9/11. Where were you in that moment you learned the horrific news?

[mylye2222]

Everyone remember where he/she was, what he/she was doing, whith whim he/she was.
Anyione old enough at the time who could understand this tragedy and what it meant and still means to the world, and how it changed it forever, remembers as if yesturday.

I was 16, was coming back home from high school.
I didnt had homework that day, so I asked my mom if I could watch one of my favorite series, Hartley , on TV.
She said yes, and went back to rewiew her students courses (she is niw a retired echonomics teacher)
So I went to the living room and turned TV on
As I watch, I first sighted the Twin Towers building, and my first thoughts were they deleted my program and showed a kind of disaster movie.
ThenI heard the nackground voices annd saw the chanel logo,... and quickly reamised.
I remember jumping from the armchair, going to my mom and scream ,COME ON SEE, there is a planes crasged into WTC buildings in New York, they say it might be a terror attack!
It was around 4pm in France.
My mop, dad, bro and I spent the whole evening checking the news, all stunned and horrified, and we didnt went to bed until 11pm or so...
Like it was yesturday...

WE WILL NEVER FORGET.

And who could imagine an even worse global situation 15 years ago...

They said on 9/12 it was a day that would change the world forever, and it turned to be true.

RIP to all the victims.

[femmocrat]

1. I was on the computer.

I was furloughed that year and was at home on the computer, with the TV on in the background. I didn't understand what was going on at first, but then no one did. I think Katie Couric was reporting.

[Motley13]

2. I was coming home from my morning walk

a neighbor came out of his apt to inform me that a plane hit the WTC.
I thought at first it was probably a small plane like the one that crashed into the Empire St Bldg, many years before.
I immediately turned on the TV & watched the continuing horror.

No, you NEVER forget.

[Duckhunter935]

3. Stationed in Kunsan Korea

Watched it in TV until we had the full up recall

[IADEMO2004]

4. Wife's birthday. We were going to skip work and have a play day.

Sept 11 2012 cancer diagnosis confirmation.

Sept 11 2016 first without her

[3catwoman3]

7. I am so sorry...

...to hear this. Wishing you strength and support.

[CherokeeDem]

11. So sorry...

May you find peace in her memory.

[LibraLiz1973]

87. I'm so, so sorry.

Sending you prayers and positive vibes <3

[steve2470]

94. so sorry to hear

[mopinko]

5. my husband was on a business trip.

he was actually in toronto, but one of his co-workers thought he might have been at the company's office in the wtc.
he called me, and asked where he was. he wasnt someone that i talked to often. he had never called me before.

when i asked him why he called me, he just said-
turn on the tv.

[tymorial]

6. Exeter Hospital NH

I was just walking back to my desk from fixing a computer when my coworkers told me what happened. I was in the emergency department in the waiting room watching TV with an assembly of staff and patients when the towers fell.

[duncang]

8. At work

Heard over the work radio and went to lunch room they brought out the tv. Watched live as the second plane hit.

I'll never forget that day. Just like the day when President Kennedy was shot.

[CherokeeDem]

9. In rush hour traffic on the Palmetto Expressway...

I worked for a law firm in the Blue Lagoon area across from Miami International Airport. I was listening to ABC radio news and a reporter was talking to a witness to the first plane attack, which he'd seen from his apartment window. The guy was in mid-sentence when he blurted out, "Another plane just hit the other tower."

No doubts then that this was a terrorist attack and I screamed out loud, "And that fucking moron is in the White House."

Around me, in nearly stalled traffic, it was easy to see who knew and who didn't know. Once at work, I stood for a long time in one of the partner's office, watching plane after plane after plane land at MIA after the FAA issued the immediate grounding order.

I think it was three days later when the airlines resumed operation. I was driving next to the airport when the first plane took off. Traffic almost came to a stop to watch the takeoff.

A surreal time and may we never suffer such a day again.

[Glorfindel]

10. I was at work, about 8:30 AM here in the Central Time Zone

One of my co-workers called from home and said, "Turn on the radio. An airplane has flown into the World Trade Center." So I did, and we listened to the growing horror until my employer brought in a small portable TV and we watched as the awful events unfolded in stunned disbelief. I immediately thought of my cousins, both of whom worked in Manhattan, one in City Hall and his wife in Chelsea, farther uptown. I tried to call, but couldn't get through, of course. It wasn't until after 5:00 PM that I learned both of them had been off from work that day, so they were safe and sound. I will never forget.

[LWolf]

12. Everyone remembers.

How could they not, when this question is asked every year?

I was at home. My son called me and told me to turn on the tv. I watched for about 10 minutes, and turned the tv off. I knew what had happened. I grieved for the victims and their families, and I waited for what came next: people legitimizing GWB and lining up behind him. The Patriot Act. War.

Because fearful people don't think well, don't make good decisions, and are willing to throw rights and lives away to feel safer. Angry people decide that revenge is good, that if they don't swell up and become even bigger bullies they will have lost their global street creds, and that torture of and violence against, not just perpetrators, but innocents who happen to be in the way by living their lives...all of that is not just a good idea, but crucial.

Because everything changed on 9/11.

And that's what the remembrance does for me. Makes me sad, angry, and disgusted. Not with the original perps, but with their allies in the American citizenry and government, who make sure those changes stay present.

[catbyte]

53. My immediate thought after realizing that it was a terrorist attack was,

"I wonder how badly Bush and Cheney will fuck this up?" I underestimated them.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. In bed at home in New York. Used to work the late shift

So wasn't in the city yet at the time of the incident.

[mucifer]

14. Heard it on the radio as I woke up. I worked pediatric home health

I saw it unfold in the homes of my patients as the day went on. Everyone had it on tv.

[yellerpup]

15. I was running from my computer to turn on the TV

in my livingroom, when I saw the second airliner flying low and slow over the Hudson River headed to NYC. It didn't register fully at the time because I assumed the first plane was probably a small passenger plane until I saw the first one hit the towers. Only one channel in NY was up (CBS, I think) because the rest of the stations were HQ'd at the World Trade Center. A few minutes after we saw the film of the first crash, the second plane hit. The third plane hit the Pentagon and I thought: they've attacked the Pentagon, so this means war. Who is declaring war on us?

[bluedigger]

16. Working on a hilltop overlooking Correctionville, IA.

It was a gorgeous day. About mid morning my number two took a call on her cell from our home office in NJ and told me and the rest of our crew. (Our company had offices in the WTC but didn't lose anyone.) We kept working, sneaking out to our work van for an occasional update on the radio, but didn't get much out of it. We drove back to our motel in Sioux City after work, and saw the long lines for gas - that's when it really hit me. Everyone scattered to their rooms and flipped on their tvs.

[onecaliberal]

17. On the West Coast. At home getting ready for work. Watching in horror

Good morning America, then turned to CNN.

I will never forget...

[get the red out]

18. At work, my husband called

My first thought was horrific accident, then the other plane hit. I work at a university and there was a TV in the front area of the office for students to watch (we kept it turned to the news unless a student snuck the channel over to ESPN) while they waited to see their academic advisers. By the afternoon the waiting area was overrun with Professors, students, and staff.

[doc03]

19. I was on afternoon shift (3-11) that week. That morning I was heading to the gym to get my

work-out in before going to work. I was listening to the report on the car radio about the plane flying into
the WTC, the news people were speculating that maybe it was a terrorist attack. I changed cloths in the locker room and went upstairs
and looked at one of the TVs and there was the WTC with smoke billowing out and just seconds later I see the second plane
crash. That was the point were we all knew it was a terrorist attack. I remember them cutting away later to GWB looking white as
a sheet with a deer in the headlights look.

[PCIntern]

20. Practicing dentistry

And got a call from the husband of one of my hygienists who's a cop. He said to turn on the tv. I told about 15 people what happened and to this day they tell me that they'll never forget me and that day

[trof]

21. Sitting right here watching it on the Today Show.

A few minutes before 8 a.m CDT they cut to a shot of the burning WTT bldg. 1.
I had been retired from commercial aviation for a couple of years but had been based in New York for over 20 years and had flown out of JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark hundreds of times.

At first it was speculated that there had been a bomb or some similar explosion. After eyewitnesses began to come forward, we learned that an airplane had crashed into the building.

My first though was that it was a tragic accident.
I knew that these were three very busy airports, all within sight of the towers.
And then I saw, live, the second plane fly into the other building and I knew this was no accident.

[3catwoman3]

22. In our kitchen, routinely watching the morning news...

...with my husband, who was a United Airlines pilot at the time (now retired). He had returned from a trip just the day before.

He was once given a check ride by Captain Jason Dahl, whose plane as one of the 2 that were flown into the WTC towers.

To this day, I cannot say the word box cutter without a chill in my heart.

We live in the greater Chicago area, and there are always planes and contrails in the sky. The sky felt so empty on the following days.

[jalan48]

23. At work. My first thought was that it was a set up.

[Krytan11c]

24. At home, getting ready for school

I was 14, living in Phoenix, and getting ready for school. When I got out of the shower and finished putting my clothes on I went to living room to watch ESPN like I did every morning. I knew something terrible had happened because no sports were being shown, just the Twin Towers and one of them was burning. I called my dad into the room, from the look on his face I could tell he already knew. He started to talk to me about how there are really bad people who want to attack innocent people. As he was telling me this we saw the second plane fly into the second tower. My dad was silent as he drove me to school that day.

At school there were police waiting to escort all the students in to the building. We went straight to our home room, no mingling around. We just watched the news in silence and tears with our teacher until the school district decided to send every student home. Nothing was taught, yet we learned more about the world that morning than in the previous 14 years combined.

RIP to all the victims. We Will Never Forget.

[lpbk2713]

25. Just sitting down to my morning coffee and turning on my computer.

I would have learned about it real quick. But just as I turned it on my phone rang. It was my son telling me to turn on the TV. I actually saw the second plane hit the other tower as it happened. I don't think that TV was turned off for three days.

[Igel]

38. I was sitting at my computer with my coffee.

I started to read the morning news--starting with the NYT--after making sure my wife had breakfast and her coffee before she left for our volunteer gig at the local Jewish center, teaching immigrant Russians English. (Some weeks she'd go, some weeks I'd go.)

At some point the Internet froze. Couldn't get through to the NYT or any other sites of note. I lived in Rochester, NY, at the time.

Finally gave up and plopped down to see if the tv had anything interesting to say while the Internet sorted itself out.
t.
The tv provided the explanation.

A few minutes later my wife returned. As she arrived at the Jewish center, she was told to go home. The JCC was closed and there were fears it would be the target of some attack, no further explanation given.

But, again, the tv provided the explanation.

[dhill926]

26. Getting off a connecting flight at Ohare…

Everyone clustered around tv's wondering what was going on. Very grim when news of American and United flights became known. Total shutdown and total chaos. Needless to say, will never forget. And oddly, at Ohare now. Honor guards moving thru airport conducting moments of silence. Very moving.

[harrose]

27. Standing on the corner of Broadway & Park Row...

... looking up at the towers.

[C_U_L8R]

29. Same. Crossing Vesey outside WFC.

Looked straight up at it. Counting my blessings.

[imanamerican63]

28. I was recovering from surgery.

I had broken my right leg on 8-8-2001 and staying at my parents while I recovered. I was a long haul truck driver and was woken up by my parents telling me "to come into the living room". As I come into the room as the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. It was the most unforgettable thing I had ever seen. My Parents and I watched the news the rest of the day and into the early morning of the 12th. I had a cousin who worked at the pentagon, but was working at a private military contractor in another part of Washington DC. I still get the chills from the thoughts of that day.

[LuvNewcastle]

63. Holy shit. I was also recovering from surgery

on my right leg and I was staying with my parents! That is some weird synchronicity. My parents were both at work, though. I got up, poured a cup of coffee, sat down and lit a cigarette and turned on the tv.

I thought they were talking about a new movie that was coming out and I thought damn, that sure is realistic! Then I listened to what to what they were saying and I realized that it was no movie. When I saw the second plane hit, I said oh shit, we are at war now.

When I saw the first tower fall, I couldn't believe my eyes. I never thought I would witness something like that. When the other one fell, I was stunned.

The news anchors were saying that tens of thousands of people worked in the trade centers every day, and they said that it might be 50,000 people in there. As horrible as that day was, I was relieved to learn that the casualties were far less than expected. When all the politicians came down to stand beside the rubble for the big photo op time, I wanted to puke. Making hay from a terrible disaster.

[unblock]

30. as the train rounded the bend, i saw the smoke from one of the towers.

actually, that's not quite the moment.

on the train, everyone who had a cell phone (they weren't quite as ubiquitous back then) rang at virtually the same time. the rest of us were trying to figure out what was going on, but we knew something was up.

people were saying a plane flew into one of the twin towers, but everyone assumed it was an accident.

then the train (nj transit) turned and i got a clear view of it. it was way too much smoke to have been a small plane. but there was still disbelief that it could have been anything other than an accident, even though that seemed very unlikely for a huge passenger plane.


anyway, i continued my commute into manhattan. when i got out of the train system and had a view downtown the smoke and debris was ground-level and way, way further north than the twin towers. i knew that the building had collapsed.

news continued to trickle in when i got to work in midtown. both buildings hit, both buildings down.

our ceo said everyone should just get off the island, go home and be with family.

everything was shut down, took most of the day to get home.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

31. It is nice that you remember being a teenager in France at the time

Last edited Mon Sep 12, 2016, 07:53 AM - Edit history (1)

I recall that I was on my last semester of college. I graduated in December 2001, and that was a crappy time to graduate because we experienced an economic downturn in the US in the months that followed the Sept. 11th attacks. I was getting ready for either class or work (I can't remember which). I turned on the TV that morning and found out about the whole ordeal. I only had 3 channels off the antennae back then (abc, cbs, nbc) and everyone of those networks went into constant Sept 11th news coverage until about two weeks after the event. It was incredibly morbid. I didn't like it, just like I don't like the constant news cable networks that exist today. I understood the story when they said it the first time. I didn't need to hear it a thousand times over to understand what happened. I remember thinking it was pretty awful, but I wasn't worried about my own safety being in Maine. I didn't know anyone in NYC or anyone on any of the planes. It was business as usual for me.

[mylye2222]

36. This day was so unforgettable we all remember...

The next morning, I went back to school. I remember wd were suposed to have math class at 8am, yetwe didnt worked until 10am. We had a lot of talking with our teachers. Everyone considered it was WWIII beginning.
When I went back home, my then 8y old brother told me the primary school teacher made them draw what they saw. My bro perfectly understood the event.

[kimbutgar]

32. My husband called me and said turn on the tv

I was getting myself ready for work before I woke up my son to get him ready for school.

Turned on the tv and it was surreal. I called my boss and he said stay home. At the time I worked for a hedge fund manager who had several friends who worked in one of the towers. I got my son ready put him on the bus and watched in shock. Then the school district robo called saying the buses were bringing the kids back home. My son was too young to realize what was happening. He is autistic but when I brought him in he saw the replay of the plane hitting the tower and started crying. It really scared him. He went up to his room and played the rest of the day in there refusing to look at the tv because the plane went boom into the building.

A really nice guy I knew who used to come into our offices as he was a pr type died that day. I still remember Tim to this day.

[Paladin]

33. At work, on the 70th floor of what was the tallest building west of the MS River, at the time.

We vacated the office promptly.

[nolabear]

34. Getting ready for my first day as a psychotherapist.

West coast so it was early. I turned on the TV and called Mr. Bear out of the shower, and we watched it transpire.

Virtually no one showed up for their appointments at the agency I was working at. All of us sat in the office watching a TV someone had provided, in shock. The thing I remember most is the drive to work, the looks exchanged by all of us on the road. We knew there was only one thing on all of our minds, and the pain was palpable.

And the silence. The absence of planes. Incredible.

[Tanuki]

35. I was working at a hospital in downtown Boston. I had a routine eye appointment that morning

so I had taken the morning off from work. I didn't know anything about it until I turned on my car radio, and almost immediately heard that the second plane had hit the WTC and that it appeared that NY was under a terrorist attack. I went back home and cancelled the eye appointment and just watched TV in horror for the rest of the morning. I went in to work that afternoon and there was an emergency meeting, asking staff to be prepared to receive a large number of patients being evacuated from New York, as the thinking at that moment was that there would be a huge number of injured survivors, too many to be treated in New York. That was not how it turned out, though.
It was very strange in Boston for the next several days, as two of the hijacked planes had departed from Logan Airport and many locals were on board. Everyone seemed to know someone, or at least "to know someone who knew someone," who died that day. There were concerns that the hijackers might have been a part of a local cell and if so, that there might be other terrorists in our midst. (That wasn't the case). I remember it as an unsettling time, when it was hard to think about anything else than the events of that day, how and why it happened, and where we would go from there as a country.

[MrScorpio]

37. I was on duty at Langley AFB where I was stationed

I used to work in the Pentagon and I've been inside the WTC on a tour before. The thing that I thought about the most was how it must have been inside of both buildings, with all the noise, smoke and carnage.

[smirkymonkey]

39. In NYC in the West Village.

I had just arrived at work when I heard about the first plane hitting. We all went down to hang out by St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village. They were waiting outside for casualties but none came. I remember seeing things falling from the building and then realizing later that they were people jumping. We all had to walk home that day because there was no public transportation. All the people from further downtown were covered in ash and looked like zombies. Everyone walked home in silence - just too stunned to say a word. It was a horrible day.

[masmdu]

40. Chating online with somebody in the towers...they didn't make it.

[uppityperson]

49. I am sorry, that doesn't cut it I know.

[anneboleyn]

41. Was prepping to teach my university course, watching news, saw it all happen live

I was watching the news before anything had even happened (I was drinking my a.m. mocha and wanted to spend a few minutes waking up and watching the news before I got all of my notes together for my class later that day), so I saw all of it happen live. I KNEW that first plane wasn't an "accident" even though many of the anchors kept stating that it was maybe an accident. I also knew it wasn't a small plane, like a Cessna, even though some of the news idiots kept repeating this false detail.

Then the second plane hit. Ugh. I will never forget that terrible feeling -- it felt like a physical blow. It was an awful blast of shock, a hideous adrenaline rush (fight/flight sort of terror even though I was in another state!), and horror as it started to sink in that those planes, and the buildings, were filled with people whose tragic deaths I just witnessed. I remember feeling physical pain at the realization of it. Also, I felt utterly helpless. I heard screams from people in the news control room, and the anchors (I kept switching around as the lack of info was frustrating) were initially hesitant to say that another plane had hit and that it was CLEARLY a jet. Then I became aware that people were jumping out of the buildings. That was definitely one of the worst things I have ever seen, especially as part of live news coverage.

I was also on the phone with a hysterical relative who was frantically trying to find other close relatives who were on planes to CA that morning and another one who worked near the WTC. It took hours to track them down, and the phones kept going out, adding to the chaos, and getting through to the airlines was impossible (and this was the early days of the Internet so tracking flights, etc was not as easy as it is now). However at least they were safe. My class was later in the day, and our university didn't really give us any guidance, so I went in so my students wouldn't walk into an empty classroom. My students and I sat in shock for a few minutes, expressed our sadness, and then I let them go and told them to contact me freely if they wished to talk. They wanted to call their parents and relatives and friends. One student had a relative in the military, and he was terrified about what would happen to him (he was sent to Afghanistan).

[cwydro]

42. I was watching the Today show, literally as it happened.

I know everyone on DU hates the Today show, but I've watched it since college years.

That's what I was doing. Then I called everyone I could think of.

When I called and told my mom to turn on her TV, she asked "what channel?" That's kind of funny now, but I'll never forget that day.

My company gave us all the day off and closed the offices. I watched the rest of the day with my mom at her house. She kept asking me, "Where is the President?"

[DFW]

43. At work in Brussels

I got a call from London saying "have you heard?" I had not. My British friend called back a short while later to tell me the other tower had been hit as well. I could not get through on the phone to my sister and brother-in-law in the NYC area. By the time I was on my way back to Germany that evening, everyone in the train who heard I was American and could speak their language (French/Dutch/German) was grilling me about things I couldn't possibly know. I suddenly found myself silently begging my late father for forgiveness for pestering him with endless questions as we drove from Washington DC to Falls Church, Virginia on the evening of November 22, 1963.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

44. Being on Pacific time and

Getting off at 2AM from my shift at work meant I slept through it. But I do remember crawling out of bed around 10AM to check a friend's blog and being baffled at his description of planes hitting buildings and the Pentagon being on fire. It sounded totally unhinged, a work of fiction.

I tried to access the BBC and the site refused to load, same with several other domestic and international sites. I shrugged and went back to bed for another few hours.

It wasn't until I went for my afternoon routine at the gym that I saw the videos for the first time. The gym was mostly empty except for a couple of die-hards and trainers, all of whom were glued to the TV.

I picked up my gym bag and went home, I was too shaken by what'd I'd seen.

[jpak]

45. Driving to work that morning, I thought to myself "What a beautiful day"

As I was warming up the lab equipment, I pulled up CNN on-line.

There was an item about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.

I thought, how could that happen?

Then the second plane hit, and the internet went dark.

Someone brought out a radio and we listened to NPR.

A former employee kept us updated via email.

When the third plane hit the Pentagon, I knew we were at war.

I had friends and relatives in Manhattan - my sister used to work at the WTC, and in my panic I feared for her.

My cousin is a tour guide in NYC - fortunately she was home, but saw the whole event. The dust cloud enveloped her apartment building.

My BIL had to walk out of downtown, crossed a bridge on foot and finally got home way after dark. There was no cellphone service and my sister was wild.

They said that church funeral bells rang all day long for weeks.

I didn't feel anger - just profound sadness.

[underahedgerow]

46. I watched it happening live on the morning news, in Los Angeles. I woke up everyone in the house

and we all watched in horror as the second one hit.

And I was on DU, non-stop. We were all posting so fast, we couldn't keep up with all the news coming in.

[Hekate]

57. What time was that in Los Angeles? My post #55 explains my question.

I may have actually seen the second tower hit in real time -- I'm in the Santa Barbara area, but was woken out of a sound sleep by my daughter's phone call, and was both groggy and in shock and CNN kept looping their tapes.

I wish I had been a DUer then, but didn't get here until a year later, in the runup to the invasion of Iraq.

[underahedgerow]

59. It was very early, somewhere around 5:30? 6? I'm an early riser, usually around 4:30 then as I was

working the stock markets and checking the NY desks and european news and reports. (I was in LA, for clarification)

[Hekate]

65. My daughter started work at 8 a.m. in Santa Barbara, and called me shortly after that.

I kept wondering, as the day dragged on, "Where the hell is the president?" In my mind, even a worthless frat boy could surely rise to the occasion and tell us that we had nothing to fear but fear itself. No such luck.

[Ron Obvious]

47. We were visiting my sister in Italy

We were sitting on her patio drinking wine, probably talking about the Champions League game that was going to be on that evening ,when her husband called and told her to turn on the TV.

It was unreal. Something from a movie - it couldn't be real. At that time they were saying that 50,000 people worked in those buildings during the day and that they might all be dead. Just imagine, roughly the entire casualty count of the entire Vietnam war lost in single day. I felt that life would never be the same again...

Over the next few days, while travelling around Rome and Florence, people from all sorts of nationalities made a point of talking to us and shaking our hands and telling us how they were with and behind us.

Although we lived 3,000 miles away from New York in Seattle, we felt like stand-ins for stricken America, and I suffered jaw cramp from the manfully determined look I felt obligated to return to those people who had come to shake our hand. Pity I'm rather lactose-intolerant to the milk of human kindness...

Just a few years later, most of the civilised world had turned against us because of the Iraq war and other excesses.

It took an exceptionally incompetent moron in the White House to turn all the goodwill we felt at that time into hostility in such a short period of time...

[madinmaryland]

50. I saw and heard the second plane hit the WTC. I was about four blocks away

from the WTC and my office was in the World Financial Center which was accross the street from the WTC.

[catbyte]

51. I was home with a migraine when my boss called me asking if I was was watching tv.

I wasn't, so she told me what she'd heard and wondered if it was true. I turned to CNN and couldn't believe my eyes. It was.

[MFM008]

52. In bed

A friend called and said there were planes being hijacked. Having practically no sleep that night due to it being the first anniversary of my own father's sudden passing, I said I didn't give a flying fk.
He said hang up. Get up. Watch.
Then my mom beeped in and said get up.
See we are PST so the second plane had just hit when I turned on T V.
Then I was on the phone half the day as everyone tried to work through what was going on.

[napi21]

54. Sitting at the computer and had TV on. When I heard the first report,

I looked at the TV. They were showing a live video of the damage done by the first plane. I was saying, oh gees, what an AH pilot, Then I saw the second plane hit, and said "OH GOD! THESE CRASHES ARE NO ACCIDENT!

[Hekate]

55. Asleep from working on my dissertation most of the night. Daughter called from work...

"Turn on the tv right now!" Stood leaning on the kitchen counter watching the towers go down... Watching the loop of the planes hitting the towers over and over...

It took me years to work out my personal timeline of the events, because I had been asleep in California, and CNN kept interspersing real-time reportage with loops of what had already taken place. I am pretty sure I watched the towers collapse in real time.

Words fail. "Oh, the humanity," comes to mind.

[benld74]

56. Driving to the office after dropping daughter off at grade school

local station I listened reported what had happened. I began to switch stations trying to determine if a prank was being done. Other stations were in their commercial breaks, nothing out of the ordinary.
Upon arriving at the office, I mentioned what I heard to a guy in my office, he said a second plane had hit the other tower.
I jumped on the computer, and began to hit my usual sites. I was getting MORE information from sites based OUTSIDE the U.S. than those inside. That told me something more happened. Then the Pentagon, then the crash into the field.
Then internal emails showing 'US Military Might", jets, bombs exploding, tanks etc. ALL of which I KNEW was NOT going to help in this situation.
Wife called asking me WHY I was still at work, that I needed to leave and go home.
So I did. I began to winterize out pool, draining, etc. Weird that NO planes were flying, strangely quiet. My sister called to make sure I was ok.
When our daughter came home we found out NO classes were in session as the whole school was talking about what had happened.
I WENT BALLISTIC on the Principal the next day. HOW could she have allowed this to happen? THIS was something PARENTS needed to talk to their kids about. Oddly enough, SHE was gone in 2 years.
I still get ticked thinking about it.
I DID NOT agree with HOW the U.S. responded, Patriot Act, Shock and Awe in Iraq, another BuchCo 4 years, Homeland Security, collapsing other agencies under HS.
I'm a FED by the way.

[jmowreader]

58. I was at work.

We had received a nice big print job, and I was setting it up for film. Then the secretary came in and told us the first tower had been hit. Well, one thing led to another and at 1 pm we all got released with pay, come back the next morning.

The worst part was when I got home...my then-wife had been playing video games all day and didn't know anything happened. And then she didn't care.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

60. Getting ready for work. Thinking it was too clear of a day to be an accident.

I was on the phone with my buddy Vince when the second plane hit. My first words to my buddy were "it's that fucking Osama Bin Laden"... My friend sad "Who?"

Driving to work, I called my dad and he told me one of the towers collapsed. "Which part?" I asked...

The gravity of the situation didn't hit me until I got home that evening. I was really busy and at a new job. Nowhere near a tv.

Frankly, I was annoyed the support staff were going home early. I thought they were over reacting and taking a free day. They had a tv going in the lunch room. Didn't they realize I had closing a tomorrow? There were no closing session for several days, IIRC. The title companies shut down.

I saw the crowds of people on the train and people walking north out of downtown Chicago because the trains were too full.

By the time I went home at 3 pm-ish, the town was a ghost town. The trains were empty. About a block from my house, everyone I passed said "hi" with kind of this dazed look. It started to sink in for me. Then I got home and turned on the tv...

[Rochester]

61. I was at work

The boss turned up his radio and said, "Hey, listen to this."

[applegrove]

64. I was getting ready for work. CNN was on. Saw that a plane had crashed into

WTC. Called my dad to tell him to watch. Then the second plane hit. I thought it was terrorism but thought it was Palestinians. Called my sister. Pretty sad day. They had a TV on at work. I was in a port city in canada and the navy was at high alert. All sorts of american and international planes landed at the Halifax airport from overseas so of course the city had refugees from that day on.

[Runningdawg]

66. I am new here

and I don't known if what I am about to say will resonate with anyone else.
I turned on the news while waiting for the coffee to brew and there was a breaking report there was a large fire at the WTC. I woke up my husband and as we poured our first cup of coffee the 2nd plane hit. What can you say? The enormity of that moment sinking in...really sinking in. We watched as the towers fell, the Pentagon was hit and the final plane dropped out of the air. Until the early afternoon, along with most of the world, we stood in shock, frozen in front of our TVs.
This is where the story changes, bear with me.
We are preppers. I will wait until you stop laughing. After reality kicking us in the teeth all day, we suddenly realized we had work to do. We, along with several friends, spent the rest of the day until dark, picking up last minute supplies and checking equipment. From what I witnessed that day, we certainly weren't the only ones. Most were like us, middle aged and taught by parents and grandparents who had survived the dust bowl, the depression and 2 world wars to be ready for anything at a moments notice.
We had radios on while working, but not the TV. When we finally saw what we had been hearing we were shocked again. No one said a word for a long time.
We had friends in NYC we had left email and messages but had not received any word until around midnight. Everyone there was safe and accounted for, but they knew people who weren't. A friend who worked at the pentagon was missing. After nearly 2 months we finally learned that he survived and had been taken to Cheyenne Mountain not long after the 2nd plane hit. A week passed and we learned a friend was taking his cadaver dogs to ground zero. He made it as far as St Louis and was told by a friend, already working her dogs there, to turn around they were pulling the dogs out, the air was killing them. She lost 2 and had to put down a 3rd.
So much loss, so much horror, even after 15 years when I stop and think about it there is a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
RIP to all the victims and a huge thank you to all the FD, LEO, medical teams, our military and most of all to the people of NYC for showing the world what true bravery looks like.

[GummyBearz]

67. I watched both towers go down in real time

I was 19 years old and attending community college. My mom woke me up early when the first tower got hit. I watched live when the second one was hit. It was a Tuesday and I drove to my film studies class. The radio was covering it on my drive, and reports of the pentagon being hit and a 4th plane going down in Pennsylvania were just coming out. The teacher told us to go home, I ran into a friend who didn't have a car on my way out and I took him home where we watched the news in shock for about 2 hours

[brooklynite]

71. I was in Lower Manhattan...

I came out of the subway two minutes after the second plane it. I saw people starting at a huge dark cloud overhead, walked over one block to Church Street and saw the buildings on fire.

[GummyBearz]

74. I wouldn't be able to imagine what it was like for you or any other NYer

I'm a born and raised California boy and it shocked the living daylights out of me from 2,000 miles away.

It rarely happens, but everyone I knew from the west coast was in solidarity with you east coast guys that day

[alcibiades_mystery]

80. I watched the first hit from Chambers and Broadway

For some reason, got on train at City Hall. I was coming out of the Wall Street station when second plane hit. Came out of the station into panic and falling debris.

[phylny]

68. Working at a school in the shadow of Dulles Airport in Sterling, VA.

I was alerted about what was going on and didn't have students, so I watched on TV and saw the buildings come down. The school was put on lockdown and I was placed at the front door to let parents in. They came in droves. We didn't say anything to the children - it was an elementary school - and the kids left were wondering out loud what was going on and why so many kids were leaving early. I remember hearing all sorts of other rumors - one being that a plane also flew into the FAA complex in Leesburg, VA. I called my sister-in-law, and it was miserably hard for us to get through to NY. I finally got word that my brother was fine - he could not go to the meeting at the WTC that was scheduled for that day because he was disciplining an employee. All his other employees got out safely because they were in one of the basements.

By the time I got home, my kids were home from high school, middle, and elementary school. They wanted to know why I didn't come get them like other parents did. I explained that I was taking care of other children just like I knew their teachers were taking care of them.

In the day and days afterward, I remember thinking, "Life will never be normal again." Every time I heard a plane, I panicked. Of course, there were only military jets in the sky as there was no other airplane traffic, which created an eerie silence because we were in the flight path of Dulles.

When we came back to school, many of our Muslim students didn't show up for a few days. The principal, a lovely Jewish woman, called each home and let the parents know that their students were missed and would be protected and cherished just like the others. We slowly learned about the many people in our community who were killed at the Pentagon.

I used to work in 1 World Trade. It was a quirky building. You'd see the water in the toilet moving from the sway of the building. Someone had attached a stuffed monkey to the automatic window cleaners and you'd always smile when you saw it. You'd have to look down at the street to look for umbrellas to see if it was raining. Never once did I worry for my safety when I worked there, but that was in the 80's.

[Fritz67]

69. At work at K-mart

I was finally getting my first break, and nearing the door to the lounge--dodging the mess, because the store was undergoing remodeling at the time--one of the managers was saying something to one of the guys in sporting goods about "And now I heard the Pentagon just got hit". I had no idea what he was talking about...

Then I got into the break room and saw the television.

The World Trade Center was on fire. I was stunned into silence save for one gallows joke about "Well, at least this means they'll stop talking about Gary Condit for a while" (And if you can't even remember who Gary Condit is, that just sort of makes my point. He was the top story on 9-10 as he had been for weeks)

I saw one of the towers fall, and went numb. I couldn't process it. My fifteen minutes on break came up, and I went back to work. Within an hour, the store was almost deserted. When my shift ended, I joined the line to get my car gassed up--rumor had it gas was about to go to $5 a gallon, so get the $1.95 while you can. It took longer than we thought, but gas eventually did make it to almost $5.

It really hit me that evening. I live about a mile north of Indianapolis International Airport (or at least we did then; over the last decade they basically moved a couple miles west), and whenever we have relatives or other company who don't come from here, they often comment about "How do you get anything done with all the airplane noises whenever they take off?" Well, most of the time, we don't notice because we're so used to it.

That evening, I noticed the eerie silence of the airplanes not taking off and landing.


More here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028157584#op

[Siwsan]

70. I was at work. My Mom called to tell me what she was seeing, on TV

I immediately pulled up the CNN web site on my work computer. My first thought was like so many others - some pilot lost control of his plane. And then the 2nd plane hit.

I started alerting people as to what was going on and things at work just stopped. I don't know why they didn't just send people home.

[Motley13]

72. So many of you were so close

your memories are worse than mine, since you were a part of it.

[ballabosh]

73. On the El

On the way to work. I didn't have a clue until I got there. Three messages from my wife. Talked to her and she told me what was going on. Couldn't get on any internet news site. Sister called, she worked near the federal center and they were telling her to leave. I told her to leave. Rumors there's another plane headed to the Sears Tower. My firm told us, if you feel you need to leave, go. Stayed another 45 minutes. Office was empty. Left. The loop was a ghost town. Got home. Hugged my 5 month old daughter and was glad that she wasn't old enough that I had to explain it to her. Because I don't know if I could. I still don't.

[Rhythm]

75. Working in a factory in Virginia... just about to go on break...

Lyric and i were a still-pretty-new couple, and I was a temp-to-perm worker in a cabinetry factory on the I-81 corridor of Virginia... had only been working there for a couple of months, but was excited for the chance to get hired on permanently. I was a co-operator of a machine which produced small decorative wooden trim-strips which were used elsewhere in the factory. Boring, but a decent job.

My department's usual first-break time was 9am, and about 10 minutes before that, someone returning to the production floor from the breakroom stopped to talk with my cohort on the machine... the noise was too much for me to overhear, but then as the other guy continued on to his department, my partner turned to me an out-of-hand mentioned that "some plane hit a building in New York City". He didn't know anything more than that... not what kind of plane, or what building or anything. I figured we'd get the details when we went into the breakroom, because the big-screen TV always had CNN on.

The folks from our section (150 or so of us) tromped into the breakroom, grabbed snacks, and found places to sit where we could catch the news... my heart caught in my throat when i saw it was the WTC... smoke bellowing out of the side of the North Tower. The sound was off, so i was paying more attention to trying to read the closed-caption scrolls than to the conversation around me.

And then the second plane hit the South Tower.

The room fell completely silent.

I ran outside the doors of the breakroom, to the payphone just outside, and called Lyric, who was home with then-toddler LyricLad. Told her that i didn't know what the hell was happening, but that she should get online and find out as much as she could, and that i would call her back at lunchtime.

I have ~never~ been so glad to get home at the end of a day...

Epilogue: The permanent job i thought i'd be getting never happened, and in fact a few weeks later, the factory laid-off two full shifts of workers. Remember, in the aftermath the markets hit the brakes, including new-housing construction... and that's what we made there -- cabinet systems for new houses and major remodels.

[MidwestTransplant]

76. 1.5 blocks from the WTC in my apartment

getting ready to go to work in the WTC in the North Tower. Interesting times to say the least.

[alcibiades_mystery]

77. I was about 300 yards from the North Tower

I was walking eastbound on Chambers street just east of Broadway. I turned and looked up at the sound of the plane's approach and watched it slam into the North Tower.

[KamaAina]

78. In a market in downtown Honolulu.

Buying a banana and chocolate milk. I wondered why the TV was on, then I saw images that looked to me like maybe a quake in L.A.

Then I got to work a few minutes later. And logged on.

[RandySF]

79. In my office.

I learned the news via IM from a friend in Hong Kong.

[Thinkingabout]

81. I was vacationing in Gulf Shores on 9/11 and I was vacationing in Orange Beach when

They got bin Laden.

[2naSalit]

82. I was just waking up and listening

to NPR's Bob Edwards talking to an eye witness on the phone as the second plane hit. I got right up and started to worry about my best friend on her way to Europe that morning, her flight was in the air when this all happened. I don't have teevee so I had to go and watch it on campus, I had just received my master's degree and in negotiations for a really nice job that evaporated into thin air a few days later.

My friend's experience was interesting. She landed at the regional International airport, a few hours drive from home, and saw what she described as "ninjas" running through the terminal and down the conveyor belts making prople jump out of their way, said she got real uncomfortable. She had had a nightmare the previous night that woke her up with the feeling that she should not get on the plane in the morning. So she spoke to her fellow passengers who were still with her in a group. They decided that two would go rent a van and the rest went directly to a ticket counter and demanded their luggage, a couple hours later they all piled in the van and drove home, they were lucky to get organized quickly and grab a vehicle before they ended up stranded only a few hours from home.

Another friend's daughter was in one of the towers and managed to get out from the 90th floor safely.

Some of my neighbors were getting out of control freaked out and started calling me up and telling about their hatred for foreigners and other scary stuff, I stopped being friendly with them that day. Others on campus, I lived right off campus at the time, approached me and told me to go back to Iran or Iraq etc, to which I replied in my thickest New England accent that I was born in Boston and they could go f themselves... I have an olive complexion and it's hard to guess my ethnicity.

It was very awkward in the Rocky Mountain region back then with the Bundy types getting up in my face a lot.

[stopwastingmymoney]

83. Getting ready for work on the west coast

I was in the shower with the news radio on when they reported the first plane. Like many others, I thought it must be an accident. Jumped out, woke hubby and turned on the TV in time to see the second plane hit on live TV. It's surreal to see so many of you recalling the very same scenario.

[Ms. Toad]

84. On my to buy flowers for my wife on our 20th anniversary.

I was just approaching town square as the first plane hit, and was being described as a small plane that had accidentally hit the WTC. By the time I had rounded the square to the florist's shop, the second plane had hit. A few minutes later, I got to my office. A TV I didn't know existed had been pulled out and turned on - and not much later, we watched the towers collapse.

We spent our anniversary dinner in a mostly deserted restaurant - going through the motions of celebrating amidst talk of terrorism and tragedy.

Today we celebrated our 35th anniversary in a restaurant two buildings down from that restaurant. I was reminded during the run-up to 911 this year that this year must be a big year (a multiple of 5 or 10), since not only do we share the day - since it was a multiple of 10. Every big anniversary for us will compete with the larger than usual remembrances of 911.

[Warpy]

85. I was sleeping after a 12 hour night shift

and woke up shortly before noon for a bathroom run, flipped on the TV to watch the news before I went back to sleep.

I didn't go back to sleep.

[Yukari Yakumo]

86. In boot camp

I was still in my smurfs.

[Separation]

88. Getting my flight physical

I was sitting in the base clinics waiting room, waiting for my turn to get my flight physical updated. The tv cut away and showed the first building on fire. Everyone was watching it when the second building was hit. At that time we all knew it was no accident.

My wife and I were separated at the time for around 5 months. Our kids both went to school on Macdill Air Force base even though I wasn't stationed there. One thing I always told my wife was that if any attacks happened on the US I told her to get the kids. And get away from the base since that's where CENTCOM was and would probably be a target. As soon as the pentagon was hit it was obvious that this was an attack on us.

After the pentagon was hit I went to the receptionist and told her I would have to reschedule so I could go get my kids. I didn't know if my wife had got them or not. I left the Air Station and made the drive to Macdil. As I got up to the front gate my cell phone rang and it was my wife telling me she already had the kids and were at her house. I asked if I could come over and she said ok.

I turned around and made my way to her house. As I was driving over there I smiled because I remembered what I had said. When I got there I ha e both of my kids a great big hug and got another hug from my wife which caught me by surprise. We sat down and was watching the tv and started talking about what was important in life. Being family, love, and getting past what seemed like the petty shit that we separated for in the first place. We decided then and there that we would give it another shot to get back together. We also talked about how this meant we were at war and what that would probably entail for me.

We got back together and have been ever since. This December will mark our 21st anniversary. Its weird, all the tragedy that happened that day, but we got back together. I always wondered if that hadn't happened if we would have gotten back together.

[lpbk2713]

92. Thanks for sharing something positive out of this.

And BTW I live about 35 miles east of MacDill and
have always been aware of it as a prime target.

[ProfessorGAC]

89. At The Airport Waiting To Fly To Atlanta

Told the story enough times already, but that's where i was.

[sarae]

90. I was at the end of my third semester of design school,

in Atlanta, getting my projects ready for a final critique that day. A guy in my class was coming over to my apartment to use my printer that morning. When he arrived, the first thing he said was, "Have you seen the news?" He'd heard the news on the car radio on the way over. I turned on the news and we both sat and watched it together, in shock.

I guess he must have arrived between 8:50-9 am, because as we were watching the news, the second plane crashed into the other Tower. I remember thinking it couldn't possibly be real, that this couldn't possibly be happening.

[Odin2005]

91. 10th Grade biology class.

Principal came running in telling us to turn the TV on to CNN. The first tower came down just a couple minutes later.

[steve2470]

93. talking to my inmate clients

Another inmate said "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center". I said, reflexively, "You're joking". He looked at me sternly and said, "Mr. XXXX, why would I joke about something like that ?". The rest of the day was downhill from there.