To the Editor:
With all the tributes on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, everyone seems to forget that there was a first 9/11, on Feb. 26, 1993. On that day at 12:18 p.m., 1,500 pounds of explosives were detonated in an underground parking garage below 1 WTC. Six people were killed in the attack, and one was from Bayonne – my uncle, William Macko.
I am personally offended to find his name was omitted from the list titled “Bayonne residents who were victims of terrorists’ attacks.” At the time of his death, he was 57 years old and employed as the assistant chief mechanical supervisor for the World Trade Center. The morning of Feb. 26, 1993 at 6 a.m., he stopped by D&R Variety store to buy a bagel, coffee, a newspaper, and a lottery ticket. At lunchtime that day, he and three other co-workers decided to have take-out lunch in the mechanical engineering offices, unaware that a van full of explosives was parked right next to the office. At 12:18 p.m., the office and its occupants ceased to exist.
He was a person who greatly enjoyed fishing, cooking, and building things. He left behind his mother, wife, four children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, two brothers, and a group of nieces and nephews.
It is a shame he was forgotten in this article. In the words of my cousin, “The only thing that saddens us more than our father’s death is that nothing was learned from the entire ordeal. I wish a more serious look was taken so that it may have prevented 9/11 from ever occurring.”
Uncle Bill, we remember you.
DAWN M. MACKO-DEMONACO