Reflections of 9/11

I think that it would be interesting to have a thread, now that we're five years after the events of 9/11/2001, where people could post their memories of the day. Knowing that we have a global community on this site, and that everyone, American or not, was affected in some way by the events, I feel that it would be interesting to have a collection of memories from that day.

Regardless of what government story or conspiracy theory that you subscribe to regarding 9/11, I want to hear from everyone just how they percieved the events as they happened, and in the hours following the collapses.

To start it off, I'm going to post my story here.


I was working as a freelance stagehand at the time, and 9/11/2001 was an early day for me. I was scheduled to be on a gig in Clarendon, VA (just a few miles from the Pentagon), setting up for a fashion show. I woke up a little late that day, and never had a chance to watch any news before leaving the house around 8:30 am. Being a Howard Stern fan, I always had my radio tuned to Stern's show in the mornings. This morning was no exception. Stern was up to his usual wackiness for the first few minutes that I listened to him. When the first plane hit WTC1 at 8:46am, there was still some joking going on in the Howard Stern broadcast before they realized what exactly had happened. At the time, it seemed like a sick joke being perpetrated by the Stern show cast (which is very out of character for them to make jokes about something this horrific). At the time, I didn't really think much of it, until Stern turned on CNN in his studio, and saw the first broadcast of the footage of the first plane hitting the WTC. At that exact moment, Howard sounded more serious than I had EVER heard him, and I knew it wasn't a joke. Within seconds, the entire show cast was handed wireless mics, and moved to the nearest office with windows, where they could observe the events. During this time there is much speculation from the cast of the Howard Stern show as to what exactly happened. Most seem to think it was simply a horrible accident. This continued until 9:03 am, when flight 175 crashed into WTC2, witnessed live and in person by Stern show cast, and immediately broadcast. Howard actually seemed to be on the verge of tears as he mentioned the second plane hitting WTC2. At that point, everyone knew it was no accident, and that we were under attack.

Upon hearing this, I immediately called my boss to make sure the gig was still happening. The plane had not yet hit the Pentagon. At that moment, I was told that the gig had not yet been cancelled, and I'd be informed if that changed. So, with that in mind, I continued on into Baltimore, on a route that avoided the toll, so I could pick up 95 south of the toll tunnel. Following all this, information was broadcast by the Stern show that reports were coming in of two more hijacked planes (Flights 77 and 93), both apparently heading towards Washington DC - right where I was headed. By the time that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon at 9:37am, I had just gotten onto 95, and was headed towards DC. At about the same time (9:39am), the crash was reported on CNN and rebroadcast by Howard Stern. I am approaching the Route 100 interchange on 95 southbound. My cell phone rings a few minutes later. It's my boss. The gig is officially cancelled. I turn around at the Route 100 interchange and head back home.

At this point, I just want to get home as fast as possible, and don't bother trying to avoid the toll tunnel on 95. Within 30 minutes, I'm approaching my apartment. At this point, it's important to note that the apartment complex I lived in at the time was on Wilson Point, in the Middle River area, just East of Baltimore City. More importantly, the major occupant of that peninsula is Martin Air National Guard Base and Airport (a dual-use military and commercial airport facility). Most of the military aircraft there are Warthogs (which, let me tell you, rattle pictures off of walls a half mile away when taking off at 6am). As I made the final approach onto the peninsula, through the access roads supporting the various aircraft and aerospace facilities located next to the base, I was stopped by county police, backed up be National Guardsmen. I was informed at that point that the entire peninsula was off limits due to a bomb threat at Martin. Even after arguing that my apartment was located on the peninsula (I could actually see my bedroom window from where I was stopped), they insisted that I could not return home for my own safety. Not wanting to make a scene, I quietly complied at that point, turned around, and called my father, who lives on the other side of the city. I informed him of the situation with my apartment, and told him I was coming over. He gladly agreed for me to come over, especially knowing that I was safe - he knew I had a gig near the Pentagon that day, but didn't know exactly where or what time the gig was scheduled for.

I had made it to my father's house about 11am or so (once again, taking the faster route through the 95 tunnel). During that time, I'm still listening to the Howard Stern broadcast, and hearing that flight 93 has been hijacked, and is heading for DC. Speculation is also made that the target for Flight 93 is the White House or Capitol Building, both of which are evacuated before 10am. I'm also hearing repeated reports of sounds of a struggle aboard flight 93, but nothing is able to be confirmed. I find myself thinking that had it been stagehands aboard that flight, given the generally resourceful and "never die" nature of stagehands, Flight 93 would already be safe on the ground, with the hijackers dead from their own box-cutters.

Also during the drive to my father's house, I heard about the first WTC collapse at 9:59am, moments after I turned around from the police/militart blockade. While hearing that news, it was the moment that Howard Stern really seemed on the verge of tears, if not already crying, and Robin Quivers was crying. I also heard of the Flight 93 crash in PA (it actually happened between 10:03 and 10:10am - there's still discrepancy on when exactly the flight went down), and reported around 10:15am. Additionally, Howard Stern and other cast members make speculation that Flight 93 was actually shot down, versus crashing on its own, based on the fractured and partial reports coming through on CNN.

At about 10:15am, I heard of the collapse at the Pentagon, and was horrified, knowing that my father had just been there the day before (he was a major consultant on the renovation of that wedge), and that two friends of my roommate at the time worked there (one was killed in the crash/collapse - the other, fortunately, was not scheduled to be in until later that day - he worked at one of the capfes in that wedge of the Pentagon - one that had been designed by my father).

I also remember hearing that WTC2 had collapsed at 10:28am, and the emotions that were obvious from Howard Stern and his cast, not to mention the emotions I felt myself, were obvious. Try driving through city traffic with tear-clouded eyes.

Anyway, I eventually arrived at my father's house, and was able to finally see rebroadcasts of the plane hits and subsequent collapses of the WTC towers, and the collapse of the Pentagon. My father, step-mother, and I were all in tears while watching these events.

I spent the majority of the day at my father's house, talking about the events that day, and watching news footage. I do remember specifically thinking that there was a lot more to these events, especially after watching WTC7 collapse, and all three of us noted that they looked like controlled demolitions.

I'll continue this post in a second post, as I'm running out of space to conclude my story.

I was at my father's house until about 8pm that night. I ended up staying over there, and helping him with dinner, all the while discussing the events of the day with him and my step mother. While I was over there, I called home to find out that my roommate was there, and well, also finding out that the bomb threat had been called off around noon. I also called my mother, who lives in Silver Spring, a DC suburb, north of the City, to make sure she was okay. She had been sent home around noon that day (she was working for APWU (American Postal Workers Health Union) - the privately owned health care plan for the USPS - also located in Silver Spring) because of the rumors and stories of bomb threats in the area.

The entire day was very solemn, even considering the fun I typically have when visiting my father. Also, when I was visiting with my father and step-mother, I got a few phone calls from my boss, stating that pretty much every gig I had scheduled over the next month had also been cancelled - costing me about $7000 in billable hours. It was my return trip home, however, that really got creepy.

I left my father's house about 8:00pm (possibly later - I wasn't really keeping track of the time), and took the longer, but cheaper route through Baltimore City on my way home. As I got into downtown around 8:30-9:00pm, I found the city virtually abandoned (VERY creepy, considering that even on a Tuesday night, Baltimore is still typically crawling with tourists, patrons of various restaurants and stores, and other people), except for what appeared to be military personnel (likely National Guard and/or local Baltimore City SWAT) lining the streets with fully automatic rifles. To add to that errie feeling, I was the only car on the street, and was being watched VERY closely by everyone within sightlines of my car. Apparently (I heard later) that there was a bomb threat at the Baltimore WTC building, in the heart of downtown, among other bomb threats. This is why the streets were lined with military personnel, keeping a very close watch on everything. As best as I could tell (by looking down cross streets as I drove through), this military prescense lined every street with a high rise building on it - basically all of Downtown Baltimore.

I finally got home around 9:45pm that night, and was kept awake all night by staggered air sorties of Warthogs taking of from Martin, presumably to keep the area safe.

I made the choice to simply get drunk and pass out that night. It was too much to deal with for one day.

After 9/11, I didn't get another gig (besides being on the crew at the Pentagon, erecting the drape in front of the destroyed wedge while reconstruction took place) for another 8 months. It actually forced me to find work outside of the stage crew business. As long as all air traffic was grounded, I didn't work in the stage crew industry - nobody did.

Damn, even after pouring all of this out, I find myself once again overwhelmed with emotion.

I'll finish with just one final thought:

Whoever is behind the events of 9/11 MUST be brought to justice, and I seriously think we won't find them in Iraq or Afghanistan. We need look no further than Washington DC.




Source for timeline information for 9/11: cooperativeresearch.org

It was a Illusion...................
1] Controlled Demolitions
2] Holograms
3] Edited TV Feeds
4] Mass Mind Control

[ As in 'Wag the Dog' and the 'Apollo Moon PROGRAM']

[ sorry folks, its was just the '911 Program' for your mind]

11/22/63 www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com...

Originally posted by georgejohn
It was a Illusion...................
1] Controlled Demolitions
2] Holograms
3] Edited TV Feeds
4] Mass Mind Control

This is exactly the kind of response I was not looking for. I want to know how people observed the events as they happened, before all of the information that came out afterwards to suggest the various conspiracy theories. I seriously doubt that you watched the WTC buildings and Pentagon collpase, and immediately thought it was holograms and edited TV feeds.

Please stick to the topic at hand. There's plenty of other threads in this forum for your conspiracy thoughts.

As the WTC building's fell....a Fire Captain was with us...saying that it was a controlled demolition.................. If u want 2 re-enforce your Illusions...go right ahead but remember many Firemen n other People were Murdered that day...And the 'Program' is still running !

[edit your brain before you get chipped and no longer have one...lol ]

[edit on 24-6-2006 by georgejohn]

Originally posted by georgejohn
As the WTC building's fell....a Fire Captain was with us...saying that it was a controlled demolition.................. If u want 2 re-enforce your Illusions...go right ahead but remember many Firemen n other People were Murdered that day...And the 'Program' is still running !

[edit your brain before you get chipped and no longer have one...lol ]

[edit on 24-6-2006 by georgejohn]

Apparently you completely missed the point of this thread. It is NOT to discuss conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11, but rather to discuss the observations that each of us made as the events unfolded. I do not buy into the official stories, as can be seen in how active I've been on other threads in this forum discussing and supporting controlled demolition. However, at the time it happened, I was in a car, in Baltimore, listening on the radio. I did not see any video footage of anything until several hours after it happened. At the time, I didn't know what to make of it.

If you were in NYC watching it happen, then I'd like to hear your original observations of the events that day.

well mine are pretty straightforward. I was at home, NPR was on when they announced that a plane had flown into the world trade center, and I remember thinking that it was a small plane and that was one gawdawlful pilot, either that or he had had a heart attack or something. Nothing was said about it being a 757. Then several minutes later it was announced another plane had flown into the neighboring tower. Immediately I knew something was up...one was possible pilot or mechcanical error, but not two. I turned on the TV, which is something I never do in the mornings and watched transfixed and horrified until, Grover, my dog (now you know the source of my screen name :lol demanded to go on a walk...when I came back the first tower had fallen and almost immediately upon turning the TV back on the 2nd tower fell. In the meantime news had come in about the Pentagon (thank God they didn't breach all 5 walls or they would have broken the spell and realeased the beast. Why do you think its a pentagon?) and flight 93 in Pennsylviania. It was a quiet day...veery somber. I went to work and after a couple hours we shut the kitchen down and I left. No one felt like eating, and if there was alot of drinking going on, it was done at home. I went home myself, turned the TV off, lit candles and incense and put on Mozart's Requiem Mass, and read some prayers for the dead, then prayed for all of us.

My memories are significantly different in one important detail, you say you saw the collapse of WTC 7 on the day it happened. I remember not seeing anything and only recieving verbal reports. I remember not getting a good view of ground zero until a few days later. At the time the vantage I saw on CNN was from a mile north where all you could see was the smoke and the ground view was blocked by buildings. I remember hearing reports of spires from the remnants of the walls a hundred feet high which were unstable as well as unstable buildings like WTC 7 but not seeing anything until there was an aerial flyover on Sunday, a few days later. Thats what I remember, maybe they were showing different things on TV but I thought I got the same CNN they have in the states.

Originally posted by Looter
My memories are significantly different in one important detail, you say you saw the collapse of WTC 7 on the day it happened. I remember not seeing anything and only recieving verbal reports. I remember not getting a good view of ground zero until a few days later. At the time the vantage I saw on CNN was from a mile north where all you could see was the smoke and the ground view was blocked by buildings. I remember hearing reports of spires from the remnants of the walls a hundred feet high which were unstable as well as unstable buildings like WTC 7 but not seeing anything until there was an aerial flyover on Sunday, a few days later. Thats what I remember, maybe they were showing different things on TV but I thought I got the same CNN they have in the states.

I have a few questions for you, and I mean no offense by any of them. Though they may seem ignorant, I just want to get an idea for your perspective on the day.

I'm just curious as to what kept you from seeing the events until a few days later, knowing that the event was carried pretty much globally, and pretty much live. I'm assuming by your statements that you are not in the US.

I suppose that why I question this is that it's hard for me to understand how someone, especially in this age of instant information, did not actually view the events of 9/11 until several days later. Call me ignorant, if you're in an area that is not as technologically advanced as the US (and I know many parts of the world are like that), or simply not generally interested enough in average goings on to pay attention to current news (and I can certainly understand that, especially with the amount of repetition happening in recent news).

Really, I'm just wondering what kept you from seeing the events unfold, and were rather only informed by verbal reports (I'd assume from familiy/friends/coworkers).

I watched TV all day but they weren't showing anything, there they just gave the verbal reports, like that the US Steel building was in imminant collapse, remember that? I was very disappointed that they wouldn't show what was happening at ground zero until several days later when much of it had been cleaned up.

I came home from school turned the TV on and about half an hour in saw the towers colapse. I rember having the following questions at the time:

how come bin laden was blamed so quickly even though al-queda had denide been behind the attack?

why was everyone talking about bombs at first then switched to saying there were no bombs. Yet the towers falling looked exactly the same as a controlled demolition and not an uncontrolled building colapse?

why was there so little information available initialy about the shanksville crash and so much about the WTC crash?

I kind of missed out on that day..maybe for the better...

I was picking apples on my uncles farm, when this old dewd in a tractor drove up to me at around 10am. He mummbled something about Twin Towers and collapse...I was like...yeah yeah..go drink your home grown stuff...i got home at 6pm and GOOD LORD.... I had a lot to learn...i missed out on the world changing...

Hey eyon, love your avatar, I wear a sterling silver version of that (and a silver 9 pointed star) around my neck.

hey look what i found

cant believe i didnt see this before
www.dumpalink.com...

i stated in another post that
it wasnt what you COULD see at the site
but what was missing!!!!!!!!!!

the small hole showed ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNS of a wing impact
and they say the wing is 120+ feet wide

8000+ gallons of fuel BUT VERY CONSUMEABLE items werent even scorched

grover,

thanks!!

I love the tree of life! I like its symbolism! In fact I have 3 tattoos, 1 is the "eye of Ra", one is chineese ( how do i spell that:puz (its early), and one is the tree of life, like my avatar.