Girolamo Iadicicco

I'm the master of my fate I'm the captain of my soul

[Hosna ⚖️ בניטה @DOGEQEEN]

Lauren Manning ran out of the North Tower while her body was still on fire. Burns covered 82.5 percent of her body. Doctors believed she had a 90 to 95 percent chance of dying, while her 10-month-old son was waiting at home for a mother who might never return.

She had not even reached her office yet. That delay may have saved her life.

Manning was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices occupied the upper floors of the North Tower. On the morning of September 11, 2001, she was running late and entered the lobby just as American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building. High above her, all 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who were at work that morning would die.

Then the fire reached Lauren.

Jet fuel and flames blasted down the elevator shafts. The doors exploded outward, and a wall of fire engulfed her. Her clothes caught fire. Her hair burned. Her skin began burning across most of her body.

Lauren did not wait for someone to rescue her.

She ran.

Still on fire, she somehow made it out of the North Tower and across the street. A stranger eventually reached her and put out the flames.

The damage was catastrophic. Burns covered 82.5 percent of Lauren's body, most of them third-degree. Some were so deep that they damaged muscle and bone. Her lungs had also been injured by smoke and fuel inhalation. At NewYork-Presbyterian's burn center, doctors estimated that her chance of dying was between 90 and 95 percent.

Lauren understood enough to know how serious her condition was. But before heavy sedation took over, she made a decision. She had her husband, Greg. And she had Tyler, her 10-month-old baby boy.

Greg later wrote that while Lauren was at St. Vincent's Hospital, she told him she had decided to live for Tyler and for him.

Then the real fight began.

Lauren was placed into an induced coma for almost two months. Her lungs collapsed. Severe infections threatened her life. Doctors performed one operation after another, including skin grafts, procedures on her joints, and partial amputations of her fingers. During that initial hospitalization, she underwent 11 major surgeries, many of them involving multiple procedures.

There were days when simply staying alive was the only goal.

Her husband stayed beside her. He talked to her even when she could not respond. He read poetry to her and told her about Tyler. Friends and relatives constantly wanted to know whether Lauren was still alive, so Greg began sending email updates. He signed every one the same way:

"Love, Greg & Lauren."

Lauren was fighting for her life while the full scale of September 11 was still being kept from her. When she eventually regained consciousness, she did not immediately understand everything that had happened. Only later did she learn that both towers had collapsed and that 658 of her Cantor Fitzgerald colleagues had been killed.

Then another frightening question entered her mind.

Would Tyler recognize her?

The mother who had left home on September 11 no longer looked the same. Her hands were badly damaged. Her body was covered with grafted and scarred skin. She had been unconscious for weeks and could barely move.

But Tyler was still there.

So Lauren began learning how to live again.

Sixty-six days after the attacks, she walked approximately 30 to 40 feet from her hospital room toward the nurses' station. Her physical therapists were so stunned by how far she had managed to go that they ran to get her parents. People on the burn ward cried as they watched her standing there.

Those few feet were only the beginning.

Lauren spent more than six months in the hospital, and her recovery continued for years. More procedures followed. The pain never simply disappeared. Even two decades later, she described living with ongoing pain, fragile skin, infections, and complications caused by her injuries.

But September 11 had not taken away what she had been fighting for.

She went home. She raised Tyler. Later, she had another son.

[9/11 Memorial & Museum @Sept11Memorial]

As @LaineyWilson sang “Amazing Grace” beneath Tribute in Light, the familiar hymn became a moment for people across the country to pause and remember together.

Twenty-five years after 9/11, we continue to come together to honor those we lost and reflect on the strength, compassion, and unity that followed. Joined by Cyndi Lauper and John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting, Wilson was part of an evening that brought remembrance to audiences far beyond lower Manhattan.

“9/11 Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan,” presented by ABC News in partnership with the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

[Tom Antonov @Tom_Antonov]

Ok, this is a class shot of a French air force A400M in the solar eclipse.
#eclipse via @Armee_de_lair
🌕🌖🌗🌘🌙

[Ministère des Armées et des Anciens combattants @Armees_Gouv]

De la terre au ciel, jusqu’à la mer, nos armées au rendez-vous de ce moment suspendu 🌖

Crédits photos : @armeedeTerre @MarineNationale @Armee_de_lair @PompiersParis

[Gate7 @Gate7aviation]

Chapeau bas pour Beatrice Vialle qui s’est posé pour la dernière fois à Paris CDG aux commandes d’un Boeing 777-300 d’Air France après 40 ans de carrière et plus de 17000 heures de vol ✈️ 👩‍✈️
Elle a été la seule femme française et l’une des deux seules au monde à avoir piloté le mythique Concorde.
#AirFrance #Pilote #Concorde

[Nature Unedited @NatureUnedited]

A leopard watches the sunset while perched high in a tree in the Masai Mara, Kenya

[Fratelli d'Italia 🇮🇹 @FratellidItalia]

Chi commette un reato deve rispondere delle proprie azioni, anche se è minorenne.

Basta impunità.

[Aviation Archive - Tim Farmer @aviationarchive]

Helping achieve clear U.S. air superiority during Vietnam, including one wing’s 32 MiG kills in 1972, the USAF fielded the slotted-wing F-4E, whose improved turn performance better matched MiG maneuverability. It carried an internal high-rate cannon, an upgraded lead-computing gunsight, a rapid-select weapons panel, the TISEO long-range TV identification system, and an electronic friend-or-foe identifier, while employing heat-seeking and all-aspect Sparrow missiles.

[Habubrats SR-71 @Habubrats71]

At Hill Air Force Base you can see the one and only SR-71C along with F117 and the U-2.

[Qantas @Qantas]

Our Project Sunrise Airbus A350-1000ULR has touched down in Australia for the first time.

This journey is part of its two-month flight testing campaign, with the aircraft flying directly from Toulouse to Melbourne in 19 hours and 12 minutes.

[Epic Maps 🗺️ @theepicmap]

When a mountain vanished in seconds.

Mount St. Helens, May 18, 1980

[World's Amazing Things @Hana_b30]

3,000-Year-Old Olive tree on the island of Crete still produces olives today.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

RAF pilot Alan Pollock flew his Hawker Hunter jet under the Tower Bridge in 1968 to protest the government ignoring the RAF's 50th anniversary.

One of the most famous unauthorized flights in aviation history.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

I met with Italy’s @GiorgiaMeloni for an important conversation. I informed her about the situation in Ukraine.

Russia does not stop attacking our cities and communities. Today, there were ballistic missile strikes again, and attack drones were launched as well. Sadly, there are people killed in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson. Russia has taken the lives of five people. My condolences to their families and loved ones.

We discussed the prospects for our joint work in Europe on anti-ballistic capabilities to provide greater protection for everyone – both Ukraine and every country.

We spoke about the need for additional interceptors and we are counting very much on support. Italy has always helped in a principled way to protect life. Thank you!

[Theo Francken @FranckenTheo]

Nobody messes with the Queen of the European centre-right. 😉 Great to catch up with Prime Minister @GiorgiaMeloni at the NATO Summit in Ankara. 🇮🇹🇧🇪

[Forces Spéciales Françaises 🌟 @Fs_francaises_]

Ils étaient membres du commando Hubert, la palme d'or des forces spéciales françaises, l'unité de forces spéciales la plus sélective de l'armée française c'est l'élite de l'élite. Il n'existe rien au-dessus.

En matière de finesse, d'expertise et de précision dans l'action, aucun équivalent.

Dans la nuit du 9 au 10 mai 2019, Cédric de Pierrepont et Alain Bertoncello ont été tués au cours d'une opération pour libérer quatre otages, dont deux Français.

Ne jamais oublier. 🖤

[Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace @Armee_de_lair]

Quand les conditions se dégradent, la mission continue.
Sur la BA 113 de Saint-Dizier, les #FAS se sont entraînées en environnement #NRBC pendant 8 h. ☢️
Objectif : garantir la continuité des missions et renforcer leur crédibilité opérationnelle.

[Giorgia Meloni @GiorgiaMeloni]

Nel giorno della nascita di Oriana Fallaci viene naturale tornare a uno dei temi che ha attraversato gran parte della sua attività, come scrittrice e giornalista, e che oggi appare più attuale che mai: il destino dell'Occidente e della sua identità.

L'Occidente non è soltanto uno spazio geografico o un sistema di alleanze. È una civiltà costruita nei secoli attorno alla libertà, alla dignità della persona, alla democrazia e al diritto. Un'eredità che appartiene a popoli diversi, ma legati da valori comuni.

Possiamo avere idee e interessi differenti, possiamo discutere e confrontarci, è la forza delle democrazie. Ma c'è qualcosa che viene prima di ogni distinguo: la consapevolezza di appartenere ad una stessa civiltà e la responsabilità di custodirla.

Viviamo un tempo segnato da guerre, instabilità e profondi cambiamenti. Le grandi sfide del nostro tempo non ci chiedono di essere tutti uguali. Ci chiedono di restare uniti e fedeli a ciò che siamo. Perché gli scenari mutano, i governi si alternano, il mondo evolve, ma ciò che non può cambiare è la fedeltà ai principi che hanno fatto dell'Occidente la più grande esperienza di libertà della storia.

[Giorgia Meloni @GiorgiaMeloni]

Io e l’Italia non imploriamo mai.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

After Japan battled the Netherlands to a 2-2 draw, the Japanese fans stayed behind and cleaned up every single piece of trash from their section at Dallas Stadium after the game. https://t.co/BHIPuVpMDo