Remembering 9/11: Your Stories!

I was at work when the stories started flying. A friend came over and told me that two jets had crashed into the Towers, then the Pentagon. I was hoping it was some kind of sick joke, but something told me it wasnt. Took a break and went up to call my wife, I called just after the second tower had collapsed, she told me everything that was going on. The rest of the day was (as others have said) rather surreal. Got home that afternoon and watched the coverage for awhile in total shock, and started to wonder just how many people that I knew were on duty at the Pentagon that day. In the end, just one was unaccounted for, well at least we couldnt find anything out about him for a couple days. He was being treated for injuries that he suffered at Bethesda. His office was just on the edge of the impact area and he got bounced around when the jet slammed through.

That night, my wife was supposed to attend a concert at church, however, they were stuck in Atlanta. So we gathered for a prayer service, and watched the President make his address and returned home to spend more time in front of the TV watching the coverage. The next couple of days were spent talking to friends and finding out who was still here and who wasnt.

ill share two simple memories to keep it short.

i remember watching the second plane hit live. right after that moment i looked over at my 6 month old baby and realized she is going to grow up in one messed up world.

my second memory that always has stuck out in my head is this. i decided to go to my moms house which was a simple 20 min away. on the way there i was listening to the days events unfold on the radio, and that is when they reported the first building falling, you know completely collapsing. i didnt understand this, i figured they would have both been standing ,and on fire still by the time i got to my moms.

I was working in a government building. I recieved a call from my supervisor and was told to tell everyone in the office to evacuate the building and that 2 planes had hit the World Trade Center. As i left the building going to the car i kept watching the skies to see any planes.

It took about 30 minuets just get out of the inner parking area because of all the people evacuating. On the way home the radio kept reporting what was going on.

I got home and my wife was waiting for me and had the news on the TV. We sat and watched the news most of the afternoon.

[edit on 4-9-2006 by ULTIMA1]

I was on vacation, and asleep. My wife woke me and said "A plane just crashed into the world trade center in New York." I was stationed at Goodfellow AFB at the time. Still not quite awake, I remembered mumbling something like "what a horrible accident" and for my wife to turn off the alarm. Next thing I know, she's waking me up again telling me a second plane hit the tower and a plane's hit the pentagon too. Then the lockdown sirens started going off on the base, which woke my butt up pretty good (those sirens are loud and unique). Goodfellow is an intel and fire training base, and they used their fire trucks to block the entrances. Several mobile SAMs launchers (about the size of jeeps, carry two S-A missiles, don't know exactly what they are) rolled out and directed their rails skyward. Loudspeakers announced that all non-critical buildings were closed and directed all non-essential Goodfellow personnel to remain in their quarters.

Being an Army grunt at an air force base, I was non-essential personnel, so we sat glued to the T.V. and watched it all go down. My father, who still lives across the street from Goodfellow, says that a UPS truck tried to make its delivery to the base and was run off the road by a military ambulance, the driver held at gunpoint until his ID was verified. Apparently the poor guy had been on the road all morning and had no idea what had happened.

The most extreme emotion I had that day was hatred. It was the purest, blackest hatred I've ever felt in my life. I was at rock bottom that day, never been on such an emotional roller coaster, even during two tours in Iraq.

I'm not ashamed to say our household was a tearful one that day. How many years spent getting an education, working to feed families, waiting for love, were brought to an end that day. God bless those poor people and their families, and the futures they will never know.

EDIT: To back up Valhall, yes soldiers were locked and loaded all over the country's airports. Know-it-alls claim otherwise, but it's true because my vacation got cancelled and I ended up holding an M-4 with a few other grunts at Matthis Field, which is San Angelo's airport. There were more police in some areas which lead to less armed military there, but active duty and National Guard were everywhere. Our world was changed forever that day.

[edit on 4-9-2006 by Astygia]

I live in western europe and my memories of that terrible day are as follows:

Myself my brother and my dad were all working out the front of our house doing different things, i was cleaning the car (i think), my dad was reading and my older brother was busy too.
I remember the car radio being on and being turned up loud. There was a newsflash of a major plane crash in new york city. I remember thinking 'god its a while since I've heard of a bad plane crash' and felt sad but just carried on doing what i was doing and hoping to hear of reports of survivors.
My dad went in to turn on the tv as he was curious about the radio reports but we actually had a power cut and had no power in the house.
next thing I remember there was another radio report, this time the reporter was speaking in a much more alarmed manner and speaking of a plane having crashed into a skyscraper. I remember thinking 'oh my god' but as we could not turn on the tv we were relying on radio reports which at the time became more and more bizarre and worrying. As you can imagine the radio network soon had a link to a US station and was broadcasting them live, so we began hearing the words, hijacked plane, terrorists, us government, flights grounded, world trade centre etc etc. It was frightening,as time went on i really began thinking is this the start of world war three?
later we got power back and we immediately turned on the news channel who were repeating the plane crashes over and over and showing the huge smoke clouds over nyc, i wil alwys remember that feeling of helplessness and shock at what i was watching. God bless all those who lost their lives, or were affected in any way by that tragic day. It will never be forgotten.


[edit on 4-9-2006 by pmexplorer]

i remember i was in ninth grade homeroom, and the principal came on and ordered us to turn on the TVs and i saw the two towers burning. and at that point kids from bunches of classes began to leave because their parents worked there, or were supposed to go there that morning. my friend steves pop was supposed to be in the south tower above the impact zone but missed the train because he broke a whole pot of coffee. got real lucky.

we watched the whole entire thing, but after a few hours of replaying the scenes some teachers turned it off and everyone just kinda sat around in silence, calling parents and stuff. schools up long island, closer to the city had it harder because more of their parents worked. i had a friend 3 friends at this school Chaminade and they told me lots of kids got called off because BOTH their parents worked there. my dad was a pilot and thankfully he chose not to fly one of the targeted flights on the 11th, but decided to choose the 12th instead when he did his flight bidding for American. my family and i are lucky and grateful. we all got home to about 20 calls and messages from friends and family hoping my dad wasnt on the flight. my two cousins were stuck in lower manhattan all day. they went to HS there and they were very lucky as well. anywho...

i also remember all the Fd's in my area leaving, my cousin went as well, they didnt come back for a few weeks. i remember some of the funerals out here as well for firefighters.
my dad took me to a couple, we didnt go in but we watched the percession and waited. it was really somber. i dont know if anyone else here on the boards lives on long island but theyd know too how somber it was. i know it was around the country but around long island, jersey, connect, that area was just in a deep depression for months, even a year after. every day someone else you would hear about was dead
someone who went to our HS, or lived in the town, who worked a certain place, etc etc. it was just a real #ty feeling you had in the back of your mind for weeks. you know it just permeated EVERYTHING. it was like stuff smelled different, looked different.

unfortunately in the years after my parents took the real brunt of it. not looking for sympathy this is just the story. my dad lost all his retirement with American, had heart problems and a minor heart attack after all the stress. my dad left soon after and im still bitter because it was the best job you could have and he'd been flying planes for 30 years and loved it. it defined him. he still talks of going back whenever we go to JFK or anything like that. but i dont know if he will

i remember his friends went through the same. they couldnt sleep, eat, or just function period. my father also entered a similar depression for a few days, but hes not the type to mope so he rebounded. i began therapy a year after because i developed recurring dreams of plane crashes over and over and over. lotta dead people around and yelling and screaming in them. therapy didnt work for a 15 year old at that point so i said # it. everyones got a demon to deal with.

the financial burdens kicked in and ripped up a lot of marriages. thankfully my parents didnt divorce over ours but it was hard for them at times.

our family, and a lot of our friends did go through a lot but we are lucky in the fact that our loved ones are alive. as i said before kids from the HS Chaminade in nassau county lost BOTH parents.
people lost a lot of jobs too because the businesses, even out here on the end of long island, just suffered and couldnt do it. they didnt CLOSE, but had to lay people off.

basically in all the day makes me bitter. bitter for what it did to family, friends, and people i dont know, and bitter for what it took away from my parents. really not a day goes by i dont think about it. every time im at work (i work at the beach ) i see the planes on their flightpaths incoming from the atlantic or going out, and i dont look at them the way i used to when i was young (still am thankfully ) but i think it goes the same with a lot of people

[edit on 4-9-2006 by blatantblue]

[edit on 4-9-2006 by blatantblue]

[edit on 4-9-2006 by blatantblue]

I attempted to post to this thread several times and have hestitated because I wasn't sure if I wanted to relive that day again, but it is inevitable that I do because we promised "Never to Forget".

I had already dropped the kids to school and was making my way out of the local courthouse after clearing up a citation for a brake light being out. The station in my car was set to a music morning show, which wasn't playing music, I don't remember which of the guys it was but he was saying "A plane had just crashed into the WTC and they were watching it on tv". I started to shake and was crying by the time I got to my grandmother's house... (closest home base). I had worked in the WTC complex, I had friends and acquaintances that worked there. I had family that worked in the area. My mom was working on Maiden Lane. I was in a panic. Granny was already watching it on tv. I called my husband who hadn't left for work yet, told him to turn on the tv and to stay home for a while longer. The second tower was hit. I don't think I reacted. I kept dialing phone numbers.

Can't reach mom, father in law and one sister in law is working in Brooklyn. Not sure where my brother in law is, he works both lower manhattan and midtown. It becomes harder to make a connection on the phone, circuits are busy. Mom usually gets off at the Broadway/Nassua station, but on many occasions, she gets off at Chambers and walks through the concourse, get's breakfast, stops at Century21, run her errands, etc. I didn't talk to her the day before, I'm not sure what her plans were. I can't think about that stuff. I go to my kids school to get them, other parents feel the same way I do, we have to wait for our kids. The parents talk, I don't want to, I keep my distance from the conversations until I see my kids. I wasn't sure how to tell them what was happening, but I repeated what I knew, saw the confusion and scaredness in their eyes, hugged them and took them to granny. My husband was there and so was my aunt with her kids. I don't know what my husband told the kids or how much he let them see the events unfold on tv, I was at the phones again, when the Pentagon got hit. My brother in law and mother in law were okay, they were in midtown. The others were in Long Island and Queens.

My husband convinced me to stop with the calls, we had reached all who we reached, we had to wait now. Circuits Busy was all you got when you dialed a NY number. My aunt made breakfast, I remember that very clearly, because now reflecting on it, I see it as her way of coping with the events and same thoughts I had regarding our loved ones. She was bringing the normalcy back into the day and I couldn't even grasp a full thought because I was all emotions. For those who don't know I am a bit of an empath and pick up on the emotions of others which made what I felt magnified several times. I remember the words terrorists, planes, white house, another plane crashed, more planes, war.

The towers had collapsed already when we got the phone call from my mom. She had walked across the Brooklyn bridge and was either going to take bus, cab or walk home from there. She had made friends with a few ladies, they were going to stick together. I think it was then the reality of exactly what happened settled into me and I actually began to pay attention to what was being said on the news.

I spent the rest of the day glued to the tv, while fielding calls literally from all around the world. I spoke to relatives and family friends that I didn't even know we had. My kids watched cartoons. It was late that night when I finally broke down and released all the emotions of the day. I don't want to do it again.

You may consider me wrong but I don't want to remember anymore, I want to forget.

I work late so I had come home turned on the TV and fell asleep with the TV on. I kept hearing noises on the TV and had thought it was some kind of horror movie on. My phone started ringing and I picked up the phone to hear my son's mom on the other end asking me "If I knew what was going on". I was still groggy and was looking at the TV thinking it was a movie, and said "No. Whats wrong?" She had said that we were being attacked and the WTC was hit. I woke up immediately and focused on what was going on on the TV set, and realized it was people crying and screaming from the first tower going down. I got up out of bed and got dressed and saw smoke in the sky and flew over to my store. People were crying as they were walking in the streets and neighbors were all in shock. Phone calls were not going through so, I had opened my store and allowed people to use my Internet cafe to let their families know they were ok. After a couple of hours I was worried about my then 3yo son and I hopped in my car and drove to Queens which was a mere 14mi from Brooklyn, normally a 15minute car ride on the Brooklyn-Queens-Expressway. All the highways were closed this day, even streets were closed to only emergency traffic. What normally took 15mins took me 5hours to accomplish. It was like a surreal nightmare. When I got to downtown Brooklyn, it was covered in an eerie smoke like a fog bank. You could smell the burnt flesh in the air. It was horrible like a nightmare.

The whole trip there before we knew about the final body count I kept thinking of all of my customers, neighbors and friends who worked at the WTC. My own sister did not work there but strangely enough she had an appointment to meet a friend at the WTC that morning and just barely escaped tragedy. She was covered in dust and had to walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Strangely enough many of the people I knew that worked there went unhurt due to different reasons like being late for work, save for 2 people, 1 of them being someone I grew up with that perished that day. One of my neighbors who worked at Fiduciary Trust was late for work and told me that the people I knew there were also safe. One of the supervisors from that company had sent a crew back up to get backups of the systems and all of those guys had perished. I didn't know any of those guys working under him luckily. I hope that guy suffers for the rest of his life for making those guys go back into the building. He is an ass.

One of my other friends barely made it out of the building and had to walk down 84 flights of stairs in complete darkness. he was only lucky that he chose the right stairwell to go down, the other people that went a different route all perished. he doesn't like to talk about it much but he gave me a little bit of his ordeal the other day. He is still affected to this day.

On Monday the 10th I had been out with friends belatedly celebrating my 25th birthday(the weekend before I had been out of town for National Guard duty, and didn't get a chance to celebrate properly). My roomate, knowing my military status at the time, came to my door and didn't knock just walked in. Before I could say,"Leave me alone i'm hung over". He told me that he had been watching the news about a plane crash at WTC and while he was watching another flew into the second building. Even in my diminished state I knew we had been attacked. I jumped out of bed and by the time i got a pot a coffee going and some nicotine in me the news about the Pentagon started to come through. I watched in amazed horror as the rest of the day unfolded. I just knew flight 93 had been shot down though they told us different almost immediately. At some point during the day I got a call from my guard unit (which i expected) doing the telephone alert thing, and asking for volunteers for Armory guards, and saying be ready. I told them about the foreign students taking pictures at the armory the previous Sunday(see my post on this thread www.abovetopsecret.com... .) I watched both towers fall. I saw grief and terror on the streets of our greatest city. I watched Palestinians celebrating on the street. I watched the band at the changing of the guard in London playing the Star Spangled Banner. I remember the doctor who took his own camera to the scene and was there when either one or both the towers fell ( what happened to that footage havn't seen it.....since almost that day). I had an afternoon class and decided to go ahead and go to it to be around people. Needless to say, class was cancelled. Everyone was talking about it. I took a couple of friends to a local Mexican restaurant, and had lunch while watching more news at the bar(the reaction from the help there that day probably soured me more on immigration than anything prior to that time). The rest of the day I made it a priority to see everyone i cared about. I sat and talked to my grandfather, I asked him had he ever seen/felt anything like today and he said once in late '41. We ended the day amongst a few close friends . We talked about war, fate, and what our futures would hold. I'd love to say that i was surprised that anyone would want to harm the country and land that i love, but after the two embassy bombings and the Cole (and the couple of months I spent in Egypt in '97) without meaningful reprisals it was shocking but not surprising to me. I was into sites like ATS before then, and I still enjoy this and others but I remember thinking back then that the conspiracy theories for this one would be the JFK of the next 20 yrs. It seems like before the buildings collapsed the usual suspect theories were being printed e.g. blame the jews, israeli false flag, Fed Reserve trying to destroy evidence, NWO etc.. I'm not happy about alot of things that have happened since, it's like we were almost awakened en masse, but were lulled back to sleep by calls for shallow consumerism (Bush's the economy needs you to spend money speach), jingoistic patriotism, and the perception (that's what it is) that our leaders were doing something about our situation.

I dropped my son off at school and turned on the radio. The morning DJ was talking about a small plane hitting the World Trade Center, and how there was such a clear outline of the plane in the side of the building. He thought it looked like a surreal cartoon. I wondered if it was a suicidal pilot, or if it was a bizarre accident. Once I got home I woke my hubby, turned on the TV, and picked up the phone. When the news showed a close up of the damage, I thought, "That's no accident."
I was on the phone with my mom when the second plane came into view on the screen. The camera stayed focused on the burning tower as the second plane curved and crashed into the other tower.
"Oh, god. All those people." Was my first thought, followed by a string of questions and thoughts, "How many are there (planes)? How many (people) are in the towers? What perfect timing. All the gawkers and firefighters will get hit with debris. What perfect chaos."

When the Pentagon was hit, the first reports was that a helicopter or maybe a light aircraft had crashed and/or hit the building. I thought it was more likely that it was another hijacked plane. We had already scrambled fighter jets and I wondered if our military had been ordered to shoot down any hijacked planes. In the same position, I would have ordered it.

When the first tower collapsed, I was horrified. As a child, I'd wanted to be a firefighter; and my spirit cried out for those 200 or so firefighters who were, at that very moment, being crushed. Only after that initial, awful pain, did I worry about the rest of the people. Then I saw all the dust and thought about what those people might be breathing in. I was rooting for the other tower to remain standing, even when I saw it leaning before it fell.

I think the news media had their act together better than the government did. There were several things that were mentioned only once or twice, then never again -like the fighters being scrambled before the "official" version. Both CNN and MSNBC reported fighters in the air within 15 minutes of the second crash. MSNBC reported (once) that fighters were on an intercept with the one plane that appeared to be heading toward the East coast, and that was not responding.

I expect to get flamed for this, but I thought the attacks were tragic yet beautiful in their destruction. They were so well coordinated to cause maximum damage. I saw it as a karmic balancing. I don't know for what. Maybe Hiroshima or Nagasaki or any of the other deaths the U.S. as a whole has profited from. In a way, I was grateful that it was such a big kick in the pants, rather than a bunch of smaller attacks spaced out over time. On a personal level, the attacks have caused a lot of bitterness. My son doesn't remember much of the pre-9/11 USA, but he certainly knows what it's like to have fear shoved down his throat for the past 5 years.

My thoughts and theories haven't changed much from then 'til now. I think the government knew ahead of time, and consciously did nothing. I think the American public, (not to mention the American corporations) would not have allowed the kind of security necessary to prevent what happened. I think a hijacked plane hit the Pentagon. And I think flight 93 was shot down by our own military. I think it's wonderful that some passengers on flight 93 were willing to fight back, I think they did take control of the plane, and I think our fighter pilots didn't know, or the plane was already hit. I don't think the passengers' attempt was in vain. It was the perfect ending, and it was exactly what Americans needed to hear after 3 successful hits.

Write your account of how you first discovered the news that a plane or planes had crashed into the World Trade Center towers.

I woke up for school and heard it on the radio news, and then followed that up with news on CNN.



Your immediate reaction, thoughts, and emotions when you realized that it was not an accident.

I could not believe something like this was happening. I wondered why and who did this.

Your account of the first news of an explosion at the Pentagon.

I could not believe something like this was happening. It seemed like an all out war of sorts.

First thoughts, reaction to, and how or why the World Trade Center first tower collapsed.

Again, I could not believe it was happening. I remember it happened moments before I left to get on the bus. I then told people about it on the bus.

Your interpretation of how the news media covered the events of that day.

I was in school during the earliest parts... but I had a sense that everyone was in panic mode. You could not escape the coverage. It was everywhere. I remember walking down the hallway and the janitor relaying the latest news.

Finally, your thoughts of how the events of that day impacted you on a personal level, those around you, and your thoughts, or theories, as they exist today. and anything you'd like to add in closing.

It changed everyone I know. It is a security thing... a feeling that another event could happen at any moment and it could happen to anyone.

I remember feeling so tense in the days after. Waiting and wondering if anything else would happen.

I'm in Canada in the province of Saskatchewan. I was in 11th grade at the time.

I woke up early morning on September 11th 2001 to get ready for school. It was about 8:30 in the a.m. when I turned on the T.V. in my room. I went downstairs to make some breakfast and have some coffee and when I returned back to my room to watch the morning news it was about 9ish and there was a breaking news story about a plane hitting one of the twin towers. At first the news casters seemed pretty calm about it, as if it was some sort of navigational error on the pilots part and a freak accident. The mood of everyone changed when the 2nd plane hit. It was almost surreal...it finally hit me that this was some sort of terror plot and it was like deja vu all over again a la oklahoma city bombing.
So I continued to be entranced by the continuing coverage, nobody seemed to know what the hell was going on. Fear finally set in and I became glued to the television as if there was a broadcast on saying the world is about to end.
I pulled myself together and left for class (needless to say I was late to school).

Upon arriving at my high school and walking into the main corridor there was an eerie silence surrounding the hallways (even though the halls were crowded). The teachers, students and staff were gathered in the main office watching the TV with concern upon their faces. I stepped into the office to join everyone as we watched the terrifying events unfold. One girl said her aunt was in the towers...another was crying hysterically saying her father was in one of the towers. The atmosphere was intense...I felt like I couldn't breathe, like there was a million pound anchor on my chest. The principal finally got on the PA system and announced that everyone will be dismissed early. This was the first time nobody cheered for early dismissal.

As I drove out of the school I could see the highways were packed (which was of coruse unusual for 11 in the morning). People were driving around aimlessly,as if they didn't know what to do....where to go. I was wondering about the people driving frantically, if they were rushing towards the city in order to find out about their loved ones.

That night when the story became more developed with more information about who planned the attacks, etc. I was glued to the TV set, hoping and praying for survivors. Asking myself, why? I didn't get any sleep that night. The following morning school was cancelled for security measures (I live in CT, but in a town only a few minutes away from NYC).

I'll never forget that day, ever.

I'm not an american, but this event really affected the whole world. I was in my apartment in front of my computer with the TV on in the background when it happened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something on the TV, so I turned to watch and saw the first plane hit. I was standing there with my mouth open in total disbelief as I was listening to the news lady talking. At this point they thought it was an accident.

I shouted to my girlfriend who was in another room that a huge frikkin' plane had just hit the WTC and the whole world was watching it live on TV. It was just crazy. As we stood there watching and talking about how such a horrible accident could happen the second plane hit. At this point it pretty much went to hell.

I was on several IRC channels at the time, and the topic on all of them changed to variations of "WW3! THE END IS HERE". People could not believe what was happening. There was talk of the US going to DefCon 2, and that soon the nukes would be flying. It was just unbelieveable.

I will never forget the feeling I had while seeing those plains crashing into the WTC. It was an undescribeable pain, like someone punched me. My mind was going crazy trying to find possible explanations for this. It couldn't be real! But it was! People were jumping to their deaths and everyone was running around screaming. Then the towers came down...

I hope I will never see anything like it again!!!

i had just moved to san francisco, living at 39th avenue.
i got up as usual and went to work at a job where i was developing "social user interfaces" (sui)
i was new and my boss didn't have my contact info yet, so while he had called everyone early and told them not to come downtown, i was merrily on my way to the grind going down fell street, when i heard howard stern - yes, i got my news that morning from howard stern, that the attacks happened.

it was weird because while i was driving before hearing the news, i was wondering why the city was acting like it was on vacation mode. nobody was out. no rush hour, no busy streets, just a few of us uninformed drivers.

i get to work and see a message was blinking, i checked the message and it was my boss saying "go home", so i did.

it was a weird morning, everyone was looking at each other, which in a larger city you don't normally get that eye to eye contact with people. i like many others started to call my family and friends.

it was a strange day. something that i haven't witnessed in my 40 years on this crusty shell of earth.
-b

I was in a student flat at university, it was about 1am here but all 5 of us in the flat were still awake.. one of us had the tv on, watching BBC World live. Told us the thundering news that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. We were like WTF of course and from that moment on, we were glued to our screens. We watched the second plane hit live as it happened, we couldn't sleep for the rest of that night. We were shellshocked.

Now, the news report of course immediately began insinuating terrorists and Arabs / bin Laden etc, and 4 of us in the flat absorbed it hook line and sinker. But interestingly, one of us I distinctly remember his immediate reaction when those towers came down live on television was "this is about oil.. the USA are the terrorists". Even at this early stage, before they officially named bin Laden, before they went into Afghanistan.. he had this hunch that he was seeing an inside job unfold before his eyes. Strange intuition. He was a great guy too.. a nice, straight-up fellow with integrity - and he could see through it all.

At the time, we humoured him, took his points on board.. you know, my best friend who I was flatting with was the kind of guy who brushes off conspiracy theories and rigidly sticks to the 'official story' and anyone who doesn't toe that line is either left-wing or not living in the real world - even he was smiling and pretending to take my flatmate's assertions on board. I keep my conspiracy theories to myself these days as I'm sick of being laughed at by my friends, but even at that early stage a little light bulb was going off - though admittedly I was following the media line, awaiting the latest news on the 'war on terror'. It's good to see the truth (slowly) finally coming to light among the wider populace.

In Australia, it was the middle of the night when we got the news. I remember laying down in front of the tele in the middle of the night flicking through the channels. When i flicked to the video footage of the second plane hitting the tower, at first i was under the impression this was the images of some kind of drama show on television. A movie or "24hours" or something of the kind. The sheer magnitude of the situation seemed somewhat surreal. Gradually we started realizing that this was not a movie. We sat glued to the television all night in horror, listening to the eyewitness accounts of people that were obviously very distressed.

I remember thinking.."why would someone do such a thing?" I've been trying to answer that question since. Even on the other side of the world. 9/11 had a very large impact on all of our lives.

Back when ATS was young, I wrote a detailed "from a New Yorker's perspective" accounts of what happened on, and soon after 9|11|2001. Well, in the shuffle of databases and servers, many of those very old posts are lost. This is a reconstruction (as best as I can) of my experience on the day that changed everything.


It was a stunning September day, so I walked the 45 blocks from our apartment to work in Midtown. It's not as bad as it sounds, only about 40 minutes at a brisk pace. I have distinct memories of thinking, "what a spectacular day".

I tend to get to work early. That brief period from 7:45 to 9:30 is in incredibly valuable before the rest of the office arrives, and the phone/email starts begging for attention. But some time before 9am, I have a vague recollection of thinking there are far too many sirens out there. And sure enough, I noticed the headline on the MSNBC.com website "Jet hits the World Trade Center". I called home to see if my family was watching the news, and my wife said the top of the building was covered in smoke! My first reaction was disbelief, the pilot must have had a heart attack or some other fatal distraction.

Our office has four TV monitors in the reception area, so many of us began to congregate there to watch the news... everyone in disbelief. No matter how long you've been in New York City (for me, just one year at the time), everyone knows at least one person who works in those buildings. They're hugh. The office space in those two buildings alone equals all of the office space in downtown Atlanta.

As the fire spread, and it was obvious we were watching something very serious in which everyone above the impact was likely unrescuable until the fire was out. Everyone began calling their friends who worked there. But of course, the wireless system was overwhelmed.

Then, it hit home, hard. Someone screamed from behind us, a young girl in our accounting office had just arrive to work and knew nothing of the news. She broke down... he father works on the 92 floor of the North Tower, in a window seat, facing north, right where the hole is. We did our best to console her, but for all she knew, she had just seen how her father died.

More people arrived. More news of friends, relatives, and spouses who work in the buildings. A close coworker couldn't get his wife on her cell phone (she works on the 100-something floor of the north tower). Another person can't get her brother. Yet another is unable to connect with his best friend of 20 years. The feeling in the air, with that many highly-stressed people in one room, is a palpable thick combination of tension, fear, and intense anxiety. We could all feel it... it became oddly silent as everyone was around the TV's, waiting for something that resembled good news... when a huge explosion burst out of the side of the south tower!

Everyone screamed. How could that happen? Where did that come from? Then, the angle of the news coverage changed, and it was clear that another passenger jet hit the south tower. At that moment, we knew this was an attack... and two people collapsed under the stress.

At that point, news came in of the Pentagon in flames, all air traffic ordered grounded, and dozens of other rumors of hijacked planes still in the air. The city closed all the bridges and tunnels and halted subway and commuter rail traffic... the city was locked down. As best we could, the 60-or-so of us came to terms with the transition of stress of fear for the lives of friends and loved-ones, to a broader fear of "what next?" What will be targeted and how?

We had no idea the "what next" would be the total collapse of two gigantic office buildings. Screams. Terror. Crying. Yelling. Then... silence. Especially when the north tower fell. At that moment in time, we all assumed that not only did tens of thousands of people in the buildings suddenly die, but so did a vast majority of the city's finest and bravest. The sudden realization of the magnitude of the likely loss was beyond comprehension.

(-- retelling this is getting hard --)

The rest of the day passed in a fog of numbness as we did our best to figure out how to get everyone home, and pair up people who couldn't get home with those of us living in Manhattan. All traffic had sopped. Madison avenue was a sea of people, with the occasional emergency vehicle heading south.

Around 4:00, I was one of the last people out of the office to walk home... a very different walk than my morning stroll. The streets will filled with people walking north. Many of the people were covered in a fine gray dust, leaving what looked like a trail of smoke in the breeze behind them. No one talked. It was unnaturally quiet... that is, except for the loud cheers when the F-16's passed overhead as they circled the city.

Throughout the evening, the local news coverage transitioned from one of unimaginable catastrophe, to one of inspiring humanity as the harshest most hardened city dwellers in the world opened their hearts and volunteered to help in the thousands. Food, equipment, people, and more people showed up to do anything that could be done to help. Massive 4-star restaurants opened their kitchens to anyone that resembled a rescue worker or rescue volunteer. In mere hours, the outpouring of aid became too much to handle.

But in that inspiring outpouring of volunteering and preparation is an image that haunts every New Yorker to this day... empty hospital emergency rooms. Every hospital and medical center for miles around called in all staff, sent emergency trauma specialists to lower Manhattan, and prepared their facilities for the worst in injuries and burn treatment. Then they waited for the patients... and waited... and waited... and waited. They waited for days, as the frantic efforts to find survivors continued... but there were only a handful to tend to.


The events of 9|11|2001 have provided a tragic catastrophe that shapes our time. Many of us immediately began considering conspiracy possibilities. And because of our collective speculation about the associated conspiracies, you can scarcely research anything related to 9|11|2001 without encountering a mass of wild theories in all shapes and sizes.

It's important to question the influences and factors that bring about major events such as this. The questioning mind is the learning mind. But on the morning of 9/11/2006, spend some time to reflect on the human toll. Imagine the hundreds of thousands of stories of grief, fear, anxiety, and terror that happened on that day. And most important, pause and think of the more than 3,000 people who are no longer with us.

Let's not get so caught up in the details of the event, that we loose sight of the human element.




And as a side note, the father of the girl in our office made it out okay. He happened to be in the men's room on the opposite side of the building when the plane hit, and he immediately went down the stairs. Others in our office were not so lucky.

I was in school at the time this happened, I remember it clearly as if it was yesterday, it was math class and we were going over a Trig problem, I remember it because it involved a tank commander and going in a giant triangle. But about half way through the math class the assistant principal walked in and said he had something to read to us, so he took a breath and read off what he had recieved.

At first I didn't know what to think, I wasn't sure what it all meant, I was only 12 at the time, I was young and unsure so I just shrugged it off... everyone did.

Well I got home to watch the news and there they were... the two towers on fire, smoke going thousands of feet into the sky and then they collapsed... I still wasn't sure of what had happened I remember thinking that this event was one of the events that put the idea into my head to go ahead and enlist in the armed forces when I came of age, but I still was unsure of what was happening... too much to take in.

Well I got many calls from my relatives in Europe wondering if we were all ok, apparantly they got the news before I even did. My dad was the only one who was working in the city at the time, but he got home alright, he was still pretty far from Ground Zero, but personally I didn't know anyone who had died.

The next day is what woke me up and showed me the real effect of 9/11.

This effect, it didn't come in the collapse of two great towers, or that America had been attacked... it came in the form of all the little children crying hysterically in the hall way because they had lost loved ones and did not understand why such actions have taken place.

It was this same effect that helped widen my view of things, why I think I'm so different today than the what I would have been.

Even though I was young myself at the time; the tears of children will forever be the driving force behind my hatred, my anger towards those who have caused unnecessary pain. The way I see it, they weren't waging war against America, they were waging war against children.

Now all I can hear are the trumpets playing and the drums rolling an infinite symphony of mesmerizing glory. We will NEVER forget, that's no lie.

Shattered OUT...

[edit on 6-9-2006 by ShatteredSkies]

When the tragedy of 9/11 occured I was in 9th grade, sitting in my 2nd period Spanish class when someone told us that the World Trade Centers were hit and then our Spanish teacher turned on the T.V. and we watched the first tower burning and then saw the second plane impact and it hit me so hard I didn't even know what to think at the time, not a sense of pride or nationalism for what was to come.. just shock.

It was a weird day for me that whole day, but I felt so sad for what happened and it was hard to keep it in.. I wept inside and a bit on the outside in my own solitude and as I watched CNN air what happened that day, was almost impossible to keep in.

And just like everyone else.. here that saw it, it was hard to watch and it's now even harder to talk about.. 5 years after it happened. The main fuel to my fire for what I choose to fight for today (in favor of the conspiracy) is when it was mentioned on the news, by an anchor that the towers look like they fell like a controlled demolition, that along with how I was in shock how the building pulverized itself as it fell was truely unbelieveable. I hid that away thinking it was impossible and improbably but research done by members on ATS.com and others have shown me I may not be too far fetched.

God Bless those who perished on 9/11 and to the soldiers that are fighting overseas.

[edit on 9/6/2006 by Masisoar]

i have already posted, but :

good point, Skeptic, about losing sight the human element. i always find myself having to step back and remember that this actually happened! I was only 14 at the time, but i remember it clearly. sometimes i gotta step back and meditate on the thought that it was real, and the event transpired. sometimes i look at it too much through a kaleidescope of observation and detachment. i dont know if anyone else feels this way? i mean studying engines, walls, steel, etc. does anyone else ever feel that? i hope someone understands what im trying to convey here.

i get lost sometimes in all the dust, metal, concrete, and i forget that blood was indeed among the mix. :\


idk it gets my #ing blood boiling when i think about it. i dont know like, how to even begin to know what that feels like? i try to imagine myself hanging out a window 100 stories up, about to jump and seeing this beautiful day out in front of me. drives me crazy and it makes me so mad.
anywho, sorry for the 2nd post ive had my say

[edit on 6-9-2006 by blatantblue]