September 11, 2001. I will never forget, will you?

I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, who I was with... I was in 11th grade... Fallston High School... sitting in AP World History. Another teacher came running into our classroom and said "I think you better turn on the news NOW". Our teacher turned it on, and we saw what everyone thought to be an "accident" of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City. Then, we saw the SECOND plane. We knew then that it wasn't an "accident". We got out of school early and I remember a lot of other students crying and trying to call family from their cell phones. Some had aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, who worked at the WTC. I went home, and my dad was already there watching the news... he was crying.

And, well, you all know the rest after that day...

Please share your stories about where you were, what you were doing, those who were lost, etc. Please no trolling. This thread is dedicated to those who lost loved ones or who just want to remember the tragedy of the 9-11 attacks.

"Let's roll."
--Todd Beamer (9/1//01), before he and others apparently
thwarted the fourth set of terrorists

"Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward.
Freedom will be defended! "
--President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001

"Hey Uncle Sam
Put your name at the top of his list
And the Statue of Liberty
Started shakin' her fist
And the eagle will fly
Man, it's gonna be hell
When you hear Mother Freedom
Start ringin' her bell
And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you
Brought to you Courtesy of the Red White and Blue"
-- Toby Keith Lyrics 
Song: Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American) Lyrics

 

I can't see anyone forgetting what they were doing or where they were on that day.

I had just pulled my bus into the garage and walked by a bunch of mechanics and drivers around the tv. I saw a building burning and asked "what's going on?" A mechanic just told me to go home and be with my family. I was scared, but I did, and then watched the rest unfold on tv the rest of the morning.

Original Post by igloogal:

I can't see anyone forgetting what they were doing or where they were on that day. 

Igloogal -

I can't see anyone forgetting either. My topic question was kind of rhetorical. More of just a thread to get people thinking and sharing stories about where they were, what they were doing, how they felt, etc.

Thanks for posting.

I was at school, I don't remember what class anymore, history I think, but remember the exact setup of the room, the look on my teacher's face when he told us...

My mom came and picked me and my sister up 20-30 minutes after that. We went to the store, bought bottled water, and came home to sit in front of the tv and wait for my dad to get home. My mom was scared concidering we live by one of the top 10 most likely bases that would be attacked if they went after a military base. And both of my parents work at the base.

A scary coincedence, my mom was actually on a plane on September 11th, 2001. It was earlier that morning coming from the west coast, thankfully.

No, I don't think I -or anyone else- will forget.

I was getting ready to go to college and take my son to daycare - had the morning news on and stopped briefly in shock that the first tower had been hit and was on fire.  I was about to get up when I saw the 2nd plane hit - on live TV.  I remember my heart racing and thinking 'holy crap, this is no accident, what's going on?'.  I was glued from then on....  Again, I tried to pull my self away from the set to leave when the 1st building collapsed.  It was awful.  My cheset was in my throat, I had tears in my eyes and I was just stunned.   

I did take my son to school and went to class - my teacher came in hysterical because her son worked there. He never made it out.  She dismissed class and I picked up my son and went home.  

I will never forget what happened.

I was working at CFB Edmonton in the Officers' Mess - a bunch of our Helicopter pilots were gathered around the TV - then the first tower fell - I stayed and watched with them - they were yelling at first then one Captain said...We just went to War.... I remember the feeling of all my blood falling to my feet.  By the time the second tower fell most of them had run back to their unit - it was a very frightening and sad day.  Absolutely uncomprehensible!  May all those lost that day rest in peace!  

I woke up at 8:30am that day because I needed to purchase my books for upcoming classes that were to start soon.  The television was on and just as I was walking out the door the station announced that a plane had hit tower one.  At this time I thought it was a horrible mistake, and left the house anyway to go to campus.  I listened to my CD player the whole way (about 30 min), completely oblivious.  Once I arrived to the bookstore I picked out my books and started the checking out process.  I overheard from the other patrons that a plane had hit the the 2nd tower and the Pentagon.  I have never felt so vulnerable in my life.  The radio stations were going crazy.  Speculation ran strong as reports were coming in about other planes heading into the DC area.  When I arrived home, I ran inside and saw my grandparents watching the television just as the 2nd tower collapsed. 

That day shook the foundation of my belief system, and opened my eyes.  I had no idea who osama bin laden was.  How could I not know?  I remember thinking how could I NOT know who this man is.  It was my own fault.  I promised myself that never again would I be oblivious to what is occurring in the world. 

the day pinochet took power and 27 years of dictatorship began

I was in Algebra II/Trig class in high school.  The principle came over the intercom and told us what happened.  I remember feeling like my blood had stopped in my veins.  It was horrible.  It being a Catholic school, the teacher led us in prayer before turning on the TV.  Only my theology teacher made us have real class that day.  My history teacher was great...he talked to us about Osama bin Laden and tried his best to inform us as much as he could.  He let us chill and watch the news, because as he said, it was history in action.  I had driven carpool that day and my carpool consisted of me and 4 of my closest friends (we had all gone to grade school together).  Since all of them had parents who worked, they all came over to my house to hang with me and my mom.  They didn't want to be home alone.  We got some ice cream from Baskin Robbins and chilled and watched the news. 

My uncle worked down and around the WTC at that time.  He luckily was not in the city that day. 

 

Today I am remembering my friend Joey, a NYC firefighter who died at the WTC that day and all victims of 9-11-01.

May you all know that we will never forget.

Original Post by fatanr11:

I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, who I was with... I was in 11th grade... Fallston High School... sitting in AP World History. Another teacher came running into our classroom and said "I think you better turn on the news NOW". Our teacher turned it on, and we saw what everyone thought to be an "accident" of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City. Then, we saw the SECOND plane. We knew then that it wasn't an "accident". We got out of school early and I remember a lot of other students crying and trying to call family from their cell phones. Some had aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, who worked at the WTC. I went home, and my dad was already there watching the news... he was crying.

Fallston, huh?  My youngest was in school in Havre de Grace and my oldest at Harford VoTech!  Small world!  Anyway, I remember that I'd taken my older son to school that day because he'd missed the bus.  There was something on the news about Sadam Hussein kicking out inspectors or shooting a scud missile or something and I remember thinking that he was at it again and that someone should do something about it.  I arrived at work and shortly thereafter one of my coworkers called to say that she would be late and that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  I turned on the little tv I had in my office to get the news and remember thinking what a horrible accident that was and that I hoped the people in the building were all right.  Then the second plane hit and we knew it was no accident.  After hearing that a plane had hit the Pentagon and another had crashed in PA, there were all kinds of scary rumors going around like a car bomb on the National Mall and other stuff.  It was a horrible day and I know it was one we will never forget. 

 

I'd taken the day off work for some reason and, after pottering around the house, I switched on my PC to check my e-mails.  My home page is set to the BBC News website & I must have turned on at the moment in the day where the first plane had only just hit and the event was still being referred to as a freak accident.  I think they even reported it initially as a 'light aircraft' rather than a passenger jet.

It was one of those events that was too awful to watch but too awful to look away from either.   I've never actually been to New York so occasionally I had to remind myself that this was real footage and not a scene from some disaster movie.   I think I spent the rest of the day, like everyone else, glued to the TV.

I went to Portsmouth the following day and they told me that all the warships at the naval base had been immediately sent out to sea.  The fear at the time was that this was the start of some bigger attack and the base was a potential target.

 

 

I was in 6th grade and they rounded all of us up just as school was starting and put us in the quad and told us what had happened.  I started crying immediately because my dad was on business and I wasn't sure exactly where he was and I knew he frequented New York in both the World Trade Center as well as the Stock Exchange.. and I was scared that both of them were doomed.

I later found out that my dad was already home, I just didn't see him.. and that about 15 people that he worked with were on the floors that the first plane had actually crashed into.  He was in the middle of a big business deal with them.. but he didn't care about the business deal anymore, everyone just really felt for their families.  That's the worst of it.. because after the planes hit, I think a lot of people knew their destiny.. but their families.. it's bad enough when one person dies of old age, but possibly more than one dying because of such a tragedy?  I can't even imagine.

Last year, we watched the History Channel all day and saw just about everything on 9/11.  I didn't put on makeup that day because I just cried all day.  I love flying, but am always wary of taking commercial flights anymore.. Maybe it's an irrational fear, but I won't ever forget that day.

I was sleeping, because I didn't have any classes that day.  My husband (who was my boyfriend then) came in to wake me up.  He said that 2 planes had hit the towers.  Of course, when I got to the TV they were re-playing the second collision over and over again, so it was impossible to actually miss.  the rest of the day was kind of a blur, actually.  I remember the Pentagon being hit, and I remember both towers collapsing.  I remember seeing the footage and the chaos.  It was all sort of a blur.  We just stayed inside the rest of the day and watched and prayed.

Like crazineko, I'd never heard of Bin Laden before that day.  It's sad how unaware I was regarding world events.  I, too, have since made it a priority to learn more about current events.

I was in a plane, eating an english muffin, on my way to Mexico City, completely unaware.  Found about what happened, about 3 hours after the fact, standing in line at customs from people chatting frantically on their cell phones (I didn't have one at the time).  When I heard "planes hitting the World Trade Center", I initially thought they were talking about a Grisham novel or a movie. 

For some reason, TV monitors in the terminal were broadcasting a soccer game instead of news. 

I found out a year later a friend of mine I had lost contact with perished in the WTC.  I remember him every year.

Original Post by caverlady:

Original Post by fatanr11:

I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, who I was with... I was in 11th grade... Fallston High School... sitting in AP World History. Another teacher came running into our classroom and said "I think you better turn on the news NOW". Our teacher turned it on, and we saw what everyone thought to be an "accident" of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City. Then, we saw the SECOND plane. We knew then that it wasn't an "accident". We got out of school early and I remember a lot of other students crying and trying to call family from their cell phones. Some had aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, who worked at the WTC. I went home, and my dad was already there watching the news... he was crying.

Fallston, huh? 

 It definitely is a small world!!!

 

THanks to everyone for sharing your intimate stories.

I had accompanied my husband on a business trip to NYC. I was in the hotel room w my 6-wk old baby, DH was at the conference. On the radio Howard Stern started ranting about planes and terrorist, I thought he was joking. I saw the second plane hit on CNN. DH raced back to the hotel – we bought bottled water and diapers. We made it home to Canada in a round-a-bout way by Sept 13. My feelings that day and the images on the news remain, and will always be, very vivid. My heart goes out to the families of those lost. I remain very thankful for all that I have.

I honestly do not remember it at all. I have no idea where I was or what I was doing, other than I was probably at school.

 

I find Toby Keith's song in pretty poor taste. Nothing except trashy and redneck.

 

I was a senior in h.s. in AP Psych class. We just got back to class from some stupid assembly and the second one was starting for the second half of the school. My AP US Government/Politics teacher came in and told us to turn on CNN. We sat all day in every class watching the news except for math because my teacher was a heartless, heinous wench. 

I will never forget...

How a country over-reacted to the deaths of a couple thousand people and collectively jumped headfirst into a war with an unrelated power for false reasons.

How a country was blinded by the fact "we were attacked!" and ignored common sense and judgement. How a country is so happy to push aside issues resulting in STAGGERING death numbers (far far far above 9/11 every year) to get revenge....putting their resources into blind revenge...instead of focusing on saving lives.

The only thing 9/11 does for me is remind me how much faith I lost in our country and its people....

I had just come home from the hospital the night before when my father called me that morning telling me not to enter the city, it was under attack. I saw the towers fall from Brooklyn, I spent awhile convinced I was having yet another hallucination until I realized everyone around me was reacting to the same thing. Two friends of mine were missing, one would turn up a day later at a rescue center, the other (a firefighter)'s body wouldn't be found till January. Later that afternoon I did manage to get into the city to reach my boyfriend at the time. I remember the smell and being on edge, not knowing if there was to be more to come. Some @$$ 2 days later actually called in a bomb threat at the Empire State, a prank.

R.I.P. Johnny H., you are remembered as a hero.