Where were you? the day

[dlodoski]

I can't say specifically where I was, but I was in an elevator with some public safety brass just after the second plane hit, and one said to the other "Well, we'll know in four hours". It struck me that they were referring to the fourth plane (nobody knew where it was at the time). They were genuinely concerned that it might be headed for the building we were in, or at least somewhere in the general area.

I remember feeling surprisingly vulnerable. I decided to not leave my office for a while, which was 50 feet below street level. A short while later my boss called over and told me they were emptying out the entire block, and we had the option of leaving as well. We stayed, but I kept all my 'outside' guys inside.

Strange day.

[jadokast98]

I was working at SEARs and I was heading to work. I had known about a B-25 WWII bomber hit the Empire State Building during the '40s but that was different weather conditions; Clear, blue and 22 vs. the low cloud cover due to a storm back in the '40s situation.

"Hmm, that's very odd, Benji." Then the radio is reporting an aircraft crash in DC- the Pentagon has bee hit. "WTF is going on here?" I saw the 2nd Tower get hit and I wanted to head home, get my AR (5.56mm HBAR w/ scope) and my HK-94 (9mm) and head to my unit an hr away. My boss had no one to cover for me and asked if I could stick around a bit more.

That turned into a full day plus. My co-worker came in at 5 pm asking what happened; he had just woke up 30 min prior. "Dude, really???? Well, just watch, they have pretty much put the pieces together and are replaying everything."

My grandmother was concerned and asked me if I was heading out. I wasn't sure, she asked to shoot one of the bastards for her. What I think was odd with her talk was that she was a bit mindless from watching Jerry Springer the day before. That short conversation still sticks with me years after she's past. (4-23-03)

I looked up in the sky to talk to God and grant their souls forgivness and I saw again a clear sky. Absolutely no contrails, and I knew that was not going to happen for a very long long time. I had a difficult time tempering my need for vengence and patience in what I knew was a deployment coming.

I never thought that "Truthers" would have been born that day. Sad fact about not being able to argue with idiots.

[bbjohn]

I had just gotten off the graveyard shift at the school where I was a custodian. My boss, who worked the day shift, asked me if I'd seen anything on TV that morning. I said I hadn't. He said, "When you get home, you'll want to turn on the TV. Two planes hit the World Trade Center."

I went to my mom's house, which was less than a block from the school. I turned on the TV, and I could see one of the towers burning. I said to myself, "There's one tower...where's the other one?"

At first, I thought it was obscured by the smoke. Then it hit me like a fist in the belly: it wasn't there anymore. It was gone.

I'll admit I was angry. I didn't know what to do. I draw editorial cartoons for my local paper, and I knew I had to do something with Osama Bin Laden. I didn't know how I should handle him.

I took inspiration from the cartoons of World War II: I decided I would make him look ridiculous. I made him an object of laughter. If the cartoons of World War II made Adolf Hitler an object of ridicule, then I could do the same with Bin Laden. I can think of no greater insult to a bully who took himself as seriously as Bin Laden did than to laugh at him.

Among other things, I put a silly propeller on the top of his turban. I also did an animated cartoon about him called "Busted Bin Laden." I based it on a Warner Bros. cartoon from 1944 where Hitler was flying a bomber and was best by gremlins. My gremlins give Bin Laden a hard time. It's on You Tube.

I was not at all unhappy when Bin Laden stepped in front of bullets fired by U.S. Navy SEALS.

I have noticed something about me that changed after that day. I can no longer watch movies which feature scenes of mass death and destruction. I've found movies like that upset me now. My local Walmart is showing clips from "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" in the electronics department, and I have to be careful not to look at the TV screens or I'll become very upset when they show the scenes of the mass destruction in Chicago. Sure, it's only a movie. But, after seeing the faces of the people who survived 9-11, I get very upset now with scenes like that.

Maybe it's just that I'm getting older (I'll be 52 on Saturday, Sept. 15), but I think seeing the real-life scenes of Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001 made me lose my desire for movie scenes like that.

9-11 is a day I will never forget. None of us should ever forget it.

Big Bad John

[bbjohn]

101st floor of the South Tower, working for Aon Consulting. Walked down to the 74th floor of the tower, four floors below the fireball just above.

About as close as I care to come.

Thank God that's all the closer you came.

Big Bad John