Where were you on 9/11?

[twocoach]

I was living in Indianapolis on 9/11/01 and got in the car to make the 30 minutes drive down to where I worked in downtown Indianapolis. When I got in the car and turned on the radio, I heard what was happening and called my wife to tell her to turn on the news. It was between the time the planes had hit the tower and when the first tower came down. I arrived downtown and was watching the coverage on TV when the first tower collapsed. We tried to work a bit after that but no one could muster the focus and we all just went back home.

I still contend that 9/11 fundamentally changed me as a human. Dying is a private thing meant to be done out of the public eye surrounded by those you love, not live on TV. To have witnessed the lives of more than a thousand people extinguished before my eyes was gut wrenching. I am still mad that those terrorists made us witness those deaths. I didn't used to be a person that teared up when I saw tear jerkers but after 9/11 that changed.

Where were you all on 9/11/01 and what do you recall most vividly from that day?

[pdub]

I was headed to a three hour design class, parked my car in lot 90 ( which meant the AFH lot was full ) and I think was listening to 96.5 The Buzz ( trying to remember if Spacin' Jason moved from LAZR to the Buzz ) and something came on about a plane hitting the World Trade center.

It came on ( and it wasn't an interruption, it was just a normal DJ segment, and he was trying to describe the report ) just maybe right as I had parked and I wasn't fully sure what it meant but went to class.
Class was about half full. Teacher had heard some news but - and this is going to just completely confuse the generation after us - no internet on phones and a lot of us didn't even bring cells to class ( I didn't ) - so we had the full class anyways.

I had a noon class immediately after that 8:30 - 11:30 class and that teacher showed up, practically no one was there, and dismissed us. Drove home to my apartment and my roommate had the news on and I remember seeing the footage as he said "have you seen this shit?"

It didn't hit me until that moment as news/info was scant.

[jhawks99]

I stopped to get gas on my way to work on College Blvd.
Pulled into the parking lot just a couple minutes after 8, Listening to Johnny Dare.
He said something as I was parking that a small, private airplane hit one of the towers.
I got into the office and everyone was freaking out. Went down to our network monitoring room that had a few TVs for news and weather, just in time to see the 2nd plane hit. Saw people jumping out of windows to get away from the fire. No one said anything, just too dumbstruck. They told us to go back to our desks about that point.

Didn't get much done that day. I remember our manager coming down the row and said that anyone who needs gas should leave and get it now cuz the price is going up by the hour.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

At work on the CBOE trading floor. Market had not opened yet. Before I left for work I had heard and told co-workers supposedly a "small" plane had hit the World Trade Center and it was either an "accident" or possibly suicide. A few of us were watching on TV and of course we learned it was not a "small" plane. My boss called his cousin in New York who was heading to the NYSE. His cousin said, "OH SHIT". That was seconds before the 2nd plane hit. My boss claims he could actually hear the plane on his phone. His cousin was seeing the plane live and in person. We watched it hit the 2nd tower live on TV.
As we were watching on TV there were rumors the Pentagon (true) had been hit followed by the Capitol (not true). All of a sudden there was a lot of speculation what would be the next target/s and who was doing it. Obviously no one knew for sure. That was extremely unnerving.
My sister lives in DC and was working a block from the White House and my bro-in-law was working a couple of blocks away from the Capitol. I called my sister and she said there were "SWAT" guys running all over the place. Can't recall why but we ended our conversation. I tried calling her back and tried calling my bro-in-law and cell service was not working. News sources were reporting that telephone service (both cellular and land line) was down in a lot of places and people were fearing that was part of the "sabotage" and that all internet service would soon be down too.
I went outside and looked around and it was very eerie. Like a perfect silence on a beautiful day.
I was working a few blocks away from the Sears Tower and was wondering if it would be a target. Then I went back inside and of course the opening of the market was "delayed". We stayed and watched on TV and were horrified as all the news starting coming out and as we watched the first Tower collapse. Around 11:00am I started to leave to go home and people were walking around the city like zombies. No one knew if they were safe and what if anything would happen next. I lived near a school and traumatized parents were trying to explain to their kids what had happened.
It was basically an entire week of me being glued to the TV watching the greatest tragedy to happen to our country in my lifetime.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

At work on the CBOE trading floor. Market had not opened yet. Before I left for work I had heard and told co-workers supposedly a "small" plane had hit the World Trade Center and it was either an "accident" or possibly suicide. A few of us were watching on TV and of course we learned it was not a "small" plane. My boss called his cousin in New York who was heading to the NYSE. His cousin said, "OH SHIT". That was seconds before the 2nd plane hit. My boss claims he could actually hear the plane on his phone. His cousin was seeing the plane live and in person. We watched it hit the 2nd tower live on TV.
As we were watching on TV there were rumors the Pentagon (true) had been hit followed by the Capitol (not true). All of a sudden there was a lot of speculation what would be the next target/s and who was doing it. Obviously no one knew for sure. That was extremely unnerving.
My sister lives in DC and was working a block from the White House and my bro-in-law was working a couple of blocks away from the Capitol. I called my sister and she said there were "SWAT" guys running all over the place. Can't recall why but we ended our conversation. I tried calling her back and tried calling my bro-in-law and cell service was not working. News sources were reporting that telephone service (both cellular and land line) was down in a lot of places and people were fearing that was part of the "sabotage" and that all internet service would soon be down too.
I went outside and looked around and it was very eerie. Like a perfect silence on a beautiful day.
I was working a few blocks away from the Sears Tower and was wondering if it would be a target. Then I went back inside and of course the opening of the market was "delayed". We stayed and watched on TV and were horrified as all the news starting coming out and as we watched the first Tower collapse. Around 11:00am I started to leave to go home and people were walking around the city like zombies. No one knew if they were safe and what if anything would happen next. I lived near a school and traumatized parents were trying to explain to their kids what had happened.
It was basically an entire week of me being glued to the TV watching the greatest tragedy to happen to our country in my lifetime.

[Shirley]

On my way to my clinic listening to AM sports radio.

Learned what had happened when Jason Whitlock announced it. (Back before he was as big a dick as he's turned out to be.)

Most of the patients who has appointments showed up that day.

[mjl2]

Woke up in my dorm room, went to the computer and sent an IM (since that's what they were called at that time) (using AOL Instant Messenger) to a friend. Something probably trying to be funny. She simply responded "turn on the TV". So I did, and of course, roommate and I were in shock.

Classes were cancelled for the day. Rumors were everywhere about follow-up attacks, mass confusion.

[Overlander]

In Denver, brushing my teeth, getting ready for work.
Turned on the news, saw what appeared to be a plane had crashed into the WTC. Seemed plausible, nothing more than an accident.

As I was putting my shirt on, I saw what at first looked like a helicopter hauling ass toward the towers. Then I saw the wings, and everything changed in just a few seconds.

I knew then, we were at war.

[Overlander]

And wow, truer words were never spoken:

Hunter S. Thompson on 9/11 (09/12/2001)

“The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now – with somebody – and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. Osama bin Laden may be a primitive "figurehead” – or even dead, for all we know – but whoever put those All-American jet planes loaded with All-American fuel into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon did it with chilling precision and accuracy. The second one was a dead-on bullseye. Straight into the middle of the skyscraper.

Nothing – even George Bush’s $350 billion “Star Wars” missile defense system – could have prevented Tuesday’s attack, and it cost next to nothing to pull off. Fewer than 20 unarmed Suicide soldiers from some apparently primitive country somewhere on the other side of the world took out the World Trade Center and half the Pentagon with three quick and costless strikes on one day. The efficiency of it was terrifying.

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed – for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won’t hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.”

- Hunter S. Thompson,

[DCHawk1]

I was in my office, across the street from Lafayette Square, in the tallest building overlooking the White House.

[twocoach]

I was in my office, across the street from Lafayette Square, in the tallest building overlooking the White House.

Oh, sheesh, that had to be unnerving. I remember feeling vulnerable being near random tall buildings in downtown Indy that in hindsight would never have been targets of such an attack. To be so close to what was a very likely had to have been really bizarre.

I still struggle to explain to my kids what that day and the subsequent days/weeks/months were like other than to say that no one should have to experience it.

[Overlander]

I was in my office, across the street from Lafayette Square, in the tallest building overlooking the White House.

Damn

[japhy]

I was on my way to drop my daughters off at grade school when I heard the news. As I was driving into downtown KCMO to my office, multiple jet fighters go flying over the city going east and going south. Because of how low they were flying it was pretty eerie. When I got to the office most of the employees were in the conference room watching shit go down on the TV. It was only about half of us until the first tower fell. After a few minutes of quiet it was a revelation that…oh fuck, right…that is what will happen. Then the whole office watched and waited for the second tower to fall. After that most of the employees left and went home.

It took awhile but I reached my sister in DC by phone, my brother-in-law was not in the Pentagon that morning, he was in another building that day. I called my sister in NYC and my other brother-in-law was not in Manhattan, but his younger brother was in the second tower. One of his coworkers ran down the stairs and escaped, but he went up trying to help someone he heard crying for help. His coworker was the last person to ever see him alive. I talked to a friend from college in Brooklyn and she watched the whole thing from her kitchen window. They were all obviously fucked up by the event.

Later that afternoon I got an email from NY, they were looking for NY registered structural engineers who had experience in damaged building assessments, could climb 50 stories of stairs and had experience climbing through debris. They needed help on the debris piles and in the surrounding buildings to get shit sorted out and to assess dangerous conditions with the rescue workers. I told them I was available and was the only engineer in our firm who met the criteria and I could be there on short notice and so was put on a volunteer list. I went home and told my wife and she started crying which made my daughters cry. Two days later they let me know they had everything covered with engineers closer to the NY and I was no longer on call. I have crawled through a lot of collapsed buildings but was fuckin relieved not to see what I knew I would have seen if I had been needed there.

A few years later I was working on a local memorial for 9/11. The fabricator had a big section of a column in their shop and they wanted me to talk to the artist about how we could stand it upright in the memorial. It was laying on it’s side and was beat to hell. It takes a lot of force to bend a 2 inch thick piece of steel like that. It was a creepy object to see. There were small chunks of metal flaking off. I gathered up a handful of metal flakes and put it in a box and mailed it to my brother-in-law and his family.

[DCHawk1]

I was in my office, across the street from Lafayette Square, in the tallest building overlooking the White House.

Damn

Easily the eeriest and most vividly memorable day of my life.

Phone lines and cell lines were down (or jammed) immediately. The lovely and talented Mrs. DCHawk (i.e. Creamcheese) was at her office in Crystal City -- which, if you know the DC area, is literally blocks south of the Pentagon. They heard the crash. The felt the crash. They saw the smoke. I didn't know any of this until hours later, of course, because we couldn't communicate.

In our office, we gathered around the TV in my boss's office. (Recall, youngsters, that this was before the ubiquitous streaming of everything.) We watched the news from New York as the CNN ticker flashed "Smoke Reported at Pentagon." Simultaneously, men in black uniforms appeared on the White House roof (which we could see unobstructed from my boss's office). He stood up and waved, "EVERYBODY OUT!"

But out to where? Not only were there constant reports of other attacks -- and who wants to be stuck in panic-traffic, crossing a bridge, during a terrorist attack? -- but my route home went right past the Pentagon AND National Airport.

In retrospect, I was (obviousy) never in any more danger than mjl in his dorm room in Lawrence. But no one knew that then.

[japhy]

Easily the eeriest and most vividly memorable day of my life.

In retrospect, I was (obviousy) never in any more danger than mjl in his dorm room in Lawrence. But no one knew that then.

I had forgotten about the people with guns on the roofs. We were directly across the street from, and at roof level with, the Federal Reserve Bank. We could see them on the Federal Courthouse a few blocks away as well. The violence was very focused, we were way outside of the target. And yet it felt very imminent. I had forgot some of the emotions associated with that day until trying to recall the details. I didn't sleep for a couple of days, dreading getting a call. I think that hung pretty heavy over my whole family. My daughters were young; kindergarten and second grade. I should ask them what they remember.

[defixione]

My crew and I were doing a small remodel on North Indiana Street. We had no sooner set up to begin work when my client came out and said you're not going to believe what's on television. We all went inside and watched the TV that was in their bedroom (they were still in PJ's) until the second plane flew into the second tower. At that point, everyone said they had to get home and we put the tools away. I spent the rest of the day glued to the television.

[japhy]

My youngest daughter was in kindergarten on that day so she was 5 for 6. She responded to this query about 9/11 with, "i have no memories that are first person until i am about 12."

That's my girrrrl!

Her first day of school that year they had all of her classmates draw a picture of themselves and fill in the blanks of a sentence that read "______ took ______ to school on the first day and ______ felt _____"

Other kids filled in their mom or dad's name, maybe a grandparent or older sibling who was helping out and walked the kids to their classrooms on the first day along with a little stick figure of themselves with a facial expression. There was a long line of cars out front and I had a meeting at the office that morning and her older sister was with her, so I dropped them off and went on my way.

My daughter filled in her first school assignment, all caps in crayon.

"RENEE took RENEE to school on the first day and RENEE felt MAD".

The stick figure sitting at a desk she drew looked particularly pissed off. The teacher looked a bit sheepish as she showed it to me. All I could do was start laughing. The teacher smirked after that.

[ousdahl]

is this thread about the U.S.-orchestrated coup of Chile, when the democratically-elected left wing government was overthrown in favor of the brutal far-right militant Pinochet regime? Cuz I wasn't even born for that shit yet. Happy 50th anniversary tho, to anyone who's still a fan of American imperialism.

but, sorry, my bad. That couldn't possibly be the 9/11 this thread is about.

in 2001, I was in first hour Spanish class. The biology teacher across the hall came in and interrupted, "hey you guys, heads up, the story of the year is happening. An airplane just crashed into one of the twin towers, and during all the smoke and confusion, another airplane just hit the other tower." at that moment, without any further understanding, he made it sound like it might have been just two freak coincidental accidents.

Our Spanish teacher assured us it was no big deal, and we should all focus on our Spanish lessons for the rest of the hour. Most teachers took that tone for the day, stop worrying about the twin towers and just keep on with class as usual.

The exceptions were my gifted ed class, in which the teacher said, "this is way more big a deal than any of us even realize right now, let's just roll in one of those teevees on the carts and watch the news for the rest of the day." The other was history class, in which the teacher had written, "CAMP DAVID ACCORDS" across the chalk bored, and insisted the twin tower attacks were some retaliation for that.

As for me personally, I spent the whole day butthurt that I asked out my cute blonde neighbor on the bus ride to school that morning, and she shot me down....that's the REAL tragedy of that day you guys. Never forget.

and yes, I was in gifted ed, LOL

[ousdahl]

also, have we discussed the airline stock shorts on September 10, 2001?

[DCHawk1]

Thank Gaia you're here!

I was worried that after the Mean Girls chased Gobmylobster off, I'd NEVER learn the true story of what happened that day!