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

[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.

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[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.

[quitcrab]

Teaching school on Long island. Knew it was bad when the principal called all students to main office if their parents worked in the towers. You could see the smoke coming from Manhattan on the second floor of the school which is probably 30 miles away. When school let out I went to pick up my daughter at a day care. My town fire department was out in full force and heading into Manhattan to help out.
3 families in my neighborhood lost a love one that day and one of my students lost his Dad.
When I took my shower before work this morning I was thinking of all who perished that day...you just never know when the end will come... I am sure no one thought the morning of 9/11 that this is my last shower and I won't be coming home tonight. Don't forget your tell the people in your life that you love them.pick up the phone and make a call to mom,dad,or that brother or sister your fighting with.

[herbc]

I Remember….

That morning I was sitting in my new office with a view looking South. Due to a promotion, I'd been relocated here. What a great view! I could even see the upper floors of the WTC in the distance from my window. The old office, at 90 Church, was directly across the street from the Trade Center. There my view was blocked by the towers, only giving me a view of the Center's plaza. Just three days ago, I met and had dinner there with a colleague. I was feeling good, could hardly wait for my day to end. Thanks to my Yankee CC incentive program, I had tickets to see Yankees vs. Chicago at the Stadium that evening.

Due to the bright sunlight that morning, I had shut my blinds. A co-worker came in and asked me to open them. He heard that the WTC was hit by a plane. I immediately thought terror attack. We looked and saw a cloud of smoke from one of the towers, we turned on the radio and tried to call our colleagues located at the offices across from the Towers....couldn't get through.
The staff gathered to watch from my window, and then the second tower got hit. All we could see was smoke as we listened to the radio. We were in shock…some started crying…some began praying. Then the first building collapsed..... we saw a mushroom cloud....we evacuated.

I caught a cab, but after a few blocks he refused to continue. The city was locked down. I walked home….everyone was afraid. When I reached home, my answering machine was blinking with messages from friends and loved ones, wanting to know if I was safe. I couldn’t help it… I began to cry.

A few of my mementos....
Yankee Tickets....



The Flag.. Everyone raised the Flag! Together we Stand!
Flags were flown from buildings, automobiles, store fronts, Lapels.... chants of USA! Mmmm…. how soon they forget. I proudly wore my pin, never wore one before. My employer also issued a special lapel Flag with our acronym, and a letter of commendation for the work we were doing during the crisis.


Heroes Comic.... Comic writers and illustrators honor those who perished in service. Proceeds to The 911 Fund


US Postal Heroes Stamps... Proceeds to the Federal Emergency Management Agency


WTC Steel Commemorative Medallion.... 10% Proceeds originally stated for The Fund for The City of NY. After public outrage, the Fund denied involvement. This controversy halted production and distribution to the issuing foundry. Shipment and recycling of the WTC steel was then rethought and managed differently. I wanted a medallion, made contact with the company marketing rep, and was successful. I've never shown this before today.

[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.

[WillowGrove]

All these stories bring me right back.

I was in my apartment on Upper West Side in Manhattan listening to the radio getting ready to leave for work. They reported a plane had flown into one of the towers, no one knew much more at that moment. I remember thinking it must be a small private plane.

I left for work but something told me not to go down into the subway so I ducked into my local diner who had a small TV on and sat there for an hour or so. A group of NYers all staring at disbelief at the TV.

Yet I STILL took a cab to my midtown office. All my coworkers were waiting downstairs.

A few NJers who weren't up for the trek home, walked back uptown to my apt, and as we walked north all we had to do was turn our heads to see the smoke. We watched the news the whole dreaded day.

Today here in NYC is the exact kind of weather as 2001. Clear, sunny, crisp.

[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.