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9/11 stories. Anyone care to share?

#21
I was helping out a friend building a soundproofed dividing wall over 3 floors for a rehearsal studio business. The first we heard of it was when my then girlfriend rang me to tell me of 'planes falling out of the sky', and what had happened at the World Trade Center. Couldn't quite grasp the whole reality of the situation, we didn't have any radio or T.V. there, just the empty shell of the building we were working in. We were both stunned and bewildered by that call and didn't quite know what to make of it until later that evening, seeing it all unfold.
 
#22
I was listening to the radio when the report came in and then I switched to the TV to see the first tower smoldering at the top and then later saw the second plane crash into the second tower. I was pretty much glued to the TV screen after that, the collapse of the two towers took me by surprise as it is an event that totally defies all reality. I'm one of those people that believes that either the towers were built very shoddy or there's more to it than just two planes crashing into the buildings especially when you have a third building collapse in similar fashion that wasn't hit by a plane.

I always wonder in contrast what the average Iraqi's commemorate if anything as a result of all of the bombing and destruction that they experienced on a day to day basis.
 
#23
That day at work I felt sick inside. I'd driven to work just moments after the north tower also collapsed and for the first time I could remember in my life, I was trembling as I walked out to my car.

The restaurant nearby where I had lunch was full, as usual, but in place of its normal din of conversation and laughter was a profound and mournful silence.
 
#24
I was at home working on getting copies of my reel sent out to potential employers when I was flipping the channel and saw a shot of smoke coming out of the WTC. I was watching the screen when I saw the second plane fly into the second tower. A very sickening feeling came over me. Not long after I saw that the Pentagon had been hit as well. I soon heard sirens outside. I caught a ride from complete strangers over to Virgina Hospital Center in Arlington to give blood.

In memory of those fallen, their families and loved ones.

 
#25
That was a surreal day.

I just got back from our Korean wedding in Chicago late the night before. Got a call from my mother-in-law asking if we were alright, and she was telling us that a plane struck the WTC. My wife told her that was in NYC, and that we were OK. We thought it was a private plane that got into an accident. I was on my way to work, so I took off.

I got into work, and there was nobody at their desk. I walked into the break room, and saw the carnage. We were all glued to the TV or calling friends in NYC to see if they were OK. Then we heard that a plan had hit the Pentagon, and chaos ensued. People were now calling to check on fellow employees and loved ones, and the phone lines were jammed. We had employees who were at the Pentagon that day, and luckily no-one was hurt. A couple were in the server rooms downstairs, felt the thud and thought it was an earthquake. Another was in a meeting room, and had debris from the crash hit their window. Unfortunately, some of our clients did not survive the attack. Our employees were evacuated, and returned home safely.

Immediately folks either got busy doing support roles, collected water and other supplies to deliver to the Pentagon command center, gave blood, and did what they could to help. Some of us went home to check on loved ones. My main client went from being a desk jockey to running the medical command center at the Pentagon at ground zero. My job became pretty busy from that point.

When I got home that night, my wife and I went to the Afghan restaurant near our house. The level of grief and fear in there was touchable. When we asked the folks who worked there how there day was, all they could say was "It's been the hardest day of this business". People were not so friendly to this local business.

After I got home, spent some time with my wife, I went back into work. From there, I spent many nights at work...............
 
#26
I remember I was at work (I work at a hospital in Iceland), and I remember hearing some commotion from the lounge where the patients could sit and watch tv. Just as I enter the room I see the second plane hit the tower. It was completely surreal and not much work was done that day.

I have not been to New York, pre or post 9/11, and I guess I've never really understood the size of those buildings until I stumbled upon a youtube video today.

I hope you all don't mind me posting this, but the clip that struck the magnitude of the event into me begins at 5:35 in this video:
Rare Amateur 911 Videos - YouTube
 
#27
I remember sitting in my freshman (hs) bio class. The announcement came over the loud speaker. It took a moment to realize what was being said, I kinda thought of it as less then serious. The teacher stood there and nodded her head listening (I believe she had heard before the announcement) and she stood on the right side of the classroom and remained calm. She told us that we will never forget that exact moment (and I did not). She continued to tell us that she vividly remembers the day President Kennedy was assassinated and shared her experiences with the class.

The next class was PE. We were all in the locker room and in the locker room there was an office for all the coaches (with glass windows and a door). They were watching the news on tv, but for once, none of the students were allowed in the office. We gathered around the windows trying to catch a glimpse of the tv.

We went into the auditorium where we normally gathered for warm ups and whatever else we had to do. Instead, we sat around, mostly in silence. Out of nowhere we hear a low flying plane going over the school. Everyone literally stopped, jaws dropped, and blankly starred around as we heard it approach, fly over, and pass the school.

There was a strange sense of relief in my head, but I was still very uneasy. I believe it was after this class that we found out the second tower had been hit. I have no idea of this was the same plane or not, but it seemed more then plausible.

We are dismissed early that day and were sent home as long as our parents okayed it. I got onto the bus and seniors were talking about a war with terrorists. I thought of my friends who were middle eastern and hoped they would not receive undue anger and hatred from other students.

As we were on the bus, we drove from one part of the Bronx to another part of the Bronx. I remember getting back to my neighborhood, which was very close to the water. I looked Manhattan (had a decent view of the sky line) and from the North to the South it went from large building to large building to large building to black smoke. The very end of the island that was so beautiful with the twin towers no longer existed... it was just burning memories of such malicious acts.

Days after, there was still the smell of death in the air, and it was so mind effing.
My friends and I would frequently hang out on at this dump (literally.. it was an old dump with large mounds of god knows what was underneath..) we sat, as we took part in some illicit activities and we looked across the sky line... it was so incomplete at the southern end. I have no memories of looking across the sky line and making a distinct effort to realize what buildings were which, and making a mental image. I wish I had done so just to keep that memory of what used to be alive inside my head.

American flags went up every where the next day or so. Walls were painted so patriotically. The neighborhood pizzeria... (one of the many actually..) had their entire side done. "Lest we Forget" with a fireman and an eagle.

It still gives me the chills to think about that day. It does not seem like it has been ten years, but it truly has...
 
#29
I was a sales manager for a Police supply company in the Detroit area when it happened. I was actually fairly new on the job and was working with the Store Manager at one of the Branch offices. I had been there fifteen minutes when a Westland Police officer showed up and told us to turn on the News a plane had hit the tower. We had a TV on the sales floor for videos and stuff. We turned it on about 9 am and the second plane hit the tower shortly after. I knew immediately who it was.

This branch was close to the Detroit office of the ATF and Secret Service. We immediately began getting calls for supplies as they were heading towards NYC (mostly Flashlights and boots for search and rescue). I spent most of the next few days filling orders for ATF, SS, FBI, local Fire and sheriffs that were helping in the search and rescue with Surefire and Stream light flashlights and HD boots. I also had to fill some big firearm and ammo orders later. It was actually a boom for the police supply business after with Homeland Security. We also were selling WW II and Vietnam era Gas Masks as fast was we could get them in, to the public. It was a paranoid time for some.

I also remember I worked like three days 18 hours straight and got home and crashed, and woke up startled to the sound of a plane flying over (Air traffic had been grounded). It turns out it was a C130 from Selfredge AFB.
 
#30
I was in high school, one of my friends was running through the hall (a punk rocker you could say) laughing and yelling "ANARCHY ANARCHY" a slapped in the face and advised him to go read a book, or at least a dictionary.
They vacated us to the foot ball field where I ate an entire log of cookie dough and threw up on the 20 yard line.
Sad day indeed as we finally felt what we were doing to other countries for decades.
 
#32
oh wow i was like 6 when this happened. i came home from school that day in i was in first grade and i didnt know anything about it( but honestly who would tell a 6 year old about this while in school) and my parents were so shocked. ill never forget watching repeats of the planes hitting the towers that day.
 
#33
It was my day off from work and I got a call at about 11am from my supervisor asking me for overtime "because of what happened" (I worked for Verizon in Directory Assistance at the time). The call woke me up so I had no idea what happened and she said "Uh, have you been sleeping? Turn on the TV". I spent the day listening to the radio and crying basically. Later that night my g/f at the time got very sick and had to go to the ER. I spent the rest of the day by her side as well.
 
#34
I was a college freshman. Never woke up before about 8AM (PST) back then, but for whatever reason I woke up sometime around 6AM that day. Never watched television in the mornings, but for some reason I turned it on that day. Coverage happened to be on as the first plane had already crashed.

I was confused, a bit scared, and in absolute shock seeing what I was seeing. I woke up my whole family. The whole thing is still surreal to this day.

Ended up going to my early class; but Cal State Long Beach was evacuated because of a bomb threat. The parking lot was impossible to get out of for a couple of hours, so I went with some friends and watched the news in a crampled dorm room.

Most of it is still like it happened yesterday for me.
 
#35
A distant perspective, but no less scary: I was in 5th grade, had my Hindi Grammar exam the next morning (it was late evening here when it happened), my mom was helping me out with that.

My aunt called from New Delhi (about 1000 miles away) to tell us that there'd been a terrorist attack on the US and that we should potentially start stocking supplies, cause nobody knew who was behind the attack; there was a predominant fear in everyone's mind was that we could have WWIII. Needless to say, the exam mindset went for a toss after that: we switched on the TV and watched in horror.
 
#36
I got up early for a session that day, turned on the tv, saw both towers smoking and then the first collapse... woke up my wife, who was 9mos. pregnant at the time with our first, and had her come out and see CNN.

sat and watched the rest unfold for the next while.

packed up the car and drove in to Vancouver to the studio, as I was driving I started to notice airliner after airliner after airliner passing overhead and closer than usual, and then it dawned on me, these are some of the diverted flights from the US....

it was a somber session, got a couple of tracks done, but that was heavy on us all.

My daughter was born 8 days later, can't believe it's been a decade already, always a bit of a mixed bag of emotions 'round this time of year now.
 
#37
I left the USA on the 9th, very late, arriving back in Holland very late in the evening on the 10th so I went to bed right away, was still sleeping when my brother barged in and went "dude cnn now". He's usually pretty unflappable but this time I'm like "wuh the hell..." so .. turned on CNN and saw the 2nd plane hit about 4 seconds after that.

The scary thing is: something came up a few weeks before that necessitated me moving my schedule by about 2 weeks. If things would've played out, I would've been on one of the planes heading back to LA. Sort of started counting me lucky charms after that one.
 
#38
I got up and got ready for school like normal, except there were no cartoons on TV which I was pretty devastated about. All the channels just had something about some planes crashing into a building, which I wasn't even remotely interested in at the time.
 
#39
I was having a cup of tea around a friend's house and he was watching the day time soaps. His viewing was interrupted when the plane hit the first tower.

Then they had Gene Pitney singing "Somethings gotten hold of Heart", which seemed kinda appropriate.

Then I left my friend's house and went to get my car MOT'ed so it was declared legal to drive for another year. The second tower was hit during my journey so I watched a bit of TV with the guys working at the testing shop. There was a conversation about whether we would get an attack here in the UK, near Heathrow, and some of them joked about shooting down any approaching rouge jets.

After that I went to take my car to the mechanics I used, who were Islamic, and they said it was a terrible thing that had happened.
 
#40
I remember being in economics class in my senior year in high school that morning. The class was held in another teacher's classroom. In the middle of the lesson, the other teacher comes in and whispers something into our teacher's ear. He gets a serious look on his face and after a second tells us an airliner has crashed into the World Trade Center. By the time second period came around we all heard that a second plane hit the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon, and by that time everyone knew it was an organized terrorist attack. Pretty much for the rest of the day we didn't carry on with our classes like we normally would, it was catch up on homework time while our teachers kept us informed of the news coming across the internet. Plus our school damn near got hit by a tornado that afternoon if I remember right, which added to the chaotic feeling of that day... they ended up sending us home early, where I immediately flipped on CNN to watch the footage. It some of the most shocking stuff I'd ever seen.

I also remember how eerie it was to not hear any planes in the air for the several weeks after that day. I think they prohibited the small planes from flying, and there are several small airports around us, so we constantly hear planes flying around.

It's crazy to think about how it's been a decade already.
 

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