What were you doing on 9/11?

[Old Fat Kenpoka]

I was on an AA plane flying from San Jose, CA to Paris, France.

I landed in Paris on Sept 11 in the evening (afternoon New York time), went through customs and got into a taxicab. The taxi driver was ranting about going to the ghetto suburbs and killing all the Arabs--I had no idea why he was telling me this or where all the hate came from.

I got to the hotel and turned on the TV. I saw video of the towers collapsing with news commentary in French. I thought "wow a French action film I've never seen". I switched the TV to CNN and saw the towers collapsing, realized it was real and then phoned my wife at home.

The mood was quite different in Europe compared with America...much less intense about the whole thing.

Went out to dinner at a small local restaurant. The restaurant owner comp'd the meal to us when they realized we were Americans. The French were very sympathetic to the Americans at that time and were ready to support us in anything we did.

AA permanently canceled the San Jose <--> Paris route and I was stranded in Europe for 10 days (on the company's expense account ). I chunnelled to London and the English were also very sympathetic to Americans and ready to do anything for us. Many restaurants offered free meals to Americans. The hotel gave me a discount.

I finally got a return ticket from Heathrow. Crowds and Security at Heathrow after 9/11 was overwhelming. They were telling people to queue for tickets 4 hours prior to the flight. Then, we had to wait in a freezing parking garage until it was time for our flight. Security made us completely empty our bags. They confiscated my laser pointer and almost took my pen and pencil set.

It was really good to finally get home.

 

[terryl965]

I was at home watching the news and remembering when the building collapse please Lord do not let my brother, be in there. He died that day and forever he will be missed like alot of other fine folks. When looking back on this event I cannot help but remember what he always told me while growing up, life is so full of happiness it is there in all aspect, except most people cannot find due to there lack of passion. I try to live by those words and I have come to understand what he meant all those years. I hope hearts will heel and memories will remain forever in this great country. The United States of America.

 

[celtic_crippler]

I was at work like a lot of folks. Everything came to a complete stop and everyone gathered around the television in the cafeteria.

I felt sick to my stomache at first, then extremely angry, then horrified at the thought of another world war.

I thought about my friends that were still in the service and how it would affect their lives.

I wondered if I would be called back to duty.

It was a roller coaster of emotion and I hope I never experience anything like that again.

 

[MA-Caver]

I just helped (Ceicei's) kids off to school and borrowed one of their cars to go home and shower/change/whatnot. I just gotten on the freeway and turned on the radio and heard about a jetliner crashing into one of the twin towers. I felt immediately sick to my stomach and had to pull over to open the door and lean out and wait. Nothing happened but the nausea passed and I continued on home and listened to the news.
Where I was living was one of those big screen TV's in the main lobby, right when I walked in I saw the second jet hit the second tower. Stunned I watched until the first replay happened then went on into my apt.
Undressed got in the shower and cried. When that was done, I dressed and headed back out to the car and back over to Ceicei's house. By the time I got THERE I walked in and the boys were home from school and the day's event was playing on their tv... right at the moment the first tower fell. I fell to my knees in disbelief and a conversation I had with an structural engineer friend of mine came back as we talked about what could it take to bring down the WTC because we were talking about the bombing in '93.
I remember trying to explain the day's events to Ceicei's oldest boy and trying to guess the number of people who had died. I said somewhere in the 10's of thousands because I knew that an average of 20K people worked in the buildings on any given workday... and that it was a plain ordinary tuesday... that became anything but.

Later I recall I posted a concern on another discussion board... concerned that Arab-Americans and Arab nationals visiting on visas might get rounded up and put into internment camps like the Japanese Americans after the attacks on Pearl Harbor.
I knew that the terrorist were Arabs but I also knew logically that not all Arabs were terrorists.
Thankfully we didn't do that on the same scale... just suspected individuals.

 

[stickarts]

I was home since I had left one job and was starting a new job in another week. I was watching at home on TV as the 2nd plane hit.
I called my friends and family to tell them as I sat in disbelief.

 

[tkd75]

I was on active duty at Ft. Hood. I was the training NCO and had given a physical fitness test at 0630 that morning. Afterwards, we had our weigh-in, and it was nearing 830 central time when I was calculating body-fat content worksheets.

A guy from the S-2 office came in and told me everyone was to be in the battalion classroom at 0900. I remember it was a Tuesday because every Tuesday we had battalion training meetings that I had to attend.

"No training meeting today?" I asked.

"Didn't you hear? Planes crashed into the World Trade Center."

It was chaos for the next few days, obviously. We all went into the classroom where they had set up tvs. Two guys from my company had family on the east coast, and couldn't get in touch with any of them for the first few hours. Both ended up with good news. My one friend had a very close call, though. His dad worked in the first tower, very close to the ground floor. He got out.

Ft. Hood was an open Army post. 9/11 changed that. I actually worked on nort Ft. Hood, where the smaller airfield is. We went established guard posts at the most used entry / exit points for a few months until the more permanant guard shcks were built.

 

[Wild Bill]

I was at Sheppard Air Force Base. I had been out in the middle of nowhere all night guarding the wreckage of a plane crash. I got about an hour of sleep when my supervisor started banging on my door yelling about a terrorist attack and everyone needed to get to the squadron now. I was really groggy and confused. I thought that it was some kind of drill. I started putting on my uniform and turned on the TV just in time to catch video of the second plane hitting the WTC. That is the day I really started to understand the importance of wearing the uniform.

 

[Drac]

I was cutting the lawn when the neighbor told me what had happened..I went inside and saw the second plane hit the towers...

 

[Darksoul]

-I can't believe it has been 7 years. I was in my senior year of college in NY, having decided to spend a semester abroad in Cuernavaca, Mexico, brush up on my spanish, or something. Part of me knew that after college and entering the working world there would be little chance of going overseas. So besides myself, 3 other students and a group from Arizona all flew down to Mexico City and took a bus to Cuernavaca, where we would be staying with host families while we attended classes.

-That was August 31st. Tuesday, Sept. 11th, my roomie and I dragged ourselves out of bed, ate breakfest, downed some coffee, and head to class. John and I were always the first students into the classroom, everyone else seeming to run on Mexican Time, 15-20 minutes after the real time. (John was from Buffalo, myself from Rochester, and I guess as New Yorkers, we were just really obsessed with being on time. Whatever.)

-So we're sitting in the classroom waiting for the teacher and the others to show up when one of the students from Arizona comes in and asks up if we had heard what happened. No, we hadn't. Well, according to this kid, 'a bomb had blown up in the Sears Tower'. John and I looked at eachother, not overly impressed. Well, this kid was like, 'man, don't you care about a building thats in your own state?' John quickly whipped out "The Sears Tower isn't in New York, its in Chicago." The kid looked confused for a second, then said he had meant the Twin Towers.

-A few minutes later the teacher walked in and suggested to Jon and I that we head down to the little cafeteria the school had and check out the T.V. I remember standing there at first indiferent, then pretty numb for the rest of the day. They let us go home early from class. We wern't sure what was going to happen to us, stay in Cuernavaca, go to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, no clue. We stayed, finished out the semester, coming home December 1st.

-I remember watching the news on Sept. 11th, in spanish, at the host family's house. Watching the planes fly into the towers over and over again. They showed it so many times. I watched footage of Bush sitting in that classroom, when the man walked over and whispered in his ear. And I thought, wow, Bush looks like a deer in headlights. Then I remember feeling angry, and that anger has only grown in the last 7 years. But I also remember how good it felt to get home in December, to eat at my favorite diner, to go to my favorite goth club.

-I remember those who lost their lives, and those who serve now. Those that would heal this nation, and those what would keep it torn apart, divided. I remember 9/11, and missing home so badly.


Andrew

 

[Fiendlover]

I was in 5th grade and i was getting ready for school and i saw it on the news but being me I didn't think anything of it. It was just like a car accendent or some other disaster that didn't involve me or anyone I knew so i didn't pay attention. It wasn't until I got to school did I realize how such a big deal it was.

 

[KickingAngel16]

I was in the 5th grade and we were doing the practice writing test. A girl from the class next to us ran in and told us a plane hit the Twin Towers. We turned on the TV and everyone could only stare at the screen in astonishment. We were all shocked at what was going on. Then we saw the people jumping from the buildings... that was when we all got scared.