9/11 - Where were you?

I was at home.

After everything, I called all of my family out there and made sure they were alright.

My heart hurt so bad thinking of the possibilities.

It still does.

I was home sick that day and was woken by the phone, a few of my co-workers were calling to tell me that a plane had just hit the first building, the North tower. I work for an insurance company and our headquarters were in the South tower. My office is upstate but half of my unit was in the South tower, I knew a lot of people in that building that day. I got up and turned the TV on just in time to see the second plan hit...hit the building where my friends and co-workers were. I could not grasp what I was seeing, I don't think anyone really could. I spent the day on the phone with people from my office trying to get updates on where our co-workers were. We knew one girl had not gone in yet and that she was safe, one girl had left the building shortly after the North tower got hit so she was at least out of the building but that is all we knew. When the plane hit the South tower one of my managers was on a conference call/meeting, he heard the sounds of it hitting. By the time the building collapsed we still only knew the whereabouts of a handful of people.
Later that day a hotline was set up and manned by the employees in my building, a list of employees was handed out and names were checked off as they called in or were reached by phone. The hotline was up and running for a long, long time as it took forever to 'find' people, there were a lot of folks in the hospital or they hadn't been heard from at all. Two days later we saw one of our guys on the cover of Time, he was among the masses that walked out of the city on the bridge, it was good to know he was OK and he was checked off the list. The people manning the phones did a great thing that week or so, they let others from the city know who was OK but did not give any information on the ones that had not been heard from. They listened to the stories that needed to be told. They got word out for people to check in. I didn't man the phones, I just couldn't, but most of the rest of my unit did and it took a terrible toll on them, just listening to what people had been through. I received many calls from friends and talked to them day and night, I'm glad they called yet to this day wish I never heard their stories of what they saw and went through, no person should have to do and see what they did that day.
One of my good friends from my office was in the tower that day, she had to go for a meeting. She was with her friend who used to work in my building and manage my department. They were going to go get some coffee or something before the meeting, when the elevator came my friend realized she had forgotten her notes and said she would catch up in a second and with that the elevator doors closed. The plane hit seconds later and the burning jet fuel filled the elevator shafts almost immediately. She was one of 13 people who worked for my company that died that day, she was probably the first to lose her life yet was the last to be added to the list. I honestly don't know if they ever found any trace of her, last I knew they had not.
My friend who was with her will never, ever be the same girl that she was. I can't begin to describe how much she, and so many others, were changed that day but she is just a shell of her former self. You can see it in her eyes, they saw things that day and it is reflected in them.

I was on a cruise in Alaska. We were pulling into Juno that day, and my hubby and I were going to do our *one* excursion and fly over the glaciers. I was in the gym riding the bike when the captain came on over the loud speaker and, in his thick Norwegian accent, offered condolences to all the American passengers. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I asked the guy on the bike next to me. He said, "oh, didn't you hear? Two planes hit the WTC."

I hopped off the bike and ran to our room, where my hubby was still sleeping. I turned on the news and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Of course, being where we were, it was like being a million miles away.............totally weird. It extra sucked because our 2 year old son was home with my mom in California, so were clammering to get to a phone to just..........talk to him. Hear his two year old voice. SOMETHING that would reassure our completely illogical fears and emotions. Very kindly, the cruise ship offered free phone service for the rest of the trip. Incredibly cool of them.

Then, the planes were grounded, so no trip over the glaciers, and we weren't even sure we'd get home via plane. Luckily, 50% of planes starting flying again on Sunday, our day to fly home, and our flight was one of them that got to go. Otherwise, we were going to rent a car and drive home from Seattle. I needed to see my son and just hold him.

My mom told us, after we'd returned, that our son had seen the news with the plane flying into the building. He said "oh no, broken." More profound words were never spoken. :(

I made it most of my day oblivious to events. (I don't do TV) Such a defining moment in all of our lives; I know I haven't been the same since.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lewdogg3

On a second note.... A coworker of mine just mentioned seeing signs on her way to work saying that 9/11 was a fake and it was an inside job... i hate when people say that. Anyone else?

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Nightlad put it very well. Too many unanswered questions for me to accept readily. Show me a WMD. Show me more than 5 frames from the Pentagon footage. Show me a honest politician. I have a report from the Defense Dept. that summarizes the content of all the iraqi documents and intelligence we captured during the invasion. It states within the first few pages, in black and white, that there is NO LINK BETWEEN IRAQ AND AL QAEDA. I'll gladly make copies for all interested parties.

Don't forget those that died this day seven years, but don't overlook those that have died (4,155) in the seven years since. At this point Bush has killed more Americans than the initial attack. I feel that if you are going to take action that leads to the death of 4,000 Americans (and how many Iraqis?) you need better "evidence" than what has been presented to us.

Wow.. it is pretty poignant to sit and remember that day. I was at my mom's waiting to start work.. my husband (then, boyfriend) called me up and told me that I had better turn on the TV, that someone crashed a plane into the Twin Towers. I thought it had been maybe a small-plane accident or stunt.. then we sat on the phone in front of our TVs and watched in horror at the footage. I went into work that day and everyone was just relying on each other and leaning on one another, talking, trying to make sense of it all.
In his old job, Mark had delivered furniture to some of the guys affiliated with the Lackawanna Six (Lackawanna is only about a half hour away from here and is generally a low-key, first-ring suburb of Buffalo where nothing noteworthy or horrible happens.) Never had a clue what they were about.. they all seemed like nice, normal people on the surface. But having a local tie to something this horrific.. it shakes you when you drive through the same streets and stop at the same stores as these inhuman monsters had.

I was a college student, but living at home. My mom woke me up and said, "You might want to see this." I could tell from her voice that it was important. I got downstairs and listened to the news reports, still groggy from sleep, wondering how a pilot could have made such a huge error. Then the second plane hit and I knew... it wasn't an error, a mistake, or an accident. My parents were separated at the time and my dad, a career military officer, was in town to see us. (He was stationed in DC at the time.) He called and asked me, my mom, and my older sister to meet him for breakfast so we could be together and talk about it. We all drove separately since I had class and my sister had work, but listened to the radio on the way there. It was during that ride that the plane hit the Pentagon, a building where my father had worked twice in the past, and still had meetings on a regular basis. I knew he had many friends and coworkers and acquaintances still there. My sister parked next to me at the restaurant, and we looked at each other. I said, "I'll tell him." And I went inside and told my dad. His reaction still brings tears to my eyes. And then his blackberry lit up. For the next hour he was answering phone calls and emails before telling us, "I have to leave and go straight back to Washington." I proceeded to school at Old Dominion University, which is practically attached to the Norfolk Naval Station (I believe it's the largest naval installation in the nation, if not the world). All the while the local news reporters were speculating that the base would be the next target. Needless to say there was no teaching that day in my classes. The professors were pretty supportive and offered to let us have discussions about the day's events, or just to leave and be with our families. In the following days I was among the millions who attached flags to their cars, houses, and everything else. I still have the little flag that was attached to my car antenna for 6 months. Every now and then I see it among my belongings, and I'm taken back to that feeling of pride and unity that we all shared. So... that's where I was.

My dad did know people who died that day, and witnessed first-hand the results of the destruction to the Pentagon. I'm not sure what people doubt about the events that occurred there, but I assure you that your doubt is unfounded.

On another note, please allow this thread to remain a memorial to that day, and not a soapbox for your personal political agendas. :salute:

I was still living in NY at the time, in middle school, and attending my grandmother's funeral when the planes hit the towers..... it was a rough day for me.

I was a senior in HS. That morning, a friend of mine came to the bus stop and said something about a plane hitting one of the towers but I didn't really know what to think. This guy was a jokester at times and didn't really give any details.

At my school, every classroom has a TV. That day, every TV in the school was turned on all day long. It boggles my mind that some schools had that 'business as usual' attitude.

The town I lived in has a HUGE Boeing plant. It was Boeing's main headquarters at the time. So many people left work that day (including my step-mom) in fear that they would attack the west coast- and maybe try and stop plane production- that Boeing ended up just sending everybody home.

I still can't watch footage without tearing up. I don't think that to this day I've really wrapped my mind around the magnitude of these attacks. I can't comprehend the amount of hatred involved. Or the huge feeling of loss that seemed to lay like a blanket over the entire nation.

I was in Manhattan on 9/11/01...It was surreal. I've worked in Manhattan since 1999. I've never experienced the silence and emptiness the hours after the towers fell.

I had just finished my bus route and was walking into the nail shop when I saw it on the tv.

I live less than an hour from DC and we have a lot of commuters around here...it was insane when the kids got on the bus that afternoon...asking if I had talked to or seen their parent that day and if I knew if their mom or dad was ok.

:(

ughhh...it sucked.