Do you remember what you were doing on 9/11?

[JAL3]

I was at NE Baptist hospital getting a spinal tap. By that time I was having them twice a month. It was my first time to get it done there, close to my house, as opposed to where it was normally done. I was already nervouse because the equipment seemed like it came right out of "The Flintstones". Everyone had heard about a plane hitting the tower but, like others, all assumed that it was a small plane. I was uncomfortable and nervous since the doc was having trouble getting the needle into the right place.

I was getting the 11th stick of the morning when Dr. Jackson's colleague came in and explained that a second plane had hit the other tower, that they were passenger liners and that something had happened at the pentagon as well.

The top four things you do not want to hear while having a spinal tap were all heard by me that morning.

1. "Doctor, we're running out of needles, do you want me to get some more?"
2. "Doctor, we're running out of novacaine, do you want me to get some more?"
3. "Maybe if I wiggle it just right I can get the needle to slip into the right place this time"
4."America is under attack. We're at war."

 

[T-Rex]

I was working a 4pm to 1am shift, so I was sleeping when the phone rang. A family friend called to tell us of the news. Watched the second plane and the towers fall on the tube. Took a radio to work that night and was told that I couldn't listen to it. Rebelliously plugged it in, set it on the workbench, and had one of my most productive shifts.

Yes, Scotty Dog, the flags are gone.... How quickly we forget!
I'm wagering that some Hollywood type will OD, beat their spouse, or maybe actually do something good for the victims of TS Lee on the 10th, and THAT will be the headlines of 11th......

If we had made a big glass parking lot in the near east we would have been no better than them... But damn it woulda felt good!

 

[UPscaler]

I'm willing to bet the flags will be back...for some reason people think the tenth anniversary is more important than any others.



Braden

 

[Viperfixr]

I had just moved to Holloman AFB in New Mexico from Japan to lead the maintenance for one of two F-117A squadrons in the Air Force. We were expecting our household goods truck to arrive at the empty base house that morning, and it never came. Keep in mind, we had no TV, radio, computer or cell phone--totally empty house--totally oblivious to what was going on. One of my Captains came yelling through the door at 10am for me to get my uniform on and go to the command post--took him a few minutes to tell me what was going on. The next several days were a total blur preparing to go to war. I picked a wartime aircraft deployment line-up for real, the first time in my career. No one slept, everyone was at work getting jets ready for the worst case. Spouses cooked meals in the snack bar, pilots took their intel briefs and prepared to fly combat missions, and the maintainers worked like demons to make sure they jets worked as advertised. Young Airman got scared, because it did look like we as a nation were under attack. The afternoon of 9/11, I had about 250 maintainers on the "smoke pad" and stood on a table to tell them what was important and what we needed them to do in the coming days--got everyone focused, but was hard to do. I've never been so proud to wear the uniform of my country's military watching those amazing Americans prepare to go to war with a level of dedication and professionalism that just cannot be understood unless you've been there. I was in awe of the spirit that moved us all.

As it turns out, Stealth Fighters were not needed to attack Afghanistan (Cessna's with 1911 .45's out the window could have done the job), but that was 9/11 in the 8th Fighter Squadron, The Blacksheep.

The past 10 years of my professional life haven't been the same, dominated by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, the US Air Force has been performing combat missions since Dec 1990--continuously--on the ground and in the air, or almost my entire military career. Last spring/summer I went to Afghanistan for the first time and heard first hand from their Air Force's officers how harsh and terrible the Taliban rule was. Most Americans cannot even conceive that level of cruelty. That said, I will not be sad to see us leave all of those places when the time comes.

 

[GDJ]

I was on my way to work and the radio announcer on the BEAR 100.3 FM was taking about what was happening. I really didn't think too much about it at the time (it sounded like it was a smaller plane, horrible accident, plane suffered a mechanical failure and crashed), but when I arrived at work, everybody was very quiet, glued to the TV in the lunchroom.

My first thought after watching what was happening was "Where's Bob!?" (my cousin who did some international business at the time) and I called my Dad and left him a message, told him what was happening, and told him to find out about Robert.

Robert is alive and well, living in Ohio right now. He wasn't anywhere near New York at the time.

 

[dlazarus6660]

I was at home, unemployed, watching SciFi Channel when a then girlfriend called me to said change the channel to the local news station. I saw the first tower smoking and then the other tower got hit! I when into shock.
I had visited the tower just two months earlier in the AM. I did not know anyone personally, but my roommate did know someone.

 

[MarkII]

I was greeted on my 6th birthday by my sister waking me up for school and telling me two airplanes hit some buildings...the answer to my next question was probably the one shocking thing I'd heard in my life to that point..."was it an accident? "..."NO!" I proceeded to ask my aunt the same question...same answer. I asked if people were going to die and m aunt said "yes....lots"


That still haunts me, and my birthday has since not been looked forward to as much.


We got some nasty looks when we went out for pizza and celebrated



BradenBraden

I was born early in the Eisenhower administration, but President John F. Kennedy was the first president that I actually remembered. I remember the 1960 campaign. I remember watching him on TV making speeches. I remember watching the debates with Richard Nixon on TV. (Nixon sweated profusely and did look genuinely unwell during the first one.) There was widespread euphoria in the Irish Catholic neighborhood where I lived in Detroit and in the Catholic elementary school that I attended when he won the election. I mention all of this because in April 1963, my maternal grandfather died and in October he was followed by my maternal grandmother. My sister and I had been especially close to them. And then the following month, a few days before my birthday, President Kennedy was assassinated. I spent my 10th birthday watching his funeral and graveside commitment. That evening we had cake, candles, presents, etc., but no one really felt much like celebrating, especially me.

Every year when my birthday comes around, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving, I relive that day in 1963. It's been almost 48 years now, yet it still feels like yesterday. I just have to pause for a second and I am right back there, seeing the Sisters openly weeping as they sent us home early from school. I remember as I walked home with some of my friends how eerily quiet the neighborhood was. We saw no one during the whole walk home, and there wasn't a car on the street.

Yes, I realize that this thread is about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, but to those of you on the forum who were just kids on that awful day, I can relate; we have something in common. The assassination of President Kennedy is burned deeply into my memory like 9/11 is into yours. In our respective experiences, we both learned for the first time in our lives just what kind of evil can be spawned by hatred. For the rest of our lives, those respective experiences of ours will always feel like they just happened yesterday. I also remember all of the traumatic national and international events that have taken place since, of course, but my first experience is the one that will most haunt me. I can thus understand how you will continue to be most profoundly affected by the events of September 11, 2001.

 

[MarkII]

I understand that those of you in the UK don't think too highly of him anymore, but I will always remember the speech that Tony Blair gave right after the attacks. In the immediate aftermath, it was the single declaration that gave me the most solace. I will always remember that, and I will always know that the US owes a debt of gratitude to the people of the United Kingdom for their support on that terrible day and on those that followed.

I feel an eternal sense of gratitude to the people and government of Canada for the very generous and vital support that they gave unflinchingly to their southern neighbors during that time. You were truly there for us; we all here know it and we shall never forget it.

 

[billspad]

I was working with my son in someone's basement replacing a furnace. I didn't have a radio and evidently didn't have the radio in my truck on either because the first I heard of it was when I went home for lunch. My wife had the TV on and they were rerunning the video of the towers burning. She told me they had collapsed and I told her that has impossible because I was sure they were designed to take that kind of hit. She told me to just keep watching.

 

[MarkII]

I'm willing to bet the flags will be back...for some reason people think the tenth anniversary is more important than any others.



Braden

Here in NY, the flags have never stopped flying.

Where I live is 350 miles north of Manhattan. But for everyone in my little town and in Northern NY, it felt very close by, like it happened right next door. It's still a very real, very vivid memory for us upstaters, perhaps not as stark and profound as it is for our fellow citizens from the downstate Metro area (how could it be?), but still quite significant. My wife's family is all from and all still live in Manhattan and the Metro area. I lived on LI for 7 years, went to college there, met my future wife and was married there and started my career there. I have friends from NYC who I see regularly. My brother-in-law is with the NYPD and took part in the rescue and recovery operations for several months afterward.

 

[robbdm]

Yes, In those days I lived in Tucson and worked as consultant working on Laboratory System installs. We had a large team working in Jonesboro, AR. I was on site with about a half dozen team members from all over the US. To get to Jonesboro, I would fly from Tucson on American to Dallas then take a two engine tubro prop 12 passenger to Jonesboro, Big Sky Airlines. I hated Big Sky for the small noisy plane, but the only way to get to Jonesboro.

On Nine Eleven, I was walking thru the Laboratory break room to see everyone glued to a TV. The events where unfolding. Most of the consultants on my team immediately started to figure out how to get back to their homes. The major airlines where cancelling all flights. Since I was not leaving till Friday, I just waited and worked. My family and our employees where all accounted for. Several of the team couldn't get out, so they took their rentals cars and start to drive home that day. Some drove 12 to 16 hours back to east coast.

I hated Big Sky, while American and Delta, etc canceled their flights, Big Sky keep going, Friday, like usually, the one employee unlocked the airport door and let the waiting passengers in. But that day, with the increased security a part time unarmed Sheriffs Deputy Volunteer sat in the Airport. Anyway, Big Sky go me back to Dallas and by Friday American was flying again. Maybe I learned to love Big Sky.

 

[skybuster]

I remember it vividly. I was in second grade, and that morning when I woke up, I remember my dad talking to a friend about it, and wondering if their offices (they both worked for the government) were going to be open. I remember going into school earlier than normal, and I saw the teachers crowded around their TVs with the news stations on as if their eyes were glued to them. When school started, our teachers had a small talk with us about what was going on. We didn't do much that day, that afternoon, we all gathered together on the blacktop and each student who was alphabetically first (which turned out to be me in my class) held the American flag while the principal gave us the full story about what had happened. We couldn't watch the news, but the teachers would dip in and out of class to watch it in their conference rooms. I still remember Peter Jennings yelling at his crew and refusing to cut to commercials that night.