Posted on 09/11/2013 4:03:33 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
I'll Start...
I was visiting a customer in Columbus, GA. I was actually presenting when someone came in to the meeting and announced the attack.
I’d flown in and luckily had a rental car for the 16 hour drive home. Lot of time to think on that drive..
Driving into work, I was listening to a CD for the first time in months, as I just about ALWAYS listen to local talk/news radio while driving. Strange that on this day, I didn’t even know it happened. As I drove into the parking lot, a saw a group of my coworkers at the back door waving at me to come in. I had only recently been retired from the Air Force at this time.
They told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I, being a FReeper-trained font of knowledge, told them about the B-25 that hit the Empire State building in 1945, so this was probably an accident.
As we all walked into the conference room with the projector set to Fox News, we all saw the second plane hit the second tower. I remember saying aloud, (almost to myself) “We’re at war.”
I was at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland waiting for my second grandchild to be born. I had the two year old happily
watching cartoons when someone came in asked if they could
change the channel. They said something important was happening. Watched the second plane hit. No one ever forgets
Riley’s birthday.
>> I remember fearing there could have been 10,000 people killed in the WTC.
I was familiar with typical office building occupant density levels and typical floor sizes, and had come up with a range at that number and higher myself. The actual casualty level being so much lower was a bit of a silver lining to me, as odd as that sounds.
I lost 4 people I used to work with. My wife’s cousin lost her husband. My neighbor was late for a job interview and stopped for a smoke across the street when the first plane hot the floor he was supposed to be on. I was in Roseland NJ working at a new job. A few months earlier I had been laid off from a job across the street from the towers.
I was on FR getting updates, sent all my employees home and called my wife. I sat in my office by myself until the second tower fell. I packed myself up and went to my sisters house since all bridges back to home were closed. When I finally got to my sisters I saw everything in replays while I watched the smoke rise on the horizon. Two days later I made it home and hugged my wife and kids.
It was a clear,beautiful day,with a blue sky that you just wanted to bottle up.
The kind of day that made glad to be alive.
Then it turned so badly, it could scarcely be believed.
I was at work when someone mentioned a plane hit the World Trade Center. I told someone to get on FreeRepublic and we started reading the first thread.
As we realized that it wasn’t a little Cessna that hit, we all wound up in the lobby of our office building, where there was a TV on the wall, with folks from other companies, and we saw the second plane hit. We were transfixed.Then the first tower collapsed. It was sickening, and we knew life would never be the same.
This was in Toms River, NJ.
In memory of my friends who died that day:
NYC Fireman Richard Bruce van Hine, Truck 41. He had come off duty at 8:30 am, but the call for the TradeCenter came in, and he responded. His body was found a few years later when they removed the original ramp down into the pit. he left behind a wife and two daughters. his wife gave tours of the Trade Center site as a volunteer.
Don and Jean Peterson, Flight 93. They were scheduled for a later flight to San Francisco, but got to the airport early, so they gladly got on Flight 93, so they could spend more time with their grandchildren in CA. They were retired couple long known in Monmouth County, NJ for their volunteer work.
These three were all believers in The Lord Jesus Christ, who were ushered into His presence that clear September day.
I was recovering from surgery at home. Got a call from one of the deacons at church telling me to turn on my tv. I was watching as the second plane hit on fox news.
It was my oldest son’s 21 birthday, he was stationed in G.B. at the time.
Browsing Free Republic while sitting in my office at work.
Looks like GOOGLE and YAHOO home pages have no tribute or mention of 911.....
My wife and I were driving through Utah on our way to the Grand Canyon. I was gassing up the car when she came out to tell me that the plane crash in NYC we had learned about as we left Denver several hours earlier was a devastating attack on the United States. During our stay at the Canyon we saw many international tourists who were still there because they could not fly out of the country. A special service was held on the edge of the north rim to honor the firefighters.
I remember in the days to follow watching the countless polypstinians in arab-occupied Judea on television celebrating the murder of thousands of innocent Americans. I will never forget these moral pygmies, these savages, these barbarians.
Islam delenda est.
State house in Boston doing some work for a client.
On FreeRepublic
Pentagon 1C730 at 0937. email to wife “There’s been an explosion. We’re OK but evacuating.”
TC
Driving towards the Holland Tunnel. I worked in the 63rd floor of the Chrysler Building, but parked downtowm, as it was much cheaper than midtown. I saw the smoke when driving in 78, and was listening to the same radio interview as earlier. I might have seen the first plane, as i noticed a plane earlier over midtown during a break in the scenery, but cannot verify. As i came down the hill towards the airport, i saw the smoke directly from the building. I kept driving, onto the turnpike extension, and was amazed at the scale. Recalling 93, i knew the tunnels would eventually be closed, so i was looking to figure out how to get to the lincoln tunnel instead. As i approached the end of the skyway, i saw the second plane come and hit. All of the cars started swerving. I hit the streets of Jersey City near the tunnel, a homeless man was yelling “we at war!” I sent an email, evacuating our office, and drove home. Dave Brady was my neightbor who was at the conference, and Jay (James) Carson had just left my company to work at Cantor. Both were the best people you could hope to know.
Mark Knopfler - If This Is Goodbye (9/11 Tribute).
As for where I was that morning, I was walking through the Hyatt convention center in New Orleans - it was near my office and I'd signed up for a continuing professional education type event there. The wall-mounted televisions that usually showed a list of scheduled events all flicked to CNN as I walked down that long corridor - the video was a replay of the first plane strike.
As other people began to come out of the conference rooms and gather near the TVs, we saw the second plane hit.
I had just arrived at Penn Station in NYC and was walking to work when the first plane hit. From midtown you could see the smoke billowing as you looked downtown. Saw the second plane hit from the conference room in my office.
i live 40 minutes north of mid-town manhattan...i was where i always was in the morning- in the gym, specifically in the pool doing laps...
the previous Sunday was the first two installments of “Band of Brothers” on HBO which i meticulously watched...during my swim that Tuesday morning i wondered if i would ever have the courage that those men on D-Day showed...
i returned home to my office, turned on the TV then said “WTF??!!!”
i promptly started calling everyone as i was the eyes and ears for my mom and wife who were at work with no TV....
I will never forget this part- i remember being very proud the towers will still standing...all of a sudden the camera angle showed a huge cloud of dust rising from the ground...i immediately thought of that dopey Bruce Willis movie “Armageddon” when the meteors hit the earth and caused a cloud of dust...i was on the phone with my mom and said “ma- i think something awful happened”....the first tower had just collapsed...
i had to get off the phone...the next thing to do after i composed myself was to frantically start calling family and friends who worked in the area to account for everyone....sadly, one of my friends, a lifting buddy, never made it home...
http://www.9-11memorialanthonyks.org/josephspor.htm
http://www.legacy.com/Sept11/Story.aspx?PersonID=147539
http://www.fdnyrescue3.com/911/spor.html
On the LIE heading westbound near exit 33 heading to Jersey and listening to WABC about first impact. When second plane hit all traffic came to a stop. I will never forget the look on the faces in the cars next to me or short term compassion towards each other that quickly faded in this armpit I call home.
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