Where were you on 9/11? Recount your tale and reaction.

My Squash ^ | 9/21/01 | Burkeman1

[Burkeman1]

Where were you when you first learned of the attack on our Country?

My Father and Mother remember where they were for the JFK assissination, the moon walk, and the Simpson Verdict.

I share the last. I will always remember where I was during the Simpson verdict. But I also remember the Challenger explosion- I was in the library of my high school. But the events of 9/11 will always be on my mind.

My company lost a man in the first tower and my brother had flown out the day before on 9/10 to LA and I wasn't sure until his call. That day was horrible.

The personal death toll for me is one co- worker and two from my home town- of Wellesely MASS- but I can't say if there are more yet.

Recount where you were when you first heard of this evil crime.

[deener]

We were on a cruise of New England & Canada and were in port in Halifax, Nova Scotia when we heard it on CNN of the first two planes. We went off the ship to a museum right next to the pier when the Canadians told us a plane had hit the Pentagon. They were as shocked and stunned as we were.

[mtngrl@vrwc]

I live in Kalifornia, so as my alarm clock went off at 6:30 a.m. and the radio turned on, the news was all about the towers being hit by the hijacked airplanes. I ran into the living room and turned on FOX News and then went in to take a quick shower. When I got out of the shower, the Pentagon had already been hit. Then I got on Free Republic and simultaneously watched Fox's coverage until I had to leave for work.

I work at an elementary school and as I arrived at work, there were televisions on in the library and also in each of the classrooms. The teachers tried to teach the regular subjects that they usually teach in the morning, but they stopped and listened to the TV each time it looked like new news was released.

I keep waiting to wake up from this terrible nightmare!

[Southflanknorthpawsis]

Well.........first off I looked at your profile and have to agree with you that I wrote Flutie off for the same reason. Now I have a problem with him playing for the Chargers since I live in San Diego County. Oh well.......enough of that......My husband is the football fan; not me.

As to your question, I was awakened by a phone call from my brother who screamed "Turn on the television. This is unbelievable. Two planes have been deliberately flown into the WTC." It took me a minute to get my bearings, wake up and get the TV on. Then there it was on Fox News.

[DLfromthedesert]

I guess your parents are boomers, like me. I remember as they do the previous incidents you mentioned. I got up; it was 6:20 AM Tucson time; got online to listen to Hugh Hewitt, and heard him talking about a plane flying into the WTC. He sounded distressed, and I was sort of groggy, and hadn't really processed the info, so I turned on FoxNews.

I saw the towers collapse, and heard about the Pentagon and the plane that went down in Pa. At first, they were fuzzy on the airlines involved, and since my son is a flight attendant, and was out on a trip, I tried to call him, but couldn't get through to his home, his cell phone, or his pager. I was frantic. Then he called from the airport in Pittsburgh; his plane was on the runway and they were staying put.

PS His job will probably be history in the very near future, but that's small potatoes compared to what so many went through. My heart countinues to ache for the families of the victims, and the families of our Armed Forces. My son finished his service a year ago.

[Virginia-American]

In the dentist's chair. I'm glad he has steady hands!

[Poohbah]

I was in a meeting less than two miles from the Pentagon when a coworker came in and passed the word. I was in disbelief as I saw the smoke come up from the direction of the building--and I was frantic to call my wife and let her know I was OK.

[Nitro]

This is a good question, but you are suppossed to wait at least a year or two before you ask it!!

As for the Challenger explosion, I was in Dam Neck, Virginia. I just got out of OS "A" School in the US Navy! I graduated and went on to serve honorably in the good ship USS Nitro!!

[chickenlips]

I was standing on Constitution Ave., in DC. When the windows in the National Academy of Sciences Building shook from a loud booming noise to the south, I knew we had trouble. It was far to big for a dumpster dropping off of a truck or something dropping at one of the nearby construction sites. Within a minute I received a call telling me what had happened.

[ObfusGate]

I remember where I was when JFK was shot, when we landed on the moon, when MLK was shot, when the Challenger exploded and when Reagan was shot. As for OJ, I don't remember squat since there was absolutely no shock that that jury let him off.

On 9/11 I was 1100 miles away in Asheville, NC on the phone trying to persuade American Airlines to let me on my flight out of Atlanta later that night. The problem: I had lost my driver license. They weren't much help. And that was before the hijackings.

I turned on the TV in the hotel room and saw the first reports of building 1 being hit by a plane. 20 minutes later I watched as the second plane flew into the other building. At first I didn't believe what I had seen. Neither did the talking heads. Within a few seconds, though, the real horror and the obviously intentional nature of the crashes sank in.

I found my driver license at the rental car office. Needless to say, I drove back home to OKC.

[Moose4]

I was at my job in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, just sitting in my cube, when I overheard one of the ladies in the Operations department telling my next-cube neighbor that she'd heard that "two planes had hit the World Trade Center." I figured that there had been a mid-air and the wreckage had fallen and hit the WTC, a terrorist attack never occurred to me.

So I swung around to my computer and tried to get on the Internet. CNN.com, nada. MSNBC.com, timeout. Foxnews.com, timeout. In desperation, I tried freerepublic.com--which is normally blocked by our Internet filtering software for some reason. I got right through, and was able to keep up with the events of the day through threads here on FR, and continuous coverage from local radio stations.

The sick irony? 11 September 2001 was my thirty-fifth birthday. Needless to say, my wife and I didn't go out to celebrate that night. We finally had my birthday dinner this past Wednesday.

}:-)4

[vetvetdoug]

I was on the phone with Oppenheimer Mutual Funds when the tower was hit. The lady calmly told me she had to go and evacuate the building. Oppenheimer did not lose an employee.

[vetvetdoug]

I was on the phone with Oppenheimer Mutual Funds when the tower was hit. The lady calmly told me she had to go and evacuate the building. Oppenheimer did not lose an employee.

[Marie Antoinette]

I was hanging around the birthjunkie.com forum that morning on and off while I did a couple loads of laundry. I had been up since 5 am CDT and don't have cable anymore, so no TV.

Finally caught up with the threads at the other site and refreshed the FR latest posts and saw PENTAGON HIT. I thought it was some kind of joke, until I scrolled down and saw posts on the WTC. Tears started to well up as I opened the threads to the horror. I started reading to my 9 y.o. son, but had to stop, I couldn't stop shaking or crying. Turned on the radio, there was NO music anywhere that day, only the attack.

I will never forget!

[TKEman]

Well, I was at Crystal City, not far from the Pentagon. I posted my experiences on that day already.

[mombonn]

I remember JFK - I walked into geometry class while the intercom was giving the news. My teacher, Miss Sepe, was saying the rosary.

I was on my way back from the golf course when man first walked on the moon. I remember looking up in awe, realizing what was happening.

I was at my desk when the Challenger exploded. The Market was going up; suddenly it reversed course. I scrolled repeately through news headlines to see what had happened.

I was home sick when Oklahoma City happened; and I was home sick when WTC happened. I sat staring in stunned silence all day both times.

More stunned last week, because I took my series 7 (broker's license exam) in the WTC in 1977; spent 6 weeks in One Liberty Plaza (close by, in danger last I heard) doing sales training with Merrill Lynch. I know how huge these buildings are - to see the WTC melt still does not really seem real.

[billbears]

I was at work, surfing the net first thing in the morning and someone came over and told me to go to CNN's website. The first plane had hit but the second had not. Went to the page and saw the first picture. I think CNN at the time was reporting it as a possible accident.

Another part of my company is involved in office staffing. A guy stood up and said (and I will never forget this as long as I live),"Guess we should call the guys over in staffing. Looks like they(being the WTC companies) will need some more people." Then the second plane hit. Needless to say, this guy pretty much got the cold shoulder for the next few hours from anyone on staff who heard him. Then the buildings fell and the report by the Pentagon. I really was too stunned to even realize what had happened. We went home by eleven. Got home, sat down, and cried

[BurkeanCyclist]

I was on FR, in fact, when a couple of posts came up in Breaking News about a plane hitting the WTC.

I turned on FOX. The anchor was interviewing an expert in something-or-other, and mentioned the bomber that hit the Empire State Building in heavy fog in WWII. This, the anchor said, happened in broad daylight, and must have been intentional. I thought that this sort of speculation was incredibly irresponsible. The expert also pointed out that it could well have been an accident.

I switched over to MSNBC to se if they knew any more than FOX, watched for a short while, and then turned back to the computer just in time to hear the anchor say that there had been another explosion.

I turned around, saw the fireball, switched back to FOX, and the anchor was saying that another plane had hit the WTC.

The expert said (in answer to a question, I think) that if another plane had hit the towers, it was almost certain to be an intentional act.

I honestly don't remember what I was thinking at the time.

[RightField]

We live in San Diego County, and are early risers. I was up at 5:30 am and had turned on the TV just moments after the first plane hit and FOX had a live picture. I shouted to my husband to turn on the bedroom TV as it looked like a small plane had accidentally hit one of the World Trade Towers.

Then I started switching channels to see what other stations were covering, and then saw the second plane hit live. I nearly collapsed on the floor after that and could hardly finish the morning routine. My husband (high school teacher) and son (freshman) left at 6:30 am for school, and then the Pentagon crash was being reported. I called them on their car phone to let them know.

It was pretty grim around here for most of the day because my husband's nephew works for Cantor Fitzgerald and his office was in the WTC. Of course, we couldn't get through to any relatives back there for hours to find out if he was OK. Our family's story has a happy ending, though. His normal workday started at 9:30 am. He was on the train into the city when the attack occurred, and so was not hurt. But he lost something like 700+ coworkers.

Also, my husband's brother was on a flight from Newark scheduled for 8:15am departure and they were brought down in Raleigh NC. He said their plane had been delayed on takeoff and they could actually see the smoke from the first attack which happened right after they took off.

[The Wizard]

I was watching CNBC as I do every weekday, followed by Fox and Friends...saw the whole thing live, taped 28 hours