I was at work. Right across the water from the airport in Boston where the planes took off. Then I watched as plane after plane landed at the airport, and none would take off again for a week.
I was in Texas with my husband and two little kids. He lost his job in July and we had just returned from Wisconsin the night before from a job interview (he wound up taking that job). We sat on the floor in front of the TV all day while our daughter took her first steps. She had all day to practice between the two of us and learned to walk that day. Bittersweet.
At work.
I was 11 and in school that Tuesday morning. Neither of my parents were into watching the morning news so I had walked to school not knowing what was going on (we lived in California). Starting during 2nd period (after 9:30am PST) kids started leaving class as their parents were picking them up. It was only during 4th period that an assembly was called and the kids who were left at school met in the cafeteria. The vice principal told us some of what was going on and said that while it was pretty serious that we were all safe and had nothing to worry about.
By the time school ended for the day most of the kids and most of the teachers had gone home. At 2:45 school let out and I walked home. My parents got home from work later on and we watched TV and got to see the towers falling over and over as people were talking about what happened.
School was out the next day but we were back on Thursday.
For myself I really don't know what the world was like before 9/11 and it seems amazing to me that there was a time when you could get on an airplane without a lot of hassle and that there was a time when the police didn't dress and act like a military occupation force.
It also seems like a fairy tale that there was a time when the government didn't spy on absolutely everything we do.
IMHO the terrorists won because they hate our freedom and liberty and we responded to their attacks by killing our freedom and liberty as if we'd wanted to do it all along.
Sitting in my cubicle at Ft Hood lurking on FR, finishing my second cup of coffee. My co-worker behind me announced that an aircraft just (accidentally) hit the WTC. I knew then it was no accident. I walked down to our conference room, where several officers and NCOs were gathered watching FNC live on the VTC screen. We watched the second aircraft hit. A seminal moment, we all knew together at that one point in time that we were at war. Several of those guys did not survive in subsequent deployments. Spent the rest of the week working from home since getting on to Fort Hood at that point became a half day exercise in traffic jams, until adequate security arrangements allowed for qucker access.
Standing on the beach watching the sky turn black.
As I made my way to my truck, I couldn't stop thinking that I had no weapon, not even in my truck. Very helpless feeling to me... Obviously a weapon would not have done me or anyone else any good that day, except for maybe the people on the planes, but I could not get it out of my head. Needless to say, I have remedied that situation and it still probably won't help in a terrorist attack, but it makes me feel better.
Spent the rest of the day and well into the night glued to the TV.
I had just come out of the shower went in the living room and saw the first plane hit the first tower..At that time I thought it was a problem with the pilot or the air plane..I yelled for my husband to come and then the next plane hit..I sat on the sofa all day watching all of these savages murdering so many AMERICANS..
At work, watching it unfold on the large screen in the cafeteria, along with everyone else in the building.
I was home, and the rest is long and boring. It has to do with ESP and “symptoms of impending calamity.” Anyone who wants to know can FReepmail me.
Disbelievers in ESP, don’t reply.
I was getting ready for work when a family member called and told me to turn on my TV....
I then drove in a daze to work where I worked for a few hours before they sent me home early...
At home, preparing to drive to the library. I remember what a perfect autumn day it was.
In the gym..
it was 6AM where I was..
I watched on the bank of TVs..
the early morning show on ABC..
I was close enough to read the closed caption..
I remember the LIVE film of the building flashed on the screen suddenly and I thought right away a bomb..
Then there was mention of a plane and I thought little plane ...Cessna, etc..
and I thought “that’s a big hole for such a small plane..
then I watched LIVE as the other plane flew towards the building and behind it and hit the other building..
I was in shock and had an argument with a liberal who maintained I was wrong to say that Islamic terrorists had hijacked the planes..they wouldn’t do that and I was an awful person to say such a thing..
I hardly remember driving home from the gym..
It's hard to judge time in those circumstances, but it was probably two minutes before they calmed down enough to tell the rest of us on the call that they had just witnessed an airplane fly into the WTC. I don't mean they were calm, only that they were calm enough to tell us what happened.
We ended the conference call and I found the closest TV.
>> “Where were YOU on September 11th, 2001?” <<
I was on a hilltop in Pittsburg, California, explaining to a Dummacrap that what had just happened was Bill Clinton’s Legacy.
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>> “Where were YOU on September 11th, 2001?” <<
I was on a hilltop in Pittsburg, California, explaining to a Dummacrap that what had just happened was Bill Clinton’s Legacy.
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I was on active duty as a young MP 2LT - on patrol maneuvers in the field...humvee’s at the ready & MK 19 mounted...I had previously given an assessment to higher ranking officers on the Twin Towers, stating that moslems attempted to blow them before - that would try again because I understood their determination...I was told by a CPT that I over “did my analysis” and that I should have stuck to detailing Iraq...that was the Summer of 2001 So - when the call went out over the net to rally at the back gate of Fort Leonard Wood, we were the first to show up - gunner pointing at the first vehicle attempting to cross the bridge into Leonard Wood - a older vet - from Korea I think - got out - raised his hands and didn’t want any trouble from the MK19 weapon system...other MP’s soon followed as we listened to the portable radio another fellow 2LT had with him...it wasn’t until that evening when I watched the news I saw what they were talking about...we went on high alert for weeks after that and I began preparations for war! Seems like last year...I wonder if the WW II vets felt this way - remembering...I can’t believe I was there in OIF 4 times...and now with what is going on ...knowing 17 that didn’t return alive and a number more that did - permanently disabled...makes one wonder...
Our conference was cancelled because the Oregon folks couldn’t get on a plane in Portland, and the California contingent was at their emergency stations. One of the Washington state group lost friends at the World Trade Center.
We were lucky we decided to make this trip by train because the skies were locked down for two weeks. It was eerie not hearing jet planes overhead, except for military fighters. But the passenger train network did its job. Unfortunately, few people knew we had trains, and most people who were stranded were renting cars or trying to find intercity buses.
Going back, the Coast Starlight was three hours late into San Jose – which was actually normal. But on the way north, we lost every dispatching window on the Union Pacific and continually lost ground. We were parked on a siding in the California mountains for five hours because of a terrorism scare in Utah, which turned out to be an Amtrak engineer simply running a red block signal.
By the time we left Portland, we were on the tracks of the BNSF, and you could feel the difference. Their dispatchers in Forth Worth were moving us from track to track to get around slow freights, and we made excellent time into Seattle’s King Street Station.
Being 13 hours late into Seattle, we thought we might find the station empty or closed, but Amtrak had a team to help us. I managed to get home in one piece.
I was having morning coffee in my office and trying desperately to make sense of the crazy stuff I was hearing on the radio. Within a minute or two I realized that we had sustained a major attack.
I had my wife get on the phone to our employees and customers to tell them that we were closing shop for the day.
The rest is a blur, but we were glued to the TV screen til far into that night.