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Where were you when 9/11 happened? (1 Viewer)

Same place I am today.   At work, same office, same desk, different chair.

 
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Working at Bank of America sitting with a couple of clients.

One of my co-workers comes into my office and tells me a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.......then the second plane hit....and it was chaos on my floor in downtown Fort Lauderdale. 

Never forget.

 
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At my office, my wife was flying that morning.  In the air at 8:00 a.m. on their way to Ohio on the company's plane.  It seemed like forever until she could call and let me know she was OK.  They had to land and rented a car to drive twelve hours home.

 
Freshman year of college. First couple weeks in the dorms. Was in the bathroom getting ready for a morning class. Local hard rock shock jock show was on the radio. They were talking about a plane hitting the WTC. We all thought it was a very tasteless bit. 

Walked into my room - roommate had tv news on. Saw the second plane hit live on tv. Will never forget the terrible drop in my stomach. 

 
At home on Long Island. I worked in NYC at the time (but more mid-town) and ironically took the day off to help a friend with some stuff.

Kissed the wife and sent her off to school (teacher) and sat on my bed in my boxers to check out the morning news......then didn't move for 6 more hours.

I called work, they had no idea what was going on so I told them to turn on the radio.

Tried to call my parents who had just moved to Florida and really didn't know exactly where my office was....finally got through after about an hour or so of trying. 

 
I heard about the first plane while driving on I-270 South on my way in to work.  It was odd because I never listened to talk radio in the morning and just happened to be listening to a talk station that was based in NYC.  They thought it was some small plane at the time.

When on got to work I mentioned it to a couple of co-workers and no one had heard anything yet.  About 30 minutes later it was all anyone was talking about as the second plane had hit and people were starting to figure out this wasn't some random accident.

My boss (a lonely, morbidly obese, single workaholic) spent the entire day telling people to get back to work.

 
on my way to work bob and brian sort of mentioned that a small plane had hit the trade towers and then pretty quickly it was news channels breaking in and we all know how it went from there that day changed me a lot because i asked myself there cannot really be that many people who believe that life is so worthless and that there is nothing worth living for except to die and i went through a rough patch after that but then the usa was so together in one place for a while it was pretty awesome actually just one country under the big kahuna from down under upstairs being good to one another of course it wore off but i try to live now in a way that at least i hope encourages everyone to try and get back to that place where we were all together without a horrible tragedy happening to get us there take that to the bank brohans 

 
I was 28 and on heroin. I lived in D.C. I was a political researcher, working downtown, living in Maryland for about $450 a month that I wasn't paying. It was an Office Space apartment, with thin walls and everything. Our plumbing had backed up, flooding the floor below us. We lived in squalor, or as much squalor as one new apt. can manage. 

My landlord woke me up on 9/11. Old vet. Knew I worked in politics and liked me because of my leanings. Told me we'd been attacked. My friend worked at the MCI building across the road from the Pentagon. My friends worked in NY. I worried immediately. It was hours later from the attacks. My roommate had moved, leaving me an old rotary TV and little else. My landlord and I watched on it, clear as a bell, the day as clear as the message sent by Osama Bin Laden. 

There's a story here, I've just yet to write it. Days later, all was quiet. There was a candlelight vigil in the city -- we celebrated and had a night for my MCI friend's 30th birthday. We partied at the most crowded bar in D.C. It was empty that night. There were ten of us and the students from Gallaudet University (the deaf university). I put on Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place." They danced from the vibrations on the floor. The guy from CSIS (no lie) asked me what I thought deaf ##### was like. I, offended, offered up that it was probably like any other.  He then traced the movement of chemical and nuclear weapons to me on a map. I'll remember it to this day. He was non-partisan and crying. It informs my politics even now.  Everything was on the table at that moment, for just a brief period of time.  

I was able to get in touch with friends. One kid from our fraternity had run out of the buildings, covered in soot, a lucky long-distance runner. A young man we had saved from a snowbank one cold night in Upstate NY would not be so lucky again. He is still considered missing in the attacks of 9/11. Nothing was right. We really were under attack, and NY and DC felt it.  

I will never forget. The tanks lining the streets in my city made the city seem small in my heretofore big world. That is all.  

 
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1 Penn Plaza @ 34th & 7th - 23rd Floor

Clear day gave us a perfect view downtown. Everyone rushed to one side of the building to witness the burning hole in tower #1. As the 2nd plane approached I remember saying that is not a small plane/Cessna. When it hit and the windows blew out towards us everyone went running for the exits. I barely made it onto a 9:19 train out of Penn Station. Got to my station on Long Island and everything shut down. Watched both towers come down from TV in living room.

R.I.P. Mr Hetzel

Never forget

 
Junior year of high school, English class. We turned the TV on about 10:25, the 2nd tower collapsed 4 minutes later. I remember thinking it was some type of movie until I saw it collapse. The whole day still seems surreal, and it's a very sobering thought knowing I watched thousands of people die, including seeing people jump.

 
I had just started teaching a college lecture to about 25 kids. Another professor walked in 15 minutes into lecture or so, dire look on her face, said class is cancelled. Set up a tv in the performance area, trying to figure out wtf was going on, and comfort a bunch of 18/19 year olds who were away from home for the first time. Professor who brought me the news was from Long Island, 3 brothers all first responders (2 in the city), was an emotional wreck. Luckily all 3 were ok.

 
On my way to the Pentagon.  :shock:
So was my dad. Got caught up in traffic on his way there that morning.

I was sitting in the locker room in HS, waiting for our athletic conditioning class to start. Heard something on the radio about a plane hitting the WTC and didn't think much of it. Then I remember a few hours later getting to go home for the day. Wasn't sure why we were getting out early for a plan hitting the WTC until I got back in front of the TV and saw everything. Was pretty crazy. Such a weird bus ride home that day.

 
So was my dad. Got caught up in traffic on his way there that morning.

I was sitting in the locker room in HS, waiting for our athletic conditioning class to start. Heard something on the radio about a plane hitting the WTC and didn't think much of it. Then I remember a few hours later getting to go home for the day. Wasn't sure why we were getting out early for a plan hitting the WTC until I got back in front of the TV and saw everything. Was pretty crazy. Such a weird bus ride home that day.
Yep I remember driving home that day around Dulles Airport and people were scared they wouldn't even be able to get home as if there were terrorists on every road in NoVa.  And the skies were eerily quiet as normal noise from planes leaving/arriving at Dulles wasn't there.

 
96th and Riverside Drive, Manhattan. 

I was working from home- so still asleep when I heard all the sirens. sirens are normal here, so the first reaction was that there must be a big accident or fire downtown- and I put the pillow over my head to try to get a few more minutes of sleep.

once I got up, the first plan was to go for a run. the memory I, and most others here will tell you- it was a flat out perfect weather day in NYC. crystal clear blue skies, and temps around 70 with no humidity. turned on our 24 hour local news channel, NY1, to check and see if it was t-shirt or tank-top temperatures and didn't move from the tv for hours once I saw what was happening.

called the gf (now wife) to make sure she was ok... she was at work and could see the towers. then called my parents in CA to tell them that I was ok- waking them up... "that's nice, dear... :confused:  ... ". called my best friend out there who commuted across the golden gate bridge to tell him to stay home... he had already gone so I was talking to his wife. I remember watching the first tower fall (on tv) while talking to her. I remember falling too. and just start bawling/screaming "omg"... friend's wife freaking out because she'd never heard me like that.

I immediately headed to the store to get some things- we had no idea what was going on or if there were going to be more problems. I remember thinking they might go after water supply, so I filled my tub as backup. store was like a rush pre-hurricane... people just grabbing any and everything they could- but at the same time, weirdly conscientious of the other shoppers- making sure the other person didn't really need something they were grabbing (never happens like that here).

walking out of the store, I went up to my bank on Broadway (at 97th) to get cash and the stream of people walking uptown had already begun. subways were out on the west side, so people were just walking home... miles. that was the stangest thing- all these people solemnly marching uptown.

that, and again- perfect day- you coudn't see any sign of the tragedy from uptown. the wind was blowing downtown and across the river towards brooklyn (friends there recalled having creepy office stuff blown onto their buildings and yards) so it was just blue skies and hordes of people marching quietly up broadway. 

a gb used to live in the far west village/soho at the time. we had a bizarre guessing game we'd play- if a tower fell, do you think it was fall as far as his apartment. seemed like it would be close. when I saw that first tower fall while talking to my friends wife- that was what I was thinking... all those neighborhood obliterated as it fell sideways. still dumbfounded (but not conspiracy-wise... I get why they did structurally) at how buildings even across the street survived their fall. 

ugh. 2nd worst day of my life. 

continued T&P to those affected, to our military fighting the fight at home and abroad, and to our brave first responders... so many of whom have illnesses from working on the pile.

 
I had been having nightmares for about a year or two before 9/11 of planes crashing.  In every nightmare I had, I was standing on a hill and I just kept seeing plane after plane fall from the sky.   The Saturday before I was laying in my backyard playing with our dog Spike and I looked up and just watched planes.  On 9/11 I was under a TON of pressure at work to get a project completed, it's stupid now but then it was like all that mattered.  I got to work early that morning, like around 7:30.  I was very focused on finishing that project, even though I never do this, I felt compelled to just stop and look up at that sky and all that I could think was "My God it's a beautiful day. . . I really need to get inside and get work done but I'm going to enjoy this for a moment."  This is Indiana, I think right before that it had been really hot and humid for about a week before.

When I saw the new of the first crash, I was thinking Cessna but then I thought "it's such a clear, gorgeous day, I thought the weatherman said it was crystal clear in New York this morning?"  I couldn't wrap my mind around that plane crashing on such a nice day.  Someone flipped on the news in one of the conference rooms as I walked by I wondered if it was terrorism and that was immediately confirmed as I watched that 2nd plane hit live.  I was immediately angered because I knew who did it, I knew they wanted to finish what they started previously.  I haven't had a plane crash nightmare since.

My wife started a new job that day and I really needed to hear her voice.  I needed to talk to my brother, sisters and Mom as well.  On the way home, I stopped to get fuel and groceries and there was such an eerie calm soberness to everyone.  No music playing, no-one honking horns, no-one seemed angry or annoyed, it was very somber.  I think was difficult for most of us to wrap our minds around it.  I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep that night, just watched news coverage.  

 
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Yep I remember driving home that day around Dulles Airport and people were scared they wouldn't even be able to get home as if there were terrorists on every road in NoVa.  And the skies were eerily quiet as normal noise from planes leaving/arriving at Dulles wasn't there.
It was also just about impossible to get ahold of anyone that day. Cell service was pretty much shot. I don't think we got in touch with my dad until around 12-1pm that afternoon.

 
It was also just about impossible to get ahold of anyone that day. Cell service was pretty much shot. I don't think we got in touch with my dad until around 12-1pm that afternoon.
Yep. Cell service was gone. My friends in New York couldn't respond until a day or two later, IIRC. I just remember not being able to get in touch with my friends that worked and lived around there, deeply worried.

 
Working in the same building I am now here in Colorado. Did my usually morning internet routine which consisted of starting out checking what was going on in here and saw a thread about a plane hitting  the World Trade Tower. Turned on my tv in time to catch the 2nd plane hit live. My building was immediately evacuated. Got a 20 pack on the way home and spent the rest of day glued to the tv. 

 
It was also just about impossible to get ahold of anyone that day. Cell service was pretty much shot. I don't think we got in touch with my dad until around 12-1pm that afternoon.
yeah- when the towers came down in NYC, all cell service was done. I was one of the only people I knew who still didn't have a cell phone at that point. I couldn't get a hold of my gf/wife after that (who had given up using land-line) and as the fogey with a land-line, ended up being the switchboard for a lot of friends' families.

 
yeah- when the towers came down in NYC, all cell service was done. I was one of the only people I knew who still didn't have a cell phone at that point. I couldn't get a hold of my gf/wife after that (who had given up using land-line) and as the fogey with a land-line, ended up being the switchboard for a lot of friends' families.
I was a late adopter, too. My girlfriend happened to be from KC, worked for Sprint, and thus I got essentially free service. Those times are long gone -- there are no pay phones anymore. Landlines should come back as a national security issue.  

 
I was a late adopter, too. My girlfriend happened to be from KC, worked for Sprint, and thus I got essentially free service. Those times are long gone -- there are no pay phones anymore. Landlines should come back as a national security issue.  
my gf (now wife) constantly #####ed at me about not having a phone. for me- I was either at the office, at home, at a job-site or on my way to see her. office and home had phones... job site, I didn't need to be bothered, and on my way to see her... I'm on my way to see her. didn't seem necessary at all to have a cell phone with how I operated at the time. but after 9/11, I got a phone.

 
I was home getting ready to head out when my wife's ex-husband called me to get her a message that he was all right. 

He was supposed to be on one of the flights from BOS to LA but with light traffic got to the airport early enough to catch an earlier flight. 

Talk about your total roll of the dice, your time isn't up scenarios. He has his original boarding pass in a frame in his house. 

To the best of my knowledge, he is the only person that switched off any of the ill fated flights. 

 
It was my first day of training for a part time job at Wal-Mart that I ended up working all 4 years while I was in school. One of the older women who was training me had family in New York that day so we ended up being cut way short on training but we watched most of it unfolding on what couldn't have been more than a 10-inch screen in a Wal-Mart lunch/break room.

 
Freshmen year of high school, in English class when the principal announced over the intercom for every teacher to turn the TV on.  Watched the 2nd plane hit.  We didn't change classes the rest of the day, just sat in the same class, watching news and our teacher trying to explain wtf was going on.

 
I was home getting ready to head out when my wife's ex-husband called me to get her a message that he was all right. 

He was supposed to be on one of the flights from BOS to LA but with light traffic got to the airport early enough to catch an earlier flight. 

Talk about your total roll of the dice, your time isn't up scenarios. He has his original boarding pass in a frame in his house. 

To the best of my knowledge, he is the only person that switched off any of the ill fated flights. 
holy wow. 

did it affect how he's lived his life since?

 
I was the shutdown roving watch for #2 reactor plant on board the USS Nimitz.  We were at the end of our overhaul where we had just replaced both reactor cores.

Other dudes came down to the plant and were telling me what was happening, and I thought they were all in on some bad joke.  I wish that it had been.

We spent the next few days trying to get the ship ready to get underway if we were called upon.  We were still weeks away from our scheduled trip around South America to get back to San Diego home port.  Ultimately, they called in (i think) the Roosevelt to go to NY to support and we were back on schedule to leave for San Diego.  All of our port visits got cancelled due to the attack, and we made it around to Pearl Harbor in 42 days.  (as an aside, I took two more carriers around from Norfolk, VA to San Diego over the next 10 years, and they both took significantly longer) 

Still, that day, well, that day just sucked.

 
Sophomore in high school, second period, beginning of religion class at like 9:25 AM.  The teacher had no first period class so arrived at school during first period and had heard the news on the radio on his drive in, but didn't have any more info other than that a plane had hit the WTC.  Had no idea that it was about to be what it became.

After second period, the principal came over the loudspeaker and announced what had happened.  We still went about classes normally and I really had no idea how serious it was until I got home.  Soccer practice was cancelled, and I still remember the neighborhood was eerily quiet as my friend and I played catch in the yard after the school day ended.  (I just checked last year's 9/11 thread and I posted almost the same thing then....amazing how the day still sticks out in your memory 16 years later).

 
holy wow. 

did it affect how he's lived his life since?
Don't know him that well, but I would say he was visibly shaken in the early going, took a couple years to deal with it, and probably has been a better parent since. He also does more in terms of family trips and outings. However, probably had returned more to normal by now as it's been a while since the tragedies. 

 
I was at work and heard about it from none other than this very site. We found a TV on a cart and watched as the second plane hit. The Internet nearly melted that day. CNN and other news sites were basically down. FBG had a running thread like none I've ever seen.

 
In Hackensack, New Jersey doing law clerk orientation at the courthouse. Could see the smoke. Wife got stuck on upper east side until early evening. She walked across the bridge to get out and catch a bus home.

Our babysitter at the time was from Jordan. When I went to the door to retrieve my child she burst into tears. She was scared a lynch mob was going to be at her door by nightfall.

Incidentally, interviewed for an internship / clerkship at a financial place on the 89th floor of the North Tower. Best job I never got. Often wonder how those folks were affected (IIRC, the plane struck at the mid 90s)

 
I was on terminal leave from the USAF (I was supposed to separate on the 16th but used two weeks of leave to get out early) out of Holloman AFB in New Mexico.  My younger brother was in the Army reserves out of Buckly AFB in Colorado.  He and I had a place rented but had no furniture until the USAF delivered my furniture so we were both staying at my dad's.

I was playing some first person shooter on the computer when someone said to turn on the news.  I did so and saw the first building smoking.  My brother woke up around that time and we both watched as the second plane hit. It was so surreal.  About 45 minutes later the phone rang and the caller ID said Buckly AFB.  I handed the phone to my brother and after saying hello I saw his eyes get big and he said "It's for you".  I immediately thought I'd been recalled but as it turned out, it was the movement office trying to schedule a time to deliver my furniture.  I scheduled a time and then told the girl to stop calling people and turn on the news, she had no idea what was going on.

I ended up not getting recalled.  My brother was a civil engineer and ended up having to go for some cross training in North Dakota before his unit got shipped to Iraq.  They ended up not being able to wait for him to complete his training so he and 6 others got sent home and the rest of his unit went without him.  A few soldiers he was close to didnt come back.  Messed my brother up real bad and he's still not OK today.

 
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Was in midtown Manhattan.  Heard about a plane hitting the tower and thought it was a small plane.  Then saw on the news and heard.  Coworker lost a brother. 

Sister-in-law was late to work at 7 WTC and was looking at the towers.  She was near the towers when they went down.  She keeps the suit she was wearing (covered in dust) in a plastic garment bag in her closet.  Brother-in-law (her husband) works downtown too.  He said he saw a bunch of people jump.  I tear up every time I think of it.

 
Was in midtown Manhattan.  Heard about a plane hitting the tower and thought it was a small plane.  Then saw on the news and heard.  Coworker lost a brother. 

Sister-in-law was late to work at 7 WTC and was looking at the towers.  She was near the towers when they went down.  She keeps the suit she was wearing (covered in dust) in a plastic garment bag in her closet.  Brother-in-law (her husband) works downtown too.  He said he saw a bunch of people jump.  I tear up every time I think of it.
stumbled upon old article about the 200+ jumpers. Just gut wrenching.

 
stumbled upon old article about the 200+ jumpers. Just gut wrenching.
Hell of a decision.  Burn to death or jump out a window, close your eyes and say your prayers.

He said that there were quite a few people who jumped as a group.  Three or four people jumping holding hands.  

 
I'm in my bed in Los Angeles, my radio alarm clock comes on and as usual I hear Tony Bruno's voice. I'm expecting to hear him talk about the MNF game between the Broncos and Giants. Instead his voice is real somber and is describing some odd events that didn't have anything to do with sports. 9/10/2001 was my first day at a new job in a L.A. sckyscraper (2nd tallest building west of the Mississippi). I get ready for work and tell my parents to turn on the TV (I'm still living with them cuz I'd graduated from college a few months prior). We watched the twin towers billowing smoke, then collapse. We were having new copper plumbing installed in our house and the workers all stopped to watch it all happen in our living room. I drove to work, only to have the department managers at the front steps to our building telling us to go home. It was too risky to occupy a 60 story building that day. i went home to watch the rest of the coverage on TV. Awful day.

 
Hell of a decision.  Burn to death or jump out a window, close your eyes and say your prayers.

He said that there were quite a few people who jumped as a group.  Three or four people jumping holding hands.  
Those are my 2 worst fears. Burning and falling to my death. :no:  

 
At my home office. After the first plane hit walked up to my bosses house and saw that a second plane had hit. Knew then it was no accident. Niether of us left his house that day we just were riveted by what was going on and every client cancelled that day. Going forward the business would nearly go under as business just dried up for months 

 
I was at work in downtown Houston in the tallest building in the city. I worked for Morgan Stanley at the time. We turned on the TV after the first plane hit, just in time to see the second plane hit.

After that occurred, we were told by management to evacuate the building. I drove home and spent the day with my one year old son and wife, watching TV and crying. 

Morgan Stanley had thousands of employees in the WTC, most of whom made it out alive because of the the actions of the on site security manager, Rick Rescorla, who had been an Army officer during the Vietnam war and had made contingency plans for the WTC after the 1993 bombing. Even as WTC building management was telling employees to stay put, Rescorla was evacuating Morgan Stanley employees.

Rescorla died at the WTC that day, but his actions that day and his preparations beforehand saved probably thousands of lives.

 
I was at work in downtown Houston in the tallest building in the city. I worked for Morgan Stanley at the time. We turned on the TV after the first plane hit, just in time to see the second plane hit.

After that occurred, we were told by management to evacuate the building. I drove home and spent the day with my one year old son and wife, watching TV and crying. 

Morgan Stanley had thousands of employees in the WTC, most of whom made it out alive because of the the actions of the on site security manager, Rick Rescorla, who had been an Army officer during the Vietnam war and had made contingency plans for the WTC after the 1993 bombing. Even as WTC building management was telling employees to stay put, Rescorla was evacuating Morgan Stanley employees.

Rescorla died at the WTC that day, but his actions that day and his preparations beforehand saved probably thousands of lives.
Read about that guy on Facebook this morning. Had not heard that story before today. Hell of a man. 

 

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