9/11 Where Were You? What Did You Do?

[vooduchkn]

It's been 10 years. Your thoughts on that day and what you did. Post em up!

[vooduchkn]

I was in Groton, CT in a Navy "C" school the morning that it happened. It was our second day in class and we arrived in CT the Friday before and had moved into a house in Norwich and we were basically camping in the house awaiting my household goods. We got dismissed as soon as the first plane was reported and told to go home and await further instruction. I had a 20 minute ride home.

I was glued to my CB in my Dodge on what I thought was a relatively quick trip home. Stopped at the local gun shop on the way home and bought a bunch of .40SW, 5.56, and some .44 REM MAG (my household goods had yet to arrive from Texas, those were the guns we carried up to CT). I only had what was needed for the guns and magazines I had; no extra.

The owner asked me what was up and when I told him, he kinda laughed and said something about young people with a pilots permit and how sad it was sad that they had crashed. I asked him to turn his TV from the weather channel to the news...his demeanor changed instantly and I saw the first footage and was on my way home with a quickness (foot to the floorboard).

Grabbed a set of rabbit ears, some wire and some electrical clips from Radio Shack. The folks at radio shack had no clue what was going on. They still tried to get me to sign up for a Radio Shack credit card (does it ever end?).

I had a portable TV/VCR that we brought up on the trip so my daughter could watch Dora the Explorer and what not on the long drive up from Texas. Took the #2 battery out of my Dodge and rewired it so it would still start. Ripped out the inverter. Went in and had a quick chat with my wife about the situation and why I was home way early. She was playing Diablo 2 (miss that game), the baby was asleep. She went right to the net and started doing research as fast as 56k would allow back then. I took inventory of the food situation and surmised we were good for only two weeks. I rigged up the antenna from my truck on the roof and the rabbit ears to my girls little TV. Took the CB from my rig and set it up. Used a note book and we kept record of comms we thought might be important that were received in case they might become relevant.

About that time I got 2 calls from my classmates asking if they could come over and bug out at my place instead of being stuck on base....they were there within the hour, with supplies (chips, hot sauce, and beer ).

We hung out there for 3 days and phoned in 3 times a day. We stood up a watch and made sure we were safe from the sheep. We went back on the fourth day and began ASF training as they were talking about sending us up to NY to assist just in case. First time I had ever gotten sprayed with OC, MAN that stuff sucks! We never went to NYC, but i still think we would have been ill-prepared.

My downstairs neighbors/landlords (split house) were Paramedics (ex-navy Corpsman, both with time in the desert) and they grabbed everything they could and headed to NYC. We didn't see them or hear from them for a lwhile. The stories they told us when they got back were absolutely horrific and it was obvious that they had encountered some life changing events.

Scary to be 130 miles by road, but only about 90 as the crow flies.

Wont ever forget it, and will never forget what it feels like to be not ready for something like this. Been stockpiling ever since and I will not ever not be prepared again.

I do remember all the honks and "hell yeahs" because of Old Glory flying at the house during, after, and before this event. We were the only folks on the block with the stars and stripes flying. About a month after every one had a flag flying. That flag is probably still is flying at that house. I can recall vividly the trucks, cars, and people carrying American flags.

When do I see that now besides in my garage or in front of my house? Practically never.

How quickly we forget and move on.

This household refuses to do so.

[thekinetic]

I was asleep on the couch in my room, my brother woke me up. All I could think was "there had better be a good reason for waking me up" he flipped on the tv and said "we've been attacked". Needless to say my mouth was agape and I was speechless.

All I could do was watch yet anger was furthest from my mind. I said a silent prayer for all the souls that were dead or about to die. Now i'm not a vengeful man, nor do I believe in damnation (it's very complicated), and though it took me a while to forgive I did eventually even pray for the souls of those who caused it. Believe me it took a lot of forgiveness to do so.

Shortly after I wrote a poem:

The Day Liberty Cried

Two they were
so great and high
as twin gargantuans
that reach up to touch the sky,
the towers that stood
so proud before
would be ill fated
and tied to hearts so sore,
for little we knew
when dawn came that day
that cowardly acts were set
towards those towers in which to slay,
then planes did crash
into those two
and fell they did
like trees that were hewed,
terror it was
to see those twain
crashing down
with ashen rain,
cried I did
and America too
when ash and smoke
blocked skies of blue,
and when ashes fell
and the sun had set
the people spoke as if one voice
we will not forget!

[blacksan]

I was on my way to work listening to the the "Big Show" with John Boy & Billy. John Boy spoke about a plane crashing into one of the towers with a awkward/bewildered tone. When the second plane was reported my heart sank. Several years ago I had the pleasure of standing in one of those towers that had an open floor dedicated to observation and it was an amazing exsperience that I'll never forget.

[Radiac]

I was at work repairing some piece of equipment- I can't remember what it was. One of the ladies up front came in and told us that a plane had flown into one of the towers. We immediately turned on a TV that the A/V guys had to see what was going on.

As we watched the first tower burn and speculated that it must have been an accident we saw the second plane come in. All I could say is "Explicitive,This is no accident"

I'll never forget it.

[ThereIsNoSpoon]

I was in the Navy, underway, en route to Port Hueneme from Pearl. It was before reveille because I was still in my rack. This 1st class Fire Controlman, that I used to call Ar-Kansas... because he was from Missouri also.... and the only thing worse than being from Missouri is being from Arkansas, came through Combat Lower berthing flipping on lights and herding us out of our racks. I said out loud "you son of a bitch.. what the hell is wrong with you". We followed him to the lounge area naturally to either kick his ass or figure out what all of the chaos was about. That's when we saw it. Forty grown men standing around in their skivvies watching the airplanes hit the towers on AFRTS. We were in the middle of the Pacific so we were behind in time. Most of what had transpired had already happen so we were catching up on what happened several hours prior.

We pulled into California some time later and it was on. 4 mounted .50 cal machine guns, 2 mounted M60 machine guns, CIWS manned, 2 onboard shotgun rovers , 2 pier rovers with M14, gate and quarterdeck sentries, sandbags all over the place and sonar lit off every 15 minutes. It was like we were ready for WWIII. I am surprised the Captain let us have Port and STBD watch rotations so that we could have liberty.

I was so pissed off. All I remember is that I really really wanted to kill somebody. And I am not really the killer type.

[VBshooter]

On top of Mt Storm in West Virginia at a fossil plant on an outage,, We were all pretty much in shock and passed any news around the site as fast as we could get it from a good source. TV at the motel was mostly news coverage too.....

[Kreutz]

Ft Hood Texas, I was on CQ duty that day.

The sgt. I was partnered with said to me at about 7:00am when we reported for duty, "It should be a quiet day today", about two and a half hours later all hell broke loose and the base was on lockdown. I will never forget that "It should be a quiet day today". We watched the impacts on TV in the rec room, at that point they were still talking about it being "the worst aircraft accident in US history" when the second one hit.

It was all good though, the sarge was a flaming homosexual who sang show-tunes all day which kept me much amused. As for what I did? Sat around, just like any other CQ shift.

Looking back the irony of locking the base down when the trouble was a thousand miles away, and Ft Hood got slammed by a certain Muslim major years later who strolled right in because he belonged there is amazing.

[OakRidgeStars]

I was on vacation in Kitty Hawk, NC that week. I was out fishing late the night before so I didn't get up until 9am. By the time I turned on the television, the first plane had already hit the tower. I remember watching the second plane hit and realizing that we were under attack.

I don't think I've ever felt that helpless before or since that day. About the only thing we could do was go down to the fire station on Thursday and give blood at the Red Cross Bloodmobile. Needless to say, no one felt much like vacationing after that.

[SHMIV]

I didn't even know what had happened until about 2 o'clock that day, when I got to work. I didn't have a clear picture until about 9 that night.

Damn, what a quick 10 years it has been.

[TScottW99]

I worked off at 0300 that morning so I was in the rack when the planes hit. I woke up and walked into the our living room and the tv was on. I was groggy and thought some movie was on at first. When I finally figured out what was going on I called my wife to check on her.

So hard to believe it's been 10 years.

[hemifan87]

I was in my comp class in high school and we had a fire drill and when we came in the teacher pulled up the news on the overhead and told us there had been an attack class was canceled for the day.

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[dorminWS]

I was at work in my office. My sister called and said “turn on the TV”. I asked her what channel. She said “I don’t think it matters”. I turned on the TV and the first tower was burning. They were saying an airplane hit it. I was remembering that a bomber flew into the Empire State building just after WWII, and thinking that the inevitable HUGE SCREWUP in air traffic control had finally happened; and wondering whether it was human error or a computer crash. Then I watched the second airplane hit the second tower. One of the girls asked. “My God, what’s happening?”. I told them, “Either the world’s largest screwup in air traffic control or a monstrous act of terrorism.” Then the word started coming about The Pentagon. My daughter, fresh out of Va. Tech, had gone with her college roommates to live in Springfield and work at one of those mortgage-mill call centers. I spent the next 2 hours trying to contact her. I passed the rest of the day doing my usual routine to the extent discussing the Big News permitted it. When I got home, my wife was all packed up and ready to leave for Springfield. I was able to get her to wait for the weekend; or at least Friday afternoon. That was in the middle of the week as I recall. I called my daughter every night and begged her to stay away from public transit, night clubs and large crowds. She, assuming the immortality the young take for granted, immediately moved to Crystal Tower; within sight of the still-smoking Pentagon and with a metro line running through the shopping mall in its basement. I did all the worrying for both us us for the next year or so.

[graybeard321]

I was installing new computers on the bottom floor of the Chinn library in Prince William County. One of the Librarians on the top floor screamed, we stopped what we were doing and run to assist her(we were sure someone was trying to kill her) When we got here they were all huddled around the TV, watching the pictures of the burning towers. They send us home shortly after that, I stopped on the way home and bought a new gun and extra ammo.

[Diomed]

... class was canceled for the day.

Must have been nice, I worked a thirteen hour day that day.

[hemifan87]

... class was canceled for the day.

Must have been nice, I worked a thirteen hour day that day.

It was nice in a way (to not have class) but i deff didnt want that kind of thing to be a resan not to have school, besides all i did was go home and watch the news.

[tursiops]

I was working for the Navy and was in Monterey CA for a meeting. I was awakened in my hotel room by a text message on my phone, from my wife at her office in downtown DC. "I'm OK, we are being sent home." I guessed she'd had a fire in the building or something, and took my morning shower. Switched on the TV while I was drying off, and stood there in shock for a while. I called the Navy travel office when all the planes got grounded and asked how I could get home. He said, "I-70." 3 and a half days later I pulled into the Dulles parking lot, having detoured by a certain crash site in PA, and went to the Hertz counter to turn my car in. The guy looked at my contract, punched it into this computer, and said, "Hmmm, 3090 mile." I said "I'll bet you haven't seen one of those in a while!" His response: "You're the fourth guy in here today."

[mamabearCali]

I was at work teaching 2 year olds outside when my boss came out and told me a plane had hit the trade center. Now I was thinking a commuter plane or a small private plane and so I was not concerned at first. I mean those are big towers. Now our preschool was 3 miles (maybe) from Oceana Naval base, so I got a sense that something was very wrong when the planes started taking off like crazy with OMG! real arms on the wings. Still I did not get a full picture of what happened until early that afternoon as I drove back to college and I saw plane after plane landing like mad at the local airport and got a chance to listen to the radio.

Most of my professors cancelled class--except for two of mine that were real jerks. One was a Latin American history class--where he proceeded to tell us that Americans were the real terrorists and that most "terrorists" were Latin American in nature, still trying to get that to jive with history. The other one was Islam class--how interesting that our teacher did not think this was a big deal and that we could just carry on like any class--even though half the class was called back to duty in a hip and a hurry and we had like 4 people in class.

[Batty67]

I slept through it all. Damned insomnia. My wife went to work and our kids were in daycare (my son just started 7th grade...time flies!). I took some excedrin PM or something, woke up around 11 am or so, turned on my computer, and I swear, my home page was MSN hotmail and I saw a picture box for Brittney Spears, and one below that with one of the WTC buildings on fire, I clicked the link, rubbing the sleep/disbelief out of my eyes...the link stalls...and my wife calls. Spent the rest of the afternoon glued to the TV set, of course, and being supremely pissed off.

[dragonzfury050]

I was 14 and in 9th grade at the time, walking into biology class. The TV was on and everyone in the room was glued to it. I gave it a passing glance as I went to my seat and thought "cool, we're watching a movie today" (not uncommon in that class). Then I realized it was the news and that when the second plane hit. It was like it was happening in slow motion.

About a minute later the administration came on the intercom and told the teachers to turn off the TVs and resume class. My teach said f#%$ that you guys have every right to see this. He wasn't the only teacher to think so either. It really was a shock and was the first time that I became aware of the events going on in the world. Been payin attention ever since