Posted on 09/11/2019 6:47:01 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
Where were you on 9/11/2001?
I was working that day at my company facility in Lakewood NJ. Me and another employee had to drive to our Phillipsburg, NJ facility that morning.
We took the Garden State Parkway north to Rt 440 West then to I-287 West. As we started up the Driscoll bridge on the parkway my co-worker turned on the radio he listened to new radio WCBS. They were taking about the first plane to hit just a few minutes earlier. As we made it to the peak of the Driscoll Bridge we had a perfect view of lower Manhattan and thus could see the smoke column, probably about 10 miles away. This is something I will never forget.
Right after the 2nd plane hit I was on the phone with a navy recruiter, asking if they had room for someone in their early 30's to join...if too old to fight then use my IT skills. He said sure. I said before we waste each other's time, I'll just let you know I used to have a disease that prevented me from joining the military as a teenager, but I haven't had it since surgery cured me of it in my late 20's. I told him what the disease was and he said having had that disease for so long in my past disqualified me, even though I hadn't had it in 5 years by then. I called the army recruiter, same thing.
As a young adult I had played "what if" in my mind on whether I was unwise getting a computer science degree instead of one in physics or aerodynamic engineering after I learned at 18 I could never join the military. I could have been working as a civilian contractor making the planes, missiles, interceptors, etc. The 9/11 attacks changed my "what if" thinking to regret. I've regretted almost every day for 18 years that I didn't choose to use my skills to do to our attackers what my grandparents did to the country that attacked Pearl Harbor.
I lived in the development right behind Liberty State Park and had a penthouse view of the entire skyline with the WTC dead center. And then one day there was a smoking pillar of the evil stench of vaporized aluminum and human flesh in its place.
yes, the silence was deafening, very unusual. And then for weeks following, people were extraordinarily nice to each other, at least in the Northeast. Now, the 24/7 dripping vitriol and hate from the Dems and the media is such a polar opposite.
It was the end of first period science class. My students were coming into the room when a fellow teacher came up to me and told me a plane had hit one of the towers. I asked,”An accident” She told me I don’t think so. We had cable in all the classrooms and watched until the Pentagon was hit. That is when we were directed to turn off all media.. The 177th air group is stationed15 miles from us and every time one flew over we would all stop and wait till it flew over. About 1/3 of the students were taken home by parents. One teacher lost her nephew who worked for Morgan Chase, and another teachers sister was saved at the Pentagon because their office was still being remodeled. My sister an RN was on standby to go to DC to help in the burn units.
I was watching TV, when the report showed the 1st building on fire. I thought it was an accident, when the 2nd plane showed up, I said this is no accident. Every year this time, brings me back to the late 70’s while at a terrorist briefing in NYC I told the lecturer; “See those buildings, they are the new Sears tower. They are a bullseye target saying hit me.” Watching ABC news that a.m. my response to the 2nd plane was, “I knew it!” Of course I was also right in the early 90’s, when they drove the van under the buildings. We worry about crazy shooters more than we do Kamikaze attacks?
I was in Shanghai, returned to hotel about 10 pm after dinner and drinks. Had 1 foreign TV channel - MSNBC. Coverage was crappy. I watched until 4 AM
Next morning I went to our office. We had about 70 Chinese staff and 2 Americans. I was surprised how somber it was. Our local staff was far more concerned than I expected, it not being “their fight.” Ironically, the most patriotic and pro-government Chinese, with whom I liked to talk politics (who were most outraged by China embassy bombing in Belgrade and spy-place incident), were also the most agitated and concerned. I was touched and surprised by their sentiments.
A few Chinese public security and police showed up that AM to “guard” our office entrance, and also the building lobby for about 1 week.
Who stopped him and why?
Never Forget.
As a P.S., I was going to the Javitts Center on Wednesday, but since they start to break down around 2 pm, I decided to go on Tuesday instead. Had I gone on Wednesday???
It was my second week at my new job. I was attending my first morning meeting on the 54th floor. Our conference room had a clear view of the WTC. One of my team members was in the conference room and was on the phone with his sister who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and was the 105th floor.
From our window we saw the smoke coming out of the tower. Suddenly my friends phone disconnected. He looked out the window, saw what was going on and just stared out into space. We didn’t yet know what had happened. We saw helicopters circling the trade center and then another cloud of smoke for the second tower. Now all the televisions on the floor were reporting what happened. From our window we watched the towers collapse.
We moved further north to our office on 55th street. We were released from work an hour later. I went to Citicorp Center to donate blood. After waiting on line for an hour we were told we weren’t needed. I took this as no one survived. I lived in central Jersey so the only option I had to get home was by ferry. Our company provided lists of people willing to take someone in for the night, but I wanted to get home.
I went to the ferry terminal. People were waiting to get on the boats. The crews were asking that anyone who was within a 10 block area of the WTC to board the boat and move to the front. Others would then board. I was one of the others. I heard several people say they wanted to get on board so they said they were in the blast zone. When the boats hit NJ, they were the first off, and shuffled to a decontamination area to be scrubbed down.
I made my way to the path train which was running only in Jersey. I was dropped off and someone who saw me walking the street took me in to give me a drink and let me make a call. One thing I noticed was workers at the train station were walking the parking lot chalking tires. I called my wife, told her where I was and would meet her at a local hotel. Turns out the person who took me in lived next door to my boss. The man dropped me off at the hotel and wished me luck getting home since the highways were closed.
My wife picked me up at the hotel a couple of hours later. was sitting in the lobby with dozens of people and we were offered drinks, which most of us eagerly accepted. Turns out my wife earlier that day, once she heard about the attack, went to my kids school and took them home.
The next morning I went to pick up my car at the bus terminal. My tire had chalk on it. The attendant walking around chalking tires said “welcome home.” That’s when I finally realized what had happened. I sat in my car for the next hour and cried. I had several friends who worked in the towers. Not one of them came home.
My brother was an emergency room nurse in Brooklyn. Went to his hospital and waited, and waited, for the expected flood of casualties. None ever came.
He was amazing. Ask anybody who was there.
I remember the following Saturday Rudy was on Saturday Night Live. He truly was inspiring. America's Mayor.
We must have been pretty close by one another that day. I was working at Southroads in Bellevue. I remember that the internet was not working well that day. I kept trying to refresh FR and Drudge and it would not update. I had a little AM/FM radio that I gave to my manager who listened and emailed out what he was hearing since my team members and I were still taking calls. We would each walk up to our break room to check out the TV in shifts. I happened to be up there when the first tower fell down. I thought that I had just watched 10,000 people die in real time. It was unreal taking calls and the amount of people who didn’t know anything had happened and were angry that the market was closed. I told a lot of people that day that they needed to turn on their TV and see for themselves what was going on.
All of the folks in my department got sent home at 10AM except for my team. I got a call from one of my co workers who lived down by the base to tell us that Air Force 1 had just flown over her apartment building while landing at Offutt with two fighter jets escorting. One of my team mates had a buddy who was stationed there and had called him earlier to say that the scuttlebutt was that GWB was coming for an extended stay. Also had an incoming call from some alphabet agency guy asking to speak to a manager that came to the same guy. He got mad when my friend thought it was his buddy from the base calling to mess with him. My friend kept calling BS until the guy threatened to have him arrested if he didn’t comply. Our manager told us that they were considering taking over our facility since we were the business in closest proximity to the base with hundreds of phone lines if the president stayed at Offutt.
Interesting day to say the least.
We were in Los Angeles...( my husband on business)
....and staying at a place close to the airport
As LA is 3 hours behind, we didn’t find out until I turned on the computer and read ‘All Planes Grounded’
Then we realized how quiet the skies were.
We turned on the TV......and started praying
My husband went to the office but it was locked
We left in a few days.....relying on our rental car.
The nation was scary quiet......but there were American flags everywhere!!....all the way home to the east coast.
We stopped in New Orleans for lunch near the convention center.......we were the only ones there......
....it was like a ghost town
When we returned our car to the airport, an armed guard checked the underside for explosives.
I will never forget it.
You know, you’ve reminded me of something. I didn’t get home right after, but when I did, I lurked on FR, having been too hesitant to join. I was up half the night.
Given my background, my past content area came flooding back, and I realized that we were in a Holy War.
We are.
I was in 7th grade. Just came out of PE to English class when I heard some teachers talking about a plane hitting the WTC. They turned on the TV and there was some speculation that it might’ve been an accident. I was only 12, but looking at that footage I was thinking “This is no accident.” When the 2nd plane hit everyone knew it was no accident. My English teacher’s sister worked at the WTC but her alarm happened to not go off that day and she didn’t catch her train.
Came home early from school, watched the news for hours, then went outside later in the day. Air Force One flew over my back yard (we live near DC). It was one of the only planes in the sky that day.
I still can’t believe it was 18 years ago. It feels like it was yesterday. And just 7 years later we elected a guy named Barack Hussein as president, and he funded these same people in Syria. Way to go, America.
I was out of it. I knew so many of my friends were dead. Thank God none of my family was.
Rudy was in command and that’s all that mattered. He was amazing. That’s what I remember.
‘Bush kept us safe’
Did he......I don’t think so
We elected Hussein as President after Bush.....you know, ‘the brother from another mother’.....the trifecta along with Clinton
We just weren’t ‘woke’ yet
...getting ready to go to work, watching the news:
ME: (to wife) they say a small plane hit the World Trade Center, looks like a lot of damage though. Could it be terrorism?
WIFE: huh, hope not
ME: (2nd plane hits) IT JUST HAPPENED AGAIN!!!
WIFE: WHAT?
ME: WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!!
WIFE: (in shock) WHAT?
ME: Those are going to be hijacked aircraft, oh no!!
WIFE: No! (speechless)
ME: Arghh...I wonder how many more there are??
I’m late for work, so I leave. Upon arriving at work, as I’m not the early bird like most at work, everyone is just working. They have no idea what is going on. They can’t believe what I’m telling them. We try to get an internet video feed but all the news orgs are out of bandwidth. My wife calls:
WIFE: The tower is gone!!
ME: huh, what do you mean gone??
WIFE: It fell
ME: (repeating for others to hear) The tower is gone, it fell!
OTHERS: What?!?!
We finally find a video feed and watch the collapse....speechless....then hear about other missing planes. I remember thinking, “when is this going to end?”. It seems 18 years later, it’s still happening...and you can’t point the finger at those that smile without being called ‘racist’.
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