It was moving day for me. From Southern Maryland to Northern Virginia. No phone calls possible for several hours due to overloaded circuits and traffic gridlocked with the mass exodus from the area. Moving truck didn’t show up at the new residence (wasn’t a big deal because others were suffering real problems).
I could see the black smoke from the burning Pentagon from the Wilson Bridge that crosses the Potomac. Military helicopters were flying low along the banks of the Potomac, up to Washington and back to Virginia, up and back, up and back, in groups of four.
F15’s were streaking low across the sky near Dulles Airport. Groups of people were standing around outside, watching the strange spectacle of our jets being used for actual defense rather than practice runs.
It was moving day for us too. I had recently transfered to Atsugi, Japan and we were moving from the temporary housing in the Navy Lodge into an off base house. We felt lucky in the morning because a typhoon was skirting the area and we had been afraid the moving company would cancel. But there was only a little wind and rain.
9/11 was a night time event for us in Japan. The cable wasn’t due to connected for a couple of more days and I had hooked up some old rabbit ears to the TV but the reception was pretty bad. I gave up and went outside to smoke but my wife was still playing with the TV. She came out and told me something was happening in New York. I came in just in time to see the second plane hit. The snowy picture we could barely see was American network broadcast with Japanese reporters doing voice overs.