Remembering 9-11-2001

[Sparks]

Tomorrow is the 16th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9-11-2001.  Never forget!

[Chris]

We united for a short time in the aftermath, but we drifted apart again in no time.

I'm part of the problem....

I didn't even think of 9/11 until you posted this. Yet, I still remember watching it like it was yesterday.

I feel like a POS right now. Too many people lost a wife, husband, father, mother, son, daughter, friends, and other family. What am I doing right now? Watching a South Park marathon.

Edited September 11, 2017 by Chris

[JJHNSN]

The Global War on Terror is going to be with us for a VERY, very long time. The events of 9/11 were a dramatic wake-up call.

[light-switch]

If you were an adult on 9-11, I don't think you could ever forget that fateful day.

I was in school, between periods, and stopped by another teacher's classroom as they were turning the TV on to watch the news. I watched as the plane hit the towers, and my wife called asking if I was seeing the news. When the second plane hit while we were talking, she said "We're going to war."

[Huaco Kid]

I had recently read a very long article about Osama BL.  He's uber-rich, has been saying all the anti-American stuff, had a real and a loose army.....

I was home that day and watching the news after the first plane hit.  I thought it was the craziest thing ever!  A plane!  Crashed into the skyscraper! That's just nuts!

I watched as the second plane hit.

Then I INSTANTLY knew what was up and who was behind it.

[Pisco]

I was 20 years old and had to be at my restaurant job that afternoon. I skipped work to watch the tv that day. I was asleep when both towers had fallen. My grandma woke me up around 10:30 am central. 

[holyjohnson]

may they Rest in Peace.

 

[KBKEITH]

I remember it well. For me it started out as just another routine day at work. Then I saw the story break on Yahoo news. All of us in the office wondering what the hell is going on? Then coming to grips that this was not some kind of accident. How many more planes were out there? When is this major assault going to end? Unreal.

[furetto7]

At midnight I stopped and put my mourning band on my star where it will stay all day.  Some of the young deputies I work with will ask me who died, how soon they forget. 

[IndyGunFreak]

I had just worked a double and got off at 0700, came home, ate breakfast and basically dozed off on the couch.  A friend of mine called me.. she was always kind of the hysterical, overly dramatic type... her Dad was a pilot (not involved in 9/11 thank goodness), and she also had a bit of piloting experience in smaller craft.. She called me after the first plane hit and I turned on the news.  She wasn't concerned about her father, as he was still on the ground at the airport waiting on his flight, but she kept saying.. "Something is really, really wrong here".. I was pretty tired and still not thinking 100% clearly, and I downplayed it a bit and told her she was overreacting, as like most naive Americans at the time I thought for sure there had to be some massive failure of the aircraft and the pilot just couldn't avoid the building... but she just kept saying "No, no, something is really really wrong".. she must have said that 4-5x in the few minutes between when I turned on the news and when we saw the 2nd plane hit... when the second plane hit she screamed bloody murder, I flew off the couch and said some expletives I'm not proud of.. Obviously at that point, anyone with common sense knew this was the start of a whole new war.

Seems so long ago now..

[JJHNSN]

I was at work, in fact, attending a meeting at our corporate office building in our board room, somebody turned on the AV system and we watched the first plane hit and thought it was some kind of freak accident, but I remember thinking "No way that is an accident" then we all watched live as the second plane slammed into the next tower and then watched live as things progressed. The memory of watching the towers each just kind of come crushing down on themselves is the most sickening thing I've ever seen in my life and remembering and thinking about it brings back all the emotions of that day. A dark day.

I remember that I just wanted to be with my family. There were military jets over our city for quite some time that day and after just making slow orbits of the city, flying fairly low, which was freaky. F-18s and F-15s.

Nearly 3,000 people died in DC, PA and NY that day and then nearly 2,000 more died as a result of injuries or sicknesses developed from being part of the first responder teams.

 

Never forget!!

[janice6]

This will be remembered like the Nazi Death Camps.  Vividly for a few years, with puzzlement and self recrimination for forcing those ME "people" to do this for our transgressions for a few years, and denial after that.

 

The general public is more interested in what the new Cell Phone is like than any atrocity done to Americans.  Yes, I am cynical.  If you can't punish a politician for trying to destroy this country, what chance have you for passing judgement on terrorists.

[Kilo Oscar]

I will never forget that day.  I was driving my son to school and listening to a breaking news report about the first WTC impact when the reporter says "oh my god, another plane just crashed into the other tower."  I knew right then that it was a terrorist attack, even though the reporter said it was probably just a coincidence.

Edited September 11, 2017 by Kilo Oscar

[refugeepj]

my first thought as the second plane struck, thank God GWB is the president instead of that weenie Al gore. a snake oil salesman would not have had a clue, and that's what Mr Gore is.

spoke those words to my employer within seconds of impact.

[XSIV4S]

I was showering when my wife stepped in and told me that a plane had accidentally hit the World Trade center. I told her a plane doesn't accidentally hit the World Trade Center and a few minutes later the second one hit. The following week with no planes in the air was surreal.

 

[n2g]

Believe it or not, we teachers at our elementary school were put on lockdown and not told a thing about what was happening.  At that time we weren't allowed to have our cell phones with us in the school, and we couldn't leave our classrooms at all except to run across the hall for one quick bathroom break with the kids.  We didn't find out until that afternoon what had happened.  We might have been the last few dozen people to find out!  Hubby was livid that we were treated in such a way.

If you think schools aren't strange sometimes, think again.  Actually, it turned out that it was the decision of our principal to keep us in the dark.  She only lasted a few years before she got the boot.

RIP 9-11 victims.

[janice6]

3 hours ago, n2g said:

Believe it or not, we teachers at our elementary school were put on lockdown and not told a thing about what was happening.  At that time we weren't allowed to have our cell phones with us in the school, and we couldn't leave our classrooms at all except to run across the hall for one quick bathroom break with the kids.  We didn't find out until that afternoon what had happened.  We might have been the last few dozen people to find out!  Hubby was livid that we were treated in such a way.

If you think schools aren't strange sometimes, think again.  Actually, it turned out that it was the decision of our principal to keep us in the dark.  She only lasted a few years before she got the boot.

RIP 9-11 victims.

Funny what people like this do when they think they are "protecting others".  Fear makes some want to block out the problem.

 

[Dynactus]

On 9/11 I was at Disney World in Orlando at a big corporate meeting.  When the news of the attack reached us, we went into a huge banquet room and watched the first tower fall on three screens, each the size of two Grey Hound buses stacked on top of each other, with a sound system to match.  Back then, big pharma did everything to total excess.   When the first tower fell it was like the air was sucked out of the room.  I will never forget 9/11, or those that perpetrated that act.

For some reason this image has stuck with me.  This Fireman most likely believed he was walking up the stairs and would never walk back down.  I wonder what the totality of his thoughts were at the moment the photo was taken? 

 

Edited September 12, 2017 by Dynactus

[Gobigorange]

Powerful picture.

[racerford]

My wife and I were taking the week off from work. We were watching the Today show. The news of the first plane hitting the tower came on. Then we were watching as the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. We watched all day.

I later found out one of the people I worked with was in the building that day with a client. He got out of the building and people were falling to the ground around him. He was really impacted by that day.

To this day it upsets my wife for me to say "Let's roll" were we are heading out somewhere. My kids (born after 9/11) don't understand why it upsets her. I try not to say it, but sometimes I slip.

 

It is strange how some things affect you.

 

 

[jmohme]

I was on a severe call replacing the alternator on a Kenworth T2000 when the morning radio show I had playing got interrupted with the news of the first plane strike. I really knew this was not just some freak accident and then the news of the second strike confirmed it.

The world changed that day and has yet to recover.

[misterfox]

I was on my way to work after dropping our 8 month old son off at daycare.  News on the radio said that an airplane flew into the world trade center.  My first thought was that something similar happened before:  About 1947 a B 25? flew into the Empire state building.  At night in heavy fog - no modern navigation systems.  It was a beautiful day in Cleveland and if New York is that clear - then I knew this is trouble.

The feeling when I got to work was beyond subdued.  Almost everybody watched the second plane, the collapses on various internet news feeds in real time.  Then the endless replays.  It was a very non-productive day.

 

Courage isn't the lack of fear.  It is being scared, but saddling up anyway.

 

Knowing the context, this is a very powerful picture.

[G19Tony]

I was with my new GF at the time. Her sister called to tell her. We turned on the TV. She asked me how an accident like that could happen. I told her that we were at war with someone and we would know with who by the end of business. After the second tower fell, I got on the phone to my old AFRES squadron. I had retired in 99 from being a Flight Engineer on C-141's. After I finally got through, I told an old friend of mine, who was the scheduler, that I'd like to come out of retirement. He told me I was about the 10th ORF to call and if they needed us, they would let us know. 

If you have a couple of hours, listen to this.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2017 by G19Tony