I was helping a buddy out, caddying, who was qualifying for the pro-am in Rye, NY.
No phones allowed, and the way the course was set up we didn’t see people. Both towers were down before we even heard about it. Some weird guy we saw looked at us and said, “a real shame about the Twin Towers coming down.”
We dismissed him as a loon. As we walked away, he said, “looks like it was terrorism.”
I stopped cold in my tracks, and somehow thought maybe this could be true. Suddenly he didn’t seem weird, he was in a state of shock.
I had an illegal phone. Tried to use it. All circuits were down. This was chilling.
I finally got through to my party.
She was crying, and said, “where are you??? We are at war.”
The world changed.
Driving home from work.
Or I had just parked and gone up to fetch the mail.
izlamo delenda est …
In my living room, thanking God that my husband had returned earlier than expected from a NYC business trip.
On my way to work.
I got there in time to see the second plane impact on television.
I was lying on the couch recuperating from hernia surgery. It seemed eerily quiet in the neighborhood that day, as if time stood still.
I had stayed home from work to get internet fixed. Calling support in Pennsylvania was on the the line as watching the news as the planes hit. Person on the line couldn’t believe my gasp asked what was the matter,told him, he was shocked. work called me later to tell me to stay home. It has not been the same since.
islam delenda est.
I was in my office in Spain and a colleague came in to tell me that the “Torres Gemelas” had been destroyed. I couldn’t take it in at first. The next day we observed a five minute silence at the same time the first plane hit.
In refit on the USS Florida (SSBN 728) Gold crew at Bangor, Washington. Was riding the bus to the lower base when we heard about it. We were ordered to put everything back together to sortie at sea. We didn’t end up going until the scheduled end of refit, but nothing was the same after that.
I was on Nevis in the Carib setting up an off shore account. We stopped at a small roadside convenience store that had a TV hanging up and saw the burning towers. We were WTF? Stuck there 3 days with the air flights were shut down.
Hard to imagine it but we’re in worse straights now.
I was in the barber chair getting a fresh flattop. Watching the morning news.
Outside at the office, smoking a cig, someone came out and told us. Shortly thereafter, my mother called me crying. The rest of that day is a blur.
At work, as soon as we heard of the first impact, many of us went to the conference room and watched as the second plane made its impact. Shortly thereafter, people were standing at the windows with flames and smoke billowing, the jumpers started, the Building started to crumble. Stunned. Silence. Conversation was subdued the rest of the day.
Driving My husband to the airport in Chicago. We’re listening to some preprogrammed music station. My daughter in law called and let us know what was happening. I fearfully didn’t want to leave Alan at the airport. No flights were taking off. Went to the office (my small warehouse business) we watched the towers come down on TV I the break room and then all my employees prayed together and sang God Bless America. It felt like being in a very weird, very bad dream. I’m feeling some of that fear again.
Found out as I arrived at the hospital for my father’s heart surgery. Nurses were crying everywhere and were trying very hard to take care of business.
Local Tallahassee Democrat Zings
https://data.tallahassee.com/zing/
Besides constant criticism of our Governor, today one idiot compared 1/6/2021 to 1/9/2001.
Just getting up in Seattle. Geoff C. was already in the kitchen with the tee vee on. The first plane had hit and I sat down, eyes glued to the set, when the 2nd plane hit. That’s when we knew it was a planned attack. #1 daughter, a new first grader, was coming downstairs so we turned off the tube and started our day as we normally would.
I remember how shockingly beautiful the sky was outside in Seattle. A perfectly perfect early fall day. It was a moment in time when one knew everything had changed.
flying to richmond va for work
changed planes in philly
plane never left
luckily was able to secure one way rental car back home
had several fellow flyers join me back to the originating airport
passed the smoldering ruins on the way back home
stayed home for 4 weeks as requested by boss at the time
just like a covid dem panic
nothing but lies about origin, danger or cure.
one play in their playbook
College dorm room. Bawled my eyes out most of the day.
After working split shift, I was in bed sleeping when the phone woke me. My wife had called to tell me to turn on the TV. My brother worked at the pentagon, but had taken the day off to take his wife in for surgery at the hospital. Some tears never try.
…I was at work at a food processing plant that made MREs. The plant had been built for Desert Shield by a different company and abandoned when Iraq lost Kuwait very quickly, and we took it over some years later for a song when it was thought there would not be much demand for such things.
I had a pager at the time, that was pretty high-tech then. I got the news of the first strike on my pager in the form of “SMALL PLANE HIT WORLD TRADE CENTER”.
As the news came in, people started rotating in and out of the break rooms to watch whatever they could. In our position, it was very relevant. Management took the hint and got together with us about current and surge capabilities.
We had plans for a military surge by sunset.
And we needed it within the week.
Everyone KNEW it was war after the second plane. Everyone was READY for war after the second plane.
I was involved from here and from my firefighter friends. We had a local contingent of firemen jump in a pickup and go to NYC that day with turnouts and tools in hand, that helped in the SAR efforts at Ground Zero.
I do not forget.
But as for the Nation?
Well, we elected a Muslim as President while STILL fighting the Muslims who ATTACKED US. THAT went about as well as you’d expect.
Offhand, I’d say the NATION forgot.
But we should REMIND them. Today of ALL days.
I will not foul this remembrance with further discussion of what disgraces the White House in the current day. But it’s further proof that many need the reminder.
Never forget. Even if the media tells you everyone ELSE did.
ESPECIALLY if the media tells you everyone ELSE did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6yLQRF-cEU
I was home not so long after taking my two youngest to school.
It is my middle child’s birthday today also. The night before, I had told him that when he wakes up in the morning, the whole world will be celebrating his B-day.
Boy. Sometimes the BS I said for fun was just SO wrong back then.
Today is also Tom Landry’s birthday. That was good enough to share the date with. This was a bit too much.
Installing countertops on Woodward Avenue. We did a lot of work at this location over the years and knew everyone that worked there well. There was no access to television there so we didn’t know the extent until lunch when we saw the television at the restaurant we went to eat at. I didn’t have an appetite by then and just had coffee. The drive home at the end of the day was very eerie. Detroit area freeways were basically empty.
I was at the factory on the eastern shore of MD, supporting a production ramp-up of a new product. When first told I was shocked, but assumed it was somehow an accident. We continued our jobs. When the second hit everyone new it was on purpose…but why? All work stopped at the factory and everyone was sent home. The state of MD closed the chesapeake bay bridge for fear it would be bombed. I was stuck on the eastern shore until evening, when they finally reopened the bridge. I rushed home to central MD and comforted my wife and children.
I was driving to work at a small office and I thought they’ve finally did it, just hearing a blip on the radio and remembering the earlier bombing attempt. Then I was alone catching up until maybe 10:30 and the copier guy came in talking about the Pentagon which got me alarmed and I dragged out an old b&w portable tv that stayed on the rest of day. 911 never forget!!!
Gorgeous fall day in Virginia. Clear blues skies and mountain views in the backyard.
I was tidying up the house in anticipation of half a dozen real estate agents coming to preview it midmorning. It was going on the market that week, because we had just closed on the next one, that cost twice as much and needed work.
Hubby stuck his head in to tell me he’d heard on the radio a plane had hit a building in NYC. I imagined a small private plane and didn’t even think about what building.
A little later he was back to tell me about the second plane, that they were commercial flights and it was the twin towers. “Are we at war?” I asked. We turned on the TV to find out. I cried often, for days and easily, for weeks.
The realtors loved our house, BTW, but could not sell it then. We carried two mortgages for over two years and came close to losing them both.
I was a programmer working from home, super busy day, had conference calls lined up all day starting at 8am. Just returned from getting married in Hawaii a couple weeks prior. Don’t remember who or what alerted me to the towers being struck, but I turned on the TV when both were smoldering, on the phone with my boss and volume turned down. Saw the tower collapse and was in shock, my boss was on the phone trying to get my attention I remember finally responding, “It just came down.” That’s all I could say, I repeated it several times. The rest of the day is a big blur.
I was angry, confused, and a bunch of emotions I can’t even describe. But I would be all kinds of pissed off if I knew Biden was going to fuck up Afghanistan 20 years later and would be much more cognizant of our freedoms being stripped away. That’s what I miss most, our level of freedom and underlying happiness died that day. I wasn’t political back then, and to be honest I had no idea what it all meant for our future. That’s what I regret most, on some level even as insignificant as it may be for one individual I feel responsible. For that I feel hurt and sad, for our future, for my children’s future.
The same place I was when the Challenger exploded, at work. The only difference was we were all in the break-room watching the Challenger when it happened. On 9-11 a co-worker told me about the first plane and we all piled into the break-room to see the TV. Moments later, the second plane hit. Later, the Shanksville and Pentagon reports came in. Like everyone else, we were numb. I’ve never celebrated another birthday since.
At home, working. Just got back from a week on site somewhere the day before. Got a call from the home office, they were checking to find out where everyone was. Spent the rest of the day preparing, buying gas, food, etc.
At work, called my son who I knew was going to New York city on business wasn’t sure what day. He was there a few days before and took some pictures of the trade towers from the empire state building. My wife and I were in Vegas when one of the hijackers was supposed to have been there. Am older couple next to us on our plane leaving told us they were worried that their daughter who was with them wouldn’t make the flight but she got on at the last moment and was very animated telling them that there was some kind of explosion in one of the casinos and her taxi had to find a detour to the airport. Always wondered if the two were connected but never heard anything about it on the news.
Work, on hold with a supplier. Breaking new of a plane striking the WTC was reported while I was on hold; in my mind I pictured a small single engine plane. When the supplier picked up, I asked him if he had heard anything about it. He said no. Things soon changed.
I was on my way to work riding the bus just after 5 AM when I first heard a radio report of a plane hitting a skyscraper in NYC. I didn’t know what was going on until I got to work and the office TV was on and I saw the next plane fly into the tower and destroy it. It was a beautiful fall day here in Eastern Washington and then this terrorist attack happened which changed everything even this far away from the 9/11 attack on American soil. One of the guys I worked with had a relative in the Pentagon when it was struck by another plane, fortunately his relative survived. And the next 3-4 days were the quietest I had ever experienced in my life with absolutely no air traffic flying overhead towards our airport. It was a very somber day that morning getting ready to make my deliveries with the radio on continually listening to what happened in NYC clear across the country from me. It was also my 24th anniversary since my wife and I were married on Sept. 11, 1977.
I was an active duty Marine stationed in Twentynine Palms CA. My life and work has revolved around the Middle East ever since.
Old “I Own The World” reader/commenter and long time IOTW lurker here.
I landed in Sao Paulo on 9/11 soon after the first tower was hit. I had taken a redeye from LA through Chicago on the 10th. While waiting for my driver, the flight crew from my flight passed me as a group – they were visibly upset, several were crying. I did not find out what happened until I got to the hotel and called home to let the family know I had arrived safely. It was a bad time to be away from home…
I was able to return home after the airspace was opened on the 16th. My original flight was to return via Miami, but that flight was full. The only available flight on the 16th was through NYC, and they asked if that would be OK.
It was surreal: the smoking ruin at ground zero from the air, the empty airport, the powerful drive to be home and around loved ones.
God be with you all on the anniversary of this horrific event. God help the remains of this country I barely recognize…
I remember watching the second impact on Fox News with my wife holding our infant son. I had sales calls, and went to work a bit later, thinking they will put out the fires and repair the towers. When I heard later on my car radio that the first tower came down, I couldn’t believe it. Then after I arrived at my appointment, I watched all the footage of both towers coming down. There was confusion information about the Pentagon, and later about a fourth plane going down in PA.
Then, a third building, 47 stories tall, dropped just like a rock around 4:00 PM. It wasn’t hit by a plane. Just dropped. It was World Trade Center 7. Ask intelligent, reasonably well-informed people today how many buildings went down in NY on 9/11. They think only two. I won’t apologize to anyone for insisting on bringing this up. It’s a very obvious problem that was purposely ignored in the 9/11 Report.
I’m not giving any video links. Look into it yourself. There are many good videos, one of which was titled Small Change. The truth, if that’s what the mainstream mafia and government have been giving us, must be able to stand up to questioning.
Did you ever imagine 20 years ago that we’d be so close to losing so many of our freedoms?
Mainstream Media.
Mafia was not intended, but apt description nonetheless.
Assigned to Naval Submarine Support Facility at the Subase in Groton, CT. It was one of the rare mornings we had no work on the boats on the waterfront, so we were doing small jobs in the shop.
First I heard was when I checked my phone messages and my fiancee left a frantic message about a plane or planes hitting the World Trade Center. I tuned the shop radio to the Boston news station just in time to hear a third plane had hit the Pentagon. I announced to my shipmates and co-workers, “We’re at war!”
It wasn’t long before the entire Subase came to a standstill as the Brass tried to determine what needed to be done. The Base security level was immediately raised to Delta. Over the course of the next week every boat in port was readied and surged to sea. Life never really returned to normal after that
Getting a hair cut. Barber was just finishing when 1st plane hit. I was suspicious from the start. Asked him to finish up. Went to my office a block away. No TV at that time (office was in a Pizza Hut). Listened to the 2nd plane hit on the radio. Immediately started calling stores. I had a district in PG County MD and DC. One of the stores was just off Andrews AFB and another near Bolling AFB. Some of my managers/employees were military so I knew they would be leaving their stores and or not coming in for a few days at least. We shut down operations for the day at about 2pm.
I was close enough to the Pentagon to see the smoke. Later in the afternoon I told HR and the Regional VP that if I was 30 years younger, they would get my notice. I was pissed.
A combination of anger, helplessness, and disbelief is what I felt. The sight of relative after relative showing photos and begging people to help them find their loved ones in the towers was more than I could take. I think I cried for 3 solid months. Just writing this brings tears.
I was finishing an overnight shift at Kinko’s in Donelson. Our store manager, on a cellphone call with an acquaintance in New York, rushed into the store and put the TV on CNN (a somewhat reputable news channel at the time). The first tower had been struck and little was known about what happened or why. We all stopped and watched for a few moments, then went back to work.
As I was finishing my last blueprint copy job on the wide-format machine, the room erupted in gasps of astonishment. I looked up to see the spray of fire and debris coming from the second tower. Strength suddenly left my legs and I stumbled back a step.
Then came reports from Washington that the Pentagon had also been struck. I knew then that we were at war.
I drove home, hoping to get some sleep, but not knowing if I would be able. As I drove past the airport, planes were landing one after another, barely making it to the taxiway at the end of the runway before the next one touched down behind them.
I remember thinking, “I don’t know what lies ahead, but it won’t be easy”.
I was in NYC.
Arrived at LaGuardia from Reagan (DC) at around 7:20 AM. Caught a cab to 5th Ave. and saw the first big ball of flames just after being hit. Taxi driver and I thought it was a Hollywood stunt for a movie.
Worked for an Engineering/Occupational Safety & Health National company, with an office across the street from the Empire State Bldg. I was scheduled to meet with a telecommunications company (whose antenna tower was atop one of the buildings) to inspect their Manhattan facility and develop an H&S Plan.
By the time I arrived at my office, everyone was watching the events on television. Then the next building was hit. The rest, everyone knows.
The streets were shoulder-to-shoulder people in disbelief and awed panic. The subways were shut down along with all forms of public transportation. My return flight was useless.
All auto travel exits out of Manhattan were reportedly blocked or closed. I already had booked a room, days before at a nearby hotel. Our office building was evacuated due to the Empire State Building being across the street and fear that it would be hit next.
Everyone was trapped out on the street. I checked in, to the hotel after several hours of winding and swimming through a sea of people in disbelief. My scheduled H&S appointment had also been canceled. Cell phones no longer worked.
9-12-2001
Went out the next morning and walked to Ground Zero. People still in shock.
There was total armed security surrounding the Site, blocked off by side-by-side dump trucks and other vehicles hiding mountainous piles of igneous and billowing, volcanic-like rubble. The massive smoke cloud, choking the sky, wafted away towards the E/NE. I was due to return to DC that day, but now no way to leave. The hotel let me stay an extra night for free, including the night before.
9-13-2001
Penn Station was reportedly open and I arrived to wait in line for some 5 hours to finally buy a ticket and catch the next train to DC, Union Station.
Arrived at Union Station later and caught the Metro to Reagan Airport. No one was in the airport, and an empty graveyard of hundreds of docked aircraft slept outside on the tarmac.
So, I walked to the parking lot to retrieve my car. No parking charge and I drove toward Maryland, passing the Pentagon with massive smoke clouds hovering over the north, across the Potomac. I was one of a few cars driving during afternoon rush hour.
A sadness lingered everywhere as I drove on empty roads that I had driven over for decades and bicycled over to DC as a kid to walk inside all of the government buildings, at-will and unhindered.
I felt I had entered Hell.
About a Month Later
Was scheduled to monitor dust removal operations with all HVAC duct systems in several buildings surrounding Ground Zero, as employee absenteeism was reportedly due to the HVAC systems being in full operation during and after the 9/11 Event. The 9/11 dust was believed deposited within the HVAC duct systems with the dust and charred and powdered human remains of the Event. Every time the system kicked on with sudden system vibration, it was feared (or believed) it was continually blowing the disturbed dusts into occupied spaces through the supply air registers.
Arrived a second time in another building. This time, I afterward walked the streets and still saw people with photographs of their missing loved-ones, imploring/asking/begging people, “Have you seen this person?” with ever-failing hope and horror. After several hours of this very saddening and heart-wrenching experience, I returned to my hotel room and wept all night (the tears always come every 9/11). Left the next day, as the dust abatement had passed the testing and inspection.
Aftermath
Lost a close business colleague that Day from Texas, to whom I spoke over the phone many times concerning upcoming projects for his company, which I would be conducting. I will never hear that friendly voice ever again. The company I was working for had a long-standing multi-million dollar contract for monitoring and testing asbestos abatement projects at the two now-vanished buildings. Soon after, the company slowly folded. I left before then and started my own company.
I Shall Never Forget.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/11/images-911-visual-remembrance/
On the first week of a 2 week vacation on Molokai. I never have the tube on except in the evening but while I was waiting for my wife to emerge so we could head out for breakfast, I turned it on. With the 6 hour time difference, both towers had already come down. At the very first I thought I was watching an ultra-realistic movie depiction until my brain kicked in.
I had just got back home from dropping my daughter off at school and running some errands, turned on the tv and it was on all channels.
Ironically, we were in a meeting planning F-15 sorties for the day, over the northwest. We did not need orders. Everyone instinctively knew what to do. Jets were loaded and launched hours before we got the call. Ditto for F-15 training base, Klamath Falls.
I was at McDonald’s sitting in my car eating breakfast listening to the news on the radio when It was announced a plane had hit the twin towers in NY. I’m in Virginia. I thought some poor guy must have had a heart attack and but the towers. Then when it was announced the second plane hit my brain finally clicked I rushed home and watched the rest of that horrible day on TV. When the towers fell I cried for all the lost lives. For all the innocent people going about their lives. I still cry on 9/11. I doubt if I will ever stop.
I was actually in a large aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean.
I landed in Dublin, Ireland that morning and got a 9/11/2001 customs stamp in my passport to prove it.
I rented a car and drove to Galway, Ireland where I had a job to do.
I met with a contractor and had lunch. It was +5 Eastern Standard Time, so about 8 AM in NYC.
I checked into the hotel and was about to take a nap, having flown all night to get there I was beat.
I got a call from my girlfriend on my new international cell phone very concerned about my location.
Needless to say I didn’t sleep and ultimately went to a pub with my local contacts.
Everyone was riveted to the TV’s, watching it all unfold in real time.
I was there for two weeks and couldn’t wait to get home.
It felt very weird & sad being in another country while mine was attacked.
At work in an office building in Montvale NJ. We watched the towers come down in the break room and I told the boss I was leaving for the day. I could see the smoke from the roads on the short drive. My neighborhood friend Mario and I talked for hours. He never heard of Al Qaeda or the 1992 attack on the towers. I told him it was Islamo-Nazis. The president at the time said Islam was a religion of peace. 7 years later, we put one of them in the White House. Now, after a short respite with a real American as president, we have a creature in the WH arming them and giving them pallets of cash.
20 years ago and today we are not allowed to criticize Islam. The most successful terror attack in history.
I was still in bed on the west coast. Turned on the TV and saw the first tower burning, which got me to sit up and put my glasses on. They were discussing a small plane hitting the tower, and I only saw one side of the building. I was sitting there thinking to myself “that’s way too much damage for a small plane”, wondering if someone hacked a VOR navigation beacon and a business jet got led off course. I no sooner finished the thought and the camera panned out a bit, flight 175 darted into view on the camera and struck the second building. I sat straight up in bed and yelled “WTF!?!” waking my wife up. We sat and watched until the towers came down. Bits and pieces came in about a bomb attack at the Pentagon, and another plane crash, the west coast news was having trouble reporting things as the fog of war descended on their east coast affiliates.
I was an engineer for a major computer company, and was allowed to work from home a couple days per week even back then. Once the info came out that the Pentagon attack was another plane, I made the decision not to go to my office just in case there were attacks pending on the west coast. Things just kind of came to a halt, and we watched the TV in utter disbelief.
The next morning I forced myself to drive to work. I sat in my office and had no idea what to do. I opened my email and found an all-points blast from top management with a simple message “Support DoD as P1 in all circumstances”. Which didn’t make sense to me, they weren’t one of my customers, that had to be for the hardware guys. Then the phone rang… The DoD was doing combat damage control, and were in fact now my most important customer. They needed some answers… I remember scribbling numbers and equations and filling my whiteboard as the tears welled in my eyes… I stopped at one point and started at the mess I was making and spiraled for a moment “Why? I’m just a nerd, how did this land on me?” And I thought about all the old guys in the neighborhood I grew up in. Bunch of WWII vets… Across the street, at front of the LST when it hit Omaha beach. A couple doors down fought on Iwo Jima, four doors down, took a bayonet in the gut on Okinawa. I uttered prayer “Please God don’t let me screw this up” and delivered my answers.
Posting as Ghost, remotely this morning from the ADK bunker, with wonky connection.
So that morning I got to work early, to prepare for a client meeting at Maple Grove Cemetery, located in Queens, NY.
The office I worked in at the time was in Hastings on Hudson, NY which is about 20 miles directly up river from Ground Zero.
I was listening to local radio WABC, that morning and everything completely unfolded live on air as it was happening.
As a matter of fact while there at the office, a guy was being interviewed down at the Trade Center at the time, the second plane hit and I heard it through the phone and the guy being interview started screaming like a banshee.
It was at that point the meeting and drive to Queens was not going to happen.
So me and a buddy of mine took a walk to a small little park in town located on top of a bluff on the Hudson facing south, looking down the very wide throat of the Mighty Hudson River.
From 20 miles away on the clearest day imaginable my friend and I saw the massive plume after both towers came down in the distance beyond the GW Bridge, stood their in our shock for about 15 minutes and we both went drove to my house and then about six other friends showed up and we just sat in amazement eyes fixed to the tv, like you all, but for me and Mary Hatch?
It rocked our world then and still does.
We were only there four days before, after doing one of our NYC Lower Manhattan tours with a ride on the Staten Island Ferry.
So we decided to get the Bunker we have now, just a couple of years after it happened.
One of the best decisions we ever made, to get away when we want to after that whole life changing event.
On the way into work I heard about a report of a plane hitting one of the Twin Towers. No other details given because it was soo soon. Immediately upon arrival I turned on the TV in my production studio to see the live footage. There was still speculation going on. As I stood watching, the second plane hit the tower. At that point I knew this was no accidental flight accident. My next reflex was to flip on the main control switch to all the corporate TV’s in the complex so as to carry the live news feed. 2000 employees were tuned in simultaneously in real time. As I walked through the tri-complex checking to see all monitors were working there were clusters of employees standing in silence watching. From that point forward it was a surreal, horror, nightmarish blur.
Just a week before the 911 attack I had met a talented young software developer from NY at a trade show. I had just finished reporting on a sample of his software to the IT development staff back at my work. I attempted to contact him a week later to discuss the software. As it turned out his office was in one of the smaller buildings included in that WTC complex. He had witnessed people jumping to their deaths. His building was evacuated before the towers fell and fortunately he survived. Psychologically he wasn’t so lucky. The experience of watching others jump from the building impacted him so much that he went into chronic depression. I would call from time to time, checking up on him and with each call the contact person told me there was no improvement in his condition. After six months I stopped calling. He became another innocent victim of 911.
And now 20 years later that rotting bag of oatmeal, Joe Biden, not only surrendered to these murderers but he built them into the largest terrorist army in the world. BASTARD.
I was fast asleep when my mother called from the east coast sometime after 6 a.m. “You’d better get up NOW and turn on your television. All hell is breaking loose.” I spent the rest of the day watching television, praying, and crying. Went to the post office later to pick up the mail and was struck by the number of people in town who had mounted large American flags to the back of their pickups.
I want to say that by and large we are all anonymous here. I don’t know you, you don’t know me. But as I read the stories above mine I am struck by the number of people who either are/were service members or serve in an industry that supports our nation’s defense. God bless every one of you. I can’t fully explain it, but it comforts me knowing I’m surrounded by you in this group.
“Amen – bfh”
Twenty Years ago I was the Active Duty Manager for a Texas Air National Guard Special Operations Weather Flight.
– I had just gotten back to the office from our Ops Group weekly meeting. I heard on the radio that there had been an explosion at the World Trade Center. I remember the last explosion and wondered if it was another Terrorist bombing. I went down to storage and pulled out a small TV from one of the Team kits. I had it set up and tuned in just in time to see the second plane hit live on TV.
I called the Boss at his job and said “We are at war”
He had been watching as well and we started discussing plans for the next two weeks.
I hung up that call and started the Recall Roster…
I notified my unit members to tell their employers to prepare for their absence, and to pack their bags, triple check their gear, and prepare their families.
I then called AFSOC and notified them that all unit members are accounted for and prepared for 72 hour deployment as required.
My first team went out the door in December 2001, our unit had at least one person deployed in support of OEF and OIF from 2001 until I was medically retired in 2010.
While I was in Kabul in 2003 the backstabbing POS that I voted for in 2000 changed the ROE to handcuff the Heroes who won the war, and installed Islam as the government of Afghanistan,
AND started the purge of our military leadership to install the Pro-Islam brigade that runs it today.
I was NOT surprised when bush voted for Hillary or when he voted for biden.
We as a Nation have forgotten 911…
The proof is that we have actual Terrorist sympathizers elected to congress,
AND
We have a Dictator that actually said for the record that he is losing patience with Law Abiding American Citizens,
And we haven’t Tarred and Feathered him and Strung up those who are controlling him.
We as a Nation HAVE FORGOTTEN 911
Just Imagine a World WITHOUT Islam.
Then and only then can we forget 911
On vacation in a little house overlooking Lewis Bay, Hyannis MA. Flew into Boston Logan from Richmond VA that Saturday.
Hadn’t turned on the TV once, but wanted a quick weather check before my Buddy Dan and I went out on the water fishing that day.
Then the news started to break and the day went haywire.
I went to tell the construction crew working on the house next door after I saw plane 2 hit on live TV
We watched as a squadron of fighter aircraft launch from in formation from Otis AFB shortly thereafter.
Also, our house was at the end of the Hyannis runway to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and there was constant air traffic. Then there was NONE. Eerily quiet.
That day and the ones after it were surreal.
Finally got my fishing trip a few days later. Coast Guard approached us and gave us a good going through.
Car rental waived one way drop off fee and we drove by smoldering NYC and pentagon on the way home.
Neither of us were getting on return flight from, of all places, Boston.
Many other memories but
At a medical facility in Westlake, Ohio getting extra tests to see if I had cancer. The tech who was working with me was a former Army medic with a son in the military. It was grim
One other quick remembrance from the drive home on 9/15 was being on I-95 south by Newark airport. A heavy commercial airliner was coming from the south to land.
He was low and slow, but southbound drivers couldn’t help from riding the brakes, wondering if the pilot was one of us.
@Brown Eyed Girl who was “struck by the number of people who either are/were service members or serve in an industry that supports our nation’s defense”
I noticed that too! And also am grateful to be in anonymous contact and conversation with these good people.
I also noticed that no one has mentioned getting the news while standing at the chalkboard lecturing their college students, or while filming on location. Those people must still be getting their news and commentary at huffpo.
Second day of “Motorcycle Collision Recon” at the academy; first break of the day, a civilian kid came down from the day room and said that a plane had struck the WTC. We were “oh, what a terrible accident” …until the same kid came back down to tell us another plane had hit the other tower. We knew it was on then. Everybody went to watch it on TV; it was that day I discovered Fox. The instructor then called the class back in session and we learned about motorcycle crashes for the rest of the week. Hey, another emergency and loss of life in an endless parade of death …just larger in scope.
New training in new firearms and tactics followed; carry a firearm everyday/everywhere ever since.
AZ was still on Pacific Standard Time in Sept, wasnt aware of anything until after 10:00 AM Eastern Time
So I turn on the TV to see the morning stock market numbers and all I can see is North Tower billowing smoke like a smokestack in a steel factory. That was my initial flippant thought, “It looks like a smokestack
The sheer strangeness of the visual along with the fact that no one was saying anything alerted me thst something historic had happened, but I couldn’t figure it out … Is it a bomb? Cant be, how could anyone have smuggled a bomb that massive into the WTC? And why would they take it all the way up to the top floors. And whats with all this smoke?
Right about then, my wife burst in and says, “Whats happening? I just heard on the radio that someone crashed two planes into the World Trade Center.” And right then the North Tower collapsed and we realized that there were no longer any towets at all.
My youngest sister, who has an uncanny knack to be in places where historic events occur and to ingratiate herself with famous people was acquainted Barbara Olsen, wife to Bush 42 Solicitor General Ted Olson
Ssdly, this lovely woman was on the plane that slammed into the North Tower
I was alone on a mountain plateau at 11,500 feet in elevation hunting elk with my muzzle loading rifle in Colorado. I didn’t learn about the attack until three days later when I went into town for supplies. I went back up the mountain and didn’t see another person for a week while I hunted. Then, I drove home to Texas alone.
I looked at the tv and said payback is a bitch. But later I learned that bush caused it and screamed you bastard!
Larry just weighed in with his IQ score. Have you always been an entry level custodian?
A little hint about toilet brushes for you, Larry. You can squirt Crest toothpaste on them, you should always use a new brush out of the package, not the brush that is in the holder next to the John.
I was a Verizon Special Services technician in DC, and didn’t hear much of anything about it until later in the morning. I ended up on a repair job at some Parks and Rec place in the middle of DC and was told by the people there that the Capitol, the White House, and the Pentagon had been blown up. Right after hearing that the field techs were recalled.
We watched The Pentagon in flames from the top of 1711 Florida Ave.
As far as I know 1711 is gone. It has been razed for some other shit. The DC of my era was gone.
They had already shit on 722 12th Street, which was a beautiful Art Deco Bell building.
I used to climb those stairs.
Long power outage yesterday, so I am very late to commenting, and realize no one will probably see my post, but this date is too important to not comment on.
I was here in Canada, visiting my son after his first few weeks at university. We had plans to get a new office chair and some other small items he had found he needed, as I had a van and he was using the bus.
His apartment was a basement bedroom in Ottawa, and the owner/landlady came down to tell us we should turn on the tv.
Shocked..upset..like so many here, I hardly remember the details.
We did go out to get the chair a bit later in the morning. The office furniture place was practically empty. The clerk asked us if we had heard what happened.
I bid farewell to my son and began the lonely drive home about 5 hours away. As I drove and listened and cried, all I wanted to do was to continue in my car and return to my country. Of course I couldn’t, as hubby and daughter were at home, but the pull was so very strong to just be in the U.S. My home. My country.
I was practically glued to the tv for weeks afterwards. I awoke every morning a bit frightened to turn on the news for fear of what I might hear.
20 years later and that fear has come to fruition.
I pray for our country and the world. God help us, because too many of our leaders have become the evil that loves evil.