35 replies to this topic

[Jocko]

September 11, 2001

Driving home from work listening to the radio, I heard the initial report of the 1st explosion at the WTC. I immediately called my mom. When I got home, still talking to Mom, I turned on the tv. Mom and I watched in horror as the second plane was flown into the other building. Tears streaming down my face, then and now, I stood in my living room unable to speak or move. Mother and I stayed on the phone, mostly in shocked silence, until the towers collapsed. It is a memory I wish I didn't have.

To those who are, have, or will serve
Semper Fidelis

[umpcoachfather]

I was starting vacation, I was up packing the car, had the news on while doing so. My office at that time overlooked lower Manhatten. Im an IT guy and worked for Cantor for 2 years on the 104th floor, I still have my id card. Lost many friends that day, my mothers neighbor son was lost, 3 people from my town - such a waste of life by a bunch of 3rd and 4th world savages. I take the train into Manhatten every day and walk by the site both to and from my office, I think about it everyday.

[JaxRolo]

September 11, 2001

Driving home from work listening to the radio, I heard the initial report of the 1st explosion at the WTC. I immediately called my mom. When I got home, still talking to Mom, I turned on the tv. Mom and I watched in horror as the second plane was flown into the other building. Tears streaming down my face, then and now, I stood in my living room unable to speak or move. Mother and I stayed on the phone, mostly in shocked silence, until the towers collapsed. It is a memory I wish I didn't have.

To those who are, have, or will serve
Semper Fidelis

Same here! But is is a reminder of how GREAT this nation is and what we stand for. Thanks you to all Service members, police, firefighters, etc. Even thanks to the Coast Guard!

[scrounge]

Being in the central time zone, I was getting ready for work when the first plane hit. Of course, at that time it looked like an accident. Being an amateur student of aviation/airline accidents, I was watching the news live when the 2nd plane hit. Obviously, that made it fairly clear that this was no accident. In a daze, I left for work knowing that this was going to be a long day. Cause I was a route planner at United Airlines.

The whole morning was pretty much in shock. We didn't know where our planes were or how many were missing. Rumors were flying everywhere. While I was in planning and not operations, who were in total chaos dealing with the worldwide shutdown and grounding of the fleet, we tried to assist and get a feel where planes were landing, especially the international flights. I still remember looking in the reservations/ops system and seeing the cryptic "status unknown" message for UA 175.

After about noon, the focus started to turn to 'what do we do'. At first I thought it was completely crass to think about business at a time of war, but in a way it was therapeutic. We had no model - would 20% of traffic disappear? What if it were 50%? How much could go away and have the company - or the industry - survive? How long would it take? What airports should close? What next

By late night, I think around 10 or 11 pm, we finally left. The sheriff had the headquarters' building on lockdown, as it would the next couple of days. It was so surreal living in the NW Chicago burbs and being used to the O'Hare flight patterns and looking up and seeing NOTHING. Our house was on the intermediate approach for one runway, it was a routine of life to see planes on approach. Except now there was nothing. No lights in the sky except stars. And the occasional, solitary fast mover - fighter jets on patrol. FQ#$%$ fighter jets flying CAP above an American city....

That day sucked.

[Umpire in Chief]

I was living in Columbia, MD at the time, which is half way b/t DC & Baltimore. The day before I had interviewed for a position back home. Between a number of issues I didn't get back to MD until really early in the morning (like 2 or 4 AM) of 9/11. I was working in Tyson's Corner, VA at the time. But once I got to my apartment I called out for the day. My wife was still staying at home after the birth of our daughter in June. Immediately after the first plane hit she runs into our bedroom yelling at me, "We're being attacked!" & "New York is being bombed!" I jumped out of bed and turned sat in front of the TV. Once I saw for myself what was happening I knew immediately it was Bin Laden, being a little too familiar with the USS Cole bombing. We watched the second plane hit. When the plane hit the Pentagon the local DC station was initially reporting the Washington Monument was hit.

I honestly was on a bit of edge at the time. Columbia is very close to the NSA headquarters, which would be a lucrative military target. I was actually devising a plan of where to go if more continued to happen.

Adding to the edginess around mid-day my area lost power and land line phones and forget about your cell. I didn't own a battery powered radio and it was obvious many of my neighbors didn't either as we were going to our cars to listen to updates. We were all assuming the worse thinking something had happened pretty close to us.

I personally didn't know anybody from any of the sites, but know many who do.

[Thunderheads]

This was done last year also, but I can't find last years post.,....I thought it'd be in the Free For All, or Off Topic boards, but can't find it ........I was going to do this and "re-start it" so to speak...

[Dannytheman]

I was at work when my wife called. She said, "Are you watching TV?" I turned it on about 30 seconds before the 2nd plane hit. I was running promotions for the company I worked for, and I had 2 employees going to Jersey City, NJ for a Puerto Rico pride parade. (Jersey City is straight across the river from Ground Zero) I could get them on the phone, all the circuits were busy. Left 15 to 20 voicemails. I told my wife to get the boys out of school and home. The employees heard the radio and hightailed it back. Once they were in the parking lot I sent them home and left about 11:30 for home myself. I spent the next 3 days glued to the TV watching and waiting. I loaded 700 rounds of 44 magnums in those 3 days. Melting lead and casting bullets was somewhat stress relieving and relaxing. Having a wife and 4 kids made me scared in a way I was never before or since.
My heart and tears go out to all the families of the victims and heros' of that day and following days.

[cyclonehokiece]

I was a freshman in high school in Wisconsin. We were hearing rumors before school about a tower at the WTC being hit, but thought it was a bad accident. Went to first hour class, heard nothing different, went to second hour, which was band, the choir director comes in and says the second tower was hit, and the Pentagon was hit. About 10 minutes into the rehearsal (not that much was getting done at this point), the principal comes over the PA and says that America has come under attack and we should pray the rest of the period (this was a Christian school). They tried to keep the day as normal as possible, but some teachers had their TVs going (at this time, not all teachers had a TV in their room, that was going to change in a few months). Lots of talk about keeping in the faith, praying for the victims, and even the theology teacher emphasizing that we should pray for our enemies (a teaching in Christianity). After the day was over, my mom picked me up, and the strangest thing was seeing the shopping mall across the street completely empty. Went home and watched the TV the rest of the day.

This is one of the many times I was glad I was around those of similar faith that we could comfort each other. Sure helped us get through it. May God bless the victims, God bless our troops, and may God Bless America.

[Thunderheads]

I'll set the stage and try to be brief:
Monday, September 10th, my boss and I headed to Boston for an engineering assessment on a facility. Tuesday, September 11th we were doing another assessment on a facility in Orange County, CA. Our itinerary, fortunately was firstly, Northwest Airlines, ..secondly, we departed Boston Monday evening enroute to LAX via Detroit, arriving LAX 1030pm PDT.

My wife woke me up Tuesday morning at 5:50am PDT with the news of plane 1 .... I said, "please, it's an accident, I'll call you when my alarm goes off" ........ 20 minutes later, ...call 2, and I was up ....TV on, ... 1900 miles away and not a damn thing I could do about it!

The phone rang again, this time my mom in tears, .... "Oh my God you're there!" .....I said, "of course I'm here mom, I'm fine" ......

She had forgotten my itinerary, and only knew I was in Boston Monday.... and was headed to LA .........poor thing .....

SWMBO and my anniversary is Sept 18th .... so that Friday, Sept 14th we were supposed to travel out to SanDiego for vacation. She was fortuate enough to be able to catch a private plane from her place of work at the time and get out to Orange County Friday afternoon ....and our anniversary vacation went off with almost no hitches!

I'll never forget those 3.5 days alone, and without her, and the feeling of relief to see her get off that plane!

Thankful always.

I'll never forget this day, nor should any of us

God Bless all who've been affected in any way!

[mstaylor]

I was at a local restaurant having breakfast. I stayed and watched the drama unfold. I left there and went to work, they had TVs on in the office. I walked in and the Pentagon got hit. Definitely a surreal day. I was never in the service but would like to thank all that have.

[BRUMP]

My memories are scattered. I was in first grade at the time and all I remeber was seeing my mom crying as she picked me up from school after the second plane hit. I did not lose anyone close to me, but I know those who do. To all military members and first responders and to all those civilian heroes that day sincere thanks.
God Bless America.

[Typhoon]

I was at the gym on a treadmill when glanced a picture of the WTC with smoke coming from it. There was no sound and I thought that it was a replay of the first bombing. I got home shortly thereafter and to my horror it had been a live picture, then the second plane hit and all I could think of was the poor people trapped above.

Tony

[Matt]

US Army Intelligence Center.

[Dannytheman]

US Army Intelligence Center.

And?? You could tell us but then you haved to kill us??

[KLAH316]

I had just walked in the back door of the PD and found a couple of my fellow officers huddled around a radio listening to the news when I found out....
(I didn't have a stereo in my old car so I had no idea what was going on). We then went into the Sgt. Office and watched the news for a while in shock.
At that time the boss told us all to get out there and go to work. It was a surreal day to be at work and wonder what would happen next and was there anything that I could do about it....

[umpcoachfather]

As I stated above; we were going on vacation. We were looking forward to the next 6 days in Cape May NJ. I spent that time either on the sand or at the pool, thinking about going back to active duty. My second child was just born that May, I had a really good job and it was difficult explaining it to my wife. Finally- I told her I would wait. Well I waited, in November I started all the initial paperwork and was scheduled to have a meeting at Fort Dix in December to sign all the final papers. The night prior I lost a finger on my hand and that disqualified me. This morning I was walking to the office, past the site and through zucotti park (home of the occupy movement) and past Trinity Church - where I was called a F*^%$& As*&^% - by some dirty long hair youth- his bravery was most likely due to his 3 friends standing next to him. I wanted to administer some wall to wall justice, or in this case wrought iron fence to sidewalk justice, but thought better of it. They have no idea of the freedoms they enjoy and what the cost of modern dentistry is. Sorry had to vent.

[Matt]

US Army Intelligence Center.

And?? You could tell us but then you haved to kill us??

I will say it was a busy day. In addition, there was going to be an elaborate change of command for the center that day, but the attacks happened about two hours beforehand. It was pared down considerably.

[mstaylor]

I was talking to my son about it. He was in middle school getting ready for his Algrebra II class. They were watching it on TV in the classroom, the teacher comes in, clicks the TV off and starts class. Lucas thought WTH, this is a serious world changing event.

[Dannytheman]

I was talking to my son about it. He was in middle school getting ready for his Algrebra II class. They were watching it on TV in the classroom, the teacher comes in, clicks the TV off and starts class. Lucas thought WTH, this is a serious world changing event.

Lucas is smarter than the teacher. No surprise there.

[mstaylor]

This teacher was known to be clueless, this just confirmed it. Lucas graduated with a 4.3 GPA plus a tech certificate in CAD. He also is a black belt in Kempo and an Eagle Scout. Let's just say I'm pretty proud of him.