Where were you

[jimnyc]

I think we've done this almost every year since 9/11. It's interesting to come together and share what we all felt and went through that day. I'm sure emotions were drawn out from those at ground zero, to those thousands of miles away.

I worked in NYC and the building I was at was on 58th and 5th/Madison, well north of ground zero. CBS and their studio was in the lobby of our building. Outside, they had 2 huge TV's, probably like 75 feet apiece/ I was still smoking then, so spent the majority of my days out there. Me and a few friends saw the events unfold on those screens live. All kinds of discussions took place, from regular crashes to terror attacks to full out war. Any planes of any kind, and even helicopters above, had everyone on edge.

We had a quick meeting from our department in IT and they told everyone to hang tight and not leave our floor. We left about 8 seconds later. It took me 30-45 minutes to get my wife on the phone as cell towers were inundated and useless for awhile. I drove in that day, so we met near the parking garage. From there it was about a 4 hour ride out of the city when it normally took about 20 minutes, and about 35 to get home. Just sat in the car more or less speechless, just listening to the radio in shock of what took place.

[Jeff]

I think we've done this almost every year since 9/11. It's interesting to come together and share what we all felt and went through that day. I'm sure emotions were drawn out from those at ground zero, to those thousands of miles away.

I worked in NYC and the building I was at was on 58th and 5th/Madison, well north of ground zero. CBS and their studio was in the lobby of our building. Outside, they had 2 huge TV's, probably like 75 feet apiece/ I was still smoking then, so spent the majority of my days out there. Me and a few friends saw the events unfold on those screens live. All kinds of discussions took place, from regular crashes to terror attacks to full out war. Any planes of any kind, and even helicopters above, had everyone on edge.

We had a quick meeting from our department in IT and they told everyone to hang tight and not leave our floor. We left about 8 seconds later. It took me 30-45 minutes to get my wife on the phone as cell towers were inundated and useless for awhile. I drove in that day, so we met near the parking garage. From there it was about a 4 hour ride out of the city when it normally took about 20 minutes, and about 35 to get home. Just sat in the car more or less speechless, just listening to the radio in shock of what took place.

I was in Lawerenceville GA delivering to a concrete plant, I had walked in to get my paper work signed and they had a TV going in the drivers room, I stood in disbelief for a long time and the guy I was running with said to me look at the date (9/11) it was a horrible day , having family working right in the city and more family just across the river I was worried all day long. My wife was ready to give birth and had to go towards Atlanta for a check up and I made her cancel just in case Atlanta was on the list of these cowards to hit

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

I think we've done this almost every year since 9/11. It's interesting to come together and share what we all felt and went through that day. I'm sure emotions were drawn out from those at ground zero, to those thousands of miles away.

I worked in NYC and the building I was at was on 58th and 5th/Madison, well north of ground zero. CBS and their studio was in the lobby of our building. Outside, they had 2 huge TV's, probably like 75 feet apiece/ I was still smoking then, so spent the majority of my days out there. Me and a few friends saw the events unfold on those screens live. All kinds of discussions took place, from regular crashes to terror attacks to full out war. Any planes of any kind, and even helicopters above, had everyone on edge.

We had a quick meeting from our department in IT and they told everyone to hang tight and not leave our floor. We left about 8 seconds later. It took me 30-45 minutes to get my wife on the phone as cell towers were inundated and useless for awhile. I drove in that day, so we met near the parking garage. From there it was about a 4 hour ride out of the city when it normally took about 20 minutes, and about 35 to get home. Just sat in the car more or less speechless, just listening to the radio in shock of what took place. I was at a party the night before, got drunk(rare occasion) , woke early that morning and my phone rang. Answered it and my oldest brother told me flip on the tv we are being attacked. This was shortly after the first plane hit and he didn't hesitate already knew it was not an accident. He stays on top of politics but damn have tried since I been here to get him to join here. No dice , as he hasn't time to post on message boards. I flipped on the tv and after a couple minutes I decided he was right it was an attack, later when the second plane hit no sane person had any doubt but here is the kicker my brother and I both knew it was muslims! Imagine that , we were saying it as the commentators were speculating -who- who does this? Still on the phone this whole time he was cussing about it more than I was and --he doesn't cuss, hasn't for decades! Had it not been so tragic I would have laughed at him but my mind was on how to find and kill every son of a bitch involved in this cowardly attack. I had no thought of fear rather only thoughts of revenge. In such cases my Indian blood takes over always has. Then later when the true number of victims was revealed I vowed to never forget, never stop reminding people who did that cowardly murdering act. So far , not a single day has went by that I didn't speak about it to at least one person! Americans had better understand those that did this did so following a worldwide campaign to force Islam as the world's only religion and will murder a billion people to achieve that without having an ounce of mercy or remorse! We still face that dedication its over 1400+ years old....think about that..--Tyr

[Kathianne]

I went back to last year's:

I remember that day, clear as a bell. I got to school early, working on lesson plans for conducting a moot court on electoral college. Remember the year. I'd spent the summer in LA, learning about teaching the use of court procedures in classroom.

As I said, got to school around 5:45 am, CST. Did some research and made some power point slides for students, early in the year, but wanted to hit the year running. Around 6:30, thought it time for a cig break, way before kids could be coming. Went out my classroom firedoor, and sat on walkway. The sky was so clear, it took your breath away. I remember thinking, 'in a few weeks the trees are going to turn, but right now, dark green.' It was about 75F and a sweet early morning.

Around 7:30, some of my 7th and 8th graders started knocking on the fire door. They needed help in subjects or were volunteering in library. By 7:45, those that needed 'help' had gone back outside and I was left alone.

Things happened rapidly after that. My friend, now an administrator at a profit school, im'd me saying, "Turn on CNN! Something is happening at WTC!" In all seriousness, I didn't know what WTC meant.

Each of her im's caused my speakers to 'brrriiinnnggg' She knew I had TV access, she didn't. The library kids heard the 'brrriiinnngggs' and were watching the TV I had on. We all watched and listened. At first it was 'small plane' but our eyes said different. Rather quickly, so did those of reporters. Then the second plane hit, my kids went, "Osama bin Laden," I said, "Oh Shit!" Then I turned the TV off and went to find the principal. I told the kids in my room to stay, not go outside.

Found the principal, explained what we'd seen and what was being reported. She ordered all the kids inside the building and came into my room. We turned on the TV again, CNN, and she decided for awhile that all the middle school students would come into my room and watch. So far, so good.

Below 6th grade, no announcements. Well that ended up having the 4th grade teacher putting CNN on her TV, while k-3rd didn't know about the attacks. The students had no background in terrorism to deal with. By 9am the 3rd grade teacher had over 75 emails from parents. There were parents coming to the office to take their children home.

The middle school kids got it, I had done a better job than I thought. We'd discussed both the USS Cole and the destruction of the Buddha images. We'd talked about the Taliban regarding the images and also about ID'ing gays. The 7th graders the year before had drafted a petition to Colin Powell to act regarding both the destruction of the Buddah and id'ing of gays. We asked kids to sign and mailed it off at the end of May, 2001. That was a mini lesson that I sort of forgot, but not the kids. For all the esteem I hold for Colin Powell, he never did respond.

When 9/11 hit, I had 2 kids in HS and 1 in MS. The MS had called my school and said that all students were in the auditorium, watching what was happening. They had teachers explaining what they thought was happening. If anyone wanted to pick up their child, no problem None did.

Pretty much the same as we were doing. Pretty much the same heartbreak. Both my son's school and my own had children of commissioned officers. There was no doubt that their dad's were going to be seeing serious service, unlike what went before. There were 3, none of the marriages survived.

[Larrymc]

I think we've done this almost every year since 9/11. It's interesting to come together and share what we all felt and went through that day. I'm sure emotions were drawn out from those at ground zero, to those thousands of miles away.

I worked in NYC and the building I was at was on 58th and 5th/Madison, well north of ground zero. CBS and their studio was in the lobby of our building. Outside, they had 2 huge TV's, probably like 75 feet apiece/ I was still smoking then, so spent the majority of my days out there. Me and a few friends saw the events unfold on those screens live. All kinds of discussions took place, from regular crashes to terror attacks to full out war. Any planes of any kind, and even helicopters above, had everyone on edge.

We had a quick meeting from our department in IT and they told everyone to hang tight and not leave our floor. We left about 8 seconds later. It took me 30-45 minutes to get my wife on the phone as cell towers were inundated and useless for awhile. I drove in that day, so we met near the parking garage. From there it was about a 4 hour ride out of the city when it normally took about 20 minutes, and about 35 to get home. Just sat in the car more or less speechless, just listening to the radio in shock of what took place.I was hooked up to a kidney dialysis machine at the time, my wife picked me up and we went to a restaurant to watch the news and discussed if we should take the girls out of school or if that would be to frighting for them, we decided to wait and stay glued to the news, a truly unnerving time!!

[Marcus Aurelius]

9/11/2001...

I worked for a company, training people to use our software, via remote desktop sharing (like Webex). I was at my desk, trying to contact the next scheduled appointment, 10:00AM EST, and started getting one of those fast busy signals... the ones you sometimes get when there are technical difficulties or all the lines are tied up.

I gave up and started doing some paperwork, and the announcement came over the PA system about the attack on the twin towers. The client I was calling worked in an office in the south tower, which collapsed at 9:58AM.

A few days later, I found out that the guy I was supposed to train was sick that day and never made it into the office. His co-workers (17 people) were not so lucky.

[Arbo]

I was in the Navy, on shore duty in CT. My 'duty' was aux security force. Had a class that morning, heard the reports, and everything went into high gear. Students sent back the barracks. Run home to get BDU's and report to security. Quite a few people on the security force we covered for as they had lost family in the attack. We spent the next 6 months in a 12 on 12 off rotation, manning the main gate, patrols, patrol boats in the river and the piers, after about 6 months we had guardsmen start coming in so we could get a day off.

[darin]

112 September 2001

Beewding Fah Down?

I was driving near Gorst, WA, along hwy 16 west towards Tacoma when I heard the news. Stunned is too soft of a word. Later that day, back home I wrote this:


There are times in life where we are tempted to raise our fists to the sky and shout “WHY, GOD???” We witness events happen beyond our control, imagination, and fears. We look to make reason out of insanity. We struggle with blame and cause.

Last night, while watching the never-ending broadcasts, they showed what was left of one section of the Pentagon. My thoughts drifted to MAJ Williams, a man I served in the Army with, who left Fort Lewis to work at the Pentagon. I wondered if he was safe. I wondered if his friends and loved ones were alive. I wondered if he was trapped under piles of burning rubble even I sat comfortably on my couch. As I started to cry, I lowered my head, slightly, so as not to disturb my 2 yr old daughter, Alaina. The disguise did not work. From across the living room, Alaina walked over to me and stood by me. She looked up at her mother and asked, “Daddy Cry?” I raised my head, and took her by the hand, bringing her close to me. I told her, “Yes, baby. Daddy is crying” Alaina put her arm around my neck and pulled my head close to her, comforting me with “Daddy, T’okay”.
At this point she looked up at the television to see the images of one of the World Trade Center buildings crash down upon itself. Alaina turned once again to me and said “Uh-Oh! Beewding Fah down?” I answered with, “Yes, love, Building Fall Down. That is why Daddy is crying.”
Alaina “oh Daddy…. T’okay Daddy…. I love yooo”.

With that, she released her hug and started walking towards her bedroom. I asked her if she wanted to watch more of the building. She replied, “Laina want color!” as she wobbled along down the hall to her room.

How refreshing it was to be around Alaina’s innocence, at a time like this. To hear her complete trust that, “everything would be okay”. And that even though the “beewding fah down” Alaina still loves her Daddy. Last night I couldn’t be away from Alaina more than a few minutes. I took solace from Alaina. Something about they way her little pony-tail would flop as she ran through the house helped me escape the horror of yesterday’s events, and find a still small place in my own mind. A place where I could just be 2 again. A place where people weren’t killed, planes were not crashed, and nobody hated anyone.

Alaina saved me last night. And the beauty of it is, she wasn’t even TRYING to. Once more I asked God, “Why? What did I do to ever deserve such a wonderful girl?”



My daughter is 14 years old now. I doubt very much she remembers much if anything about that day, years ago. She probably doesn’t know that one moment in time she changed her Daddy. She’ll probably live the rest of her life not knowing how I became a different person in a small way, because of her, and the events of that day. Sometimes I pray about what happened then. People tell me it’s too late – that God won’t change the past. I believe in God. I believe God can do just about anything. I believe God is not constrained by time. When I pray, I ask God to be with those people who suffered that day. I ask that God would have sent comfort to them – provided them safety or companionship or warmth as they may have felt the cold steel and concrete fall around them. I ask that God hold them in his arms, as they passed on to the next life.

I have a son who has no concept of that day. In the last 11 years my life has had wild swings of 'good' and 'bad' - but through it all I've found strength in the words spoken by my little girl more than a decade ago.

God Bless America

[hjmick]

West coast.

I was getting ready for work. Watching the news as I did so, as is my custom.

I was gobsmacked.

Never made it to work that day...

[DragonStryk72]

I think we've done this almost every year since 9/11. It's interesting to come together and share what we all felt and went through that day. I'm sure emotions were drawn out from those at ground zero, to those thousands of miles away.

I worked in NYC and the building I was at was on 58th and 5th/Madison, well north of ground zero. CBS and their studio was in the lobby of our building. Outside, they had 2 huge TV's, probably like 75 feet apiece/ I was still smoking then, so spent the majority of my days out there. Me and a few friends saw the events unfold on those screens live. All kinds of discussions took place, from regular crashes to terror attacks to full out war. Any planes of any kind, and even helicopters above, had everyone on edge.

We had a quick meeting from our department in IT and they told everyone to hang tight and not leave our floor. We left about 8 seconds later. It took me 30-45 minutes to get my wife on the phone as cell towers were inundated and useless for awhile. I drove in that day, so we met near the parking garage. From there it was about a 4 hour ride out of the city when it normally took about 20 minutes, and about 35 to get home. Just sat in the car more or less speechless, just listening to the radio in shock of what took place.

I was in Williamsburg, about a year after I'd gotten out of the Navy. I learned about it when my fiancee at the time came in and informed me that everyone had been sent home from the Colonial area because there'd been an attack. I turned the TV on just in time to see that clip where they show both towers fall, and I remember how numb I went. Everything went away for a time, because in that instant, I very nearly became an only child. My sister worked in tower 1, while my brother-in-law was doing contract work in tower 2, and my brother used the PATH train to get into the city at the WTC to connect to the subway to the private school was attending. He was actually supposed to meet up with Heather for breakfast that morning, and had been talking about it.

Thankfully, Heather had run late that day, and so had had to cancel the breakfast with Michael, who instead went straight to school. Dorian had finished up the contract and was supposed to go in to pick up his final check, and overslept.

[revelarts]

I saw the 2nd plane hit on tv as I was leaving my office to take my mom to Dr's appointment. At the doctors office we met a guy in the elevator and i told him 2 planes had crashed into the world trade center and we were under attack. he looked at me like i was crazy. ( not the 1st time that's happened)
After dropping mom back home after her appointment, as i drove back to work I listened to the news on the radio and out of nowhere my emotions broke for a minute. And i knew no one there. it surprised me.
As i look back on it, an think of all the death and violence before and after, one thing it confirms to me is that human beings are not really meant to treat each other like Sh#t.
PTSD, shell shock and all our instinctual aversions to death and killing should tell us all something. At least make us more sensitive to our human family and not so quick to deal death and judgement.

[Larrymc]

i was in williamsburg, about a year after i'd gotten out of the navy. I learned about it when my fiancee at the time came in and informed me that everyone had been sent home from the colonial area because there'd been an attack. I turned the tv on just in time to see that clip where they show both towers fall, and i remember how numb i went. Everything went away for a time, because in that instant, i very nearly became an only child. My sister worked in tower 1, while my brother-in-law was doing contract work in tower 2, and my brother used the path train to get into the city at the wtc to connect to the subway to the private school was attending. He was actually supposed to meet up with heather for breakfast that morning, and had been talking about it.

Thankfully, heather had run late that day, and so had had to cancel the breakfast with michael, who instead went straight to school. Dorian had finished up the contract and was supposed to go in to pick up his final check, and overslept."wow"

[DragonStryk72]

"wow"

I drove my fiance and my roommate up the wall, because while they were falling apart around me, I was calmly trying to call my sister, my brother, my dad, then my mom up in Albany, and when I couldn't contact her, I called my friend Jess up in VT to have her call down to my mother and see if she had heard anything. Then I got online and started looking around thinking that Michael might have hopped on.

I contacted those of their friends that I knew, in a sort of methodical list, until eventually, my dad called me in order to let me know that he heard from Heather, and the school called to let him know that they were letting the children go home early due to the goings on. Heather actually walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to get into Manhattan to get to Michael's school and took him with her, since Jersey City was effectively cut off.

I kept moving from task to task, taking the whole things by the numbers, and even sent my buddy Josh out to the Hardees up the road to snag us all lunch while I worked cause I needed to pay attention to what I was doing and wouldn't have time to make a proper lunch.

Its difficult to explain to people that don't have emergency response training, but I grew up being taught to react that way, that the most important thing to do in these scenarios was to not panic, and to take it by the numbers. Everything else just sort of went away, because it wasn't useful to my overarching goal of contacting my family and verifying they were alright.

[Abbey Marie]

I was working from home, and just happened to turn on CNN, right after the first plane hit. Started thinking about people I knew (at least 2) who worked in one of the two buildings. When the second plane hit, and Aaron Brown said it might be pilot error, I started talking to the screen. "Are you an idiot?" At which point I changed the channel to Fox news and never went back.

When the 1st building collapsed, through the disbelief, I started to cry. And couldn't seem to stop. I called my husband to make sure he was ok, and just to make that connection and tell him I loved him.

When reports came in about the plane going down in Pennsylvania, I decided to take my daughter out of school. I thought at that point that we might be under attack all over the country. There is a primal need to gather your family together at such times. I told the school office people she had a dentist appointment. I noticed that there were other moms there, probably for the same reason.

Someone I know worked for Cantor Fitzgerald somewhere between the 101st and 105th floors of one of the Towers. Right at or just above where the plane struck. I hope he died upon impact, and wasn't one of the people who jumped. But we'll never know. Also, my ex-fiance' worked there, but it turned out that he didn't go into his office that day.

[WiccanLiberal]

I was at home. I worked nights at the time and had just come in. I was always a news junkie and had the little TV on in my bedroom as I checked email and such. I had planned to sleep a few hours and then do errands as I had the next night off. I heard the reports about the first impact and turned to watch. I was watching for a few minutes when the second plane veered in. I remember being appalled at the stupidity of the news announcer saying that it was possible the plane was going around for a closer look. It was obvious to me what was happening. I was just dating V4R for about 4-5 months then. I called him knowing he had calls in Manhattan that day. I couldn't reach him. He finally got to a land line to call me later that night. I called my parents and my sisters. My youngest sister was in Vegas on vacation. I woke her up and told her just to turn on the TV. I ended up calling her boyfriend's parents to let them know he was all right as his phone wasn't getting through. My instinct was immediately to connect with the people who mattered to me. At the time, V4R was a volunteer with a local fire department. He got out of Manhattan before the bridges closed down. He got to his fire house and turned right around with a truck load of equipment and went back to help with some of the other volunteers. Don't expect him to share much here. He doesn't talk much about it. I am sure the people who saw the immediate aftermath witnessed things that cannot be described to those who weren't there. As terrible as the news reports were, the immediate reality up close was horrifically worse.

[Voted4Reagan]

http://youtu.be/gPHnadJ-0hE

[aboutime]

Both my wife and I had been scheduled for our annual Physicals. So, we were in the doctor's office, in different rooms when we heard some of the P.A.'s almost moaning.."Oh, no!"

We could hear the radio, which normally was in-house music, and the announcer was describing how a plane had hit the WTC. So, at first. We didn't become excited as I thought about how many people (something like 50 thousand) work in the towers.

We finished our physicals, x-rays, and blood tests and were leaving when we heard a plane had just crashed into the Pentagon.
That almost destroyed both of us....Our oldest son's wife worked for the Marine Corps, and had an office in the Pentagon recently. So...naturally. We thought she might have been there.

As it turned out. After we called our Marine...oldest son. He assured us Our D in L, wasn't working from the Pentagon, and was instead...at another office located at QUANTICO, Va.

Thank God.
Otherwise. For us, as it should be for every American who was alive that day. September 11th should NOT BE FORGOTTEN....like our Pretend President tries to do.