Where were you on September 11, 2001?

[TickleCrazy]

A NYC mom's perspective

I was at home after dropping off both my boys at school and heard the news on the radio as it was happening. I watched the TV and prayed. I called all over the place looking for my family and friends. The towers came down on my TV screen. My first instinct was to gather my family together because they are all that matters. I ran to get my kids out of school before it became a mob scene. High in the clear sky flying paper glinted in the sun. I can never again look at a blue sky without seeing that image in my mind. Charred paper and blobs of gray ash fell everywhere. Foul smoke came on the wind and darkened the sky. It felt like the end of the world. At home I closed the windows and functioned as an information clearinghouse all day.

From his window on W. 57 St. my husband saw the second plane hit. He immediately left and was probably on the last train out of Manhattan before subway service was suspended. My mom tried to leave the city later and had to wait for transit to resume. She was safe with my uncle at his store in the Village. By mid-afternoon everyone was accounted for except my sister-in-law who worked in the WTC. Finally at the end of the day we heard from her. She and her friends had stopped for coffee and had gotten to work later than usual, thank God. As they were entering the building the first plane hit and glass and metal rained down. They ran uptown with the ash-covered crowd in the street. Eventually they walked over a bridge and found their way home. My sister lives in Virginia and heard the Pentagon impact 8 miles away. She works in the VA Hospital in DC that had the anthrax.

My neighborhood is full of widows of cops and firemen who were down at the scene and became victims. A whole street was closed to traffic for days and used as a parking lot for the constantly busy funeral home. My husband and I used to work in the financial district and knew many people there who were lost. I remember the magic of those first few days of the aftermath, when we who were alive simply loved each other, helped each other, and thanked God for each other. The outpouring of goodwill and generosity was more moving to me than the horror of destruction. I wondered how long it would be before crime and social evils like road rage would resume. Not long, I see.

 

[Biggles of 266]

Re: when the first plane hit the wtc, i was in my car driving to the gym.

still gets me how 4 guys with box cutters could pull that off. guns i could understand, but box gutters?
steve

I think that if someone has a knife, you assume that they're more likely to use it. Anyone can point a gun, but it would take guts to stick a cold blade into someone.

I woke up in the morning (Australian time) and was about to get in the shower when I heard Triple J radio saying to turn on the TV. Every station had the same pictures. All day at school we sat around discussing what would happen to the world.

 

[ontheverge]

It was third period, on the fourth day of school, in the NJ high school where I teach, and it was a gorgeous sunny day. The principal announced the news and called for a moment of silence on the PA. One of my kids became very upset, as her dad worked in the WTC. The teacher in the room across the hall had a daughter-in-law at the Pentagon. I DID NOT turn on the tv. Because I didn't know exactly what had happened, or the gravity of the situation, I tried to calm my kids, citing the relative benignness of the '93 bombing on the WTC.

I was free the following period...able to take the upset student to the nurse's office. The second I saw a television, I took off to make calls. I have family and friends who lived and worked in that area...but all the lines were jammed. The remainder of the day was spent watching TV with the kids, fielding questions that I could not answer. I didn't know how to explain hatred to 16-year-olds, and still don't.

My colleague's daughter-in-law was evacuated safely. My student's father died, leaving a wife and three kids.

This wound won't heal, as long as there are people alive to remember the unspeakable horror of that day. In a way, I think it's a good thing. This is something we must learn from, and I hope we will continue to do so.

 

[SPOOK]

I was at home in Arlington, Virginia, 2 miles from the Pentagon. I was scanning the sky above; there was a report that another plane was heading to D.C.

A couple of fighter planes screamed overhead; next to my property at Fort Myer, choppers took to the sky. Below me on the interstate, which had become clogged from the Washington, D.C. evacuation, a steady stream of ambulances and firetrucks tried to manuver on their way to the Pentagon. It was surreal. My neighbor rushed out of her house, trying to carry her baby and several suitcases. I know not where she was heading, but the image of her face was sheer terror. She , also, was looking up at the sky.

 

[TickleCrazy]

Re: Re: A NYC mom's perspective

Sometimes it feels like such a NYC thing and it's easy to forget the impact it had on the rest of the country and the world. It's very interesting reading all these posts. Wow, Spook, you really were close there! Must have been horrible. I still look at every plane and wonder if it's going to come down.

...We have to do everything we can in the name of pro-active self defence to stop them ever doing that!

Can we really fully stop them? Aren't they like filthy roaches living in the walls of a clean house? Living and working among us in our free countries which must remain free? It's spooky driving through Moslem areas because there are precious few American flags flying there. There's an Arab-owned convenience store in my neighborhood that's been seen conducting mysterious business in the wee hours. Who knows what they're doing? I think somebody reported them to the authorities and they're being watched. My friend married an Egyptian whose goal seems to be assimilation. But many of his friends here send money back to Egypt and eventually move back there. Some frequent the Jersey City mosque that was involved in the 1993 WTC bombing. Who are these people, really? Another friend's sister lives in Florida near the airfield where the suicide bombers trained. Not long before 9/11 she rode in a taxi driven by an Arab. She didn't like his attitude so told him he ought to change his job if he couldn't be pleasant. According to her story, he said, "You Americans wait and see, you'll get yours." Was he one of those pilots?

I'm a nobody and my friends are nobodies. I'd really like to think I'm overreacting. But it seems that in our daily lives we may have crossed paths with terrorist suspects. Just like when you see a single roach out in the daylight you know there's many more hiding in the darkness. How can we get rid of them all? Don't get me wrong, I'm not defeatist. I have some faith in our intelligence orgs and armed forces. It just seems overwhelming at times. This one's gonna be a really long haul. When I was a kid, if someone would ask what I would do if I were president, I would say, "I don't want to be president."

 

[coolman]

i got in the car at four o clock and i switched on the radio. at first i thought it was some sick joke, then i went home and saw bbc news 24 rolling over and over. then i realised, "fuck me, this is serious." it sounded like something out of the 'red alert 2' computer game. i was apalled.

on a seperate note, yesterday a terrorist was stopped by swedish airport security trying to board a plane to britain with a gun. today it was revealed he was planning to hijack and crash the plane into an american embassy. will we ever be safe in the skies and will we ever stop these bastards?

 

[Tinkerhead414]

I was in school in Massachusetts when It happened. It happened around nine, eastern time, but I really didn't find out the details until about 3:00 that afternoon.

 

[TickleCrazy]

Re: Re: Re: Re: A NYC mom's perspective

We don't know if we can ever fully stop them, but if we don't try with every fibre in our being and with all the resources we have, both personal and nationally; then we WILL regret it.

Agreed. I am struggling to maintain a fair and level head. Sometimes I manage it but sometimes I simply acknowledge my raw feelings. Islam used to be just another faith among many, but it has spawned evil that leveled part of my home town! Fact: Moslems who practice live-and-let-live among "infidels" are apostate according to their Koran. How do we deal with fanatics who are happy to kill themselves and their children in order to kill us? (Where are Kirk and Spock when we need them? 🙂)

I really don't know what to make of the lack of flag flying or what benign business a Moslem store might be conducting after hours. You enlightened me about reasonable possibilities. But still can't imagine why it doesn't matter to them that the overall community is uncomfortable with their presence. They ought to want to allay our fears about them. Acting like it doesn't matter only feeds our fears. Actually NYC is doing pretty well considering that there have not been bias crimes against Moslems here.

 

[avethibaltus]

I was at work in Germany when someone turned on the radio and the news started coming in. I immediately thought that there had to be at least 20,000 people in those buildings but didn't know where the planes had hit or exactly what time it was in NYC.

The thing that disturbed me the most was not what happened but what the result would be, it being clear to me at that time that this was just about as clear a declaration of war as Pearl Harbor had been.

My fears have proven justified and we are indeed at war, fighting an unseen enemy with one of the largest armies in the world in places that we know far too little about. And now Jr. wants to use the momentum to finish the job his dad screwed up.

There are better and more effective ways to take out "problems" than to obliterate them with B-52 strikes and Airborne Brigades but the only one that seems to understand this is our man Colin.

If someone broke into your house and killed your family would you call in an airstrike and obliterate all the houses within a 5 mile radius of his or would you find and punish the bastard?

We should remember where we come from and what we claim to represent as we deal with this situation.

 

[dvnc]

Geez, I'll remember that day for the rest of my existence. I was in California back then, and had gotten up for work. My roommate clued me (he's an avid news-junkie) that someone was systematically attempting attacks on the WTC in Manhattan, on the Pentagon, and that a third flight was diverted, and crashed.

I echo many here, in recalling it as some sort of strange nightmarish dream. I went to work, where my boss was still listening to it in his office. The president o' the company sent us all home, and I got online to find out who was okay. I got lucky, relatively speaking, in that I didn't personally know any of the victims, from the attacks or the subsequent rescue attempts.

That terrorists thought this would do anything but stir a hornet's nest is daft. The US of A, and indeed the world, have shown that tolerance for such will not be given again. There's no longer even a point of evolution for such slime. Get a country, and we'll band up and leave you with a glassine crater.

Who'd have thought that something so evil would band us all together so well?

 

[TickledToDeath]

I was at work in the LaBORatory and did not believe it until a patient actually came in with a video tape of the early morning CNN news report and the footage of the disaster.
I was still in disbelief until I actually took a drive up the Jersey coast and actually saw from accross the Hudson River the devistation with my own eyes 🙁 😡


TTD

 

[TicklingIsLife]

I was in Spanish class, and they were still trying to teach with all this going on. 🙂

 

[elaah]

I was walking out of one of my facilities with my boss, headed for a meeting. The "crazed" computer guy passed me on his way in and said "Hey Donna I think the radio just said that a plane just crashed into the WTC." I just said, "I will turn the radio on and let you you know what happened."

My boss asked what he said, so I told him. We usually drive and talk all the way, trying to get a word in edge wise. We clicked the radio on and didn't even say a word to each other until 20 minutes went by. He asked if I wanted coffee. I don't think I even answered him. We pulled in to get a coffee just after the second plane hit. We walked into the coffee shop and were amazed that no one was talking about it. It was as if we were the only ones that knew. Very eerie..... My boss tapped on the guy in front of us and asked if he had the radio on in his car, and he said he didn't. He told him what happened then the buzz started. I think people were still in shock and just didn't know what to say. We got back in the car to finish our journey~ and as we pulled into the driveway of the next facility, the plane hit the Pentagon.

The meeting was a bunch of contractors and some architects for a Job Meeting on our new "Bio Terrorist Building Generator". (Imagine that ?) The guy in charge of the meeting started talking with a very quiet lull in the room. His right hand man got a cell call and answered his phone. You could see the look in the head guys face as if he was numb to it all, but he was upset that "his" guy took the call. Within a few minutes everyone was getting calls. He recessed the meeting for 15 minutes and said when we returned we all needed to turn the phones off. If there was anything to smile about that day, it was when everyone turned them to vibrate and reconvened the meeting. I was sitting there looking at the faces of the people still getting calls and they were trying to make believe they had them off.

That was a year ago, as we all know, and the new power generator building will be complete in 3 short weeks. Knowing we had a need for a this kind of generator is eerie enough. Knowing we will have to use it is the sad part.

I also have a cop friend in NYC ~ Jo, I can only imagine what it was like there that day ....


Donna

 

[toyou444]

I was at work as usual. At our location I am the only one who regularly listens to the radio. In fact at the time I was listening to a local morning talk show every day...except on 9/11. For some readon the radio was off. Just after the first plane hit our secretary said her sisiter called to tell her a plane had hit the WTC. I just shrugged and said that a plane had hit the Empire State Building once...it was probably an accident. Then I looked outside at how clear the sky was compared to the dreary day before. I flipped on the radio and heard ABC news being broadcast over the FM station. Being an old radio guy and regular news junkie I immediately knew something was very wrong. I worked that whole day until 5p with the radio on and trying to find ways to connect to news sites on the internet. (One time going to CNN's asian sister site to get some photos becasue every other place was jammed.) My wife was sent home because the company she works for has several government contracts and all government offices were shut down. She picked up our daughter from her mother and kept me regularly informed on what was on the television until I could get home. The plane that crashed in PA actually flew over our airspace here and one person called to see if a rumor about a crash at our local airport was true. We are less than a mile from there.

My one overriding thought that night was about our new baby to be. What kind of world was he about to be born into. For the first time in my life I felt unsafe and unable to do anything to protect my family. Sometimes I still have that feeling but I believe that as a people we are stronger now than we were before 9/11 in our resolve to maintain the American way of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

~ toyou

 

[lite]

I was at Dulles Airport

…with my mother and my sister. At approximately 8:45 a.m., we began boarding a United Airlines flight bound for San Francisco, en route to Hawaii. The plane left the terminal promptly at 9:15 a.m. We taxied for what seemed like an unusually long time; then I noticed we were returning to the terminal.

The pilot announced that there had been a security problem at the airport, and that we would have to wait a bit for clearance. A few minutes later, the pilot announced that the flight would be delayed indefinitely, and that we had to exit the plane.

When we entered the airport, people were rushing around frantically, and televisions had been set up everywhere. Airport security personnel were directing people out of the airport, telling everyone they had to leave immediately.

We learned that the World Trade Center had been hit, but we didn’t know yet about the Pentagon attack. Everyone was shuttled to the nearby Capitol Expo Center, and hotel accommodations were made for those who were stranded.

It wasn’t until later that we learned the horrible extent of what had happened. My family and I were fortunate; we didn’t lose any loved ones in the attacks, but, in the words of John Donne, “…any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind....” We were touched by the kindness and consideration of the people we met that day—people from all walks of life, from various countries and cultures, all trying to help one another.

The tragedy affected me in ways that surprised me; things that I had thought were important suddenly seemed trivial. I know that many people suffered in ways I can only imagine, and I have no profound revelations to offer. This is the first time I’ve written about that day; thank you for allowing me this space to share my thoughts.

 

[TicklingIsLife]

 

[JoBelle]

I do remember getting home and calling Jobelle to see if she was okay. Her phone was busy.

Of all things to do when a major catastrophe occurs. 😛 Thanks buddy.I didn't know about this till someone pointed the thread out to me just now. Appreciate it.

Joby

 

[buggs]

I also got online and talked to qbweaver as soon as I got home to see if she hadn't lost anyone. She had just lost her father the summer before and so I was concerned about that. She told me she hadn't and we talked about it for a while. I also talked to Dave in im that day as well. I had also had a long discussion with my roommate about this. Years before I listened to Chuck Harde's "For the People" radio show every day, and he had the author of the book "The Coming Jihad" who had stated that this type of thing will happen to us. He even laid out possible scenarios of what they would do. I dont remeber if hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings was one of them, but it could have been. It was not a question of if but when. All of my friends thought I was a nut and a conspiracy cook. I had listened to teh show and the guy had talked about how the Clinton Administration was labeling the guy a cook, and a racist, and I think he actually lost his house because the Clinton administration was so vehement about destroying him because of what he was warning. Now the guy is considered a formost expert by the C.I.A., and I am told his book is required reading material in the Academy now. Anyway, just more thoughts running through my head of my frustration that day. If only they had listened to him instead of trying to to him in 1995 from telling what his research told him was to be true, there woudl have never been a 9-11 to speak of. "Those who are forewarned are forearmed"