Where were you on 9/11?

[Tab]

I don't think there needs to be another 9/11 thread, but I realized I've never seen one on this topic (akin to "where were you when JFK was assisinated?").

Anyway, my story...

Two things going on. The previous weekend, specifically Sunday the 9th, I separated from my wife and drove off with my son to the police station. I'll spare you the details, but the day before (Monday) I was at the courthouse filing for divorce (as was she). Fast forward to end of story, I have custody, he's fine, life is better. Regardless, the next day my wife and I shared that dark joke that we started World War III. That turned out to be closer to the truth than I wish.

Nevertheless - at the time I worked for a company in northern Massachusetts, and was driving down. It was an hour and a half trip in good weather and traffic (I have since moved). They announced a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I'm thinking a Cessna or something small.

A little bit later they announce another plane had flown in. At this point I start checking other channels and I start hearing all kinds of stupid shit, like "the FBI is looking into any possibility of wrongdoing". Hellooooo??? One plane = possible mistake. Two planes = something going on.

At any rate, during the whole drive down, it just got more bizarre, I was hearing reports from the Pentagon, sirens in the background, and as everyone got on board it just dominated the airwaves. What it reminded me of was The War of the Worlds, the broadcase where we were invaded from aliens from Mars. Not so much the invasion, but the quiet unfolding, little by little, delivered over the airwaves, a subtle horror conveyed on radio.

When I got to my destination, I could watch it on TV. Prior to that, it just seemed surreal. I'm in my car, the interstate looks fine, but all this stuff is supposedly happening, according to the radio.

One very weird (and sad) day.

[Red Zelda]

1. I remember sitting reading the 9/9 paper and saying ...

"Nothing happens anymore."

One amazing part of 9/11 is what passed for news the morning of 9/11. I worked the wire desk at a daily newspaper the night of 9/10. Tops on the AP budget were the popularity of Teletubbies and the Powerball Lottery. Really.

Then that morning the best on-the-scene coverage came on radio, from the Howard Stern show. Really.

[Benhurst]

2. I had worked late the night before. I was awakened by a call from

a friend who was at the time an unemployed grammar school teacher. She said she had just heard the World Trade Center had just been hit by an airplane. "Turn on the TV," she said. "We're under attack."

I did and was sipping on my first cup of coffee when the second tower was hit.

Of course it wasn't until much later, after plane crashed into the Pentagon, that our National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice first suspected the country was under attack.

It's too bad my unemployed friend didn't have the brilliant Dr. Rice's job that day -- she had figured out what was going on from get-go.

[KewlKat]

3. I had already arrived at work on the west coast

A coworked arrived and was a bit shook. She said she heard on the radio that a plane had struck the World Trade Center tower. I jumped on the internet and couldn't get it to respond. I guess many others must have also been trying to find news on the net and it was overloaded? Anyway, a few more early birds arrived and we headed back to a conference room with a satellite TV. We turned on the set and watched silently. Then the next plane hit. We were all at that point very emotional knowning now full and well that the first impact was not accidental. We didn't care to return to our desks, we were just glued to watch what was unfolding. When the first tower collapsed I think we all lost it. We kept shouting about all those people trapped inside, then the next tower dropped.......it was all too much. We heard about other planes being hijacked, saw the images as they began coming in from the Pentagon, then the crash in PA. We received notice from the Manager to go home immediately. We shut down and departed to where ever we could find comfort. I headed home and watched the news the rest of the day and into the night.

[Kazak]

4. At work, my coworker told me two planes just hit the WTC...

In my mind I immediately pictured these little red baron biplanes. It wasn't until lunchtime later that day, when I got the chance to see the television that I realized the immensity of the deal.

A similar thing happened when the OKC bombing occurred. My friend called me and woke me up to tell me a bomb had gone off in the city (we live in a suburb of OKC). In my mind, I immediately imagined like a stick of dynamite, a glorified fire cracker, you know, a small explosion. I just went back to bed, and it wasn't until later that I turned on the TV and realized the immensity of that deal.

[NewHampster]

8. My Grandfather saw the plane fly into the Empire State Building

I think it may have been a bi-plane.

[Benhurst]

13. It was much larger than a bi-plane ...

On the foggy morning of Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lt. Colonel William Smith was piloting a U.S. Army B-25 bomber through New York City. He was on his way to Newark Airport to pick up his commanding officer, but for some reason he showed up over LaGuardia Airport and asked for a weather report. Because of the poor visibility, the LaGuardia tower wanted to him to land, but Smith requested and received permission from the military to continue on to Newark. The last transmission from the LaGuardia tower to the plane was a foreboding warning: "From where I'm sitting, I can't see the top of the Empire State Building." ...

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1940s/a/empirecrash.htm

[NewHampster]

19. Just a teesny bit bigger

:)

[NewHampster]

20. Good read

Story: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0311.shtml

The plane was only minutes from LaGuardia but lost in a dense fog that limited visibility. Flight rules of the time required aircraft to maintain an altitude of at least 2,000 ft (610 m) over the city, but Smith dropped to less than half that height hoping to regain sight of the ground. That he surely did, but the pilot had misjudged his location and soon found his plane bounding through the concrete canyons of the city's skyscrapers. The bomber soon attracted attention from alarmed citizens as its roaring engines echoed off the facades of buildings below. Those working in the upper stories of office buildings raced to windows to watch in amazement as a plane flew beneath them, turning and banking rapidly as its wingtips barely missed some structures. One observer was Army Air Force Lt. Frank Covey who spotted the doomed B-25 from his room in the Biltmore Hotel. Covey watched in disbelief as the plane barely missed the New York Central Office Building and was no higher than its 22nd floor.

[JHB]

16. No, that was a WW2 bomber (I forget which type)

The only biplanes associated with the Empire State Building are the cinematic ones that buzzed King Kong.

[11 Bravo]

5. I was teaching school in Northern Virginia, approx. 7 miles ...

as the crow flies, from the Pentagon. Around 9:30 a passenger jet flew unsually low over our building. I can never be certain, but based on what we now know about the flight path, I believe that aircraft was American Airlines Flight 77.

[NewHampster]

6. Worrying about my daughter at NYU

Like millions of others I was deeply effected by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. My daughter was a new freshman at NYU, incredibly excited about moving to the city of her dreams. Her dorm was on 4th street, about 20 blocks from Ground Zero.

She called my cell phone to tell me she had just watched a plane fly into the World Trade Center.

Walking back from crew practice across Washington Square that morning she joined the street people in amazement as a plane flew over their heads towards the WTC. She and her parents are forever changed but very much alive and thankful for the wonderful and resilient people of New York City.

I took this photo during our first visit a couple of weeks after the students returned. The three guards resting under the Odd Job sign seems well, odd. It really captures the mixed feelings we had while gawking yet participating in a pilgrimage we had to make.



I was in Nashua, NH at work with about 25 people sitting in front of a large TV. The students quickly found out that cell was useless with most of the NYC towers in ruin but IM saved the day. We stayed on IM with Laura until I directed her to the Metro-North and a train ride to New Haven.

http://mygolfouting.com/911-memory.htm

[NEOhiodemocrat]

7. I was canning pears

listening to CD's so had no idea anything was going on. The septic guy came and I went out to show him where to pull in and he sat in his truck for a while, then got out and said, I was listening to Bush speak. Having no idea what had happened that morning my thought was "what a waste of your time". After I got back in the house about 1 PM my oldest daughter called me crying and said that we were under attack. Then I turned on the TV and started trying to catch up with what was going on.

[Terri S]

9. On my way to work in Brooklyn

I was waiting for the train that was taking way too long, and looked over toward the city and saw a huge black cloud. Damn, I thought. I didn't even bring an umbrella, the sky was the most beautiful shade of blue otherwise.

I ended up leaving and taking the bus. I kept hearing sirens and thought I smelled smoke. Going over the BQE into Bay Ridge I saw the cars stopped completely and people milling around on the road. Man... must have been one hell of an accident! The smell of smoke was stronger and there were lots of sirens by now. I'll never forget the look on my co-workers faces when I walked in the door. I'd never seen them so pale. Did you hear?

The rest of the day and weeks and months afterward I can barely even talk about. Even now. Probably always.

[LWolf]

10. At home, resting,

since I'd just been released from the hospital the day before; in icu for a few days with a skull fracture, concussion, and nerve damage.

My son called and demanded that I turn on the tv, even though he knows that I don't watch tv news. I gave in to his demand, watched for about 10 minutes, and went back to bed.

I remember thinking, "That's too bad."

In the days following, I didn't honestly understand the drama, the fear, the outrage, the grief.

I understood it for the people who died, and who lost someone.

I didn't understand why the rest of the nation was more concerned over this than the number of people murdered in their own communities every year.

After taking the nations' temperature, I figured it would give GWB something to rally people around, to lend some aura of legitimacy to his administration that was obviously lacking up to that point. I wondered if the U.S. would let him get away with it.

[Annces]

15. Such a rational response

You were right about George W.

[mruddy]

11. Having my teeth cleaned.

Now dental trips are a double whammy! First because, well it's the dentist & 2nd because it reminds me of what a terrible thing the neocons did to us.

[sweetpotato]

12. Playing hooky

My husband and I took a "mental health" day from work. We were watching a morning news program - "Today" maybe. They had cameras on tower that had been hit and so we watched the second airplane hit in real time. We watched TV all day. Saw the buildings fall, saw the jumpers.

I recall thinking that this was the beginning of the end of the US as we knew it. I thought I was just exaggerating - and being histrionic. I wish I had been.

[Annces]

14. Woke up to the radio

I heard the radio go on to wake me up, but the tone of the voices sent vibes through me and I knew something was wrong. I turned on TV and saw the story. I went to work and everyone was a buzz. No airplanes in the sky, very eerie.

[meegbear]

17. Day 2 of a one week Java language trainging class ...

There were only 3 of us in the class. The instructor was from South Africa and he was commenting on the 10th about how much sway the US has in world events in terms of what happens here.

On the 11th, he had the only internet connection in the room and he was reading PMs he was receiving from around the globe saying "This is World War III"! and "The US is going to nuke the Middle East"!

I worked at the time in Boston in the Prudential Tower, which is next to the hotel they had the raid. I was out of town for the week, so I missed the 'excitement'.

My company had 2 people quit because they were afraid of future terrorist attacks on tall buildings (we were on the 13th floor - yes, 13, there was no 12, go figure). There was also a man in the small office next door, who always said hello, but never knew his name (still don't). He was on flight 11.

[Breeze54]

18. I'm just wondering what brought this up?

:shrug:

I was at home in MA., had just dropped my son at his junior high, got back home and turned on the TV.

I totally freaked out when I saw what was happening on TV. Called my Dad and he didn't believe

me that all planes in the US were called to land. Then I learned that my oldest sister had flown

out of Boston that morning too. :scared: I freaked out even more and then we all (the family) headed

to my Dad's house to wait to hear from her... she was on a plane that was diverted and we didn't know

that for quite awhile. She ended up renting a car and driving to Chicago and then called us. It turned

out that she had boarded her plane at the gate right next to the hijackers at the exact same time!

[NOLALady]

21. My husband woke in the early morning hours

gasping for breath. He had a nightmare that he was surrounded by smoke and there was glass falling all around him. He said something's terribly wrong and I should call my Father to check on him. The first thing in the morning I called my Dad and he told me to turn on the TV.

I felt sorrow for the 911 victims but I was filled with this dreaded fear of war. Somehow, I knew this would be used as a pretext to go to war triggering the start of WWIII. I began to mourn for the planet.

[qdemn7]

22. I was asleep...

I work nights. A friend came and woke me up, and said a plane had hit the WTC. I said "What a Cessna?" He said "No, an airliner." I turned on the TV, just about the time to see the plane hit the Pentagon. I watched both towers fall. I then called the assistant manager at my job and asked if I should come in to work that night, would we be open tomorrow. He said "Of course, we'll be open." In this tone of voice that suggested it was stupidest question he had ever heard. At that point, it's a good thing we were miles apart. If we had been face to face I would have hit him or cursed him out. So I went back to bed, got up that evening and went to work. Listened to the radio all night at work, they just kept repeating the same exact reports over and over. The next morning, it was really strange. No one at my job, and I mean NO ONE even mentioned the attack.

[ThatsMyBarack]

23. I woke up to an email....

....from my friend in NJ who saw the whole thing outside her window. :(

[Nihil]

24. Which year?

:P

I was working with a couple of other people in a windowless server room
on Canary Wharf in London. We set up one of the servers to monitor BBC,
switching to other sites when the BBC slowed down too much.

After a quick not-really-joking estimate about whether our building was
far enough away from the tower at One Canada Square to be safe, we got
back to work (to occupy otherwise idle hands) and just kept an eye on
updates as they came in. The commute home had an unreal aspect too.

I was in NY last month and walked round the site of the WTC (mainly a
floodlit hole filled with scurrying workers). Very weird effect with the
lights from the pit making the mist glow like something out of a SF film.

Have a :hug: from England!