Where exactly were you 14 years ago when you learned of the events of 9-11 ?

[steve2470]

Note to juries: It is 9-11-2015, so this is a timely topic.

I was in a Florida state prison (working, mind you) talking to my male prisoner clients, when one of the inmates came up to the group and said "A plane just struck the World Trade Center". I said to him, reflexively, "You're kidding, right ?". He looked at me very seriously and said, "Mr. X, now why would I joke about something like that ?". I forget what was said next, but then several minutes later I went to watch a TV inside the inmate dormitory. The second plane had struck the second tower and the picture was shaking on the news.

A bad day for me and for America as a whole.

[neverforget]

1. I was eating breakfast before work watching CNN Headline News. The camera was on the first tower

when the second tower was hit. I yelled "holy shit!" and woke up my wife. I went to work but came home early as I was accomplishing nothing.

[Binkie The Clown]

182. Eating breakfast. My daughter called me up and told me to turn on the TV. n/t

[Hydra]

2. I was off from work, and watching tv

I had a front row seat to all of it except the first plane hitting.

By the end of the day, I knew we were going to war in the Middle East, and GWB would be leading the charge.

That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when SCOTUS handed him the presidency? 10x worse at that point. Even my worst fears didn't stack up to where we are now because of all of that.

[lunatica]

147. I was quite worried and anxious that they would take us to war

The next day I voiced my concerns that Bush would take us to war only to have one of my workmates tell me that if I hated America so much maybe I should go live somewhere else. I was shocked at what she said.

Years later, into Bush's second 'term' she was lamenting the war and was telling someone, "No one could have foreseen the war being bad!"

I talked over her and said "What do you mean, no one?!"

"Well no one but you."

She had the decency to look chagrined.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

3. I woke up after the first tower was struck and before the second. I sleep with the TV on and

at first, in the fog of waking up, I saw it on the TV and wondered what movie it was. Then I realized it really was CNN and it was really happening.

I also remember some things that were said and that happened that day that seem to be suppressed lo these many years later. Oh, there are those of us who talk about those things but we're dismissed as crackpots for asking even a single question about the events of that day. I know what I saw and heard that day and I will never forget.

[thecrow]

9. I know exactly what you are talking about, CTD

[LiberalElite]

65. ...

one of my first reactions was "inside job" but I learned to, as Archie Bunker would say, "stifle it". I kept this to myself till right now. And it's going back to being stifled.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

81. I still go with incompetence or indifference.

We had incompetents in charge of the country, and they were too dumb to know that their indifference to intelligence received was going to be lethal. 9/11 shouldn't have allowed Bush back into the WH in 2004, it should have been the reason he should never have gotten out of the starting gate on his second try.

[daleanime]

107. +1

[hifiguy]

148. Yep. LIHOP.

[Chitown Kev]

4. At work

I didn't hear the news about the first plane until I got to work. I was listening to the news updates on the radio when the second plane hit. I then looked out of the window behind me in my back cubicle as it had a view of the Hancock building; minutes later, the news reported that a threat had been called in to the Sears Tower.

Besides the traffic jam on Lake Shore Drive that day, I remember that it was one of the most beautiful day weather-wise that I can remember.

[irisblue]

5. Just walked into work

I was supposed to leave early to go to a memorial service that afternoon. I did not realize it would for so many.

[LWolf]

6. I was at home.

I'd been home for 2 days after a stint in ICU and recovery after an accident. My son called me to tell me to turn the tv on. I watched for 10 minutes and turned it off.

I grieved for the victims and their families. I was never fearful. I watched, horrified, while the incident was used to legitimize the Bush presidency and achieve things he never would have without a national crisis.

I grew angrier by the day. My anger grew to the point that I was sick of hearing people talk about it, knowing that their grief, anger, and fear were being used to take us to war.

I have not yet forgiven the Democrats who voted for or supported the Patriot Act and the IWR. I may never do so.

To be honest, I don't think about 9/11 until somebody forces me to. I get agitated and angry when I think of the way people treat 9/11 as a bigger tragedy than those that kill so many more in our nation every single year; tragedies that go unnoticed or remembered.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

7. I was on crutches

My usual morning routine of watching the news when I dressed for work was broken by dealing with crutches. My husband drove me to work because of the cast, so my routine of listening to the radio while driving was broken, as husband and I chatted instead. I got all the way to work without hearing a thing. I was in California so the towers had already fallen. As I walked in, our h.r. Director was coming in, and she said something about the towers being gone. I had no idea what she was talking about. As I walked in, I noticed people huddled around blaring tv's so I joined them and learned of the horror. My boss, who was the general counsel of the company said to me later in the day that she was very glad it had happened so early in the morning cause so many people hadn't gotten to work yet. I looked at her and said, "yeah, the you's weren't there yet, but the me's were". She looked at me startled, then said, "you are right".

[thecrow]

8. I was home alone. Had CNN on,

waiting for an interview to be on, when they cut in with the news. Called my guy at work... was watching the first tower when the second plane hit. Then the Pentagon, which was inexplicable to me, as I would have thought they had ways of defending that. It was scary, because we live near DC. Then the phones went down...no cell service for hours. He came home early and we watched tv in horror.

[ChazII]

12. Being on the west coast

I was at home and woke to the news that a jet had hit one of the towers.

[Quackers]

10. I was with my son in ICU

He died in my arms the following month. October 21st. He was 4 1/2 months old. I was swallowed up by grief to pay attention to 9/11.

[steve2470]

13. ......

[Quackers]

14. Thank you

[irisblue]

15. ...

[Quackers]

16. Thank you, Iris

[Chitown Kev]

25. .

[Quackers]

161. ...

[renate]

42. I am so sorry

That is heartbreaking. I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Quackers]

162. Thank you

even after all this time, I still take PTSD meds. It never gets any better.

[Bettie]

94. So sorry for your loss

losing a baby is something no one should ever have to experience.

[Quackers]

164. Thank you

I'm in my 30's now and I can honestly say, it changed me forever.

[Bettie]

172. It does change you so much

I'm not at all the kind of mom I thought I'd be.

And, even after nearly 17 years, not a day goes by when I don't think of my one girl.

[LongTomH]

108. ........

From me, too!

[Quackers]

165. ....

thank you.

[yardwork]

128. I'm so sorry.

[Quackers]

166. ....

Thank you

[magical thyme]

144. ...

[Quackers]

167. ...

back at you. Thank you

[lunatica]

151. Losing a child is terrible

I lost my son last year.

[Quackers]

168. I'm sorry for your loss

I wish I could say it gets better, for some it does. For me, my marriage ended, I joined the Army, went to war, now I'm disabled and stuck on a ton of meds. I relive it every night in my dreams. The Dr has me on PTSD meds and meds for nightmares, plus a ton more. I hope you find peace where I could not.

[lunatica]

174. In a strange way and perhaps it makes no sense

Last edited Sat Sep 12, 2015, 12:52 PM - Edit history (1)

I've found that I can make it because I feel profoundly lucky to have had my son (and my brother many years ago) in my life. They are worth all the pain in the world because when I ask myself if I would prefer to not have had them in my life in order to spare me the pain, my answer is "hell no". Grief has become part of the honoring of them and the gratitude that they were and are the loves of my life.

I hope this makes sense. And it's very obvious that you loved your baby with all your heart and being. And you still do.

[Sissyk]

163. I am so sorry, Quackers.

[Quackers]

169. Thank you

[cwydro]

10. Getting ready for work while watching the Today show.

When the second plane hit, starting calling everyone I knew.

[GreatGazoo]

85. I was in Manhattan, watching The Today Show and waiting for my father who was flying in

My father was re-routed to Pittsburg and I didn't hear from him until around 1PM.

After the 2nd tower was hit I went out to stock up on food. Even though we were about 5 miles up the island, I felt the ground shake when the 2nd tower collapsed and heard what seemed like 100 voices all saying "oh shit" at the same time.

[cwydro]

98. Yikes. I was in the car driving to work by the time the first one went down.

They cancelled our work day, but we all watched the other fall first.

Then I went home and watched TV with my mom all day.

I remember she just kept saying, "Where is the president?"

[treestar]

102. I was wondering about that

all planes ordered to land, and no flights the next three days - many people got stuck in a strange city they had not expected to be in for a few days.

[GreatGazoo]

110. they didn't tell my father's plane why they were rerouted

but after they landed the plane sat on the tarmac for an hour and passengers got on their cell phones and found out what happened. My father quickly connected with 3 other travelers who all shared a rental car from Pittsburgh back to Indianapolis.

[Kelvin Mace]

17. In the my office of my small publishing company

And noticed discussion about something happening in NYC on a forum I was posting to. I began checking news feeds and they were lighting up with reports of a plane crash at the WTC. I turned on my radio to a local talk station, but they were business as usual, so I called them and asked what was coming across the wire services. The guy on the phone said nothing but some plane crash in NYC. I asked when they were going to break away and cover the story and the guy told me they weren't, plane crashes happen all the time.

I told him that reports coming in on the net indicated something big was up, and the WTC was on fire. He told me i shouldn't believe what I read on the net as it was highly unreliable and if there was a story they would be the first to know.

He then hung up.

About 15 minutes later, they went to breaking news.

[madamesilverspurs]

18. Just getting up.

Per my routine, went to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee and took a hot sip, sat down on the living room couch and clicked on the television for the morning news, pictures of the first tower on fire, the second plane hit. I sat there unmoving for so long that my second sip of coffee was cold. It still brings tears.

[MiniMe]

19. At work in downtown DC

And shortly after we heard about the towers, we were watching smoke from the Pentagon. Of course, we didn't know where it was coming from at first. It was a scary time.

[Samantha]

32. I was working in DC also

Everyone was barred from entering the City and the metro was shutdown so many people had no way home. As you said, cell phone service was cut because the government wanted the VIPs to be able to communicate so they shut the rest of us off.

I went downstairs and walked out the front door to get some fresh air. A vendor was located there at the front of the building. He had a television on and was looking at the screen smiling. This man was not native to this Country, I am pretty sure, because he spoke very broken English and wore an outfit not often seen here in the United States.

Wondering why the man was smiling, I asked him if he knew what was going on. He pointed to the set and said the White House is on fire. I looked at the screen and knew right away that was not the White House burning. Soon a commentator announced the Pentagon was on fire as a result of a plane crashing into it. It seemed all so surreal, like a nightmare experienced not when one is asleep but preliminarily starts when one is awake (if that makes sense).

Later that day I learned the plane that crashed into the Pentagon flew very close by the apartment home of a coworker friend. Had she been home, she would have seen it.

Amazingly enough, the first thing I thought of when I found out George W. Bush* was in Florida was that he knew this was going to happen and that is why he left town. I angrily repeated this thought to a Republican I knew who defended Bush* from my accusation. I said he surely do know this was going to happen and he covered his own flank by leaving town without as much as a "heads up" to the rest of us. He went to Florida because he knew his brother Jeb could protect him.

I heard later that Florida had been declared under a state of emergency, but the odd thing was people in Florida never were told this ....

Sam

[MiniMe]

35. I never heard that the White House had been hit, we heard the State Department had been hit

And nothing about the Pentagon. They shut down our building and told everybody to go home. I don't know who made the brilliant decision to shut down the Metro, I got a ride home from a coworker. It took us 4 hours to get home, most of it spent sitting in traffic in Georgetown. That was one crazy day.

[Mike Daniels]

90. I worked in the DC area at that time. One of the rumors was that the Mall was on fire

Metro must have reopened at some point because I rode the Orange and Red lines in from my place of employment in Falls Church to my home in DC sometime after noon.

[XemaSab]

20. I woke up from a dream I had about a friend who lived in Arlington VA

She lived about a mile from the Pentagon.

I logged onto AIM to tell her I dreamed about her and she told me that planes had hit the Pentagon and WTC.

I got an old B&W TV out of the closet and my roommates sat around and watched the towers collapse live.

[smirkymonkey]

21. I had just gotten in to work in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.

A co-worker told us that a plane had hit the twin towers and we all ran down to 7th Avenue South - right near St. Vincent's Hospital to watch everything go down. There were huge crowds on the streets w/ their cell phones and people were just in shock.

The strangest thing was walking back home afterward (uptown) since there was no transportation. It was like this death march where nobody was talking to each other. Everyone was just shell shocked, walking home. A lot of the people who were in lower Manhattan were shoeless and covered head to toe in soot - they just had this blank look in their eyes that I will never forget.

It was a very strange, eerie day.

[MFM008]

22. ___________________[] [] ____________________

friends and family began to call me, i was asleep 7 something am PST.
My family was trying to figuere out how to spend the day memoralizing my dad who had passed away the year before.
Spent hours on the phone, then went to the family house where we all showed up
to watch TV and spend the second 9-11 in a row in shock.

Rest in Peace dad xxxxoooo

[steve2470]

23. ........

[irisblue]

24. I'm sorry about your father

[LongTomH]

109. ........

[Agnosticsherbet]

26. Working, and my wife called me.

The company where I worked spent the rest of the day glued to the TV.

[PatrickforO]

27. My wife had just left me, and she had the kids that week.

My job wasn't going that great, and I had called in sick that morning. I went on the internet when I got up only to see a big banner "America Under Attack!"

I've never felt so alone in my life. No one to talk to, just that big house.

[pnwmom]

47. I was alone with a stunned 8 year old. That might have been even worse.

I had just walked into the room where the TV had been left on.

I didn't know what we were seeing.

My son was asking me to explain the unexplainable.




P.S. I'm sorry you had to go through two traumas that week.

[MADem]

28. Very near the Pentagon. nt

[steve2470]

29. wow, that must have been an exceptionally crazy day for you then! nt

[MADem]

30. It was pretty awful. I'll never forget it as long as I live. nt

[nitpicker]

66. +100

And the LONG trek back, refugees from all over trying to find where police had pushed Metrobus service back to.

And the aftermath.

[Recursion]

73. Oh, hey. I was in the Navy Annex that day.

Not a good day. And I lived just down route 1; my apartment smelled like burning concrete for months.

[pinstikfartherin]

31. This thread makes me feel so young...

I was in 8th grade math class when it happened, and I don't remember anything out of the ordinary in that class; I don't even think our teacher knew until after class was over, or if she did, she didn't say anything. I didn't hear about it until after that first class. When I walked into English for 2nd period, it was on TV. We were told to get out our books and study. We all sat, books open, all eyes locked on the television. I remember the halls were quiet, yet loud. There was talk, yes, but more like loud whispers drowned out by uncertainty, fear, and shock.

I remember going home that afternoon and watching TV all night until I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I can still picture the sight of my little TV with the images on screen. I can still feel the numbness I felt that day, the shock.

[steve2470]

33. 9-11 changed the country, in not very good ways

We are less free than we were pre-911. That's my impression, anyways. Hopefully your generation can vote and do other things to change the country over time.

[pinstikfartherin]

38. I sure hope we can.

For me, at least, 9/11 got me interested in the bigger world. In the news. In world events. In politics, leading me to find DU for the 2004 election when I was 16. It changed the way I saw the world completely and made me pay attention.

We are less free, and we are no more empathetic to our fellow citizen. It's funny how large, devastating events bring the country together, yet we can't come together to make things better for everyone because we're too busy worrying about ourselves. Until something bad happens. If we could, as a whole, harness that same spirit of oneness toward our problems rather than facing them with a you versus me attitude, we'd be so much better off. America can never be great with the attitude we have now, and it's hard to have hope it will ever change.

We need to look back on those heroes in the midst of 9/11, those who sacrificed their health and their lives in the rubble of the towers and the war that followed, and see the true American spirit, as I see it at least....a spirit of fighting and sacrificing for something bigger than yourself.

[ohheckyeah]

34. I was at my desk at work.

Something I didn't consider until my parents came to my job was what it did to those who lived through the attack at Pearl harbor. It makes me cry seeing their faces again in my mind. I can't even imagine what it did to those who lost loved ones that day.

[NuttyFluffers]

36. going to sleep after a party, somewhere around 6 or 7 am PST.

friends and i back in the late 90s would talk about how we could tell if we suffered a coup d'etat. a lot of it was presidency was selected and you'd see a near perfect breakdown of contingency agencies for a primetime terrorist event, something on the scale of a plane striking a NYC skyscraper. so when bush ran, i predicted he'd "win" because the fix was in, and many of us were just waiting for the second display to convenienty push what they want.

so the day of, everyone watched and was freaking out and telling me. i was sleepy after a night dancing and thought "oh, i guess the open display of naked power starts now." said to everyone who was freaking out and sharing with me, "not surprised. gee, that's too bad. i'm going to sleep now."

then i woke up around 10 pm. everyone's been watching tv for hours, no one except medical went to work. i sat and watched a few minutes, but then went to do something else. my nightmares were more prescient and informative than what i was watching on full channel repeat, so i stopped bothering with the tv.

there was no real shock involved for me. i was sad, yes, but it is the sadness you feel for any tragedy. so i spent my time observing others go through grief — a lot was wrapped in patriotism as a talisman taken to fascinatingly unhealthy levels. it foreshadowed what nightmares i already dreamt will come.

[Blue_In_AK]

37. In bed asleep.

It was 5:00 a.m. here. We got a call.

[SwissTony]

39. At work, in Rotterdam. Mid afternoon, Dutch time.

I had two scheduled meetings. The second guy came into my office just as I was wrapping up the first meeting. He told us a plane had flown into the WTC in New York. All of us thought it was a small plane and the plane malfunctioned or the pilot made an error. After the second meeting, I checked on the web and saw a picture of the explosion and knew immediately that this was much more than we had thought.

[IcyPeas]

40. I worked nights at the time... in L.A.

so I was home sleeping and got woken up by a phone call from work saying not to come in today because of the building collapse. I thought it was some building collapse in downtown L.A. or something, but I hurriedly got up and put the tv on........

I still can't believe it. I grew up in N.Y. Went up to the observation deck half a dozen times with visitors. I went to highschool just over the Whitestone Bridge and you could see the skyline of the towers going up back in '71 from the bridge....

[jberryhill]

41. The weather that morning was stunning

Late for work, driving up I-95 to Philly listening to NPR, wondering how on earth a pilot would hit a tall building in New York on such a crystal clear morning.

[akbacchus_BC]

43. I was about to leave for work and never look at TV, but that morning

I turned the TV on and it looked so unreal to me, I thought it was some kind of reality TV show. Did not have a cell phone then and only when I got to work an hour later, I learnt about the twin towers and the other attacks. That was a really horrible day for all of us.

[Diclotican]

44. steve2470

steve2470


I was looking at BBC World - at first it was "going to the movies" about current movies - and a video clip from Collateral was seen on the TV screen - before it was interrupted by the news part - where the first news about the first attack on wtc was known - not much was told, outside that one of the buildings was hit - and that they would came back with more as they got it...

And then I got a phone from a nabor, who asked if I could get over, for some coffee - I did - and after a while, the news in Norway also catched upon it - and we saw it all, when the second aircraft hit the tower - and we all sat there, with a loss of words really...

Diclotican

[pnwmom]

45. I'm in the Pacific time zone, so I was home in the basement,

getting some clean laundry.

My husband had gone to work already and he had left the TV on.
I thought the images were from some kind of movie -- like War of the Worlds or something.

The TV was showing a plane hitting a tower and my 8 year old walked into the room and asked what we were seeing.

I didn't know.

[yuiyoshida]

46. Do I have to say???

I was 14 years old.. watching cartoons when my mother, who was listening to KGO radio came in and changed the channel. Both Buildings were on fire, when they showed the replay of the second plane hitting one of the towers. It was kind of traumatic after that.. I probably stayed home from school that day...or went out to play kick ball with Suzie Tran, the girl my age next door. We didn't talk about it.. we tried to find happier things like her new doll her mom got her for her birthday.

[steve2470]

48. sorry your adolescence got marred by that horrible event!

[yuiyoshida]

50. I was too young to undestand it..

and Suzie had gotten this new doll for her birthday, and she showed me it.. it was a great way to get my mind off of people in an airplane being killed as it plunged into the building. I probably didn't want to think about it.. when there were happier things to think about. My mother was horrified, and being on the Pacific coast, my dad was sleeping in.

[CJCRANE]

49. I was alone in a small office with no phone or internet connection

writing a report.

When I'd finished, I left the room and switched on my cell phone and got a text message from a friend saying: "Plane hit WTC, WWIII has begun".

I went back to the main office and everyone was hammering the CNN website trying to get the latest news.

After an hour or two most people started working again but I couldn't concentrate and was in a daze.

That evening, I watched all of the various news bulletins and channels for hours on end trying to get a handle on what it was all about.

[peacebird]

51. Driving across the woodrow wilson bridge in DC to work

Heard about first plane in my car. Walked into work and saw second plane hit on the television. Then someone yelled, that planes too low... We ran up a flight of stairs to the roof just in time to hear impact and see the plume of smoke from pentagon (bldg itself was obscudred from our view)

[merrily]

52. Waiting for my ride to the --wait for it--airport for my flight to--wait for it--Boston.

[KentuckyWoman]

53. I was already sitting at Hartsfield waiting on a delayed flight back to Lexington KY.

They didn't let any of us leave the concourse we were on until the next morning and had to go through a security check to get out. Couldn't rent a car at any price so my brother in law drove me home along with a couple on the same flight that had their car at the Lexington airport. Hell of an end to a Disney vacation in Orlando for them.

After he got back to Atlanta my brother in law found out my sister (his wife) took in a family of 4 that needed to get to Florida to her sick dad. He took a cat nap and then drove them all to Florida.

There was a lot of that kind of thing going on all over.

[merrily]

56. Boston was different. The terrorists had flown from there. The airport did not re-open for days.

[jwirr]

138. Better than flying out of Boston that day.

[merrily]

141. True enough

[CincyDem]

54. Sitting at my desk working.

Corporate office. Working at my desk. Guy in the office next to me was on some team testing out some kind of video conference system that required him to have a regular working TV in his office. His wife called him and he played around with some antennas to get a signal. A small group of us around the floor started filing into his office in silence to watch the second plane hit.

There was an old guy in the group who ran engineering and had built 10-15 or so big manufacturing plants in his career. I'll never forget as we watched that second hit, he just said quietly "They're gonna come down and it's not going to take long". Might have just been a dumb luck prediction but whatever - it's just etched in my mind. Checked in with family based on reports there was an "unaccounted for" place somewhere over Ohio (that we now know to be 93).

Spent the rest of the day talking to folks in overseas assignments who were in shock and working with folks around the US who were stuck out wherever on business trips trying to get home. Went home, must have watched some news, and went to bed thinking "holy f*ck - nothing's going to be the same again".

I just so wish it was Al Gore reading "My Little Goat" to that classroom. He would not have so completely squandered the outpouring of global good will that existed on 9/12/01. Bush/Cheney should be reviled for all history for what they have done to this world.

[steve2470]

55. yes, Bush and Cheney totally squandered it

It's taken President Obama and Secretaries Kerry and Clinton to, at least partially, restore our good name in the world. The Iraq War is going to go down in history as one of the worst things this country has ever done, if not THE worst. Too bad we'll probably never see Bush or Cheney in The Hague.

[longship]

57. On vacation in Sedona, AZ with wife and two friends.

So we only heard about things after the fact.

Our vacation was quite a bit different after that point.

[fadedrose]

58. At home getting me and my family

dressed for my sister's showing at a funeral home, the first day of her viewing. Had the TV on and was spellbound. Saw the plane go into a tower almost as it happened, and another as it happened.

It was all everyone could talk about once we got to the funeral home.

[pintobean]

59. What a dumb question

given what just happened to the DUer in your avatar.

[steve2470]

60. um... we can multi-task, right ?

I guess you've missed all the threads on Bravenak. I know you haven't read all my input.

Thanks for the personal attack. Bye.

[pintobean]

61. You're asking DUers to post personal information.

personal attack?

[livetohike]

62. Living in California and lying in bed with a migraine headache.

My husband was on his way to work and came in to tell me that it looked like a plane hit one of the twin towers. We both wondered how that could happen.

I went downstairs to watch the news and the rest of the day was a blur between the migraine and the unfolding events.

We lived near Camp Pendleton and while it seemed that everyone was rallying around the President and waving American flags, I was not one of them.

[Lee-Lee]

63. I had just come off a 12 hour shift as a patrol deputy

Shift was over at 5:00am, but I was on a call and didn't get off until closer to six. 3o minutes to get home I had grabbed something to eat, showered and gone to bed when my phone started ringing.

I worked that next shift on about 2 hours sleep after being up all day.

[Dorian Gray]

64. Waking up in my apartment in NYC, drinking coffee,

getting ready to work (from home). Watching the Today Show when a crazed caller called in talking about a plane hitting the WTC. I thought it was a joke (like the Jerky Boys) at first. The caller was talking fast and furious. Then they cut to the building. Smoke. Then another plane hit, live.

The rest was history. Many people in our building went to the rooftop to watch what was happening. Our friends who lived outside the city came over to our apartment. It was terrible.

[mnhtnbb]

67. I had CNBC running in the background at home in Chapel Hill, getting ready

to go visit my dad in the nursing home in Durham.

After I saw the news of the first plane hitting, I jumped in the car and drove over to see
him. By the time I got there and turned on his TV for him, the second plane had hit.

It was absolutely horrific. And my dad didn't get it...reacted as though it was a TV movie.
It really signaled to me how far his dementia had progressed.

And of course, we had the TV on for several days at home watching the story.

My husband's sister and her husband were on a plane over the Atlantic on their way home to Atlanta
from a trip to Spain. Their plane turned around and went to the Azores where they were stuck
for several days before flights were allowed to resume.

[LiberalElite]

68. in NYC on my way to work -

A friend told me she happened to be walking on the street in Greenwich Village when that first plane flew overhead. Someone next to her said "Boy that plane is low!"....

I had gone to get the usual morning bagel and the deli had the TV on, as usual. The TV showed the tower with a gaping hole and some news reader was saying a plane had flown into it. I wondered how that was possible because it was a crystal clear morning. (I was recalling my mother's story of when a plane had hit the Empire State Building in the '40s - but that had been because of fog.)

I got up to the office still thinking it was a freak accident but, already, coworkers were saying it was terrorism. Then we learned about the second plane and the attacks on the Pentagon and the plane in PA. What a day.

We could see the WTC from our office 3 miles north and so, not much got done the rest of the day. We all watched it burn and collapse and the dust fill all of lower Manhattan. Several of my employer's clients were (presumed) killed - no trace of them could be found, at least not for quite some time. Some families have had only bone fragments to bury.

I get a heavy feeling in my chest every time I'm in that area. I have not been to the Memorial or the Museum - I'd rather not be around the tourists in 9/11 t-shirts. My friends feel the same way. Yes I know museums need money. No offense meant but to us it's not a tourist attraction.

P.S.: I also recall the 2/93 attack also but not as vividly.

[bigwillq]

69. In a college class

A girl said her boyfriend in NYC said a plane crashed into WTC. I thought it was just an accident. When her boyfriend called again and said another one crashed into WTC, I knew we were in trouble.

They let us out of school early.

Sad day.

[NightWatcher]

70. Driving through the gates at a secured govt facility, listening to Howard Stern

I highly recommend going to YouTube and listening to that morning's Stern show. Reports were coming in about the first crash when I got to the DOJ office. I got inside and saw everyone in the open air office gathered around a 21" TV on a cart. The second plane hit and there were mixed awes. About ten seconds passed in near silence and then everyone's cell phones, desk phones, and pagers went nuts. I. Raced out of the facility and just got out of the main gate as the kindly old guard I had passed moments ago was replaced by young armed men in fatigues. I made the hour long drive back home in 30 minutes. I checked in with my regional office and was told to suspend all activities. I didn't work for two weeks while this was sorted out. We started up again in October conducting investigations.

[Recursion]

71. About half a mile from the Pentagon in an office

We were watching CNN in rapt attention and then suddenly WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!!??

[steve2470]

72. you and MADem had a very crazy day :/ nt

[deutsey]

74. I was in a weekly team meeting at work

It was also the day I was going to submit my two week notice. I planned to do it after the meeting, in fact.

I heard about the first plane hitting a tower at the beginning of the meeting. We all assumed it was an accident and went on with the meeting. Not long into it, however, we heard someone say in the hallway that a second plane had hit the other tower. While we were trying to make sense of all that, we heard there was a fire at the Pentagon.

We decided the meeting was over at that point and we joined other people in the office watching the event unfold on TV.

Suffice it to say, I didn't submit my notice that day. I went home at around noon. We lived down the road from an Army base and it was unnerving to find a tank in the gateway of the base along with with troops in full combat gear and armed with machine guns.

[alcibiades_mystery]

75. Lower Manhattan

Tryna live.

[steve2470]

76. very crazy day for you too nt

[Jappleseed]

77. Was an electric utility lineman at the time.

We were practicing a new technique for rescuing a coworker on a pole. Once we all learned what happened they sent us back to our respective areas to stand by if help was needed in the city or in other areas due to possiblities of more attacks.

[randome]

78. Working at Boeing in St. Louis.

I had discovered DU during an earthquake in Kentucky that we felt in St. Louis so I knew right away where to go for news.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

79. At the office where I was working. They had a TV downstairs in a lounge area for the patients

at the dermatologists clinic below us, and one of the dermatology people came up and told us a plane had just hit the world trade center, so we went downstairs, and were there in time to see the second one hit live. Like most folks, that's when we figured out it must be on purpose.

[mcar]

80. Working

I was in PR for a small healthcare facility. Spent the day watching TV and helping local media find transplanted New Yorkers to talk to.

[davidpdx]

82. I was in bed in Portland Oregon sound asleep

My mom was living in Sweden at the time and called me and woke me up telling me to turn on the TV. The first tower had already been hit. It must have been just after 9 am that she called.

For the 14 year anniversary I will be watching the TV coverage from here in South Korea.

[no_hypocrisy]

83. At home in NJ, drinking coffee, watching The Today Show, on the phone with my SIL.

The first plane hit. The Today Show had a special report. I told my sister-in-law what I saw on TV and remarked it was reminiscent of the plane that hit the Empire State Building in the Forties. We continued to talk. The second plane hit the WTC. E-mail messages began to flood my SIL's computer and she had to go. I continued to watch TV, glued and mesmerized.

About an hour later, when it was more obvious what had happened, I joined a number of people in my town who had gathered at a public park. That park was on elevated ground and we could see the black plume of smoke that issued from the WTC. We spoke in murmurs when we spoke at all.

I went to work. My co-worker was concerned that she couldn't reach her daughter because cell service had been interrupted.

As horrible and surreal Tuesday/9-11 was, the aftermath continued to be pretty bad for me. First, the pervasive societal fear was more than palpable. You got the feeling everyone was getting ready for another surprise attack. Four days after 9-11, I drove across the George Washington Bridge at 9:00 a.m. and it was deserted. Maybe three other cars on the upper level. THAT was scary.

And ten days later, I discovered that a classmate from kindergarten to senior year high school died on 9-11 when I was watching CBS's "Sunday Morning" when his face filled my screen.

I wouldn't say that I've been traumatized, but this date will be indelible to me.

[WinkyDink]

84. Getting ready to teach a class. Saw it on TV (going to show a video). Principal told us to ignore it

and teach.

[tularetom]

86. Right where I am now - sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee

Only then I was reading the paper which I no longer get.

The phone rang, it was my son. "Have you got the TV on?"

No, I didn't, why, I asked. "You need to see all the crap that's going on in New York."

And I sat in front of that TV for the next six hours, scarcely believing what I was watching.

I remember thinking that fucking idiot bush is going to use this as an excuse to start a war.

[Danmel]

87. I had just put my children on the school bus

They were 10 and 6 at the time. I was cleaning up in the kitchen and had the radio on. They broke in to announce that a small plane had struck one of the towers. We live in a suburb of NYC and it was a beautifully later summer day. The sky was crystal clear. I couldn't imagine how a plane could have hit the tower. I went into our family room and turned on CNN. I watched as the second plane struck the tower.
We know people who worked there then, and nearby. My brother worked directly across the river in downtown Brooklyn and saw people jumping to their deaths. One of our local firefighters died. My parents had a friend whose son died- they were Holocaust survivors. He had a learning disability and worked as a mail room clerk at Cantor Fitzgerald. One of my friends worked at number 7 WTC, which also collapsed.
For so many residents of the tri-state, the 9-11 attacks were profoundly personal. Our city. Our friends and neighbors.
For many weeks the pit was a smoldering scar, literally an open wound. In late October, I was on the subway and the pit was still smoking. I burst into tears and the woman next to me hugged me. Not an every day occurrence on the subways.
II don't obsess about it, but it certainly had an effect on me.
I hope against all realistic expectations that one day we will, ask learn to live in peace with each other and recognize that we all get here the same way and leave here the same way. Peace to all of you my friends.

[Auggie]

88. It was early morning in San Francisco, and I was packing to move into my first house on the 12th ...

My father called and told me to turn on the news. The rest of the day I had one eye on the TV while I packed up the flat. I remember it was glorious weather day in San Francisco.

[Mike Daniels]

89. At work. My first instinct when I heard about the first tower being hit

was to recall a situation back in the 40s when a military plane ran into the Empire State Building (accidentally).

Seemed odd that something similar could happen again in the same city but terrorism didn't cross my mind until the second plane hit.

[madinmaryland]

91. 75 Wall Street in NYC. n/t

[phylny]

92. I was working at a school in Sterling, VA, right near Dulles Airport.

I went into the principal's office and saw the second plane hit and then the buildings come down.

It was a crazy day. We were put on lockdown immediately. The police came to check on us routinely. There were rumors that the FAA building in Leesburg was hit as well. Being in Northern Virginia, the Pentagon employed many of our students' parents. Parents were coming to get their kids in droves. We didn't tell the children what was going on (elementary school) but in the area high and middle schools, the kids were told, were also on lockdown, and were watching on classroom televisions.

I used the school phone to call my brother, sister-in-law, and father. Couldn't get through to Manhattan. Finally got through to my sister-in-law in Westchester County who told me through tears that my brother, who works in lower Manhattan, was fine. He had a scheduled meeting at 1 World Trade, but missed it due to a disciplinary action against an employee. All my brother's employees were able to evacuate once the first plane hit and were safe.

When I got home and my kids came off their buses, they asked, "Why didn't you come get us?" I told them I was taking care of other people's children just like other people were taking care of mine.

We lived right on the flight path of Dulles, so it was odd that the air was silent in the following days. I remember feeling vulnerable and paranoid when I would hear a fighter jet overhead - I was honestly scared and thought and said that life would "never be the same." I was actually wrong, but didn't know at the time.

When we went back to school, many of our Muslim students didn't come to school because their parents were worried about recriminations. Our principal (wonderful Jewish woman from NY) called each students' parents and told them their children would be in a safe and welcoming place in school.

I was fortunate, originally being from New York, that no one I personally knew was hurt or killed. I know of many families who continue to grieve.

[mainstreetonce]

95. I was asleep

The phone rang. It was my husband in NYC four blocks away. He said put on the TV. I spent the day glued to the TV and the computer. Friends in an online chatroom talked me through the day till he was home in the evening. I remember being on the phone with my son who was screaming he wanted his father out of there. There was a girl from another office who came to calm my son down. She is now the mother of my grandchildren.

The days that followed were the worst. Every time the phone rang we heard who made it out and who didn't. We had to kerp the TV off. My husband was traumatized.

[phylny]

116. {hug} nt

[Bettie]

93. My six month old son and I were in a hotel room in Orlando

while my husband was teaching a class down in one of the conference rooms.

I went down and waited for them to be on break, so I could tell them what was happening before they saw it on TV.

All of the techs he was teaching were from New York and New Jersey. I don't know that they got much from the class that week, they were quite distracted.

Getting on a plane and going home that Friday was a little scary, but at least we got out. Several of the attendees ended up waiting several days more.

[CTyankee]

96. at work here in New Haven. stunned.

my son was home in Brooklyn and I couldn't get through to him. he finally called and said he was scheduled to go to work downtown manhattan that day but it was changed and he didn't go. He watched the Towers come down from his apt. building rooftop...

[edbermac]

97. Working for a financial institution in Boston.

No access to TV but heard on the radio that the buildings collapsed. Everyone sent home. I just couldn't comprehend that word 'collapsed' until I saw it on TV.

[Freddie]

99. My 15-year-old daughter refused to go to school

That morning, as usual for her then (she eventually grew up and is now an RN). And as usual we had a screaming fight about it until I gave up and went to work, late as usual. I had a wonderful understanding boss then.
Was driving to work when the planes hit. Not one word about it on the radio in the car. When I got off the elevator at work, everybody was glued to the internet and talking about America under attack. I had a private office and spent the day glued to the news like everyone else. A family from my church lost their son, a wine steward in the Top of the Towers restaurant.

[Tracer]

100. I work at home and don't have the TV on.

The kitchen phone rang and it was my son.

He said "Turn on the TV" in an odd voice.

Sensing that something was wrong and without asking why, I said "What channel?"

He said "any channel".

That phone call struck me with dread.

[treestar]

101. Strangely when I got home from work that night

I work on my own and had a very quiet and productive day. I never questioned why I wasn't getting the usual phone calls, since it was a rare chance to do some work without interruption. Since I did not go online and had no TV or radio on, I didn't find out all during the day.

[Act_of_Reparation]

103. I was a freshman at the University of Connecticut.

My roommate shook me awake around 8:50 AM or so. I was in that half-asleep state, before the brain can reliably interpret sensory input. I saw a blurry image, but the fire and smoke was clear enough to discern. I thought a volcano had erupted or something... until my brain was finally able to process what it was seeing.

I grew up in Fairfield County. It's a popular place for people who want to work in New York City, but not live there. We lost a lot of people that day.

A girl I used to sit near on the bus back in middle school was on AA Flight 11 when it hit WTC 1. She was 20 years old.

[MrScorpio]

104. I was at work at Langley AFB…

I had previously been stationed at the Pentagon and I once took a tour to the top of the WTC.

I was trying to wrap my mind around how horrible it was, being inside of those buildings.

[Trajan]

105. Back in the day when we watched the Today Show before work

As we got ready ... The first news report of the first plane hitting the first tower, was an 'omg what an awful mistake by this pilot' moment.

When the second plane hit, it was apparent this was a concerted effort by someone who INTENTIONALLY struck those buildings with the intent to do extreme harm to many thousands of human beings ....

I do not and cannot fathom why someone would want to kill one person, let alone many thousands of innocent strangers ...

[Glassunion]

106. In my car, approaching the Lincoln Tunnel when the first plane hit.

I did not see it happen.

I did see the second plane hit from across the river.

[dorkzilla]

111. on the Major Deegan heading to work, stuck in traffic

I was just about to go over the Willis Avenue bridge when they reported the second plane. I'd been on the phone with my boss who I called when I heard about the first plane and when I heard about #2 (still stuck in city-bound rush hour traffic) I said "I think I'm not going anywhere" and turned around. All my friends who lived in the boroughs and the burbs got stuck for hours trying to get home because roads, bridges, etc were immediately shut down. Thus began days of hell for a lot of us, waiting to hear of missing loved ones and colleagues; the local cell towers were atop the WTC and many of us lost phone and tv transmission. People who didn't have landlines or cable has to rely on neighbors for information in the immediate NYC area.

Ill never forget the dazed look of people getting off the trains covered in dust, or the smoke that followed out of the wreckage for weeks afterward.

[MineralMan]

112. My wife and I were watching CNN with my morning coffee.

No work was done that day by us.

[Xyzse]

113. Was on the car

Gave up on the traffic, headed home.
Immediately tried calling my sister who works in NY at that time.

[CanonRay]

114. In my office in the Federal Building in downtown Denver.

I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, but I won't forget that. Later in the day we got orders to evacuate the building. Scary day.

[Lonusca]

115. On a cruise ship

We were delayed getting back into the country for three days after the end of the cruise - a week after 9/11

[Shrek]

117. At the gym on a treadmill

They had televisions mounted on the wall and I was watching live coverage when the second plane hit.

[ProfessorGAC]

118. At The Airport

Waiting to get on a flight to Atlanta at the Bloomington IL airport.

Heard that all flights were "delayed" then heard someone say that a plane had hit the tower.

So, i went back out through security to the newsstand (small airport) because the lady that worked there had a little TV.

I was there about 30 seconds when the second plane hit on international TV. My first thought was "well this is on purpose." Saw i picked up my bag and laptop case and headed to the car. I knew nobody was going anywhere that day.

[ailsagirl]

119. I had just arrived at work and was in the parking lot

when a friend rushed up to me and told me what happened. It was horrifying.

[kydo]

120. Mowing the lawn

On Aug 31, 2001 we moved into our new house. But I was actually mowing the lawn of our old house which was across the street. Did not have to mow it as it was a rental but was just doing the neighborly thing. I came in for water after mowing the back the first plane hit and no one really knew what was still to come so I went to mow the front. When I got back in that's when all hell started breaking loose. The second plane had it but at first I thought they were still talking about the first. It took a few minutes to understand that 2 planes had hit, partly my brain was fried from the heat of mowing and partly from the craziness of the events. Watched the news some called a few people then reports of the pentagon came in. For a brief period it felt like Orson Wells' broadcast of War of the Worlds. This was when there were reports of another plane and a another crash. Since there was not much I could do, I went and mowed my yard. When I got done the first tower had just started to fall right as I tuned in to the tv.

I was mowing so early in the morning because I live in Orlando FL and you never know what the weather will bring after 3pm, usually it is rain.

[Populist_Prole]

121. Upon waking with a hangover hearing my answering machine

"Put the news on...put the news on...You won't believe what just happened".

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

122. At work, oblivious ...

... until I walked away from my desk, into the hallway, and saw a group of people peering into a conference room (which had a television). One tower was on fire, and at that time it was talked about as if it was some kind of accident.

Then the second tower was hit.

It was a strange day, but I had to get some work done, so I tried to focus on that.

[pink-o]

123. I was exactly where I am now: working at SF International Airport

...we didn't have easy links to internet, so as I was checking in passengers for a flight, my friend in Dispatch called me to tell me a plane had struck the WTC. I was worried because I thought it was an accidental crash which would put our whole industry under scrutiny again. But then my friend called back a few minutes later to tell me about the 2nd plane, and I knew it was a terrorist attack.

We weren't sure what was gonna happen next, but unlike Frozen Bush in FLA, we continued to work and let our passengers know about the situation. We warned them their planes might all be grounded but we hadn't gotten an official word yet.

As I was repeating the story to each new passenger, it started to really sink in and with one lady I just burst into tears. She patted my hand, took her Boarding Pass and said: "Oh, Honey I hope you feel better later." I've always wondered if she remembers that statement and realizes how clueless she was. It was probably a lot later that she grasped what I was telling her!

[Islandurp]

124. 10th grade american history class

The whole day we basically just sat around and did nothing. Every class had the TV on the news and if you wanted to call you parents to pick you up from school they let you.

[PearliePoo2]

125. I was on a camping/trout fishing trip at Razor State Park on the Skagit River in Washington State.

It was a beautiful, clear and crisp September morning. As usual, right at dawn (a little after 6 am PDT) I hopped on my bicycle to ride from our campsite down to the park office to buy the morning Seattle PI newspaper.
The camp host saw me digging for quarters, came over and said, "If you want the latest news, you're not going to find it on the front page. Our country has been attacked. You might want to go find a radio and tune in."
I quickly bought a paper anyway and pedaled hard back to our campsite. I woke everybody up and told my S.I.L, "Please, quick, make some coffee while I find my radio! Something REALLY bad is happening!"
I put my portable radio in the center of the picnic table and tuned in KOMO 1000.
I remember finding a big stick and nervously poking the remaining coals from the campfire. I added more wood and got it blazing. The guys were getting up out of the RVs. I looked at my ex and said, "Holy fuck...."
We all stood around drinking coffee listening in silence, just looking at each other.
My ex finally looked at his older brother (both of them retired A.F. fighter pilots) and said, "We're going to war." His brother nodded in agreement.
I asked him, "War? Where?" He thought for a while and said, "Probably Afghanistan."

[retrowire]

126. heres mine

So here's my simple story.

I was in homeroom class, middle school, 13 years old. Of course it was just like any other day.

The students were fooling around, it was just homeroom after all, its where we began our school day. The real classes were after that.

Our teacher, who's name I don't remember usually just sat at his desk and prepared for his own classes to come after but today, another faculty member came into the class and asked him to meet her in the hall.

There was a sense of urgency in her demeanor. Everyone in the class noticed it. We were just kids but for a moment, we all shut up and stopped horsing around.

He left the class. We were unattended for a moment. That was weird at that age.

After a few minutes he came back in and had some words for us. Words I'll never forget.

"Class, you'll all be going home early with your parents today. Something has occurred that led our school to the decision that history is happening today, and it would be far more beneficial to your education to witness what is happening."

"So we're going to stay in homeroom until your parents come to pick you up. And we're going to watch the news."

So they wheeled in the TV cart, set it up and switched the channel to CNN.

And we saw the first tower burning. Soon after we saw the replay of the first plane hitting over and over. The journalists on TV were trying to make sense of it when suddenly, the second plane hit.

And immediately the suspicion turned to the knowledge that America was being attacked.

I saw people jumping out of the windows of the towers, people running through the streets covered in ash. I saw a famous skyline with smoke rising from it.

I was shaken. My other immature classmates didn't know how to react. They exclaimed things like "Ohhh!!! They bombed us! Oh snap!"

I ignored them, I was always a pretty mature youngster, I could grasp the weight of this. People were dying. This was no time for such commotion.

I remember the newspaper that was printed that day. I didn't even know they could print a paper in the middle of the day. It had a giant American flag printed on one whole sheet.

I still have that paper somewhere today.

It was the first day in my life I realized that not everyone likes America. And that we could have enemies. We could be vulnerable.

It truly was more educational than school.

[Bluzmann57]

127. Took my daily walk up to a local gas station

Near where I was living at the time. I stopped in and bought a bottle of pop and several people were standing around watching a small tv. I asked what was going on and the owner, who is Pakistani and a friend of mine, said, "Terrorists just blew up the World Trade Center".
We all stood around watching for a while and then I went home. Then I turned on my tv and saw the second plane hit the WTC. It was surreal and I could not stop watching. I also called my mom and said to her, "I think we're at war." She hadn't heard any news reports and was puzzled. So I told her what was happening and she turned on her tv as well.


Probably the worst day in the history of the USA.

[KamaAina]

129. Downtown Honolulu

It happened in the middle of the night out there. I got off the bus downtown to snag my usual banana and chocolate milk, and I noticed the little store had the TV on. I glanced up, saw buildings collapsing, and figured there had been a quake in L.A. or something. Then I got to work and logged on. Bear in mind I had left NYC the previous year, leaving family and friends behind.

As it happens, a dear friend's birthday is September 11. She and I and her mom were going to go to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner to celebrate. Alas, it's in Ala Moana Center, which was closed in the aftermath. So we ended up at Red Lobster in Waikiki. (I know, I know, but that's what they wanted. )

[leftynyc]

130. Read about the first plane hitting

on line as breaking news - watched the rest from the office across the hall from mine. Like a horror movie with no sound.

[elleng]

131. In the car on the way to downtown DC with my husband;

we both worked there, in slightly different neighborhoods, but almost close enough to be able to see smoke @ Pentagon.

[jwirr]

132. Was walking out the door to be the bus aide on a bus

of people who were going to a sheltered workshop. A neighbor told me but I had to get on the bus and act as if everything was okay. Fortunately the bus driver was a Vietnam vet who was in the same situation as I was - having to do his job.

We took the adults to the work shop and discussed what we knew about the situation on the way to take me home. Watched tv all day until it was time to go get the adults and take them home again.

By then it was over and and we were watching reruns. Also spent time calming some of the senior citizens in my building down during the day. The men were mostly veterans and upset from a military standpoint. The women were more likely to be afraid.

My own feeling settled down after the ride home with the drive who talked about things from having been in a war. One of the things I remember him saying "I am not going to send my son to war. I would rather go myself if someone has to go."

[840high]

133. I was home when my

daughter called me crying.

[RobinA]

134. Vacationing in Yellowstone

Mountain Time. Got up early, turned on the TV to get the weather. Network news guy was talking about a plane flying into the WTC and speculating that it was pilot error. I'm no pilot, but I'm from Philadelphia and have been in a private plane, and knew that you don't have to be all that close to the WTC to see it and not hit it, so I figured pilot error was kind of weird. Then while I was drying my hair my friend said "This is bad." That's when they started reporting the second plane. I did a mental inventory of where everybody was (a family member is a pilot) and figured everyone was accounted for. We then left the hotel, with me saying, "This story will be around when we get back, let's get going." Couple hours later we passed some other tourists and one guy was talking about how "they" took down the WTC. I remember thinking, "This is how stupid rumors get started." I never dreamed the towers would actually collapse. About mid-afternoon it became clear that airliners were involved. We didn't get the full story until we got back to the hotel room and decided it was time to turn on a TV and see what was going on. It took me MONTHS to get the timeline straight, because all the news coverage assumed everybody had been with the story since the beginning.

All I could think about when I first heard the story was that on 9/10 we were traveling through the Beartooth Montains on a super clear day with contrails everywhere, all the planes going about their business with no idea of what was to come.

[leveymg]

135. About a mile from the Pentagon, driving toward DC near National Airport. Traffic rapidly slowed

on Memorial Parkway as I headed north. I was running late for work that morning. Nothing unusual about traffic jammed up.

Then, as I sat there, the announcer on the radio said something about a second plane had hit the World Trade Center towers. The next obvious clue that something was terribly wrong was the strange way airliners started landing right next to me on the main runway at National. They came in one after the next touching down seconds apart on each others tails, like a traffic jam at 150 miles-an-hour, or a NASCAR race between Boeings and Airbuses. I had never seen anything like it, and hope I never do again.

Just before traffic stopped solid in my lane, I squeezed my little convertible through at a break in the guardrail. I was the only one who did that. As I drove back in the direction I had come, I looked in the rearview mirror and watched a thick column of black smoke rising from the direction of the Pentagon. A few minutes later, as I was driving home, I spotted a silver C-130 headed northwest but no other aircraft in the crystal clear blue sky. Later in the morning, after I got home, I heard the rushing boom of fighter planes and that went on for the next few days which were otherwise eerily quiet.

The following day, my next door neighbor came by and we stopped and talked for a while. He is retired CIA. I remember saying something about blowback, and he said, "I can't think of a better explanation."

[RebelOne]

136. At work

A co-worker came to my desk and told me about what happened. We rushed into the conference room where there was a TV and watched the event unfold.

[MoonRiver]

137. Typing a psychological report on my home computer while the t.v. was on.

Caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, and then, OMFG! Horrible, horrible day and memories.

[LanternWaste]

139. At my desk in the main room of the office. Listening to NPR the entire morning

At my desk in the main room of the office. Listening to NPR the entire morning (and afternoon). At this very moment, I can look out of my office window and see a straight line to the desk I was at fourteen years earlier.

Weird... fourteen years. It seems more an academic memory to me now than anything else. I don't really feel any emotions about it one way or the other.

I can remember the reactions of co-workers at the time. Half the room crying, the other half wanting to blow up some country.... any country. Just for the satisfaction of it.

[hfojvt]

140. sorta odd how we all remember

I mean if you asked where I was on 9-10-01 or 9-12-01 I probably would not remember, even though 9-11-01 was a pretty ordinary day for me.

One thing that sticks out in my mind...

People generally say "the country came together after that ..."

Well, not so much. I remember the streets being jammed with cars as each person scrambled to fill up their tanks before the supposed big jump in gas prices. I could barely get home, the line of cars was about half a mile long, or more.

I don't see a lot of unity in that, more like pure selfishness, and some people got prosecuted for gouging. Well the buzzards trying to beat everybody else to lower gas prices - I think they deserved to get gouged.

Then I remember watching on TV, some Republican leaders chortling "there's no opposition party now" and Daschle looking all sheepish behind them. And I was like "Oh God, those bastards think they have a blank check." and then Bush's speech, and I was like "Oh lord, that damned fool thinks he is Wyatt Earp."

I still think that day is the biggest piece of hype there is. 4,000 people died in a terrorist attack. Since then, over 600,000 have died in car accidents. Omigod, somebody save me from the terrorists.

[AtomicKitten]

142. Right after I awoke and made breakfast.

Plopped down on the sofa with my cup of coffee and turned on the TV for news.

It was between the first and second planes striking the Twin Towers. Quite a site to behold.

[magical thyme]

143. I had just arrived at work and was walking up the stairs to our suite

when co-worker came running down the stairs and told me. He was headed for home to bring a tv in.
We all gathered together and spent the entire day in front of the tv, crying.

[Scurrilous]

145. On an AOL message board From The Left.

The place was overrun by right wing trolls who were repeatedly admonished to 'go back to Free Republic.' Curious, I checked out Free Republic and saw where kept referring to 'libs' as the 'the dummies at DU.' And that's how I found this place.

[hifiguy]

146. Driving to my job in downtown Minneapolis.

First radio report was that a small plane hat hit the north tower. Didn't think much of it until the next bulletins came in.

[lunatica]

149. In California my clock radio woke me up with the words

Last edited Fri Sep 11, 2015, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

"Something really bizarre just happened in New York. An airplane just crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers"

I turned CNN on to see the first live film of the smoke pouring out of the spot where the airplane hit. Everyone thought it was some small plane with a very bad pilot. I watched it live from then on. I found it almost impossible to comprehend when the Pentagon was hit. How in the world could the very center of our military be hit? In Washington, DC?! Where were the fighter planes? Where was our defense? Our military?

I clearly remember how crisp and bright and beautiful the sky looked over New York and how the buildings sparkled in the sun. And as the day progressed the sky got ugly brown and black as the smoke spread like a pall over the city and then the towers fell and the city streets and the bottom of the buildings were swallowed up for hours. The knowledge that people were in those towers was so heartbreaking that I found myself hoping fervently that everyone had gotten out. I also kept thinking of the poor passengers on those airplanes. Their last minutes had to have been terrifying. In the end they must have known they were being used to kill their countrymen.

I was literally unable to talk about it for nine months after that. Just the thought would make me start crying instantly.

[LongTomH]

150. At home, in my bathroom, listening to NPR

When I heard that the first plane had hit the WTC; I turned on CNN in time to watch the second plane hit.

The office building, where I worked at the time, had a good view of Kansas City International airport. I could watch planes coming in, one right after another and none going out. I can tell you, not much got done that day.

I can't tell you how I felt that day, other than 'numb.'

My company provided computer services to two airlines, so we felt close to the people on the planes.

Also our business was impacted pretty heavily. We were told that we would take a day off every two weeks and a reduction in pay until things returned to normal. Our management at the time was pretty decent. They didn't want to just cut our pay; because that would impact moral.

Management asked for volunteers to take an additional day off every two weeks; we were told that would help the company avoid additional layoffs. I was one of the volunteers; at the last minute were were informed that the additional day off wouldn't be necessary.

It was little more than a year later, that we had new management, including a CEO who wanted to get the company ready for an IPO. So, we all ended up taking a 5% pay cut, and the company began round-after-round of layoffs to downsize the company. The market, of course, rewards ruthlessness.

[Aerows]

152. In Florida

Still pissed because I voted for Gore, and even now some think it is appropriate to call anyone that doesn't support the establishment favorite a Naderite.

[frankieallen]

153. working....Sun Microsystems, 25th floor WTC2

worst day of my life.

[steve2470]

154. I want to sincerely thank everyone who have written in this thread....

It's threads like this that make me love DU. However, it occurred to me that perhaps I've accidentally encouraged some having really bad flashbacks of that day. If so, I humbly apologize. It was certainly never my intention, of course. Hopefully people with really overwhelming memories simply trashed my thread.

I hope your day today is many times better than the one 14 years ago.

[Shrike47]

155. At State Motor Pool picking up a car to drive to the Southern Oregon coast for court.

Somebody had a t.v. on and told me about the first hit. I picked up my car and drove to Coquille, listening to the radio at the places where there was reception. There was a television on at the courthouse and after my hearing, I watched a little before driving on to Gold Beach. In each courthouse, people were stunned and quiet, none of us were sure what had happened. Somewhere in that day, I called my husband at home and told him to turn on thr television. Until the call, he had no idea.

It was a long, lonely day of driving and hearings. I felt very vulnerable and rather numb.

The next day at my office, I said to a co-worker, "there goes Afghanistan.". She reminded me of that later. I can't remember how I figured that out.

[Ino]

156. The cabbie we'd called to take us to the airport told us...

We were to fly to Hawaii on 9/11 to get married. We were on the first airplane to leave our city two days later.

[Gloria]

157. Just waking up in New Mexico, the radio alarm had woken me up....as a Jersey Girl,

when I heard a plane had hit, I thought it was a small plane. Things like that happened before in the city. I was still in bed because I was slowly recuperating from back surgery, so I was sleeping more then.

Of course, it wasn't a small plane at all.

My uncle worked on the towers as they were being constructed. He had lost his job at Curtiss-Wright, did some telephone sales, then wound up with an outfit called "Skyjack," I believe. They actually did all the scaffolding for the construction. So here he is, climbing around the scaffolding and platforms, making sure all is OK...He said he was scared to death.

I have pictures of him up there and I can see why he was scared. And how utterly terrifying it was for the folks trapped on 9/11.

I went up to the top one time....to the Windows on the World restaurant. I didn't stay long or eat anything...I remember it had very low ceilings and was dark....there are pics still on the internet that look like I remember it.
I hated the whole experience. The elevators, etc. It just made me so nervous.

I never went again. Later, I found out that a friend from England had been up there the day before 9/11.

Gives me the chills....

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

158. In bed in California

I will just come right out and say it, I was having sex with my then girlfriend.

Her phone kept ringing but she ignored it, it rang several more times over the next few minutes, but she kept ignoring it and eventually threw the quilt over it. When it rang yet again she got out of bed, said something to the effect that her estranged mother had better be fucking dead.

It was her brother who lived in New York, saying he was okay and was in Westchester that morning and was going straight to a relatives house in Connecticut and not back to his apartment and to please wait till a more reasonable hour and call their dad to say he was okay.

I had no idea what she was talking about, I was just waiting for her to come back to bed when she turned on the TV.

I then went straight to my parents house and remember that traffic seemed very light.

[steve2470]

159. you're an honest man :) nt

[applegrove]

160. Was getting ready for work. Turned on CNN as per usual. Saw a small plane at gone into WTC. Called

my dad to get him to watch. Then we saw the second huge jet go into the second tower and I knew it was terrorism (I thought it was the PLO). What a horrid day.

[lostnfound]

170. Was returning to my desk in a skyscraper, after delightful conversation as a new mom

Last edited Sat Sep 12, 2015, 08:17 AM - Edit history (1)

Had just returned to work after maternity leave. Had a joyful connection with a group of other women about the privilege of being a mother. Headed back to my desk when a colleague told me, and showed me. I thought about my baby at home,and wondered whether other skyscrapers would be targeted. When i heard the first tower fell, I immediately cried, wondering how many parents might be present in the same building, where both parents might have died and left orphans. I left to go home after the second once fell.

My industry changed a great deal. It felt pretty personal. A sacrilege, that four planes full of people lost their lives in one single day, and so many more

[ballabosh]

171. I was on my way to work on the El in Chicago

Didn't have a clue that anything had happened (head in book, earphones on) until I got to work. In the elevator going up a secretary was telling an attorney how two planes had hit the WTC and one hit the Pentagon. I thought she was batty. Got to my office and had three voicemails from my wife. Called here and she told me what happened. Couldn't get on any news websites. Heard the rumors that a plane was headed towards the Sears Tower. Got a call from my sister who worked near federal plaza. She was panicking. They were telling her to go home. Around 11, they told us we could go home if we felt unsafe. My building is not important and not near any important buildings so I didn't feel the need. After a half hour, my office was deserted. Ok, I'm going home too. Went outside. The Loop is a ghost town. Got home. Held my 5-month old baby and told my wife, "I'm glad she's not older and asking me to explain why this is happening, because there is no explanation why this is happening." Then cried.

[Jason Huh]

173. I had just woken up

I'd been down with a cold for three days and actually didn't open my eyes until just before 1 PM. I turned on the tube, a daily ritual I called "checking to see if anyone blew up the world while I was sleeping," and discovered that somebody actually had.

[Aristus]

175. I had just got into my car to go to work,

flipped on the radio, and the first thing I heard was a scream. It freaked me out. The station was broadcasting live audio feed from New York, and it was chaos. It was about five minutes until I figured out what had happened. I read a lot of peoples' memories about them seeing the plane crash into the WTC, but I didn't see any of that for a couple of hours after finding out about the attack. The rest of the day was a blur. Work ground to a halt, and all I remember is seeing the plane crash into the tower, over and over again on my internet news feed. By early afternoon, the radio was playing rah-rah patriotic songs like 'Proud to Be An American' and shit like that, and I knew we were all in a lot of trouble.

[madamvlb]

176. Having accupuncture at a VA hospital a little north of NYC on the Huson River.

Over the intercom they announced there was an emergency in NYC and all doctors were needed ASAP. My doctor told me to get dressed and she'll see my next month. She left a needle in my back!! My husband was driving home and just as we were about to cross the Hudson River over the bridge we heard an emergency broadcast over the radio that said we were under attack and bridges were a target. As soon as we started crossing two fighter jets flew right over us, my heart dropped.

I lost a friend, Ronnie Hendrson a firefighter.

[ScreamingMeemie]

177. It ceased to matter on 8/26/2007. Sorry.

[steve2470]

179. ? explain please

I'd say it matters a lot to the relatives and friends of people who died and were injured and traumatized that day. So, I think we disagree. I voted for President Obama twice, so I'm def. not in the 911VERB camp like Giuliani.

[ScreamingMeemie]

183. ...

Just as 9/26/2007 matters to the friends and relatives who loved my husband. I relive that day (9/26/2007) in my head (and the 3 days leading up to his unexpected loss) over and over again. Not 9/11. I don't need you to agree with me.

[steve2470]

184. ok my sympathies and sincere condolences to you

I thought you were implying that 911 was a non-event. So, I think we do agree. All the best to you.

[Duckhunter935]

178. Just finished watching a movie

at Kunsan AB, Korea. All of the TV channels were showing live coverage. Got recalled to our air defense site to man the system.

[IVoteDFL]

180. School. 8th grade

I was late that day, so I was in the office getting a late slip. There was always a TV on in there and it was just after the first plane had hit. At first people thought it had been an accident and mostly just kept going about their work day. Then the second plane hit. We were sent to our study hall rooms and I'll never forget the teacher I had at the time, Mrs. Jones. While most of the teachers tried to distract students, she had a lot to say about the Middle East and GWB. It was probably more than I understood at the time, but I appreciate it now. She was definitely one of the first influential Democrats in my life.

[dhill926]

181. O'Hare airport....

No one knew what was going on at first. Then we saw flight attendants crying....(United). My mom eventually came to pick me up, took me 3 days to get home (at that point) to Indy. Was just riveted to the TV for a few days. Very dark times....Of course didn't know then, how bad things were gonna get.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

185. I was living in Oregon in 2001, and I had formerly been in the habit

of switching on NPR news on my way into the kitchen each morning.

However, I had recently rearranged the living room, so the radio was no longer in easy reach. I ate breakfast and then went to my computer to see whether any e-mail had come in overnight from clients in Japan.

On the J>E translators' mailing list, the final message was from an American translator who lives in Japan: "Oh my God, turn on your TV NOW!"

I assumed that it was about some event happening over there, so I just went on to check DU, which, at the time was the first non-work website I looked at each morning. The headline posts were unreal: "World Trade Center destroyed" and things like that.

Many years before, I had visited the WTC and stood at the corner of one of the buildings, seeing its huge corner pillars almost disappear into the sky. So of course, I clicked on the messages, and they were pretty incoherent, with news and rumors coming in fast. The one I remember was from Khephra (R.I.P.): "It's true. Both towers are gone."

(It was only a bit after 8:00AM in Oregon, but after 11:00AM in New York.)

I couldn't make any sense of it, so I finally turned on NPR, and of course, that was all they were talking about. I still couldn't wrap my head around the idea, so even though I hadn't liked CNN for a long time, I turned it on, and the whole disaster finally became real to me. I was in shock and rather frightened. What next? Was there going to be an all-out war on our soil?

Then the phone rang, and it was the woman who ran my church's phone tree. She said that our priest, who was from New Jersey and who had once lived in a place where he could see the WTC being built, and who had heard from his sister, an ER nurse in NJ, saying that they were preparing to receive the injured, had called a prayer service for noon inviting anyone in the downtown area who wanted to pray and meditate. So I made my calls and then headed downtown for the service. There were a lot of unfamiliar people in the congregation, all of them looking shell-shocked.

That afternoon, I heard from my mother and stepfather, who lived in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Normally, they were CNN/CSPAN junkies and always had one of those channels on in the background, but for some reason, they had not turned on the TV that morning. They had received a call from the secretary of their financial advisor, whose office was in the tallest building in Minneapolis, telling them that their appointment was cancelled because the building was being evacuated. When my stepfather asked why, the secretary exclaimed, "You must be the only people who don't know!"

Later that day, there were news reports of a car being found in the parking lot of Boston's Logan Airport with a Koran and a flight manual in Arabic. As one who was a Robert Ludlum fan when I was young and had no taste, I couldn't help thinking that this was exactly the kind of circumstantial evidence that the Bad Guys used to frame Our Hero in every single Ludlum book so that he could run from glamorous destination to glamorous destination accompanied by a beautiful woman who happened to be the only person in the world who believed in his innocence. (There, now you don't have to ready any Ludlum books for yourself, because that's the plot of every single one. But I digree...)

Later that week, I went to my volunteer job at Portland's classical music station. The staff told me that they'd been fielding calls all week from people saying that classical music was all they could stand to listen to in the wake of 9/11.

I've heard young people say that they're sick of boomers talking about the Kennedy assassination. The reason we remember it so vividly is that everything changed after that. It was the real beginning of the fabled 1960s.

I imagine that if humanity survives, the grandchildren of the Millennials will roll their eyes and groan when their elders talk about 9/11.

[DFW]

186. In Sprout City

I was in the office of a Transylvanian friend who has lived there for decades. My phone rang, and it was a friend from London who had just seen it on the British news. I thought he was joking, as he frequently did, but he swore he was not. He then called again shortly later to say the second tower had been hit.

By the time I was on the train to Germany that evening, the last two planes had gone down, and when the other passengers in my car heard there was an American on board who spoke both French and Flemish, they bombarded me with all sorts of questions I couldn't answer.

[U4ikLefty]

187. Watching after the first plane was thought an accident, then

the second plane hit. I thought "oh shit, they got us back" immediately. I knew America would never be the same, either we would face up to the shit we caused OR we would get all nationalistic...

Unfortunately we didn't cope well & we have what we have today.

[BooScout]

188. I came out of a meeting in Atlanta...

I had just come out of a meeting at work in Atlanta when someone said a small plane had just hit the WTC. I didn't think too much about it at the time and went outside with some friends to smoke a quick cig on a beautiful early fall day.

We came back from smoking and I went to the company cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee and when I came into the lobby of the building, someone had turned the tv on an elevated stand on which they rarely did.....There was a pretty big crowd in the lobby watching as people,came through heading to get coffee. I stopped and watched and the 2nd plan hit. Any doubts any of us had then were gone, someone was intentionally using planes to attack us.

I probably watched tv for about 15 more minutes with several hundred people and then went back to my desk...but all I did there was try and get updates online at various news sites which kept being unavailable because of so much traffic on them.

Then I just gave up getting anything online and we gave up trying to work and went back to the lobby to watch the tv. Then the reports of the Pentagon being on fire started coming in. Then reports it too had been a plane.

Then the first tower fell and people were crying or just standing there stunned. They had been reporting there could be tens of thousands of people in the buildings and no one knew how many had been able to get out. There were all sorts of other reports of bombs and attacks coming in at the same time that we just couldn't keep up with it all.

Then the other tower fell....and my company came over the PA system told us all to go home. There were about 1200 people working at my company then. Traffic home was a nightmare, so I took a back way that brought me straight through downtown Atlanta. I worked just north of town so as I headed down the main hwy I-75 into town, there was no traffic heading my way....they were all heading north (most of the city sent employees home that morning).

When I got to the point on I-75 where the city came into view, it occurred to me why no one was heading south. Everyone was avoiding the city and the skyscrapers. Thankfully Atlanta wasn't a target that day, but I was pretty damned scared driving through the city to get home.

I went straight to some friends house and we watched the tv together for several hours. When I went home that afternoon I just couldn't watch anymore and took my dog Scout for a walk. I lived in a neighborhood close enough to Atlanta's busiest highway I-285 that you could always hear it the side of the neighborhood closest to it....and I didn't hear it at all that afternoon...everyone had gone home...there was no traffic and no noise. We were also in the flight path for Hartsfield and there was no planes in the sky....they had landed them all by then. I remember how eerily quiet it was....on a beautiful fall day.....and then two fighter jets went streaking overhead and I took Scout home and cried.

[LeftishBrit]

189. I was in the computer room at work...

suddenly I heard a TV from a neighbouring room. This was a surprise in itself; we did not generally have TV in the offices. Then I heard something about a plane crashing into a building. Thinking at that point that it was about a terrible accident, I ran to the room where they'd brought the TV and heard it all.

Then a very worried e-mail to a friend and colleague in New York to check that he was all right. He was, but he had students who'd lost relatives.

A horrible day.