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?
“working my daily Jigzone jigsaw puzzle”
You too? ;)
That reminds me. I was doing a jigsaw puzzle when I heard the news about Princess Diana.
I was getting ready to pick my son up from school for a doctor’s appointment, had just gotten out of the shower. Fox and Friends was on. During my shower the first plane hit. My original thought was that it was a commuter plane going into Manhattan that hit the building .. until I saw the second plane hit live on tv. It was instantly clear that this was a terror attack.
For a couple of years when I lived in NYC in the mid-70’s, my office view was of the World Trade Center .. a straight view downtown from One Penn Plaza. I’d been to the WTC several times, been to conferences there, and had dined at its Windows on the World restaurant. So it felt close and personal.
I wondered who I knew who might have been working there. And I thought of people just working in their offices, at the coffee machine, or copy machine, just doing mundane things. So many thoughts rushed through my head .. but NEVER that the buildings would collapse. We also saw that live on tv. It was - and remains - so overwhelming.
I went about my business, picked my kid up at school and we drove to the doctor’s office. I remember total fear when we were stopped at a red light, because we knew there was yet another plane out there that had taken off from Dulles and was in the DC vicinity. We live in Northern Virginia. While we were at the doctors, that plane hit the Pentagon. As we left the doctors, the normally neurotic DC-area drivers (who I think invented ‘road rage’) were extraordinarily polite despite all the traffic.
As the day wore on, the brilliance with which the operation was executed started to sink in. After 1993, the WTC had increased security on the ground .. who ever thought of a plane, much less TWO planes, crashing into the buildings, planes set for long flights that would be loaded with fuel?
Those people thought of so many details, took full advantage of American freedom and openness, and took away our innocence as a nation.
None of us who lived through that day and the following weeks can ever forget, nor should we.
I’ve lost my parents also but I give them full credit for the good things I can accomplish.
Thank you, sir!
It was always my pleasure to serve the greatest nation in history, but many gave far more than I.
Milwaukee_Guy, I “met” Free Republic sometime after 9/11 and this is, by far, the best thing I have ever read on here.
Truly edifying, moving and inspirational.
P.S. If I may also add — there has been a lot of mud-slinging on here lately about candidates and their supporters. This is a very refreshing exercise in coming together to remember — and to never forget.
Thank you.
I was in between jobs at the time, so even though it was a little late (Texas time), I was still in bed. The radio alarm went off, and I heard the NPR announcer say, “A second plane has hit the World Trade Center.” I sat bolt upright and thought, “That’s not an accident!” Still in my jammies, I hurried into the living room and turned on the TV. As soon as I understood what was happening — that two large planes had, in fact, plowed into the WTC — I remember thinking, with a curious calm (even though I was cursing a blue streak under my breath), “We’re at war. I don’t know who with, but we’re at war.”
My husband, by contrast, had left the house early to go to jury duty. He didn’t hear a breath of anything until early afternoon, when he was dismissed. So I sat there in front of the TV alone all morning, shivering and watching the WTC fall down.
Never forget. Never forgive.
Your parents did a good job then too :) Sounds like we both had wonderful parents.
What did I experience? Let's just say I have not been there since.
That’s Enough. It was hard enough for the fly-over folks. May the Lord be with you.
Our youngest daughter who resides in S Lake Tahoe called us in S CA to inform us what is happening to America. I flipped on the TV and was extremely shaken up on what I was watching. Needless to say, the day went down hill from the news in the morning, with the anticipate more to take place.
Our flag has been flying since 9/11/01.
I was up at about 7 (Mountain Time) that morning and was making some breakfast for my son before he went to his college classes. It was his first week. After I finished I went and sat down, turning on the TV and saw the smoke coming from the first tower. At first I couldn’t seem to comprehend what I was seeing. Then I watched as the second plane flew in and realized what was happening. My son went off to school and I went back to my bedroom and woke up my husband and we watched our bedroom TV. We stayed there until the towers fell and I remember trembling and crying about that as it was happening. We had to go downtown to do some business after that but before we left, I ran downstairs to wake up my other son who was still sleeping. I remember telling him that he better get up now because the World Trade Centre in New York was gone and the Pentagon had been attacked and it was terrorism and it seemed like the world had gone crazy. We went downtown amongst our skyscrapers and it was a really weird feeling almost like feeling that at any moment they could also come crashing down. Nothing seemed quite real. When we went home we spent the rest of the day watching TV and just trying to grasp the horror of what had happened and how it would affect so many lives and how it would change the future forever. There has not been a single day in the last 6 years that I have not thought about that day. Everytime I see a plane in the air my mind immediately says 9/11 before anything else.
I was on my way to work on a hot and muggy Mississippi morning. About 2 blocks after leaving home, my wife called and said, “Turn on the radio, some kind of plane hit the World Trade Center!”
I followed the story on radio until I got to work, where we all stayed glued to the TV in disbelief all day.
NYC was and is one of my absolute favorite places.
MM (in TX)
When I went out into the my apartment building's hallway all the lights were (coincidentally) off. It was a little creepy: I was living on the second floor of an old 28-apartment brownstone and I didn't remember all the lights having ever been off like that. Just as I was getting to the front door this young, half-crazed guy came in and said "Did you see that?"
Taken aback I answered "What?"
"They're attacking the Pentagon!"
I immediately went into Damn-Here's-A-Crazy-Guy defense mode and walked back up to my apartment. I went in, locked the door and stood in the hallway for a minute or two, giving Crazy Guy enough time to clear out so I could get to work.
It was surreal as I stood there....and I remember the nagging little thought creep into my mind, "Hey....what if he wasn't a druggie? Maybe you should just flip on the TV for a second."
So I slowly walked into the living room....And I didn't just waltz up and flip the TV on. I put my finger on the power button and just froze there a little....half-scared to press it...
When I heard about the first plane, not knowing the size of the yet, I thought the only way that a plane of any size might hit one of those buildings was if perhaps the pilot had a heart attack.
When I heard about the second plane, like everyone else I knew we were under attack.
Business pretty much dried up for the day after that, so as I was also a volunteer fire fighter at the time I spent most of the rest of the day at the fire house. Not knowing if my department might get called to help in one way or another. We are about 70 or so miles north of NYC.
When the first building went down I thought “my god how many fire fighters and others just died”, and then we all started worrying about members of my department that were also members of the FDNY. Fortunately all from my department were safe!
Well that was my day as I recall it on the morning of 9/11/2001...
I was in the Bay Area, that morning. My then girlfriend, who was from Queens, woke me, saying her grandmother had called her the minute the first tower was struck...I stumbled out in time to see the second.
She had served in the military, and we looked at each other, and said “This means war.”
We watched all morning, I managed to collect myself and made breakfast and coffee, and we both tried to reach our families in NY - I had a few relatives who worked near there, and one who i thought still worked in one of the towers (who had tranfered earlier in the year, thank god.)
Once we’d found out all we could about everyone we knew near NYC, we settled in for a long day and night - her watching the news channels, and I read the FR threads.
Our families were safe, but some people I work with knew one of the guys on flight 93, and several of our brokers perished.
It maddens me and saddens me to the core that a lot of the sheeple don’t care anymore. They turn the coverage off, or listen to that idiot at Loose Change.
The idiots out there still think it’s an isolated incident, that it was our fault, and we can negatiate with the savages.
I’ve never been easy around middle easterners since. I hate that. The more I learn about the Muslim Brotherhood, and the offshoots of it, and the history of the mindset/religious belief we’re fighting, I see a losing battle unless we face them 100% and seek to utterly destroy them, as they will not bow to us, or give up.
I do not see the same resolve in our country, or leaders. Our future is bloody, because of the inherent weakness of our leaders and populace. I see the footage of 9/11, and know that it’s only one battle of many we will lose, and it breaks my heart.
Forgot to mention, the Captain of the Pentagon Plane, Chic Burlingame was my classmate in high school.
RIP Chic!
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