Posted on 09/11/2019 6:47:01 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
Where were you on 9/11/2001?
I was here also. Reading the morning news on FR and waiting for the markets to open with the TV on when the SHTF. I called my wife at work and told her what was going on, but due to the type of work she was doing she didn’t have access to the news. Then I called my Mom and told her to turn on the TV. She asked what channel, and I told her “any channel.”
I continued to post and watch the news like hundreds of other Freepers that day.
It was primary election day in Minneapolis. I was awake most of the night doing lit drops and putting up lawn signs near freeway entrances. I finished about 5AM and thought “Hey, I can get a few hours of sleep before work”. I stood outside a convenience store, drinking a Pepsi and looking up at the stars and wondering what the day would bring.
Little did I know...
I got into work about 8:00AM and a guy told me that a plane hit the WTC. My first thought wasn’t terrorism. It was “Oh jeez, some small plane out of a local airport must have gotten lost in the fog/clouds and hit the building”.
A short while later, the other tower hit and then I realized that the you know what had hit the fan.
ping to post # 20
When the first plane hit, my boss asked what I thought.
I told him, “We’re at war. The muslim terrorists were unsuccessful in 1993 and this was them ramping up their efforts.”
He didn’t believe me until the second plane hit.
What can we do?
Looking at what has become of Europe, We the Forest People can behold what is around us in our own country, what is small now but will grow larger later, reach down and ruthlessly tear out every bit of influence of the Sand People.
I mean ALL Sand People.
Every morning when I drive into work, I would listen to a talk n news station.
On September 11th I didn’t. I had just bought the Allman Brothers Greatest Hits CD, so I was rockin’ it on the highway. Statesboro Blues, the Whippin’ Post, Jessica and Elizabeth Reed were sung by me and boys all the way in.
When I got to work, my friend Jerry was outside waiting for me. He said a plane had hit the WTC. I, being a history geek, said ok and started telling him about the B-24 that hit the Empire State Building in WWII...
By the time I put my bags down and we started walking to the conference room (with TV on), my friend Cris shouted to us, “Another one just hit the other Tower!!”
I knew then that was no accident.
I can still smell the fresh coffee (I’m in the Central time soon, so around 7:45ish, we had to be in at 8:00) feel the coolness of the hallway, and hear Cris so clearly all these years later.
At work. The first sign I knew something was wrong was the internet wasn’t going anywhere fast. Admittedly, this was in the days of dial-up, but any sort of internet slow down makes me wonder if something else more serious is happening somewhere.
Ditto with power fluctuations on the electrical grid like the New York blackout a few weeks ago which set off my battery backup alarm in Florida.
I was at my desk in the office, texting a co-worker who was in the Corpus Christi office. We were going over training plans and chatting about the weather.
We had this blowhard from regional office in that day, so we had a meeting at 8:00 to hear what he had to say.
When the news broke about the first plane, I thought about the B-25 that crashed into the Empire State Building in 1944. It was surely an accident.
We were in the meeting when the security guard opened the door and announced the second plane had hit as well as the Pentagon.
I didn’t get much done that morning but kept up with the news on FR and the radio.
I went home for lunch and as I was waiting at a red light, Air Force One flew right in front of me at very low altitude, landing at Barksdale AFB. I remember thinking, “On any other day, that would be weird.”
When I came back to the office from lunch, the office door was locked. So, I went home and watched the news. I remember I was numb.
I had just logged onto the aviation enthusiast website Airliners.net and gone on the discussion board. I saw an urgent posting about a plane crashing into one of the two World Trade Center towers. That immediately perked up my interest and concern and turned on my TV to Fox News Channel. I didn't turn off the TV until 10:30 pm that night because I was so riveted to the TV coverage.
We were just finishing up cleanup and checking out equipment for another shift at the fire station when someone came out and called our attention to what was going on.
We ended the activities and went inside and turned on the news and watched knowing full well that those buildings would fall and every person still inside and in the collapse zone was doomed.
There was a lot of prayers that went up that day.
Hudson or East?
We have family and friends in Queens.
I can’t even imagine the sight, sounds, feelings of being in the IMMEDIATE area, on that horrifically solemn day.
Incredible footage.
I stayed home that day and turned on the TV to find out the score from the Giants/Broncos game. The first tower had already been hit. I wound up staying home that day. We have family in NYC and spent most of the day trying to get in contact with them.
The really eerie part for me about it was not the subsequent showing up of military troops with machine-guns at the airports:
It was the TOTAL lack of ANY planes in ANY sky for a very long time.
It is amazing what you can get used to but when finally after some months planes were permitted to again fly, it was a strange sight, again.
“Wow, that is a PLANE and it is flying in the SKY..!”
Because at just THAT time, yes, in fact that had become strange.
I was living on the other side of town at the time, but I was right here on Free Republic.
I was in the air on a plane to Dallas
Had just dropped off (my now grown) kids at school.
Came in the house, turned on tv, saw the surreal images and reporting....then, got in the car, and drove right back to their school, to hug and hold on to my kids, and take them home.
Most all of the other parents had done the exact same thing.
I was at work in Massachusetts in the mechanical engineering group of a large company there. One of my coworkers had a small television in his office. We were all glued to it after the first plane had hit...they weren’t sure it was a plane.
I distinctly remember, when the second plane hit they were sure it was planes, we began discussing that the USA is under attack.
That’s when a manager walked by and pretty much told everyone to get back to work.
Most dispersed back to their offices. I left and went to the daycare an retrieved my two children. I called my wife and she came home. My mother lived at my house and was disabled.
I assumed if New York was being attacked Boston would be next. We were mapping out our escape route and were quite worried about whether there would be nuclear fallout traveling through the air from dirty bombs, because by then they were talking about Al Qaeda on the news if I remember correctly.
Our company had a person on Flight 11, I professionally knew him and a time or two worked with directly with him. His family lived just a couple of miles from my home. We weren’t friends outside of work. He wouldn’t have been on that particular flight, but he had rescheduled his previous flight so he could stay in town for his child’s sporting event the night before...can’t remember what it was, soccer I think. Possibly a premonition, or just fate.
I was on base. Work stopped. We ended up watching the TV.
Later on, I talked to someone I knew who, along with someone else I knew, ended up crawling through the smoke and fires and debris to get out of the Pentagon. They helped others along the way.
For days, the entire city was hushed. It was unexpected to see it, so out of character.
Following the attack, DEFCON changed of course. So a sudden line of cars to get in were met by cement barriers, armed personnel, and .50 cals. I’d never seen a countryman point a .50 cal AT ME.
Upon going home, flags were everywhere. We were, in a flash and for a moment, one country. I did see jets streaming by sometimes, but otherwise, the skies were clear.
Still later, I saw armed guards pacing O’Hare-where I spent the night. I felt at ease seeing those uniforms and weapons.
And later, I saw the remnants of tributes stacked against the fences of bases in Europe. Teddy bears, flowers, candles, and so forth. I wasn’t ready for the German Shepherds. Mirrors I expected. Dogs, no. By that time, the .50 cals and other weapons didn’t bother me at all.
I was also part of an evac on base for suspicious substances.
I was in a spot where I both saw the planes delivering the yellow humanitarian aid to Afghani people take off and later return.
The guy’s playing Taps now. This screen is a bit blurry.
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