Remembering 9/11...what were you doing that day?

[Rich Mac]

I can't believe it has been 9 years since our world change so dramatically.

I was just curious to hear your stories....where were you? What were you doing when you first heard, or saw of the attacks?

Here's my story:

The day before, I spent an hour talking with the PA State Police about kids dealing drugs in my front yard. How did I know? I went out and stole the backpack from one of the punks. It turned out that the backpack was full of drugs and money. To get through this point, I had also videotaped some suspicious transactions in the parking lot across the street and promised the police I would take the tapes to them.

So, on the morning of September 11, 2001 I found myself in my car on the way to the local Pennsylvania State Police barracks. Naturally, I was listening to Howard Stern (broadcast on free radio back then), when Gary jumped into the broadcast to announce that a plane had hit the world trade center. At first, Howard and Robin thought he was messing with them, but they saw the images on tv and everyone realized it was real.

At that point I bailed on Howard and flipped my radio over to KYW, the local Philly news station. They were already broadcasting the coverage from a local NY affiliate and everyone was assuming this was a horrible accident. I was listening to this no longer than 30 seconds when the second plane hit. I will never forget the helpless sound in the female reporter's voice and the burning sensation that swarmed over my face. In an instant, this was no longer an accident, but an attack.

I arrived at the police barracks only minutes later and I found the officers hovered over a TV with the same sense of disbelief that I felt. Although, the TV was behind a wall and I still had not seen a single image of what had happened, I only heard words that described the scene. I didn't stick around, and I rushed home (20 minutes away). When I got home, I finally saw what the rest of the world had been witnessing.

I have so many vivid memories from that day. I had clients in the WTC that I never talked to again. I had a friend in Arlington that felt the impact of the Pentagon attack. I found out later that one of the hijacked planes literally flew over my head.

So, please, tell us your memories of that day, what do you remember most?

[Jim]

I work for a part of the federal government in the DC area, but out in the burbs. Like the rest of the world we heard about events on the news. By mid-day, we were told to go home as all federal gov offices in the DC are were being closed. Picked my daughter up from school and just went home. It was strange because it was so quiet with little traffic on the roads and no planes in the sky at all. In the middle of the afternoon I heard a low-flying jet. Went up on my 2nd story deck and was able to see that it was an F-14, probably out of Pax River NAS. Much relieved to know that the guys with Sidewinders on their launch rails were on the job.

-Jim

[norb]

I was working at Breakaway Games in Hunt Valley, MD. Someone came in and said that something was happening. We tried to get on the news sites, but they were really bogged down. I called home, my wife was watching on TV. They sent us all home to be with our families. I remember looking at the sky and thinking how clear it looked, no plane trails.

I was listening to some radio broadcast and there was a huge traffic jam in DC and people had called in a talked about seeing a plane flying very low over the highway. Guess that's the one that hit the Pentagon.

[Little Powell]

I was going to music college in Boston. I was in the middle of class when a teacher came in the room scared out of her mind.. She kept saying"America is under attack"..

I went back to my apartment to find my wife (girlfriend at the time) watching the news, crying. I remember they were showing footage of the hotel the hijackers stayed at (and there were rumors that some of them might have still been there). That hotel was right down the street from our apartment..

We watched the news the rest of the day in disbelief.

[RDBoles]

It was my schedualed day off from the Post Office and I was swimming at the 'Wave', a community pool. It was about 7am in the morning. The life guard, Amy came over to me as I was getting out of the pool and said a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City.
I lived in and around Manhattan for two years as a missionary for the Mormon Church,from 1969 to 1971.I have been to NYC many times for transfers and days off for recreation. Radio City Music Hall, Times Square,Central Park, 42nd Street, 5th Ave,the Empire State Building, Twin Towers, all were on our lists to visit. Near the end of my mission I was at Eagle Rock in New Jersey looking at the view of New York City, to get a lasting look to remember.
While I drove home I listened to the radio and got up to date info on the attack. My wife was upstairs yelling at me to hurry up and see what was on tv. I got there just as they were showing the second plane hit the other tower. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Even though in all probability I'll never get back to New York, a touchstone has been taken away. I was angry, very angry. A lot of thoughts were racing through my brain, and one of them was, would they take a 53 year old back in the service?
So I spent the whole rest of the day glued to the tv. Watching over and over the the coverage of the attack. I felt so much patriotism welling up in me. I was hoping that we would get back some of the American Patriotic ferver that through the years we some how had lost. President Bush came pretty close to getting it right.
Now it seems we are back in the same kind of funk we were before 911. Being an optimist I think we can get it back again. Hopefully not because of some horrible event. God bless you all my fellow Civil War Buffs and God bless America.

[bafonetto]

That day, as every day, I worked in my hospital. With my colleagues we were called to the emergency room for a car accident occurred not far from us. In the room of our nurses was on television with the sound off for obvious reasons. We have all seen a plane that clashed with one of the skyscrapers. A nurse commented: 'these science fiction films have no limit'. Only at 12 o'clock in the morning, a colleague of ours gave us the news that 'that movie' was real!. 9 years have passed. We must never forget what has happened!. We 'witnesses' to these absurd events, we have an obligation to keep the memory alive for future generations. Some young guys do not know what Auschwitz was, the 'Berlin Wall', have a 'distortion' of history of the last 50 years. We can not allow it!

[DavidAcheson140PVI]

I was visiting my cousin in lower manhattan and went to go see what my cousin did for a living. He worked at the world trade center. So i went with him around 7:30 am and we went up to the observation deck for a half hour before he had to go down to work.Somewhere i have a picture of the south tower from 7:56 am. Well i wanted to take the stairs because i wanted to see how it felt to walk down 110 flights of stairs. How lucky of me. All i can remember after that was the building shaking very violently. We had just past the 78th floor. The air became really smoky. I must have blacked out cause i remember nothing until we were outside.But i do remember fireman carrying me outside. Then going back into The south tower. 5 minutes later it collapsed Then i saw the north tower collapse soon after and many people jumping. It was a horrible day..God bless all those victims. R.I.P

[Kerflumoxed]

I received the first news about 0740 when I turned on my classroom TV. Suspended regular classroom lesson plans and my block classes, each 90 minutes long, spent the day watching and listening to the sad news as it was broadcast.

J
aka Baylor

[Ingles of the 57th]

Actually I just happened to be watching the news on Satellite television right at the very moment it all happened.

I remember watching the second plane going in in real time. The commentator was waffling on and hadn't even noticed it for quite a long period of time before presumably someone tapped him on the shoulder.

As I am retired and able to watch TV in the morning, I knew all about it long before friends in England who still had to work for a living.

How different from the old days when news used to take six weeks to get here in Africa via Union Castle Line ships and stagecoach up through South Africa.

Geoff Laver
aka Ingles of the 57th

[Ingles of the 57th]

Actually I just happened to be watching the news on Satellite television right at the very moment it all happened.

I remember watching the second plane going in in real time. The commentator was waffling on and hadn't even noticed it for quite a long period of time before presumably someone tapped him on the shoulder.

As I am retired and able to watch TV in the morning, I knew all about it long before friends in England who still had to work for a living.

How different from the old days when news used to take six weeks to get here in Africa via Union Castle Line ships and stagecoach up through South Africa.

Geoff Laver
aka Ingles of the 57th