OT: September 11, 2001... Where were you?

[iowadoc77]

I will remember that day very clearly for the rest of my life. I was a senior dental student in a practice management seminar in Iowa City and someone came in and told the lecturer. He took off his glasses and was wiping away tears as he told us. The computer lab was swamped at break. We were dismissed early and I went home and 53/54 channels we had were showing coverage of the attacks. I just felt numb and in a daze that day. Hard to imagine that the images were real.
I am sure many or most of you remember as well. Any other stories to share?

[HOF Auto Rookies]

I was a freshman in HS in my keyboarding class. All of the upper class students were basically in tears. My math class was later in the day and my teacher's wife was supposed to be on the first plane. Was very emotional in that classroom. Something I'll never forget.

[packs]

I was in AP History. A teacher came in a said something to my teacher who then told us to go to the library. They had TVs set up. I'm from NY but had no connection to NYC despite being only about an hour and a half from it. It was weird being so close but also far away from everything.

[clydepepper]

I was off that morning...watching as the second plane hit...

My shift started at 4pm that day...large office with hundreds of folks in cubicles...very quite...we were all in shock.

Those moments changed many of our lives.

[Orioles1954]

I was serving a two-year LDS mission in Denton, Texas.

[bnorth]

I owned a masonry construction company and was putting brick on the steps of a house. Weirdly we never had a radio on the job site, that day we did. It is one of the few days in life I know exactly what I was doing.

[steve B]

I started at home, saw an email when I got up from a friend just saying "if you're not watching tv you should be" So I asked what channel and he replied "any of them" - First clue I had something big was happening. Eventually I went in to the bike shop figuring people would want a to gather and talk or stop somewhere for updates. Only had 3-4 customers all day. - The place is right on a bike path and especially at the time was a bit of a community hangout since we had picnic tables and ice cream and were totally ok with non-bicycle customers.

[Andrew1975]

I was in Washington, DC. Saw the smoke rising from the Pentagon. Never forget.

[KMayUSA6060]

I just posted this in the other 9/11 thread.

I was in 1st grade at the time. My class had about 20 kids in it. By noon, there were only 10-13 from parents pulling their kids out; nobody knew what was going on, and the one plane was hijacked over Cleveland, which is 40ish minutes from the school. I left in the early afternoon for a doctor's appointment, and remember the entire ride there listening to the somber tone of the radio news host, followed by "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood. When I got home after the appointment and was able to see the destruction, I was confused. Being so young, I didn't understand. I grew up in a very Patriotic family and wanted nothing more than to help, even at the age of 7.

I wrote a letter to President Bush in the days following the attacks. I don't remember what I said, but his team responded with pictures and a generic letter. Pretty cool at the time (I still have it).

Every year, I watch YouTube videos and TV shows that recall the horrific events that unfolded that day. I shed tons of tears and always try to learn a new story.

I will Never Forget.

[bn2cardz]

I was between classes in college. Walking to the parking garage with other classmates there were a couple of people outside a fox affiliate radio station booth for the St. Louis area. We walked by all the time and no one ever gathers outside the station, even if it is just one or two, so we thought someone may be doing an interview. We just off the cuff asked a gentleman what he was watching. He explained that a plane had just crashed into one of the twin towers in NY.

The station's TV's were viewable through the window and that was what was being watched. While watching and talking to the Gentleman trying to figure out what he knew about the crash the second plane came in and hit. Since we had just arrived we assumed they were replaying the original crash before it was obvious that it was the second. We stood there watching long enough to watch the towers fall. As time went on the crowd just grew larger. The gentleman we first talked to was at this point yelling "This is war, we are going to war now!"

Our school had to close for the day because an hour after getting back to the school a bomb threat was called into the school.

That evening I worked a shift at Wal-Mart and there were masses of people coming in to stock up on stuff as well as gas cap locks. Yet they weren't unruly or rude they seemed to want to just talk about the day and converse about what they knew.

[Snapolit1]

In a high rise in Times Square. Watched the fires but left before the collapse. Walked from 42nd Street to 180th Street in Washington Heights to try to walk over the GW bridge. Got there about 5 minutes after they closed it to pedestrians. Found out years later that the Port Authority employee in charge of the bridge has same name as me. Odd coincidence. Ended up having lunch in a Dominican restaurant at 11 am and drinking a few Presidente beers. All very surreal to say the least. Walked miles and miles that day but was on adrenalin and utter confusion.

[KingFisk]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

In a high rise in Times Square. Watched the fires but left before the collapse. Walked from 42nd Street to 180th Street in Washington Heights to try to walk over the GW bridge. Got there about 5 minutes after they closed it to pedestrians. Found out years later that the Port Authority employee in charge of the bridge has same name as me. Odd coincidence. Ended up having lunch in a Dominican restaurant at 11 am and drinking a few Presidente beers. All very surreal to say the least. Walked miles and miles that day but was on adrenalin and utter confusion.

Where in Times Square, Steve? I was at 1515 Broadway on the 46th floor. I walked from my apartment on 34th and 1st over to work and slowly pieced together what had happened as I talked to people. My cell phone was not working as I tried calling my parents...as I was walking all I could see was smoke in the sky coming from the south. Will never forget seeing the TV footage of the planes hitting and then looking out the window while the Towers burned. Remember it all like it was yesterday.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[egri]

I was in the first grade in Rhode Island. I don't remember the day itself, but I do remember over the next few days the school handed out large cardboard signs that had the flag on one side, and the lyrics to Star-Spangled Banner and another song (God Bless America?) on the other. About five years later, I was flipping through the channels and saw what I thought was a horror movie, that showed a wall of ash tearing through a city and smothering everything in its path. It wasn't until I checked the program guide that I saw it was a documentary about 9/11, and that was footage from the tower collapse.

[CurtisFlood]

I was at work as a high school principal at the time. I remember going from class to class and not much work going on as the staff and students were in shock. Many parents came in and picked up their children and took them home to share the moment. I remember talking to some of the older students about the significance of this event and how I thought our country would never really be the same.

In looking back it is amazing how resilient our people are. Things went in a tailspin for a while, but as usual we picked up and kept on with our lives. Hope this sort of attack never happens again, but it seems hard to imagine it not happening with all the forces of evil in the world.

[BruceinGa]

I was working for Lucent Technologies, at a local Waffle House.

[mechanicalman]

I was driving from Stamford, CT, to Purchase, NY, on the Merritt Parkway when the radio mentioned that it was believed "a small prop plane" hit one of the towers. Initially, it didn't sound nearly as grave a situation as it really was. I walked into work to see a bunch of my colleagues gathering around a TV in a conference room. We watched live as the towers fell, and there were folks in that room who knew people in and around those buildings. We were sent home from work, and I remember falling asleep later that day in hopes that I'd wake up to learn it was all a bad dream. It wasn't.

[Mark]

I was in Annapolis, listening to the morning news on the radio while preparing for work. The news sent me to the TV, and I stayed home to see the whole horrible story unfold. But my wife had to take our baby to his two-month checkup that morning, and so I was wondering the whole time if the events of that day would change the world that he would grow up in.

[btcarfagno]

I was on my way to work on Route 22 in Union NJ. There is one bend in the road where you would go around it and the towers in NYC would be right in front of you. I got around the bend and saw the smoke coming from the first tower that got hit. Got to work as quickly as I could and was the only one listening to what was happening (small manufacturing company). My boss was in a meeting and I told him about each of the towers as they fell. Rat bastard wouldn't let us go home early.

So 5:00 I am leaving and as I get outside and look up I see the smoke and dust from the towers going over the area in NJ. For days afterwards the was an amazing stillness. Not much auto traffic and no plane traffic. The silence would be broken when fighter jets roared overhead.

My father had worked in the towers for decades. I have pictures of my family watching the bicentennial fleet of ships (1976) coming up the river as we watched from near the top of one of the towers. He moved on from that job in 1988 but he knew many people from that office that was still there who were killed.

Tom C

[T205 GB]

I was on base in Minot ND doing some work for the base commander at his office. I remember hearing something and looking up at the TV and seeing the first tower on fire. The base commander made a call to SF/MP "upgrade ThreatCon to Delta. This is not an exercise. I repeat ThreatCon Delta is not an exercise!" and closed the base down. He told us to pack it up and report back to our Shop and await further instructions. He said "I just know this is not an accident" Seemed about 30 sec later the second plane hit.

Regardless of peoples support or opinions I do not regret anything other than getting out to soon. I got to be part of the surge, Battle of Baghdad, OEF, OIF, OSW, and so much more.

[T206Collector]

As I, too, mentioned in another thread, I was on a subway under the towers as the second plane hit. Back then I lived in Brooklyn and commuted to Manhattan every morning. I had heard a "rumor" that a plane had hit one of the buildings as a boarded the 2 train at Grand Army Plaza, heading for midtown via Wall Street area. I figured it was a small prop plane, if anything.

As we got to the downtown stations, Fulton Street, etc., the train didn't stop but just kept going through. Over the speaker we heard there was a "police investigation" so we were going to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall. When we got there, instead of people getting off as usual, the subway got mobbed by people boarding. They were in tears and visibly shaken. That was how I learned that a second plane had hit.

I got out at Grand Central. As I walked up the stairs to Lexington, across the street from the Chrysler Building, they were evacuating the building, and everyone was looking up expecting a plane to hit it, too. I got home that night by walking over the Manhattan Bridge, under a thick cloud of black smoke and military helicopters whirring above me - and F-15 fighters a bit higher in the sky. There were dozens of people handing out water and graham crackers to anyone who crossed the bridge. My apartment, which once had a view of the Twin Towers in the distance, smelled like burning plastic for quite awhile, as the smoke floated over Brooklyn for what seems like it must've been at least a few weeks.

[bgar3]

Was on the NJ turnpike listening to Imus when Werner Wolf called in to report he had seen a plane hit a tower. Looked to my right and saw smoke. I worked at the Meadowlands, when I left for home our parking lot was filled with ambulances and emergency aid vehicles. When I arrived the next morning, they had all been replaced by heavy construction vehicles.

[baseballfan]

I was actually the City Adminstrator for my home town at the time. Small town but I was responsible for the day to day operation of the city including the full time fire police and Dpw departments. We're about 2 hours east of NYC. Very surreal when that second plane hit on tv. Even that far away city people were unnerved and looking for answers. I could imagine what officials closer were going through.

I believe we had volunteers that went into the city to help at the firehouses later on.

Just not a good day.

[kmac32]

Northern Minnesota on vacation at a resort. Watched the 2nd plane fly into the second tower.

[irishdenny]

I was working for the Chief of Naval Operations at the Naval Interoperability Tactical Center. Although work was of the utmost importance, I was mentally beside myself THiNKiN of my Brother who was a NY City Policeman working Ground Zero.

We are Best Brothers to the End...
And He has Nevar Spoken a Word to me about What Happened THaT Day!

Vigilance has become a Family Motto,

"iN my MiND, THiS Day iS Memorialized!"

[Fballguy]

I worked in the home office of a large healthcare provider. We have over 5,000 people in our building...each floor has cubicles for as far as the eye can see.

I was in a meeting. Someone stuck their head in the room and said a plane just hit the World Trade Center. We all thought it was some private pilot in a small plane that got lost in the clouds. We finished the meeting and as we left the room, we were met with an odd, empty, silence. Everyone was gone. The cubes were empty. Way down at the end of the floor we saw a crowd. Everyone was huddled around a TV. I got there in time to see the second plane hit. Our office was closed shortly after that.

I had just moved into an apartment in the landing path of an international airport. Every five minutes it sounded like a jet was going to land in my living room. It was a very eerie feeling in the days following 9/11.

[LuckyLarry]

My ex was divorcing me and I was as driving home from a counseling session. Heard it on the radio. I was an FAA air controller on a 4-midnight shift. When I got to work all air traffic was on the ground and suspended.
Larry

[samosa4u]

I was a high school student and ended up getting pretty sick the night before. I told my mother that I wasn't going to school the following morning and not to bother me. The next morning however, I was shaken pretty aggressively by her and nearly had a heart attack. I was just about to ask her what the hell she was doing, but the expression on her face told me that something was really wrong. All she said was "come into the living room and look at the TV." I quickly got up and when I stood in front of the TV, I saw that CNN was on. I just couldn't believe what I was watching - looked like a scene from an action movie. We were all so stunned. Very sad day.

[Jobu]

I was here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Co...!4d-71.4075413

in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon studying spider monkeys. The site is in the middle of nowhere - you fly into Lima, fly into Cusco in the mountains, fly down to the lowlands and land at a grass airstrip cut out of the forest. There is a small village, Boca Manu, there with mainly thatched-roof houses. From there, it was a 13-hr boat ride up a river with only indigenous people save for one tourist camp fairly near the settlement. Arrive at the right spot on the river and then it was a 2-km walk to get to the field station on a small oxbow lake.

The only communication we had was an incredibly expensive satellite phone that sometimes worked and a cb radio to talk to the people in the small village. The night of the 11th people were eating dinner when the radio crackled, telling us that planes flew into the buildings at 9 am that morning, both buildings collapsed, and that each building might hold 50,000 people. That was it, no more info.

The girlfriend of one of the guys I was with worked a couple blocks away. We spent the rest of the night on the satellite phone trying to reach someone's family or friends but that took forever because all of the phone lines were busy and the satellite phone didn't work well anyway. Finally someone got through to someone in (I think) California and gave them instructions to check on the people in New York. It wasn't until the next night that we were able to get an update (everyone was ok).

That night and the next day were surreal - out in the middle of the jungle, sleeping in a tent, following monkeys around and not having any idea how many people were lost, whether there were additional attacks, who was responsible, etc. We got a bit of news over the phone (I think calls were like $5 or $7 per minute) but not much.

A few weeks later a new group of researchers came in and brought some magazines and newspapers and they were all read cover to cover by everyone there (Americans, Colombians, Peruvians, Brits, and Canadians). I remember sitting there and staring for minutes at a fuzzy picture of someone who had appeared to have jumped head first from one of the towers (Newsweek perhaps).

On my trip home in November, long hair, worn out field clothes and boots, worn backpack, I was searched more times than seemed possible and still remember the soldiers with machine guns in the airport in Texas as I entered the US. It was also surreal returning home - I was moved by what had happened but still short on details and had neither really lived through it nor been subjected to constant coverage, discussion, and worry. I got home to find that everyone had changed and that I was on the outside a bit.

Sorry for the long post, I thought some might like to read this.

[90feetaway]

I worked by Church Street then. I got out of the E train and saw the buildings on fire. To be honest, I thought it was just a regular fire as I didn't know what happened so I went to work. They told us to leave work at 9:15 and I got out but no one could tell us where to go, so I ended up walking uptown on Broadway (good thing). Everyone on the street had the news on their radios and the news kept getting worse. Met my wife and mom in midtown and walked home to Queens over 59 St bridge. They couldn't get a hold of me until I was close by and thought the worst.

[Rich Klein]

I was driving my father home from grocery shopping when I heard Harry Harrison (or perhaps Dandy Dan Daniel) or some combo announce a plane had hit the WTC. First thought was did a pilot mess up like in 1945 with the Empire State Building. Soon enough the 2nd plane hit and then we all realized it was a bit more than an accident.

Since I was Hertz gold at the time, called the Newark office and informed them I was driving that car back to Dallas. Took me 3 days to drive down. You see, I was supposed to fly out of Newark Airport at 7 PM that night because I was also American gold and knew I could make the flight after walking around the Tues night Parsippany show.

From what I heard, they actually held the show that night as a distraction and several dealers did fairly well. As for me, I got back to Dallas at 5 PM Thursday and got through that weekend. No one cared that I took a 3 hour lunch (legit) to return my rental car. I never want to go through a day like that again. EVER

[baseball tourist]

I was managing a 50-storey tower in downtown Toronto and their were rumours and speculation that many major markets may be targeted. We had tenants closing up offices and other quite panicked that their companies wanted them to remain open for business. I was too busy to watch much TV that day but didn't sleep that night or much for few nights after. Will never forget.

[EvilKing00]

Getting out of the shower, news was on tv. Saw twin towers burning. Was shocked. Seemed to be a accident. Then the 2ed plane hit, and knew we were under attack. At the time i could see the skyline of the city from my back window.

That day i was going to work, opening a new restaurant that i managed in Queens. It was our grand opening. The drive to work was eerie. As no one on the road honked, every one let you in, not a normal new york commute. sitting in traffic i remember being stoped next to a cab driver and we just both looked at each other shaking our heads.

Empolyees and the few clients we had just sat at the bar watching the news. Didnt turn on the, restaurant music. Had a few friends come by, they stayed there all day.

Thought i couldn't be shocked anymore that morning, then the first tower collapsed.

Will never forget


Knew two people who didnt come home that day