I know that 9/11/01 was a defining day in my life and that I'll never forget anything about it but my two most enduirng memories are:

-I was in my last semester in college and I was in a computer lab working on a project for cell biology. The guy next to we starts getting instant messages from his frat brother who was an intern with **** Cheny telling him crazy stuff like planes are crashing into buildings and that the pentagon got hit. I know this guy too and we though he was joking so we tried to get onto cnn.com but it was too jammed up and there were no TVs or radios around. Now this guy says via IM that a couple of buildings in NYC got hit. We asked the prof if we could do this some other time b/c we wanted to go see what the heck was going on. He told us you can't leave b/c we need to get this stuff done but we left anyway and I got back to my dorm room just in time to see the first tower collapse on TV. A few minutes later we got a call from a couple of guys we played football with saying that one of our other teamate's brother worked in the other twoer and he was freaking out. Not long after that you know what happened to the other tower. We went to see him and he was just sitting in front of the TV in shock. I don't think he could even come to terms with it for almost 15 minutes before he freaked out and rushed home to NJ. I'll never forget the look on his face.

-My other enduring memory is of the day after and waiting in line at an emergency blood drive for 9 hours to donate. I remember feeling really helpless to help anyone and that it was maybe the only thing that I could do. I don't think I have ever been so proud to be an american as I was while I was waiting there and loking around me at everyone else and how they were coming together. I still keep in touch with some of the random strangers that I met that day.

I'm not afraid to say that I shed a few tears that day and a few more now that I'm thinking about this. Just wondering what sort of stuff that everyone else will always remember from one of the defining moments of the last 50 years.

 

I was a senior in high school sitting in my English class. It was a beautiful sunny day. My teacher was reading his email and he got an instant message from another teacher to turn on the TV. I remember the conversation i was having with a couple of my buddies when he turned it on. I sat in awe for a few minutes trying to figure things out. At that point, school pretty much ended for the day, everyone just kind of wandered around school from class to class seeing their friends and watching the news. I sat in the cafeteria most of the day and watched on the big screen. I remember a girl that I was friends with running down the hall crying and screaming when she found out that the trade towers had been hit. Her mom was on a business trip to NY and was supposed to be in the North tower that morning. Luckily, her moms meeting was posponed until the next day. It was a horrible scream, i cant describe it as she ran towards the office to call her dad. I will never forget walking out in the hall and seeing her run down the hall the way she did, just kind of one of those images you will never forget.
I remember going to the office and calling my parents to find out if my cousin was ok. She was an airline stewderdess for Delta Airlines in NY and she was constantly flying in and out of NY. She happened to be in Dallas that day. That was a great relief.
I remember cruising around town with a couple buddies and stopping in at the filling station. I know the owner there pretty well and he was amazed at the 1/2 mile line at his station just for gasoline.
Lots of memories from that day, I will never forget it. I was so mad at who ever had done this. I wanted revenge so bad I could taste it.

God Bless all who lost their lives that day, we will never forget

 

I was at work. Lots of guys in the shop have radios, a lot of us listen to different stations. All the stations were interrupted with a live broadcast when the planes started crashing into the towers. One of the guys in parts dragged up a little TV and we all sat in the parts room for the next couple hours afterwards.

Never forgive. Never forget.

 

9/11/01 was the first day that we heard our Son's heartbeat.

We had a 1:00pm appointment for the ultrasound and even though we were emotional wrecks, rather than postponing it, we felt that some good news would help get us through the day. It did.

My Wife and I look back on 9/11/01 and have both joyous and horrible memories.

 

I remember 9/11 very vividly. I was on a business trip in Northern Alberta and was getting ready to go to work (7:00AM our time). I had the TV on in the hotel room and heard the initial report of a plane hitting the WTC. I ran out of the washroom to find out what happened and then saw the second plane hit. I remember initially thinking this was a tragic "accident" and then being very afraid that it was only the beginning of something far more sinister.
The rest of the day was spent listening to news reports on the radio and television wherever I could. I could only imagine the thoughts of those who had friends and loved ones in the Towers...it must have been horrific.
I'll never forget watching this terrible event happen in front of my eyes and the feeling of utter helplessness as I watched it unfold.
God Bless to everyone.

Garry42

 

I was asleep (Alaska time is way behind NYC) and one of the wives from my husbands duty station called me. She had seen it on the news and had an uncle that worked in one of the towers. She was very hysterical and it took me a few minutes to calm her down enough to understand what was happening. I then turned on the TV and spent the rest of the day coordinating with the Coast Guards housing office to beef up the security for the families at our station. Our guys were underway so it was up to me and the housing office to get everything under control. I was the Ombudsman for our unit, that's why my direct involvement. I also had to field phone calls from several wives that were concerned for their husbands safety on the ship. The first wife I spoke to called me again the following day to report that her uncle was safe and to thank me for being there for her. That was the best feeling, to know that I helped, in a very small way true enough, but it's something.

 

9-11-01 I remember it like it was yesterday. I had just finished working a midnight shift and had to hang around to do group PT. I didn't get home until 0730 and because I had to run I couldn't get to sleep very easily. Well I had just dozed off when the phone rings. I let the answering machine pick it up and when I heard it was my wife I answered. She asked "Will this affect you at all?" I said "What the h3!! are you talking about." I get cranky when I can't get to sleep. She told me to turn on the tv. So I did, sat there a minute then told her I had to go. Since I was the assistant shift leader and th eboss couldn't be reached, I spent the next 3-4 hours organizing a recall for my shift and adviseing of the longer hours we would be working. Total sleep for the day 1 hour, went to work at 500 pm to a police state and we were in charge. Man that was a long day. Oh yeah at the time I was military police in the Air Force.

 

I was working at a jobsite just east of Whitman Field(Oshkosh, WI). I only had enough extension cords to run my drywall tools, so I didn't have a radio on.

The fellow that lived next door came over , and informed me that" the Twin Towers have been attacked, the Pentagon has been bombed, and any airliners in the air are going to be shot down."

I had no idea what this guy was talking about until I got my radio and plugged it in. Within 20 minutes I had packed up my tools and headed for home. I had wondered why I hadn't heard any planes landing at the nearby field, but I soon found out why.

 

I had just gotten off work at dulles airport and got home. my wife had sent me back out to the store for some biscuts for breakfest. the raido was playing some good tunes on the way there. when i got back in my truck i herd it on the radio. so i rushed home turned the tv on and just set there stund as i saw the second jet hit

 

Heh. Hot and sweaty, qualifying with my M4 (I'm an airborne infantryman) at a range on Fort Bragg. The road behind us was suddenly filled with vehicles and troops, all heading to the barracks. Few minutes later, we heard the U.S. was under attack, and we all force marched back.

Rest of the day was spent cleaning weapons and watching CNN, and rotating out on guard shifts. Never forget any of that, or the Presidential Address, when he told his troops to be ready. My buddy and I were in his room watching, and both of us started knocking out push-ups and working out. Heh.

 

The events that took place on September 11, 2001 make me ashamed to be a human being.
To think fellow citizens of the world could do this to each other in this day and age is still beyond the scope of my understanding.

The sad thing is that for all we know and all we've accomplished, we are still in the dark ages.

Habibi

 

9/11 just proves that man hasn't accomplished squat. "It is in our nature to destroy ourselves." Murders will always happen. Just like adultery, crime, etc etc. Time for America to stop being so "feel good" and wake up before there's no America left. Another attack like that and we will be in a depression.

 

Nuff said...

 

I was riding a Bobcat burying a new sewage line at one of my duplexes. I noticed throughout the morning that there was no traffic by about 10 am. My cell phone had missed 22 calls while I was on the machine. I called my stepfather who told me what was happening. The President was in Sarasota that morning within a mile of where I was, talking at a high school. His speech was abruply ended and I remember seeing Air Force One take off and a few fighter jets. My mother's office was right by Sarasota Bradenton International airport. There was a UPS man standing in her parking lot watching Air Force One take off. A few secret service guys skidded up in to the parking lot and started asking the UPS guy what he was up to and looked through his truck. Then they told him to move on. There was also some figher jets from MacDill air Force base flying around this area for a while.

I returned the Bobcat to the rental place. All the guys there were watching TV in the showroom. I went home at about 1 pm. and sat there watching the news all day.

I have never been so nauseated in my entire life.

Kill those ****roaches.

 

I had just gotten to the office (Late!). All of the employees already there were crowded around the TV in the training area. Someone told me a plane had just hit WTC. Like most, we were all assuming a small plane, an accident. Then the details started becoming clear, and then the second plane hit. One of my employees got a call from her good friend in one of the towers. She put it on speaker phone and we listened to the frantic description of what she was seeing, hearing, feeling, but my employee was just glad she was ok. As it turned out, that was the last time the girl on the phone's voice would ever be heard... After that call, we could not conceive of going back to work. I told all of my employees to go home, to be with their families, and to not worry about work at all. It was eerie driving home. The roads seemed deserted. When I got home, my young children were upstairs playing and my wife was in front of the TV in tears. This caused me to break down too. The first of many times over the next few days. We sat glued to the TV all day, for days. We had a special service at church that evening where people could come together to talk about it, pray about it, comfort each other. On the way, they played Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" on the radio and I had to pull over to get control of myself. At the end of the service we stood and quietly started singing "God Bless America". We got louder and louder and kept repeating it. Everyone ended up singing at the top of their lungs with tears running down their faces. The emotion of the whole event was surreal and overwhelming. As posted earlier, I agree. Never forgive, never forget.