Ultra Violet in red, white and Blue, 1968	Ultra Violet’s 9/11 Memorial, 2011
Charles Schumer	Al Franken
Raymond Kelly	Paula Zahn
Richard Dreyfuss	Michael Douglas
Kathleen Turner	Jerry Stiller

Remember the Alamo
Remember Pearl Harbor
Remember 9/11

Story and Photos by Tim Boxer
© All rights reserved by Tim Boxer

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HIS generation can claim its own Day of Infamy. It’s been seared in our collective consciousness ever since September 11, 2001, when Islamist terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, predominant symbol of the endurance of American life in the 21^st century.

Nina Boxer was on an express bus that was taking her from Queens to Lower Manhattan where she worked in IT check systems at JPMorgan Chase.

The bus moved slowly with rush hour traffic through the darkness of the Midtown Tunnel.

As soon as it emerged into daylight on the East Side of Manhattan, everyone gasped. They gazed at the plume of smoke in the distance, shocked at a strange fire spewing out of the Twin Towers.

The bus driver continued on his route south on the FDR Drive. He stopped short of Wall Street when the dispatcher barked urgent orders to turn around. He raced the bus over the Williamsburg Bridge, across Brooklyn and into Queens. Just in time. All bridges and tunnels then closed down, barring all traffic out of the city.

That whole day we sat glued to the television, stunned, watching with amazing incredulity along with others around the nation, indeed around the globe, as a new Day of Infamy played out in downtown New York. Our eyes followed the horror of the Twin Towers descent in slow motion into the abyss of Ground Zero.

In 1968 I photographed Ultra Violet, the glamorous Andy Warhol superstar. She took advantage of a gorgeous summer day to wrap her elegant bod in red, white and blue in the virginal woods of Amagansett, in the far end of Long Island.

This summer, 40 years later, I drove out to Long Island to photograph her again. She occupied a prominent spot at the fourth annual ArtHamptons, an international fine art fair in Bridgehampton.

The artist in her had vowed never to forget this Day of Infamy inflicted on the nation. Ultra Violet was exhibiting her superb "IX XI" aluminum artwork that starkly memorializes that horrific day. She’s represented by Kiwi Arts Group of Miami where her splendid sculpture is on display.

In recent years as I covered the celebrity/social world I carried a small flag in my camera bag. Many of the personalities I photographed at charity benefits, showbiz parties and gala events posed with pride as they held this iconic symbol of the American way of life in the spirit of Never Forget.