Full Show 9/11/2026: Remembering the attack on September 11, 2001, 25 years later

0:00And good morning on this 25th anniversary of the terror attacks of 9-11. For really kind of been in my head all day, I started out this morning when I'm normally on at 5 a.m. and had listeners remembering where were you when it happened. And since then, my brain has just been pulling all of these detailed memories from that day from the depths of the cortex. And I've really almost been reliving it. And honestly, I think that's a good thing. I think it is important that we remember. And that for those of us who are too young to remember, those what, 32 and younger who either aren't old enough to remember or weren't even born when terrorists attacked us on our own soil and the fur for the first time in any Americans lifetime, we got a feeling of what it's like to have a war at home, which none of us had ever experienced before.

1:07I think it's good that we remember. I think it's good that we take stock of where we are, that we understand where we've come from and make sure that where we're going is where we want to go and that we are not exposed and vulnerable and that we are safe. So I want to talk to you today. This hour and next hour, we're going to be talking a lot about the state of international terrorism in this world. And what efforts here in the United States since 9-11 have been successful in preventing any other large scale terror attacks like those 25 years ago today and to help us appreciate where we are and where we're going. I think we need to realize how we got here. Joining us now is adjunct professor at Tulane Craig Wiles, Morning Professor.

2:09Good morning, Dave. I appreciate the opportunity to share some time with you on this important topic. Yeah, I'm glad you're here. I watched recently the docu-drama on Netflix called the bombing of Pan Am 103. And I don't remember a lot from when that actually happened when international terrorists for the first time blew up an aircraft and the impact that it had as they killed everyone on board and some people on the ground in Lockerby, Scotland and the many, many years of investigation and prosecution that followed and actually are continuing to this day. But that was the first taste that most Americans really got because of all the US citizens who were on board that plane in most of our lifetimes of what international terrorism felt like and then we would all find out 25 years ago on 9-11.

3:10So let's kind of start with the history if you would of international terrorism as we know it now. How did this come to be that instead of wars being fought between countries, we got to a point where we had these different ideals being waged as wars now through individuals, some of them willing to give their own lives to take other lives in support of their cause and where aircraft and then other large public spaces became the targets. Yeah, I know those are very good points and absolutely it was so 190 Americans died on that flight including 35 university and Syracuse students who were returning home for Christmas from studying abroad. It represented a pivotal moment truly in the evolution of modern terrorism quite annually. You had a terrorist attack that crossed multiple international borders and involved state

4:12linked actors that exploited the aviation system and what needed to enhancements that were required for safety of aviation and required unprecedented multinational international investigation. We found in that particular case an aircraft as simple as leaving Heathrow flying to New York with a number of folks coming to the United States to celebrate Christmas. After 40 minutes in the air a bomb detonated in an alarm clock in a piece of luggage that was placed on the aircraft and multi transitioned in Frankfurt and Heathrow and then on the flight 103 it was listed under the name of Michael Bernstein who was not a passenger listed passenger

5:15on any of the flights. So this was an unaccompanied bag that was transitioned. Even the FBI will tell you that investigation was a game changer. It demonstrated that terrorism had become truly international. It was at that time a major attack against Americans before 9-11. It represented an era of state-sponsored terrorism, Libya and then as we know now is a matter of fact the third defendant has a status hearing on September 15th and that particular defendant is who they are suggesting they be in the FBI was the bomb maker, Olivia Intelligent's officer. And this was in 1988 that this plane blew up and we still have seen only one trial, one conviction, one acquittal and still another suspect still awaiting trial.

6:15Yes sir, well it goes. It also speaks volumes to the dedication and the effort of these law enforcement agencies that will not rest and will not close a case until all boxes have been checked to include all individuals were off to justice. But we also found that it provided a, quite can't only provided a big contrast to 9-11. So it was a stepping stone for international investigation. It was truly a global effort. A number of countries were involved in this investigation. I led to a successful prosecution. 5,000 individuals participated in the crime scene and considered the crime scene was over 850 miles. Imagine that. It was largest crime scene to date. Yeah, the plane blew up at what, 30,000 feet. Yes sir, that is correct. There were no feet in. And victims ran down over a much very large area. Absolutely. It was one soldier and they had been directed and I'm talking about those that were participating

7:19in the walk through of the crime scene. They had been directed. If it did, if it does not appear as if it's grown from the earth, collected, considered evidence. And that's what they did. They found a circuit board and they were able to track the circuit board back to a company that had made those circuit boards and identified that only 20 of those circuit boards had been made and they were all made for the Libyan government. So they were able to continue that investigation after 10,000 interviews in a number of states and identify that circuit board was in an alarm clock that was in a piece of luggage. So a lot of due diligence, a lot of commitment and a lot of effort has allowed us to put us in a position we are today and that is the bomb maker who is in U.S. custody. We hope to see some type of judicial resolution.

8:19That really did change everything though, didn't it? And by the way, folks, the Netflix documentary drama is a great watch. It's a difficult watch, but it really did give me some perspective because I was not at the time aware of what was happening and being able to consume that. So now having that knowledge and a better understanding of it, of how we saw that first international act of deadly terror, 13 years before 9-11, or 12 years, I guess, before 9-11, it's kind of where it started. How did we get from there to al-Qaeda training their soldiers around the world and creating these sleeper cells here in the United States to a point where they could then take over aircraft and crash them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and wherever the fourth plane

9:25was headed before the passengers crashed it so that more death didn't occur. How did we get from the Pan Am bombing to the attacks of 9-11? Yeah, no, that's a good question because Lockaby wasn't the end of the story. In fact, it was a warning about where terrorism was going. We went from Lockaby and in 1993, we went to the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1998, the US embassies in Kenyan, Tanzania, 2000 USS coal, where we were warned by a song of bin Laden. He said, hey, listen, the United States, basically, you're not getting your attention as he was leading al-Qaeda and their efforts to remove the United States and Western civilization from Muslim countries. Then he pushed forward and with a budget of roughly $400,000, it's been suggested with 19 terrorists, caused what we know today to be the probably the most dramatic attack on

10:33the United States and global international partners. It wasn't just Americans that died in the World Trade Center. It impacted a number of countries. The message was clear and that's what they were pushing for. We want to get your attention. We want to change the current state of affairs and we want to do that by causing fear and causing anxiety. I guess it really comes down to without oversimplifying it. Why is? Why do people become terrorists? What are these organizations going after? Political grievances, religious extremism, revenge in some cases, perceived injustice, some type of self-adventive, that designate political objectives, create power, retaliation.

11:35The reasons are many. The reality is a grievance that necessarily terrorism. An ideology is a necessarily terrorism. Terrorism unfortunately evolves into violence or threat of violence and it's used to intimidate our course. The realities are that terrorism from Lakobi to where we are today, they haven't truly gone away. We can go after the heads of these organizations but unless we specifically target the organization and continue to chase that organization and utilizing all investigative tools available and dismantle these organizations, I don't know Dave, if we can ever eliminate terrorism. We talked about how the intense investigation into the pan-am bombing over Lakobi really

12:38fundamentally changed the makeup of investigatory practices by our federal government and governments around the world. We saw vast improvements in the way things were investigated but clearly what we didn't see were vast improvements in our early warning systems, in our red flag detection, in our ability to identify threats before they could carry out plots. We all know now that Osama bin Laden was able to get his operatives into the United States. He was able to embed them in communities across the country, even to a point where they were able to take pilot flying lessons. And even though an FBI agent was made aware that these individuals who would eventually lead the terror attacks on 9-11 had taken pilot flying lessons but said they didn't need the part of the lesson on how to land the plane.

13:39And even though that information went to the FBI, it was never acted on and it was too late by the time the pieces were put together. So have we since 9-11 improved our homeland security, our federal government's investigatory early warning system to a point where are we still vulnerable to these kinds of attacks? Because as you said, the ideologies never going to go away. So that means they're always going to want to kill us. Yeah, no, that's a good point, Dave. And there were a number of lessons learned from 9-11. First and foremost, the biggest lesson was quite candidly. Information is useless unless shared. So as a law enforcement community, we have become much better at doing just that. Specifically, the FBI has formed over 200 joint terrorism task forces.

14:41And these joint terrorism task forces located throughout the United States working a state and local agencies working with international partners have disrupted organizations or cells prior to actioning of some type of terrorist event. We have seen those. These arrests come and they go. But a couple of tools that they continue to try to monitor and they continue to try to work towards is that the internet, quite candidly, the recruitment for these organizations has changed dramatically. The internet and what you can find on social media. I mean, they in them themselves have become the strongest recruitment point. And we found that right here in our own city. The greatest counterterrorism challenge today probably is for these terrorist organizations

15:43in the fact that they can identify individuals without truly having to contact them, without having to interact with them. We found that in New Orleans New York's E-Day attacker as an example. He was influenced by ISIS propaganda and ideology without ever traveling to meet anybody in particular for a recruitment drive. So to your point, the saying you see something, say something, truly is as important today as it ever has been. We have a number of changes with the recruitment. And it's going to come down to community effort. It's going to come down to all of us taking apart in prevention. And I think that's, if nothing else today, I think that's the message we've got to share is that there are still people around the world who want to kill us, who want to destroy

16:51America and Americans. And we have to be not only aware of that, but involved. And I think that's why it's important that we talk about this today, especially with the younger people who didn't live through 9-11 or don't remember it because they weren't old enough, that we still have to be vigilant at all times. So this never happens again. Professor Craig Wiles, that junk professor at Two Line. Thanks for sharing some time with us on this 25th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. Thank you, Dave, and my thoughts and prayers to the many out there that are continuing to suffer from those from the cancer from the rock. God bless. God bless. Thank you, Craig Wiles. I'm Dave Cohen. Coming up next hour, I'm clearing the guest lists and we're just going to talk to you in the 11 o'clock hour about how you feel on this day. What you remember on this day, and if you feel safe as an American now, and if you feel

17:51like we are at a point where we can trust and rely on each other to report what we hear and see and know about and on our government to act on that information and keep us safe. We'll do that next hour. Coming up after this, we'll talk to a man from New Orleans who took matters into his own hands after 9-11 with some of the people he worked with and jumped into action. We'll do that after this as we remember 9-11, 25 years ago today here on WWL. It was 25 years ago today that terrorists commandeered airplanes in the United States and launched the first attack in any of our lifetimes against Americans on American soil to that extent. It was overwhelming.

18:51It was, it made me as an individual and I was here on the radio at the time watching it unfold live and describing it on the air. It made me feel more vulnerable than I'd ever felt before as an American. I don't know that I've ever had a scarier moment in my life outside of individual family related things, but as an American, I've never been more scared in my life than I was at that moment when I realized that they were attacking us and they were successfully killing thousands and thousands of us. And we didn't know what was going to happen next. We didn't know how many sleeper cells were about to come on wake. We didn't know where the next attack was going to come from.

19:52And it made us here in America feel a way we had never felt before. You know, it had been the Revolutionary War since we had a war on our soil from a foreign fighting force. We had the Civil War, but none of us were alive for either of those. All the wars were always over there and suddenly it was here. We'll share more of our thoughts and we'll talk about it next hour. A lot of people jumped into action in the wake of the 9-11 terror attacks, including Billy Shanks who joins us now on the live line. Billy is a retired district chief from the New Orleans Fire Department. Hey, Billy. Hey, how's it going? You know, I'm more in my thoughts and emotions and feelings today than I thought I was going to be. I don't know what it is about the 25th, but it's really gotten me.

20:53How you doing? Hey, I'm doing fine. You know, 25 years ago, just like everybody else, I saw what was going on on television. And being a firefighter, it was devastating to see fireman walking in that building as it was coming down. And that's when me and some of the guys on rescue, David Nick, Joe Canfield and Robert Tour has decided we needed to go to New York to go do whatever we could to help our brothers out. And so we made the trip up there. You know, it was a few weeks after because we had to make arrangements to get up there, but it was an unbelievable trip. So here you are watching it unfold.

21:53Were you on duty or off duty on 9-11? I was off duty. I was getting ready to go on my side job and my wife came outside and called me and said, you got to come see what's going on in New York on the news. And I didn't go on my side job that day. I just stayed glued to the TV. And then I just started making phone calls about, you know, I told my wife at that time. And I said, I got to go up there. So you and your co-workers develop this idea that becomes a plan that you then you put into action, then I don't really you're going to go up there, but you're going to take fire apparatus. And you're going to go up there because obviously they had lost so much of what they had in New York because all companies responded to the towers as they were being attacked

22:56and before they came down. So suddenly now they are not just personnel, but equipment too. We're very compromised for the New York Fire Department. So tell us how that unfolded and what you guys did and what the trip was like getting there and what happened when you got there. Well, I reached out to Chef Emma Legasi because a personal friend of mine and he had ties with the New York Fire Department with them coming on his show. So he gave me a phone number to a gentleman in the union up there who I reached out to. And the first thing out of his mouth was thank God you call, we need you up here. Now what they wanted us to do was to stand in at funerals because you know he said usually we have five to ten thousand men at a fireman funeral.

23:57He said we had 343 men die and so we would like you all to come up here and stand in at the funeral. We'd like you to go visit fire houses and that's what we did. And you know just us four guys that feel like we made a big impact up there because we would go to these funerals and after these funerals they would have like a celebration of life. And we didn't talk to these guys about 9-11. We talked to them, any other subject and if they wanted to open up they would open up. That we had these guys laughing and smiling probably for the first time in weeks. And it was amazing. It was to the point where these guys were asking us, hey can y'all come stay at our firehouse?

25:04And just because they wanted somebody there to support them and something other than the devastation. Talk about something other than the devastation and that's what we did. And so you know I was happy we could make an impact on these guys. You know if anyone knows how to turn a funeral into a celebration of those who have died, it's noorlinians. I mean we have the tradition here of the jazz funeral that begins as the durg, but ends in the second line of dancing and celebrating. And what a great gift that you could bring from New Orleans to New York to help these firefighters, their families and their fallen brothers and sisters to realize that it's okay to celebrate their lives not only more in their deaths.

26:06Exactly. Exactly. And you know we brought things up there to these guys. We cooked for them. We helped out in any kind of way. And you know the biggest impact was like about a week after we got back, I had one of the union guys called me up and he said out of the thousands of people that came up here, he said, I don't know what you four guys did. He said that we've gotten more phone calls about the New Orleans guys. He said, I said, we didn't do anything. We just went into the friend of these guys and gave them a hug and sat down and just talked to them about anything they wanted to talk about. We were an ear to them and we would add to support and give them a hug.

27:08And that impact lasted to four years later when we had like 700 New York firemen that signed up to come to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They remembered you guys. Oh yes. Yes. I had guys from the fire department calling me up the night before Hurricane Katrina telling me that they want to come down and help in any kind of way. And this was the night before Katrina. And you know how New Orleansians are. We're going to be all right. Just a storm. And they all came down here and supported us. Yeah. Some great, great stories of friendship, camaraderie, and just doing the little things in the aftermath of an unbelievable tragedy.

28:10Billy Shanks, thanks. Thank you. Thank you to you. Are the other three guys still with us? Yes, they are. One of them is still on a job. Wow. Which one is that? David Nick. All right. And what are the other two names? Tell me again. Robert Torres and Joe Canfield. Well, thank you to Billy, David, Robert, and Joe for being the New Orleans guys. For even though you packed your gear and thought you were going to go up there and help them fight fires, you helped them fight far better causes than that. And you really clearly, the New Orleans guys, as you said, they referred to you, played a very important role in helping the men and women of the fire department up there in New York. I'm glad that we could talk to you on this anniversary. You're very welcome. Anything else you want to share before we let you run, Billy? Yeah, I just want to share with everybody. I just want everybody to remember the lives that will last that day.

29:14The first responders, the police department. I want you all to remember that we were together at that point in time as a country. And we need to come together again and go give a go give a firefighter or policeman a hug today. And I think that'll go a long way with the first responders. Billy, thank you so much for what you did and what you've done. And for joining us here 25 years later, you know, I thought for the last several years, 9-11, it's felt like a distant memory. It's felt like a piece of history. But for some reason today, and I don't know about for you, but for me, the brain has brought everything right back to the forefront. It feels like it was just yesterday. Yes, it has. It's hard to believe who's 25 years ago. Thank you, Billy. We appreciate you. You're welcome. All right. I'm Dave Cohen, Infernoal Norman, 2,977 people died in the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks.

30:22And the 19 hijackers. And thank God for the people on that plane that they took down in the field in Pennsylvania, because otherwise that number would be even higher. Whether they were going to the White House, the US Capitol, the Sears Tower, wherever they were headed, those passengers on that plane having learned what had happened to the others. Made the ultimate sacrifice and made sure that plane could not be used as a weapon, even though they knew they would die in taking it down. Gonna open up the lines after this. 504-260-1870. Let's just talk. Like Billy said, he did with the firefighters up in New York. Let's just talk on this 25th anniversary. If you want to tell me where you were, what's your thought? Where we are now? We'll begin the conversation after this.

31:25On this anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks on WWL. It's great talking to Billy Shanks about him and his colleagues going up to New York after 9-11. And it reminded me of, remember the spirit of Louisiana Fire Truck, that the state of Louisiana sent up there, built for the New York Fire Department to help them out after 9-11. And then they and hundreds of New York firefighters came back down here with it after Katrina. Just a couple of the examples. There were so many others, of firefighters from around this region, of others, locally who went up there just to cook for the folks impacted by 9-11 to just create massive pots of gumbo or whatever it was. And to feed everyone up there. And just the outpouring of love from New Orleans to New York from Louisiana to the state of New York was unprecedented and unreal and really heartwarming and brought out some of the best that we have ever seen. Bronson, thanks for calling.

32:26You're on WWL 25 years after the 9-11 attacks. Hey, Bronson. Yes, this is Bronson. I was down in the quarter while all the electricity was off. I remember the first time it came back on. Everybody was excited. It was about 30 days after the storm. But then all of a sudden it went off again. And then all these fire trucks started coming. They were the electrical system at Hotel Sint-Pierre was sort of a mess at that time and they had a fire. Well, the address of the Hotel Sint-Pierre is 9-11 for Gandhi Street. And after they put it out in everything, the New York firemen who also responded to the call were just sort of in shop, just standing around that reminded them so much of their night on the level. Wow. Yeah. What a way to bring things full circle. Dr. Bronson, Lewis, with us here on WTWL. We certainly had a large contingent of them down here. They were also, I believe,

33:29responsible for guarding the New Orleans Museum of Art, if I recall correctly, but so nice to have here. Yeah. And then it is great, the relationships that we build out of tragedies, isn't it, that when we're in the worst of times, we find the best in people and we do come to each others aid and side and help. Dr. Loots, let me ask you this. Here we are 25 years later. First of all, where were you on 9-11? 25 years ago today? I was sitting in a courtroom in Oklahoma. I was fast to finding a trial up there about a infection that a woman got after a breast implant. And it was in federal court because she was an Indian. And they announced that there had been a lot of problems in the world, however, had been hit. And right after my testimony, they closed

34:30down the court as well as every other court building. I was able to hitch a ride over to Saint Louis, cause of course all the flights were closed and stayed with a friend over there in Saint Louis until I was able to bring a car and drive back to New Orleans. Wow. Yeah. So here you are in a federal courthouse. And we know that all of those buildings were evacuated as it was becoming clear that we were under attack. And every plane and helicopter in the world had been grounded because we didn't know which ones were a threat and which ones weren't. So wow, you got a heavy dose of the impacts of 9-11, not being able to fly home after being evacuated from a federal courthouse in Oklahoma. President's plane was in the air and what their room were about another plane that made it back to the Middle East or something that was allowed to take off. Well, of course, yeah, Air Force One, they put the president on a plane because they didn't know where the next attack was coming or

35:33where it was safe for the president to be. So yeah, Air Force One along with a number of fighter jets were in the air. They eventually landed at Barxdale Air Force Base in Shreveport to refuel and to decide what to do next. Another Louisiana connection. Yeah. I think the president was in Florida when that happened. So I guess they went from Florida to the Louisiana air base. Yeah, they kind of just kind of wandered around in the air for a while because I guess they thought that was the safest place for them to be. How do you feel now 25 years later? Do you feel? I mean, because on that day, I don't know about you, but I felt like I'd never felt before. I felt vulnerable to the kinds of things we had seen around the globe, the kind kinds of things we had heard and read about in history. For the first time in my life, I felt like, oh my God, we, I, my family could be killed in an act of terrorism, an act of war. And I'd never ever worried about that before.

36:36Me either, Dave, and every time I go through on a flight now and go through the TSA line, I think about it. And I look at the huge expense involved there and how much that has cost our country. And then I look at what happens during the COVID outbreak and what preventive measures are we taking to prevent another virus from coming in maybe even more potent from COVID. And it's a minuscule amount of money compared to the last loss and not loss. Props and lutes, thanks for joining us here on WWL. He called in. I want you to call in at 504-260-1870. For the next hour, I just want to talk. How do you feel now about international terrorism? Are we doing enough? Where were you on that day? Let's just chat about it here on WWL. Do you think we're safe from international terrorists now? It's been 25 years since we've had a large-scale terror attack on our own soil. Clearly, we've had others inspired by international

37:42terrorists specifically here in New Orleans among them attempt or carry out attacks. Do you feel safe now? I think it's important we talk about this today. So we make sure we don't forget what it was like and that we educate those who don't even remember to make sure this never happens again. We're open in the lines to chat next hour. 25 years ago today, I remember vividly. Being on the radio is part of the morning show and starting to do updates on the breaking news that an airplane had crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. As we were on the air covering this breaking story, we watched in horror as a second plane crashed into the other of the twin towers. In that moment, our lives dramatically changed.

38:50We knew right then. We had considered it. We had thought about it after the first plane hit. But I wanted to believe it was an accident. I wanted to believe that an air traffic controller or a flight control system or a pilot had just made a horrible, unbelievable mistake. But when the second plane hit, as we saw it live on television, we knew we were under attack. It was difficult to continue to do this job. It was difficult to continue to deliver the news because I felt the way I'd never felt before. I didn't know what it was like for someone to successfully attack America. I didn't know what it was like to live in a place where you never knew what was coming next. To live in a society where now we had to fear,

39:56attacks, explosions, or worse at any moment. People around the world knew what that was like. People across the globe had been living like that. But we never lived that way in the United States. It had never happened before. I remember as time allowed, getting my wife on the phone, she had called me. And the newsroom told her, well, Dave can't come to the phone right now. And she said, well, why not? And they said, turn on the radio. She had been getting the kids ready for school. She had been going through her normal routine. She didn't know. But a few minutes later, I was able to talk to her. I was able to call her back. And we didn't know what to do because we didn't know. Sleeper cells had come awake,

40:59come and did ear aircraft, and we're killing Americans by the thousands, by the hundreds at least. Ultimately, we'd end up being thousands from that day and it's after math. Were there more sleeper cells? Were they going to start bombing more places and more things? We're more planes going to come crashing down. We had a quick discussion on whether she should go pick the kids up from school. We had a baby at home, a preschooler and two kids in school. Were schools about to become targets? Were there sleeper cells in mattery? We didn't know. But suddenly, our brains had to go places they had never gone before. Every aircraft in the world was being grounded, ordered to land immediately at the closest airport.

42:02Left people in some places that were unbelievable. Talk to someone today whose boss was forced to land in a tiny town in Canada and stay there for a week. Others were forced to land in countries all across the globe, cities and states across the US with no way to leave those places once they got there and no idea what would happen next. I've heard from people who were on helicopters going to and from oil rigs in the Gulf that suddenly fighter jets were next to their choppers. They were being told to land immediately and if they diverted from the path to the nearest landing, they would be shot down. Our world was so different so fast. Maybe it had been coming and we should have seen it. Maybe the warnings from Osama bin Laden and others fell on mostly

43:04deaf ears. But I never thought that would happen here. But it did. We had no idea what was next. My brother was in school in New York at the time. I didn't think he was at the World Trade Center, but I didn't know. And it was hours and hours before I was able to get him on the phone. And find out he was okay. They had stopped all the buses, all the trains, all the subways, all the ferries in New York. He described to me how people were literally climbing out of the subways up ladders through manhole covers and it looked like ants coming out of an ant pile. And then people buy the tens of thousands just walking down roads and across bridges to try to get home. Phones weren't working because the circuits were overloaded

44:09and we were under attack for the first time in any of our lifetimes. Here we are 25 years later. Many of those fears have faded. Many of those concerns have been calmed. But should they be? Are we as vigilant now as we should be? Or are we vulnerable to it all happening again? Let's talk about it. Where were you on 9-11? And how do you feel about it now? Dan, thanks for calling you're on WWL. Morning Dan. Good morning. How are you? It's getting me harder than I thought it would but I'm all right. What's your story? My story is, Dave, I'm a form of superintendent of fire and Jefferson Parish, a chief of the Asus materials division. As a matter of fact, I started the Asus materials division which was

45:12one of the first in the country. I was on the Agent track with the National Fire Academy and Emma Spurig-Mallon came with content expert in writing a class as a material and taught there for a number of years. 9-11 must have changed your job, didn't it? Dave had changed my job and I really put a light on the exposure of the emergency services in our country. When I was teaching, we would do exercises and I would constantly preach that one day, especially the small apartments around the country, one day you're going to run into an incident that is going to exceed the capabilities of your department.

46:15And never dreaming that that would happen in New York City, that it would have an incident that would exceed the capabilities. We had incidents before that that it did, the Livingston Train to Railman, you may recall, well, over near Ham and it exceeded their capabilities. It trained the Railman a couple of years ago in Ohio that incident exceeded their capabilities and Katrina here exceeded our capabilities. So, going back to the World Trade Center, initially that was a, has a materials call, it was a plane into a building. Generally protocols for ASMAT, or you identify the problem and isolate them, unlike when the structure fires, pulling in and putting the wet stuff on the red stuff,

47:18this quick as possible, isolated. But it was also a high-rise, protocol for high-rise, established command operations in the lobby. And one that never collapsed on top of them before. Well, you know, the building had an explosion, they tried to blow it up several years before that. Yeah, from the bottom in the parking garage. Down in the parking garage. And whoever thought that building would come down like it did, but when you think about the fuel heating that metal and the metal weakening from the heat, once that building starts coming down, that's it. It's going to go as it did. The fire department took the biggest hit, as far as losing members, ASMAT took the biggest hit

48:27of a specialized unit. What had happened that day, they were having a drill. And they had extra guys that come in to take part of the drill. And the call came in, they all went. And they were in the building and when they came down. So it was more than 300 of them. It was devastating. Yes, it was devastating. I think for every fire instructor in this country, it opened our eyes and said, you know what, I think we really need to look at our protocols. And there may be a time to change. I'm not sure that the change has taken place. You know, hopefully it has. But you know, a lot of money came to the emergency services following the World Trade Center incident. Yeah, let me ask you this, Dan. I know my fear is,

49:34we talk about Hurricane Abnesia down here that it's been 20 years since Katrina. Do people forget? Now it's been 25 years since 9-11. Are people going to forget or not have any memory of? And are we going to let our guard down and not be as prepared? From first responder standpoint, a lot of changes were made in the light of 9-11. But have we now, in this day and age, forgotten why we made those changes? And do you think that first responders are as prepared now as they should be in the event of another mass casualty event like 9-11 or something different that we haven't even thought of? Dave, that's a great question. And I'm finishing a book now that deals with a lot of that. If I answer your question, let me say this first, that advances that we have made

50:35in the emergency services die with the generation. For some reason, it's not passed on. We forget. As a society, we forget. And we don't remember why we made the changes we made. Even though they may see it in a manual or they may read about it in a policy or they may understand it from history, I guess it's human nature that we just go through these cycles. Well, I don't think we forget. I don't think we'll ever forget this incident in our generation. But the next generation, what will, let me point it back up. Yeah, that's what I meant as a society we forget, not as individuals. But as a society. Right, that's correct. Our society that went through this and made advances feels to pass it on. It makes sense. And it dives with the generation. So those advances that we

51:43made, we're not passed on. So that brings us to this point when we're vulnerable again. I'm not sure. Now, how does this happening? You know, you go to fire parments and now and other organizations and their instructions and clats is going on. A lot of these classes, classes or canned classes. The group sits there and walks as a tape presentation with no live instructor answer questions. When you get into the emergency services, you need someone there that stays a breath of everything that's taken place and advances into the next generation. I hear you loud and clear, Dan. And I think that we do have that societal abnesia problem.

52:47You couple that now with the bigger problems of shrinking work forces and more and more computers, robots, automation, whatever, artificial intelligence, having to take the place of humans. And I think you make some very strong points that it is on us to make sure the next generation fully embraces understands and appreciates what happened before. So it cannot happen again. Although the other to argue history is doomed to repeat itself. I'm Dave Cohen, Darren Nick. Your calls are up next on WWL. My emotions, one person text us at 504-260-1870 on the Aquinar Jewelers talk in text line. My emotions about 9.11 now are the same as they were 25 years ago. I was furious then and I am furious now. Now, it says I was a security guard on 9.11.

53:52My job included checking several buildings near MSY. I was used to seeing and hearing jets all the time. It was surreal and eerily quiet in that area. A lot of people forget that every plane in the world was grounded once it was clear what was happening. It was no flying anywhere until they could make sure that they could identify any more threats and not take any chances. Darren, thanks for calling you're on WWL. Hey, Darren. Hey, Dave, how's it going? All right, how you doing? I'm doing well. Dave, this is one of the best shows you have ever put on because I believe some people have forgotten what happened to our country or 9.11. I was a brand new. When I say brand new, I was days out of school. I have a network engineer

55:00and I was installing some equipment at the FBI office in Jackson, Mississippi. Oh goodness. And the ASAC walked in, the special agent in charge walked in and he said, who are you and what are you doing? I told him he says, get out. So at that point, I'm thinking, oh God, I did something wrong. I'm going to be fired. I called my boss and I told him about it and my boss said, go find a TV. And then head home because you're 15 to go to Washington. And for the next 10 years, I traveled between airports across the country and Washington, D.C. and home here in South Louisiana to install networks with the TSA and do all this computer work to keep our country safe. And today, 25 years later, I still support our first

56:07responders in a different capacity. But the goal remains the same is to make sure this never happens again. Darren, you have a unique perspective on this being that your employer obviously was contracted by the federal government before and after 9-11. So let me ask you this. Were you, well evaluate for us, what was the status of airport security before 9-11? And then as they created this new agency, the transportation security administration, and you got to see firsthand by installing the gear they would use to keep us safe. How much did we advance that security? And do you think it's adequate today? To prevent another 9-11? We have advanced it. We have in the majority of our airports, I'd say 99% of our airports. We have advanced using technology, using best practices from

57:13places like Israel, place of legs Japan. We have made these advances. However, as soon as this was put in the hands of politicians, it became chaotic. Why do I need to take off my belt buckle and put it on the airport check point? Your X-ray and your pat me down. Why do I need to undress at the airport? And your X-Murray machines can tell you everything you need to know. Now, on the flip side of that, we do have what the Richard Reed incident where he stuffed the folds of his shoes with explosives. But those are few and far between. Today, I think

58:20while we do have good security, we need to upgrade the people, some of the people at the checkpoints. Some of these people have no idea what 9-11 was about. They have gotten a little lost in the security measures. And do I feel safe that today, Dave? Absolutely. You feel safe enough? I don't think we should ever feel safe enough. Because it can happen again. We know that there are sleeper cells. They just busted one down here in Homa. Not anything big. But these were people that were being radicalized. And it does scare you. It scares me from my grandchildren. I have a 6-4-year-old

59:27grandson. What is their experience going to be like? And you know, Dave, from your coverage of everything over your years, if you put anything in the hands of politicians, they're going to mess it up. Darren, I appreciate the call. That's the scary part is that it's in the hands of politicians. Thank you, Dave. I enjoyed our conversation. Glad you called in. Thank you for sharing your unique perspective with us on this 25th anniversary of 9-11. And something else I think we should point out is all the attention that the 25th anniversary is getting now, all of the documentaries, all of the posts on social media, all of the radio talk shows, all of the news coverage. We don't know if that's not going to inspire someone to say, let's go do that again.

1:00:34Or come up with some very different but equally as impactful plan to try and outdo or bring a new wrinkle or expose a new vulnerability. So I'm kind of having some of those feelings. I haven't had it many years, like I had on that day, of feeling like we'd never felt before in this country, at least not in any of our lifetimes, knowing what it felt like to live somewhere where you had to wander if at any moment, something or someone could explode and kill us or those people we love. Already. Thanks for calling you on WWL. Hey, Arty. I used to work for a very large insurance company and I lived in DC and I would have to go to

1:01:37number two world trade because that's what we had on office. And I absolutely hated it because the building had a sway in the towers and I've got labored dieters so I always get dizzy and have to take breaks to go outside. How high up in the tower were you? 26th tower two. Well, we moved the February before over to Wall Street and a lot of insurance companies worked in the tower and there was a woman I did in the national insurance. A lot of insurance people died in the towers. But there was a woman that I was proselytizing to about the Lord and she turned me in in human resources and said I shouldn't be doing that because I was a boss and on 9-11 a man jumped and part of the splatter of the body was on her and she lost the

1:02:38ability to speak and several weeks after that she gained her ability to speak and she called me and asked me to pray for it. It was kind of strange but it was really weird big in DC living in a city they got attacked and you're seeing the smoke from the Pentagon because the smoke took three days after and but people were nice doing that period because up there they're not real nice up there. That's be honest but they were very very nice. You know we've lost even in places where people are more civil and nicer we've lost some of that in our society today and you know I've talked in the past about how sadly when we don't have someone else to fight with when we don't have an Osama bin Laden or we don't have Hitler or we don't have a foreign enemy.

1:03:40Often we see and we've seen this throughout history here in the US we start fighting amongst ourselves and that was the only silver lining of course to 9-11 is that it did bring out unity in people across America it did bring out the best in people it did make people want to help each other and come to the aid of others and I'm not saying we want another 9-11 I'm not saying we want to be in another full-fledged war with anybody but I think you make a good point that it's sad that it takes tragedy or war or common hate to make us get along here at home. Yeah, we're right about that but that's just my story and it's a sad day and never forget it. Arty do you feel like we are doing enough now to protect our America and to protect

1:04:41our cities and our and keep terrorists from being able to do something like this or different again? Absolutely not I've got friends who still work in the Pentagon and they're scared to death that I don't want to quote the numbers but they said they know that there's a lot of people that walked over the border that want to do harm to the US and they can't find them where they're at. So there's a lot of fear off the record up there in Washington and the Pentagon. Arty I appreciate the call and you're joining us on this 25th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. I want to hear from you at 504-260-1870 and the Ocquina Heart Jewelers talk in tax line. I think it's good sometimes that we just talk about something like this that we remember and we share where we were and what we felt and we look at where we are and what we're feeling now. We're remembering 25 years ago today the feelings we had, the thoughts we were thinking and the

1:05:44emotions that were going through us as terrorists attacked the United States of America, killing 2,977 people on 9-11. Many more would die afterwards as a result of 9-11. What are you thinking? What are you feeling? And do you think that we remember it enough that we have imparted our memories on the next generation enough so that we are vigilant enough so this does not happen again? James, thanks for calling you on WWL. Hey James.

1:06:48And it's 82 year old woman with this dude's butt. He didn't know she had been working out and was a weightlifting. That is kind of what we've been doing lately. We look around and we in the last 18 months or so I think we've bombed by seven or eight countries, one even on Christmas day, because Nigeria. On this continent that we share with other countries, we've pissed off every country on this continent and some of the nicest people in the world. These kind of things that make us not get along with people didn't start yesterday. It just like was going on in the Middle East. Some people were saying it started in 1948 when we recognized Israel. I would say it started in 1948 BC when his male and Isaac couldn't get along.

1:07:53Yeah, I was going to say I think that in the Middle East it started not hundreds, not dozens, not scores of years ago, but thousands of years ago. Sadly, that part of the world has been filled with hate and conflict as long as humans have walked the earth it feels like. That is my point. That's part of our DNA so to speak. So to get to my major point, I don't think we remember nothing. We seem to be lying to ourselves. One of the other things that's going on today is Iran. I hear us talking about, oh, this happened 47 or 50 years ago. No, no, no. We've been in these people's business and we've admitted that we've overthrown their government in 1954, 1953 or whatever and caused them pains from the 50s until the 1970s.

1:08:54We need to look at how we're treating people and don't be surprised that how you felt and how I felt on 911. They just want to give us a taste of what we've been given them for years. So, I'll tell you this James, I had a guest on not long ago who was actually a hostage in Iran. And during his time being held captive got to learn a lot about Iranians. And what he told me was that Iran has wanted the war that is now underway since the 1950s. That they have waited for this moment since then, that they have never forgotten and will never forget and have been damned and determined to at some point unleash their revenge

1:09:59on America. So while I understand your concern, while I get what you're saying that we are picking at a festering sore, while we are putting salt in a wound while we are maybe awakening more hatred, what he told me is that hatred has never gone away. And so on one level, I agree with you that we should only engage in these conflicts when they're absolutely necessary because there will be intense retaliation. But on the other hand, yeah, as soon as I finish, yeah, we got a few minutes. On the other hand, if they were really trying and they were really close to developing a nuclear bomb, I have no doubt based on what I've learned from this gas and others that as soon as they have it, they won't hesitate to use it

1:11:06on America. And that's probably true. So I don't know. It's probably true. So it's just determining is now the time to stop them or not. I don't know. But I know that we did. And this is where we are. Go ahead. I agree with you. It is time to stop them. But my point is there's a way to do that. Is it continually to do what we did to cause this or help or look at what we did to help create this or to do like what a guy named Itzak Rebeam did? Most people would consider Israel as one of the strongest military forces in that region. But Itzak decided that he wanted to have peace. And he gave up a whole lot to give peace because he and I wish I could get this quote right. He said it is a lot cheaper or easier to talk for years than to be at war for three days. And they killed this man for that type of attitude because all people killed him. So my question to most people who

1:12:10think they know is going on over there is how many hot digits do we have in Iran today? We don't even talk about that. There's people in Iran that we've left there since we first bombed them last June. But they don't get mentioned. And a whole bunch of them. We just not learning from the incidents of our history. James, I appreciate the call and I appreciate your concern. I really do. And I think one thing that resounds with me from what you've just said is that we don't understand people in the Middle East. And I think you're right. And I don't know that we ever will. I don't know that we as Americans living in a place where we have not had generational institutionalized hate against others for thousands and thousands of years. We're only 250 years

1:13:11hold as a country. But we don't still hate the Germans because of World War II. In just a couple of generations, we stopped doing that. But over there, they hate people that they're great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, going back forever grandparents hated because they are made to hate. And whether it's religion or territorial boundaries or whatever it is, that hate is so ingrained and so apart of who they are as a society. That I don't know we can ever really appreciate and understand it. And it really is like two different worlds. And I don't know that we can ever effectively figure out how to keep ourselves safe from that because we can't ever really understand what that part of the world is like.

1:14:1325 years after 9-11, I'm Dave Cohen. We're back after this. Someone text us and says, for the past 25 years, we have a nation of struggled to find the sweet spot when it comes to security and defending against the tax like 9-11 and personal securities. And I think you're right. We don't want over-invasive. We don't want to be denied our freedoms. But we don't want another 9-11 either. I'm Dave Cohen. We're going to lighten things up and look ahead at the weekend in sports snacks, the voice of the Tigers. Chris Blair joins us after the news. Oh yes. How great is it folks. The LSU Tiger Football team now ranked eighth in the nation. Returns to action tomorrow night right here on WWL and the LSU Sports Radio Network. Chris Blair, the voice of

1:15:13the Tigers joins us now live from Baton Rouge. Hey Chris. Dave, how are you man? Good to talk with you. Man, it's so great the excitement's back. It's so great the swagger's back. It's so great that the buzz is back, isn't it? Yeah, man, I tell you what, it was a long wait. I said to a lot of people leading up to the game last weekend that, you know, for LSU going back to Coach Kiffin being hired on, you know, November 30th of last year. LSU got kind of an extended talking season as we like to call it. And it was nice to finally put that all behind us and get between the lines, be inside at Tiger Stadium. I know we had a little bit of a delay due to the weather, but nobody laughed and it was, it was a memorable night. I ran into a lot of Tiger fans. I did last night at the Lane Kiffin show. And, you know, there's some people who have been to a lot of games there and they've got some great highlight moments, highlight games over the years, but they said that one's one of the, the ones that stands up there, it was just a whole culmination of, again, that long wait to finally see it.

1:16:19And then to get the result you did against the team that you played was certainly a night to remember. Yeah, and I think it was almost fitting that after all of the anticipation, all of the buildup, all of the waiting, we had to wait a little bit longer. And I think some great memories were made during the lightning and rain delays that some of the amazing videos that have come out of the student section singing along with purple rain in the downpour and some of the activities outside the stadium that made it to social media. I mean, people made the most of it and kept themselves entertained and excited right up until we finally got that game and then the game did not disappoint. Yeah, I mean, again, Coach Kiffin has said now for many, many weeks leading up to the game that they practice extremely hard. It's one of the things I noticed, you know, through Spring Ball and certainly during Fall Camp is it is, it's a lot of work. I mean, it's a chaotic, loud, lively, and very fast-moving practice every single day. In fact, you know, he talks about

1:17:24Fridays where a lot of teams kind of have a walk through unless he does that on Thursday. And then on Friday, they kind of ramp it back up again, hoping to hit the crescendo on Saturday nights because he sees it as a performance. Number one, win the game. But number two, put on a performance that whether you've been to Tiger Stadium 100 times your entire life or whether you're coming for the first time or whether or not you're watching or listening wherever you may be, you're going to get a show. And again, that's the challenge for LSU tomorrow night against the Louisiana Tech team that certainly feels good about what they did last week. And hopefully you get that same type of performance because as I said, I mean, I don't know if you could have scripted it any better. I know Coach Kiffin told me yesterday that late touchdown stuck in his crawl a little bit. But other than that, I mean, I don't know that you could have scripted a better start to the Lane Kiffin air and the start of this season. Yeah, the early interception, the late touchdown

1:18:25probably could have lived without those, but that's all right because everything in between was definitely everything anyone could have hoped for out of the SLSU Tiger football team in the Kiffin era debut. 100%. And again, he said it on Monday, look, don't let the opponent, regardless of who it is, change your mindset about being hungry for a win. And they know that was a message to the team and that's certainly a message to all of us. Louisiana Tech, as I said, they come in 80 to 6 against Northwestern State and I get it. It's a division one FPS versus FCS, but it's still hard to be efficient and score 80 points. I mean, there's only 60 minutes in a game. And there's not a whole lot of mistakes when you watch that game film as far as what Louisiana Tech did. And Coach Cumbia, I think, does a very good job with the the Mike Leach air raid, which is again to me, I think for defensive coaches and defensive players, a lot like going up against the

1:19:25triple option. I mean, you've got to be super disciplined. You've got to have attention to detail. You can't let your eyes get in the wrong place because suddenly you'll be out of position and a six-shard pass will turn into a 70 or 80 yard pass. So he's trying to keep them locked in against Louisiana Tech. And hopefully the fans, as we heard yesterday, it's another sellout. So we should have another great atmosphere all day long, leading up to the kickoff around 6.32, 6.34 tomorrow. You know, you talk about the lesser opponents and it is sometimes you worry about butts in the seats and fans in the stands. But I think it does speak volumes that it's supposed to be and expected to be a full house against clearly lesser opponent when LSU is favored by what 31 and a half points. Yeah, I mean, again, I look at it from a standpoint of, you know, coming into this year, Dave, everybody wanted to see an explosive offense, a high-flying offense. And for a

1:20:28number of years, they've wanted to see that nasty LSU defense that just kind of imposes its will for, you know, four quarters and 60 game minutes. And you saw that against the team who has two national titles, one in 14 and one in 16 and has played for a couple others and has certainly been one of the top programs over the last 10, 15 years. They just completely dismantled them. So, again, I don't know that it matters who the opponent is. You want a high-flying offense, you want a dominating defense. They showed you they can do that. Now, it's up to the players tomorrow to do that again and do it next week and do it for the next two plus months. But I think that if that's what you've been looking for, that was delivered on Saturday and deservedly so. I think that's why this place is going to be rocking tomorrow night as well. And I know that Lane Kiffin and the rest of the staff will not let these football players overlook this opponent. A lot of people are saying, well, what if it's a sleeper game? What if, you know, they're looking ahead at the ninth

1:21:30ranked Kiffin's former Ole Miss Rebels on the road for the next game. And that's not, I just can't imagine any scenario in which they would lose the focus on the task at hand tomorrow night. Well, again, I agree with you. And certainly, if you've been around the football building the last well, since Sunday, actually, that message has been allowed and clear. It's also been allowed and clear practice every single day. They have absolutely put their nose to the grindstone. They have not let off the gas at all. And so again, who knows what happens when Boop meets ball tomorrow night, but there's no way that anybody in that program hasn't been told numerous times that you have not arrived. You've done nothing. You're one and oh with 11 more regular season games to come. So if you think you've arrived, and if you've been paying attention to social media and every all the talking heads of college football bragging about what you did on Saturday, you're probably not

1:22:34going to get a lot of playing time if you don't give 110 percent against everybody that you play. So I'm with you. I have a hard time believing that the focus is not on Louisiana Tech. And then they'll turn the page once that game is over early Sunday morning. Talking with the voice of the Tigers, you'll hear him calling the game on the LSU Sports Radio Network right here on WWL Saturday night as LSU, the eighth ranked Tigers take on unranked Louisiana Tech. You're welcome to join the conversation at 504-260-1870. If you've got a comment or question for Chris Blair 504-260-1870, call us or text us on the Oakwood Heart Joulers talk and text line. You've used the word loud and the phrase fast moving quite a bit to describe what happens in Tiger Stadium in this Lane Kiffin offense. I got to ask you though, and it became evident on television that there was some tension between Coach Kiffin and the Golden

1:23:34Band from Tiger Land during that first game. Because traditionally we know the band plays between offensive downs. But we've not had an offense trying to get the call in almost as the previous play is ending like we now have seen in this first game under Coach Kiffin. Was there any conversation, discussion, or have you heard anything about, I mean, they even showed them on TV literally hushing the band and telling them to stop playing. I think David, we all have to adjust a little bit. And again, that'll all be taken care of. And the truth of the matter is no, I'm pretty much stuck in Tiger Stadium all week long in our studios. So I have not heard anything. But we had to adjust. I mean, we talked Jacob Hester, a great number 18 for LSU, Gordy Rush, former Tiger. I mean, we go to practice. We watch the way at which they run their program. And as I said earlier, practice runs at the same speed that the game speed runs at. And so we kind of realized,

1:24:38guys, we're going to have to be very precise and quick with what we're trying to get in, because they are going to line up extremely fast. And again, I think everybody's got to get adjusted that for fans. It's hard to really celebrate a play that isn't in the end zone, because before you look up, you know, the next snap is coming. So I think all of us are going to have to adjust to the speed of that. We've all seen some tempo from previous teams here at LSU, but not quite the warp speed at which Coach Weiss and Coach Kippin wants to run this. And I'll also add, that to me was one of the most impressive things. Two things to me, I took away from Saturday's game. And one was the defensive speed. And it hasn't been there in quite a while. And it was just incredible to watch the number of gold helmets that were in the right position, took the right angles and just flat out looked way faster than anybody Clemson had on the field. Second part on the offense, speaking to the warp speed of how they move things. I was impressed with

1:25:41the way that LSU would run a play. Player would get tackled whether he got a big gain or a short gain and immediately ball his toss to the official and they are sprinting back to the line. And I've got a theory about it and I'm going to try to confirm it. A lot has been made of the basketball hoop and the fire extinguishers and all the things that go on on the sideline with Coach Kippin's team, including LSU. And I think it's kind of a deal he's made with the players. Look, when you're in between the lines, we're moving fast. We got no time to celebrate after you pick up a first down. If you get a 35 yard catch in the middle of the field, that's great. You need to hand the ball, get back to the line because we want to snap that ball in the next 10 to 12 seconds. And I was impressed at the discipline by the Tigers to do that over and over and over again. I know there was one unsportsman like that came after one of the scores, one of seven touchdowns on the night. But I think there's a deal that basically says, hey guys, we're going to run fast. No celebrations,

1:26:42no pointing for the first down, no putting your hand to the ear to hear the crowd. You get tackled, you sprint back to the line of scrimmage. Now, once this drive ends in the end zone, come on over to the sideline. Don't the basketball, fire up the fire extinguishers. Do all that you want to do, but you cannot do it inside the lines. And that to me was one of the impressive things about how fast this team moves. And frankly, we had to adjust in the broadcast booth and the fans are going to have to adjust being ready to watch the next play. And that includes the great golden band from Tigerland. So I'm sure there'll be adjustments and we'll see those tomorrow night. And if there are future traditions that have to get altered or changed, some fans may be upset. But as long as the team is winning, I think they'll be okay with slight changes in those traditions. You talked about between the lines versus outside the lines on the sidelines and what can happen there. But it's also obviously been a lot happening off the field. You can't take players the way you used to be able to and literally put them in a bubble and keep them from seeing and hearing

1:27:45the outside world. They all are going to have exposures through their smartphone, social media, and everything else. How are things in your estimation going in keeping the players focused on the game and not all the outside activities, all the news that is surrounding the program and everything else? It's interesting. I was talking to some people, some fans, long time fans about that very thing last week leading up to the Clemson game. And one of the interesting points that was brought up was let's give some credit to Nick Sabin and bear with me for a moment. So Coach Sabin comes here and eventually puts LSU on a path to upgrade their facilities. One of those being the football operations center. And that thing has grown. It has been renovated. And one of the reasons I think that it was very important for Coach Sabin and it has been for all the other coaches that, Dave, if you are inside that football building, that may be one of the more insulated buildings in the

1:28:47state of Louisiana. If you're in there and you want to be in there for getting the haircut at the barber station or playing video games in the teen lounge or practicing, recovering, whatever the case may be. You may be as far away from the rest of the outside world as any place I know of on LSU's campus. And I think that's by design. And you've heard Coach Sabin say at every stop along the way, you got to get rid of the rat poison, you got to block out the noise. And I think he was able to see that if you really want to be able to do that and keep your team focused, you have facilities like LSU has. Now of course every major program has facilities like that now. But I think you can't, as you pointed out, everybody's got a phone in their hand, everybody hears the talking heads, everybody's got social media. And that's great. But I think that the reason I didn't think it would be a huge distraction for the players is I think they just took the approach of it's LSU versus the world. And the only thing you can do, you can't fight on social media, that's a lost cause. The only way you can do it is go out on the field and show what you can do.

1:29:51And again, one week into this season, I would argue LSU did that better than any team in the country. And I would argue they've done it better than any team in the country against the opponent they played up to this point in the season, including week zero, week one, and even the midweek game last night in that lopsided win for Miami against a team that had no chance to play against Miami. So I just don't think that, I just don't think it's as big a deal for the players as maybe some people thought it would be. And obviously I could be wrong. But it certainly didn't show last week. And I don't think it'll show tomorrow. Now he really does seem like and feel like that all of the things that should be done need to be done had to be done were done. And that the players on this team do understand what their task and role is and how to execute the plan. And hey, yeah, I think you're right. We saw a lot of the mighty not looks so mighty. We saw a lot of those who we thought were going to be at the top of the hill look like maybe they'd slip down the

1:30:55hill a little bit on the flip side LSU. I think looked even better than most of us expected them to look this past Saturday night. Yeah, I would agree with you. And again, we talked about it just a few moments ago, you know, is there a distraction this week? Well, again, they were able to handle last week with flying colors. This week is Coach Kiffin said on Monday, you kind of flip it. I mean, starting Saturday night all through Sunday and just about every day this week, you've heard nothing but incredible praise put on the performance of LSU. Can anybody play with them? Can anybody beat them? Are they the best team in the country? So it kind of switched from the negative to all the positive, but for a player and for a coaching staff, it's the same thing. You've got to keep that out. The people who praise you today are the same people who are going to tear you down tomorrow. And so that's the challenge this week. It's a different challenge, but you still have that challenge. You got to go out and play the game. You got to win the game. Chris Blair, we look forward to hearing you Saturday night as the Tigers take on Louisiana Tech at Tiger Stadium. Looks like

1:31:58the weather is going to be. Well, I don't want to jinx it, but right now the forecast is most of the rain will be done by game times. So let's hope that's the case. We don't have any more lightning or torrential downpours. Always a pleasure. So glad that you join us on Fridays to help us get ready for Saturdays here on W. W. W. W. Dave always great to talk to you man, do it again real soon. All right. The voice of the Tigers, Chris Blair. You'll hear him Saturday night right here on W. W. W. Well, our coverage tomorrow starts at two o'clock with Ian O's and a herb Tyler from the Gulf Coast Bank and Trust Tiger tailgating show live from Acme Oyster House in Baton Rouge presented by map construction. Countdown to the big game at Acme's life's more fun with seafood plus they have 16 surround to you sound TVs and the best drink specials then catch LSU pregame at 430 kickoff with Chris Blair and Jacob Hester at 630 Tigers Bulldogs tomorrow starting at two o'clock on

1:33:00W. W. L. and live on the free Odyssey app from the voice of the Tigers to the voice of the Saints. Mike Hoss joins us after this. It is Rouse's markets football Friday shop and save it Rouse's the official supermarket of the Saints. Join now live by the voice of your New Orleans Saints. Mike Hoss. Hey Mike. Hello there, David. How are you, sir? Oh, I'm so glad it's finally here. The weekend is finally arrived and it's finally time for football that counts the Saints at the at Detroit. Oh man. It's it just it feels like it's been forever and we are so ready to see this, right? No, very much. I mean, even when the schedule came out, it wasn't, you know, oh my gosh, I've Detroit at Baltimore, but you know, you go through OTAs and you know, all the spring ball and seven on seven in a mini-camp or rookie mini-camp and a veteran mini-camp and training camp and

1:34:01join practice like let's play some football, right? You've watched it this week already on Wednesday and Thursday. So yeah, I think it's and Kelli Moore has said this from the beginning. It has been if you just look at a graph from starting at zero and going to 100. This has all been part of this upward trend. Get ready for this. Get ready for this with the ultimate goal being Sunday in Detroit. Getting your team, you know, who cares who's ready in May? I mean, I need the team ready in September. And it's a late start this year, even more so. So yeah, we are ready for some real football. Yeah, and and having a Wednesday night game and a Thursday night game to me just helped it just gave us more of that anticipation of seeing our black and gold play. And I think one thing we saw last night or early this morning, depending on which time zone you're speaking from, that we saw that preseason expectations and betting lines and everything else for the first

1:35:08game of the season often don't matter. And yes, the Saints are a touchdown or more underdogs heading to the Lions. But I think last night we clearly saw none of that matters. It matters who shows up, who brings their best game and who performs on the field. Exactly. I think the first game is the hardest to try to judge from a gambling standpoint. I kind of put a point spread on it. What are you based on? You're based on a really kind of on overall. How they do last year? Who do they have back? Because nobody played the preseason. So you really not based on that. I mean, there's both fourth place finishers. One was nine and eight. Well, six and 11. So, you know, who do they have? Who's healthy? Who's not? I totally agree. If you're going to play Detroit and Baltimore, maybe weeks one and weeks two, because then it's really more about which team. And we've already seen it in Seattle, New England,

1:36:08Rams, San Francisco. Which team makes the fear of some mistakes? Which team, you know, least penalty? So which team doesn't turn it over in the second half? And it's about mistakes in being more clean and football. And so those are things you control. And the Saints have to be able to do that on the road in Detroit against a very good football team. Forget about their nine and eight record. This is a good football team across the board. I think that's some question marks like the Saints. They're not sure about their offensive line. Right now, they had a lot of changes. They have both safeties out. And so, you know, there are question marks on both sides of the football, but at least you get to find out some answers. And you find them out and new it on Sunday. Yeah, a couple injuries you brought up for Detroit that are going to be impactful. How healthy are the Saints right now coming out of preseason and heading into this first game of the regular season?

1:37:09Well, we'll find out a little bit more today being tried. But really to me, you've got, I expect of the players that are on the injury list, only Alvin has a chance to play. He's been eliminated. My thought process has always been that he would be ready for week one. You know, I cams already out. Yesterday, I don't think we'll play. I don't think we'll play. So it's not a massive list, but you've got a lot of those guys haven't practiced all week. So I do not believe that they'll play on Sunday. cams already out. So I think it's about as good as you can expect, given with the situation that they were in, maybe a few weeks ago, not having Jordan Tyson. I assume they will call up one of the wide receivers from the practice squad and maybe like, Trayton Welch from the practice squad.

1:38:10So they've got another tight end assuming. Delft doesn't play and assuming that you don't have, you just have full wide receivers right now on your roster. So that would not surprise me at all to see a Kevin Austin or a cropper called up as a practice squad elevation and same with Trayton Welch. We'll find out that we will find out the Saturday. We'll find out the injury stuff little later today, but I don't expect major changes. The only thing that could happen to be a total positive would be that Alvin went full today as opposed to limited. But quite frankly, I don't know if that means a whole lot, whether he's full or limited today or not. I hope he's there Sunday because I think you need him with Kendra Miller and that Travis HN. I think you need Alvin on Sunday. You talked earlier about these first couple of games. It was the teams that made the fewest mistakes that ended up winning the games. We haven't seen this Saints team on the field.

1:39:14We as fans in the preseason never saw the starting offense or starting defense. So we don't know what has been your feeling from getting to see some training camp practices, from getting to see some joint practices. I'll be it limited. You don't get to see everything. But does this look like a team that will make fewer mistakes that will have fewer penalties, fewer turnovers than they did last year that has taken a step forward? I think so. I think on two areas. One, it's a whole second year with Cal and the whole off season. There's a lot of emphasis put on pre-snap penalties and post-play penalties. Those are things you control. Those are discipline. So yes, that I feel will be better and has to be better. To me, they look at takeaways and giveaways in kind of the same bucket, but they're massively

1:40:15important because the Saints were minus four. So they had four more turnovers, four more giveaways than takeaways, minus four. Detroit was plus four. Pretty close when you think about water to a game, they were plus four. So from a turnover margin standpoint, the Saints were tied for 15 at minus four. And just to go to plus four puts you tied for fourth in the NFL. That's the middle of the pack to top of the hill. That's a big difference. Right. And that's water to takeaways. And that's where we're really talking to Brandon Staley and talking to Grady Brown. They don't really look at interceptions and fumbles. They just look at takeaways. And the team at 20, they were even 10 interceptions, 10 fumbles. I think that's where I think yes, certainly fewer turnovers offensively is a big must and more takeaways

1:41:17defensively because you don't have to flip the script too much as I just showed you to make a difference. To go for minus four to plus four, you go it into the top five. And I think that's crucial for this team. I think they were okay in both respects from the turnover standpoint, but not good enough. You want to be a team that's in that upper echelon and winning divisions. You really almost can't even be plus four. You're going to be plus seven, eight, nine, make it a weapon. And I think it can be. So I think those two areas, mistakes, clean football, and takeaways, you know, turnovers. And these early games are going to spell the difference because both nobody, we know Detroit fans are going to be, oh, no, we got, they don't know anymore than to have their fans. They didn't play starters. So that's why these, they're almost like when you play, have these college games, not college games where it's, you know, a mammoth against the power four team, but real college games are just playing for the first time. This is it.

1:42:18This is their first opportunity. Now, joint practices are different, but joint practices are not different when you're really running to football. They're really not tackling. It's hard to say, and run and enjoy practice. Well, is that a four-yard game? Is that a 10-yard game? Did he get tackled at the line? It's running. The past game, you can kind of evaluate much harder to evaluate the run game in these joint practices. And to me, the run game is where you start and end with their Saints football team, offensively and defensively. Talking to Mike Austin Voice of the Saints on Rouse's Market Football Friday. So Mike, as we get ready for Sunday in Detroit, what do you feel on the best about for the black and gold? And what do you think are still the biggest question marks for the Saints? Well, I think the question marks are going to be at a veteran quarterback, Jared Gaul, who is in his 11, you know, 11 years, and he's not dumb. We're Calla Moore and he has the 11-year veteran. He's going to go, I'm going after the young

1:43:19quarterbacks. I'm going after Kool-Aid McKinsey, and I'm going after Quincy Rowling. And so I think that's going to be him. That's happening, right? He's going to test those quarterbacks. That is coming. How they respond will be key. I think the second aspect is Jumeer Gibbs and defense stopping the run early. Don't let them get big chunks. If they're in second and three, third and two, you don't get to use your power, which is Chase Young and Carl Granderson. On the left side, left tackle, you've got Pennay's soul, one of the best. He moved from right tackle to left tackle. So that's Pennay's soul against Chase Young. On the other side, they got a rookie and Blake Miller, who will go against Carl Granderson most likely. Now, you've got to be able to take advantage of that, but you can't take advantage of it if you're not in kind of obvious passing situations. So you've got to earn that on the first and second down in Jumeer Gibbs, running back, even though they don't have David Montgomery anymore. They like to run it, but their offensive line, they've got a left

1:44:23tackle who's moved from right tackle to left tackle. They've got a new center and juice scrugs. Even today, Dan Campbell says he wasn't 100% sure about what he was going to do at left guard. They have two Christian Mahogany and Ben Barch, and then at right guard, they've got a second year player. He's a second round draft. They're pretty still a young guy, and then at right tackle, he got a rookie. So you can look at this in a lot of different ways, but yeah, stop in that run and get in after Jared golf with Chase Young at Carl Granderson and the rest and being able to handle Jared golf going after your young DBs. You got a young a sanker back there, safety, you're a straw. What are you going to do with those young DBs? My costs can't wait to hear you and doose back in the booth for the first regular season game. Sunday, noon kickoff right here on WWL. We sure appreciate you're joining us on this Rouse's

1:45:24Market Football Friday. Shop and save at Rouse is the official supermarket of the Saints. Have a great call, Mike, and we appreciate it. Look forward to talking to you and hearing from you tonight here on WWL. You bet. You're right, doose, and I will be on a four o'clock fans in a row four to six. So we'll talk a lot more then. All right, looking forward to it. Thanks, Mike. Yep. Go Saints. Mike. Haas here on WWL. Sunday, the Saints opened the regular season on the road against the Detroit Tigers. Start your game day at 8 a.m. Join Steve Geller and Charlie Long for first take. It's time for the Hood ad nation to check in. Then at 10 o'clock, join Bobby A Bear for the Bud Light. Countdown to kick off at noon, Dooson Haas with the game call from Ford Field in Detroit, along with Jeff Noak on the sidelines. And after the game, the Cajun Cannon is back with the point after to take your calls and break down everything that happened. That's 10 hours of wall to wall black and gold coverage. Saints at Lions Sunday on WWL and live

1:46:25on the free Odyssey app. All right, we got some time to open up the lines for a brief lunch buffet. It's potlock. Bring whatever you want. Anything you want to talk about, call me now 504-260-1870. You want to talk Saints. You want to talk Tigers. You want to talk about the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks and whether or not we are safe in this country now. And is it we've done a good job of balancing protecting ourselves against attacks and protecting our right to freedom or not? Anything else you want to talk about? We got a few minutes for a brief buffet. Let's eat it up after this on WWL. We started the show by thinking about talking about and remembering 25 years ago today when terrorists attacked the United States of America, killing nearly 3,000 people in the blink of an eye. And it was, it really impacted and affected me more than I thought

1:47:25it would. We've had anniversaries every year since the attacks. The 10th was tough, but since then it hasn't been as emotional for me personally. But today it was. And today I vividly remembered the vulnerability that I felt as a U.S. citizen, that for the first time in my life and in the lives of anybody I've ever known, that we were attacked on our own soil, that we, for the first time, knew what it felt like for the enemy to bring the war to us. That had never happened in our lifetimes before. And thank God that other than isolated incidents of radicalized individuals, it's not happened since and definitely not on the scale. But that doesn't mean it can't happen

1:48:26again. And that doesn't mean that it won't. God, I hope that for me and my children and their children and their children and their children, that they never know what that felt like, that we are able to maintain a nation where we are so militarily prepared, where we are so cognizant of the dangers and ready to defend against future attempts that they'll never know what that feels like. But I fear that won't be the case, especially as we get further and further away from remembering how we felt on 9-11. 504-260-1870, the Oakland Art Jewellers talk in text line. We're opening it up for the last few minutes of the program here. One person texted and said, I'd like to see Coach Lane Kiffin take the field Saturday night in Tiger Stadium,

1:49:27wearing a black cape and wielding a red lightsaber with the golden band from Tiger Land, playing the Imperial March from Star Wars as Darth Kiffin enters the field. Well, I can guarantee you without any hesitation that won't happen. But at the same time, the fact that you thought all that through put that all in a text and sent it to me, I think is emblematic of the fact that Lane Kiffin is one of those people that if he's your guy, your coach, your leader, you'll love him and you'll love the results. But you got to acknowledge that everybody else is going to hate him. The same was true when he was in his last position. When he was at Ole Miss, and I fear that one day, if and when he moves on from LSU,

1:50:37that it'll be the same wherever he goes again. But you know what, he's ours. And if he can bring glory back to LSU football without compromising, the things that LSU football has been come to stand for, has been known to stand for, I think we're going to be all right. Robert, thanks for calling you're on WWL. Hey Robert. Oh yeah, I just heard Henry, I just want to correct some of you, but I didn't think I had that earlier. The first attack was in 1993. And you're right, they did try to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. Yeah, they set up a bomb in the parking garage. You're right. But that was not anything. That was not because, because they went back to get the money back for the rental or something like that. They got caught. It was an utter embarrassment to them. So that's why they went back and did not love it. Well, I think they did 9-11 because they hate Americans and everything America stands for, and they want us all dead. But no, I did acknowledge the previous attack, but I didn't feel anything

1:51:44from that attack like I did on 9-11. I mean, the USS Cole made me concerned. The bombings at US embassies in other countries concerned me and saddened me. But until they successfully killed 2,977 people on September 11th, 2001, I had never felt under attack as an American citizen in my homeland. I'll check in with Scoot after this. Just to follow up on that last thought, I'm not trying to minimize the first attack on the World Trade Center. But my point was on 9-11, I didn't know how many sleeper cells were about to come to life. And for the first time ever, I feared could my children be suddenly blown up by sleeper cells that just start blowing up schools. We worked in the building that is now the Benson Tower. It is adjacent to

1:52:45the Superdome. And I didn't know if a plane was going to come into our building, but I had to imagine it could. And by the way, we were in that building for the Super Bowl. They came right after 9-11, that everyone wondered is a plane or a bomb going to go off and blow up the Superdome. So my point was 9-11 made me feel like I'd never felt before, more vulnerable than ever. And for the first time ever, I feared for my own life and my families. Scoots in for the next three hours. That was a big change in all of our lives. We were attacked. We were attacked on our own soil. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about where we were in some of our early feelings. I'll also explain why I haven't spent my $5,000 yet. And then also we'll talk about the Saints opening the season and LSU taking on Louisiana Tech. Man, that was about to go take out a loan. No, no, don't spend it yet. Against those 12 grand. And then if those other dividends come through, well, that's 12 grand. 5,000, 2,000, 5,000, that's 12 grand. Scoot is up next. I hope you

1:53:46all have a great weekend and go Tigers. Go Saints. I'll see you Monday morning at 5 a.m. Have a great weekend.