Sept 11 recollection

I was in High School I live right off Fort Bragg NC. my dad was in SF at one point and we were still living out there.. I remember being at school watching the tv and it showed what was happening.. The base shut down and they were flying the fighter jets and all other planes on base out as fast as they could.. The next thing we heard on the news was Fort Bragg was going to be the next to be hit since it was one of the biggest bases in the area. it was a very scary day for us. For everybody...

It was my 13th birthday. I was so excited for this birthday because that's the ~teenager birthday~. I had a big party planned out at a local arcade/ bowling alley kind of place. I was in choir class when we learned. For the rest of the day, parents picked kids up and all we did in class was watch tv. I walked home and both my parents were home, and we ended up just getting pizza for dinner and I had my party 2 weeks later or something, I don't really remember. My neighbor came over with her kids because her husband was in the Army and stuck on base, they ended up sleeping over too and all the kids crammed into my parents Queen bed and the adults slept in the living room with the tv.

My teacher in one of the classes made up write down everything about that day, what we were wearing, what we ate for breakfast and lunch, how we felt with the news, etc. I'm glad because I still have it so even though it's still clear, it's good to have proof.

people jumping out of the windows

This is what will always stick with me I think. I can't imagine being in a situation where you just know all hope is lost and that you either wait to die, or do it yourself.

I'm a police helicopter pilot. I first learned of the attack on the radio while driving to work. I came in in the middle of it and didn't know what I was hearing. I thought they were talking about some hypothetical situation. When I got to work, they were watching it on TV. All civilian air traffic was suspended. As law enforcement, we got special permission to go ahead and fly. We were the only aircraft in the sky in the entire Phoenix metro area. The radios were silent. It was eerie.

I was on my way to work, and the news came across the radio that a plane had flown into one of the WTC towers. At that time, speculation was that it was just an accident. Then the second plane hit. I worked in a call center where I normally handled 70+ calls a day, but that day there was silence. It was surreal, like the world had just stopped. I left work early to go home and be with my family. The drive home was eerie, it was a beautiful day, but there were no planes in the sky. Again, it was like the earth had stopped. Everywhere I went, people were in a daze, the unthinkable had happened and our country would never again be the same.

I believe that day will be permanently seared in my memory. I was standing next to a co-worker whose SIL worked in the first tower that was hit. Thankfully she survived but my co-worker did not know until the next day. I work on a base and when they shut down it took hours to get off the base and I remember feeling like a target. I remember that afternoon when two F-14s were scrambled and the sonic boom that followed and how every person in my neighborhood came out because we all thought the base was hit. Most people came together that day, the lines at the blood bank, traffic was different, shopping was different, etc., then my ex-husband showed up asking for money and I asked him how he could be so selfish after so many people died and so many people lost loved ones. He didn't get it.

I was active duty US Air Force stationed over in Europe at Aviano Air Base (North of Venice ~ 40 miles or 80 Kilometers away). I will never forget that day. It was ~2:30pm our time (~8:30am Eastern) and we (many personnel I worked with) were outside on break. We've been working since 6am because we had about 5 miles of network cable to run - we had to set up comms for a new building.

We finished storing our gear and this young Airman came running outside saying the World Trade Center Tower got hit by a plane. At first we all thought what a horrible tragedy. We came inside to watch the news - soon thereafter we saw the second plane hit - it was then we knew we were under attack. Next came the Pentagon and then the Flight 93 crash - not knowing what else to do some prayed and some cried.

The rest of the day seemed to last for ever - being an ex-cop (US Air Force) I stayed at work for a long time. I got home around 9pm......and then cried, prayed and did what I could to comfort others.

My mother had decided to move to NY right before it happened, for a new job. After it happened, I had to decide whether I wanted to go with her or move in with my boyfriend and his mother. I stayed in Ohio. I remember visiting my mother in NY several months after she had moved, and I was pregnant with my son by then. I went into the city and we visited ground zero. It was terrible and moving and I cried seeing all the memorials left by people mourning their loved ones. I can't and won't ever forget what happened there, all those poor people and the terrible pain they went through, the terrible pain their families are probably still going through. The rubble and mangled debris left behind impressed a stark memory within me of the true devastation that day brought. Watching workers attempt to search through the buildings' remains, searching for those still left beneath it, was surreal.

I was living in Washington State at the time. I had mixed up my work schedule, and thought I had to be in for the 5:30am shift, otherwise I would have slept through the whole thing. I came home from work, but I had to go back in a few hours for my actual shift. I turned on the TV about 5 mins after the first plane hit. I spent the next 3 hours glued to the TV until I had to go to work, holding my daughter next to me the entire time (she was almost 1). I just didn't want to let her go. Everyone at work spent most of the day watching the news and checking the internet for updates.

I was living in Bremerton, WA, which is home to one naval base, and there was another naval base about 30 mins away (Bangor). I could see the base from my apartment balcony. Everyone was worried that any military base could be a possible attack point, so they were all mobilized. Within 24 hours, all of the carriers stationed in Bremerton were out patrolling the Puget Sound. It was comforting and terrifying at the same time. I was so used to seeing them all lined up and docked, and not out actually patrolling.

I was in the hospital lab teaching, we were near the outpatient area and we went back and forth to see what was happening.
When the towers collapsed we were speechless and crying, trying to take care of patients and keeping it together as best we could.

I lived in northern New Jersey...my kids had friends whose parents didn't come home. Our friend lost a brother that was a first responder. We knew many people who's families lost loved ones.

We were told to get ready for mass casualties. They never came. I think that was the thing I remember most .They never came...

The next day I was in Costco...folks were saying hello to each other. When I went into the parking lot there were many carts with things left in the bottom, forgotten. Everyone was preoccupied.

Then all you saw was American flags...everywhere....