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Where were you on morning of 11 Sep 2001?

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
Anyone who lives through a monumental even in world history can recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when the even occured.

So, were were you when those airliners hit the World Trade Center and what were your thoughts?

-N8

-----------------------------

I was supposed to be attending a USAF satellite training class but I had to skip it that morning and do some year-end paperwork at my office. I’d just filled my coffee cup and settled down to get into it when a young Lt came by my office and said something about the WTC being on fire.

We went down the hall to the First Sergeant’s lounge where there was a TV that was tuned into Good Morning America which was covering the story. We talked about what we thought had occurred. We were thinking it was a small aircraft that had hit the building and we were expecting the FDNY to get the fire out quickly. As we watched in amazement, a second aircraft came out of now where and hit the second tower. We could not believe it. Then the alarms in our building sounded and we were informed that the base was now in THREATCON CHARLIE. When the towers fell we felt shock, disbelief, anger… as what we were seeing sank in.

Someone brought up CNN on the big screen in the conference/situation room where we watched as news reports of the Pentagon getting hit filtered in. We went to THREATCON DELTA which means the base is locked down. We all had friends who worked at the Pentagon and of course we wondered if they were ok.

A while later we got word that Pres. Bush and Air Force One was headed to our base and we started getting ready. Vehicles were moved away from buildings and trash dumpsters were moved away too.

Just before lunch we got word that we could leave the building. I ducked out the back stairs of our building and headed towards the parking lot. Suddenly there was a dozen official vehicles and secret service agents, with weapons at the ready, jumped out and set up a perimeter as Pres. Bush and his advisors got out of a van and headed for the secured teleconference room in our building.

We saluted the president and he returned the salute as he hurried into the building.

I ate lunch with a friend that day and the restaurant was totally quiet as every one watched the TV’s that were usually tuned into ESPN.

At the time I lived in the flight path for the local airport and it was strange not to have planes flying for those couple weeks.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,400
22,481
Sleazattle
I was on a layover at the Philly airport watching the shiznit go down on a Bar TV surrounded by a bunch of US Air pilots. Of all the personal reactions I saw the pilots seemed to take it the hardest, at the time I think they thought "one of their own" had done it. Minutes after the second plane hit they called my flight. Me and only one other guy were dumb enough to board the plane, minutes later the lockdown came in effect and we were booted off the plane.

It was complete anarchy at the airport, I managed my way over to Hertz rental area where it looked like they were running out of cars fast. I managed to call an old friend who is a travel agent and get a reservation for one of the last cars. I got into the rental car without a map and just decided it would be best to head west away from Philly and other major cities. I was listening to the radio and there were all kinds of wrong rumours flying around. Nuclear missles had been launched, there were 10 planes circling around Philly etc. etc. Eventually I made it to what was supposed to be my final destination, Elmira NY to perform some servo tuning on a CNC lathe, when I was done I drove home.
 

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
A very close lady friend called me up, told me what was happening and asked me to come over. It was a very sad and fvcked up day.
 

fluff

Monkey Turbo
Sep 8, 2001
5,673
2
Feeling the lag
I was working on a network project at Energis (it was afternoon in the UK) and they played the footage on the big screens in the Network Operations Centre. Everyone was stunned. Before I saw any footage when someone told me a plane had hit the WTC I assumed a small plane and pilot error. Then the second one hit and I realised the world was going to change somewhat.

It was indeed a very sad day.
 

s1ngletrack

Monkey
Aug 17, 2004
762
0
Denver
I was student teaching at Arvada HS in Denver - the entire school just kind of shut down, with teachers and students wandering from class to class to watch the T.V.s set up in each room and talk about what happened - this lasted for a couple of days before stuff started to get back to normal.
 

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
I was at work, in my office. My buddy Kenny called me and was like:

Ken: Dude have you been watching TV?"
Me: No, I'm at work.
Ken: Some chit is going down in New York, a plane crashed into the World Trade Center
Me: Some idiot in a Cessna end up in NY somehow?
Ken: No dude an airliner
Me: HOLY CHIT!

Thats when I wandered into the hallway and eventually find the whole office watching the whole thing unfold on TV. I spent the rest of the day surfing the news online looking for info on what the hell happened.
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
BikeGeek said:
I was in a meeting in the Navy Annex, part of the Pentagon reservation located several hundred yards west of the impact.

Interesting. What would you say to someone like Changleen here who says no "plane" hit the pentagon?
 

BikeGeek

BrewMonkey
Jul 2, 2001
4,577
277
Hershey, PA
I'd love to refer him to friends that watched the whole thing go down, then spent the next 24-48 hours working rescue/recovery operations.

Then again, with our proximity to National Airport, I suppose we're subject to the Government-planted mind-control drugs from the aircraft contrails and we're all just their puppets now. :rolleyes:
 

$tinkle

Expert on blowing
Feb 12, 2003
14,591
6
honeymooning in amalfi, italy.

my thoughts? "must get back to honeymooning."
 

Andyman_1970

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2003
3,105
5
The Natural State
I was at work when one of the engineers I work with said an airplane crashed into the 1st WTC. Naturally I thought a small plane (Cessna'ish). By the time I check the news on the net, and made my way down to the only conference room we have with a TV I saw the 2nd plane hit (live) and right after that they news folks switched over to the Pentagon burning. I remember thinking to myself "This is what WW3 looks like........". The view of the two WTC building burning was very apocaliptic, I thought like something you would see in one of those "end of the world" movies. My wife was smart enough to immediatly fill up her gas tank as that night gas was like $4 a gallon in Little Rock, and I told her to stay away from bridges and hi rise building.

The totally wacky thing about that day (well two things), that was one of the most beautiful days weather wise I have seen since I have been living in Little Rock. The other was how weird it was to see 200+ airliners and all sorts of planes jam packed on the airport here (where I work) and the lack of jet noise that is always in the background.
 

Tenchiro

Attention K Mart Shoppers
Jul 19, 2002
5,407
0
New England
It was my day off so I was sleeping and got a call from a hysterical friend. She was screaming how we were under attack. We turned on the TV and the whole time I was watching it, I was thinking how surreal the whole thing was...

I did however go out to fill my tank, before the local gas stations started to gouge everyone.
 

Skookum

bikey's is cool
Jul 26, 2002
10,184
0
in a bear cave
i had just rolled out of bed to go to work. Always checkin the news mainly for weather info in the morning. The first plane had hit at that time and the local reporters were still clueless on what had happened. Just before taking they had a live feed and i noticed the second plane approaching. From the angle i saw i was curious, thinking perhaps it was a smaller news plane, then blammo. It was hard to fathom, after the second plane had hit, i listened to the local news reporters blather in confusion for a minute then i took off for work.
i suspected it was terrorism, but it was so damn early in the morning it was really hard to sink in. i couldn't call anyone about it being how it was 6 in the morning, then i remembered a pal of mine who lives in Boston. So i called him and was able to find out that one of the planes had left from Boston, and was able to get some info from him.
arriving at work about twenty minutes later my boss told me of the third plane smashing into the pentagon.
picking up supplies for the job a couple blocks away i learned of one of the towers collapsing.
Then i listened to the radio on the way to the job.

Working all day next to Boeing with the planes grounded was pretty surreal. i did my job, but i really wanted to be home. Not because i was afraid, but because i knew this was a historic relevant moment and i wanted to be informed. But i worked all day and got home and watched CNN in the evening....
 

ghostrider

7034 miles, still no custom title
Jan 6, 2003
964
1
Shadows of Mt Boney, CA.
I woke up excited that most of my family and friends were on their way to California to attend my wedding, scheduled for Sept 15th. My wife's mom called and said planes were flying into the WTC, terrorists were attacking the Pentagon, and all flights are cancelled. I was like, ha ha, good one. Then I checked the news and sh!t my pants.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,202
1,390
NC
I was driving to a job with my boss... Saw a few people he knew and he stopped to say hi, they asked if we'd been listening to the radio. We said no, and he told us that an airplane had just crashed into one of the towers.

We drove immediately back to his house and turned on the news, in time to watch the other plane crash into the tower.. It was pretty scary. After watching the news for an hour or so he sent me home.
 

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
40,224
9,112
was walking down to grab breakfast before a 9am class. looked up at the "simpsons tv" on the way (since it's always on fox at night, mmm simpsons) and saw footage of the first plane. watched with a growing crowd as the second plane hit was reported. eventually went to class late.

went on a night ride with friends to downtown boston, where it was really eery, empty yet filled with cops. i asked a cop "would it be ok if we rode there?" (there being government center, where cops are notorious for kicking riders out) on that night he interpreted it as "would that area be safe, as in not having bombs or the like" and said "yeah, go ahead, it should be safe there". :(
 

Trond

Monkey
Oct 22, 2002
288
0
Oslo, Norway
I was on holiday in Turkey. Called the office back home in the morning for something irrelevant, and they told me what happened. Watched the second plane hit on Turkish CNN in the lobby.
 

laura

DH_Laura
Jul 16, 2002
6,259
15
Glitter Gulch
i was getting ready for class, on my way to class and sitting in class while everything was happening. ended up skipping out of my last class because noone knew what was going on and i wanted to find out. watched cnn in a theatre on campus with about 40 or 50 other students for about an hour and still didnt really know what was going on. before i left my house the buildings were still standing, by the time i got to watch cnn they were down.
 

splat

Nam I am
I was at work, sitting in My office.

and things got crasy real fast , One of my Co-workers ( he and I started the same day so we went rhrough orientation together ) was suppose to be on one of the planes that hit the WTC, we started making all sorts of calls , praying to god , something happened and he missed his flight. Unfortuantly He was right on time and was on board one of those planes


RIP Chris Zarba , We miss you !
 

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
I found out about it on ridemonkey funnily enough. I got up, turned on the computer. went to RM, and saw Dave Weagle's thread about a plan hitting the WTC. I assumed it was a little Cessna or something. I was wrong....
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
In the shower, getting ready for work. My wife pulled back the shower curtain and hysterically blabbered something about New York getting bombed. I stood there naked and dripping in the bedroom for the next half hour...
 

Kihaji

Norman Einstein
Jan 18, 2004
398
0
Sitting in class with a bunch of hippies 10 minutes out of thier parents womb and still to this day think New York City is the state capital of New York cry about how they couldn't handle being in class because no one they knew in a city they don't know died.

I could smell the bandwagon patriotism brewing.
 

bpatterson6

Turbo Monkey
Jul 1, 2004
1,049
0
Colorado
Our Roommates woke us up and said "Hey a plane has crashed into the North Tower of the WTC." I was relieved to think about our people in the South Tower. Then as I was watching Tv, the second plane crashed into the south Tower, And I just couldnt believe it. When the South Tower Fell, it was Surreal, I starting getting pages from servers in our NY Office that we monitored from Denver. It was crazy trying to find out if your co-Workers were ok and what the next step wuld be. After that, I was off to work and ended up putting in 70 hrs with minimal sleep. Thank god companies like HP were able to deliver servers to us that we deperately needed on such short notice. (About 55 Servers) My Company had an office (Floors 34-40) with about 700 people + a large Data Center in the south tower. We went right into D.R. (Disaster Recovery) Mode and began ordering tapes from Iron Mountain for recovery of all servers that were lost. (Our Company Jet was allowed to fly the Tapes from NY to Denver by the Government) After alot of hours, stress, and everything else. By next Monday we were up and running when the NYSE opened, and our share holders never knew all the work that went on behind the scenes to make sure their moneys are safe and sound. Luckily, after the first plane collided into the tower, our people were evacuated and told to meet in a special meeting place and not to go back to work unless told to do so. (This was instituted after the '93 Bombing) Thank God for evacuation plans and thank god that everyone in our office survived.