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?
Wondering if my cousin was working that day at his usual job in the Twin Towers … he was.
I heard the planes were hijacked, via someone at FAA ATC Islip who called the person one cube over — I checked FR, and there was the thread.
I thought it was some weird dream at first.
My boss is a lib, ex-Army transportation. She used to run the office like the Army until we all get fed up. She thinks no one is more knowledgeable and valuable than her. She was made humble a hard way.
One of the teachers came in and told me, a plane had hit one of the twin towers. I mentioned that it had happen before when a plane hit the Empire State Building.
She told me, "No, this was not an accident."
As I turned on the television in our classroom, the second plane plowed into the second tower. We watched it up until the pentagon got hit. That is when we got orders from the principal to turn off the televisions.
I should mention our school is about 10 miles from the 177 air force reserve station. It was those pilots who were trying to intercept any other planes heading into NYC. We heard the planes over our school as they were heading out and coming back throughout the whole day.
By the end of the school day, half of the kids in school had been picked up by their parents.
It was weird, every time we heard a plane go over we stopped what we were doing until the sound was gone.
One of the teachers in the school lost her son, who was on the 87th floor of the first tower. She got a call from London that night. Her son was on the phone to one of their offices in London when the plane hit. They told her they heard a scream and the phone went dead.
Another teacher had a sister who was suppose to be in the wing of the pentagon, but because that section was just remodeled, they had not moved back into her office.
I was in a meeting in Dallas. When I came out of the meeting, I saw all the cleaning folks gathered around a TV spanish station. I saw the smoke and fire, and figured it was another terrorist attack overseas. When I was at my desk, one of my coworkers came in and asked if I’d seen the attack. “Yeah.”
“They’re tracking down the planes, locked down the plant, and calling everybody.”
“Why call everybody?”
It turns out that 4 of my coworkers were on one of the planes that crashed into the twin towers.
I was in the bar of a hotel in Bangalore India, and saw CNN on the screen with the first tower smoking...called the attention of my other company people just before the second plane struck.
We aske the band to stop playing..and they objected..told them people were dying. They stopped.
We sat and watched to coverage.
After hanging around and seeing the towers collapse, I walked to the Village and tried to give blood at St. Vincents. They didn’t have enough bloodsuckers, so they bussed us over to Cabrini. In the meanwhile, I got really sunburned (I’m a redhead). I also borrowed a cell phone and called my wife, who told me that her best friend, who happens to be the god mother of my older daughter, was staying in the W Hotel in Union Square and that she had room for me.
So I got to stay in a luxury hotel room, with a woman who was not my wife, on her expense account. How’s that for a war story?
Our daughter is turning 6 today. She's the cutest, brightest, smartest little thing.
Not everything about that day was horrible.
I always checked Free Republic in the AM, even before turning on the TV...
..it was shortly after 7AM I think...and I told him FR said all the airplanes were grounded.
He thought I was kidding...
..we turned on the TV......when the first tower fell, we turned off the TV and sat there praying & crying.
A few days later we left for home....drove...from California to Florida.
ALL ALONG THE ROUTE HOME we saw American flags everywhere...
..people were very somber.
When I got off, I scooped my dog up and headed to the Veterinarians office.
I was standing in the kitchen fixing breakfast with the radio on. Heard the news of the first plane hitting the building.
Turned off the stove and turned Fox news on...Just in time to see Plane #2 impact...
I didn’t sleep for 36 hrs...Couldn’t leave the TV.
Took me a while to get the other sock on.
And I remembered Tom Brokaw's dumb comment (before the buildings came crashing down) "You think they're going to have to tear the buildings down, Katie?" UH, WHAT DO YOU THINK TOM??
I was sewing in the den and watching the Today Show.(I know) When they reported that the Pentagon had been hit, with tears in my eyes, I went to the front closet and got out my flag. I knew we were at war and that things would never be the same again. My flag has been flying outside ever since.
My first thought was some off-course Cessna had screwed up, and I said rather disinterestedly, "Whoops."
But he kept staring at the screen, and I went in and turned on the news just as the second plane was hitting. Mostly we were just in shock. We sat on the edge of the bed for hours, just watching and shaking our heads.
It was the same day his aunt went into the hospital for cancer, and never came out. She died a few months later. The whole day was just surreal.
My real rage started the next day when our anthropology professors got together to hold an impromptu forum about how America deserved it. That was the beginning of the end of my interest in finishing my Ph.D.
I woke late that day. We live near Portland Oregon and had a 7 month old Baby, my husband had been out of work for nearly 6 months, the Bubble had burst in the High Tech field by then for us. So we slept in. I went upstairs and turned on the tv and saw what had happened. I immediately went back down and got my husband up, and told him that someone had blown up the world trade center,incredulous. About an hour after that, we found out he had gotten a job finally. It was an immensely difficult day, knowing what had happened and knowing that he was finally going back to work. It was a very bittersweet day.
NEVER FORGET.
I had just gotten the kids off to school and poured some coffee and sat to read the paper (yep still did that then).I had the TV on and glanced up to see the first tower burning. At first I thought it was a clip from someone promoting a movie and thought wow special effects have really gotten good. Thats when I watched in horror as the second plane hit and realized it was real. For what seemed an eternity my brain had a hard time wrapping itself around such an event. Each time I watch those images now I still feel the stinging tears and the sickening grip in my stomach. The attitudes of today seep into rage.
I gunned it a bit, thinking it'd been something like a goofy New York Yankees rookie pilot...turned on the office TV, and it went from there.
I telephonically woke up a whole lot of western time zone people that day...
Right here (albeit under a different screen name). I went next door to tell a co-worker a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
By the time I got back to my desk, the second had hit.
Yeah, there was a air guard unit doing CAP NYC where I was working — first time I saw the jets fly out there on afterburner with the long white arrows under wing.
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