Posted on 09/10/2007 6:41:30 PM PDT by 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?
We had hitched a small pine tree branch to the gable peak when we finished topping her off and I gave one of the laborers the money to go get a large American flag which we placed on the peak in place of the pine.
An awful day, one which only a simpleton or a leftist could forget.
I crossed the streeet and went into my building and our elevator man Walter told me about the planes hitting the Towers. I got up to my office, called my parents and told them to put on the tv & told them what I knew thus far. My Dad asked if I was ok and I said, yes, so far. HE said "be careful" and we got off the phone. Shortly thereafter the hones went down.
I went down to our 14th floor office to take a look and watched in horror at the burning Towers. I just remember being amazed at how huge the flames were and how black the smoke was. I crossed myself and then said to the guy (Britten) standing next to me, "Osma bin Laden did this." He said, "who?" and I said, "Osmama f---ing bin Laden did this - only the worst terrorist in the world - and we're at war and it's never going to end."
I then found out about the Pentagon and went and told my boss Kris and she said to go home. We hugged and everyone started to make their way out. At that time they decided to evacuate our building so we had to leave. I couldn'e get home since the city was on basic lockdown (all the subways were suspended) so I walked. On the way out of the building I watched the first Tower fall. THAT sticks in my soul. I was numb and in awe and really scared and pissed off at the same time.
I went to my co-workers apartment on 10th Street for a bit but got ansy and just wanted to get home so I walked uptown towaards the 59th St. bridge. It was surreal. The city was calm, quiet (with tthe exception of the emergency vehicle sirens now and then) and it was hot, sunny and an exceptionally gorgeous day. (I remember earlier in the morning - before I knew any of this was happening -wishing I had worn a skirt rather than the long pants I was wearing.)
SO I walked until I got to the tunnel and at that point they had reopened it to outgoing traffic and the police were having people take pedestrians trying to get to Queens through. I got a ride from a nice man wearing a big white cowboy hat. IHe let me out in Forest Hills near the Queensborough Center Mall. I walked home to Ridgewood from there - slightly sunburned, exhausted, freaked out and really, really angry.
I saw a lot of amazing things that day and a lot of horrifying things. I think about it often but I realize how lucky I personally am because I was OK and the 20 or so people I know who were actually down at the Towers (or right nearby) all made it out.
After that day I started to educate myslef about islam and there freaks who want us all dead.
This is so cathartic, thank you for this opportunity. I lived in the mountains of southern Oregon then. I had just come in the house after milking the goats and the phone rang. It was my Mom and she said “turn on the TV”. My now ex husband called shortly after that and we had the same conversation.
The first thing I did was cry. Then I prayed. Then I loaded my Glock and strapped it to my hip. The gun made no sense, but nothing made sense on that day. That night I was watching the night sky and I saw what I believe was a satellite explode. I watched it trace it’s silent arc, and then a bright flash. It looked like a sparkler. I hope that was us, sending a message to someone.
A week or so later I remembered a conversation that I had several years before, with a local conservative radio host.
I had said “Henry, isn’t the Jewish population of New York larger than the population of Israel?”
“Yes.”
“Then how can satan resist New York?”
NEVER FORGET
Every year we replay the film clips over and over because we dare not forget. But then the sour grapes crowd shows up complaining about "wasting" a day with that stuff. And, of course, that's the very reason we must revisit it every year. We must never forget. It was and is so horrible. Too horrible to mention some of it. God rest their souls. Pray for the troops. What they do is honorable and good.
I was at work. It’s an IT building, with lots of TVs displaying public announcements and news. At about 8 am CDT I hear of a plane crashing into the WTC. I run out to the hall and see the WTC burning. I immediately go to Free Republic and check the commentary. There I learn of the second plane. That cinches it—I know its terrorism.
The building is large, three floors, and about the size of a football field. It holds over 1600 people. The whole building is hushed all day long. Very little work gets done. People go to meeting rooms and watch the TV, which is now on continuous coverage of the attack. I follow FR, in opposition to all rules about internet use—but it doesn’t matter. Our nation has been attacked.
Oops - just noticed all of my typos. Sorry about that. I am tired. I got up so early today - and I think it’s because of what day it is. I couldn’t sleep...
I was watching when E.D. Hill said that there was news of a small plane hitting the WTC, and the reportage of this "accident" continued until the second plane went in. I knew, then, and I think so did everyone else. I called my mother, who lives elsewhere in the state, after the second plane to get her to turn on the TV, and we called back and forth a couple of times during the morning.
My sister, who lived in Finland at the time, was visiting our mother; they had just been to visit me, and my sister had brought one of her Finnish friends to try to match up with me (it didn't take, and she's newly wed today), and they were back at Mom's, getting ready to fly back to Finland on the 12th (which obviously didn't happen...they got out 3 or 4 days later).
This friend was a structural engineer by trade. During either the first or second call, before it happened, she said "those buildings will fall; they cannot stand." We asked "how will they fall?" Fearing for those caught under them falling like trees. "Probably straight down," she said. So when it happened we were not terribly surprised, and I was immunized against all of the "deliberate demolition" conspiracy theories before they appeared.
BTW, see tagline.
The wife called me at work....and said turn on the TV.... We had a small portable with rabbit ears in the office.... While fumbling to plug it in and get it working, I heard a blood boiling scream through my cell phone, from my wife...as she cryed,
"My God in heaven, another plane just crashed into a building live on TV".
I can still hear her scream......
Within minutes, the cells and local telephone services locked up due to call volume.
I am now a retired AT&T employee in Katy, Texas.
Don’t ask.
My first class was at 9:10. Before class I was reading Free Republic and came across the thread, “Plane Crash - World Trade Center” - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/520260/posts
I emailed the thread URL to my son, who had recently started working in midtown Manhattan. Then about two minutes before class I checked Free Republic again and found that another plane had hit.
When I came back to my office at 10:00 I received the following email from my son: “We have a clear view of the towers from our building and we didn’t see the
first one, but as we watched we saw the second. This is crazy.” From the email I knew my son was OK, but I didn’t know about my future daughter-in-law, who had just moved to New York to be closer to my son. And it was her first day of work.
When my wife and I came home for lunch, we listened to 10 or 15 messages on our answering machine saying people were thinking about or praying for my son and his fiance. Either before or after we turned on tv and watched the pictures of the towers falling. Both of us had tears in our eyes.
By the middle of the afternoon my son reached me by phone. He told me how he was with one of his coworkers when she found out her boyfriend had died in the towers. (Her boyfried had placed a cell phone call to his parents, telling them he loved them.) My future daughter-in-law was fine. She showed up for work and was promptly sent home. I think both of them walked to Brooklyn.
I’ll never forget that day, the video of the towers falling, the flags, and the feeling of unity across the country. I’ll also never forget something I read soon after, I think on another free republic thread: There are no unsinkable ships. There are no invulnerable nations. The only eternal security is Jesus Christ.
I wrote this a few days after the attack to my family and friends. I worked at the Pentagon. I’ll just paste it here since reading it now sure brings back memories:
I was on the other side of the building coming out of a meeting and just sat down when a guy comes into the vault area where I work yells at us to get out of the building...NOW! I thought it was another drill, but on the way out someone said planes hit the towers in NY. Once outside I saw the huge smoke billowing around the right corner and was even more confused what was going on...a bomb or car on fire? Some of us went towards a hill on that area where other people were and then I saw the flames and heard the word that a plane had hit that area. Looking at that part of the building it looked intact but saw debris on the ground. Jets flying over head then begun the first active Jet Air Defense coverage over DC in years.
About 15 minutes after watching the fire some security guys shout another plane is coming in and people start running away like crazy...people crying...older folks gasping for breath...one guy yelling for candy because a friend of his was diabetic and was having an attack...running over normally busy highways and down gullys that surround the area of the building. Seeing people you know and then loose them in the crowd only to come up to other friends just to loose them in the crowd again.
Eventually I get to a parking lot across the highway and go to a group of people surrounding a car listening to the radio; one of dozens of such groupings. That’s when I heard the NY towers had collapsed and it then the enormity of it all really sunk in. I heard from someone that they were sending people home, and my car was close by and I took off. Bridges were closed and I had to go way out towards Alexandria, across Wilson Bridge and finely found a bridge open that allowed traffic back into DC.
Called my folks first and then my brothers and friends who had called and left voice mail. Then turned on the TV and saw the video of the plane crashing into one of the towers and also of the buildings collapsing. I then went to my brothers and watched more of the TV coverage.
It was such a beautiful day when it happened...perfect temperature and blue sky... Unbelievable to have such devastation and loss of life. And these heroic stories of people on the ground and up in the air...talking to relatives before the crashes and the story of the group who evidently over-powered the hijackers before it crashed into the ground saving the Capitol or what ever site they were en route. Whew, amazing and frightening stuff and yet also things that bring out the best in people in times like this.
I suppose it all has sunk in now, at least for me, and now it’s time for those in charge to begin an international coalition and find these truly evil terrorist groups and stamp them out for good. I don’t like hearing these various news commentators that we will have to accept limitations on our personal freedom, etc from now on. That’s bs. Sure, make sure security is beefed up and change measures like taking knifes on board (like that shouldn’t have been done long ago) as well as taking our intelligence ability back up where it used to be.
Well, at any rate, I hope you all are doing ok despite this tragedy and can get some sleep, too. If the plane stayed a airborn a little longer it would have impacted my work area. But the world is full of IFs, and luckily that didn’t happen. I don’t personally know anyone who was hurt or killed, but a few others I work with did. A couple people I do know did have parts of the building fall around them and have their own dramitic stories about having to escape via alternate routes.
Ya know, most people who work at the pentagon figure that building is always a target for someone...missiles, car bombs, planes...so it was just a matter of time. It’s the NY Tower attack that even people around here are more shocked of happening. Every Monday morning going into work I pass 10-20 protesters who silently stand near the main entry. Some smile and nod as we go in, others praying. A slient protest of the US military power and their belief that all the money the US military spends goes to waste. Security probably won’t allow them there again for some time to come now, but I’d be interested to know that if they were allowed to come back Monday mornings would they be there to pray for us this time.
bump for later
I live in the UK, at the time at was school. On the walk hime from school a couple of ‘troublesome’ kids I used to know mentioned something about an attack on America. Me and my friend went that day, must have been around 4pm our time so 11am your time, trying to debunk this, and we said that if something bug had happened - we’d have known about it.
I got home, my mother raced to the front door, and asked ‘Have you heard?’ her face extremely pained. She then told me. If I’m honest, I was so young I hadn’t even heard of the twin towers, bin laden etc. I jsut couldn’t believe it. Out of shock I felt my legs go weak. My mother had picked my younger brother and sister and cousin up from school and she had made sure to turn off all of the tvs in the house although she had a radio on in the kitchin. I went up to my room where I spent the rest of the day watching thoseawful pictures. I can remember seeing that shot ofn the plan hitting the tower for the first time - I was simply godsmacked. My dad who came home later obviously saw how disturbed I was by it all and comforted me later.
In my own little life here in the UK - I can safely say without any doubt that that day changed my forever. I had never been interested in politics or foreign affairs - I was just a happy teenager. From that day on - I have been, and I have ALWAYS been on your side. The W.O.T is my number one concern. I am proud that we are standing with you in this struggle.
Just one story that could be replicated a million times over for all I know.
May god bless the victims and comfort their families. I can’t imagine how painful it must be to this day.
And also, may god bless our brave military, Americas and our own who bravely fight this enemy every day.
I was on the telephone with a colleague from Houston, when the news broke that a plane had hit the WTC. We stayed on the telephone with each other watching CNN. Minutes later the second plane hit. At almost the exact moment, we both said this was a terrorist attack and we were at war and that things would never be the same. While in the middle of that back-and-forth about who, what, etc. could have done this. He received a call from his brother, who was in the North Tower, on his cell phone. He brother never came out...trapped about the point of impact.
Moslems all over the world are to blame for this war...those who are active participants and those who passively sit by and silently endorse it. That’s what all Americans better realize as they remember the attacks on America.
I wonder if CNBC has tape of his coverage that morning?
Since I had to leave just after the first plane hit, I never saw how he covered the rest of the morning.
Around 9:20 I heard her message and checked the web for news. CNN was down; FR was up with that first thread. At the office one of the admin assistants came knocking on doors to let everyone know what was going on. We set up a television in one of the conference rooms and about 10 of us watched dumbfounded at the second plan hitting the building.
After the first building collapsed, we closed the office and sent everyone home. Everyone realized a little later than we should have that we were in one of the tallest buildings in Detroit, and that we might not want to be there at that time. September 11 was the first and only time I sat in a homeward-bound rush hour traffic jam before noon.
Thanks Milwaukee Guy for the thread.
I with right here with y’all. Thank you for having me and getting me through that day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.