This year was the first year I had the courage to watch MSNBC’s replay of the live NBC coverage from the morning of September 11, 2001.

I had thought about doing it last year, but nah, I just wasn’t ready.

This year, for some reason, I was.

This morning MSNBC replayed the first two hours plus of the “Today Show” that aired that day.

I couldn’t help but feel the irony when thinking about Matt Lauer and his coverage — juxtaposed against that totally inane interview I saw him do Friday with the Hooters waitress.

But trust, me, that was a very small fleeting thought in the big scheme of things. Actually in listening to the coverage this morning again — it seemed Matt was the one most concerned with the welfare of those in the buildings and the most affected when they went down. Katie Couric was trying her best to be the “stoic anchor.” Then Tom Brokaw, then- Nightly News anchor arrived — and clearly he felt it necessary to began pontificating on the “big picture” impact of the events.

But I digress.

Watching the footage this morning I kept thinking for some reason of American Airline’s flight attendant Betty Ong. Ong was working American’s flight 11,  scheduled to fly Boston-LAX.

It was Ong’s voice, recorded on AMR’s SOC tapes, and played for the 9/11 Commission, that resonated in my mind this morning. It was Ong who identified the hijackers on that flight to operations by seat. It was Ong who stayed as long as she could on the line.

Then I thought of a former cohort and columnist at TheStreet.com, Bill Mehan. One of the nicest people you’d want to work with — and always happy to answer a question when I had one. (As opposed to some diva columnists who would not have done the same). Bill worked for Cantor Fitzgerald — located on the top floors of One World Trade Center.

And, hand in hand with Bill, I thought of my former editor at TSC at the time, Charlotte-Anne Lucas. CA is a great journalist –and was always a wonderful mentor to me. Even though Charlotte-Anne worked for TSC, she worked from her home office in San Antonio.

I’ve saved Charlotte-Anne’s take from that morning, as was published in TSC:

At 8:26 a.m. I sent an Instant Message to our market columnist, Bill Meehan, asking if he’d be sending me his column at midday. His reply was a simple, “yup.” A few minutes later, television started carrying live images of the inferno coming out of the top of one of the World Trade Center towers. Then another columnist for the site pinged me with a frantic question: Isn’t that the building Meehan is in?”

I looked at the television again, then pulled up Meehan’s Instant Message window to ping him and see if he was OK. But I was too late. The IM window said it all: Wmeehan100 signed off at 8:49:35 AM.

There I was in my office in San Antonio, Texas, watching television images of a tower burning half a country away. And yet the message on my computer screen made it personal. Horrifying. And close enough to touch.”

As I have since those horrible events, I will pay tribute to the airline employees who lost their lives that day in this week’s PlaneBusiness Banter.

Lots more memories — but I’m sure you have them too.  Frankly, unless something important occurs today, this is probably the only note I’ll post today.

Take care everyone.