Question: What were you doing this day two years ago?

10 Sept 03 | Mr. Silverback

[3catsanadog]

There are now 2 days in my life that I remember distinctly - JFK's assassination and 9/11/01.

[Quix]

SURFING FREEREPUBLIC.COM IN TAIPEI TAIWAN WATCHING CNN IN THE BACKGROUND AS IT ALL STARTED TO HAPPEN RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES.

Was exceedingly glad FR was up and running at the time!

[BurbankKarl]

I remember I was up late the night before, and slept later than usual that morning...the phone was ringing at 6 something AM, and I was hearing a msg in my sleep. I woke up at 8 or something, got into the shower, then turned on the TV getting dressed. It took me about 10 minutes to even comprehend what I was seeing...it was surreal. Even then, I went to work, and while a big deal, it didn't really resonate as a huge deal until hearing about the numbers of people who may have been in there, and then the loss of public safety personnel. As I got to my desk at work, I tuned in the scanner internet stream from FDNY, and it was virtually silent...which led you to believe there were some things that were seriously wrong. I dont think it really hit me for another day or two, how large it was.

[bjcintennessee]

Nothing in particular stands out for 9/10. My husband is semi-retired and it seems we spent a relaxing day completing minor projects around the house and yard.

On 9/11, we got up a little earlier than we "retired" folks usually do, and prepared to drive 1-1/2 hours to spend the day with my mother-in-law. We were about to walk out the door when the phone rang. It was my mother, calling from New Mexico, apologizing for possibly waking us up (it was about 9:30 am), and told me to turn on the television.

I was stunned, and my heart just sank. I am not normally an over-emotional person, but the tears just started rolling. Those poor people.

And I knew it was a death to the peace and security I had always taken for granted.

I set my VCR to tape FOX news and we left for my mother-in-law's.

On September 28, 2001, our son joined the Navy.

[fly_so_free]

My memories of the last days before 9/11 started that Sunday-start of my weekend-Monday and Tue. are my days off

I remember clearly. I went to the evening Mass, and came home. Turned on tv to Fox news. They were discussing the big stories -Condit exc. Then they talked about one that really disturbed me.

A woman in Seattle climbed out onto a bridge and was threatening to jump from it. This caused a huge traffic jam. The people stuck in the traffic started screaming and yelling at her to "jump! jump! jump b*tch!" so she did. Miraculously she survived the fall. But I think she was crippled from it. (I never heard any follow up- due to 9/11-I don't know for sure.)

This story just really bothered me. I remember thinking "Lord , we are in big trouble if we have become this calloused."

The next story was about a small earthquake that hit in North Hollywood. They kept showing a multi-story house with a window broken out near the top and you could see the desk and chair inside.

I'm not saying I had bad vibes or anything , but ,I do clearly remember thinking that it wasn't a good thing that people screamed at a woman until she jumped, nearly to her death , just so they could get out of traffic.

Monday was a fine day, with the exception of struggling through a math class (I have absolutely no clue when it comes to Math. Just opening the textbook gives me stress. )

I came home and went about the task of giving each of my three dogs a bath, trimming their nails and loading them into the car for a trip to the park.

It was a good day. We were having the same type of weather the East coast was having. It was very clear with mild temperatures. Beautiful clear blue sky. (I love the soft lighting of Fall and the changing leaves, it's my favorite season.)

I was planning on sleeping in a little the next morning . (Tuesday was like Sunday to me ,as my days off go.) I woke up because my room mate was knocking on the door at a round 6 am (Pacific time here). I was half-asleep as he told me to come to the living room and see - a plane had just flown into one of the WTC buildings in New York. I told him he was "full of it" so to speak and tried to go back to sleep.

( This is because he is notorious for playing jokes. He once convinced me and my other 2 room mates to go look in the back yard at a very early hour of the morning because he said a balloon had landed there -a big giant one. He thinks April Fools is every day)

I sat up in bed and thought: plane, WTC building-no he wouldn't joke about something like that. I heard screaming from the living room and ran to there and saw that the second plan had had just hit . Everyone in our house was up, glued to the TV . I started crying, so did my other room mates . We all wondered : what the hell is happpening? We are being attacked. My mom called. Everyone elses mom's called too. Then the Pentagon in flames. We all wondered how many more planes were there ?

I was scared, really scared. I was thinking we could lose everything, our country, everything. This could be it.

(Oh, and I do remember the rotten dirty no good b*stards Rather and the other one at NBC trying to insinuate that President Bush was running scared. I knew this was not true (of course the President needs to stay safe in a time of crisis- everyone in my house understood this). I thought right there "What an awful, treasonous, thing to say to the people while we are scared, under attack and everything is in flames." I will never forgive them for that- Ever.)

Then , that night( I don't think I slept for the rest of that week) and in the next day ,and days after, stories came out of those who fought the terrorists and prevented further damage. Stories of heroism, acts of kindness , People all across the nation, lining up around the block, to give blood and offer help. People who dropped what they were doing and drove hundreds of miles to help in NYC. I remember thinking; we may be down, but we are going to be ok, we will get through this- There is my country- There is our American sprit. We are not Seattle (yelling at the girl on the bridge to jump)- Thank God . We are Americans. A good man is in the White House with the best staff we could ask for. We'll make it.

I think the lessons of 9/11 are that we must value our freedoms, not take them for granted. We have to teach our children to value them too. Tell them our Nation is worth fighting for. It is one of a kind. We could have lost everything on 9/11. There is no guarantee that another attack won't happen . It might even be worse than that terrible day. We have to stay strong, resolved, and united. We are at war. The WTC buildings are gone. Our Pentagon was attacked. The Islam radicals make threats against us every day. They aren't kidding. We can't just walk away from this. We have to do, what we have to do. Above all SUPPORT OUR TROOPS-Did you wake up free today?-Thank a soldier.

If I could have one wish- I would wish that the democrats would either wake up and smell the coffee, or go away. I can't beleive how stupid , petty , and mean they are. This not a drill.I just don't get them, -with 1 or 2 exceptions-and never will.

Anyway, Pray for President Bush and our Nation- EVERY DAY. May God Bless America

[fly_so_free]

</font>Forgot to close font color I think,

[vikk]

That's just about the closest one I've ever heard.

[Vote 4 Nixon]

I was sitting in a motel in Savanah Georgia channel surfing. I came across Fox news and there was a picture of the first tower smoking. The anchor was interviewing a man who was saying that there was a world war 2 plane that had crashed into a building because of low visibility when there in front of our eyes the second plane impacted. We knew then, that we were in one of those moments for good or ill, that life as we have always known it would never be the same.

[Mr. Silverback]

I was transfixed the rest of the day, hell, the rest of the week. When my kids got home, I turned to other things - thank God for Disney Channel & Cartoon Network.

Amen to that. there have been times I regretted letting my kids have a TV in their room. That day was not one of them.

Not only that, after midnight, jumbo freight jets for FedEx, UPS and all the rest normally fly overheard out of Hartsfield with packages for the world. Their thundering rumbles are almost comforting after all these years. That night, however, was eerily quiet.

The first few nights after I got out of the Air Force, I kept waking up several times a night and didn't know why. One night it dawned on me that it was too quiet--I'd been sleeping within earshot of a busy airfield almost every night for over four years.

"Don't make me angry....You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

Dead on.

[Mr. Silverback]

My wife and I were planning our son's 3rd birthday party.

My sympathies to your son. My birthday is the day that Challenger blew up.

[Mr. Silverback]

My wife and I left that service profoundly changed, new believers in Our Lord and Savious, Jesus Christ.

Welcome to the family!

[Mr. Silverback]

Last night I heard the screaming nutcases that pass for democrat candidates screech "Miserable Failure." For shame.

Sweat not. They will lose, and lose badly, next Novemeber. Act as if your actions will make the difference between victory and defeat, but know they will lose.

[the lone haranguer]

Thanks, Mr. Silverback. His story, though is really a good one. He was a preemie (3 mos early), 2lbs, 10oz. and 14". He was very sick and we were unsure if he'd survive. Today is his 5th birthday, and he is a big, strapping, VERY lively boy. No fanatical idiots pursuing death and wanton destruction of innocents can take away the miracle and blessing that he is to me. His birthday, like yours, will always bear a negative connotation, and rightly so to some, maybe even him, but to me, as his father, nothing can or will override my joy at his arrival. I bet your folks would say the same.

[teletech]

I, like most folks, was glued to the TV with WHITE HOT anger running through my veins! Two years later I'm still haunted by the pictures I saw that day. I WILL NEVER EVER FORGET who did this to our country!

[viaveritasvita]

>>"My daughter's first words were, 'We're at war.'"<<


Astute!

[MarcoPolo]

I remember exactly what I was doing that day. I was just finishing about to finish up my morning shift on the radio (I was a college DJ at the time) when my co-host and I suddenly heard the beep of an urgent message coming across the AP wire. The first plane had just struck. We were shocked but we both thought maybe it had just been an accident. I didn't even read it during my top-of-the-hour newsbreak. Looking back now that seems ludicrous, but I just didn't give much thought to it at that point.

After my shift I went to the front of the station to my office. My boss asked if I had announced about the plane crash, and I said no. He said that it was alright but that I should just make sure I announced the next time I opened the mike. He said he was headed out to a nearby town and would be back later. I sat down at my desk and settled in to do some work there.

It wasn't two minutes after my boss left that I got an urgent call from him on the telephone telling me to get all the news about the crash in New York together and be ready to go on the air live with him in two minutes because a second plane had just hit the other tower.

I sprang up and started rushing around. I was so shocked I just kept saying, "Oh my God! Oh God save us! It's starting! Oh my God!" (I had for some time felt that a war against us was not long in coming.) I rushed to the news wire and my co-host and I gathered all the info we could. We turned our television monitor to the news and started taking notes. Within minutes, my boss and I were live on the air reporting what was happening minute by minute. Quickly the studio, which had previously been pretty empty except for me and my co-host began to fill with other staff members rushing in to find out what was happening and trying to help us get the news out. We got reports that several other hijacked planes were in the air and were headed for uncertain targets. We received a report that a car bomb had exploded outside the State Department. We didn't know how much was truth and how much wasn't.

My boss was a sergeant in the Army National Guard. He was visibly shaken and worried. Another ranking staff member sprinted into the studio with a face that was as shocked and pale as could be. He was panting and quite obviously distraught. He too was a National Guardsman. Both of these men had wives, and the boss had two children. They knew in their minds that they might have to go.

I don't know how long we were on the air. I think we finally stopped doing such frequent live reports at about 1:30 p.m. that day. News began to come more slowly after that. I had to go to class, but I couldn't focus. I just felt I needed to be in the station, the only place I felt I could be of any help on that horrible day. I told my professor I wanted to leave and go back and help. He readily obliged. I hurried back. Even though there wasn't anything for me to do, I just couldn't stand being away from it. I just wanted to do something. After a while I just left and went back to my dorm. I desperately needed a shower and a rest.

I felt drained by that day, but I was very alert. I felt sure that more was coming, and I waited for it. But thankfully it did not come. I sat in the lobby and heard several people talking about how the gas stations were backed up and that gas was up to astronomical prices. I didn't go. I sat and waited. And slowly the day that I could never forget faded away into the darkness of night.

[karen999]

On 9/10 I was flying from Ca. to Pa. for my father's funeral. He had died, Sat the 8th, and the funeral was to be 9/13. Had he died a few hours later, I would have not have been able to make the flight arrangements for the 10th...and would have flow out the 11th instead. Given the time of day and the time differences, I'd most likely have been stranded somewhere over Mid-US or at best at home--and I'd NEVER have gotten to my dad's funeral. One of my aunts had picked me up at the airport on the 10th--so I stayed at her house. I slept late, being a little jet laggy...and got up about 8:30 eastern time...came down for b'fast...at which point my aunt, who'd been listening to the radio, turned it OFF...while we proceeded for 3 hours to yack away catching up on family business. (my uncle had been "up and out" early---thought we had gone OUT for b'fast--and didn't call home -- as he figured we knew what was going on.) Well, I was to be "handed off" to my dad's side of the family, and we had already arranged to meet somewhere else, so that I could be driven about 1.5 hours away to where my dad's side of the family lived. I was putting my suitcases in the car, and got in, and then a neighbor had called my aunt over acros the street. She had been gone an AWFULLY long time, I thought...(the neighbor was wondering if we were going to the airport, as all air travel had just been shut down.) Finally my aunt came back and said: "The United states is under attack...BOTH of the
WTC towers have been completely destroyed, i.e. collapsed...the pentagon has had another plane crash into it...and another plane has crashed...ALL airtraffic is grounded." (All my life I had wondered how people felt
when they heard the news Pearl Harbor was attacked, now I knew...and I'd give anything again NOT to know.)
I never actually cried that day. I was too stunned and angry that anyone would do that. On the ride up
(my OTHER aunt was in absolute hysterics...SURE that her son should close his business which was located close to an airport, but 90 miles away) we all sat in silence, listening to the car radio, and the president's address to the nation. Then when we got to where we were going, my grandmother was so upset by all the TV coverage...she couldn't BEAR to have it on at all....(meanwhile, I had only been able to see a little of the actual footage)...late that evening I called a friend who lived in Michigan to find out about our mutual friends on a theater newsgroup I followed, because an extremly large percentage lived in NY--I was very relieved to find everyone safe, though a few had some hairy experiences (one group member was staying in a hotel practically on top of ground zero...but fortunately was out sight seeing in Mid-Town when the planes hit.
we were all so stunned and shocked that week that I couldn't even properly mourn my own father's death. The only time tears came at his funeral was at the 21 gun salute...and we were ALL thinking about how another generation of young americans was going to have to go out and die to fight for our country. A second cousin of mine had been in one of the towers when the plane hit--she survived...she was below where it hit the 1st tower...someone else assisting at the funeral rite's daughter was SUPPOSED to be in one of the towers for a job interview at the time....fortunately, her PATH train from New Jersey was late or something. another young relative was 17...and had already earlier signed up for a program which allowed him to train with the Marines on the weekend, and as soon as he graduated go into the Corps. (Every single uncle of mine had served in the military, also my dad, and a number of my male cousins...none "career" military, but service to the nation is strong in the coal regions of Pa.) ...the 17 year old was very anxious to "get the bastards that did this." And instantly the whole town looked like the biggest 4th of July celebration you can imagine. These people didn't have to go out to BUY flags....they HAD them. I too was proud of our president, and thanked a providential God that Bush WAS our president in the time of crisis ( I truly think it was the hand of God that saw to it that Bush would be in office in this difficult time) I despise the talking heads that just couldn't seem to get it through THEIR dumb heads that the president needed to be "Secured" immediately after the attack, and in fact, it was damn brave of him to go back to the White House at all that day....they didn't know WHAT kind of nut cases and 5th column cells were operating at that point. And I will NEVER forgive those Arabs who were dancing in the streets rejoicing at this tragedy. I was never "frightened" since that day or this....but I do take pride that we have a president who is FOCUSED on staying on task for our security...because that is THE number one job of government...protecting its own citizens. I have read that when we capture some terrorist on the wanted list, Bush keeps a list and crosses that guy off. I LOVE his focus. And I was exceedingly touched that he said that he and Laura could FEEL the prayers of the nation, praying for guidance so that he could do the right thing. I know I pray for him constantly, and I bet there are millions of other americans out there like me.

[ppaul]

:

Your submissions please:
AMERICA ATTACKED/AMERICA GOES TO WAR: Online FReeper library -
Post your links to videos, photos, graphics, etc. HERE

:

[Mortimer Snavely]

I was in Japan playing a wargame on the computer before I hit the sack. A fellow Freeper (August West) called me up and told me of the events. I turned on the TV, and saw the towers smouldering, and then I watched their collapse. My first thought was "Christ, this is worse than Pearl Harbor." I thought we had lost more than 20,000 people. Thank the Lord we didn't.

ISLAMISM IS ENEMY NUMBER ONE

[EastIdaho]

I had checked into a motel to recover from my Lasic eye surgery. Went from 20/200 in both eyes to 20/15 in both eyes. I remember watching the news about the 9/11 attacks through the blur of the goggles they make you wear after the procedure. Now 2 years later I am still better then 20/20 in both eyes and couldnt be happier, it was a bitter sweet time.