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This thread is a little early I realize, but I wanted as many people as possible to reply before the anniversary of the attacks on the U.S.A. I would like this to be a thread where people can post where they were, their thoughts, and emotions on September 11 2001! No conspiracy theories or politics please. Just where you were and what you thought and felt.
I will post on this later as I am finding this a little more difficult than I expected.
Mark Avery
My wife and I lived in Barstow while stationed at Ft Irwin CA. We where pretty stunned and shaken the entire day. The next day we left 3 hours early to get to work... maybe 5 hours early would have been better... Even at 3am the line to get on post was HUGE, by the time I dropped her off and returned to Barstow the line was across the vally. It took some people 8 hours just to get on post, in 100+ degree temps. I was waiting all week to get the recall notice or phone calls. Guess I got to old for them...
I was driving home from working the overnight shift. Since the President was in town(Sarasota), I did a quick drive by of SRQ to catch a glimpse of Air Force One. The very first reports of a a plane hitting the WTC were coming over the radio just as I pulled in my driveway. Got inside, turned on the tube, and sat there watching for the next 14 hours.
I remember having my alarm sound, always set to a radio station, and hearing that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Half asleep, I assumed that it was a small private plane, like a small Cessna. Later, after I had gotten out of bed, showered and was getting dressed, I turned on the tv...just in time to see the second plane crash into the WTC.
RT
I was home, getting ready to head off to start my 3rd year of university. As I was chatting with a friend from overseas on the MSN, she told me what happened. At first I thought she was just pulling my leg. Went to cnn.com and saw the news but I thought they got hacked or something. Checked out cbc.ca and watched it on TV in total shock. Took me a few weeks for the worst of it to wear off.
At work, in the clinic. I was getting the temperature of a small child with a fever. my receptionist yelled to Every one "Come Look". when I got up to the front waiting room, My Doc told me what happened. I thought he was joking, then the second plane hit, and my heart fell.
Phil
I was doing home visits, one of my patients had the tv news on when I saw the first pictures.
I was on a training course (GSM mobile networks config) with about 10 english engineers and 5 or 6 arab engineers from Jordan. We all suddenly started getting phonecalls and SMS messages from people who'd heard the news, everyone was pretty shocked including the arab guys. :(
Sitting in my small office in Baumholder, Germany. Then the boss yelled at everyone to come into his office. He had the TV on and we all watched as the second plane hit. Suffice it to say we were all in shock, as we knew at that moment exactly what was going on. After that, everything ramped up and a lot of us stayed in the office for about 4 days straight with little to no sleep, working our asses off.
On my way in to work, the morning radio show on OKC's classic rock station 107.7 were talking about a plane had hit the WTC. At the time, initial reports were a small plane like a Cessna. We loaded up vans and proceeded with the work schedule for the day, mostly dismissing the incident. I ran my first service call at a company near 122nd & Penn. I can't remember the name but I can drive right to it. When I finished the radio folks were discussing how the 2nd tower had been hit. I went to my next service call, a webhosting company called Catalog.com. The guys had a TV in their conference room and we watched the coverage for a few minutes. When we had all of our service calls out of the way, we went to Home Depot and picked up an American flag. My operations manager at the time was a former Marine. We affixed the flag to the building. We were all saddened by the tragedy. Thankfully the initial estimated of loss of life were way off. In the end I found it to be like the OKC bombing, where the total saturation by the media just numbed me to the whole thing.
Was at work in the distribution area of my utility. Someone wheeled out the TV cart and was talking about a plane crash. While watching, we too witnessed the second plane crash. We later saw the plane that hit the pentagon (footage still exists, but I think it's not re-aired due to security reasons). It was hard to maintain normal business that day with the news on, but we did.
It took months to get those people jumping out of my mind. One person in particular had obviously spent a lot of time working out, made me think about how many people had spent the last few months dieting, working out, quitting smoking, or otherwise depriving themselves of things only to have this happen. Probably sounds silly, but it put some things in perspective for me.
On the drive home someone hung a flag from one of the bridges that crosses the freeway. I thought it was a neat symbol of unity as it meant more that day than any other day in my life.
-Fred
Where were you September 11th, 2001?
I was in my office on the 95th floor of 1 WTC, working on the expense report that I was supposed to have submitted the week before.
I was flying home from Boston on United Airlines flight 175 to visit my family. It had been a long time since I'd left Burbank and I was homesick.
I was setting up the conference room for meeting of my group at the Pentagon. The projector had been acting up and my boss wanted this meeting to go off without a hitch.
I was working as a flight attendant for United Airlines, on flight 93 from Newark to San Fransisco. I was tired and ready for a day off.
I was on my regular shift as a Paramedic/Firefighter for the NYFD. I'd tweaked my back during my last shift and I was hoping for a quiet day.
I was trying to figure out a problem with a network router for a financial services company on the 83rd floor of 2 WTC.
I was on my third sales call to a prospective client in Santa Barbara, they just needed one more visit to pull the trigger. Fortunately American had a seat available at the last minute. Had I'd flown flight 11 before? I think I'd flown every flight from Boston to LA, they're all pretty much the same.
I was all of these, and 2,967 others.
I was.
Copyright 2007, John M. Luker
Thank you to all that have posted so quickly! I am hoping that many more will also post.
I was in Scottsdale AZ. I had just flown back from San Diego where I had gone to pick up my mother so she could be helpfull to my wife when our first child was born! My wife was eight months pregnant. My mother came into our bedroom,woke me up and said you better come see this. It was like a dream. My mother told me later that she initially thought that she was watching a bad movie. I spent the day making sure all the young kids that worked at the bakery where I worked weren't too freaked, of course how do you comfort anybody after such an event?
It wasn't until five months later when I visited New York city and went to the WTC site that the enormity of what had actually happened hit me!
I was in our old office. As soon as we saw the footage in the morning, our boss gathered us immediately to talk. While nobody knew for sure, he was certain it's an attack, and was concerned about friends in the DoD. I thought he's wrong because I couldn't believe someone would do this attack... naive, isn't it
He let us all leave and take care of our families as we see fit, offering any help if we needed it.
This was very nice of him
Ivo
As a side note, I was assigned in Baumholder in 1983, 415th ASA Battalion, later 108th Military Intelligence Battalion (8th Infantry Division)...small world!Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmyman
Greg
I had just arrived at work in downtown Philly. I remember walking to work and marveling at the glorious September morning - bright, clear, crisp - but feeling something was wrong. When i got to work, the internet wasn't working (later we discovered that is was simply overloaded) and right then, someone said a plan has hit WTC. Like most others, I thought A Cessna.....then the news came thorugh that it was an airliner. We were told to evacuate our building (one of the tallest in Philly, so believed to be a possible target). We watch the events on the tv hanging outside the Crown Plaza hotel's valet desk (put there to pass the time while they go get your car, I guess)...that was where I saw Tower 1 collapse. We returned to the office to get our things and were told we could go back to our hotels or anyplace "not in the skyscraper." Several of us went to an Irish pub nearby and ate/drank while watching on the tvs they usually kept put away except for the Superbowl. Bouts of numbness, shock, weeping at the losses, concern for friends still in the military. To my firm's crdit, shortly after the attacks, they did a world-wide roll call - we had a large team at Morgan Stanley....but they were all off-site that day. Later, calls wne out to all employees, looking for volunteers to house co-workers stranded on the East Cost...very nice to see such organization. I also remember emailing a Sikh friend and asking if he and his family were ok...a valid concern,knowing how knowledgeable most Americans are about other cultures.......(later that week, a Sikh was murdered by a "patriot" who felt it was his duty to "kill a raghead."
Didn't a couple of yahoos in Georgia torch a Mexican restaurant in a fit of "911 revenge"? I seem to recall that happening, but cannot be sure.:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by WireBeard
On a roof near I-Drive, keeping a close eye out for low flying planes headed towards Disney !
AAA or sniper? LMFAOQuote:
Originally Posted by gratewhitehuntr
I had just finished showering in my first apartment together with my wife. We had just gotten married on July 7, 2001, and was waiting on the Bar results, so I was selling Cricket phones until I found out the results. I was sitting in my lime green cricket shirt, khaki slacks, and brown leather loafers. I turned on the TV in living room and saw that the first plane had hit the WTC. I sat and watched and called my wife in to see what had happened, when just then the second plane hit. When my wife saw the second plane hit she simply stated "This is war." How right she was, and still is. I had to pry myself away from the TV in order to go to work. Luckily I was selling the phones at a SAM's Club, and my station was right next to the TV's, so we tuned them to the news, and watched the developments all day long.
We should never forget what happened on that dark day, support the men and women defending us, and rise to the challenge of defending our constitution, nation, and freedoms against all who would impose their will through force, and terror.
Well as i am from NY, I was a senior in high school and in shop class. This i have to say was one of the longest days of my life. My uncles both worked construction in Manhattan one of them happened to be working in one of the lower levels of tower one when everything happened he got out fine but like many of us lost many friends.
I was at work when a colleague told me about what he heard on the radio.
At first I thought it was a joke, but when every newssite in the world collapsed under the traffic, I knew it was real.
It should not have happened.
With the first plane I didn't know if it was a freak accident or an act of terrorism.
With the 2nd plane I knew.
The US would have been a different place if those buildings hadn't collapsed.
:OT Unless you want this thread to degenerate into a political discussion, please keep it on-topic and I will do the same.Quote:
We should never forget what happened on that dark day, support the men and women defending us, and rise to the challenge of defending our constitution, nation, and freedoms against all who would impose their will through force, and terror.
Alright guys, no bickering please! Just where you were, what were your thoughts and feelings!
Thank you to those that have posted so far!
Knowing what to feel was a bit harder because of all the confusion and media outages. Even 2 days later, nobody really knew what had happened, what didn't happen, how many planes there were, were some shot down...?
I guess in the beginning I felt mostly confusion.
The biggest shock for me was the collapse of the towers.
I never expected that to happen. And apparently they wouldn't have, if not for the kerosene fire that weakened the structure.
I was in Economics class when we turned on the tv. When I went to my math class a little afterwards the teacher didn't think that it was important enough to turn on the tv so while we all had knowledge of what was going on, we couldn't watch the news and did math instead.
Working in our London office, the news spread pretty quickly. Many of us headed to the boardroom where there was a large TV. There was total silence as people tried to take in what was going on. I remember just sitting there, not believing what was being said and shown.
Some people in the office were crying quietly. We got onto the phones as quickly as possible to hear how our NY office staff were bearing up. Then loved ones of people working in the financial district of London ('The City') started calling on their phones worried that something similiar was about to happen here.
The general sense of doom was almost palpable. I have never visited ground zero, although I have had the opportunity. As a father and husband I'm not sure I could deal with it. I'm out there in November and I may finally face up to going with my family.
At home watching the morning news and actually saw the second plane hit live.......pretty devastating.
Lynn
In the workshop working away listening to the radio in the background, you know that feeling when you know you heard what you just heard but can't believe it. I listened to the events unfold that day, It all seemed surreal like a repeat of War of the Worlds. It took along time before I accepted that it was actually happening.
I guess confused at first but then mostly sad, very sad. The numbers of people that were reported dead that day it was hard to comprehend.
What do we do about those that aren't Dick Cheney?Quote:
Originally Posted by mhailey
I was at work. My girlfriend was at the NYSE as was one of her sisters, and her other sister was in 2 WTC when the planes hit. She got out in time. No cellphone communication or anything.
Needless to say, scariest day of my life.
2/3 of them got home looking like they were covered in flour, so much debris in the air.
I was in my final days of advanced training in the army, and soon to become up-close and personal with the struggle. When we heard the first plain had hit the towers I said the first thing that came to my mind “We are under attack, the next plain should be hitting soon.” The entire platoon gave me dirty looks until the word of the other plains reached us. But for the next few days we had other problems. The air force base my army unit was attached to had locked down, It was actually on a war footing at that time. And my platoon was trapped in a remote training sight with no supplies and now way back.
Mason
I was in bed, as usual that early in the morning Pacific Standard Time. As ususal, my alarm clock woke me with the CBC, but this time not the usual banter and weather and what-not, but talk of hostages and hijackings ... I thought that was pretty extreme for the radio to be taken over with that news, and then a comment about one of the WTC towers collapsing, and that was a real "holy $h!t!" moment. I listened much more intently, got up and watched the tv for a while before going to work.
About a week later, when they lifted the continent-wide flight ban, I was standing outside Church and looked up in the sky and happened to see an aircraft up there, and felt a real relief as I felt that the worst was starting to pass.
4 Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan very recently, as part of the international force trying to reconstruct that country after the Former Evil Regime was expunged. Many more have died there, and many more will die there in the future, but 9/11 is still with us.
ScottS, please! Snide remarks are unnecessary.If you wish, you can start your own thread on "The evils of Dick Cheney", but here I would prefer that you stick to Where you were and what you thought and felt!Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottS
Thank you,
Mark Avery
I was in High School in Dallas, Texas. Initially, there was a lot of confusion; I thought it was minor, like a small aircraft accident. It took until around the third class for the teacher – it was a social studies class, after all – to explain in patient detail what had happened. It was very surreal. I remember an announcement being made over the PA system at some point, giving the bare facts and instructing teachers not to have TVs on. This attempt to isolate us or protect us or preserve order or whatever the hell the school admins were trying to do annoyed me immensely, and it seems many teachers shared that sentiment as they disregarded the order. Gym was particularly surreal that day. We went outside, and the school was located close enough to DFW airport that you rarely went 3 or 4 minutes without hearing a plain go by… dead silent.
-Michael
I really appreciate the posts so far guys! I realize that for many of us this is an extremely emotional issue. I also know, and understand, the wish to forget 9/11 ever took place!
For those who are still willing, please post as I do not wish to see this thread dry up before the anniversary, but believe me when I say that I would understand if not another person posts. It took me a day or two to gather up the fortitude to start this thread and another day or two just to post where I was on that fateful day!
Thanks once again to all who posted thus far!
I choose to remember these days because they are days when people came together dispite all the petty differences we all have.
I was working on one of the main servers at a customer's data center when the CEO of that company came in telling me what happened. I just thought he was joking and I actually didn't believe him. I told: "Yes, sure... which movie where you looking at, Roger?" (He's quite a funny pal, one of that guys that's always making some kind of joke). So he took me to his office, turned on a radio and I heard the direct of the second impact... I literally felt on a chair, unable to talk or to move anymore. I'd been unable to leave for at least an hour, and unable to sleep for a few days...
I was in High School and was in one of my computer classes. My teacher said a plane had crashed into the WTC. We watched the news and checked the internet for the rest of class. I was confused for the next couple of hours with teachers unable to decide whether to turn on the tv or try to teach class. I went through the rest of the day sort of like a zombie. Went home after class and just sat.
I was driving into the city. There were about 10 of us commuting in a van. Ambulances and fire trucks were flying by us but we had no idea what was going on.
When we tried to get where we were going in Time Square there were police barricades everywhere. We asked what was going on and a police officer told us (incorrectly) that they had bombed the WTC, the Whitehouse and the Pentagon. We laughed at him because it sounded so far fetched. He told us to turn on our radio and we heard it for ourselves. We also started seeing the smoke rise into the air.
NYC was on lock down. I was there for a week without being able to leave. All phone communication was cut as well so I had no means of contacting my family to let them know I was OK.
I worked at Ground zero for a few days. The aftermath was unbelievable and surreal. I was supplying the workers, firefighters, volunteers with food, water, clothing, whatever they needed. I also ended up fitting people for gas masks and putting them on. It is a very strange feeling as a civilian fitting FBI agents and CIA agents with gas masks.
I'm never going to forget that day or the months that followed it.
I don't think I have ever seen people so united though in the weeks that followed it.
I was home from work with the flu. My Mother-in-law called and told me to turn the TV on. I tuned in just in time to see the second plane hit the WTC. I sat numb for hours watching the news. I can still remember waiting for days to hear which country we turned into a smoking glowing hole for committing this atrocity.