I was at work, walked down the hall from my office & a co-worker listening to the radio told me a plane flew into the WTC, and we were confused how someone could mess up that bad. Minutes later, he told me a 2nd plane hit, we were under attack. We wheeled a TV into a big conference room and watched things unfold. Shortly after lunch we were told to all go home.
I was just walking into my third grade class room. I wouldn't have been as aware and apprehensive to the situation as most third graders but I had just been to New York in July that year visiting my aunt who at the time did not live very far from the world trade centers. I saw them in person so my third grade imagination did not have to work to hard to realize what was going on. I watched the news in another classroom of a 5th grade teacher who was a family friend all day and with my folks that evening.
I was teaching a class full of Sailors straight out of Boot Camp. A Chief came and got me and we all went into the office to watch. Five minutes later the second plane hit; after a couple of minutes, I realized my duties to my class. I walked in and asked if anyone was from NY...thankfully, nobody raised their hand. I said we have just been attacked...we are at war. I will be retiring soon, so it is up to you men to take this war to the SOB's doorstep. I then strongly suggested that my two students from Baharain remain on base for the next two weeks, for fear of retailiation on Arab looking people. The week before 911, I addressed a graduating class and spoke about ENFA Partlet (one of my former outstanding students) who died three decks below the waterline on the USS. Cole. You wont catch me complaining about drones killing the SOB's.
I was in Jackson Hole Wy and had worked the night shift on the mountain the previous night (snow maker). Came home and crashed on the couch with the TV on, I awoke to images of the first tower and a plume of smoke.... In my dreary state it wasn't sinking in, I layed there half asleep gathering my senses as I watched the second plane. Then I fully woke and was in disbelief as the reality of what was happening began to set in. I called my loved ones and gathered with some friends as we continued to watch the days events unfold. Sad sad day, lots of hugging and crying and one of the girls with us had a relative who was lost there, she was ofcourse frantic.... Most definately a day I will never forget, seems like it was just yeaterday hard to believe it has been 12 years
Oh yeah, i forgot to mention. My father was supposed to be on the flight that crashed into the pentagon and his boss was going to be on the flight that crashed into 1 of the towers. They were heading to some convention in LA i think, but at the last minute, they changed the plans and went somewhere else. My father still has the plane ticket. He keeps it in his glass covered book case. I always wonder what things would be like if he would have been on the flight. Would i have joined the military and went to fight the terroists out of anger? If so i would have never met my GF and had the daughter i have. Would i have gone over and been killed in combat? Crazy...
I was still finishing up my first college degree and had the day off work. My wife and I had tickets to watch the taping of "Jerry Springer" in Chicago. They cancelled. The incident was horrific. I for some reason will never forget leaving for class and seeing these huge lines for gas at all gas stations.
well 9/11 is my Bday. I had just gotten off of active duty army, and was living in western PA at the time. i was in the army reserves. i was working at a land surveying company, and i was in the office when a customer came in and said a plane hit the WTC. i called my wife (lol my first wifey) she is a state trooper and told me she couldn't talk that more planes had crashed... and then i heard it come across her state police radio about the shanksville plane just happening. she went out there...I spent the rest of the evening at army reserve armory on guard duty cleaning weapons just in case....then the next day i was finally able to see the footage on tv. just saw a tv show a month or two ago about some of the babies and young children that lost parents/loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, completely mind numbing. I'm So dam proud to be an American...and honored to have defended my country in a war...would do it again in an instant without blinking an eye.
I was in an observation post in the mountains on the Kosovo/Macedonia border stopping weapons smugglers. We got a call on the radio asking if any of us has relatives working in the Pentagon, we said no and no other information came over the radio. On the 14th or 15th we came down from the mountain and finally got to see the news. We were pretty upset that we were already deployed so we couldn't be the first ones sent to deal with these terrorist dirtbags.
I was in 6th grade, and i had no idea anything happened until i got home. Not a word was uttered of it at school.
We were all in the waiting room, waiting for my mother in law to come out of open heart surgery. They just started surgery on her when all the news started flooding in. Good thing the doctors kept their mind on what they were doing. Hutch
I was at Ft Benning for the Basic Noncommissioned Officer Course and we were walking out of the woods from the land navigation course and heard the news on the radio on a truck parked by the bleachers. They loaded us all up and took us back to the common room to see the news, and within an hour the couple of Rangers in the course were headed back to their units to start prepping. Was definitely a game changer for everyone, in particular all of us military folks.
College Freshman. Turned on the t.v. to watch the news with my bowl of cereal and saw the second plane hit. I yelled at my GF to come see what was happening. I went to class and we just watched coverage all day in every class.
I was in college. As I was getting ready, I turned on the TV about 5 minutes before the 2nd plane hit. Watched until my first class started. Made it half way through class before leaving. Watched the news all morning and couldn't take it anymore. I felt so helpless, so lost. I jumped in my car and drove to my cabin in WI. (about 75 min away) I walked in the woods all afternoon, thinking, praying, questioning. After dark I started heading home. I had an image in my head and had to get it out. That night I drew this... It seemed like the only thing I could do at the time. Certainly a day I will never forget.
I was in college. I was brushing my teeth when my RA (next door) stuck his head in the door and said "turn on the news". I had been watching for about 3 minutes when the second plane hit. I walked to class and the professor gave a quick speech saying that there was a "terrible accident" but that things must proceed as normal. I sat through a lecture and when it was over, a grad student came in and read a statement that the towers had collapsed and the Pentagon was damaged.
I was 22 years old at the time and a bartender, server, and acting manager of a restaurant in SW Georgia at that time. My buddy Brian and I were on the way to pick up a whole pig from a meat market that morning. We were picking the pig up to smoke it all day for his girlfriends birthday that evening, we were having a big party. Needless to say our whole attitudes changed when the news came over the radio in his truck. We still ended up sticking to the party plans but it was definitely a different vibe than we wanted.
