9/11 where were you?

[Vaquero]

"Let's roll"

 

[STXdevilsquid]

I was finishing up flight training, I had just gotten back to Texas from flying a cross country. My girlfriend called me and woke me up to turn on the TV. I watched the second hit like all the others. It was a lot of emotions. Motivated myself and a lot of friends to get out there as fast as we could. It was a day that changed my path and many of my friends and family forever.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MetalCutter]

Listening to the radio in the office at the shop. Heard about the first impact and thought "How on earth does a plane smack into a building on a clear day?" After hearing of the second I knew it wasn't an accident. The shop is very close to Houston's Bush Airport and the spookiest thing the following few days was the lack of air traffic. The silence was deafening.

 

[busykngt]

I was in the kitchen of my house getting ready to go to work. Same thought as everyone else: weather was clear, bright sunshine in north DFW and I checked NY's weather too, same: severe clear. Because initially the news reporters weren't sure of the kind of plane, I thought maybe a pilot had decided to commit sideways. But then the news folks begin to report about a second plane; that's when I realized, "this is no accident." Once the FAA had grounded all flights*, it was an eerie and odd feeling to not see or hear any airplanes in the sky.
--
* All grounded over the next several days except for the jet allowed to depart (from FLA?) with the Bin Laden family members aboard, heading back to Saudi.

 

[BillFairbanks]

I was sitting in my cubicle at Northwestern Mutual in Summit Office Park in Ft. Worth preparing for my first week of life insurance sales. As soon as I heard the news I drove home to be with my wife. All of my appointments canceled that week and I never sold a policy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[F350-6]

Sitting at work when one of the guys called in and said he heard about an aircraft slamming into the WTC. One of the girls in the office (small office) lived close by so she ran home and got a small TV, as the then still somewhat primitive internet seemed to have frozen and you couldn't really get any info from there.

We watched in shock as the fire burned, the second plane hit, then the towers collapsed.

I wonder if bandwith and technology has improved enough for the whole world to try and watch the same thing at the same time?

 

[Wildcat Diva]

I was at home with my eldest child (toddler) watching cartoons and pregnant with our middle child. I found out by calling to schedule a client for an appointment and she told me what was going on right about the time the second plane hit.

I changed the channel at that point to watch the coverage. It was unbelievable.

I felt a little unsafe working so close to chemical plants later that week as I didn't know what else might be in store from our enemies.

 

[Sharpb]

Sitting in class in high school.

Same here. School pretty much stopped that day, we sat in the classrooms watching the news


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[satx78247]

On the 0700 Delta Airlines flight from SAT to BWI. - I was "stuck in" Atlanta for 3 days.

yours, satx

 

[Lone Star]

I was there... my office was just a stones throw away. Still have the smell of benzine/chemicals and burnt flesh fresh in my mind.

Photo from the rooftop where I worked.

 

[Riteii]

New Orleans. Doing consulting work for a large fuel distributor. I was scheduled to view and analyze their procedures for filling up tug boats at their dock.

I have to admit that I spent most of the time that day in their conference room with everyone else watching it on TV.

 

[Ozzman]

Jester Hall room 324, getting ready for class.

 

[Southpaw]

Working in NJ about 50 miles away. We heard about the first hit over the radio, a coworker had found a small battery operated B&W TV from which, like many others here, watched as the second tower was hit.
As someone else posted, I was thinking that the first was a small private plane of some sort. Also as some have mentioned, the clear blue sky that day is permanently etched on my mind.
I drove up to the Carteret area immediately after work that day to see if I could get glimpse of whatever I could. Looking back now I can say I was still in a state of shock and didn't quite understand the breadth of what had happened earlier that day.

I know we have a new thread each year on this and I think it's important so thanks OP.

 

[Time On Target]

I was in Spring, Texas I was supposed to be doing a presentation to a couple of clients in New York but they had to fly out of town on business and I was working on some business presentations for some possible new clients with the TV going in the background at the house. I heard the first flight hit, my wife was working in the Medical Center and I was talking to her when the second flight came in and I told her to get the heck out of there. Ticked off my daughter's and son's schools when I went and picked them both up but I wanted my family where it was at least a little safe. Working in the oil and gas business and the chemical industry I knew what was around Houston and was scared to death that all of that was the next target. Met my clients from New York in February that is when I found out I would have had a front row seat if the meeting had not cancelled, I would have been in Building 7 right beside the Towers. They figured that business trip possibly saved their bacon even though it took them a month plus to get back into the country.

 

[Jigo23]

Was stationed at Hurlburt Field FL, assigned to HQ AFSOC and was scheduled to be on the rifle range that day just putting some rounds down range. We had I don't know how many lots of 9mm and 5.56 ammo that needed to be shot before the end of the physcal year (1 Oct) and their expiration dates were coming up. Rough day at the office...shooting guns all day
Was just inspecting, lubing, and dry-firing several guns I wanted to shoot and my wife called me after the first plane hit the WTC. Honestly I didn't believe her at first and thought she must be watching some movie or tv show with too realistic special effects. Then we turned on the little tv out in the armory just in time to see the second plane hit. Told my wife we were under attack and to just stay inside and listen to what the news was saying, I'd be home later. I remember just feeling numb as I got set up and prepared to shoot. I guess was just shooting on auto-pilot that day as I don't distinctly remember even pulling the trigger, reloading or really performing any of the mechanics involved. I just had the deepest feeling of outrage and blind anger in the pit of my stomach. I guess I ended up shooting about 1000 rds. Once i went down range and collected my target, I realized I've never shot so well, so consistently in my whole life. Through 20+ years in the military I was never so anxious to go to war.

 

[Booder]

My wife and I were changing planes at Dallas Love Field when the FAA grounded everything and emptied the sky.

 

[satx78247]

Booder,

Imo, you were LUCKY to NOT be "in the air" on 9-11-2001 & to NOT have been "marooned" in Atlanta for 3 days.
(That was "un-fun".)

yours, satx

 

[Eminencefrontman]

I was in grad school for international relations at Univ. Tennessee Knoxville living on the 18th floor of a 20-story building. I had some "company" the night before and was taking her back to her dorm when I heard about it on NPR. My first thought was of the B-25 that hit the Empire State Building back in post-war 1940s, but by the time I got home and turned on the TV I watched he 2nd plane hit live. Within an hour I could see 3 F-16 flying sorties over Oak Ridge Nat. Lab. I left grad school that spring, because it was obvious the paradigms we we were being taught were washed-up cold-war reliquaries and no one had the first clue on how to deal with the post 9/11 world. Never saw my "company" (not sure I ever knew her/remembered her name,) after that night. I hope she has as fond of memories of the last night the in old post-world order world as I do.

 

[oohrah]

I was on a classified teleconference with a Pentagon office. All of a sudden, they announced there was a problem, and they were off the air. It was a bit later we learned why.

 

[Tex62]

In the air on a flight from DFW to Orlando. We made it to Orlando. Our conference got cancelled and we had a rental car, so we drove back the next day.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk