Where Were You?, 9/11 Memorial thread

[TheCarolinaScotsman]

I was working tech support at the time and was sleeping late after a night shift. My wife woke me and said a plane had just hit the WTC. I thought it must be a fluke accident, but I got up and dressed and got to the den just about the time the second plane hit. I knew then that it was no accident. Stayed glued to the set most of the rest of the day. Noticed eerie silence because all the training flights from Pope Air Force Base (Fort Bragg and 82nd Airborne) had stopped. Emotional numbness, dread of what would happen next (both to us and by us). The same sinking feeling that the world had changed for ever as we had the day Kennedy was shot. Knowing that in one way or another War was here. Wondering if hate would consume the world.

[Herrerano]

11 September 2001, I was in my office working on setting up a raw material inventory. I had a small radio on, but it was turned down real low. I started to hear the announcer on the radio remarking about something horrible and I remember hearing him say something about the twin towers (here they are always called the twin towers, Las Torres Gemelas. One of the girls in the front office called me and asked if I knew what was going on, and I had no idea what she was talking about, but decided to investigate. I went into our accounting office and they were listening to a local station that was interspersing their broadcast with reports from CNNE (CNN en español) as well as talking about the implications for Panama etc. I returned to my office and tuned them in and then tried to bring up CNN online without success so I opened the Tampa Bay online and started reading the AP reports as they came in.

It was one of the strangest days I ever remember. I am over a hundred and fifty miles southwest of Panama City, Panama, basically in the middle of nowhere, but the radio station we were listening to (Radio Reforma, in Chitré) was doing their best to keep up with events. There seemed to be all kinds of rumors too, one was that the president, Mireya Moscoso, had asked for help to defend the Canal, and that a contingent of U.S. soldiers had been brought in for that purpose. Then later in the afternoon she denied that saying that there were no U.S. troops in Panama and that Panama was capable of defending the canal itself. We were here late at the plant that day because we had to wait to load a trailer, but about 5:30 PM I heard that once so familiar sound of helicopter rotors and went outside to check it out. Not far off in the distance were two Blackhawks flying nap of the earth, and then a short time later a third one passed. They were flying off to the southwest, and since Panama does not own any Blackhawks that sort of showed the lie to what the Doña Moscoso was saying about no U.S. presence. I don't have a clue what they were doing or why they were out here but they were. I suppose it is possible that someone important may have been out here for one reason or another (Deep sea fishing is a big deal on the other side of the peninsula I am on and that is my guess is that someone was vacationing) and they were sent out here to pick them up and fly them back to the city.

Later that night, when I got to the house, the three national television stations that we can receive were broadcasting news items, as well as Panama's official response and their reiteration concerning the neutrality of the canal. At that time there were no public stations that stayed on all night, but that night one of them did and just rebroadcast CNNE continuously. That was the first of it I had seen and the images of the people jumping had me in tears.

The next day Radio Reforma continued their continuous news and rumor reporting, but about every half hour would broadcast the song "God Bless America", which seemed very comforting to me, but also seemed extremely strange considering where we are.

Leo

[Aaediwen]

Absolutely heartwrenching to this day.

I remember, a couple weeks after the event, my parents were on vacation so I was driving home from work myself instead of riding with my mom. As I turned onto Newtown Pike in Lexington headed for the interstate, there was a military convoy there as well. Then right when I got home I saw two Chinook Helecopters fly overhead. I spent the next couple hours playing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" and Def Leppard "Too Late for Love"

[urian]

When I first heard what happened, I had jsut turned up the radio as I dropped my exwife off at school that morning. I remembered the accident from a few years earlier so I didnt thing anythign of it. I just chalked it up to a blind pilot.
I went about my day with no tv or radio on.
I drove 45 minutes to my moms house to pick up Seans guitar so I could have it finally repaired. I walked into her house and she was sitting in shock watching her tv. I looked over about the time the first tower dropped..along with my heart. My god the people in there..on the street..in the planes...why? why did it happen? My god the shock.
I sat there in denial for a bit..had ot be a dream...something..anything that wasnt what it was..
*sigh*

[talleyrand]

Not to be difficult but I have always described three years ago as a good day for me, bad day for everyone else. On Monday, 10 Sep 2001 we had revisited the neonatologist because they'd noticed a mass early on in our pregnancy that might have been any number of things and at that point they said there's not much we can do but keep an eye on it. So, Monday we were 3 or 4 days overdue and they had said if we went over, that we needed to seem them to make sure everything's still kosher. The mass was still there but it didn't appear to moving or anything so that was good. We had a late lunch/early supper at Old Chicago and after that my wife wanted to go for a drive in the country. The leaves were turning early that year but I told her nah, it'd be our luck that she'd go into labor out in the middle of nowhere. We took the dog for walk instead and that seemed to do the trick. A few hours later (9ish), her body started getting ready for labor. After midnight (details omitted for the squeamish) it'd seemed obvious that this was the real deal so we got loaded up and got over to the hospital about 1:30. The initial exam, they're like maybe it's coming. Half hour later, they're oh yeah, you've dialated 4cm since you've been here, you're staying. Epidural went in about 5 something (here's where I start to get fuzzy) and at 6:56 CDT James Stillwater (our first) was born. I think I'd just gotten done giving him a bath and the doctor had finished taking care of my wife when a nurse commented a plane hit the trade center.

How the hell do you hit something that damn big? Granted, my wife was doped up but she was of the same opinion. Another nurse came in around 8 and said a plane hit the TC. We're like, we know. She's said, no, another one. WTF?

At this point the day becomes surreal. I think I left sometime after noon and everyone I passed by was just glued to the tube. I only started to hear the full details when I got in my truck and called my office to let them know A) Stilly was here I was now on vacation and C) ask what the hell is going on? I talked to Brenda (office secretary) the whole way home and at a few points in the conversation I kept thinking this is like the panic that errupted when War of the Worlds was broadcast, there's no way this really happened. When I got home, I hit slashdot to see what was going on. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone, calling all our family and friends and providing a bright spot for their day.

So, one of the best days for me. Today we had four of his friends from day care over and they all just ran wild and were carefree as they should be.

[Spradley]

I was just getting ready for work. I had turned the tv on to get my morning news. They were reporting on the first plane hitting the wtc, showing a live picture of the smoking tower, when the second plane hit the other tower. I ran upstairs and woke up my wife, turned on the tv telling her she needed to see this. I remember it as vividly today as when it happened. The anxiousness, the uncertainty, and the anger I can still recall today. I doubt anything will ever change that.

God Bless America, the fallen, and us all

[JaneyMae]

I had just dropped my husband off at his school and I was headed to mine, listening to the radio. Turned on the tv as soon I got in the building. Still breaks my heart! Too bad so many in USA have forgottn....

[CelticRoz]

Yes, JaneyMae! Didn't take people long, did it?

[maggiemahone1]

I remember this so well, I was at home and was excited about going away for a few days with hubby to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. That day the cable guy had come to install our broadband internet. I was watching tv on and off. I seen this terrible thing that had happened to our country and was so sad. Hubby and I decided to go on our trip, but we did cut it short because we didn't know what might happen next. I remember on our trip back the many flags that were flying. The many signs that said, "God Bless America." I seen one flag that was atop a crane and it looked magnificent waving in the breeze. After returning home I got some of my 4th of July decorations out and put red white and blue bows on our mailbox and gave out red white and blue ribbons to family and friends to affix to their car antennas.

I hope that God still continues to Bless America!

maggiemahone

[Danann]

I remember where I was... I was on Redstone Arsenal on the Marshall Space Flight Center side of the house. I was in the office getting ready for a meeting. At that time I was in charge of the NASA IT Security Operations center - we monitor network traffic for intruders into our networks and hackers. Since I worked in a Help Desk area, they are always tuned into CNN. We were watching the news reports on the other building that had flown into the World Trade Center, and then watched in horror as we saw the second one hit live. Everyone in the building was affected. I had to go to an emergency meeting, and we were told what was going on, as well as were updated as to what our duties for the day would be... monitoring all live traffic for anything coming from the middle east. When I got out of the meeting, I learned that the Pentagon had been struck, and I was scared. My dad often travels to the Pentagon for work, and I knew he was going to be up in DC that week. I immediately called my mom and asked where my dad was and if he was ok. She said he was delayed here in town for a meeting and hadn't left yet, asked me why and I told her to turn on the news. She just about broke down. Dad called her while I was on the phone with her to tell her he was on the way back to the house. That's when I was told that I had to remain at work, on an arsenal because we were considered mission critical. Needless to say, security on the military bases hasn't been the same since... Life here still hasn't gone back to normal, and we do remember still.

[Madadh]

I was at work. We were getting ready to rebuild our office and I was packing a friends stuff. Had the TV on just for background noise.

[ErikDeckers]

Since I worked for our family business at the time, I had not left for work. We heard on the Today show about the first plane, and I thought. "Hm, some moron just hit the WTC." So we watched Matt Lauer talk about it when they showed the video of a second plane hitting.

I went to the office shortly thereafter, and we watched it on a little TV in the office.

We didn't get a single lick of work done for the rest of the week.

The whole time I watched NBC's coverage, I was constantly struck by the thought about how much Katie Couric is NOT a real journalist, and watched CNN and CBS instead.

[Shamalama]

Around 6 of us were in a conference room discussing how to configure and implement a new piece of enterprise software for our company. One of us got a call from their wife saying something about an airplane hitting a building in New York. Seconds later my wife called me asking if I had heard about a plane hitting one of the Towers.

Each of us began clicking away to our favorite news websites. I was able to get to CNN for about an hour before they no longer responded. I switched to lesser known news services but soon I was only able to refresh a page ot two every couple of minutes. It seemed as if the internet was soaked in peanut butter. But what little we were able to get is that one, and then two, commercial aircraft hit the Towers. Being an employee of a commercial airline we all knew that it was impossible for these two events not to be related, and to be much more than equipment failure. This was deliberate, but by who?

My wife tried to keep in contact with me at work but the phone lines started getting jammed. The internet was almost unavailable. We got an email from corporate to get off the internet in that the company's bandwidth was completely saturated and that the company needed it for communication with our JFK and LaGuardia operations.

But nothing of substance got done all day. We spent the day holding our breath for the next attack.

It didn't take long to discover that Islamic terrorists were to blame. And it didn't take long to see images of cheering crowds in Palestine - that's an image I will never forget nor forgive.

My son had just graduated from Basic Training with the Marines. I could feel war coming, and I had great fear for my son. He was transferred to Washington, DC (someone has to protect Congress), and that was far better than the Middle East.

Today there are too many that either want to forget about it, or to blame America for it. Now Russia has begin to grieve for the loss of 300 school children by Islamic terrorists. "The fight against terrorism should become a national task," Russian President Putin recently said. Welcome to World War 3, Vladimir.

[Faileas]

I was still in North Yorkshire at the time, working at a Christian Community Centre called Scargill House near Skipton in Wharfedale. It was at the end of a sunny busy working day and we had our weekly bible group meeting. I just came through the door of the living room in the house where we came together and they had the news on and i saw picture of this plane crashing into one of the twin towers .... I couldn't believe it had really happened, we all were so shocked and it felt like a desaster movie, just numbed and filled with horror even tho none of us could have foreseen what that started off ...

I will never forget that day. At least they who died have peace now ... we still will have more years of war, spreading terror and high security checks at the airport.

God help us all in the years to come.

[Blue_Rogue]

I remember my boss and I had just opened our shop, we were waiting for our morning rush of customers. My boss got a phone call from his mother, tell us the news of a plane hitting one of the towers. We (like most people) figured a small private plane, in some freak accident had hit one of the towers. He was tuning in his radio to a news channel, I had gone out to the shop to tell the mechanics when the second phone call, the second plane had hit. Everyone stopped, we didn't know what to think.
It wasn't 20 minutes later that my boss's mother showed up with a Television. We set it up in the lobby and watched in horror.
We only had a couple of customers show up that day, nothing got done.
Things were pretty quite for a couple of days.
For me, one of the erriest things I've lived through was the absence of airplanes, no vapor trails, nothing (our shop is only 5 miles from the airport), it seemed as if even the birds knew not to fly.