9/11....

[BuddyLee]

Where were you when the attacks ensued?

It was my senior year in high school and I was attending lunch. There was a rumor going around school that we were getting out early for something or another but no one knew for sure what it was. I asked one of the lunch administrators if she knew what was up. She told me that someone had attacked the WTC's and the Pentagon. I thought she was just joking and put it off. When she made a second pass by our table I asked her again and she told me the same thing. Curiosity set in.

The next class was 'Contemporary issues' in there we learned what had happened and that we would get out of school early. Everyone in the class had many questions but little answers. Being that LHS was being renovated at the time we did not have the television equiptment just yet. So my teacher turned on the radio. He said something that stuck with me. 'Back when they bombed Pearl Harbor this was how they heard the news', being the radio.

After we got out of school I quickly turned on the radio in my car to see if anything new developed. Just the same basic news that we would hear for the next few days. I went to my place of work which was Superfresh in leonardtown at the time. I will always remember the customers and the my former employee's reactions. Everyone looked dumbfounded and many were using vulger language saying "We're going to kill all them bastards" and "I hate them all". I headed home afterwards and watched the news into the wee hours of morning to see what would happen next.

 

[CMC122]

I was in my bedroom folding laundry and watching the news. I'll never forget it.

 

[janey83]

Wow...well, it was my 2nd week or so of my freshman year here, and I had just gotten out of computer science. I was leaving the building to go back to my dorm, and I saw a big group of people crowded around the tv in the lobby of the building, but I figured whatever it was, I'd find out when I got back to my room. So I turned on the tv when I got back, and told my roommate what was going on...and right away, I called my mom b/c I knew my dad was on a business trip a few states away. They closed the campus an hour later, and a few kids even cried. They held a vigil with the students that night, and we sat outside holding candles. And I remember wanting to go home so badly, and I couldn't.

 

[K_Jo]

I was at work -- Census Bureau in Suitland, MD -- sitting across from my coworker who said, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." And I kinda laughed and said something like, "No way," and I'm picturing the whole time this little dinky plane that barely made a dent in the building and crumpled when it hit it. (Mrs. Jones had been in NY not long before that and while there, a hang glider or something hit the Statue of Liberty, so I was picturing something like that.) So then coworker says, "Kara, a HUGE airplane hit the World Trade Center," and you can hear people through the partitons talking about it and I sit down and start to get on line and Barbara says, "Oh my God, a plane just hit the other tower." Then it's kind of a blur. I remember hugging Mrs. Jones goodbye, and I think we both took our walking shoes with us, and we headed in different directions. I was living in Port Tobacco at the time. I remember calling my mom and asking if she'd heard from my dad because he was supposed to be going to the Pentagon (he was on the road, heading somewhere else before the Pengtagon). My mom was kind of freaking out so my dad was coming home to get her and then heading up to my brother's house. My s-i-l was home with 2-yr-old twins (my bro was in Delaware on business) and was freaking out and the nanny wanted to get home to her family. So suddenly, I was the calm one in the family! (Interesting roll for me lol.) I made a U-bie and headed to Bethesda, took the nanny home, and went back to keep my s-i-l company. On the way, I tried to call my friend who was an electrician at the Pentagon, to make sure he was OK. I finally got hold of him and he was, but was literally a wall away from where the plane crashed. A lot of guys working with him got hurt. It's funny...I remember what I was wearing that day...Well, my parents got there and my mom kept the kids busy with the s-i-l while my dad and I watched the non-stop coverage on TV. I remember waking up the next morning and, in my morning fog, turning on CNN, trying to figure out if it was a dream.

 

[NAS]

I had just finished feedin my grandson breakfast went into the livingroom to change the tv to cartoons for him and just as i turned the channel the second plane hit i was stunned something i will never forget. My boss lost a nephew in the towers and i will never forget the pain that family went through, Every Sept.11th i light a candle for those lost.

 

[Ken King]

I was actively working Navy aircraft within the operational areas used by Patuxent River. I had to relay the FAA orders to immediately RTB all aircraft due to terrorist activity. It was a very somber moment that will live in my mind forever.

 

[justhangn]

I was sitting at my desk in DC, just across the river from the Pentagon, a friend called and told me that a plane had ran into one of the towers and like K_Jo, I thought that it was a Cessna or some small air craft and "how in the world do you accidentally run into a building that size".......it wasn't until the second plane hit that I thought, "HOLY F, this is NO accident".

The word in the building was for all of us to get into the stairways, I thought, "yeah, I'll be in my car, call me if you need something" and I left..........as I finally got out of the building, I could see the smoke coming off of the Pentagon.

 

[Nickel]

I was at work, and pregnant. I worked at a doctor's office at the time, and we kept a radio on, but real low, and I didn't pay attention to it anyways. It was a day when the doctor wasn't in, but we saw patients for tests that we could perform. We got nothing done, most patients called and said they weren't coming in, and we just sat and listened to the radio while it all unfolded. At the time, my Dad worked in DC, and you couldn't get a phone line for crap, so I just sat at work, waiting. Finally the office manager's husband called and told her "the world is falling apart and you're still seeing patients...let those girls go home". So we left, and I cried the whole way home, for the people who died, for their families and friends, for my baby, who was going to be born into a horrible world. I still remember that feeling...the feeling that you don't know what they're going to do next. The feeling of thinking you're the most powerful nation in the world, and just being broadsided. The feeling when I woke up on the 12th, terrified to turn on the TV, not knowing what had happened overnight. The feeling that my cousin had just enlisted in the Army not days before, and was headed to boot camp within days to become an airborn ranger...it was a horrible time.

And Dustin's on a plane right now...

 

[Nupe2]

Bad TIMES! I was pulling into the garage at work and listening to Howard Stern. They thought that a small plane had accidently crashed into the tower at first...then the realization that this was a lot worse than that. I have the MP3 file of the show. By the time that I got into the office video of the second plane flying into the second tower was on the news. We just watched it in silence not believing that it was real. After that we got word that the pentagon was hit. I could see the smoke from my office.
I called my brother-in-law at the Pentagon but couldn't get him...his office had taken a direct hit. All I can remember is a feeling of helplessness and that this was all something out of a horror movie. I remember thinking as I drove home how incongruous it was that the day was so horrible but the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was as if God said that we shouldn't dispair, He was still there...all we had to do was look up.

I went by my brother-in-law's house just in case they had heard anything...he had just called. He said that he didn't know how he got out of the office and that it was though a fire breathing dragon had just launched a torrent of flame through the office. He was relatively uninjured (physically) but he said he knew that a lot of his coworkers didn't get out (they didn't).

We had a family gathering later that fall and we thanked God that my brother-in-law and so many others survived and prayed for the souls of those who didn't.

Although I've questioned why anyone would hate us so, I don't question that it was a cowardly act and that the criminals that did it should be hunted down and brought to "justice." I know also that this is truly a day that will live with us as long as we all have breath in our bodies. No matter what your politics, no matter what you believe we all should feel that God has blessed America and will continue to bless us in all times good and bad. September 11th should be a day that we all reflect on the promise of the future but never forget the pain of the past.

 

[mainman]

I was also listening to HS at the time. Being that it was the HS show. I thought it was a hoax and immediatly switched to AM 630 WMAL, course than I knew it was real... I was on my way to a hotel in Waldorf to pick up a technician that had flown in from out of town to do some GPS work for us. We watched from the TV in the hotel lobby for a few minutes.

We were supposed to go to breakfast but while in route, the interrupted broadcast was interrupted yet again with news of the Pentagon. I remember feeling sick to my stomach and not wanting to eat...

Ended up going home early to see my kids...

 

[geminigrl]

I was sitting at home on the day of 9/11, and like everyone else had no clue what was going on. My step-mom works in D.C, so I was worried about her. Can't believe it was happening and 3 years later still can't believe it happened.




I'm sitting here listening to the radio, and they are playing stuff from 9/11, and when I hear the little kids talking about their mommies/daddies, I start how sad. We need to find and catch the SOB responsible and make them pay.

God bless America.

 

[janey83]

if I keep reading these, I feel like I'm going to cry...maybe I should've planned a trip home this weekend, but I didn't think about it.

 

[brinanemsmama]

I was sitting in the living room of our apartment with my then 10 month old daughter. I was watching Good Morning America which was unusual because we would normally watch Playhouse Disney at that time. They kept saying that they thought it was a small plane that accidentally hit the tower until the 2nd one hit on live tv. All I could do was sit there and hug my daughter.

 

[newnickname]

I was in class studying steel structures. I remember my professor let us watch TV while he explained the elasticity of steel members.

 

[Wickedwrench]

I was buried under a really foul smelling crab delivery truck, trying not to drop it's transmission on my head when I heard about the first plane. Some freak accident I was told by a co-worker. I walked to the office to check out the TV and was watching the screen when the second one hit. It all hit home what was happening then.

 

[meme]

I was actually on vacation in Washington (State that is.) I was suppose to return on the 12th. Even though I got stuck in Washington for nearly a week, I was thanking God because I did alot of work for my customer at the Pentagon.

Though it's been 3 years, this is something that "we" will never forget.

 

[Kizzy]

I was listening to the radio in my office when the DJ said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, but from the sounds of it, it seems as if it was a small commuter plane. So, I mentioned it to my boss and he went to another room and turned on the TV. After the DJ made the announcement that it was not a small commuter plane but actually a commercial plane, I walked into the room, where the TV was on and watched in horror as a second plane flew into the second tower. I don’t think anyone spoke a word for what seemed like an entire minute then I asked was that a second plane? Nobody answered me, and I asked again was that a second plane? My commander turned at looked at me with a tear in his eye and said yes. I will never forget that day.

I, just like so many others, watched the news for days on end and just cried.

My husband wasn’t home much at all for several weeks after that day. He was assisting in the bagging and tagging of evidence from the Pentagon. Each and every time I got sad about him being gone so much, I reminded myself that many loved ones would never return to their families, including a girl I grew up with and a lady who had her kids in the same daycare as my sons.

 

[BuddyLee]

I forgot to mention that while this was all happening my father was working on a ship in North Carolina. My mother rarely went on these trips with him but she decided to go on this one with my sister in tow. They were gone for a good two weeks and the day it happened I honestly didn't know what to do. I wanted to stay up with my grandparents in Waldorf to feel more security but my parents said it would be better if we (me and my younger brother) stayed home. Scary.

Good posts Nupe2, Nickel, and IM4change.

 

[mAlice]

I've been trying not to think about this today. I'm still not over it. I can't turn on the tv, can't look at this thread, without crying.

I was at work when it happened. We all went into the conference room after the first hit and we saw the second hit on the WTC. Then the Pentagon. It was, and still is, one of those moments that words can't describe.

 

[BuddyLee]

I've been trying not to think about this today. I'm still not over it. I can't turn on the tv, can't look at this thread, without crying.

I was at work when it happened. We all went into the conference room after the first hit and we saw the second hit on the WTC. Then the Pentagon. It was, and still is, one of those moments that words can't describe.

It doesn't matter how many times they show it I get shivers through my body every time they show one of the planes hit the WTC or Pentagon.