9-11 Where were you?

[Shootist43]

On this, another date that will live in infamy where were you? I was on a plane heading for Mexico. We landed in Houston and I was enroute to the gate for my International flight when the "news" was flashed on the TV screens. I watched as the second plane went into the towers. All flights were grounded and after several days we were able to rent a mini-van that my collogues and I drove back to Michigan.

 

[Red Leg]

Pentagon - about three hundred feet from impact. Ceiling came down, but thankfully none of my people hurt. Lost a couple of friends and colleagues in other offices. Really long day.

 

[wesheltonj]

In Courtroom

 

[mdwest]

Laying in bed...

I had come off a midnight shift (was a cop at the time.. working on a major metro area SWAT team.. we had been out all night on a couple of dope related raids..).. I had gotten home less than an hour before the first plane hit the WTC.. My wife came in, woke me up and told me about the first plane.. I assumed it was a tragic accident and went back to sleep.. she came in just a few minutes later and told me about the second plane..

I immediately got up, put my uniform back on, and headed back to the office.. I was sure we were going to busy for the next few days with the entire country up in arms, scared, and not knowing what was to come next..

 

[huntermn15]

On September 11th 2001, I was hunting in the Brooks Range in Alaska with a few of my fellow 19-D's.

We were unaware of the events until we reached a small truck stop in Coldfoot, AK on September 14th.
We walked in and saw the second plane fly into the tower on television, and thought it was a movie, then 3 truckers told us of the horrors that had occurred. We watched the news there for 3 hours.

That day, the world changed for all of us.

 

[Bullthrower338]

I was a Superintendent on a construction project in Mt. Vernon, TX east of Dallas. Walked into a hardware store as the second plane hit. I thought it was a movie until I looked at the faces of all the people watching.
God rest all the souls lost that day!

 

[Ragman]

Pentagon - about three hundred feet from impact. Ceiling came down, but thankfully none of my people hurt. Lost a couple of friends and colleagues in other offices. Really long day.

I'm sorry for the loss of your friends. I'm sure glad you made out.

 

[Ragman]

I was at a small slaughter house as an inspector. We had no tv or radio all day. On the drive back to the office I heard on the radio of the attacks on the WTC. I assumed they were talking about the 1993 bombing. When I got back to the office I was told of the planes. That was at 4pm, so I was one of the last people to realize what had happened I'm sure. Hurried home and sat in front of the tv for the rest of the day in shock.

 

[CAustin]

Was walking into one of my restaurants when a hostess told me that a plane had hit a building in New York!
It was a day that made me angry at an unseen enemy that attacked my country for no reason. It is our generations Pearl Harbor.

 

[sestoppelman]

Just getting up to go to work, my wife said you better come see this on TV. I was watching when the second plane hit. I stayed home that day.

 

[rinehart0050]

Walking to class at West Point. Had just started my Army career in July of that year.

Base was locked down the rest of the week. We just sat in class watching the news, realizing that our time in the Army was going to be very different from what we expected.

 

[Newboomer]

We were living in Sequim, Washington state on Puget Sound. I had just pulled my tractor out of the barn to mow and looked out onto the channel. It was full of Coast Guard and Navy ships and the sky was full of military aircraft. I went back into the house and asked my wife what was happening. She had the tv on and we just sat there watching in horror most of the morning.
I'm pretty tolerant of most things but watching that fueled a real deep unquenchable hatred of all things islam.

 

[Vanguard2279]

The dispatcher at the small rural Nevada Sheriff's Office that I was working at called me to let me know. I had worked swing shift the night before and was supposed to attend a Basic Auto Theft class starting at 0800. I turned on the TV and saw the towers fall. I went to class and watched the news for the next few days to the exclusion of everything else.
I'm a combat veteran of Desert Storm. One of my many regrets is not serving after 09/11/2001. I miss how the country was after that day. Nothing mattered other than we were all Americans.

 

[BnC 04]

Middle of a NATO military training exercise in Germany.

 

[BigSteve57]

I was headed to work on Rt 95 South somewhere between the RT 295 and Rt 50 exits when I heard about the first plane "accident" on AM radio. I got to work and joined my co-workers watching TV on the 100 in. projector. Just then the 2nd plane hit and we all understood what was happening.

The CEO said everyone could go home and be with their family.
I don't recall who left right away - we speculated that the major highways might be closed soon.
This was the Washington DC area after all. Might US tanks roll on RT 95? Speculation went rampant.
Should we go home? Could we?

I hung around work until later and when all my people got to work I sent them home and then left myself.
The Capital Beltway and RT 95 were practically deserted. It was eerie.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Was in bed after working the second shift. Wife woke me up and I saw the second one hit. Wish I never did see it. I saw those perps at the FBO where I kept my plane. Ostensibly they were supposed to be candidates for a flight school, somehow or other connected to Saudi Arabia. They flew a Cessna 172, two perps in the back seat and one in the pilot seat with the instructor in the right seat. Who would have thought what these guys were up to. Sadly, it shows the mass naivete of the American population and the bubble we live in. I doubt we'll ever know the full story.

 

[firehuntfish]

I was flying home from a fishing trip in Alaska. We had an early morning departure from Anchorage to Seattle. We were on the runway in line for take-off from Seattle when the Captain came on the p.a. and informed us that there had been some sort of multi-flight hijacking event and that all air traffic was to be grounded indefinitely.

It was surreal to deplane and see thousands of people in the terminals milling about in a daze of confusion and concern trying to figure out what was going on. They were piling up the luggage in the concourses with cardboard signs on them designating the flight numbers. I remember most folks being extremely cooperative and calm for the most part. It wasn't mass hysteria as you would think... My sister, who was a corporate pilot for a small charter jet company, had the wits about her to get on the phone immediately with her company to try and get some inside info. They didn't know much more than we did so we immediately got in line to rent a vehicle and find a hotel in Seattle.

When we were watching the tv's in the airport, I will never forget that sickening feeling watching the planes hit those towers for the first time.... My brother-in-law was a police officer and with me being a firefighter, were both called back to duty as soon as we could get home. Once we came to find out that all commercial flights were going to be suspended indefinitely, we decided to start driving home from Seattle to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We made it back in just under 60 hours stopping only to eat and use the bathrooms. In every State we passed through, the reaction from the people was was much of the same... Folks were still in shock, and all that people talked about were the attacks. But, I distinctly remember never having encountered more accommodating, helpful folks along the way. Everyone seemed to bond over our country's shared tragedy. Honestly, that's the last time I remember this country coming together and standing united as one people.

Eerily, we came to find out that several of the terrorists including Mohamed Atta, lived in Coral Springs about 10 minutes up the road from us. Many of them also went to Florida flight schools one being Perry which is an executive airport 5 minutes from my house...

WE WILL NEVER FORGET

 

[sierraone]

Had just completed a two year contract in Kosovo. But was stuck there an extra week due to the U.S. airport closures. When I finally arrived home, made contact with my cop buddies in Little Rock. They told me that after the attack, the night shift was completely dead. For some time, no one came out of their houses at night.

 

[Adrian]

I was at work, just every day stuff, nothing unusual. The same as everyone else on September 11th.
It was just after lunch, early afternoon in the UK. A beautiful day.

A couple of sales reps visited and I overheard their conversation with someone in the office about a plane flying into one of the WTC buildings.

I remember thinking it was a tragic accident and wondered how bad it could be.
Selfishly I wondered how it would affect my forthcoming trip to New York. It was a surprise trip organised by my Mum to as a way to mark my Father's 80th birthday.

Then as I listened to the conversation outside my office I learned it was more than an accident and another plane was involved and another had been hijacked, reported missing.

We didn't have the www back then in our office so had no further news.

I telephoned my Dad and asked if he was watching the news and he told me what happened.

It was one of those moments in life you never forget.

I went home at 16:30 and sat glued to the news well into the early hours.
Everything seemed different after that day.

My trip to New York went ahead and it was then that reality struck.
The dust still in the air and coating everything near the lower end of Manhattan, the smell of burning and the smoke pall still rising over the rubble.

Suddenly everything I had seen thousands of miles away was there in stark reality.
Emotional and humbling.

 

[cpr0312]

In class at East Carolina University.. We all scrambled to try to get online but no news pages were loading. Went home after my morning classes and watched the news all day with my roommates and neighbors.
Lots of emotions that day!

Continued prayers for all the families affected that day and since then with loved ones that have been lost due to helping out on site with cleanup and recovery!