Where were you on 9-11-2001?

[Apropdoc]

I was on leave visiting my 3 young sons in Maine...I had gotten lost in NYC two nights before this all happened and had driven right below the towers. Was on Pentagon recovery crew stand-by till I was directed back to my duty station three days later, worst leave of my career.

 

[Tsys100718]

I had retired, for the second time, to take over the family canvas awning business in Pittsburgh and I was appearing in court that morning. And hoping that it wouldn't take that long since there was a golf outing sponsored by a supplier that I wanted to go to. The Judge announced in open court that a plane had hit some building. and that was it. Our case was heard and in the middle of my testimony, the Judge announced that WTC2 had been hit as well. Court was dismissed and I returned to the workshop. I really didn't feel much like golf after hearing what had happened. I got back to the shop and the entire crew was in the break room huddled around the TV. I got back just as the first tower crumbled. The next day I spoke with the supplier and found out that Flight 93 was flying low over Donegal, Pa, where the golf course was and that the golfers actually saw the smoke plume from the crash. Prior to retiring, I had been doing IT consulting world-wide and I had worked a few contracts for companies with offices in both WTC1 and 2. I cannot honestly say that I lost friends, but I did loose a few acquaintances. Being a history buff, it is hard to imagine that WW II started with 2,117 American deaths at Pearl Harbor, but 2,852 in the two towers and on the 4 planes and 125 at the Pentagon. So 2,996 total.

They say that you never forget where you were during tragedies like these. I remember vividly where I was when Cronkite announced JFK's death, when Nixon resigned and now 9/11!

 

[wdk450]

Being on the West Coast, my teen aged daughter and I watched everything happen on the morning TV news as she prepared to go to school. She had a strong affinity for New York and had REALLY wanted to visit there. She was really shook up. One of my main thoughts was of how my Dad and Mom, my previous generation, had been Americans when Pearl Harbor happened. 9/11 was THIS generation's Pearl Harbor.

Alison and I were able to visit New York 2 years later, when the hospital sent me to Pennsylvania for service schools on the neonatal equipment I serviced. She stayed with me, and I took the following week as a vacation in NYC. The rubble was still there at ground zero (with NYC fire trucks on site 24X7), and the tour bus announcer mentioned the continuing effect of all of the mercury in the tens of thousands of fluorescent lamps that were broken when the two towers fell.

Thank God for all those who helped one another through this time of trial, and ESPECIALLY TO ALL OF THE YOUNG AMERICANS WHO RAISED THEIR HANDS AND UNCONDITIONALLY SWORE TO FOLLOW THE ORDERS GIVEN THEM IN THE MILITARY, DOING SO ENTIRELY VOLUNTARILY (No Draft). These "kids" are just as heroic as the firefighters who ran INTO the twin towers.

 

[Bones]

I was fresh out of college and had started my new job on Base. We went into lock down here for a little while.

 

[cjb2283]

I was in San Antonio, Texas at Lackland AFB in my third week of Air Force Basic Military Training. My flight and I was on the drill pad practicing marching when another instructor came and talked to our instructor. All of a sudden we were done marching and went inside of dormitory. They put us in our day room and allowed us to turn the TV on. That is when we all found out what was happening. Our instructor asked everyone if they had any family in NYC and more importantly the WTCs. Those people left and I assume got to make phone calls. When the pentagon got hit, the same thing happened. Basic was pretty different after all that...the base was on lockdown so a lot of our training was abbreviated if even that. 16 years later, I am still active duty. I have only deployed twice since but always look forward to deploy...not to call it payback but I feel like it is for me. Not that I directly do much...I am an aircraft mechanic. Would love to visit NYC at last ocean my life and definitely spend some time at the memorial. I will never forget.