9/11

[sirveyr]

I was laying out column lines for a new building in Ann Arbor, MI. It was a Babies 'R Us to be precise. I heard about the first plane hitting the towers live on the Howard Stern Show. Howard ended up staying on the air nearly all day, IIRC.

[Chris Keen]

I was at work, in the tech area, when we heard about the 1st plane hitting the tower on the radio. We all went into the repair dept. to watch it on the tv. I couldn't believe my eyes ....... we all thought this had to be a joke, or a dream, or something, but it just couldn't be true. We all just stood there, and watched in amazement ..... as the 2nd plane hit the other tower ........

Never have I felt so completely helpless ....... and deeply saddened....... and angry all at the same time.

Edited September 10, 2011 by Chris Keen

[hvsmith]

I was sitting in 1st class on a US Air flight from Pittsburgh to Orlando, landed 20 minutes early, didn't know a thing until I turned my cell phone on,, had a panic message from my father to call him at once, I thought something may have happened to my mom, & he was releaved to hear my voice - something I'll always remember.

[steel1212]

I was working my way through college at a animal clinic in frankfort. I was currently in surgery helping the surgeon when we heard the news from the break room. We finished up and the clinic pretty much shut down as we watched in horror.

[Sarge]

I was delivering fuel at the time. Heard it on the radio and was close enough to home that I stopped by to check out the TV news. Saddly, just like Chris, as soon as I turned it on the second plane came into view and hit the tower. At that instant I knew things were never going to be the same for America again. Ever.

[DWFAN]

Sitting in the commons/cafeteria at college.. Thought it was fake until the second plane hit.

[JThompson]

It was the strangest thing... I had just went to sleep a couple hours before the first plane hit. I woke, for what reason I didn't know, and turned on the TV. It was less than 5 mins after the first plane hit. Needless to say, 2 hrs was all I got that day.

JT

Edited September 10, 2011 by JThompson

[CSEMARTIN]

I had just left NYC. I was there helping my brother move.

I saw the WTC for the first and only time just a few days before the attack.

[CZinSC]

At the office, in northern NJ, watching it on TV in one of the VP's offices. After the second plane hit, I truly understood what the word surreal really means.

By the way, early tonight I finished getting my range bag ready for tomorrow's GA State match. Figured it was fitting to velcro the patch on my bag. A friend of mine was one of the 343, Tom Foley.

[dcarter]

My cel phone company had been bought out and I was in a long line of people trying to get there new phone from the new company. While standing in line I noticed on the TV's in the lobby what was going on. I got out of line and went home to watch what was going on. My wife's aunt was calling wondering if I had heard from my wife who was at a meeting for her company. My wife's hotel was across the street from the Pentagon. The power lines and phone lines to her hotel were cut by the plane just prior to it hitting the building. It took her several hours to find a phone to make a call with. She and her co-workers spent the next 24 hours trying to rent a van to bring them back to Ohio. My wife told me that there was some type of government building across from her hotel that they evacuated. She was surrounded by military personnel watching the news.

[Nik Habicht]

Asleep. I was working second shifts at the paper at the time, and our routine was to go to bed at 4 a.m. and get up about Noon. Woke up, rolled downstairs and put coffee on, and then heard my pager buzzing --work issued us text pagers at the time. Multiple messages from my boss, asking us all to try and check in frequently, as phone lines were problematic, and no one knew if we were at war.....

Spent the afternoon at the Princeton Junction, N.J. train station photographing business travelers getting off the train and reuniting with their loved ones.....

[RDunn]

i was in my room getting ready to go to class at college. then my brother ran into my room and got me. he was like " you have tocome watch the television, a plane just flew into a building" at that time only one plane had hit. then we watched the second one hit live on tv. then every channel on the televison went crazy.

[JakeMartens]

At home, my youngest daughter Isabel had been born on 9/5, I was going back to work that day from taking the week off after her birth.

We had a Sears repair man there at the house, the washer had to be repaired, and we had the Today show on that morning.

He just stood there, while I was sitting on the coffee table and my wife was on the sofa with our new child watching them report on the first plane hitting as the second came slamming into the other tower.

There are no words to explain the feelings

Just knew that when the second one hit it was no accident and that this was an attack of somekind.

[Matt Cheely]

Playing my Trombone in High School Band class. Next period was Physics and we sat watching the news the whole time, watched the 2nd plane go into the tower live.

[3quartertime]

Hard to believe it's been ten years. They always say you never forget days like that. I think most of us have done our best to move forward. Not let fear or anger live on. I remember the day pretty well, but it's grown more fuzzy over the years. For the first few years when I would see the videos or photos I'd get super angry. Now it's just a very dark sadness. So many things changed that day...

I was asleep when the first plane hit the tower. Working third shift I had just gone to bed. My ex wife was at my house that morning and woke me up. A friend had called. I got up and focused just before the second plane hit the tower. None of my family lived or had any reason to be in the areas, but we still contacted each other.

My shift started at about 10:30 that night. I was an aircraft mechanic for United Airlines at their heavy maintenance base at the Indianapolis International Airport. From getting out of the car the aura was surreal. There were probably 500 employees there that night. The normal start of the shift was to gather in a smallish break room adjacent to the hangar you worked in for a briefing. That night with 30 or so people sitting waiting for the supervisor to come it was kind of eerie. On a regular night the room would be filled with two dozen conversations. That night you seriously could have dropped a feather and hear it impact. When the supervisor came in the first thing he did was announce that this was not a work night. Anyone that wanted to go home was free to leave with pay. Not a person moved. He then read off the list of crew members that were lost. United was filled with families at that time. Fathers and mothers and the entire family would work for the company. As he read the list a few guys left the room. Lots of guys that just the day before I would have swore didn't have a heart were wiping away tears. It was absolutely a moment that I will never ever forget.

The only personal attachment for me was the United airplane that crashed in the field had just been in for a maintenance visit. I spent roughly a month working on it so that it could safely carry people around the globe...

[warpspeed]

I was on a business trip to Tucson. The company I was working for did construction and maintenance for power plants. I had flown in the day before and gone to see a couple of clients south of Benson and had appointments at TEP that day. I was in my hotel room when one of my clients in San Diego called and told me we had been awarded a big job with them. He then asked if I had the TV on. It was early and I had only been up for a short time and I said no and he suggested I turn it on. I turned it on just in time to see the second plane hit.

I called SW and they said all planes grounded. All flights for the next 2 days were booked and the CS agent did not think that they would be flying anyway. I called the rental car company and told them their car was going back to LAX. They seemed to be OK with that.

The drive home that day , listening to the radio, was very odd. It seemed to fly by.

The next day I went to LAX to return the rental car and pick up my truck from the parking lot. Going through LAX when it was empty was very weird.

I don't think I flew for over a year. Maybe longer. I drove everywhere.

[whitedog]

Was at work.....got the call. Was involved with n.y. state search and rescue. Was on site at 0900. Stayed 4 days straight, went home for a night, and back for 5 weeks. Ran mostly underground confined area searches. I will never forget the things I saw.......

[ima45dv8]

I was driving to work when the first one hit. The radio station cut to a "special report". I arrived at the office a few minutes later and was watching the news on a TV in the parking level lobby with maybe 35 other people when the second one hit. All you could hear were gasps and soft exclamations.

That night was our regularly scheduled weekly USPSA league match and I drove over even though I expected it might be cancelled. It wasn't, and a TV crew came in and filmed us for the 11:00 braodcast. The theme was very favorable and sort of alluded that more and more people might be engaging in similar activities in the near future.

At the range, before we started shooting, an employee told us some Atlanta PD officers came in earlier and bought ALL of the .223 and .308 ammo they had on hand (and it was considerable). As soon as it was loaded they were off to another store. The officers said that many other teams from their agency were also running from gun store to gun store, with orders to lay in as much ammo as they could find.