Can we have a place to post our 9/11 memories?

I’m 23 now. Waking up to get ready to go to school in the 8th grade. Turned on the news as usual, and saw it live. Watched it for a while, thought nothing big of it. Watched it some more, cameras switched to a second plane, and I saw it live crash into the second tower. I was like whoa! Went to school, everything still seemed normal. Like it was just kept in NY and no where else. The atmosphere was kind of calm and being in San Diego, it was just a gorgeous day. Got home, couldn’t watch DigiMon. Just watched the news all day. I remember being glued to the tv and such.

I had actually called in sick during the middle of the night, so when I got up around 7:30 (Pacific time) it was of course all over the news. I sat glued to the television for most of the day, and was talking to a friend on AIM when the first tower fell…I think we both started crying after that happened.

I remember saying to him after the 2nd tower fell “You know there’s going to be a war, right?”.

I was in a plane heading to Disney with my family and the Captain comes on the intercom and says…“Due to terrorist activities the entire easy coast air traffic control system has been knocked out and we have been ordered to land at the nearest airport, please prepare for landing”.

I was like….HS!! We are flying in east coast air which means we are flying blind! And it wasn’t until the wheels hit the ground that the sounds of screams and gasps as people found out on their cell phones what was really happening. Planes were flying into building and I was in a damn plane!!

We exited the plane only to be greeted the the Indiana National Guard waving M-16’s and screaming “GET THE HELL OUT OF THE TERMINAL NOW!!” That only added to the fear of this unkown unfolding around us. Panicked people we running full tilt down the terminal and we were then greeted by more chaos as crowds of scared and confused travelers struggled to make sense of this event.

We were stuck. There was no ne to tell you what to do next so I switched into survival mode and booked a room, rented a car, and sat down to digest the moment.

I am still working on that part.

I was only 6 years old. I was at school and had no idea what was going on :/
Think that almost this very moment 10 years ago, we were being attacked.

My answer

The company I used to work with sent us to a house to paint and as we got in the house the guy had his TV on about the time the first plane hit the towers. It was hard to get anything done after that. The home owner was a cop and he had to gear up and report to work on his day off. We were glued to the tube all night after we got home. Up until then it was Gary Condit and Chandra Levy all the time but after that day that story was so page 5.

We got up on the West Coast after the planes had hit the towers (9 A.M. Pacific Time). We watched the replay of the second plane hitting the tower. I remember the reports of people jumping (so horrifying to think about). Then we saw the towers fall (so surreal, so totally dumbfounding).

I remember the horror and emptiness I felt at so much loss of life. The empty, waiting ambulances with no patients.

I remember that there was no leadership, total confusion. I remember that they were scrambling fighters to accompany airliners. No one knew what was going on, whether the attack would expand, what it all meant.

My answer

These past 10 years have gone by so quickly. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. My son (that I was pregnant with when this happened) is going to be turning 10 soon. Sometimes I get sad thinking that we’ve been at war the whole time he’s been alive (he was born at the end of February). I had a friend that died in the Pentagon, it’s hard thinking that he’s been gone for 10 years now.

I was in Connecticut working at a Submarine Base. We saw the first plane hit and we all said “What an idiot” , referring to the pilot. When the second one hit, the base went on high alert status immediately. I told my wife to turn on the tv. I spent the whole night on the base preparing for a war. I distinctly remember my boss saying “This is what we train for”.

I was having breakfast, watching the news talk about the first tower being hit by a plane.
I was trying to figure out how bad a pilot had to be to hit the tower on a clear day.
Then the second plane came in the picture.
Before it could hit the tower, I thought “terrorists!”.
I went to work, and did nothing for half a day, while my company tried to figure out what to do. I work for the phone company, and they didn’t want us blocking streets, or in any way interrupting phone service. They released us just after noon.
During that morning, my wife was sending me text messages to my pager. I remember reading her tell me about the Pentagon, the towers falling, and a carbomb near the Capital. (some of the early information wasn’t correct).
My immediate impression was that this was our Pearl Harbor. People at work didn’t believe that, but it has shown to be true.

A friend of mine (and a former Fluther contributer) was supposed to fly back to Baltimore that morning. I called her to tell her to stay home, though she already knew. She was stranded here for a week before she could get a flight home.
My cousin had an office in the WTC. She called in sick that morning, and it saved her life.

That day, while I was still at work, we talked about what the response should be. We had correctly assumed this was the work of terrorists, and not the actions of another nation. We talked about the problem of going to war with an idea, which has no boarders. I remember saying that if we go to war, we have to make sure we don’t wimp out, and fall short. We would have to see any response through to the end. Today, I think that was remarkably on-the-money.

It was the afternoon here and I was told to turn on the TV – I was sick to my stomach as I have family and friends in NY. And I love NY anyway. Being so far away, and fortunate that I didn’t lose any loved ones – I feel unworthy to even mention my thoughts.

I pray for the families and the ones lost on this 10th anniversary. May they know no further sorrow.

I was 21 and my oldest daughter was only 8 months old. We were living with my parents for a few months then. My baby was still sleeping and I was taking a hot bath. My husband called and asked if I was watching TV; when I said no I was in the bathtub, he told me to get out of the tub right then and go turn on the TV that a plane had flown into the WTC.

I threw clothes on, ran to the living room and turned on the TV, just in time to see the second plane fly into the second tower. My dad and I sat there, all day, crying and watching in horror as the reports came in. I fed my baby and changed her and bounced her in my lap, all in a complete daze.

I also remember that because they grounded all US flights for several days, that it was eerily quiet everytime you walked outside. That whole week was sad and downright creepy.

I was living with my mom in Italy and my aunt and uncle from California were visiting. We’d taken the ferry over to the next village for a leisurely afternoon and late lunch/early dinner. As we were wrapping up, saying goodbye to the owners, and getting ready to leave, an American man we didn’t know approached us, cell phone in hand.

He asked if we were Americans, which is a common question there, and we said yes. He then proceeded to tell us that his son had called him to tell him that not only had a plane had flown into one of the towers, that two planes had flown into the towers. The man seemed stunned, like he had to tell someone who would understand. We, of course, were pretty confused and unsure what to think at first. It sounds kind of like a bullshit story, when you think of it, right? How could it happen? Who would do such a thing? And, if it were true, the second plane made it clear it wasn’t an accident.

We took the next ferry home and immediately turned on the news. We watched in stunned horror as the truth unfolded. Over the next few hours, our Italian friends and family showed up at the house one by one, to check in, to offer support and hugs, to ask ‘why?’.

I have to say that I have never been so impressed and so touched by the Italian people as I was after 9/11. There was an outpouring of empathy, compassion, love, and wanting to help the Americans living there. They were just as shocked and stunned as we were. They hosted memorials and moments of silence. I truly felt cared for and I will never forget their kindness.

Seeing those zoomed in shots of those people leaping to their deaths did make me sick, and angry. That’s when it first impacted home for me. Next thing was the towers going down and all the terrified people trying to get away. I wasn’t worth a damn the rest of the day.

I understand why so many people rushed down to the armed services recruiting offices after. If I had been a younger man I would have been in line definitely, ooh yeah.

And later seeing videos of people in the middle east dancing in the streets, kids even, and the Saudi’s remaining mysteriously silent. Did the world really expect us to react different than we did? I betcha some of the more thoughtful one’s were pissing their pants after they thought about it for maybe two minutes.

I was working the ER. It was slow that morning so we kept going back to the TVs in the waiting area to get more info. I was standing there with one of my favorite docs, a former fighter pilot. This guy was the most calm, cool dude I’d ever met and I’d never seen him show anger even under the most justifiable circumstances. Now he was teared up and growling, “we’ll get them,” over and over to himself as we both realized that what we were watching were people jumping from the buildings into the street. We realized the choice these people were forced to make in the lsst act of their lives. That is burned into my psyche forever. I remember a bunch of firemen carrying their chaplain who was killed buy a falling body while giving extreme unction to a fellow fireman who had been hit previously by another falling body.

We all were in shock throughout the morning and afternoon. I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t change my lifestyle a bit based on fear, not to let these bastards get an inch of my life. I wouldn’t sell stock based on a fearful reaction to this—nothing, these motherfuckers wouldn’t get a thing out of me. I took this stance when some guy on TV said SEC or some Wall Street official said that they wouldn’t allow this to affect the market, that they would advocate calm and stoicism. I was very disappointed in the massive chicken-shit sell-offs when the market re-opened. What a bunch of cowardly scum, I thought. One hit and all these suits start running in panic like a bunch of screaming little schoolgirls. I went kind of “I don’t give a shit” crazy and started buying in a patriotic fervor and eventually made back all I’d lost in the internet stocks the previous year in the dot.com implosion.

It turned out that I knew a few people who were trapped in the towers. One was a cousin about my age that I used to spend summers with in California when we were kids. He just happened to be in a meeting in the south tower. I began to see how temporary all this is and that I would only get one shot at it. I was bored with medicine and the industry it had become. I was in a childless, loveless marriage.

A few months after the disaster, I bought a sailboat. I spent my free time on the water, sailing, fishing, diving. I took longer and longer voyages. I began transitioning, learning how to make a living doing what I loved. I picked up a commercial license. My wife and I went in different directions and remain good friends. And now I sail other people’s new yachts from point of purchase to where ever they wish. When I’m not doing that, I sail my own boat and live in various marinas waiting for work. I have bounced off the coast from Main to Key West and from Miami to Martinique. I’ve been doing what I like to do for a long time now. I sometimes wonder where the next meal is coming from, do all my repairs myself and it gets lonely, but I’m happy and independent. I believe it was the events of 911 that spurred me to change my lifestyle.

I was at work that day and a friend came down to my end of the floor and said ‘guess what. A plane has just crashed into the World Trade Centre’. I hardly batted an eye. I assumed it was some light weight plane and a maybe the pilot, maybe some people in the building had been killed but it didn’t seems big deal.

The phones went quiet and we realised how big this was. We could see pictures on the Internet of New York shrouded in smoke. There had been two planes maybe more. The President was in his secret bunker. Rumours were rife.

It was a strange time. We gathered what information we could from the web, but some sites were blocked by traffic. I saw a picture of the burning building with a small grey shape falling from the flames. I realised later it was a person.

I had just moved into my new home. That morning, I had gotten up early to go buy some plants and trees for my new lot. It was a beautiful sunny “fall-like” day——the air was cool and fresh and the sky was a nice clear blue. I drove about 5 miles out of the city to a nursery farm. I was the only customer there that morning, and the place seemed so quiet and serene. It was very relaxing just browsing by myself among the trees, until the owner of the nursery came out and asked me if I had “heard the news.” I didn’t know what she was talking about, until I went into their business office and watched the events unfold on CNN. In an instant, the bliss and peacefulness I was feeling that morning had turned into disbelief and sorrow.

I bought one tree at the nursery that morning, a small American Linden tree, to plant in my yard. It was my “small way” of paying my respects to the victims of 9/11, and a living memory for those who suffered. The tree now stands a towering 30 feet tall——it continues to grow beautifully in my front yard.

I had (intentionally, temporarily) taken a job that required less travel as I had a newborn daughter. My husband was traveling – at a trade show in Chicago and was due to fly back from Chicago that day—he had a scheduled departure around mid-day from O’Hare.

As I was handing over my baby daughter to the day care provider (at her home) she mentioned an aircraft had hit the World Trade Center. Like @flutherother I assumed it was a small private aircraft that had made a horrible miscalculation.

After arriving at work the TVs were re-playing scenes of the 2nd air plane hitting the 2nd tower – and it became evident something was very wrong.

Operating on pure gut-feel, without any further news, I called my husband and said: “Get a car rental NOW.”

He happened to be pulling up to O’Hare in a taxi (fortunate early timing due to unexpectedly light traffic out of the city – he lucked out) and ran up to the nearest car rental place, got in line and rented a car—and it ended up being the LAST car they rented that day. (at about 11am CST at O’Hare airport).

Apparently all the rental agencies figured out rapidly that stranded travelers were going to drive their cars on one-way rentals screwing up their inventories so they shuttered their operations. I remain awed that 1) my husband listened to me and jumped into action and 2) that he got the LAST car rented (he thinks) at O’Hare that day.

He didn’t bother to cancel his flight—he just rounded up some complete strangers that wanted a ride towards our home state (MN) and hit the road.

I worked in the suburbs—and my evil boss wouldn’t less us leave…but all the companies downtown evacuated their offices. It was eerily quiet everywhere as people left work and went home to sit glued to the TV coverage.

After a terrible (and very unproductive) day at work I drove back to day care to pick up my infant daughter and my school-aged stepdaughter and I hugged them over and over as we waited for my husband to arrive home safely from his 10 hour drive. (It was slower than usual because he made stops in Wisconsin to drop off the other stranded passengers.)

I have coworkers who were in planes who were forced to land who were then stranded for days away from their families…so I felt very grateful I was in a “no-travel” phase of life, and that my husband was able to get home from his trip so quickly.

What I remember even more vividly is the first airplane I saw fly overhead AFTER the FAA halted all air traffic for about a week. I was outdoors in a wooded “team building” session on a ropes course. A large passenger jet flew overhead and I was simultaneously scared out of my mind and frozen in place until I mentally processed it. (Thoughts like: “The flight ban must be lifted. It’s NOT going to crash here – we’re in the middle of nowhere. Get a grip on yourself! You should be scared that you’re 40 feet up on a ropes course NOT that a plane flew overhead!”)