Where were you? (9/11)

boatman37

boatman37

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Jun 6, 2015
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pittsburgh
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Please don't make this political.

I had worked 4-12 the night before and was sitting on the couch watching TV. My wife was in the bathroom getting ready for work. Saw the news break when the first plane hit and yelled in to my wife. At that time they still didn't know if it was a commercial plane or a private plane or what. As I was watching I saw the 2nd plane come into view and knew it wasn't an accident. I grabbed my gun and badge and went and picked my kids up from their elementary school. My wife went to work. My mother-in-law was sitting at the dealership signing papers for her new car and my sister-in-law was with her. They left there and went to the middle school and picked up my 2 step-sons.
Flight 93 likely flew right over my house after it made it's u-turn. A few years ago me and my wife went to the Flight 93 memorial. I want to go back again. Very surreal.
 
I was on a solo motorcycle trip from Alabama to California. I spent September 10 at the Grand Canyon, and the morning of 9/11 I headed south out of Flagstaff. I remember thinking it was one of the most beautiful mornings I had ever seen. Pulled into a station to get gas, and there were frantic people talking and I got inside to pay just as the second plane was hitting the tower on TV. Called my Dad back in Alabama and he told me what was happening. Cut short my trip and made it to El Paso by nightfall. Spent the night and headed home on I-10. The border to Mexico was closed, military checkpoints everywhere. Three days to get back to Gulf Shores, watching the flags and banners with patriotic and angry statements unfurled on overpasses all the way back. The most surreal experience I have ever had.
 
That fateful morning, I got up very early to drive to a meeting in downtown Washington DC. I parked in a garage in the Virginia suburbs and took the train in. The meeting was held at the Marriott at 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, just a few short blocks from the White House. I had been on the phone with my Dad as we were discussing the meeting to come. Around 9:00 AM, he told me to find a television. Something was going on. The first plane had hit the tower at 8:46 AM. Things started to get real when we saw armed personnel dressed all in black, stringing yellow "police tape" all along Pennsylvania Avenue. Details were few in the early hours. The best information came from cab drivers coming to and from the hotel. Rumors were flying all around...The White House had been bombed; the bridges and tunnels across the Potomac were destroyed; the Metro had ceased operations. The meeting was cancelled. We all stayed in the conference room glued to the TV. We watched in horror as the second plane struck the South Tower. Tensions grew high when we learned of the Pentagon attack. The room grew silent as we watched the North Tower fall.

Not sure of what was to come, I went to the desk to try to get a room for the night. The hotel was full. Cell service was completely jammed up, I had difficulty reaching my wife. Around 2:00 PM, we had gotten word that the Metro was operational. Determined to get home, I left the hotel to find Pennsylvania Avenue a comeplete ghost town. Descending the stairs to the Metro Station was very unnerving. I was the only person there. Upon reaching the platform, I waited for what seemed like an enternity....in silence....alone. The silence was broken by the gentle rumble of an approaching train. I boarded the car, which I had all to myself. I remember a feeling of relief when we emerged from below ground to the surface tracks. The entire way from downtown to the end of the Orange Line I didn't see a single person, or a single vehicle. It was the same on the drive going west on I-66. I had the road to myself. A very uncanny feeling.

Never Forget.

Jaybeaux
 
I was working at home on Long Island but decided to finish an audio book from the day before.

A friend from Canada called me to tell me that we were under attack.

I turned on the tube just in time to see the second plane hit.

3 friends didn’t come home from work that day. I drove one to the train station with with my then wife so his wife could let their new born son sleep.

That was the day that I decided to move upstate.
 
We were house sitting at my in-laws while they were on a European WW1 and WW2 tour for 10 days. They actually were stuck in France.

I went to work and everyone was in the lunch room watching the TV. The 1st building was on fire. No one in our office had any idea. We thought it may be a screwed up plane that accidentally deviated off course. That was until the 2nd plane hit. Then we saw the Americans jump out of the building and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the office. Afterwards the Towers collapsed…….well, we know what happened in the days too come.

Never forget!

Two years ago as a family we decided to go to the GWB Presidential Library in Dallas. They have a room dedicated to 9/11. I couldn’t handle it, and had to leave. My little one couldn’t really understand how it had impacted me as well as millions of Americans. I find it extremely difficult to watch any of the tribute and memorial shows on TV.

My daughter and I have also visited Thomas Burnett Jr. who is buried at the Fort Snelling National Cemetery in MN during Memorial Day.

God bless the victims and their families of that tragic day. Fly your flags high today.
 
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On 9/11, I happened to be in a meeting at the Navy Annex, where USMC HQ and several Navy organizations were located. The building was just outside Arlington Cemetery and the closest structure to the Pentagon, about 1000 yards or so away. I could have easily been at the Pentagon in the impact area as my company had business there as well.

After the first strike in NY, the meeting attendees drifted off to the hosting Admiral's office which had a TV; the implications of the first plane weren't recognized as yet. I went to another office for an ad hoc phone meeting on a speaker phone which was right by a window. We heard a very loud jet about to go by but thought it was for a funeral fly-over at Arlington as it was common to provide that honor for deceased pilots. Once it went by the window, by the time it registered that it was a passenger jet going the wrong direction, we heard and felt the impact. The building quickly evacuated and the impact area was right in our faces and pretty horrifying. I remember a lot of hysteria from the evacuees who weren't current or former military and hadn't signed up for what was happening. A few of us ran down the hill to help but by the time we got there the fire departments were arriving and quickly took over.

I went back to retrieve my car, which was parked right up against the Arlington Cemetery fence. As has been said earlier, cell phone service was disrupted but I managed to get through to my wife, who luckily was oblivious having not had the TV on. I was also able to track down a civil servant cousin and active duty nephew who were on duty at the Pentagon but OK. I went to the office to start figuring out what to do next. We had contracts across DoD and employees scattered across the country unable to fly back so there was lots to do. The rental car companies were stressed across the country as stranded travelers made one-way rentals to return home. Luckily, we didn't lose any employees in the Pentagon even though some of our offices were in the stricken area, but we did lose colleagues, clients and friends.

I went back to the Pentagon area the next morning. I left around 5AM but it was still a nightmare as there was a security perimeter set up for a couple miles around the Pentagon reservation, which is a pretty big area. There were already missile batteries and other portable defensive gear set up at the Navy Annex overlooking the Pentagon. The rest of that week was a blur. Since we had offices near the Pentagon, we took in some displaced government employees and military for a while. One of my subordinate managers was a Navy reservist and had the grim duty of serving as a Casualty Assistance Officer for one of the families. But mostly I remember the sense of purpose as we geared up to support the GWOT along with our clients. Government employees as well as most military were not allowed to fly commercial for quite a while after air traffic resumed so we, as contractors, traveled much more than before on mostly empty airplanes for several months.

I had been in the Pentagon the week before at a meeting in what turned out to be the impact area. Luckily, that area was the first "wedge" completed in a complete renovation that had started a few years earlier. The new area had much stronger construction and damage The head count of workers was also smaller than normal since workers had been moved out for the renovation but were still in the process of returning. If the plane had been flown into a different wedge or on a different day, the results would likely have been a lot worse.
 
I was working in a precinct just at the foot of the Brooklyn bridge when we heard the call transmitted from central she didn’t seem to understand or believe what she was reading it came over in broken sentences. First thought that came to mind was a cessena size plane had hit the tower.
We went to the roof of the precinct and couldn’t believe the damage we could see the tower easily from there we started to see FDNY trucks fly over the Brooklyn bridge when our Lieutenant called and was pulling us back to our building in Brooklyn to get equipment to respond to the towers.
My unit had some heavy equipment (bobcats,excavators, etc.) we loaded up 3 machines , generators whatever we thought we’d need onto our NYPD flatbed tractor trailer I jumped in the tractor with my buddy and we led the convoy of 12 or so trucks, vans and our dump truck all loaded with cops.
As we made our way through the battery tunnel we got in as far as we could so we left the truck and unloaded the machines our guys sat on the roof inside the buckets and walked to the towers from there. The towers had fallen before we arrived the ash was so deep it was like a blizzard of snow almost knee deep.
I ended up working with a FDNY Capt all day who asked me to push a car out of the way with the bobcat I was in we stayed together for 8 hours or more.
We ended up clearing a path to the building next to the towers so we could use it as a morgue. At the end of day one he turned to me shook my hand and said thanks and be careful brother and walked away.
we slept in the lobby of a building after the first night then we moved to an unused precinct where we had cots.
The site was silenced by everyone yelling “Quiet” as they heard noises in the rubble and where trying to locate them all machines would stop in their tracks it was eerie quiet as we all froze in place.
I can smell the ASH as I write this and i know anyone who was there can do the same.
Our unit spent the next few weeks setting up lights , electricity, diesel day and night
20 Years later the day is as clear as it was that September morning.
As some know my wife lost her husband that day in the North tower FDNY. So our home has been very somber this week as we get ready to celebrate his life with family, friends, his kids (our kids) flew home from out of state and college
Please Never forget all those who never got to hug their children that day.
God bless and God Bless the United States of America.
 
Havana Shamrock said:
I was working in a precinct just at the foot of the Brooklyn bridge when we heard the call transmitted from central she didn’t seem to understand or believe what she was reading it came over in broken sentences. First thought that came to mind was a cessena size plane had hit the tower.
We went to the roof of the precinct and couldn’t believe the damage we could see the tower easily from there we started to see FDNY trucks fly over the Brooklyn bridge when our Lieutenant called and was pulling us back to our building in Brooklyn to get equipment to respond to the towers.
My unit had some heavy equipment (bobcats,excavators, etc.) we loaded up 3 machines , generators whatever we thought we’d need onto our NYPD flatbed tractor trailer I jumped in the tractor with my buddy and we led the convoy of 12 or so trucks, vans and our dump truck all loaded with cops.
As we made our way through the battery tunnel we got in as far as we could so we left the truck and unloaded the machines our guys sat on the roof inside the buckets and walked to the towers from there. The towers had fallen before we arrived the ash was so deep it was like a blizzard of snow almost knee deep.
I ended up working with a FDNY Capt all day who asked me to push a car out of the way with the bobcat I was in we stayed together for 8 hours or more.
We ended up clearing a path to the building next to the towers so we could use it as a morgue. At the end of day one he turned to me shook my hand and said thanks and be careful brother and walked away.
we slept in the lobby of a building after the first night then we moved to an unused precinct where we had cots.
The site was silenced by everyone yelling “Quiet” as they heard noises in the rubble and where trying to locate them all machines would stop in their tracks it was eerie quiet as we all froze in place.
I can smell the ASH as I write this and i know anyone who was there can do the same.
Our unit spent the next few weeks setting up lights , electricity, diesel day and night
20 Years later the day is as clear as it was that September morning.
As some know my wife lost her husband that day in the North tower FDNY. So our home has been very somber this week as we get ready to celebrate his life with family, friends, his kids (our kids) flew home from out of state and college
Please Never forget all those who never got to hug their children that day.
God bless and God Bless the United States of America.
Click to expand...
Thank you for all you did. I have watched all of the 9/11 documentaries and I cannot imagine the emotions for you first responders that day and since. Hearing first hand from one of the long time CSR makes it even more real for those that were not there.
 
I was still sleeping out here on the west coast. My wife was teaching at the FDIC HQ in DC. First I heard of the attack was when driving to work and listening to local Talk radio. By the time I got to my Hangar, the FAA had shut down the air traffic, nation wide. My wife's office called me to let me know she was ok, she had to be in Boston the next morning to teach another seminar and she got the last seat out of DC on a train, she passed by the Pentagon and NYC and saw the plumes of smoke from both sites. Been engrained in her mind ever since. It was two weeks before she was able to get a flight back home. I remember having a couple of aircraft in the shop at the time but when they were finished I sent my guys home for a few days since there was no way for our customers to get their planes to us for scheduled work. I remember the local pipe line patrol guys were given waivers to patrol the fuel and gas lines and they remarked how odd it felt to fly around SF Bay with no other traffic in the air for two weeks.
I made the decision that week to sell the place in town and move onto the family ranch out side of town. A paid for piece of Ca real estate with space to grow and raise what ever food we may need because the future really did seem that bleek to me.
Never Forget and God save us if we ever let our guard down. As @ Boatman37 requested I'll leave getting political to a different but inevitable thread.
Carpe Diem
 
Almost stupid saying my story, but its not about that day, its about some time later. I don't even remember how many months later.

I was working on a major securities transaction (a corporate takeover, along with a public offering via prospectus). I flew to NYC late one night, cab straight to the hotel. Got up the next AM early and walked a few blocks to the large law firm where all of us were going to be almost 24/7 for the next few days.

It was very strange going into the building with the "super security" that was still so new that they were pretty disorganized. We pretty much worked 20hr days for the next few days. I would walk back late at night to the hotel, get a few hours sleep, and then walk right back to the law firm a few hours later before dawn. So we wrap things up late at night at the firm, and I walk back to the hotel, and booked my flight back to Toronto for the first flight out in the AM.

At about 5:00AM I wake up to get ready to go, and, for the first time since I arrived, I open the curtains to look outside. I was on the 19th floor, looking over and down into the pit from the trade center. I had no idea before that, that I was literally across the street from ground zero.

The wave of emotion that came over me in that instant was profound. Probably partly due to exhaustion, but I broke into sobbing tears. The sheer scale of what had happened hit me like a Freightliner in an instant. The equipment still digging down looked so very small and the humans even smaller. The feeling I was looking at a mass grave site was overwhelming. I can feel the emotion I felt at that instant, even now as I type this maybe 19.5 years later.

You Americans have so much to be proud of. And that day, the world was arm in arm with you in your grief. God Bless America.
 
As with almost all Americans, I remember vividly where I was that day. I was traveling on business to conduct a series of staff meetings, along with one other person from our HR department. We had flown into Boston on 9/9 and had meetings both that day, and the next. One up in Exeter and the other down in Mansfield MA. We flew Boston to Miami the night of the 10th for a staff meeting in Boca the morning of 9/11. We were behind closed doors probably until around 10am or so when we finally started hearing that something was going on and then found a TV and joined our brethren in shock and disbelief as the reality of the day became apparent
Fortunately we already had a rental car and were able to keep it to drive home to Chicago. A very surreal trip home. We overnighted at a Hyatt, I think in TN with a very eerie feeling, not really feeling safe anywhere.
This is the part that still raises the hair on my arms when I think about it. We had one more meeting to conduct which was in Long Beach CA. My travel colleague and i had discussed splitting those last two sets of meetings, she would go to Boca and I would go to LA from Boston and conduct that meeting as we had a small number of staff at both of those locations. We ultimately decided to continue together and we would do Long Beach the following week. As our company used American Airlines at the time I most certainly would have been on AA flight 11 from Boston to LA the morning of 9/11 as that was the schedule I had looked at. That one decision literally saved my life. There but for the grace of God go i.
It makes me think of all those people who were not as lucky as me and lost their lives that day
 
Since it was 2001, I was not on an app, but on a phone with Delta Airlines, planning my anniversary trip through Europe along with some business meetings to begin on the 14th or so of September. As we were talking through the itinerary, the rep on the phone, I'll guess a guy in his 50's or better, asked me to hang on for a minute. He came back and it was very noisy on his end. He asked me if I was watching TV, to which I replied No. He said, "I have to hang up. We are putting every plane down right now. Someone just pulled the tail of the tiger. Go find a TV".
Ironically, I had spent the evening before with Dewey Bunnell at an America concert, along with Hall and Oates. He told me later that they were flying to South America that morning, on American Airlines, and were turned around for obvious reasons.
NEVER FORGET.
 
In a bar drinking beers with a buddy watching tv. Ya it was 9am, dont judge me.
As i recall, we sat in our local bar til they closed at 11pm, then went across the street to another bar, where they allowed the local folks they knew to stay until the barmaid got to tired, left at 6am, sat across the street on curb blocks drinking bad coffee at 7-11, til we sobered up enuff to drive home, was a long day. took the day off work. He died recently, Baldy Lou, got rest his soul. He was bald, hence the name. Next time you drink a toast, have one to Baldy Lou.
 
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Sophomore year of high school, in US History class.

Very interesting to read where we all were and how differently we were impacted.

@Pirate Lady can't say I'm surprised! Lol
 
I was a financial advisor and was up in the morning getting ready for work. I had the TV on, watching early financial reports. They broke away from the financial news and switched over to the breaking news about the towers.

The first jet had hit the tower and as I looked at the big picture of that I knew it was an attack. Clear skies, no wind, no clouds, etc, that could not have been anything else. I called my wife (she also was getting ready for work) and told her to come watch the TV. Both of us were just awestruck over what we were seeing.

I finished getting ready, jumped in the car and hustled to work. When I got there 3 or 4 others were already there. We grabbed coffee and settled in the conference room to watch.

The markets started dropping like rocks so I knew I was going to be on the phone all day reassuring clients that this drop would soon end and the markets would recover. I only had one client who insisted I liquidate everything in his account. I did and he took a horrible loss. The markets recovered a few days later and he wanted me to buy everything back. He took a horrible loss (a few hundred boat bucks) but at least he felt safe.

My two sons were supposed to fly to Michigan that day. Their flight was canceled but they were able to fly 2 or 3 days later.

I'll never forget the emotions of that day. Everyone was in a somber mood and very morose. It felt good that evening to hug my wife when I got home.
 
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