Where were you 11 yrs ago today 9-11

tungsten93

I was on rounds at the hospital. When I went back downstairs I asked where everyone was and someone told me what happened. I went into the conference room to see what was happening and my first thought was that a pilot lost control of his plane and a horrible accident occurred. Then a few minutes later the second plane hit.

About 2 weeks later I was in London and they had constructed a memorial to all of the victims consisting of massive amounts of flowers. It was beautiful and overwhelming. I know there were many Brits (and people from other countries) in NY and DC at that time but it was especially moving to see such an amazing effort put forth so quickly by the British for something that happened in the USA.

iluxoxo211

was 10 years old and sitting in a class room when they turned on the news.

FaugHorn

I had just turned on the TV in my bedroom and oddly it wasn't on Nickelodeon like it normally was, and on the TV were the towers with smoke coming out of one. Diane Sawyer was talking about an airplane and how planes weren't supposed to be flying so low...I didn't know what the heck she was talking about, I thought maybe it was old footage from when there was a bomb in one of the towers years ago...a few minutes later a plane came into the picture and went right through the second tower, then I knew what I was watching was live and I couldn't believe it. I thought all the airplanes had gone mad! I was living in Green Bay Wisconsin at the time but I was from NY so I was really wishing I could be near family and be in that state.

I was in college watching the same program before classes started for the day. I was also National Guard at the time and just sat watching the news all day waiting for my phone to ring saying we were getting activated (that didn't happen until two years later). I remember watching that plane fly across the background of the news program...

Italianyc84

I watched much of the events unfold live that day. I was in the car with my dad in Staten Island on my way to the ferry; I had a job interview in Manhattan that day, and was meeting up with a friend at the TKTS booth that was in the WTC. They announced on the radio that a plane had hit the WTC...then we saw a plane fly over us flying pretty low and thought "what the heck?". Then heard seconds later that a plane had hit the other tower. We then had reached the area near the ferry, where you can see all of Manhattan across the river, and just stared. For some reason it still hadn't hit me, and I remember calling the company where I had the job interview and leaving a message saying that we'd have to reschedule for a later time because the ferry wasn't operating, and I remember hoping they'd still consider me for the job. Even seeing it, I was just in disbelief. We sat there and watched until the second tower fell.

Anyway, I now work a block away from the WTC, for a company that was formerly located there. As always in NYC on 9/11, it's a very somber day. Think of how you feel; magnify that by about 1000%...that's what it's like for New Yorkers who lived through that day and the terrifying, unbearably sad aftermath. I remember everything about that day and the months following like it happened yesterday.

MelissR75

I was working in RI, sitting in my office listening to Howard Stern. We just sat there and listened all morning. We closed the office and I remember how quiet it was driving home. The airport was still..no planes taking off or landing. Something you never forget!

Terree83

I was about to head to my first class of my freshman year in college.. I was about to turn off the TV and head out when the coverage started. I stared at the TV almost all day in disbelief. All classes were cancelled that day..

Yieya

I was at work in NYC. 59th st in 5th ave. Very scary day. Never got home to NJ that day, had to walk uptown and a bus finally picked me up and took me to a friends house in the Bronx where I stayed the night.

Diyah13

I was in labor that day--all day. I gave birth to my daughter at 9:41 p.m. The one good thing that happened that day.

x_JT_x

dub101: In the Marines

Happybunny37: Serving my country in the U.S Navy and proud to be doing this for last 15 1/2 years!!!
:flowerforyou:
Today just makes me reminds why we do what we do. Thank you to all who serve past and present!!

eesuperstar: I was in the Navy on shoreduty stationed overseas. I got off of work and was about to go to bed when my neighbor rushed over and turned on the tv. I saw the first crash, sighed, then started getting dressed in my BDUs. Before I could finish dressing the MPs were at my door telling me I was being activated as a full time MP. I said, "I know". I didn't see my bed for 3 days.

I ended up being put in charge of a dozen or so pissed off activated reservists once they shipped them over.

lisha7997: I was in the Air Force stationed in Misawa, Japan trying to get ready for mid-shift. My best friend and I were headed to her room when we got a glimpse of the tv right after the first plane hit, and her being from NY we stopped to see what was happening. We saw the second plan hit and our tears started to flow. She started trying to call her family to make sure they were safe but we couldn't get through because all the circuits were busy. Our base went into lockdown after that.

kurting81: I was finishing up my Field Training Exercise in Fort Jackson, NC in Basic Training. The Drill Sergeant's rounded us up in the woods and told us what was going on. At first we thought it was just a mock mission they were preparing for us as we just couldn't grasp that it was actually reality right away.

maximus184: I was in boot camp for the Navy when 9/11 happened. I remember coming back from Chow and my Petty Officer and Cheif came in the barracks with a radio and told us to listen to this **** that is happening in New York. I remember them saying "this is what you have signed up for, and now its time to take out some punk *kitten* terrorists, so yall need to get your *kitten* in gear and get out there and FIGHT for what we stand for."

ekz13: In the Air Force driving through the base gate in Germany when I heard it on the radio, then I went into the power zone to see it on the TV’s..

KellyL30: I was on leave from boot camp after I joined the Navy, saw it on TV and got a call to come back to VA to be shipped out

PJ64:I was in the Air Force and on a plane landing in Norfolk Virginia after doing 120 days in Saudi Arabia. When I landed the first plane hit, then on the cab ride to my base the second plane hit. I told the cabbie, "we're under attack" we both sat in silence. I got to my base and heard from the securioty folks that the pentagon had been hit too. My brother worked there, I tried calling and e-mailing and after 12 hours I got a call from one of his coworkers telling me he was ok but couldn't come to the phone because he was working, but wanted me and my family to know he was ok.

WendyFitMom: I was serving in the Air Force stationed at the Air Force Academy in CO. My son (who was 4mos old then) was at the base daycare and I was in the process of posting guards at entrances as our base went in lockdown and we moved into 12 hour shifts and made calls to ensure we had accountability for all military personnel assigned to our squadron.

I was able to get home (w/ my son) later that night and that's when I was able to breath for a moment and breakdown and cry. I will NEVER forget where I was that day.

mikeschratz : Sitting in training at US Coast Guard Air Station Savannah, couldn't believe what we watched that moring. Had to launch on a Search and Rescue case that night, it was the loneliest night of flying you could possibly imagine, no voices on the radios, no tower or controls telling us what to do.... it was eerie..... when we found the boat we were looking for, we picked the people up and took them into Titusville Airport in Florida. We were grounded for the next four days, they wouldn't let us fly home since we were no longer a Search and Rescue assett..... Pray for all the families that were affected by this tragedy!

Thank you all for the sacrifices you and your families have made in service to our Country!! And to any military personnel who may reply after my post....Thank you!! To any folks I may have missed, my sincere apologies and appreciation for your service!!

I was in our living room playing with my then 2 yr old daughter. I had the TV on in the background and was listening to the news when the story broke about the 1st plane hitting the North Tower. I stopped to watch the coverage thinking it was just a tragic mistake until 18 minutes later when a 2nd plane hit the South Tower and we all knew something was very, very wrong. I just picked up my baby, held her tight, stared at the television screen and cried. My husband and I are both from NY, me from Upstate and him from the NYC area where his family still lives. I called him at work and told him what was happening. As we talked, the third plane hit the Pentagon and the fourth went down in Pennsylvania. I still remember hearing the shock and fear in his voice as he told me to call his parents. We then spent the day sitting by the phone waiting to hear from family who worked in the buildings next to the towers. What a sad, frightening day that would forever change our country.

To those who have replied or are considering replying to this thread wondering why this is such a big deal and griping about the inconveniences you now face as a result, this is not the time or place. Nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children died that day. Keep your thoughts to yourselves.

ATclassof2021

I was serving in the United States Air Force.......scrambling to protect our installation and those who lived/worked on it.

Thanks to all my brethren for their service and sacrifice!!!!

MissC787

I went to an appointment. It came on the news, and the room full of strangers that were talking and carrying on previously had become very quiet. We were all in shock. I left before my appointment, and went home. I just spent the rest of the day glued to the TV with my family.

roachhaley

I think I was in 4th grade maybe? I remember I was late for school for some reason, so I saw it on TV at home. I got taken to school and all anyone did all day was watch the TV.

I was too young to know how serious it was. I remember the next day saying "jeez, are they STILL talking about that thing?"

Philismyname

I was working for a landscaper cutting grass. My boss came out and told us to turn everything off and come inside. That's when the T.V. was on showing the WTC smoldering. Then the second plane hit, and we witnessed the collapse of them both. Never ever will i forget that day.

skinnybearlyndsay

I was a sophomore in college. I woke up to head to my 0900 Differential Equations class and turned on the TV. I seriously thought it was a movie about a plane hitting one of the towers. It wasn't until I got to class that I realized that it was really happening. Class got out early and I booked it to the Student Union Building where the President's room with the huge TV was open. I sat watching in disbelief about the twin towers and felt horrible, but was still detached...until the plane hit the Pentagon. My world shattered at that point because I knew people that worked in the Pentagon. I had work study that afternoon and the professor graciously and amazingly let me dial long-distance to Virginia until I could get ahold of someone to make sure everyone was safe. I still, to this day, cannot look at footage of the Pentagon without hurting inside and tearing up.

IslandDreamer64

I was working. I do home visits with children (infants and toddlers) with disabilities and I was in a family's home, working. They had the TV on and we saw it as it was happening. Didn't get much work done that day. Partially because of that incident, I've remained very close with that family over the years.

I will never forget.

dellafiora3395

I was in first grade [Yeah, I'm a young'un]

Our elementary school was under strict orders to not let K-3 see anything, so teachers basically sat at their computers all day and none of us really did anything. We all knew something was wrong, just weren't sure what. Kids were getting excused all day long, and my best friend left during recess.

When I got home, my WHOLE family plus aunts and uncles and cousins were gathered around the TV [really weird to me, since my parents worked opposite shifts]. My dad was on the phone with one of his sisters, while my uncle was on the phone with their other sister. My one aunt had been driving into work at the Pentagon that morning, running a little late, and she completely missed her wing getting hit. She did lose one of her best friends in that crash, as well as many coworkers.

I can still remember it clearly to this day...

PunkyRachel

I was a sophomore in high school, sitting in class listening to my teacher lecture us. When the teacher across the hall came in and told him to turn on the TV

kmbrooks15

I had my students at our little private Christian school out at recess when one of the moms who had just left from volunteering pulled back into the drivethrough going the wrong way. I started teasing her about going the wrong way and then noticed her face and asked what was wrong. She told me, and I took my kids inside immediately. They went to PE shortly after, and I went to the cafeteria, where the principal had set up a TV. He and I stood there and watched in shock as the first tower fell. Right before I left to get my students the second tower fell. It was all I could do to go back to class. We didn't discuss anything with the students that day, though a couple of parents came and checked their kids out early. We were in Florida, pretty far away, so we didn't close down school or do a complete lockdown, but we did keep kids indoors for recess the rest of the day. The next day, though, we were given advice from the principal on how to answer students' questions, and the Bible lesson that day was used as a time for students to ask questions and discuss it. I was teaching 2nd grade, so the questions were pretty innocent, but still tough to answer.

randomtai

Going to a job interview at the South Tower.... Thank GOD I was running late that day.

mirasmom02

I actually just wrote about my experiences that day for our first essay in my English Comp 2 class...it was over 3 pages, too much to post here so this is part of it:

The airlines refused to allow me to bring my wedding gown onto the plane as a carry-on, and I refused to check it. So, the decision was made that my fiance and I would drive a rented cargo van with all of the wedding decorations, catering equipment, and my wedding gown from Arlington, Texas to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We had to leave a week and a half before our wedding day to make all of the final preparations in Milwaukee and get our marriage license at least 7 days prior to our big day. We left late at night, on Monday, September 10, 2001. My family had mad this trip so many times that we knew precisely what time of day to leave and avoid all rush hour traffic in major cities.

We had made it through north Texas and all of Oklahoma, and finally arrived at a large truck stop in Joplin, Missouri. I called my mother, who was still in Texas, from a pay phone and told her that we were going to continue on our trip and not rent a room to sleep as we had previously planned. Five minutes later, I was standing in that same truck stop, next to my fiance, drinking my coffee, and watching what I believed to be movie on one of the many television sets in the building. On the television screen was a familiar pair of skyscrapers in New York City, one of which had just exploded, or so it seemed. Then it happened, on live television, the second tower of the World Trade Center was hit by a commercial airliner.

We thought we had been watching a movie. It wasn’t until I heard a familiar reporter’s voice, in awe, that I realized it was not a movie. It was in fact, very real. I looked at my fiance and we both shed a tear, he grabbed my hand and led me out of the building. We went to our van and realized we were in the middle of nowhere, and had no clue if we were supposed to cancel our wedding and head back to Texas or continue on to Wisconsin and hope for the best. We spent the next 11 hours driving north, we had to get somewhere near family, and decided to pray and hope that the attacks would not continue. The rest of that trip was spent holding each other’s hands, not really speaking much, just listening to the reports coming in on the radio and a few patriotic songs in between. To this day, I still get chills whenever I hear Lee Greenwood’s song “Proud to be an American.”

mandamommy3

Walked into my 1st period history class just after the first plane hit the tower. Then watched as the second hit at the end of class, watched them fall in my second period spanish class. The day was quiet and the tv was on in most of the rest of my classes watching for survivors.

tashmash2011

I was 11 years old my first full week at high school, and ironically my first ever religious studies lesson, the teacher turned the tv on and we watched the news for the whole lesson and saw the 2nd plane hit, a girl in my class was histerical because her dad was on business in New York (i live in England) and her family couldn't reach him, she was taken home and we later heard he was safe and well.
One of those moments you never forget, when i got home from school we all just sat and watched it replay on the news in silence, such a sad day!

JanieJack

I was teaching a CPR class to a group of mlitary. When we first saw the news blip (briefly fliping through channels on a break during class), we thought it was an ad for some movie (didn't have time to keep the TV on). During our next break, we found out it was real and turned the tv back on just in time to see the second plane crash.

Everyone wanted to end the class and go back to their units. I told them if this is true we're about to go to war so we'd better finish the training cuz you'll need it to deploy.

rchupka87

I was a freshman in college. I had stopped at Mom's the night before to do some laundry. I fell asleep on her couch. My mom woke me up when the first plane hit. We still didnt know that it was an attack. When the second plane hit, I yelled to my mom in the other room. She yelled back that it was probably just a replay of the first plane - but I kept screaming. We sat on the couch and held hands for a few minutes watching the footage, before we started scrambling to call my dad - who was getting ready to board a plane out of Cincinnati headed to DC. They had already boarded the plane and were sitting on the tarmac. They had been stalled, but none of the passengers knew why.

I will NEVER forget that day.

ambrwaves27

I was a Washington D.C. based Flight Attendant on my way to a flight back into town. I heard the news on the radio. I called my mother to let her know that I wasnt involved and spent most of the rest of the day on the phone with our crew scheduling to see if I was able to assist stranded crew members.

tquig

I was in the Army at home on leave while recovering from a knee surgery. I ended up going into "work" that day. Last night my wife and I were thinking of all of the significant events we could remember in our life-times that shared the same media response. President Reagan's assination attempt, the loss of the space shuttles Columbia and Challenger, the Berlin Wall coming down (only good in the list) and of course this. I am sure we are forgetting a few but this will always be the most horrific and tragic event we think of. On a positive note, my son turned 10 today- born on 9/11/2002!

wendy_3

I was working that day (public library in the UK) and it was my wedding anniversary . A colleague said she'd heard from a member of the public that planes had hit a corner of the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre - we didn't know that the World Trade Centre was the two towers, so the enormity of the situation didn't strike us straightaway - how stunned we all were when the news unfolded. We didn't go out to celebrate our anniversary that day and it hasn't felt appropriate to celebrate on the day, since then. Pearl Anniversary today (30th).

scapez

Boston. I had just arrived at Logan two days earlier on the 9th for a week long conference. I remember watching the second plane hit the towers from my hotel room and not being able to process what I was seeing. I also remember trying to call my family and the cell phone coverage being spotty because of the high loads on that morning.

Despite the horror of that day, we made the best of our conference - we really didn't have a choice - it's not like we could really go anything else, at least for a few days. Luckily, but the time I was supposed to go back home the airports had opened up again. I had to stand in the security line for something like two hours that day, it was just a madhouse and I was very grateful when I was safely back home.

I couldn't watch 9/11 footage on TV without crying for months on end. Thinking of all those who've lost family or friends on that day.

MaritaD

It was my 16th birthday.

I was with my mom in the city (Halifax, NS Canada) I got to skip school for the day! I remember being in a waiting room while my sister was getting her cast changed and the nurses came out and turned the TV on.

bowseramanda

Seeing my first baby for the first time on ultrasound! I dropped my 5th grader off at school this morning and told him about it on the way. )))))