Where were you and what were you doing when the planes hit?

[Love Life]

Well members it has been ten years since the terrorists attacked us. It is a time for reflection. So I ask this question: Where were you and what were you doing when the planes hit?

I was in the 11th grade. It was first period, woodshop, in Mr. C'c class in Austin, MN. I remember the principle coming over the school intercom system instructing all teachers to cease classroom instruction and turn on the news. At that time only the first tower had been hit. I remember sitting there watching and wondering how somebody could hit the WTC. It's huge. You would have to be blind. As we were watching the live feed we saw the second plane hit.
At that point I looked over at my friend Gene and said "We are being attacked" (as all people watching the news that day did). The school was locked down and we continued to watch the news as everything unfolded that day. I remember watching the first tower fall and then the second. I didn't know anybody personally in New York, but my heart cried for them. We were released early from school around 1:30 P.M. I remember my mom driving me home and the town was pretty much shut down. We continued to watch the news for the next 2 days.
Once all the info was released about who was responsible and the estimated body count me and Gene decided to join the Marines as infantryman if the war was still going when we graduated. It was and we did. He is not here with us any more to reflect on this day, but I can bet he would say we have evened things out.
It is just amazing how time flies and how events impact your life.

So where were you and what were you doing when the planes hit?

[WILCO]

So where were you and what were you doing when the planes hit?

I was home. Received a phone call that said the towers had been hit. Turned on the tube and watched it unfold. I remember falling to my knees while clutching the coffee table as the first tower fell. Today is always a tough day to get through. Hurts like it just happened.

[Harter66]

Being 3hr behind NYC ,and then, no cable, just some FM out of Reno. I rolled out at 5 headed for work about 545 . When I got to our office around 620 , 1 of the guys says kinda loud "Rich doesn't have any TV. Did you hear about NY? ","a plane hit the WTC". Shortly there after a wife called saying a 2nd had hit. By then we had some make shift rabbit ears on the training tv and learned that the 1st call had come from the middle east. Anwar SaDat"We didn't do it and had nothing to do w/it. How can I help you". Then came the call that our depot was locked down and the guards would be 7/12s untill further notice. We were eventually sent home on admin leave for most of 6 work days. Nat'l guard came in and adding 50% to the local pop.

When the claim of responsibility came in,I told a friend "I told you the Cole was Pearl Harbor all over, if Wild Willie had done what needed doing we'd of not had this!" Give or take a few expitives. By then there was a whole lot of rage in my circles.

[shooter93]

I was at work, actually on the road gathering up materials and when I got back the guys told me we were hit. Took awhile before radio coverage caught up but the place we were working had a tv. I pretty much kept working figuring I'd get the whole story sooner or later. We have many family members in Somerset county but learned fairly quickly they weren't near the third plane. I do remember telling the guys....the younger ones.....they used to ask us where we were when JFK was shot, guess this will change the question now.

[lbaize3]

I was in my office, assistant principal at Groves Middle School. The school secretary told me what was going on. I checked out a TV from the library and was watching when the second plane hit. We had a hook up that allowed us to send the TV channel to all the rooms. We made an announcement and then showed the school what was going on. It was a very somber and quiet day.

[bigjason6]

I was sitting in the VRC-30 duty office pulling the balls to eight ASDO watch. Maybe about halfway through watching smokey and the bandit.

[fishnbob]

I was working on a bridge spanning the James River when I heard it on radio. News spread like wildfire as we tuned in while we worked. The strangest thing was when they grounded all the planes and it was so quiet, spooky. We were within a mile of the nuclear plant that makes naval fuel, and when some nut flew over in an untralight, heading down the river, we thought it would get shot down. Attracted a lot of attention.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I was at the local lumber yard. The lady behind the counter told me a tower had been hit and I figured that it was some kind of weird accident. Then the 2nd one hit.......... It really seemed like a Hollywood movie and not real life as it all unfolded. The U.S. was changed that day. Sad.

[kodiak1]

Had worked late the night before and was getting out of bed when I heard it on the radio.
Kids were waiting for the bus and watching TV. Yelled at them to put the box on CNN.
Wife was having a coffee in the kitchen and thought I had blew a fuse by the way I was hollering from the bed room.

Got out to the TV just before the second plane did it's dasterdly deed.

I remember standing there just feeling cold and wondering what the he!! was going to happen next.

Our little world has changed immensely since that dark day!

Ken.

[frkelly74]

I was doing a remodel of some offices at Ft Custer Training Center over at Battle Creek. The Sargent came over and asked If we had a radio and if we did we should turn it on. It ultimately gave us some work because of increased spending. But it was a pain getting into the gate in the morning. They looked all around and under the van every day but when they looked inside at the jumble of stuff I had in there, they just closed the doors and said ok. Suddenly they had money to spend though.

[jmsj]

I had no TV at the time and my father called me and told me what had happened. Back then I was ranch foreman of a cattle ranch. As I drove by the headquarters the owner called me up to the house and we watched the news for 4 hours.
jmsj

[gew98]

Installing elevators at the courthouse 'complex' in Lexington Kentucky. Got the news by word of mouth about 11am. Was a weird day in thought the rest of the day then. Alot of 'talk & gossip' that slowed the work down the rest of the day....and nobody pushed it.

[firefly1957]

I was working on the assembly line we had personal radio's there to listen to music or what ever and the people that listened to Howard Stern were the first to find out. We all tuned in that station before the second plane hit. Many of us thought when it happened to the second tower it was war for sure. Something the news forgets is those fools (jihadists) thought that by knocking down the twin towers that are economy would collapse, maybe we are still effected by it but it is the stupid things we are doing like taking diapers off old women that is really hurting our freedoms.

[stubshaft]

I had just gotten to work at Pearl Harbor. There was a flurry of activity and all non-essential personnel were ordered off of the base. Security was raised to condition Delta and things got real quiet.

[ph4570]

We were camping in the beyond and did not hear of it until days later.

[lead-1]

We were sitting in the doc's office waiting for him to see the youngest as it was all unfolding on the TV.

[mooman76]

I was at home. It was my day off and my wife had called. She works at the base and said traffic was backed up for miles and she was trying to get to work but they were only letting key essential people on base. They hadn't planned anything like this out so even though she would have been considered essential they didn't have her on the list.
Anyway I had just gotten up as usual on my day off and I would watch the morning news and drink my morning coffee. I missed the first plane hitting or maybe it hadn't been covered yet, I don't remember. I do remember the choked up feeling I had while all this went on.

[JeffinNZ]

Asleep as we are out of phase with you. SWMBO got up at 5:30am for an early shift at the hospital and the news came on the radio. I remember sitting bolt upright in bed saying something along the lines of "goodness me, the Twin Towers are down" though with a great deal more colour to the language.

At the time I was between jobs having just finished up on redundancy and was having a break. I spent the day casting on the porch keeping an eye on the TV through the sliding door. It was an unbelievable experience I hope not to see again.

[Topper]

Talking a customer through an OS reinstall.

[Frank46]

My wife woke me up and said that the twin towers has been attacked. As a ex-new yorker I could stand in the parking lot of the company I had worked for and everyday could see the them. Living in Louisiana and watching this was gut wrenching. At the time we had two daughters in school. Picked them up and all through out the day all of us watched as events unfolded. there were a lot of parents picking up their children early as the parking lot was crowded. My heart goes out to the families of the almost 3000 people killed in this attack. I will never forget that day. Frank

[Adam10mm]

Woke up after the first tower was hit. My mother told me we just got attacked. Saw the second plane hit. Told my mom Happy Birthday. Went to work and sold over 100 guns that day.

[Clinebo]

It was my day off so I slept a little later than usual. Got up and made coffee. Sat down at the 'puter to read my e-mail and got a shock when my homepage came up! I couldn't believe it at first,so I ran over and turned the TV on. They were replaying the second plane hitting and after a bit the first tower fell. I tried to sit and watch but found myself standing in front of the TV for a long time in disbelief. All kinds of things were racing through my mind. Then the second tower fell and they talked about the Pentagon getting hit! Broke the AR-15 out of the closet and loaded 10 mags with ammo. 'just in case'........

[Thin Man]

On 9-11-01 one of my jobs for the PD was as manager for our National Crime Information Center (NCIC) access. This responsibility required my attendance at 2 state managed training sessions each year, each session 2 days long. Our state police investigative division is the regulator for this service for the entire state. This day the training was in Nashville, about a 3 hour drive from home. Big classes, with usually 550-600 "students" listening to the 10-12 state moderators' lessons. The conference hotel had several huge screen TV's in their lobby. Several of us were watching just after the first tower was hit, and were still there when the second hit came. With that second hit, we looked at each other with the belief that "it's ON". Class was called back into session and we took our seats. Within 15 miinutes, cell phones were ringing and class members began heading for the doors. In another 15 minutes class was canceled with instructions for all participants to contact their respective agencies for instructions. Truth was, practically all of us were recalled to duty. This was the only occasion in the history of these training sessionswhen class was called off early.

The 3 hour drive home was filled with anger, sadness, frustration, all of the emotions. Being part of the information pipeline gives one a false reliance on accurate, timely information. Not so on this day. All of the timely detail was coming from broadcast news media, and much of that was driven by emotion rather than fact. With multiple operatives and multiple targets, we (locally) felt especially vulnerable. Our location is downwind of Oak Ridge, TN (WWII's "Secret City"). We have always known that if anything goes bad there, it will fall on us immediately.

Back at work our agency, like all others, was deep in bunker mentality. Information sharing and coordination among local agencies expanded to a frenzy. We challenged and double challenged every issue that came before us. All available personnel were back on the clock and remained there as long as needed. All leave time vanished, and no one complained. We wanted to be on the job. You couldn't get us off the job. We each took care to secure our families and loved ones, then continued to provide for our communities. It's not just a job, it's a way of life.

Time has muted much of the emotion of that day. What remains is the knowledge that an evil enemy remains, willing to repeat what has been done to us before. The elimination of bin Laden was as much symbolic as strategic. He will be (has been?) replaced. The threat remains. We can never again become lax or confident that we cannot be attacked. And it is this knowledge that makes my retirement one year ago a frustration. Yes, the time comes when old dogs should lie on the porch and leave the race to the young greyhounds. That said, if my agency or any other should need my assistance to defend our country or our community, I'll be there. As before: it's not just a job, it's a way of life.

Thin Man

[hardcase54]

Working across the river from the pentagon, Saw AA flight 77 coming up the Potomac river saw it make the turn towards the pentagon and lost sight after that. A very sad and emotional day.

[Beau Cassidy]

I was sitting in the VRC-30 duty office pulling the balls to eight ASDO watch.

Huh???

[Bret4207]

Working. When the 1st pane hit I was in the middle of securing a guy that wanted to kill his father IIRC and getting him from the hospital into a Troop car with shackles and the whole deal. BIG guy. By the time we got done the 2nd plane hit. We went to the local POE and helped what was then Customs and Immigration search cars ( A useless bit of work, but it was about all we could do.) By 1:00PM Dano67 and I were headed for NYC. Was standing on Wall St by 11AM the next morning, right in front of the Bull. I think we were there till April or May.

[bearcove]

For some reason I decided to not go to work. I was sitting on the couch watchin the morning news shows and watched on TV while it happened.

[PatMarlin]

My partner and I were here with no TV. Wife called crying from out of town.

My cousin and his wife both worked at the World trade center. Normally, they would have been there but It was their daughters 10 year old birthday and what she wanted, and demanded for her birthday was for them to both take the day off.

[Recluse]

We were in Dallas, Texas at the time and were getting ready to leave for work when we heard WBAP announce that an airplane had "crashed" into the World Trade Center.

Being a pilot myself, I knew planes don't just "crash" into buildings. I assumed it was a small private plane and had run out of fuel and hit somewhere near the base.

We flip on the big-screen tv and see the smoke billowing and I got real nervous. Then I, like millions of others, watched the second plane fly into the second tower and I knew we were under attack.

I guessed ragheads because they're the only animals in the entire universe chickens**t enough to take as many innocent lives with them as they can.

At the time, I was COO/CCO of a $1.8 billion company with 1600 employees. I called my admin and ordered her to immediately call all department heads and get the word out to everyone in all offices across the country to stay home--we're closed until further notice.

I then went to the gun safe and pulled out my 1911, my AR15 and my old police shotgun from the fed days and headed to downtown Dallas to get my offices closed and get my people the hell out of there.

Lot of scared people on the Texas highways, but there were even more pissed off people--present company at the head of the damned line.

We emptied all 35 floors of our building and I instructed our security guards to lock it up--anyone not a managing director or higher in the company was not allowed back in until we said so. I was in the lobby coordinating with our security guards, and ironically, I was the only one in the entire building that was (at least visibly) armed. I had my 1911 in a shoulder holster and was carrying my shotgun.

Ad agencies are generally made up of sniveling liberals who are scared of guns. Not that day. You would've thought I was Superman, Bruce Lee and Shaft all rolled into one the way the cowards flocked to me before heading to the parking garages. :rolleyes:

On the way home, I heard on the radio that some stinking ragheads in a convenience store in Las Colinas (business division of Irving/Dallas) were celebrating and hooting it up when a couple of Southwest Airlines mechanics came in. The SWA guys looked at the tv and figured out real quick what was happening and proceeded to beat the ever living hell out of those two clerks.

Both of those ragheads got carried away to Parkland Memorial Hospital, so bad was the beating those Southwest Airlines guys put on them. (One of those SWA mechanics is now retired and has a hangar and a Cessna 150 one row over from our hangar at our airport.)

Police were called, mechanics arrested, and a whole string of cars followed them to the jail to help pay their bail. Bond was something like $5 each I heard later.

My wife closed her department up at EDS in Legacy Park (Plano) and we met at Lake Lewisville and took our boat out.

The lake was eerily calm. Not so much as even a ripple on the water or even a puff of breeze. I've never seen it like that before and never seen it since. Even more eery was that the lake is on the direct final approach corridor for DFW (airport), and by mid-afternoon, the skies were silent. I had the radio on at the help and was listening to reports.

The entire time, we were frantic trying to reach our two best friends in NYC--one of whom we knew had a meeting in one of the towers that day. (Turned out to be Tower Five which wasn't hit). And the whole time we were working our cell phones, we kept looking up at the sky and not seeing anything. No planes departing DFW and nothing on the final approach corridor.

One of the top-five busiest airports in North America was shut down.

I wasn't scared, I was pissed. (Several days later, I called up the Air Force and volunteered for recall to active duty. I got a polite "thanks, but no thanks" response.)

I haven't seen a Muslim yet to this day that I didn't want to kill on the spot.

Religion of peace my ***.

I drew a line in the sand that day, well before W Bush gave his "you're either with us or against us" stance in a speech to come later.

When Obama was elected, I poured (expletive deleted) concrete in that line.

:coffee:

[SciFiJim]

I was sitting on the side of the road getting a traffic ticket, on the way to work, when the news came on that a small plane had flown into one of the towers. My thought was that some dumb**s sightseeing pilot has flown around one of the towers too close and had flown into the other. Before I got to work the other plane had hit and I knew Things Had Changed. Spent most of the day watching the news on the TV at work. When I contacted the Red Cross to donate blood (I am a regular because of a rare blood type) I was told to call back the following week because they were swamped. Everyone was seeking to do what they could, even if it was only to give blood. That's the only time I have ever seen the blood banks full!

[mustanggt]

I was on my way back to work from having got home the day before from there. I was anxious to share my adventures with everybody. No such thing happened. I flew out of Newark the day before for the west coast. When it became known flight 93 came out of Newark bound for SF I went cold. They were looking for a fuel ladend aircraft bound for the coast so they could do the most damage if you'll recall. My plane could have been the one. Then you say to yourself that could have been me. Why them and not me. We'll never know. The towers at night were beautful from the ferry going around the tip of Manhattan up the East river to the Yankee-Redsox game. It all seemed so surreal to me after that awful day. Like it was just a dream. I wish it was only a bad dream.