Where were you 9-11-2001

[Mark B]

Can you believe it has been 7 years since the planes flew into the world trade center buildings in New York. I had never been to New York until after 9-11 and did not really know the size of the world trade center buildings.
I went to the site and saw a massive hole in the ground where the buildings once stood. It makes you realize how short life is.
On 9-11-2001, I was at one of the resorts I manage on the beach getting ready for our morning coffee and donuts to meet our residents staying at the resort for the week. I manage timeshare resorts. The television was on in the office and I saw one of the world trade center buildings on fire. News was that a plane hit the building. Not knowing the size of the building, I thought it was a small prop plane. A few minutes, live on TV, I saw the 2nd plane crash into the other building. I will never forget that felling that we were under attack by terrorists. Innocent people just doing there jobs. I do not know anyone who died on that terrible day, but I an sure that some of my VX family does.
Never forget those who died that day.

[Pepino]

I was back in Mexico City in 7th grade i remember our school principals came to our class explaining to us what happened and telling us that this might be the begening of WWIII and the whole day we were watching the news during class

[Knigh7s]

They say, you will never forget what you were doing as you found out. I remember the day clearly. My mom was nagging me to get up and drop my brother off at school. Of course I was being an *** about it because I had to walk to school everyday. But I eventually got up and drove him there. On my way back, I fell asleep at the wheel, but woke up because of the line breaks between lanes (they use those little ball things instead of white paint). Lucky I had taken a back road that no one ever used before. I got home stragled up the stair to go back to sleep, but glanced at the TV in my parents room to see the first tower in flames moments before the second one hit... I just couldn't believe what I was seeing... Thinking that it has to be a movie or something.... sure enough it was real and live. A few weeks later, my dad was sent out there (overseas, don't know where exactly) for a month or so... I personally didn't know anyone that was in the towers when it had happened, but do know some friends that had friends or family lost in the towers.

RIP, and never forget...

[Scott Harness]

Walking the dog,got back right after the first plane hit.They still thought it was an accident at this point.Then the second plane hit.No accident. My wife and several good friends are flight attendents for American Airlines.In New York no less. I managed to get them on the phone before all the cells went down. That was good-still a sad day. Went from a good dog walk to shock.

[Hotsauce]

http://members.aol.com/jchristou/WTC/blast2.jpg

I have other images that out of respect I will not show.

I took that as the second place hit.

I felt the heat of the blast lick my face, and moments afterwards, the pressure wave against my chest.

I remember the acrid smell.

I remember the otherwise beautiful clear day, and millions of pages of paper floating in the sky like some perverse snowglobe had been shaken.

I remember seeing jumpers. Sometimes two or three together, holding hands. They struggeled to maintain their balance as they fell. As if it mattered what part of their body hit the ground first.

I still remember the sound of them hitting the pavement

A customer at the counter got a call from his girlfriend on the 97th floor "I'm trapped here, I called to say goodbye"

I was one of the 'Dust People' you might have seen on TV running for their lives.

All these things I can't forget. I'm not sure I would if I could.

I'm not ready to forgive any time soon either.

John C.

[fuzzy]

I was in the second day of a military simulation conference in Orlando. I was running one of the sessions that day with at least a hundred+ people in the audience when... well, if you've seen The Siege, you've seen what I experienced. In the middle of a talk, cell phones started ringing and vibrating throughout the room and people started whispering and leaving the room.

[Anita]

I was at home. The day started like any other day when I would wake up to the radio and listen for a few minutes before I'd actually get up. I immediately noticed that something was missing in the DJs' voices - The fun, rambunctious, and irreverant duo sounded different. Their voices were monotone in color but something more -the sound was lifeless, faltering.

As I slowly woke up I heard them talk about the towers, airplanes, fire. I realized something happened. Something horrible happened.

I turned on my tv and saw the horror of the first plane lodged in one tower. Then the gasp when the second hit. Then with horror I saw what we all saw. Tears were streaming down my face while I repeated over and over again.. Oh my God, Oh my God..... Such misery, such horror, such evil.

I wished I was there to help, I wanted to do something. I called all my friends who lived in the area, luckily all were safe. They were safe but in shock. I spent the rest of the day watching the disaster over and over again, trying to get my mind to take it in.

After that day, I couldnt look at the footage again.

Mercer (Bantan) was close to the towers. He took a pic. I dont think he meant to get such an ironic shot.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/501/thumbs/225ground_zero.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/689)

[tom4bren]

I was in my office at Ft. Belvoir (about 10 miles from the Pentagon). I never listen to the radio at work so I was clueless until my wife called me. We talked for about 30 seconds before we got disconnected & then she freaked out because she couldn't reach me for several hours. Phones, email, cell, internet all went down or were so slow they were useless. Traffic was gridlocked too so we couldn't even leave. Some of us were going to go to the Pentagon to see if we could help but couldn't get there by any means so we did what we could - we started putting together whatever equipment might be needed - ground penetrating radar, night vision equipment, geo-accoustic sensors, ...

We had a truck loaded within hours but it still took 3 days for it to reach ground zero. Over the first few days, we all experienced the full range of emotions: fear, disbelief, horror, pride, sadness ... No, that day will never be forgotten.

[etlsport]

was sitting in an architectural drafting class.. heard about the first hit over the radio. so we turned on the tv to see what was going on architecturally... still discussing frames and such when someone says hey whats that? then the second plane hit.. first thing the teacher said was "you guys are going to remember this moment the rest of your lives" how true

[VehiGAZ]

I was at work in CT, watching what I could on fuzzy antenna-signal TV, running back and forth to my computer to read the news updates, and wondering if my first cousin and best friend (and soon-to-be best man at my wedding 2.5 weeks later), who worked for Oppenhiemer Funds in Tower 2 was alive or not. As it happened, he left his cell phone on his desk on his way out of the building with a couple of preggo women from his office, not that having his phone would have done him any good anyway.

My wife's best friend worked for Amex at the time in the #7 building, but she fortunately called in sick that day (No conspiricists, she's not Jewish). We didn't know that either, though.

I left work and went home. A friend of ours who was freaked by the whole episode came over that evening and stayed the night with us just so he wouldn't be alone.

[nfpgasmask]

I was still living in Chicago at the time. I got to work late, as usual, around 8:20am. I took the elevator up to the 7th floor where I sat, got off the elevator and noticed that my floor was empty. There was no one around which was really weird. I started walking over to my desk, and then I saw a co-worker come out of the large conference room (there was a TV in there). My first thought was, "oh crap, I missed a meeting, I'm in trouble". So I walked over there and my coworker just looked at me and said, "WWIII just started". I was like, "wtf?". I walked the conference room and saw the first tower billowing smoke on the TV. About 2 seconds later, the fire alarms went off, and the entire building was evacuated. I worked in the Aon Center, which is the 2nd tallest building in Chicago, and I guess they weren't taking any chances since there were still several planes unaccounted for.

The streets of Chicago filled up with people fast as several other high-rise buildings were evaculated, and my wife and I tried calling some friends in NY with no luck. The rest of the day was spent at home, watching the news unfold.

Bart

[MSHardeman]

My story is much like everyone elses. I was going through my normal morning routine of eating breakfast with NPR on. It was just background noise, but something just didn't sound right, and when I really tuned in I heard "twin towers", "plane", "fire" and that got my attention. I ran over and turned the TV on to see the first tower billowing smoke. At that time everyone thought it was an accident, but as I sat there watching the talking head on TV give a live report from the roof of another building (with the towers in the background) the second plane hit and my jaw just about hit the floor.

As I kept watching more reports came in of other planes being hijacked. There where reports of planes going down on the Mall in Washington, D.C. (obviously false), one heading toward the White House, and phone calls from people on the plane that went down in Pennsylvania.

The reports of the plane that hit the Pentagon where overshadowed by the towers collapsing, but I later learned that a friend that I grew up with, who was in the Navy, was probably in the room that the plane hit as it plowed into the Pentagon. VERY sad as he had just gotten married. The story we all heard was that he was in his office (and probably would have been OK if he had stayed there), but moved to a conference room that had a TV where a few of his co-workers where watching what was happening to the Towers.

A lot of the stories of people calling in sick, getting stuck in traffic or on the subway, or just not going into work at the Towers for whatever reason are truely amazing.

It's an unbelievable tragedy, and everytime I see a documentary of that day I get angry and wonder why we haven't really done anything about finding the people who are responsible.

[alanbradley]

Early afternoon over here - I was in my dad's office and my co-worker and I were listening to the radio.

I was really glad my parents had flown from NYC to Buffalo the day before having spent 3 days there sightseeing before my cousin's wedding.

Had it been 24 hours earlier - well, I don't really want to think about it...

Some of you were mighty close.

Take care,

Alan

[Seidmanrob]

Sitting down to breakfast as I was due to fly (as pilot) to JFK that afternoon. Needlessly, I didn't go anywhere until Thursday. Two days later while flying the arrival to JFK from the west that takes you over lower Manhattan, I rolled the plane on its side to view the carnage below. I'll never forget that sight.

[rowhard]

I was at home, getting ready for work. The one thing that really sticks with me was a New Yorker being interviewed and when asked, what the towers meant to a New Yorker, he said "they were our mountain".

Every day I drive the Express bus from Olympia to Tacoma and back, you can see Mount Rainer here in Washington, I will sometimes mentioned that comment to my passengers,... well it still brings tears to me eyes and a emptiness in my heart for those that were killed and the loved ones and friends they left behind.

[Greasemonkey]

There i was dring a semi truck around Marble Arch London - a small car deceided to have a tangle with my front bumper - when we exchanged details he was an Iraqi lol - i spent 4 hours in the middle of Marble arch watching the GR9's flying over head waiting for the recovery guys to reposition my load so i could carry on
cheers
Steve

[Newsman]

As my nick says, I actually am a newsman -- I was producing at WCBS-AM (one of the two big all-news radio stations in NYC) when the first plane went in.

Up until that point it was a normal, run-of-the mill day. It was actually primary day in New York City and I was on the phone with one of our reporters, talking about where she should go.

That's when three things happened at once -- a service that we have that monitors police and fire radio frequencies started going nuts, a phone call came into the newsroom about something hitting the World Trade Center and one of the morning drive anchors poked his head out of the studio and said "Hey, there's some smoke coming from Lower Manhattan -- any idea what it is?"

Then, and as we all know this isn't just a turn of phrase, all hell broke loose.

Rob