Where were you on 9 11?

[markfnc]

Try not to make this political, where were you on  Sept 11, 2001?

Me - I had a job site meeting in Charlotte at 8 am.  It had wraped up about 8:55, and I got in my truck.  I heard on the radio that a "small plane" had hit the World Trade Center.  I rolled down my window to tell my Superintendent.  Just moments later, the radio said another plane had hit the 2nd tower.  During the 15-20 minute drive to our Charlotte office, their were all kinds of reports.  A plane had hit the mall in DC.  A plane had hit the Pentagon.  They were trying to get all the planes out of the sky. 6 planes were not responding.  The towers in Charlotte were being evacuated.  By the time I got to the office, they were all watching on tv.  I watched for a while.  Called my wife (the little one was 2 1/2 months then), called my mom.  When the secratary came into my office to say the building had collapsed, I could not beleive it.  At the time they still thought that 25000 peole were in each tower, but I thought of the rescue workers.  

A sad day.  We went to the Cabarrus County fair that night, and everyone was in shock.  There was a moment of silence, and they played the Lee Greenwood song.

The other thing I remember was when flights started back a week + later.  We lived in the flight path.  We were at a little league game watching a nieghbor kid play.  We knew planes were to start flying that evening. When the first plane flew over going in to the Charlotte airport, everyone cheered.  

[Monterey]

I was at work.  One of my coworkers said they heard on the radio that a small plane had hit one of the world trade center towers.  I was thinking it was some fool trying to get into Newark or La Guardia and got off course.  

Then we heard that a second plane had hit the other tower.  I was thinking, "Man it must be really cloudy up there to have landing planes hitting downtown Manhattan".  It just never occurred to me that it could be anything else.

Our building was right next door to the Willow Grove Naval Air station.  When we saw wave after wave of A-10's taking off, followed by the P-3s I knew something was NOT right.  Not too long after my company closed for the day for "emergency reasons".  It wasn't until I got home that I found out what was really happening.  I spent the rest of the day just kind of staring at the TV trying to make sense of it all.

[cyclone]

I was driving to work (I probably left home about the time the first tower was hit).  Shortly thereafter, the radio station switched to a network news feed.  I remember they had an aviation expert who was disputing reports that it was a small plane.  I remember exactly where I was when news came that the second tower was hit.  As I neared the hotel I work in, word came of the attack on the Pentagon.  I ran into the hotel and there was a huge group of people (guests and employees) clustered around the big-screen tv's in the lounge.  I was watching in our general manager's office when the first tower collapsed.  We went through 2 bomb threats and an anthrax scare in the days following.  I was halfway home that night when I passed an apartment complex that has a circle of flagpoles near the street.  They used to fly colored flags and switch to American flags on holidays.  That night the American flags were flying and have been ever since. When I saw that circle of flags at half mast, I lost it and cried the rest of the way home.  (I'm not going to get political here but am ending it with a tiny bit of religion.)  GOD BLESS AMERICA!  :usflag:

[AustinBoston]

I was going to post this on another thread, but I think it really belongs here.  It's not about where I was physically, but where I was emotinally.
---
Many of the old timers will remember that PJay and I took our three children on a major cross-country trip several years back.  We took 8 weeks to travel across the US from Massachusetts to California, then north to Oregon and back.

I posted many stories of encounters with bears and buffalo, of people and places, lakes and mountains, miles and miles and miles.  We searched for diamonds in Arkansas, we vistied caves in New Mexico and in South Dakota.  We saw waterfalls in California, Oregon, Wyoming, and Colorado.  I noted seeing at least 70 different species of wildlife (not including birds).  There were foods from Dutch Oven treats to a dinner so expensive that Discover turned off our credit card.  It was and remains a defining moment for our family.

There came a point, as we drove away from Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon, that PJay started to cry.  It was there that we turned back east.  There was plenty of trip left and plenty of sights to see, but now we were finding our way home.  From that point, although some of the best adventures were ahead, there were more and more reminders that the trip would end.

For me, it was when we camped in Michigan on the shores of Lake Huron.  That was our last campground.  There was nothing wrong with the state park we stayed at, but compared to some of the other adventures we had been on, it was a bit of a letdown.  The next day, we crossed southern Ontario on our way to Batavia, New York, where we had to be for a wedding.

A few days later, we parked our pop-up in the driveway, and we all got out and hugged and cried.  It was over.

When I returned to work, it seemed as though everything was different.  Things had not changed much, but I had changed.  I can't put a finger on it beyond this - I was still on a high from the trip we had taken.

We settled into the grind, with both Pam and I returning to work and then the kids going back to school.  But the high remained.

It didn't last forever though, nor it did it fade away.  No, the Long Trip really ended less than three weeks after we returned.  Ross, who sat near me, said his wife had called, and there was a report of a plane hitting the World Trade Center.

Austin

[TheViking]

My business partner and I were at a clients home, Installing a windshield in their car,  I remember them yelling at us to come inside and look at the TV, we ran inside and could not beleive what we saw.  They asked us to sit and brought us coffee and muffins as if we were longtime friends over for a visit.  Now, we did not know these people from Adam, nor did they know us, but just the impact of what happened that day drew people together.  We lost money on that job due to the 4 hours we spent at their house, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  However, as we found out later, the HQ of the clients insurance company was located in WTC Tower 1.  I can't remember if we were ever paid for that job, nor do I care, but what it taught me was that something like this can effect everyone, even two small time Winshield installers in Arizona.

[HrH PrincessLeia]

Senior year of high school. It was second hour, the long period. I was in the second row from the right, third row back. My SPED class. There where 5 students, one teacher and an aide. They made an anouncement over the speakers for us to turn on the TV.

We didn't do any work that day, in any of our classes. We had the tv's on in every room. The councelors office was opened to students who wanted to be there. I remember that at some point I went down so I could call my mom. I knew my dad was working for the goverment in Boston, and I was scared. She told me he was alright, they where sending him home.

After reading what AB wrote, I just sat here and wept. Here are two defineing moment in my life The Long Trip and 9/11. And they are so seperate and differently emotional that I didn't even realise they happened right next to each other

[wavery]

I just spent 30 minutes writing a long post for this thread. I couldn't post it. It's just a very painful day.

[chasd60]

I was at work and we had just finished up our regular morning meeting. Someone came into our lab and said to check out MSNBC. It was hard to get to the site because of web traffic.
 
Our company put the news on all of the monitors so we could find out what was going on. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and I was really at a loss when the Pentagon was hit.
 
From that point on my life was changed.
I arrived in New York on Sept. 12 2001 and I worked on the pile at Ground Zero on Sept. 14 2001.
Was an awful eery feeling seeing fighter planes screaming across the sky and National Guard troops on the corners setting up guard over a helo pad.
http://userpages.prexar.com/chasd/manhattan.htm

[bmbkamp]

I was on the PATH train to the WTC that morning.  I believe the first plane hit when I was in the station, which was located in the basement.  As soon as I got out of the train, I put my Walkman on, walked upstairs through the mall, out onto the street and continued my walk to work (Maiden Lane & South Street), oblivious to the world, as most NYC commuters are.  I had no idea what was happening.  As soon as I got to my office (about 5-10 minutes later), someone told me that the WTC was on fire.  We couldn't see anything from our building, but if we looked straight up between buildings, we could see thick black smoke.  My Dad emailed me something about a small plane, and we all tried to figure out what was happening.  We all heard and felt the second plane hit - a mettalic-sounding BANG!  Our whole building shook.  By then we knew what was going on.  The phones were out, but email still worked.  I wrote my Dad and told him to call my wife and tell her that I was leaving.  I thought the best thing I could do was get out of way.  My boss gave me the OK to leave, and I headed over to the ferry port at Wall & South Streets, where I knew I could catch a ferry to NJ.  When I got down to the street there were hundreds of people on Maiden Lane looking at the towers on fire.  I knew there were jumpers, and I didn't want to see that, so I just high-tailed it to the ferry.  There was a huge line at the ferry, but I got on the 2nd one to Atlantic Highlands, NJ (near Sandy Hook).  The ferry was crowded, and I ended up at the top of the ferry, which was outside.  We were about thirty seconds out of the port when I saw the first tower go down.  It was an incredible roar, and then we watched the dust cloud swallow lower Manhattan.  I had my radio on the whole time, so I knew about DC and PA.  I finally got a phone line on my cellphone when we got to NJ, so I called my wife and had her come pick me up.  I was home by 1:30pm.  

I was back at work a week later.  I walked up to the site on a lunchbreak once and saw what was left.  We couldn't get too close, but the smell was pretty bad.  If you've ever got a good whiff of a burned-out car - that's about what it smelled like.  The slow subway rides through closed stations gave you the creeps, too.  There was a fire station close to our building.  They lost over 10 guys.  It took me quite awhile before I was able to walk past it.
 
During the weeks that followed, we watched the steady procession of twisted steel from Ground Zero being loaded on barges bound for Staten Island, witnessed streets being opened up, subway and ferry service returning to normal.
 
I worked in NYC for 13 years, lived in NJ my whole life, and left for another job and cheaper real estate in PA about 3 years ago.  I really like my house, the schools and the area.  But I really miss NYC.  
 
Bob

[AustinBoston]

Senior year of high school. It was second hour, the long period. I was in the second row from the right, third row back. My SPED class. There where 5 students, one teacher and an aide. They made an anouncement over the speakers for us to turn on the TV.

We didn't do any work that day, in any of our classes. We had the tv's on in every room. The councelors office was opened to students who wanted to be there. I remember that at some point I went down so I could call my mom. I knew my dad was working for the goverment in Boston, and I was scared. She told me he was alright, they where sending him home.

After reading what AB wrote, I just sat here and wept. Here are two defineing moment in my life The Long Trip and 9/11. And they are so seperate and differently emotional that I didn't even realise they happened right next to each other

Do you remember me asking about the pledge?  I knew in liberal, synical Massachusetts, that no high school student ever actually recited the pledge in the morning.  Things had been that way at least since I was there in the late '70s.  But on your first day back after 9/11, there was nobody who didn't recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Austin

[kimrb266]

I was pregnant and was getting ready for a Dr's apt when we turned on the TV and found out the news.  It was devistating, it didn't seem real.  When I arrived at my appt., there wasn't anyone there.  They slowly trickled in and were very somber.  We found out we were having twins.  I guess GOD takes away life and give it back in return.   Boy did he give it back to us,  we now have 4 yr old twins and we wil never forget that day.

[OC Campers]

I was home with my 5 month old baby.  He had just had his first eye surgery the day before.  I remember watching the news and just sat there in disbelief.  I grew up on Long Island and spent many a day with family in NYC.  All I kept remembering was standing up on the top of one of the towers as a teenager  and looking out over all of Manhattan.  What an awesome sight!!  A sight that was taken away from so many families.  

Some day I want to take my family to NYC and see where the WTC once stood.   It will be a surreal moment.
 
Jacqui

[ilovecamping]

We were at home, just getting ready to leave for work, and DH saw it on TV but we thought it was an accident.  We left for work, less than a mile from home, and by then we heard it on the news(radio) and had the owner turn on the TV when we got there and just could not believe what was happening.  DH's DD in GA called a bit later worried that her father would have to go back to active duty as he was retired military.  We reassured her that it wouldn't happen, especially since he had open heart surgery just prior.  It is still hard to realize all that took place even knowing that it did.  It was one of the saddest days.

[Kelly]

I was home with my 2 youngest ~ one and almost-two.  I never have my TV on during the day ... my neighbor called and told me to turn it on.  I spent the day on the family room floor watching all the horrible events unfold, crying and trying to entertain my babies.  

Later at work ~ we had a couple of TVs throughout the building and we spent most of our time watching the news.  Not much work got done that night or in the days that followed.

I remember watching the documentary done by Jules & Gedeon Naudet when it first came out and being absolutely stunned by what they had captured on film.   They updated it and replayed it last night on CBS and I cried just as hard watching it then as I did the first time.

Cyclone ... to your tiny bit of religion I say Amen.

 

[aw738]

I was sitting in the dentist chair during a cleaning. The hygenist had just left to give the exrays to the dentist and I heard it on the radio. I got up out of the chair to get closer to the radio and listened in disblief. I ended up going to work after that. We recieved a call later that day from our district manager asking us if we were close to any nuclear facilities. Thats when it really hit me.