Where were you on September 11th, 2001?

As we get ready to observe the 10th anniversary of one of the worst attacks in our history I thought we might share where we all were on that September day.

I was in my 10th grade chemistry class when I heard the first reports of the attacks in New York. Soon after I was in my JROTC class and my teacher defied the direction from the school by turning on the TV and we watched the news coverage. The schools closed early and I remember going home and staring at the TV for the next several hours. We didn't eat lunch or dinner. I remember the anger and patriotism I felt that day. I remember the sadness and the outrage. But most of all I remember how we came together as neighbors and friends and as a nation. Ten years later we are still the greatest nation on earth! I thank our troops for defending our freedom and I am thankful every day that I live in the United States of America.

"Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It's a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It's also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend- even a friend whose name it never knew."
- President George W. Bush, December 11, 2001

"It's clear for all the world to see- the terrorists who attacked us that September morning are no match for the character of our people, the resilience of our nation, or the endurance of our values"
- President Barack Obama
September 10, 2011

I had just returned from my shift at work and went to sleep. Promptly woke up by my girlfriend's phone call telling me to turn on the TV and get dressed. Shortly after the 2nd tower went down I packed up my military bags and prepped for a mob...I knew it was coming and so did she.

I had just gotten up ( I worked nights at the time ) when the phone rang. It was my wife . When I said hello , she almost screamed that we were under attack and a missile had just hit one of the towers.

I remember thinking , " Oh crap! Nukes! " Then I turned on the news and found out what was really happening. Still a tragic situation and very cowardly on their part.

There were a lot of lives lost that day and I hope they are never forgotten.

I was on my way to a contract job interview in McLean, VA and was sitting at a traffic light in Manassas. I was listening to WTOP (all news) and they had just taken a commercial break before doing their traffic and weather report at 8:48am. They broke the commercial and there was confusion and announcers voice stepping on each other until they pulled it together to report that a plane had hit the world trade center. Very soon, they had a connection with a traffic helicopter which was, I assume, contracted by an affiliate in NYC. The copter was flying around the tower and describing the hole and as soon as I heard this, I knew that it wasn't any private or commuter plane.

The interview was cancelled until the next day and getting home took around 2 1/2 hours. The client company had an upper level manager in the North Tower for a scheduled meeting and he was killed. Also the FBI came to this client maybe a week or so after 9/11 and arrested a man who worked in the building. They had found a car belonging to him which had been left in one of the lots at Dulles airport.

On my way home from work, riding with a co-worker, when his wife called. All we got was that a plane had crashed into the WTC towers before we lost cell reception. When I got home, within a few minutes, we turned the TV on just in time to see the second plane crash into the towers.

My wife and our Filipina maid almost went into hysterics.

Contrary to what I have been told, we saw no celebrating mobs and, in fact, had many, many sincere expressions of condolences from our friends, neighbors, and co-workers, both Muslim and Christian.

I was in Cairo, Egypt, working for an American defense contractor.

I was driving truck, and had just left NYC the night before. The wife called and woke me up, terrified because I had neglected to call her and tell her that I had left NYC.

news and tragedy ruined anniversary

I was at work when I heard the news. When I got home, the wife and I spent the evening glued to the tv. What a way to spend our 19th wedding anniversary. Today is our 29th. But our thoughts and prayers go out to each and every person touched by the tragedy that day.
God Bless America

Started the day at Andrews AFB. My ex worked at Ft. Belvoir and called to tell me what was going on. She told me she saw smoke north which turns out was the Pentagon. Recall started and at the end of the day was up at the Pentagon with a huge amount of our med group. The worst was how helpless we all felt because there wasn't much we could do to help.

I was at work that morning. Our leadman came up and told us to shut the job down and report to the lunchroom. I asked him what the hell? We just got started. He told me a little of what had already transpired. I asked him what spy/espionage novel he was reading? It sounded so far fetched. The crew got together and our supervisor informed us what had happened. We ended up rigging a 30' piece of welding wire as a TV antenna to pick up the only TV stations we could get, Canadian stations from Vancouver. They were just repeating the big 4's feeds from NYC. It blew my mind. We got TV's on in time to see the second tower fall. Unreal.......

Marc

Sitting in one my 11th grade art classes (drawing I think). We turned on the TV at about the same time the 2nd plane hit (or a repeat of it), watching the explosion rise up from the side of the building as the TV's display warmed up. We went to school the whole day, and tried to keep classes as normal as possible, while keeping the TV on in most classes.

I remember thinking at first about the B-25 that crashed into the Empire State Building and how this sort of thing had happened before. But that was a foggy morning and this was anything but. And there were two planes, not one, so it definitely wasn't an accident.

And I remember thinking all day, who could have done this? I didn't know much of anything about any terrorist organizations, but I did hear some other students talking about the Palistine Liberation Organization. I figured it was awfully early to start drawing that conclusion.

7th grade math class. no one would tell us what was going on, we were just told we had to get home fast. I took the bus home and came in the door to see my mom crying with the news on. I had a feeling we were being invaded or something because of the rush to get us out of the school ASAP.

I was sitting in a Fire Station in Annandale getting ready to do street drills, we got a phone call to turn on the TV and got it on to see the second plane go into WTC. We were glued to the TV, watching what was happen in New York when the news cast was interrupted to report the plane into the Pentagon. All of us rushed outside to the roof of the station to see if we could see the smoke from the Pentagon, we realized we needed to get back inside to expect tones to respond just as they were going off. I was the driver of Fairfax Medic 408 (an Annandale Unit), we were dispatched to the Pentagon and were parked in the south parking lot and watched the roof collapse at 30 minutes into the event. I help set up the triage area in the HOV lanes next to the Pentagon for hopeful survivors.

Eating cereal and watching TV~

My wife was pregnant at the time with our twins, and she came in the bedroom, woke me, and told me that I should come watch what is going on on the television. I sat down in front of the the television, and thought at first it was some sort of television program. The reality set in once the second plane hit the towers. Over the following days my blood began to really boil as what occurred was established, and I was permitted time to consider the totality of that circumstances of that day.

To be honest, my blood still f*cking boils. I then ask myself; When does it end, where do I draw the line? I have vented many times over that we should turn half those States into glass, then tap their reserves, and hopefully get oil on the cheap again. Really, something like that isn't practical, and definitely isn't right for the individuals who are in those States staring down the barrel of American, and their own Governments gun every day of their lives.

I was in an high school comparative anatomy and taxonomy class, we heard that something had happened so I rigged the cable TV to intercept UHV with an improvised antenna. Had a fuzzy (it was still the days of analog antenna broadcasts) image with fuzzy sound of the towers with smoke billowing. Later the teacher said she should not have let me rig it up and we shouldn't have watched it for some sensitivity reason bs. First time I've heard antiwar liberals say we needed to glass a region.

I had been out of work for over 3 months, and was spending the first half of each day internet searching for positions, and the second half in-person searching. I saw the breaking news and turned on the TV in time to see the towers fall. I was glued to the TV for a couple of days, and job hunting took a far-distant second.

I remember kicking myself because I had needed to replace my American flag for weeks but hadn't bothered, though there was a flag manufacturer nearby. It was the only way, short of donating money, to show solidarity, so I stood in line for hours to purchase a new flag. The company literally ran out of many models.

On my way to a business appointment.

I got all patriotic for a while.

Then I saw what the terrorists and demagogues in my own government did with the incident.

Now, I'm sick and tired of having "war on terror" this and that shoved down my throat.

Its old news. Very old.

Yes, people died. Yes, say a prayer and feel solemn remembrance for them if you want.

But, enough already of justifying massive expansion in the police-surveillance state, trillions in war, and hundreds of thousands dead--and counting, over a ten-year old incident. Enough already. I've had it. I'm tired of hearing about the "war on terror."

At the time I was 16 years old, in tenth grade, and home schooled. I was late starting school that morning because my grandfather's cadillac was having problems with the starting system. We called a tow truck and when the driver who was also a long-time family friend showed up he told us about the first plane that struck the north tower. After I got back in the house I turned on the tv just seconds before the second plane hit. I told mom I was skipping school and made up the work on saturday. I wanted badly to enlist when I turned 18 but with my heart trouble I could barely make a good security guard.

On a lighter note home school is great. It's the only way to include learning how to load/fire a musket in history class.

On September 11, 2001

I was leading grave side services for the best friend I ever had. It was already the darkest of days for his family and me before the attacks.

I believe it was about 8pm and my family was stuck at home in the middle of a super typhoon (so cat 5 for those that know about typhoons/huricanes) in Okinawa. I think I was playing Diablo II at the time and someone called us and told us to put on the news and the second plane either hit just before we turned on the news or just after. I still remember when they found the home video from the guy in the park of the first plane hitting.