I was in NYC at the time of the 1993 truck bomb attack on the WTC. Walking in mid-town I had a clear view of the ominous dark smoke column rising to the south. Had to go into a coffee shop to find out what happened.
On that dreadful day in 2001 I picked up a call from a friend who told me to watch the TV news before I left the house. And I saw the huge smoke plume from the first strike and knew instantly that it was terror attack despite the nonsense being put forth by that Canadian Peter whatshisname that a small private plane slammed into the tower.
Sat glued to the screen as I got onto FR. Listened to DC news announcing that State Dept in Foggy Bottom had been hit which turned out after a few hours to have been a false alarm. Then the hit on the Pentagon. Not knowing what defensive measures were in store I cancelled my appointments. During the 1968 DC riot the Beltway was the cordon sanitaire, no traffic in or out, with Guard units enforcing all crossings. Left me stranded in Rosslynn for three days. Had seen the first plumes of that one from the design studio which overlooked the Iwo Jima memorial. We were in the flight path to National Airport and on days with heavy overcast we could clearly see the surprised faces in the low flying jets on their lower than usual glide path. Sometimes we exchanged waves. I remembered this when I heard of the Pentagon strike.
That was a rough day.
I was listening to the radio and the host said an aircraft struck the trade center.
They initially thought it was a small Cessna or similar.
So I turned on the TV.
In time to watch the second plane hit.
I worked for a news agency. I don’t want to get into details but I was working - and because of the news we didn’t go home. The story demanded we worked through, I checked stories before posting them, we just got numb. I remember crying so hard I threw up when I found out someone from our company who I knew was in there and died,
By the time the other two planes happened I was convinced the world was ending, but we soldiered on because that’s what you do when you work in a newsroom.
I went home about 30 hours later and slept for about 12 hours. My cat was very very hungry, because she missed a few meals.
What is weird is because I was living it in real time but not experiencing it like everyone else, I was kind of detached. About a week later I went into the city with a few people from work to volunteer, and it hit me. Hard. Really hard. Ended up with a three month leave of absence because of PTSD.
That’s why I don’t listen to news or go to the TV or computer on sept 11.
My godson was born a few years later on September 11. I saw him and held him when he was a few hours old. As much as I adore kittens, he was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life. I got him a gift certificate to Game Stop. I can’t keep up with all the video games.