Where were you on 9-11 ?

[Messerve]

I got up bright and early and met 2 other friends and took a cab to Boston Logan airport. We were headed to Cabo San Lucas Mexico with a stop in Dallas.

I vividly remember after we took off and were flying over NYC the pilot spoke over the intercom “look out the left side windows and see Manhattan on this bright sunny morning”

As the flight progressed and we neared Dallas we noticed a commotion near the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] pit and the stewardesses looked concerned. They brought the plane down and all we could see were lines of planes. No one could get a cell signal until one person finally did and said loudly “the US is under attack”. It was one of those moments that sear in your memory.

I flew American Airlines and my flight left a little earlier that than American flight 11.
I sometimes wonder if I saw the hijackers that morning or that they could have chosen my flight.

That's crazy... I'm really glad it wasn't your flight.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

Ah, but for the other side... Where were you when Osama Bin Laden was declared dead?

I was in my college dorm room in Chicago with my roommate who was watching his favorite baseball team live on his laptop. Suddenly they interrupted the game to make the announcement and the whole stadium broke into cheers. My roommate and I didn't really cheer along, but we were happy that justice finally caught up with him. I did feel weird about being happy about someone's death no matter how evil he was...

It was anti climatic for me. We killed him but the beast stil lives.

 

[Messerve]

You are absolutely welcome to post here.

Thanks!

 

[Messerve]

It was anti climatic for me. We killed him but the beast stil lives.

Yeah, I don't think it really resolved a whole lot regarding future terrorism, but it was still good to know he didn't get away with it ultimately.

 

[GraceBro]

Ah, but for the other side... Where were you when Osama Bin Laden was declared dead?

I was in my college dorm room in Chicago with my roommate who was watching his favorite baseball team live on his laptop. Suddenly they interrupted the game to make the announcement and the whole stadium broke into cheers. My roommate and I didn't really cheer along, but we were happy that justice finally caught up with him. I did feel weird about being happy about someone's death no matter how evil he was...

I was at home when my family member yelled out, "They got Bin Laden!" I was pleased and went back to what I was doing.

 

[Messerve]

I was at home when my family member yelled out, "They got Bin Laden!" I was pleased and went back to what I was doing.

I recorded Obama's speech for my roommate who appreciated it very much. He was always a bit more "American" than I was.

 

[GraceBro]

I recorded Obama's speech for my roommate who appreciated it very much. He was always a bit more "American" than I was.

What do you mean by "a bit more 'American'" than you were?

 

[Gnarwhal]

I was 14, just starting my freshman year of high school.

I'm on the west coast so I was asleep when the towers were hit, but I remember waking up earlier than usual because my dad had the volume up kind of loud on the TV. Normally when I get up I go straight to the shower, but with the TV up so loud I wondered what was going on so I wandered out to the living room in my PJs. I'll never forget my dad sitting on the edge of the ottoman, my mom was standing next to him and they both had the news on, they were running live shots of the smoking towers.

A few minutes after walking out to the living room, the Pentagon was hit. I just stood there kind of dazed partly because I was still waking up, and partly because—obviously—the US getting attacked didn't seem real. I went and took a quick shower and came back out in the living room just before they announced that Flight 93 had gone down in Pennsylvania.

By the time I got to school the campus was just eerily quiet. Not empty, just everyone was talking in hushed tones. Many parents kept their kids home that day even though we were thousands of miles away from Ground Zero, we were all under attack all the same.

There was no instruction in 5/6 of my classes that day. In my first four periods we watched the news on TV, in my gym class after lunch we just sat there talking quietly but what really got my goat was that my math teacher near the end of the day shut off the TV and tried to make us do some algebra assignments. Like, really? You think the very best students are going to be able to focus on the material, let alone those of us who struggle with math? It's possible she got a memo from the district office to shut off the TV but I dunno, I was super mad.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I was 20 I believe. Just got up to go to the bathroom and my mom had just turned on the tv and said "<name>, COME HERE QUICK!". I came in and seen a jet hit the tower. I said "When did this happen?". She goes "Thats a second plane, it just hit now! [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]!" then she said "Now two jets had hit the WTCs!".

Now this may be weird to some but I ran downstairs in a panic thinking Jesus came back and I was left behind because planes were falling from the sky (people disappear, pilots gone...etc). Then again I just woke up so I wasn't in my right mind.

What I will never forget is not long after I went outside and I could see Cleveland (downtown of course)
in the distance. I seen a jet turn around and come back towards me. It was VERY loud and very low. It was the flight that would end up crashing on PA. I just didn't know it at the time. When I went back in it was not much longer when the news said they had a report of jet crashing in PA. I was in shock. I told my mom that is the one I seen and how eerie I felt knowing I seen the doomed jet.

When you later found out it crashed because they tried to take the jet back, I had some relief because it I realized if they had not brought it down, who knows what it would have hit and how many it would of killed. Heroes, all of them.

My family in NYC seen it all happen. A few lives on Manhatten Island. One lived on the river in New Jersey facing the island. My aunt who is a ambassadors daugther was supposed to meet someone that day in one of the WTCs but called it off because she didn't feel well.

When we visited NYC a few years later they were still cleaning up the bottom of the tower sites and it was so weird. You could hear the city around you. But around the towers were just lots of people looking at the site and everyone was totally quiet and crying. It's where I took a picture of that steel they saved that looked like a cross and had a flag draped on it.

 

[JohnAshton]

Traveling on business deep in the pinies of East Texas, I heard the first news some miles on the radio outside of Lufkin to the west. Not until I stepped into the house in Nacogdoches about an hour later, I got the full story from Peter Jennings and his crew on ABC. My wife and her friends from the co-op were in the chapel at Christ Church praying for the souls of the dead and for their families' solace. I prayed most of the afternoon in my den. I called branch the next day and was told to wait for orders. They never came: too much disability to serve then. I volunteered at VA and veteran functions when I can.

 

[charsan]

When the day first started I awoke and got ready for work with my dad coming over to help me. My dad said a plane hit the twin towers but when I saw the TV I realized that we were under attack, not sure how I knew that I just did. My dad took me to work and the president of the college thought about canceling school until he saw President Bush's speech.

My task was to find a news broadcast on the internet and we sat that up in the computer lab and the only one I found was from Iowa and that was on all day. I came home and heard about the man in the wheelchair who told people to leave him in the stairwell because he was slowing everyone down. His best friend stayed with him and they died together as the towers fell. To this day I think about him and weep and wonder if I could do that knowing that certain death would come.

 

[Messerve]

What do you mean by "a bit more 'American'" than you were?

Well, he was more concerned about things like the designs of our coins and American history and overall just very patriotic. Not that I don't support America or don't appreciate our history, but being American was more of a circumstantial thing to me than something I spent my energy on. If that makes sense...

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

When the day first started I awoke and got ready for work with my dad coming over to help me. My dad said a plane hit the twin towers but when I saw the TV I realized that we were under attack, not sure how I knew that I just did. My dad took me to work and the president of the college thought about canceling school until he saw President Bush's speech.

My task was to find a news broadcast on the internet and we sat that up in the computer lab and the only one I found was from Iowa and that was on all day. I came home and heard about the man in the wheelchair who told people to leave him in the stairwell because he was slowing everyone down. His best friend stayed with him and they died together as the towers fell. To this day I think about him and weep and wonder if I could do that knowing that certain death would come.

Many such stories. I watched one where they interviewed a blind man who was making his way down stairs of one of the towers. He and his dog where taking up two spaces and slowing progress down, so he let his dog loose to run down the stairs but his dog came back up and they made there way down together. He cried his eyes out in telling of the unconditional love his dig had for him.

 

[Messerve]

I was 20 I believe. Just got up to go to the bathroom and my mom had just turned on the tv and said "<name>, COME HERE QUICK!". I came in and seen a jet hit the tower. I said "When did this happen?". She goes "Thats a second plane, it just hit now! [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]!" then she said "Now two jets had hit the WTCs!".

Now this may be weird to some but I ran downstairs in a panic thinking Jesus came back and I was left behind because planes were falling from the sky (people disappear, pilots gone...etc). Then again I just woke up so I wasn't in my right mind.

What I will never forget is not long after I went outside and I could see Cleveland (downtown of course)
in the distance. I seen a jet turn around and come back towards me. It was VERY loud and very low. It was the flight that would end up crashing on PA. I just didn't know it at the time. When I went back in it was not much longer when the news said they had a report of jet crashing in PA. I was in shock. I told my mom that is the one I seen and how eerie I felt knowing I seen the doomed jet.

When you later found out it crashed because they tried to take the jet back, I had some relief because it I realized if they had not brought it down, who knows what it would have hit and how many it would of killed. Heroes, all of them.

My family in NYC seen it all happen. A few lives on Manhatten Island. One lived on the river in New Jersey facing the island. My aunt who is a ambassadors daugther was supposed to meet someone that day in one of the WTCs but called it off because she didn't feel well.

When we visited NYC a few years later they were still cleaning up the bottom of the tower sites and it was so weird. You could hear the city around you. But around the towers were just lots of people looking at the site and everyone was totally quiet and crying. It's where I took a picture of that steel they saved that looked like a cross and had a flag draped on it.

Wow... I didn't even realize Flight 93 went as far as Ohio. It technically flew over my home in PA, but I don't think it was hijacked yet at that point.

 

[Michie]

Thanks for starting this thread @eastcoast_bsc.

 

[GraceBro]

Well, he was more concerned about things like the designs of our coins and American history and overall just very patriotic. Not that I don't support America or don't appreciate our history, but being American was more of a circumstantial thing to me than something I spent my energy on. If that makes sense...

It makes sense. Thanks.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

Thanks for starting this thread @eastcoast_bsc.

It is amazing up to hear all the stories we all experienced.

 

[ChicanaRose]

I couldn't believe what was happening on the screen. I wished it was a bad dream I could wake up from.

 

[Hank77]

Our offices were across the lobby from a restaurant. Their kitchen crew and a couple others were there getting ready for the lunch and dinner customers and they had their TV on. When the first tower was hit one of them ran over and told us. We saw plane hit the second tower. It was like someone punched me the gut. We stayed there, all of us just watching for a very long time.
Praise the Lord the children in the daycare center in building 5 were not physically harmed, the daycare workers got all of the children to safety.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

Wow... I didn't even realize Flight 93 went as far as Ohio. It technically flew over my home in PA, but I don't think it was hijacked yet at that point.

Yeah they said somewhere around Cleveland is when it turned around because it was hijacked. The airport lost contact with them as they flew past the airport.