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?
Post 348
I was working on Long Island when the first plane hit. I had no idea the plane hit the floor my friend and past co-worker Kevin Murphy sat..he left behind a little girl and boy, and his wife Beth. They all lost a terrific father and husband and those who knew him lost a friend.
In further memory of Kevin:
http://memorial.mmc.com/pgBio.asp?ID=196
Unfortunately, I had not seen Kevin for almost a year prior to the loss. Please, always remember him and those who died that day.
I remember that day too. I was working at Fort Lee in VA. I had just arrived at work when the first plane hit. It was but minutes after the towers had fell that I heard a Civil service worker(they hate that word and it really isn’t too descriptive of what they do) talking about how “we asked for it and deserved it”. It took all my will to not get violent with him that day. It sickened me, the thinking was disgusting but betrays an Anti-Americanism that is alive and well in America.
I had just logged on to my computer at work and was going over my e-mail when a colleague leaned over the cubicle wall and said, “Did you here about the Twin Towers? One of them was hit by an airplane.” I immediately logged onto Freerepublic and someone posted a link to the live news coverage. When it became evident just how awful the event was and how many people were being burned alive on live TV, I decided I better call my wife at home and wake her up. She was 9 months pregnant, and due in just 18 days. Just as she picked up the phone the 2nd plane hit. I had to be very careful on how I broke the news to her because of the baby. I just said, “Honey, you need to turn on the news, something very terrible has happened”.
Got awakened by an early morning phone call from my dad. “Turn on the TV!”. OMG!! OMG!! That’s all i could say. I thought it was China. Don’t know why i thought that. Woke up my husband and kids and we all watched it happen. Maybe we were watching a replay, i don’t know for sure. Then i sent the kids off to school. Don’t know why i did that either. Probably was in shock.
I remember for days after, maybe weeks, i didn’t want to leave the house.
I lived a few miles south of the Pentagon at the time and worked in downtown DC. I heard about a plane crashing into the WTC on the radio as I was getting dressed and turned on the TV to see it. As I was pumping gas on my way in to work, the second plane hit.
My morning commute took me past the Pentagon on 395, and I remember looking over as I passed by and thinking “Yep, God bless them, those guys are going to be scrambling now.” I made it over the 14th Street Bridge and was driving past the Mall when a caller came on WMAL to say the Pentagon had just been hit. I thought it was a crackpot call since I had just driven by it and all was fine.
I didn’t realize it was for real until I got to my office. Everyone scrambled for a few minutes, confused about what to do. We were hearing all sorts of things at the time — a car bomb had gone off at the State Department, the USA Today building had been hit because they were targeting media outlets, there were a dozen more missing planes. One of them was supposed to be heading to the Capitol where my husband worked and I couldn’t get ahold of him. We finally decided to lock down our office and get the hell out.
I figured that all of the major targets were to the south of me and between me and home, so I drove a big loop around the city on 495 — took me 5 hours to get there. Was quite relieved to get home and find my husband there. Relief vanished when we found out a friend had been on the Pentagon plane.
I was on the margins of 9/11, but it was close enough for me. I’ll never forget driving through the smoke of the still burning Pentagon the next day, listening to the helicpoters flying over my house as they ferried out the wounded, or seeing the debris of the Towers when I had to go to NYC the next week. I’ll tell my children about it so they know how significant it was, but I have a bad feeling that something worse will rise up to replace it in their lifetimes.
I had just arrived at my lab where I was working on my dissertation when a friend called me and told me about a plane flying into the WTC. I was thinking Cessna 310. I went down the hall to the lab with a couple of TVs and was there watching when the second plane hit.
This weekend, I met some friends in New York and a few of us went down to Ground Zero. Some of my other friends would not go — they feared it would upset them too much. Me? I wanted to be upset. They say there are various stages of grief, including anger. I’m stuck on anger, and I want to stay that way.
Never forger!
About 9 or 10 a.m. California time, my niece called, and asked her father, "What are you going to do?" He answered, "We're just going to have some breakfast, and then head for the airport."
She asked something like, "You haven't been watching the news, have you?"
I turned on CNN, and we couldn't believe what we were seeing.
Sorry this is long, but I just like to recall every detail that I can:
I was actually behind in hearing about the attacks.
It was a gorgeous day. Apparently gorgeous everywhere up and down the East Coast.
I worked in a defense plant literally right next to a major airport (500 ft from an airstrip), not too far from the DC area. At the time, my group had been displaced to an outbuilding for office space as our normal area was being renovated. Tuesdays my program had weekly status meetings at 9:00 in the main building. 2 other of my co-programmers strolled back from our temp area to the main building, not far from the airstrip on a gorgeous day. We went in the main building and had our regular meeting, which threatened to be (as usual) longer than the allotted official hour. It may have been had it not been for our test man who had to go to the bathroom. And even he only found out thanks to his wife e-mailing him on his Blackberry device while he was out. Rich came back around 10:00 and mentioned rather matter-of-factly, that a plane had hit a WTC (note he didn’t say 2) and the Pentagon. The fact he mentioned 2 different places with 2 planes stunned us all, and we all adjourned then.
My 2 co-workers and I strolled down the hall and found a woman in our dept. who had a small radio TV. People were gathered outside her cubicle watching and wondering. The woman herself was crying, as were a couple others. I was stunned at what I was seeing, as I think most people were – just dumbfounded. Around 10:30 we saw 1 of those WTC starting crumbling. By then, mostly what I was feeling was just anger. Seething anger.
The word was out that all aircraft were being grounded.
Soon I walked back to my temp building (BTW, it’s a permanent 4-storey structure, just often used as an extra space for rotations), and planes of all sizes were landing 1 after another not 500 ft from me as I walked by. The noise was deafening. It was odd, and knowing why, it was tension-building.
I don’t recall the details of what news came through, but when I went back to my temp building, there was a man listening on his radio and we were all quite sure it was Moslem-related. I was just angry and the hatred seethed out. I told my co-worker and another woman with us (who is 1 of those loving Christians filled with equanimity) that it was Moslems and that they’re hateful, evil people; I don’t care how PinC it was to say so. And they looked shocked I could sound so hateful myself and vengeful. You’re damn right. I hate them and I wanted us to bomb the hell out of every such place on earth. (How could a woman have such hostility? You know, because we’re so above it all! Hah!)
Our company did not yet call off for the day. I was thinking surely a defense plant 500 ft from a major airstrip would shut down in no time. But no call. So we all stood around speculating, philosophizing and staring into space.
OK, they weren’t quitting so I had to go to lunch. I had to go out because I had no lunch at work. So I walked all the way out to my car – by now, it is perfectly QUIET! Absolutely NO noise. The planes are mostly finished. Quite eerie. Not used to hearing absolutely nothing from the airport.
But I got in my car and went to the nearest fast-food place, McDonald’s, which is also about the closest to the airport. Talk about eerie. A normally busy lunchtme at McD’s was completely empty. They had given up so completely that 1 could see they had stacked chairs on the tables, and everyone was gone.
So, so much for that. I did get lunch a bit further away, and drove back to work expecting to eat it in my car (as usual), definitely listening to what was transpiring. When I come back – the parking spots are virtually empty but there is a huge line of cars criss-crossing the lot trying to get out.
There was another car in front of me also slowly driving back in, along with me unsure what to do. I saw a man I know in the car line and he said we now had voluntary leave (i.e., leave if you want; obviously everyone wanted). Well, the other man and I parked next to each other and we went in together figuring there’s no point getting in line now when it’s so crowded, and we both had lunches to eat and didn’t have to leave. So we walked back in and decided to basically eat our lunches then come out again, when surely the crowd would all be gone.
As we walked to the tunnel opening guys were loading the trash cans and newspaper dispensers on pick-up trucks. (6 years later, we still aren’t allowed dispensers or trash cans at the entrance portals.)
I went all the way back to the temp building – again, and even moreso now with no workers – NO NOISE from outside, just the birds and bugs. Extremely eerie. It was like a ghost town next to another ghost town.
I got to my 4th-floor office area; everything was empty except an open office door with light coming out. So I yelled out, “Any stalwarts still here?” Then almost immediately 1 of our supervisors storms out of the lighted doorway and starts going hysterical; Brian starts yelling at me like a madman,
“What the hell are you doing here Kristin, get the hell out! You don’t know what could be going on here there could be biochemical s#$@ in the air!” Taken aback I stuttered that I was told we had optional leave; Brian insisted it was mandatory! Then he stormed out of the office area altogether (without me!).
Well, I ate my lunch and began calling, primarily worried about where everyone was (especially children in school). My dad also worked for this plant but close to the McD’s. I tried to call him but he didn’t answer. I called home and my sister’s, because not only was she having to worry about her own 3 children, but she usually went to get my other nephew (he came from CA to live with us for a year) from his own school. Didn’t know where my dad was, but I called my sister’s house and 1 of her friends answered, saying they already got Justin (my CA nephew) from school. My sister was getting her own son. Just then my dad walked into her house, and the friend relayed that I was on the phone.
To which he yelled, “What the hell is she doing there? Get back home!”
So I finally trekked out. Driving home I noticed a few parallel contrails in the sky. Fighters patrolling the region.
Soon we were almost all in the right places and things were OK, but tense. My dad and my cousin (who also lived with us) and I sat outside on a beautiful day listening to the total silence (we’re not far from that same airport), and speculating, etc, and waiting for my mom to make it home (she was a teacher on the other side of the city, getting around the beltway is always a challenge). I was fearful soon the West Coast would be hit, fearful for my brother in L.A. (father of Justin). But it was just so eerie, that weird beautiful day with such horror – and OUTRAGE.
It wasn’t a “tragedy”, it was an OUTRAGE.
Home in NJ (about 35 mi west of NYC) with my kids; husband called and said “Can you believe this?” I always had the news on first thing, didn’t that day for some reason. Turned on the TV, didn’t turn it off again, watched both towers fall, one eye on FR and one on TV. Soon after, local phone service crashed, cell service too busy to get through to anyone, email sporadic - my husband at the time worked in Bergen Co NJ, just west of the GW Bridge. I wanted him to come home of course. I was a little freaked out because until several months before, he had worked downtown and had taken the train into the WTC station every morning. He left his office around noon and didn’t get home til over four hrs later (normally an hour commute).
The next day we could smell the fire in our neighborhood - it was awful.
Bells are tolling in New York City.
I thought it was odd that he just didn't turn the phone off.
Between 11 and 12, someone noticed that it was a co-workers birthday and asked if I would go out and buy a card. I got into my car and the radio was on. I can't remember now what was said, just that it was chaos! Something horrible had happened, airplanes were crashed, but the reports were so confused, I couldn't get a handle on it.
I did buy the card. I returned to work and told the director to turn on tv, something was going on. Several of us stood looking at the tv in shock, still not really understanding what was happening. I went back to the classroom, understanding only that we had been attacked. The teacher asked me what would happen next. I told her that we were going to kick someone's ass. "But who?" she asked. My guess was Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden.
I went home at about 2. The first thing I did was call my mother. I said, "I just got home, tell me what's happened!" Mom gave me a re-cap and while we were still on the phone, she let out a small moan. "What? What's happened?" She told me that Barbara Olsen was on one of the planes.
I spent the rest of the day watching the news.
CNN.com has all 3 memorials live now for those of us cubicle bound
Did you guys think about that at the time? Or was I just being crazy?
I remember I was listening to a radio talk show in my office. They reported that Katie Couric just reported an accident when the first plane hit. We had a TV at work and tuned in to the news. That is when we all realized this was a terrorist attack.
Our military camp was immediately placed at high alert. When the Pentagon was hit, we were all getting very nervous. Any military post or camp could be an easy target, as none had much security.
I also wondered why not every aircraft in the sky was ordered to the nearest airport and every person aboard questioned. There were supposedly more attacks planned for other parts of the country. Every scheduled passenger should have been questioned, especially every mideastern muSLIME PO$.
That week back in September 2001 was terrible for my family. My mother had passed away in the afternoon of 9/10. I went to Church the next morning and when Mass was over I got into my car and on the radio somber voices were talking about a plane that had hit the World Trade Center. I’m thinking what a tragic accident. When I got home I put on the news and saw the second plane hit the second tower and the words, “Oh God we’re under attack” echoed in my head. My sister lives close to me so I went over to her house so we could comfort each other.
I live in NJ and I have a brother in Arizona and a sister in Texas. All flights were grounded after 9/11 so they could not fly here for our Mother’s funeral. So my brother got in his van drove to Texas to pick up my sister and they made it here in time for the funeral. It was bad enough that we were morning our mom whom we all loved very much but to add this on top of our grief was almost too much to bear.
I was in the middle of nowheresville on a mini-vaca, the first in a very long time. I had no idea it had happened for over an hour since there was no TV or phone in the cabin. We just happened to find out when trying to set up a canoe trip. Found a radio and listened to coverage for a while, then decided to pack it in and head home. On the way home we passed gas station after gas station with long lines like I’d never seen before.
I didn’t see any TV footage until we stopped in a liquor store that night, right before getting home. It was beyond shocking. I was always grateful I hadn’t seen any video footage until the reality had sunk in.
I was working from my home office then as I do now.
Our house is on a hilltop in WV and faces westward. We have spectacular sunsets on a regular basis and can see storm fronts and rain bands rolling in with their slow-motion menace and beauty.
At 8 AM I went out to get the newspaper from the front drive. I will always recall saying aloud “This is the clearest, bluest sky I have ever seen.” Not a hint of haze or humidity.
Shortly thereafter we all know what happened. I heard radio reports and dashed upstairs to the TV. I watched FNC with the occasional flip to other stations simply because during such events information reaches different organizations at different times.
The FNC anchor (Jon Scott) was rambling a bit since like everyone else he was attempting to make sense of the seneseless but I will always remember the shock and confusion in his voice as he said “WE...JUST SAW ANOTHER ONE!” Like us, the propensity for the news nets to incessantly loop video clips had him wondering if his own production team was already punching the rewind button.
Of course they were not - there were in fact two planes - and the Pentagon & Pennsylvania reports came later, along with the false alarms.
A few days later a news account described the attacks as “coming literally out of a clear blue sky” and I remembered the cobalt shade that had impressed me so much before all hell broke loose.
Thank you for your sacrifice. God bless you and your family.
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