Where Were You On 9/11? Tell us your story!

Personal ^ | Monday September 11, 2007 | Milwaukee_Guy

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Might be a good time to revisit how we all heard about the the attack on 9/11 and how we reacted to the darkest day in American history.

What emotions were strongest for you on that day?

How did you find out? Did you stay at work? Did you go Home? Who did you call?

[DouglasKC]

I was at work, in my office. At the time I was an IT manager. I was testing some software and was occasionally checking into a FreeRepublic religious thread and was getting frustrated at how slow it kept loading.

One of the engineers came into my office and asked how I could just be sitting there when planes were crashing into buildings and buildings were collapsing. What??

I called my wife, told her to watch TV and to go fill up the tank on car and our gas buckets just in case.

I was glued to FreeRepublic for most of the day and glued to the TV after I got home. What a scary day.

[TChad]

My principal memory is of turning on my car radio, then having to listen to MSM types jabbering about emotional states. People felt just terrible, people were worried about loved ones, people had never seen anything like this. OK, I thought, but when are you going to tell me WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED? It seemed to take forever to learn the basic facts.

Had I been on the Internet, it would have taken seconds.

[Jean S]

I was sleeping too. My friend called, I saw the second plane hit. I will never forget it.

[sleddogs]

My cousin had been researching our family history and couldn't find where our grandfather was buried. I had asked my 86 year old mother and she didn't know. At the time he died she was 8 1/2 months pregnant with me. Her now deceased brother had drove down to Texas and brought the remains back to Akron, Oh. Over the next couple of weeks we called almost all the funeral homes in Akron. Finally we got lucky and found that this funeral home had my Grandfather cremated. We asked if they still had the ashes and they said no not after 50 years. On 9/11 I got a call from that funeral home and the lady said that it had bothered her. She went into the attic and there was my grandfathers ashes. After watching the horrors of 9/11 for hours I had to get away. I drove the 60 miles to Akron and picked up his ashes. On the way back I needed gas and passed many stations selling gas at 5.00 to 6.00 a gallon. I finally found a station selling @ $2.24. And I asked the owner why he was still selling at the normal price. He said “Screw those unpatriotic S.O.B.s, I’ll give it away before pulling that crap.” We talked some more and I found that he also was a Nam vet. I left their with my spirits high.

Later when they had the National day of mourning across the Nation. My family from Chicago, D.C., & Ohio met at a little Cemetery in a remote town I West Virginia and buried our grandfather beside his father. We held a service, released balloons, placed a headstone and took plenty of pictures and video. This we boxed up with a blown up picture of him and sent it to our mother.

I visited her last year and noticed that the picture was prominently displayed right beside her bed.

[NJRighty]

I work in downtown NYC and the World Trade Center was (and still is) my train station stop. I had walked out of there 30-40 minutes earlier to walk up to my office. I was sitting at my desk reading my emails when I heard a loud sound.

I looked out and saw a crowd gathering in the street looking towards the direction of the WTC. I walked to that side of the building with everyone else on my floor who heard it and there was a huge hole in one of the towers with black smoke coming out of it. We all figured a wayward plane had just hit it (no thought at that moment that it may have been deliberate).

A few moments later I saw the second plane flying low. Even before impact, we now realized that the first one was no accident. I will never forget the sight of that plane making contact with the building and seeing the flames shoot out. It looked the way it does in all the action/disaster movies. They told us to evacuate the building and head north.

I hope I never have to see anything like that again.

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Me- “This is straight out of a Tom Clancey or Dale Brown novel. This is like a bad movie.”

I thought Clancey, too. It was surreal.

---

Remember these two books?

In the mid 90’s Tom Clancey published “Debt of Honor” and Dale Brown published “Storming Heaven”.

Both books featured planes crashing into the capital.

What was really weird, is that both books were published within a month of each other.

[khnyny]

My husband called me from his car and told me to turn on the TV. He came home immediately. We heard the surreal sound of the F-16’s fly past our home on their way to DC.

[eyedigress]

Stepping outside of the box is the step towards freedom. Good for you.

[Enchante]

Thank you so much! May God bless you and yours always.

It is now 12 midnight on the east coast, and so it is 9/11 once again. NEVER FORGET!!!

God bless all survivors and those we have lost.

God bless all rescuers who strove mightily to ensure that 9/11 was not even worse than it was.

God bless all of our military servicemen and women, and all of their families and friends.

God bless all the valiant, courageous warriers we have lost in the war to save civilization and humanity from the scourge of Islamo-jihadist scum.

God bless all FReepers and their families who understand better than most what we are facing and what we must do.

God bless all of our real allies and partners and friends around the world.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

[sageb1]

I walked into the lobby at my doctor’s. All the staff were standing in the middle of the room. They all turned at once and said, “Did you see this?” There was a huge TV in the corner of the room. I saw the first tower burning and I was confused. I didn’t realize what building it was. As I stood there with my mouth hanging open, the second plane flew into the second tower. I immediately looked toward the staff. “Bin Laden,” I said. I was livid.

The rest of the day was screwy. My accountant’s buddies were all dead, one of my daughters was freaking out trying to contact a friend who’d been headed to the WTC that morning (he was located and ok), another friend’s brother was working at the Pentagon and he was trying to get through to find out something for his sister-in-law (also located and ok).

The State Building in Albany where my husband works was locked down.

[Collier]

Good for you.

Stay safe.

[Twinkie]

I was sitting on the sunporch with a cup of coffee. My husband walked out the back door and got in his car. In just a minute he ran back through the door and told me the Pentagon and the World Trade Center had been hit by airplanes. He turned on the television and we were glued to it all day, not knowing what we were going to have to do or what further thing was going to happen. What was going to be attacked next and were we going to have to stand and fight where we were? - During all this, my son who lives in New York called. He was just a few blocks away from the towers and he was crying, saying he had just been there a few days ago and knew some young people who were in there.
He later helped at the morgue in his capacity as an Episcopal priest when people came to claim their dead.

I have thought so much since then how very weary I am of war, how I despise war. I am still living with the effects of WWII on my beloved father - but how so many mind-numbed robots are not yet weary enough to stop their jihad or whatever other senseless “cause” they buy into. . and they wish to die . . for the “fatherland”, for the “jihad” . .

. . and so the common SOLDIER has to stand and fight to defend his people . . and still he does so, with tears in his eyes for those he must kill because they do not see what he sees . . will not just . . stop.

[warsaw44]

I swear its the truth. My jaw dropped when she said it. G. Gordon Liddy even mentioned it in his last book although he does not mention Katie by name.

[eyedigress]

Well said!

[GATOR NAVY]

It was moving day for us too. I had recently transfered to Atsugi, Japan and we were moving from the temporary housing in the Navy Lodge into an off base house. We felt lucky in the morning because a typhoon was skirting the area and we had been afraid the moving company would cancel. But there was only a little wind and rain.

9/11 was a night time event for us in Japan. The cable wasn’t due to connected for a couple of more days and I had hooked up some old rabbit ears to the TV but the reception was pretty bad. I gave up and went outside to smoke but my wife was still playing with the TV. She came out and told me something was happening in New York. I came in just in time to see the second plane hit. The snowy picture we could barely see was American network broadcast with Japanese reporters doing voice overs.

[Twink]

I was sitting at a traffic light after dropping my youngest off at her first day of preschool. I stopped at WaWa to get my mom and me our favorite coffee to celebrate the first time in many years that we were alone together to chat and for her to comfort me now that my last baby was in school. The DJ announced that a plane had hit the WTC. I immediately thought about the first WTC attack. I ran in the house and my mom had the news on and looked at me and said “for the first time since daddy died, I’m glad he’s not alive” Then a little bit later we watched the 2nd plane hit and she said “we’re being attacked, we’re at war” The phone rang and it was my husband asking for info (they didn’t have a tv in their department but heard a plane hit the first tower). We sat glued to the TV reports and the entire time my mom was repeating “this is different than Pearl Harbor” She took out her Rosary and started praying. The Pentagon gets hit and she tells me to “go hang the flag outside” and I tell my husband, the Pentagon just got hit. Then I go outside to hang the Flag. My next door neighbor sees me and tells me she can’t reach her mom who works in the WTC complex. She tells me her husband called and his building was evacuated (he works for and in the Fed gov’t building in Philly).

My husband gets home shortly afterwards (his company closed and sent all employees home).

We basically sat in front of the TV the entire day/night. Picked all the kids up from school and we sat watching our Country being attacked. The Principal of their school sent a letter home explaining her announcement/visit to each classroom and suggesting we don’t allow them to watch any footage. We didn’t agree and decided they should watch with us. It was the first day of preschool for my youngest and she had no clue what was going on anyway. The other 3 were 10, 9, and 5 1/2 (she just started Kindergarten).

My niece was living in Manhatten and she called her mom who called us (she’s a nurse and was there in a set up trauma tent that didn’t get many patients). My next door neighbor’s mom eventually called her once she walked the bridge to NJ and could get reception.

Our Church held a prayer service that night and we attended.

One of the things that sticks in my mind was my mom’s comment “this is different than Pearl Harbor” since she was alive then and my Dad immediately enlisted. She meant that we weren’t being attacked by a country. She raised her voice when she heard Tom Brokaw or one of the other anchors and she rarely raised her voice. I can’t recall why but she was ticked. Then she said, the news media in this country is gonna kill us all.

[sageb1]

“Then she said, the news media in this country is gonna kill us all.”

Smart lady, your mom.

[Alice in Wonderland]

Actually, it was John Moran (BCM). Mike is his brother who told Osama to “Kiss his Royal Irish A$$” at the Concert for New York.

Hundreds Attend John Moran Street Naming:

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2003/0912/Community/052.html

[VOA]

Short and simple:

I was living in Los Angeles.
I went to bed late on 9-10. And wouldn’t you know it...I promised myself
that I was going to start watching less TV.

I awoke early enough to catch the start of Hugh Hewitt’s radio show
(about 6AM). (www.hughhewitt.com)

Hewitt said there were reports of a small plane that crashed into
the one of the towers of The World Trade Center.

So, curious to see what that looked like to see if it was anything like
the B-25 Mitchell that hit the Empire State Building...I flushed
my promise and flicked on the TV.

It looked bad enough and then suddenly another plane appears, then
disappears behind the towers, a fireball blasting from a tower on the
other side.

I think I almost into shock, because my first thought was “that’s
some special effect!”.

When I finally gathered that this really was an intentional attack,
I called my late-sleeping cousin in Dallas, left a
“TURN ON YOUR TV NOW!!!”
message on his machine.

And then I went to work.

Stunning things in the next week:
American flags EVERYWHERE. Even in too-cool-to-be-patriotic Los Angeles.
NO, ZERO, NADA commercials on the major networks for (IIRC) about a week.
Even in the commercialism capital of Los Angeles.

[Enchante]

Good job, joining the NYPD was a brilliant step! I hope that all’s going well for you and that you and your fellow officers will not have to face another day like 9/11. All of use live better knowing that there are people like you out there to serve and protect.

I desperately wanted to serve in either a military, EMS, or police role after 9/11, but medically speaking it was completely out of the question for me (see #190). Couldn’t do it physically and could never be allowed to do it by any of the agencies or services. So I have to applaud and support all those others who are able to do so for all of us. God bless you all.