Where were you? the day

[dasandmann]

Where were you the day of 9/11/01?

[schlamm]

*

[BSink42]

In the school library, studying for a test the next day. As I went out into the library's small foyer I saw a crowd looking at a replay of one of the towers collapsing. For a few moments I thought it was one of those low - budget apocolyptic movies that air late at night.

Then I realized it was real.

One of the other memories that stands out for me spread really througout the week. I noticed how quite everything was with the planes grounded (except for the occasional military aircraft flying by). That felt very very eerie.

[muddworg]

I was driving home just got of graveyard shift fell a sleep on my couch .. my brother called me on the phone. i finally woke up an answered it "his word's still chill me today "were at war they hit NEW YORK an D.C ." my brain though nuclear attack after watch the news i though wow it like a pearl harbor attach on T.V...any one see a eerie simultaneity to 9/11/2001 and 12/07/1941 ?

[reisen55]

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.

[Nessie]

I was at work, feeling fairly content. It was my birthday. I was scheduled to get on a plane and go on a quicksand video trip four days down the road. It was Kaol's 2001 shoot with Siana out at an orange claypit near the East Coast.

Suddenly I heard a lot of screaming, yelling and swearing. It was my boss. He had heard the news on the radio. He flipped out completely, and I do mean he was nuts. He ran all over the shop looking for a television set. He finally found an old black-and-white TV and plugged it in and there it was.

Since at the time, we were the only two people that worked there and he was not going to settle down, nothing at all got done but watching that little bitty TV. We had almost no calls that day anyway. I am sure that all our customers were doing the same thing.

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.

I am glad you're okay.

Although I'll be getting birthday wishes alongside pictures of burning buildings forever now, I am thankful that as far as my own life and my own family goes, nothing else was ruined.

I made it to the shoot, by the way. The planes were in fact flying again by then. Talk about a nervous flight. But Kaol and I decided that if we could go through with it, we would, because if we didn't go through with it out of fear, that would mean the terrorists had WON, and anyway, the people responsible for it all do not approve of scantily-clad sexy babes in bogs, which was all the more reason to go film some!

Nessie

[water_bug_62208]

Was at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, performing an external assessment with a team when it happened. The team returned to the meeting area to await further instructions on what we'd do. You could hear the C-5 Galaxys on the tarmac whining as they fired up their engines. A friend noted that they must be moving the planes to a safer location. I told her, "No. They're probably heading to Andrews Air Force Base to retrieve the remains of the victims at the Pentagon and bring them back here." After all, one of the missions at Dover AFB is the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs where ALL fallen Department of Defense members, be they military or civilian, come to for their final preparation after giving their lives for their country.

On the evening of Wednesday, 12 September 2001, the team was on board a KC-135 Stratotanker to take the team back to the members' respective bases. It was a really unusual feeling knowing you were on board one of the few planes flying in US airspace.

[PM2K]

My story is the same as everyone's. The details differ, but the surprise and shock and disbelief were the same... first hearing about and then seeing the towers burn, then fall.
I thought the first plane hitting the WTC was an accident... right up until the second hit. Then we all knew this was an attack of some sort. Word on the Pentagon and Flight 93 swiftly followed.

In our newsroom, one person described 9-11 and its impact on us as our generation's Pearl Harbor. I agreed, then strangely took solace in that. Being a student of history, I immediately recalled Admiral Yamato's famous words when he heard the Japanese attack on the US fleet was an outstanding success. While his officers celebrated, he quietly intoned,

"I fear we have only awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve..."

I took a lot of comfort in that. After 11 years, I'm glad to see I was right on that.

[kham]

Was woken up by very strange phone call, which after just getting off on vacation late the previous nite, was not very coherent. Managed to turn the tv on and get coffee going, and while waiting, Tower 2 was hit. Rest of day was spent watching the ongoing disaster. Very strange with nothing flying, but remember that night around 2300 the house shaking with a crump that could only be a sonic boom. Went on front steps and saw my neighbour looking around until I pointed out some lights heading east very fast, trailed by some other slower ones. Tanker and fighters.
That told you things were very different now

[Duncan Edwards]

The first thing I remember that morning was the plant manager's assistant coming into my office and saying something had happened. Could I get the tv in the conference room going? I ran in there and got the old tv going just in time to tune the local FOX affiliate and watch the second plane hit. It was immediately obvious to me what was going on. The biggest impressions that stuck in my memory -

I was white hot with anger and ready to kill a lot of people myself.

What a complete moron the new plant manager was. Just an utterly stupid human being.

As the towers fell one of the men who I worked with, a very senior civil engineer, pointed out that it was a floor by floor pancake and the next one couldn't be far behind.

I'm an aviation buff, armchair geopolitical analyst, info junkie, former history major, and I've been to the Middle East and New York. That's kind of an odd combination around here and I got A LOT of phone calls from co-workers, family and friends. I was constantly multitasking the phone, tv, web, and radio. The whole day was a blur until I went outside and the sky was empty. I normally look up at everything that flies and suddenly, for the first time in my life, nothing. Not even a contrail. That was very unsettling for me and a moment for sure I will never forget.

One of the first media people to realize this was an attack and say so was shock jock Howard Stern.

Late that night I realized we had entered an era where war and insecurity, want it or not, was not going to end for a long, long, time. Possibly never. The world had finally gotten too small and too closely connected.