Where were you? 9/11

[ophiura]

No arguing right or wrong...whose to blame and why, or what has become of it.
Just a moment to think back....
What were you doing?
What do you remember?
I remember waking up to the radio. I listen to talk radio but it wasn't the right program and clearly they were agitated. Clearly something was going down. I remember vividly a radio broadcast where a reporter was talking from the street, saying something, and then screaming something like "its falling" and the guy in the studio asking "the side?" and the reporter screaming "the whole building! The whole building is falling!"
I went to work, then at the LFS. And a coworker opened the door. I didn't know what to say. Obviously it was a bad day. But she said "The Lord has given YOU another day, and that is reason to be happy." That has passed through my head so many times...
I remember there were no planes flying. No streaks in the sky. Almost oddly silent.
I remember the boss bringing the TV out front. Watching it. Wondering about some of my family and friends in the DC and NY area. I remember the president's speech, we watched it at the store.
I remember being at a Walmart as some of the other buildings in NY collapsed...not the towers but the others. I remember the fire chief in NY - only because all the others ahead of him were dead - he was talking about those that were lost and Rudy Guiliani and another guy were holding him up.
I can't believe it has been 5 years. I just can't believe it.

 

[shogun323]

I was at the office watching the events unfold on CNN in the conference room. I remember seeing the footage and saying to myself, "something isnt right, what is a commercial plane doing in downtoen NY". Then the second plane hit. I was glued to the TV for most of the day watching the same footage over and over.

 

[ruaround]

driving to work listening to the radio... the (former) DJ's were pranksters so when they said that a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers i thought it was a joke... just to arrive at work and find out it was not a hoax, but a very sad day... for the better part of the day alot of us huddled around the TV in the breakroom and watched the events unfold... my place of work was about 1 mile from our airport so there wasnt much activity in the store that day...

 

[lubeck]

IMO, this is a VERY emotional and for some uncomfortable question to ask.. i am surprised but not entirely since it was 5 years ago.
I was at work, preparing food for four different parties, all 400 ppl of course did not come to the event.
I think back now... seeing the live footage the "first" time it aired, I was sick to my stomach and felt hopeless.
I can't believe to this day that I stayed at work... I will never make that mistake again. Life is too precisous to spend it at the work place. I have learned through my aging years that family is now priority.

 

[aw2x3]

On leave, helping a friend pour a concrete garage floor, at his summer house on Kentucky Lake.
His neighbor came running over, telling us to turn on the radio and we were listening just as the second plane hit.
45 minutes later, I was recieving a phone call from the D.O.D., telling me that I was 12 hour alert and to leave, pack and be at Scott Air Force base (outside of St. Louis) within 12 hours.
The next day, I was on a plane headed to the Middle East, attached to EOD Naval Special Clearance Team ONE.
I watched the 2 hours special on CBS, tonight. I'd be fine for a little while and then start crying, then be fine for a little while and start crying again. As others have said, I just cant believe it was 5 years ago...it seems like yesterday.

 

[lovethesea]

It was my birthday..........was supposed to be a big day for me.....a day of transitition. But it was not. It was a day of total shock and saddness.
The second I heard that a "small plane hit the tower"........I knew something was wrong. I had flown into NY many times and knew that area was not accessible to planes and this was not an accident.

 

[rs1831]

The night before I had been angry because NY Giants lost to Denver on Monday night football. I didn't have classes on Tuesdays so I was sleeping in when my dad called and told me to turn on the tv. Everyone knows the rest. It was a day filled with fear and sadness.

 

[vanos]

With my manager at dunkin donuts reviewing sales numbers. We made a couple calls on doctors and he let me go early.

 

[akbuuur]

i was in earth and space science, freshman year of high school... i remember just sitting there and all of a sudden the principal comes on... then my bro came and picked me up early from school.... everyone in school was talking about a nuke cause we were only about a 30 minute drive from dc...

 

[hot883]

I was stationed in Hawaii teaching at the Marine Corps Unniversity when a co-worker called me up at about 0430 and told me to turn on the tv. I sat there in bed with my wife in disbelief, mad, hurt, crying. I called my parents in Okla. and mom sounded fine. I said, "you haven't heard have you"?

 

[mrdc]

I came to work as usual and opened up my news site after logging on the computer. I saw the headline where the first plane had crashed and I was literally stunned. We have a tv room so I spent most of the morning watching the events unfold. The part that really shocked me was when the towers fell. I was speechless and saddened to the point where I had to step away from the tv for awhile to let things settle down. Pretty much for the remainder of the day (and weeks, months years to come), I was glued to every news station and website trying to figure out how this could happen in America. I actually vistited the site 2 years ago and again, I was speechless. It was so hard to imagine those events really happened. I still get that sick feeling when I see older movies and tv shows that show the twin towers before those events took place. Plus all this didn't help me and my fear of flying.

 

[seannmelly]

It was the first day of my freshman year in high school. I was sitting in Earth Science, listening to the teacher go over the curriculum, and I was called down to the principal's office(which is unusual for the first day of school!). When I got there, my younger brother was there, and a kid that was older than I. The pricipal started telling the other kid that his mom's plane was still in Detroit or something, and let that kid go. Then he turns to me and my brother and told us that our dad was O.K. And I'm like what are you talking about, what is going on. I didn't even notice the tv behind him earlier, and saw the two towers in flames, and then I started crying.(my dad was a correctional officer, and he works in the city). I had no idea what had just happened, but turns out my dad left the city and was half way home when he heard what happened on the radio. My grandma was 10 blocks away from the towers, and walked all the way home back to Astoria, Queens. My grandpa was only 4 blocks away, and walked home to Astoria also. We were trying to call them to see if they were alright, but they weren't answering their phone(because they were still walking home). My dad went back down to the city to help with the clean up(the buckets). When he got home, he just cried, he actually still has the helmet they gave him, I wish I could get a picture of it. My dad came an picked me up from school, and we listened to the radio all the way home, and all I could do was cry. We stayed up all night watching the news. Last night, I watched the documentary on 911 that was on CBS, and it still scares me, and brings back all those feelings I had when it first happened. Like alot of people have already said, it feels like it was just yesterday.
Melly

 

[my way]

On a friends boat heading to the New York Harbour, we heard that they were looking for boats to help get people back to NJ via the water. When we got close we were stopped by the Coast Guard and told to go home. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years already.

 

[jdragunas]

on my way to english in college... i was the first one that knew. i walked in late because i was so shocked, i just stood frozen in the doorway and said "a plane just crashed into the world trade center in nyc..." they didn't know what to think.. was i joking? was i serious? was it an accident? Was it terrorists? Was it an amateur pilot? what had just happened?? We sat in the classroom for about 3 minutes, and our teacher let us off early. We went directly to the tv's in the college and just sat in large groups with our eyes on the tv, barely blinking at all. The girl next to me burst into tears b/c her father worked at the trade center. all i could do was comfort her. I couldn't cry because i still thought it was some sort of joke or a mistake. Could it be a mistake? Was her father ok? was anyone ok? how long would it take to evacuate? What was next? another tower!!! it was so shocking... that's when we knew it wasn't a mistake or accident or amateur pilot. it was real and it was horrible. how could anyone do that? why did they do that? Who did it?? where did they come from? where were they going? millions of thoughts running through our minds, but we couldn't talk, we couldn't walk, we couldn't do anything but sit there in horror, some people crying, some people staring, some people not even watching anymore... that is one day i will NEVER forget. Not only will i not forget what happened, but i will not forget how i felt, what i thought, or how the world stopped.

 

[clown boy]

We were going through our morning as usual when one of uour friends called and practically yelled over the phone "THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN ATTACKED!".
We flipped on the tv, and what followed in our home was this :scared: and this

put together.
Probably the same as may other folks.

 

[reefreak29]

Originally Posted by shogun323
I was at the office watching the events unfold on CNN in the conference room. I remember seeing the footage and saying to myself, "something isnt right, what is a commercial plane doing in downtoen NY". Then the second plane hit. I was glued to the TV for most of the day watching the same footage over and over.
ditto

 

[dragonzim]

I was in my office, about 30 miles from NYC. I'm a little embarrassed to say that my first reaction was a little bit of shockrelief as I had been in one of the towers just a week prior visiting some potential customers of the software firm I was working for. I still have my ID card from that day with the date of Aug 30 or 31 on it. I am one of the fortunate ones here in the NYC area that didnt know anyone that lost their lives on that fateful day. I had found out about 2 weeks later that the company that I was visiting didnt suffer any losses as they were on one of the lower floors.
At the time, my brother in law was working for the Federal Reserve Bank in NYC and he saw the entire event unfold before his eyes, just outside of his office window. The FRB is only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center.

 

[djm]

I work nights and have to get my news fix when I get home every morning. Headline News has always been my drug of choice because they keep it short and sweet. The update broke in with the news that a commercial airliner had crashed into one of the towers and, of course, the question of how such an unfortunate accident could possibly happen was the only angle that was even being discussed. Why would any of us think otherwise?
The cameras were live on scene when the second plane hit. THAT is an image that I will never forget. I doubt that any one single event will ever produce the confluence of emotions that hit me in that one instant. It didn't more than a few seconds before anger or worry or hatred took a back seat. Above all, sorrow is what I felt the most.

 

[fedukeford]

it was just a normal day it third grade..... until i saw a few teachers wheeling some TV's into their rooms talking about the towers getting hit (of course i had NO clue what they were talking about.....

 

[jacknjill]

I remember,
I was sitting in the classroom in 5th grade and i remember thinking, "what is she waiting for?" because we were just waiting there and the teachers were all out in the hall for like 10 minutes. And then the principle made an announcement that they could turn their tvs on. I still remember watching it and not seeing what the big deal was. So what? A plane had crashed. And i saw the second plane crash live. I didnt understand the magnitude of the situation. Im now a sophmore in highschool and i think that only in the last couple years or so have a truly realized what happened.