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9/11. Let us never forget

Indeed a very sad day. I just remember getting picked up from school early that day. I was too young to understand what happened.
 
brian575 said:
The next 48 or so hours were a blur.
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[long post alert]

I was in the Air Force and stationed in Aviano, Italy, the closest fighter jet (F-16) base to the middle east, outside those deployed already, but they usually only had 6 or 10 jets; we had 46! (23 in each squadron)
With the time difference, it was time for day shift to go home and turn it over to swing shift, which is exactly what we were doing when the phone rang. Remember, we were out on an aircraft ramp in a building with no TV, so we relied on family members calling in that were watching Armed Forces Network, or actually talking to a family member (no Skype, etc in those days!). I was running day shift for my flight and was sitting there with my swing shift counterpart who was talking to her husband on the phone. He was actually from Brooklyn originally and had just called to tell us the first plane had hit. Holy cow! Really!?? But we carried on, as did most people, thinking it was some kind of horrendous accident. The phone rang a second time. She answered again, standing behind me at the computer, and almost immediately grabbed my shoulder and squeezed...hard. I looked up and could see the look on her face. There were many other people in the office, mostly young Airmen, so she was playing it cool. She held up two fingers and mouthed the word "war". I knew what she meant.

I dropped what I was doing, told everyone in the office to go back to the tool room and check out their boxes, actually, every toolbox they had, because we were going to be busy. For the most part, I think they just thought an exercise had just kicked off, and they were grumbling that they had just finished their 9 hour shift. We had just finished preparing 16 airplanes for the next days training flights, and now had to download all the training munitions from them, do electrical checks on all the armament systems, and re-load real-world munitions to prepare for the inevitable call to deploy. We just knew we were going to be called on to go bomb something/someone. Aviano is actually a "special" base and we had access to "special" weapons that we actually were quite prepared to load that night in response to what had happened earlier, but that call didn't come.

In less than 24 hours, we had every jet that was flyable, 20 of the 23, ready for war. We call it 'hot, cocked, ready to rock'. All they had to do was take off and come back without those bombs and it would've made everyone happy. Our sister squadron had 21 of theirs ready a couple hours later. Then we sat and waited....for the call that never came. I wish some different courses of action had been taken that week. It was disheartening to be that close and able to do nothing more than sit and look at our war machines just waiting to go. My (former) career field trains 99.5% of the time for the .5% chance that we were going to do our job for real!

I loaded plenty of bombs and missiles during Allied Force, the Kosovo conflict, and some operations over Bosnia and Yugoslavia, and some time in Kuwait, but this was different; much different. This was for OUR country, OUR pride, OUR revenge on those attackers. Never in my 21+ years in the USAF, did my job mean any more to me than on that day. I spent a lot of time training for something, sometimes not really thinking about why we train so much, and this happens. It all came to me at that very second my partner grabbed my shoulder.

[end long story]




JF16 said:
We were sent home early from Kindergarten. I had no clue what was going on.
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:bulgy-eyes: I'm old.
 
remember every last minute of the day. From being at school, in 6th grade. The school going into lockdown, to watching the coverage all day in class, and me not knowing whether my Dad was ok or not, because he was flying that day. Getting home, and just sitting stunned with my Mom watching the news coverage all night, crying, and thinking. My Grandma had passed in 1999. She lived in NYC, uptown from WTC. If there is something I am thankful for, is that she didn't have to be here to see this day.

If there is 1 other thing that boils my blood, is when someone says "just let it go, it's been 11 years already, move on". I find those sorts of comments to be completely asinine. As a person that knew people that were family friends in the Towers, as part of the LE and Fire community, to just let it go, is crazy. To just forget it is more painful. What about the people who have gave their lives defending this country? To just let it go, means they have died for nothing. 9/11 is something that defines our generation. You can't let it go, it's part of who we are. 9/11/2001 is a day that will be remembered forever. It is a day that affects a whole nation, not just the person. To all those that lost their lives that tragic day, those who are still suffering the effects, those who have gave their lives, are currently serving, and will be serving. Thank you, you are not forgotten. Never Forgotten. 9/11/2001.

Dan
 
Remember watching the coverage before school and seeing the second plane hit. Had a cross country meet that afternoon at the local air force base which was cancelled. Such a weird day
 
I was still in broadcast radio back then and I was live on the air when it all happened. I had the TV in the studio on Good Morning America and they were reporting the "accident" and I had reported it on the radio and I was "live on air" when the 2nd plane hit the tower.

I was the #1 air personality for the station and I stayed on the air for 16 hours that day, I will truly never forget it.
 
Somber day. I remember it like it was yesterday. I still get chills. Thanks to everyone who protects our freedom. To those that perished, we will never forget.
 
Awesome picture ddec. This one is from someone whos working on the last few floors of Freedom Tower. Relevant.

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I will never forget. I was at work the day, and my wife called to tell me a plane had hit one of the towers. We had the TV on in the lobby, and as I was watching the 2nd plane hit. I still tear up when I see images of that day.

We live near Ft Hood, TX and have had several close friends go to Iraq and Afganistan the last 10+ yrs. A few had serious injuries, and I've known some who paid the ultimate price. Whether you agree or not on why we are there, the fact is we are. It is these brave men and women who give us all the opportunity to make this country the greatest in the world. I also applaud the civilians who've contributed to the cause: those who took the plane down in Pennsylvania to save so many other lives, those who've served as civilian contractors even though they were in harms way.

I hope I have instilled the values to my children of hardwork, freedom, and the importance of hard work and integrity. May the lives of those lost or affected that day never be in vain.
 
I was a sophomore in high school, out at marching band practice. We came in and heard rumblings about a plane flying into the WTC. I went to my computer keyboarding class just in time to see the second plane hit. That moment onward was just a sense of uncertainty what the future held. I went outside that night and played some baseball in the circle at the top of the street, and can remember fighter jets in the sky. It was just so eerie.

Tapped from my S3
 
I FELT PERSONAL AND VIOLATED. BURNT IN MY MIND!! forever is the feeling I had like a still picture of how I felt when viewing the emptiness. After all the chaos, after worrying about people, after all the not knowing, and after all the shock, and finally driving home from Manhattan that day, I stopped (strange dont even remember where) with many others and viewed from a distance, the empty skyline with smoke pouring up and away. I felt (as a new yorker and an american) like something was taken away from me. Like we were all violated. there was an emptiness in my heart and and soul that I can not explain. Something that was a part of my life for most of my life was now gone. A simble of my New York City and my United States of America was stolen, taken away from me. I was now further away from it all than I had been all day but yet as I stared and viewed from afar, I strangly felt as though I was actually closer. It was like a slow motion moment that is pictured and felt in my mind and soul forever. A quiet, hurtful, empty feeling followed by shock and realization that this personal violation could even possibly happen in my little safe corner of the world.
 
I was working in Manhattan. Not so far from the towers. I saw the dust come blowing up the street after they fell, and ran in panic with 100's of others trying to find a way off the island. I remember appoaching Grand Central only to turn and run as someone came running out yelling 'bomb! Bomb!' And i remember standing at the entrance to Penn station with 100 s of people hoping the rumour of a train leaving was true, while watching fighter jets in the sky.

I left on a crowded quiet train out of Penn Station with stunned passengers, some covered in dust, some quietly sobbing, others just staring into the distance as if they were in a trance.

A horrible day.
 
I remember I was in the 4th grade and we were supposed to have a pizza party, but it never happened. Instead, all of the teachers were running in between rooms talking and none of us knew what was going on. Then, we got a 'sub' while the teachers watched in the lounge. I remember half the school left, but I stayed. I came home from the bus and my mom was on the couch crying. I had no clue why. But when she said it, I fully understood. Even my little brain could understand why she was crying. I walked up to my dad's bedroom. He was watching it on CNN or something and I just sat there and we watched in dead silence. It was a day I'll never forget. Never Forget.
 
I walked into the bank eleven years ago today, just minutes after hearing the news in the car on my way to the bank. The bank was empty and there were two tellers watching a TV and crying. I looked at one of them and said, "It's like we woke up in our worst nightmare". Everywhere I went, people were looking up, and crying. They had stopped, because the entire world had stopped around them. No one cared. Passersby became our friends and comfort when we needed it the most.

I cried like I had never cried before. And when that first tower fell, I felt like a part of me fell with it. Everything I had ever known, changed in an instant. I was an adult now and I was being ushered into adulthood with a great sense of sadness for my country, confusion, anger, and finally, when the dust had settled and we began to recover, pride.
Above all, I remember the country being galvanized in the days, weeks and months that followed . We were no longer Democrats or Republicans, Christians or Atheists, blacks or whites, men, women or children. We were Americans. And damn, it never felt so good.

Thank you to the men and women that ran in, while others were running out. To the brave service men and women that delivered the message to our attackers, that if you attack our country and our freedoms, we will follow you to Hell and back, and will strike you down.

#neverforget #America
 
Horrible day. I was on Eglin AFB and was sure I was going to war.

My Dads birthday has never felt the same since this.
 
It has brought tears to my eyes reading through these posts and the remembrances of where we were. I agree with the facebook post about the unity that we felt as a country that day, but I have to admit, I feel a large part of the division in this country that I cannot get away from. I feel that too many people have forgotten what happened that day. Too many people forgot what it felt like that day. They may remember as in being able to recount what they were doing or where they were and watching it on today, but they have forgotten the feelings in the core of their body, in their mind, and in their soul how they felt that day. And it is because of that, that I cannot feel bad about some of that division. I won't go into which side of the division I am on or which side is correct or not because that is not the purpose of this thread and I don't want to hijack it. This is to pause and recollect and think about what this day means to each of us on a personal level.

I woke up a little late that morning because my work schedule at the time gave me days off during the week. I turned on the TV and there was Gumbel on the set saying that they believed a Cessna had flown into one of the towers on accident. They weren't sure what had happened as it had just occurred and people were trying to find out. I looked at my wife and said, you don't fly into the one of the twin towers by accident. WE ARE UNDER ATTACK. I was immediately angry and filled with hatred at whoever was responsible for this, but had nothing to point to. I mean and accident was plausible, but in my heart of hearts, I just didn't believe it was. I knew inside that this was intentional and it wasn't some clown trying to commit suicide or something. I watched as the second plane struck the building and the rest of the day was chaos. Eventually I made it over to a friends house to help him reroof it as our place of work was closing and several of us were leaving the area. I only vaguely remember being there and working on that roof.

I also, to this day, find it hard to believe when the government says that they never thought of this as a form of attach. I have a vivid recollection of me and some friends standing in a driveway talking about our country being under attach and how the best way would be to overtake jets loaded with people and fly them like bombs into some of the most important buildings in the major cities. We talked about the twin towers, the sears tower, the transco tower in houston. The buildings in Dallas, San Francisco etc... If a bunch of high school jack asses could think of this, I find it hard to believe that the people in government who's jobs it is didn't consider it. I don't know what had us talking about it, maybe it was just after the world trade center car bomb or some other episode. We thought that this was the best form due to the fact that our government was weak handed in dealing with terrorism at that time, but it had never really been a problem over here. We knew that even if the government knew what was going to happen, they wouldn't stop it for fear of retribution if they shot down a plane full of innocent passengers. Those thoughts proved correct. We had a strong military stance after that day and there's no doubt that our military would shoot down a plane if they thought it was necessary. 11 years later, would we hold that same stance? I do not know, and that is the sad part to me. That is the part that makes me feel like many have forgotten, deep inside what happened that day.

Use these posts to remember that day and to bring those feelings from in your core. You will not like them, but you need to embrace them.

Today is a deeply painful day to me.
 
I was doing the same as many others. Watching on the news in disbelief with about a dozen other business travelers in the breakfast area of a Hampton Inn. I was travelling with a co-worker and we agreed to heading home instead of seeing our accounts. I was testing a prototype XM tuner and we listened to CNN & Fox news for most of the 5 hour drive home. This was by no means the only thing I remember, but for some 300 miles of that trip home Dave and I never saw one contrail from a jet overhead and it was a perfectly clear day! I have avoided travelling on 9-11, if possible ever since and as I sit here typing this the same cold chills run down my spine just thinking about that day!
 
Tuesday, September 11, 2001:
I was in DC on a consulting gig. Our office was very close to Dulles. When the first plane hit, somebody in the office mentioned it, and we thought it was an unfortunate plane crash. When the 2nd one hit, I knew something was wrong. I went to the conf. room where management was having their daily meeting. I opened the door and said something to the effect of "2 planes have just flown into both WTC's. World War 3 has just started. We need to find out what's happening in DC." After the 2nd plane hit, another consultant, called me from his car and asked me if I knew what was happening. He then went back to his place and got a tv to bring back to the office. I remember my brother calling be after the 2nd plane hit. Not soon after, the Pentagon got hit. Then, my mom and a friend calling me to see if I was okay, since they knew I was in D.C. My mom was hysterical. I ended up telling her that I was hanging up because she wasn't able to have a conversation.

Most people sat around just stunned at the events, staring at the TV the my co-worker brought. Sometime between 10 and 11am, Facilities said that we needed to evacuate the building because we were too close to Dulles airport, in case it was also attacked. I remember some ladies just saying "Where do we go? What do we do?" Facilities just said "Go home". Their responses were, "Go home and do what?".

I stopped to get some lunch on the way back to the apartment. And, I remember the TV stations just replaying that same video & images over and over. I got tired of it. So, I grabbed my clubs and went to the nearest course. It happened to be a municipal. But, it was still open. They guy said I could play if I wanted to. But, if he got word from the city to close the course, then I would have to leave. I caught up with another golfer and we played the round together. It was very quiet, especially with no D.C. air traffic. We might've been the only people on the course. I can't remember. I do remember, at one point, having a jet fly over us. It scared the crap out of me because I was aware of the no-fly zone over the US. The guy I was playing with was deaf. So, he didn't hear the jets. Lucky dude, I thought.

I happened to be staying in D.C. that following w/e. So, I wasn't worried about flying back to DFW on Friday. But, everyone I knew was scrambling to figure out air/hotel/rental car statuses. Lots of folks just took their rental car and started driving home, knowing that all flights for the near future were cancelled. That Saturday, I drove into D.C. and went past the Pentagon. The entire area just reeked of burnt wood, metal and electrical wiring. All along the interstate, where the Pentagon was visible, people were parking their cars, getting out and just sitting and/or staring at the wreckage site at the Pentagon.

The next week, I remember seeing rental cars with license plates from all over the E/NE/SE United States. With the no-fly zone enacted, just about every travelling consultant had to rent a car from their home town and drive to D.C. or whatever city it was they were working in.
 
Tough day for so many. Today, the sky here in NY/NJ is (what I call) September 11 blue. Crisp, clean and bright blue, the same as it was 11 years ago. Growing up 18 miles outside of NYC, everyday I would see those towers in the skyline as I pulled in/out of my driveway. To this day, every single time I drive East towards NYC, I am reminded of what is not there anymore and why. Impossible to forget. My favorite time was just as the sun would set in the West and the Towers would glisten like two bars of gold. Beautiful.

The morning of 9/11, I remember running late for work and watching the news coverage that a small plane crashed into the towers and thinking, damn that's a big fire for a little plane. The rest of the days was a mess ...

Living here, I had many friends and family members working in and around the towers, fortunately they all made it home that night. But with all the phone towers down, it was HOURS before we could account for everyone. That night was scary, remember feeling like something else was about to happen any second. Very anxious. My husband at the time was in law school just across the Hudson from Lower Manhattan and saw the entire thing unfold. Still unreal.

So many stories of what if's. I could write for hours about this and what I experienced but nothing compares to the heartache of so many who lost loved ones. My cousin was one of the last people to make it out of the North Tower before it collapsed. He still struggles w/ the memories. My good friend was head of HR at the Marriott that got crushed when the towers collapsed. I myself had a meeting at WTC scheduled for the very next day at Empire BC/BS in the South Tower.

On Sept. 12, I went out and bought an American flag (like so many) ... to this day, that flag hangs outside our home. Not the same exact one, we buy a new one every 9/11. As everyone remembers, planes were grounded for a few days. I can remember the moment I saw the first plane fly overhead heading into Newark Liberty and thought, okay, everything is going to be okay again ... someday.

Although, I will never forget that day, I will always remember how fortunate we are to live in this wonderful country.

~Christina
 
I was working at Lowe's and an old timers wife called him at work and I still remember not believing it was true. We RAN to the back room turned the TV on just as the second plane struck it was the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen. I was in the Army National Guard and thought for sure that I was going into action my number never got called. This is a truely sad day that I will never forget! My thoughts and prayers are always with anyone that was effected by this tragedy!
 
Here is some photo's myself and Regina took while in NYC after the Morgan Cup. Very cool to say I was there

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I can recall every detail and every conversation from that day... its amazing how an event like that can heighten our memory and awareness.

Today, on my clipboard that I carry around, I had the time each major event of 9-11 happened. It was a big reminder of how quickly that day unfolded and how quickly the future of america changed.
 
I was at work and we all stood around a pc monitor and watched it all live on the internet.
Then when I got home, I got a call from my wife who was on a girl's trip to New Orleans with a friend and was supposed to come home that night.
All flights were cancelled for the forseeable future, so she had to rent a car and they drove home from N.O to Spokane, Washington....2373 miles in 3 days.
 
tough day for me like the past 10 years, really changed my life so much. I'm glad i can reflect at a service every year still and remember the fallen heros that day. Really still makes me think about how easily everything can be taken from you at any moment. I know i'll NEVER FORGET!
 
My sister in law is in MN. She called us in the morning and woke us up. Told us to turn on CNN.

We had no idea what was going on. It was surreal. And while we were watching, the second plane hit. It was only the third week of Kindergarten for my oldest kid. I took him to school. Some parents were standing around wondering if school would be safe that day, but I thought that was over the top. Came back home and continued watching the rest of the tragedy unfold. Logged in to an internet forum where many of the posters where in NYC and was describing what they could see outside their own windows. Horrible day.
 
I don't like talking about that day as I lost quite a few people that I knew and liked. Spent the day working at my firehouse. I remember every minute of that day like it just happened.
 
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