Where were you on 9/11?

[the ringo kid]

I had been asleep and just woke up.turned on the TV and had it on: TV Land to watch Hogan's Heroes. I was watching the second episode when i noticed a news-scrawl at the bottom of the screen. I started reading it and then switched to some news channel. Everybody and then some--were in the living room watching.Iremember every time I saw them play the crashing plane and fisrt tower-the angrier I became and decided to leave and drive around to listen to the car radio.

Everywhere I went--I saw the extreme anger on peoples faces. We didnt have many middle-eastern types around here then--but you would still see them.I noticed for at leasta month--I never spotted any outside.

One was listed in the news as being shot by security at a local refinery who had been caught taking photos of the facility and who was dumb enough to pull somekind of a weapon--which turned out to be a knife--and was shot dead. that news was very briefly played in local news.

Forgot to mention,where I was working at at that time,called and told everyone to stay home. I went out and about to watch and see peoples reactions.I remember not near asmany people out and about as usual.

 

[Iggy]

I was leading 11 cattle trucks to the shipping pens on the back side of the ranch. Kept checking the pickup radio as we loaded the cattle.

I was in command of the Univ of WY Army ROTC Brigade and marching them back to the armory when I heard about JFK.. He and I had reviewed the Brigade marching by a couple of months before.. That one knocked me for a loop. 9-11 made me fighting mad.

I guess maybe I'm like an elephant, I still hold a grudge and have to watch myself in certain circumstances.

 

[CajunBass]

I was at home. Had just come home from graveyard shift. Didn't get much sleep that day.

 

[Whitwabit]

I was home, my mother had just arrived the day before from Florida for a visit and we were sitting drinking coffee.

For some unexplained reason I turned the TV on just moments before the channels broke to live coverage where 1 jet had already crashed. The unexplained reason - I never to this day turn the TV on during the day unless its a CUB's game yet I did that day for reasons unknown .

We set watching for the next hours in horror to what was happening and what we had just seen . Was a very sad day !

For those older do you remember where you were when JFK was shot in Dallas ??

 

[Dominus_Lex]

For me it's all about where I was on September 10, 2011, I was catching a flight from FLA to Detroit.... I had been at a rather un-eventful professional conference on Sanibel Island, after several days of rain, no golfing, and little in the way of finding additional clients, my boss at the time announced "Shook, I'm getting the...... out of here are you coming along or driving me to the airport." I jumped at the chance to take off a day early, and armed with nothing more than dumb luck avoided being in the air the next morning. While watching events unfold over coffee and toast in my kitchen is something I will hopefully never do again, it was far better then the stories told by folks who where in the air. To make things even more interesting the folks who did not have morning flights out, found themselves stuck at the hotel, with the additional joy being in the middle of Tropical Storm Gabrielle which made landfall on 09/14/01.

 

[BigBill]

In the caf getting my 9am coffee/cake. Watching the first tower that was hit burn. Figuring it was some sort of accident as the news said at first. Then watching the second plane hit it was no accident. All I said then was put the carriers into the wind and launch the jet fighters.
We're all out of chewing gum and it's time to kick butt.

The garage door to my department inline with the transport planes flight pattern for take offs and landings when they return from the sand box. Those big transports never stopped day and night.

On 9/11 when the commercial flights and air travel was halted the skies over my house was quiet.

 

[labworm]

I was in my driveway washing my car.

One of my neighbors came over and informed me of the first tower being hit.

At first I thought, can't be and then turned on the car radio.

I then went inside and watched the dreadful day on the TV.

 

[11B Lifer]

And our young people responded

Preparing for work-watching news flash-next day called DA to go back on active duty-a useless gesture-But my son and a number of his friends went into the the service over the next couple years-one killed in 2007-IED
My son has had three tours-and the war has lasted long enough that he is now a Major-I'm honored to know many of these young people-heroes of our time-voluntarily answered the call.

 

[Ranger514]

I was working an overnight shift. When I woke up around noon, I turned on the television and learned the news. I was dumbfounded, and my first thought was that it was a hoax. It didn't seem possible. It reminded me of the first time I had been struck dumb by world events, when JFK was assasinated.

 

[finesse_r]

I was thinking that this is but a tiny fraction of what Sherman did to Atlanta.

 

[ohiobuck74]

I was installing a dishwasher. Lying under the home owner's sink he came in the kitchen to have me come watch the news.. when I returned to the house we were remodeling my crew were all watching TV with the home owners. I had NO ISSUE with no work getting done. In fact I joined them at the TV. Wow what a day!

 

[Usmc5811]

Just got done with a night shift and was in bed when when my roommate kept blowing up my cell. Finally answered it and he told me to get up and turn on the tube. Couldn't believe what I was seeing, first tower had been hit and as I was watching the second plane hit. Sad day indeed and knew life would never be the same. Still haunts me when I look at the pic of me and some friends standing in Hoboken, NJ with both towers in the background. Hope my children never have to see something unfold like that, but I doubt it.

 

[Yarddog1]

I was at a truck stop in Dwight, IL. Got back to the truck after eating breakfast and dispatch had sent a message to call home. Called my dad as I headed west and he gave me a running commentary. Found out later that our company had a truck in that part of NYC, no clue about the driver(s) fate.

 

[Diablo982]

Apparently like many others, I first heard about it on the Howard Stern Show while driving to court in Arlington, VA. I was sitting in court with the other officers/detectives, talking about the Twin Towers when someone looked out the window and noticed smoke rising over the city. Moments later we all heard the sirens leaving the court/police building. One of the officers turned on their police radio and found out the Pentagon was just struck. Court adjourned and we all went to the Pentagon to help out.

I was assigned crowd control on the side that got hit. Plenty of smoke and the smell of burning jet fuel. I had a doctor come up offering assistance, but from what we heard on the radio there were far more fatalities than injuries. Cell phone lines were jammed and so was the traffic. The thing that stuck out most was all the misinformation going on during a fluid situation. There was a secondary explosion at the Pentagon and rumor turned it into the Capitol being attacked. At one point we were told an unidentified aircraft was travelling up the Potomac River, and to get everyone back from the building. Well, almost everyone. We had to stay at our posts. We kept getting updates: Five minutes out, one minute out, etc. All of a sudden, I heard a jet engine roaring overhead and looked up expecting the worst. Instead, I saw an F-15 apparently scrambled from Langley AFB!

 

[S42N8]

At my desk in the Pentagon. Let's just say it was a long day, but mine turned out better than for some others.

 

[Squarebutt]

Working outdoors in central MA, and didn't know of the attack for an hour or two. My son was working for a contractor in Manhattan then, remodeling offices and restaurants. He could have been anywhere. We couldn't reach him on his cell all day, finally got a call from him that evening to tell us he was OK.
A friend was in the hospital prepping for bypass surgery and they tossed him out, thinking there would be mass casualties. He and his wife sold their co-op in NYC and moved to the Maryland shore shortly thereafter.

 

[Malpasowildlifer]

I was in college and asleep when my dad called. He told me to turn on the the TV and I did; the second tower had just been struck.

I was a parking officer for the school police department. I was called in and we closed down the campus. We still had football practice that afternoon.

 

[Checkman]

I was working nights and sleeping. My wife came crashing into our bedroom and woke me up. She was crying. By then both the towers had fallen.

 

[GRIZZLYBEAR]

On my way home after working the Night Shift...got the news over the truck radio

 

[policerevolvercollector]

JMy wife & I were on vacation in Old Orchard Beach ME and woke up to the surreal news on TV. We were travelling on Amtrak that trip and had just seen the Towers from the train a few days before. We had changed trains at Penn Station and went on to Boston where rented a car. We already had a sleeper booked to come home to Atlanta on 09/13 and Amtrak never stopped running. I'll never forget the mass of people fleeing from NYC at Penn Station and all of the first hand "near miss" stories we heard on the way home. The Southern Crescent was at capacity.

In Maine, a big topic of conversation was the fact that the terrorists had passed through Portland's airport on the way to NYC.

One thing that stays in my memory is looking out the train window on 09/13 and seeing where the Towers used to be......