

"I had forgotten that I had even taken the pictures, until months later, when I finally had the film developed," he continued. "It was then that I discovered this photo with the Marine Wing framed between the towers. Apparently as I took the picture, I must have leaned away from the canopy causing the wing to come up and become framed between the towers, which ironically distinguishes this picture from the thousands of others taken of the WTC."

"This photo has since become famous within the Marine Corps and related communities. The original enlargement was presented to General James Jones, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, when I was presenting a Warfighting Seminar at the Basic School, under the Commandant’s Mentoring Program, and later hung behind his desk when he was the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. He was fond to relate, that when people invariably commented on the photo, he took the opportunity to say, “That’s why we are there.”  It has given me great pride to present this photo to Marines and their families. It has never been sold, but only donated for Marine-related charitable purposes, and given to those Marines who have requested copies."