9-11-2001 - Where were you?

[12poundbass]

 

[LrgmouthShad]

5 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

 

That's such a great song

[BrianMDTX]

I was a mile from the Pentagon working at Reagan National. The airline I worked for at that time did not lose an aircraft that day. The one I work for now lost two. 
 

I truly have no wish to “remember” 9/11. It dredges up a lot of bad memories. 

[Mike L]

I could never get though listening to that song without things around me getting a little blurry. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[TOXIC]

My office was at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, my vehicle was in an underground garage in one of our other buildings at 800 17th Street.  When it became clear what happened and the intel was that the White House and/or Pentagon was a target, we were all (as was most every building in DC) evacuated into the street.  All communications were down and we were being “herded” down Pennsylvania Avenue towards Georgetown to get out of the danger zone.  I broke free of the huge crowd and headed to where my vehicle was.  I was able to get it out and started the 8 hour ordeal to get home 50 miles away.  Many detours later I had to go by the Pentagon and saw it in flames.  Once I broke free of the city the roads were deserted.  It was very eerie.  When I got closer to home it really struck me because there on the side of a deserted highway was what had to be an 80 year old veteran, in full uniform sitting in his wheelchair on the side of the road holding a full size American flag.  I got home to a hysterical wife because she could not reach my cell phone or work phone.
 

 I will never forget, I will never forgive.  

[Koz]

A caveat to my earlier story. Ten days after the attacks I was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to see the Formula 1 race. Tensions were high, because with 250,000 people there many of us thought it was an ideal target for an attack.

 

I remember two things about that day. The first is that F1 cars going by at 17k RPM's makes it feel like your ears are going to bleed. The second was how all of the Europeans in the crowd consoled and embraced the Americans. I had people come up and ask me if I was an American, offer their sympathies, and either shake my hand or hug me.

[slonezp]

6 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Assigned at the US Coast Guard Air Station in Atlantic City, NJ

As a Search & Rescue Mission Coordinator, I was busy.

For a while.

There wasn't much in the standard operating procedures manual to cover that insanity.

Didn't seem real.

Did what we always do.

Get it done so others may live.

Never forget

?

A-Jay

Your response reminded me of these videos.

 

[J Francho]

The boat rescue video has always resonated with me. So many average people stepping up to become heros. I don't want to take away from firemen and police running into burning towers to help. My FIL is a fireman. I get it. It's amazing to me. The boat rescue is just another example of humanity that day. 

 

@slonezp thanks for posting that. I was gonna dig it up. 
 

I was in my apartment above my now wife's apartment when I turned in the news. I called her to tell her what was going on. When she came up, the second plane hit. 
 

[BrianMDTX]

5 hours ago, TOXIC said:

My office was at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, my vehicle was in an underground garage in one of our other buildings at 800 17th Street.  When it became clear what happened and the intel was that the White House and/or Pentagon was a target, we were all (as was most every building in DC) evacuated into the street.  All communications were down and we were being “herded” down Pennsylvania Avenue towards Georgetown to get out of the danger zone.  I broke free of the huge crowd and headed to where my vehicle was.  I was able to get it out and started the 8 hour ordeal to get home 50 miles away.  Many detours later I had to go by the Pentagon and saw it in flames.  Once I broke free of the city the roads were deserted.  It was very eerie.  When I got closer to home it really struck me because there on the side of a deserted highway was what had to be an 80 year old veteran, in full uniform sitting in his wheelchair on the side of the road holding a full size American flag.  I got home to a hysterical wife because she could not reach my cell phone or work phone.
 

 I will never forget, I will never forgive.  

I was at DCA standing outside between the old hangars (now gone) and C Concourse after both towers were struck and after the Pentagon was hit, when I heard and felt two loud booms.  A group of flight attendants were there and started screaming. Then I heard loud jet exhaust and I yelled to them not to panic, as those were sonic booms. That’s when I looked at my boss and said, “ If the Air Force is breaking the sound barrier over the capital of the United States of American, this is some serious…”. We were then approached by a normally-attired police officer and told to stand underneath an overpass. I decided against that, as I wanted to be alert for any incoming threats. Minutes later, another officer fully decked out with a riot shotgun, bandoliers of ammunition and body armor told us another aircraft was hijacked and its destination was Reagan National (the aircraft that crashed in Shanksville and for which the two F-16’s from Langley AFB were scrambled and flew over Washington DC and went Mach 1). I made the call to leave and go home. When I got to my 1990 Ford Ranger it was coated in ash from the Pentagon. I drive partway through DC on 395 but got off (if memory serves me) Florida Ave to avoid traffic that was starting to back up. I drove up to Rt. 198 to junction onto 295 N. Just as I approached the entrance ramp I was passed by many fire trucks and state police cruisers. They started to block all the NB ramps onto 295. I had my turn signal on and a MD state  trooper came over and asked where I was going. I showed him by DCA airport badge and said we had evacuated the airport and I was headed home to Bel Air (on the opposite side of Baltimore). He answered a radio call and asked me again where I was headed. I told him again, and asked if they were closing the ramps onto 295N as the next exit, Rt 32, was the site of the NSA. He nodded and told me to go. By the time I got to that exit, Jersey walls had been pulled across the ramp to deter suicide truck bombers (at that time, the NSA was directly across where the ramp junctioned onto Rt 32; that entire exit was redone to prevent that occurrence). I called my wife and told her to put a pistol in her purse, withdraw as much cash as she could from the ATM and get the girls from school. Pack food and water and I’ll be home. She said she had never heard me speak (in her words) in my “military voice”. She complied with question, God bless her. 
 

Forget? I’ll be 102 and I’ll never forget. Or forgive. 

[gim]

There are a lot of documentaries about this on lately. I am very fascinated by the intelligence and interviews from people who were there and helped bring terrorism to justice. The history channel and the National Geographic channel especially have some very interesting shows.

[Way north bass guy]

It was a day the whole world will never forget. 
Up here in central Ontario, it was a beautiful sunny day and I was building some stone steps on the side of a lake at a cottage by myself. No cell phones back then, and I didn't have a radio on so I had no idea what was going on. About 2:00 or so, I thought to myself, it’s amazing to have such a clear blue sky and not see a single plane in the air anywhere. Usually there’s quite a few jet streams from all the planes coming and going from Toronto. Wasn’t until about 5:30 when I got home that I realized exactly why the sky was all clear, and how the world was about to change forever. 

[volzfan59]

9/11 was before I retired from the State of TN. I was on duty, driving down the turnpike in Oak Ridge, TN. I will never get 9/11 out of my mind. I'll never forget and I'll doggone sure never forgive.

 

09/13/21 Edit, I guess I was being too macho to type this yesterday, I'm not sure why? I pulled over and cried. Not from fear. I guess I cried for all of the suffering. Those poor people in the planes, the Twin Towers, the heroic Firefighter's and Police Officer's that passed away trying to help others. I felt that day that nothing would ever be the same. I don't mind admitting that I have shed tears on every 09/11 since. There, I've said it.

Edited September 13, 2021 by volzfan59
Had to get something off of my chest.

[Raul]

I was at home having breakfast and watching Dinosaurs ( call me silly but I liked that series ) before leaving for work, business hours for me are 10 AM - 3 PM and 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM but we start very early or very late many times.

Phone rang, it was my mother telling me to turn on the TV and tune the news, an "accident" had happened, an aircraft had crashed against one of the towers of the WTC

Tuned CNN and I watched how black smoke came out from the top of the tower, reporters said  that a "small" aircraft impacted the tower, as they were saying this another camera points to the area where the plane crashed, as I saw it I thought: "small aircraft" my rear end, that's one frigging HUUUUUGE hole !

More takes, bla, bla, bla

Camera take moves away and now I see both towers and then on the right side of the screen the siloutte of another plane appears and begins to head towards the other tower and in a matter of seconds it crashes against the building, I almost choked on the piece of bread I was chewing.

For a moment I thought/hoped that nothing worse was going to happen, back during WW2 A B25 bomber crashed against the Empire State and other than some damage nothing serious happened to the building.

So, we got into the car and drove to the business, it's a 10 min ride from my home, as soon as we arrived I rushed to my mother's home, it's only two blocks away from the business,  got into the house and into the living room where my mother watched TV, she was there watching the news and as I reach the couch I witnessed how tower 2 collapsed.

I went back and forth from the business to her house to see the news and I witnessed the entire ordeal.

 

Let me tell ya'll fellas I am not an emotional person, but if there is a thing, even 20 years later, that can bring tears to my eyes is watching all those firemen, police officers and rescue teams flocking towards the burning buildings trying to save the people inside that inferno. That my friends is courage and bravery far above and beyond of what the words mean.

[slonezp]

 

[Kev-mo]

I was driving to work listening to the radio. For those that live in Chicago area... I was listening to Mancow and he was reporting on everything. He kept saying over and over again 'this is not a bit!!'

 

This was after the first plane but before the second.

[N Florida Mike]

On 9/11/2021 at 1:05 PM, Koz said:

A caveat to my earlier story. Ten days after the attacks I was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to see the Formula 1 race. Tensions were high, because with 250,000 people there many of us thought it was an ideal target for an attack.

 

I remember two things about that day. The first is that F1 cars going by at 17k RPM's makes it feel like your ears are going to bleed. The second was how all of the Europeans in the crowd consoled and embraced the Americans. I had people come up and ask me if I was an American, offer their sympathies, and either shake my hand or hug me.

I met an afghanie man within a month after the attack. He began apologizing to me , with much feeling, about the attack and said he was totally against it.

[PhishLI]

I was about 20 miles west of Manhattan standing at the tailgate of my truck oiling my pin nailer while listening to Stern. His producer chimed in that a Cessna hit one of the Towers. When I got back into the house I told the guys what had happened, so everyone was instantly glued to the radio. My business partner at the time had a daughter who lived just a few blocks away because her husband worked at Goldman Sachs. He called her quickly, but their connection was terrible. We quickly turned on a TV and watched as the 2nd jet hit. Everyone's cell phones had no service at that point, so we shut down and left the job. The smoke plume was already visible by the time I got to the Long Island Expressway.

 

I got off at my exit and pulled into a gas station to fill up, but the credit card terminals were down. Had green, so I was good to go. What stuck out was the silence as everyone was pumping gas. Nobody said a word or looked up. Just locked into their own imaginations. Dumbstruck and worried on an otherwise picture perfect beautiful day. 

 

My partner's daughter was one of the people you probably saw on TV running down the street covered in dust, but she was OK otherwise. Her husband was stuck for a bit at Goldmans, but made it out eventually.

[Bird]

20 years ago I was building cabinets that particular day, cherry to my recollection.....only resource I could over was prayer. 

[Bluebasser86]

I was in highschool, in American History class ironically enough. I had about all my buddies in that class and we were screwing around and not paying any attention when the classroom phone rang. Teacher walked out and came back in with a TV and turned the news on. Probably the fastest we ever quieted down in that class. 

[BassNJake]

I was working a concrete job when an excavator hit a gas line.

We had to stop working at that site and we were told to go to the airport job.

Right before I left, my boss told me a small plane hit one of the twin towers.

 

On my way to the airport you have to exit to head west, this is when I saw all the people coming over an embankment lining up alongside the freeway with their suitcases. They had to evacuate the airport on foot as Cleveland Hopkins was a rumored target for the plane that crashed in PA.

 

 

[gunsinger]

I was at work when the reports started coming in.  At first I though, this has to be fake.  It was a sobering time.

[king fisher]

I didn't even know it happened.  I was guiding a moose hunter on the Alaska Peninsula.  We were camped up a valley on the boarder of Katmai Park.   On the 12 the hunter shot his moose.  I was able to pack the meat cape and antlers back to the camp that same day.  The next day I flew the first load of meet back to main camp early in the morning.   When I landed at the main camp, the outfitters wife came out of the cabin and told me what had happened and that there was a no fly restriction for the whole state.  I didn't want the bears to get the meat, so I made two more flights, for meat, and the outfitter flew the hunter and his gear back to main camp.

       It was a few days before we could fly and pick up the other 3 camps that were out.  By then we had heard stories of float plane pilots getting forced to land immediately by military aircraft, even in the middle of nowhere.  I'm sure glad that didn't happen to me.  I only had a hand held radio, and always flew with it off to save the batteries.  Not hearing a response over the radio, I'm sure they would have flown very close to me to force me to respond.  By the time I got the radio turned on I might have had to change my shorts.  All the clients had to stay where they were until the no fly ban was lifted couple days later.  They allowed the air taxis to pick up all the remote clients and fly them to King Salmon, but they still weren't allowing jets to fly, so everyone got stuck in the town for another couple days.  The hotels were full, and the bar was almost out of beer by the time they were able to fly to Anchorage.  I was glad to be still living in a tent away from it all.

       I didn't see the pictures until a couple months later, when I got out of the bush, and back to town.  That is when reality really hit home to me, when I actually saw what happened, seeing the destruction was way different than hearing about it on the radio.  Very sad day for all.

[Fallser]

I was at work.  At the time I worked at DSCP(Defense Supply Center Philadelphia).  Usually someone had a radio on in their cubicle. One of my co-workers told me an airliner had crashed into one of the Twin Towers in NYC. My first thought was how the hell did that happen.  Several of us were gathered around listening when the other plane crashed into the second tower.  That's when we realized it wasn't an accident.  Within 15 minutes they announced that the base was closing for safety and security reasons.  It took a while to get off the base, by that time the civilian guards at the gates had been replaced by MP's in full body armor and carrying M-16's.  I got home in time to watch the first tower fall.  I remember trying to explain to my mom who was in the early stages of Alzheimer what was happening.  All I could tell her was something bad happen.  We were closed the next day.  When I went into work on Thursday, concrete barriers created a maze we had to drive through to get to the gate.  No smiling guard, four MP's, not smiling,  M16's at ready.  Every car was being searched.   The office was basically chaos, as all the services mobilized.  My job was in Subsistence and everybody needed food, ASAP.  The only reminder I have is a picture of two USNS supply ships loading out at a pier in Guam, my vendor at the time sent me, hanging on the wall. 

[J Francho]

On 9/18/2021 at 7:30 PM, king fisher said:

I didn't even know it happened.  I was guiding a moose hunter on the Alaska Peninsula.  We were camped up a valley on the boarder of Katmai Park.   On the 12 the hunter shot his moose.  I was able to pack the meat cape and antlers back to the camp that same day.  The next day I flew the first load of meet back to main camp early in the morning.   When I landed at the main camp, the outfitters wife came out of the cabin and told me what had happened and that there was a no fly restriction for the whole state.  I didn't want the bears to get the meat, so I made two more flights, for meat, and the outfitter flew the hunter and his gear back to main camp.

       It was a few days before we could fly and pick up the other 3 camps that were out.  By then we had heard stories of float plane pilots getting forced to land immediately by military aircraft, even in the middle of nowhere.  I'm sure glad that didn't happen to me.  I only had a hand held radio, and always flew with it off to save the batteries.  Not hearing a response over the radio, I'm sure they would have flown very close to me to force me to respond.  By the time I got the radio turned on I might have had to change my shorts.  All the clients had to stay where they were until the no fly ban was lifted couple days later.  They allowed the air taxis to pick up all the remote clients and fly them to King Salmon, but they still weren't allowing jets to fly, so everyone got stuck in the town for another couple days.  The hotels were full, and the bar was almost out of beer by the time they were able to fly to Anchorage.  I was glad to be still living in a tent away from it all.

       I didn't see the pictures until a couple months later, when I got out of the bush, and back to town.  That is when reality really hit home to me, when I actually saw what happened, seeing the destruction was way different than hearing about it on the radio.  Very sad day for all.

That is an amazing story and a perspective that would have never occurred to me.  Thanks for sharing it.  It's rare to hear something you haven't heard.  Even my story is pretty much the same as many. It's uniqueness reminds me of a friend's story. He was in the Middle East teaching English as a second language and was abruptly deported and eventually sent back here.  It took him a couple of months to actually see the gravity of it all.