Remembering 9/11: Your Stories!

I was in the hospital, about to be discharged, my then 7 week old son was very sick with some kind of infection. They never figured out what it was, but I was already kinda numb from the three days I was there, watching my little guy scream as he was getting spinal taps, IV's, etc. Not alot of fun. But the day before the docs said that we could go home 9-11, so I was relieved the ordeal would be ending. I woke up 9-11 to my son's mother telling me downtown Phoenix was on fire (she didn't have alot of knowledge of the trade centers and a building was a building to her), and since that's where we were, I was a bit concerned, so groggily I turned on the TV. I immediately corrected her and said it was one of the twin towers of the WTC in NY. I was relieved again, but felt bad for the people in the building. When they said it was a plane, I thought as everybody else did...what a tragic accident. Then I saw the second plane coming into the picture and thought the pilots just wanted to see the fire, until they flew right into the building. I was shocked and knew it was an attack at the same time, the rest of the day was a mix of happiness that my son was okay, sorow for those that lost their lives, and anger at those responsible. I wanted payback like every other person too shocked to look at the bigger, even more angering possibilities. I believe the government was aware of the attacks, and allowed them to happen because they saw an opportunity to push an aggressive agenda. I don't believe it was a controlled demolition, and I don't believe anybody knew the towers would come down, the government, Bin Laden, anybody.

I have uploaded some pics that I feel tell the stroy of what I saw.

First Picture is one of many Fire Trucks Destroyed:
files.abovetopsecret.com...

Second and Third is everyone working together:

files.abovetopsecret.com...

files.abovetopsecret.com...

I have a lot of unpublished pictures from there that we took. I will try and post them soon.

September 11, 2001 was seared into my mind. I woke for work that day as usual. At the time I worked for a high-end copper roofer with my best friend (Jimmy). Like in New York, that day in Atlanta was perfect. The temperatures were to be in the low 70s with low humidity; this is a huge deal when you work on roofs for a living.

Everyday Jimmy would pick up my son and I in the work truck and we would head out to drop-off my son at kindergarten then we would go to our assigned job site. That morning he was running late. So while waiting for him, my son and I watched TV in our front living room.

My son had just fallen asleep. So I turned down the TV volume and switched the channel to FNC just in time to catch their initial reporting on the first jet. My first thought was that is was a general aviation aircraft and then they showed the live shots. I knew then it was a commercial airliner. My next though was “How the hell do you do that?”. I was pretty sure that the ATC vectored commercial traffic away from that area due to the height of the buildings, but maybe I was wrong. I looked at the sky past the WTC towers & I saw that the weather was just as awesome as it was here in Atlanta.

I saw that it was time for my room mate (G) to wake up for his job, so I ran down to his room and barged in. I grabbed the remote and click on his TV. He woke up mad and started to say something to me but I shushed him and pointed at the TV. Something felt wrong and he needed to see this. G’s family has been in the commercial airline industry since the 1940. There was one more reason I though he should see this and that was his father. G’s dad is a VP with Amex and was scheduled to have a huge meeting that day in the NY office.

I ran back up stairs and my son was awake. I changed the channel to the Cartoon Network and rushed back down to my room mate. G was throwing on clothes while calling his father. I was silent watching the big screen in his room, thinking “There is no logical reason why a commercial airliner runs into the bloody WTC in broad daylight…in perfect weather…this is BS something is off..” And then it happened. I saw another plane for a split second back behind the towers in the FNC live shot. I yelled out loud to G, “Hey, Look what the hell is that GD plane doing so…..” Then the fireball. We sat in silence for a good 15 seconds. I turned back to look at G and he had tears steaming down his face. He took his eyes off the screen and remarked dryly: “Well now we know it is not an accident.”

I knew then what was niggling in the back of my mind. That single thought; that single word that I knew was back there but I could not remember until that moment: Bin Laden. I remember the news report from the night before about how Massoud was killed and it all clicked: Al Qaeda did this. Unlike most American G & I were well aware of them, G had a cousin hurt on the USS Cole.

By that time Jimmy had called me on my cell asking if I had heard. I told him I saw it live. He pulled into my driveway a few minutes later and rushed into my home. We were still downstairs and he charged into G’s room and asked why we were down here? I told him that I did not want my son to see this. He replied that it was on the TV upstairs. Apparently my son had hit the “LAST” button as soon as I walked away. I walked up the stairs to see my son wide eyed and pale. His grand parents were flying to Las Vegas that morning and were scheduled to land soon. He asked if that was Grandma & Grandpa’s plane. I told him no and that they were safe. He asked to go to kindergarten.

Jimmy asked what did I want to do: stay here or go to work. For me it was an easy questiont to answer: “Work”! I need to do something to take my mind off of this news. I knew that sitting around all day watching the news was not going to change anything. But I did know that the SOB who have just hit us want us to stop everything and cry and weep and panic. I told Jimmy such and I told him there was going to be enough people in NYC who will do that for us, but we should work.

So we dropped off my son at his kindergarten and we drove to the new job site. Turns out we were near to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (KATL). From the second story deck and the roof of this home we had a clear view of the airport. We tied off on to the roof and I turned around and the site I saw will live with me to this day. All four runways at KATL were arrivals. It had never been done. Planes were lined up in they sky for miles, their landing lights looked like strings of Christmas tree lights in the sky. They had the runway assignments organized by size of the aircraft. The largest were landing on the inner runways and they were grouped to avoid any wake turbulence issues. You could tell this was something that the ATC had planned on. It seemed very well organized.

The jobsite was empty except the Mexicans who worked for the same company as us. They painted the exteriors of the homes. Since the copper work and the painting tend to occurred at the same time in the build schedule, we were all familiar with each other. We had by now heard of the first tower collapse when the boss of the paint crew (Manny) walked up our ladder onto the roof. He was very nice and asked how we were doing. I pointed to the sky and he muttered something in Spanish and then sat down to watch. He yelled back and forth to his guys for a few seconds and the crew drove off in one of the two vans.

We were listening to the radio in our truck below and we heard the second tower go down. Jimmy and I both started to tear up. I looked over at this old grey haired Mexican who had paint in his beard and his red eyes were wet as well. We sat in silence until the painter’s van pulled back up. The three guys pulled four boxes, and a bunch of other crap that I could not tell from my vantage across the yard. Manny said we should go to the deck below us.

So we climbed down to the deck. There Manny’s guys had a TV set up and a grill and a box full of tequila and beer. That day they cooked us a huge lunch and we all got # faced while watching the news. The even drove us home that night, since we were far too drunk to drive.

Manny said he never wanted to be an American, but he loved America and this is how you take care of someone who has had a death in the family. It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. I’ll never forget Manny.

[edit on 7-9-2006 by Imperium Americana]

I had just flew into Newark airport Sept 10 from Florida to visit my sister and her family
in peekskill new york about 1 hour north of nyc.The next day I had planed to take the Hudson line train into Manhattan to visit some old friends and do some window shopping.That morning it was such a beautiful day and I had some time to kill before my train left so I decided to drive past my old apartment building which was located
on top of a mountain overlooking the Hudson river , bear mountain and west point.From there I could look all the way down the Hudson river and see the tapen zee bridge and
gwb faintly in the back ground I could also make out the tops of the tall buildings of downtown.After a minute or so I got back into my car put the radio on, Howard was talking about a plane that just hit the world trade center..I thought he was joking..I got out of my car and looked as far as I could see.I saw a light plume of smoke
rising up from the city.Wow.That's weird..a plain hit the world trade center..
After standing there for a while listing to the radio and looking as far as i could see
I noticed something else that I really didn't put together until days later. I noticed a commercial jetliner off to the east of the Hudson river flying low going south.I don't know if that was the 2nd plane to hit the wtc But I remember thinking to myself that there was no airports around and I had lived there for years and never ever recall seeing planes flying down the Hudson. From there I got back into my car to go to
croton Harmon ,still listing to the radio (a 2nd plane had just hit the twin towers)
All roads trains bridges and tunnels going into Manhattan are locked down.couldn't go to the city so I went back to my sisters house.When I got there I had just learned that the Pentagon was also hit by a commercial jetliner and another plane had crashed in a Field in Pennsylvania.Also I heard from fox news that all non military aircraft were grounded but there were still a few planes that were en route to land.one plane was landing in Ohio and another in LA, also one was turned away that was coming from Europe.I think they said that that plane landed in Canada.Also they said that the president had been informed and that he was safe aboard air force one.Outside my sisters house military planes were streaking across the sky all day and night The sound of these planes were actually shaking my sisters china cabinet. The next morning September 12, My brother in law drove me to J F K to fly home to Miami.When the plane took off It banked hard to the right.I was scared to death I looked out the window and saw the smoke rising up thousands of feet into the air.I closed my eyes and prayed to god that my plane would not crash.The events of that day had changed my life forever.
At first I was in total disbelief that airplanes crashed and thousands of lives were lost.
I was numb and sad. then I became angry And wanted revenge.This was war.I felt very patriotic.
Sadly to say that now, that feeling is gone.. I began to open my eyes.
The government tells me that the war on terrorism is a ideological war that we are winning, But ideas do not not die!! this war can not be won.They tell me that this is a war of Freedom vs fear. FDR told me "the only thing I have to fear is fear itself".They tell me that they are protecting my freedom.but at what cost? "they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety desire neither" B Franklin.
today, I'm ashamed to even call myself an American.The events that happened on 911
were tragic,although the government had knowledge an attack was imminent, I don't think that they knew it was going to happen that day.however I do blame certain government and civilian agencies for being disorganized in there response.also I highly believe that our government took this tragic event and used it for there own benefit.(that's a different post)
Thank you for your time
peady

I was in my senior year of high school when 9/11 happened, sitting in the lunch room when the announcement came over the speakers. The principal said that both towers were hit, the white house was bombed along with the pentagon. Obviously in the early stages there was confusion everywhere, but this was what we were first told.

Immediately I ran to the libray and they had already plugged the television sets in and tuned in to every news station. For the next few hours I sat in awe of the television watching history unfold before my eyes. Every minute or two the crowd grew larger but quieter.

The very first thought that ran through my head when I processed the announcement was, Holy Sh**! This is my JFK. I always remember my father talking about where he was when JFK was shot, or when Team Canada won the '72 Summit Series. I knew right that moment that this is the story I would be telling my kids in thirty years. Everyone will know where they were then them planes hit the towers, everyone will remember how blue the sky was on that day.

Some great posts here, Thanks to Um_Gazz for creating this thread.

Edit: Removing the Quote



[edit on 7-9-2006 by chissler]

i remember it very wel. It was a normal day for me, i woke up all dazed and confused just like any other day. Went to school and didnt really notice anything different. Lunch time came and i sat down with my friends for a bite to eat, next thing you now at around 10:30 there is a announcment for students to go to the library, i thought yes we get to get out of school. Once we got there the PA system was running with the principle speaking " we have received word that there was an attack on our nation, 2 planes hit the world trade center", i was about 11 years old in middle school, i was shoked but i didnt really understand the sheer volume of this.

We got out of school that day, from that day i new nothing in america or the world would be the same...

I'm in the UK.

I was at work that day and was out of my office meeting with a guy from a company we do business with.

I took him to lunch and by chance both of us had left our mobiles off in error.

After we finished I hopped on a train back to my office, I got off the train and I remember vividly seeing one of our I.T. guys standing outside the office and he was looking ashen.

he said to me "its terrible whats happened isnt it" - I'm clueless I have no idea what he is talking about.

He says to me that the mood in the office is awful, at first i'm thinking the company has made some redundancies....

He then tells me about an aircraft hitting WTC, I assume its a small one, he tells me its a passenger jet, I just cant believe how it could hit the WTC.

He tells me ANOTHER plane then hit the other tower, i'm just gob smacked.

Its then I realise this is no accident

He then fills me in on the other 2 crashes and plenty of rumours of others in the air including 2 on way to London.

I walk into the office and the atmosphere was hard to describe, sadness, fear and confusion- anger would come later.

It was then I found out both towers had collapsed, I just couldnt compute this.

We sent the staff home and I and other senior colleagues watched tv in a conference room. I was dumbstruck watching the 2nd plane fly into the tower on replay and looking round no one had a dry eye.

I remember vividly work mates describing emotional phonecalls from our colleagues based in WTC who got out / hadnt arrived for work desperately seeking news of other people they worked with.

I left the office and drove home, even in all the sadness it struck me as vaguely amusing seeing everyone looking skywards when traffic stopped at lights.

That night I watched tv all evening, shed some tears for those involved and sank many a beer.

I remember talking to family during that evening and saying the world was going to be in for some serious rough times as the Americans were bound to go "ape s**t"

The thing that I remember most is of the firefighters that escaped the towers saying how they escaped the buildings. Some saying that they were running like hell to avoid being swallowed up in the dust cloud. They knew when they went into those buildings that some weren't gonna come back home. Unfortunately, they didn't know how correct they would be.

I better not forget to add this.

Some of the news channels showed footage of the firefighters that survived walking down one of the streets. The eerie thing about it was that the motion sensors were going off on every single one of them. Where it was so dark because of the dust, it made it look like they were actually coming out of the darkness.

Three hundred fourty-three brothers lost their lives on 9-11.

May they all rest in piece.

We had left NY for a vacation in Florida where we intended to purchase a new home for an ultimate move expected about two years down the line. The closing on the house was scheduled for 9/10, and 90% of our possesions that were in storage at the time in NY were scheduled to be delivered to the house in Florida at 8:30AM.

We left the home of our friends behind on their lanai watching the news and having coffee (formally from NY) who we were staying with, to meet the movers about 8:20AM. The first thing off the truck was the washer and dryer and there was a question about the removal of the cap on the washer line to hook up the machine so I placed call to the builder who said he would be right over, and by the way, did I know what was going on in NY? The first plane had hit. I walked out to my husband and the movers (from NY) and burst into tears telling them NY was under attack.

We had no radio or TV but the movers had a generator and said they could run their radio. As we were all from NY we sat glued to it. I remember hearing the report of the plane in PA that was off course and that there were military planes headed for it. I remember blurting out, oh my god, they have to shoot it down. A few minutes later the station we ere listening to reported they had, but of course that was the only time I heard that and the official story afterwards said nothing of the sort.

Somehow I was able to reach my sisters office in mid-town immediately (she had a regularly scheduled "team meeting" at the Trade Center Tuesday mornings. Her assistant answered and I just said I was one of the sisters, where was she. Luckiliy she was out of town on a conference. I next called my Westchester office to find out who from our mid-town office was accounted for. The girl scheduled to be there for a 9AM appointment had overslept, called the client to postpone till 10, and they were safe. One girl was just outside when the first plane hit and was physically unharmed, though she was covered with debris and blood and had to walk out of the city that day. There were severe emotional scars but she was alive. There were others. Somehow, everyone I knew was safe, (I thought) some for the most bizarre reasons.

Unfortunately, we were now unable to get home as Delta had pulled out of Daytona (though they were denying it) due to being grounded beacuase the one daily direct flights each way (involved two planes, one in Newark and one in Daytona) having been discovered to have some sort of Presidential death threat in the wheel well. This was the one in Daytona.

It took two weeks of daily cancellations trying to get back with Delta still denying they were grounded and pulling out of Dayona till I finally said, can't you just put us on a flight out of Jacksonville? By then we had been sitting in a house for two weeks just watching and feeling helpless. By then my husband had found a job down here and by the time we got back he gave two weeks notice. It took me another two months to get down here since I couldn't just walk out of my job that quickly.

Anyway, we were calling home to check on things (there were 3 NYC Firefighters living on my street in a suburb one hour north of the City). One was out of Town, one was out on temp disability, but one was off duty and reported immediately to ground zero that morning. Three days later his fiance started calling the neighbors to see if we had seen or heard from him. We knew then we never would. He was one of the ones that were never found.

The one thing I have to say is that our rental car in Florida was through Hertz on a special really discounted rate. The day our flight cancelled I called thinking what are we going to do? We are stuck here and need the car still, but it's probably booked already for someone else with everyone trying to get home. I was told no, keep the car as long as you need at the same rate and return it anywhere in the Country in case you end up having to drive out of Florida to get home, even driving all the way to NY if we wanted. I heard horror stories from people in similar situations with other rental agencies and I have to say they are my only rental car source from here on in.

Personally, I still find this very hard to deal with. I cannot watch any of the specials that just keep coming back every year. I do still have my last security ID card for my last business meeting there, but I don't look at it anymore.

I was in my junior year in college at Villanova, sleeping in, and my roommate came bursting into my bedroom ans creamed "Wake up, we're being bombed!!" I threw off my sheets, threw on some pants and a t-shirt and came out to witness the second plane hit on tv. I was devestated.

But the real story that I have was not one of mine, but of a fellow classmate who, while crying more than any person I have ever seen in my life, told this:

Her father, a volunteer firefighter, was on a business trip in florida on 9/11. After the first plane hit, the entire ladder went into the North tower. Every single one of them were killed in the collapse. Her father lived on. But, can you imagine? All of your Dad's closest friends, the guys that he played softball with, the guys that practically helped to raise you, all of them gone in just 20 minutes. It gets me choked up even thinking about it now.

God damn those responsible, whoever they are. There was just no need for that kind of slaughter.

I had come to work @ 7:30 am as usual and started the day up with processing orders and the like. One of the salesman in the office had a small 6" B&W TV in his office and was watching it. He called back to my office and said that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I said, "No way...I'll be right there." I went into his office and those that were here stood clustered around this tiny TV dumbfounded. Some were repeating the General Aviation stories and a discussion ensued about how it was impossible that a small GA plane could do that kind of damage. Then the second plane hit and everyone sort of yelled and the air left the room.

First thing out of my mouth was, "We're at war, this is no accident." I started calling all the peeps I know and telling them to flip the TV on. I called my wife, brothers, customers so they could all be a part of this instead of realizing what had happened after the fact. Most thought I was yanking there chain, bit of a prankster here unfortunatly. I started relaying the info to customers as they called in. As more and more people began to hear the news and realize the gravity of what was happening, business sort of died the rest of the day.

The Pentagon hit was a bit weird because I was watching the NBC reporting and during one of the reports I heard a muffled explosion in the background noise of the report. I instantly shuddered to think that the White House or Capitol building had been hit. I dont think that it was any consolation to find out that it was the Pentagon hit instead. Once the story developed re: the Petagon and the images started rolling in, I like a lot of others thought, "What the hell hit it? Couldnt be a jet, the hole was too small." But after thinking about it for a while I settled in with the jet and realized just how pliable metal gets under those conditions.

I was pissed, really pissed, most of that week (In reality I still am). It was mixed with bright, white anger and solemn respect for those that had died on that day. The unity felt in this country during that time had normally been something that was reserved for those few special days of rememberance, now its was lasting for months. And like all things in this world this waned as time went on.

I am a 44 year old male, I wept in sadness and anger on that day and I felt my heart breaking for this country and the world that was to become. I hope that a day like that is never repeated in this country, that we should do whatever it takes (within reason) to prevent another like it. I also am saddened that other countries have had to go through thier own "9/11", Spain, England, Indonesia, etc. It just makes me realize that we, the whole world, are in this together, facing the same terrorism/radicalism together, and that the lines and divisions should be erased to deal with this effectively. Especially in this country.....

I am not now and never have been in conspiracy mode regarding this event(s). It is hard enough to come to believe that an attack like this could have been coordinated from afar and right under our noses let alone the dynamics, secrecy and scope of an internal attack. My fervent use of Occams Razor to help me come to rational conclusions regarding the outcomes and potentials of any given event keeps my head where it is. Hey, I may be wrong, but I dont think so at this point.

Our telephone rang early in the morning (Western US). It was our neighbor and friend telling me to turn on the TV. I watched as the second plane hit and I remember being sure then, that this was a purposeful attack. It felt like a practical joke. Could this really be happening? My husband and I stood in the great room in front of the TV, unable and unwilling to even sit down.

I had quit smoking 2 weeks earlier and I wanted, NEEDED a cigarette so badly! But I rolled an herbal cigarette instead. I came to relate the smell of burning sage and catnip to that awful day.

I immediately wondered who had done this. I immediately questioned the validity of the 'official story'. I was immediately suspicious of the fact that a name "Osama Bin Laden" was already attached to this horrible event. On September 11, 2001, I became a "Critical Thinker".

As we heard about the other 2 planes, I actually became more suspicious of something behind the official story. I didn't yet suspect our own government, but something didn't seem right from the beginning. Something was off.

My heart dropped when each tower collapsed. A part of me fell through to the floor, just as the debris fell to the ground. We were glued to the TV for days. We cried with the victims' families. I ended up in therapy because I couldn't let go of the sadness I felt around the people who passed that day and their unsuspecting families.

I have since come to believe that our government was complicit in this terrible attack against their own country. I believe they knew about it ahead of time and worked to capitalize on the events of that day. Regardless of the corruption inherent in the previous administrations of the US government, when President Bush sat in that schoolroom, knowing he was safe right there, knowing that he was under no threat of attack, that's when we turned the corner. That's when the corruption in the US government passed the point of no return.

Another thing that I remember about it is that after the attacks, support for the firefighters, EMS, and police had skyrocketed. The fire departments still to this day carry the American flag on the backs of some of the trucks. Each time I see one go whizzing by, the flag is a whipping in the wind.

Even one of the ambulance services around here had the flag painted on to the sides of their trucks.

[edit on 9/8/2006 by gimmefootball400]

Support for the finest and the bravest was insane. I had friends sending me fund raiser shirts put out by fired departments from around the country. I have been wearing fdny gear for ten years (I lived around the corner from the fdny store) so friends thought I'd want this stuff. Shortly after 9/11 I was in florida on a business/pleasure trip (the day after that plane went down in the rockaways - frightening day for me). I went to the keys and I wore one of my FDNY shirts with Keep Back etc on the back. People came up to me and hugged me, offered to buy me dinner, lunch etc. It was pretty insane. (I turned them all down). After a day of fishing I was at an outdoor bar/grill waiting for the day's catch to be fried and these two young guys came over and started chatting us up. One of them finally asked if I was there on 9/11. I said no, I wasn't but I'm from NY, lost firends etc. One of the guys said he worked at Sandler O'neill. I asked him if he knew my friend Doug, who died that day. He said "my fiance sat next to him." I asked where she was, as I wanted to talk to her about him and he said "she's still sitting next to him."


I also remember the flags in all the windows and cars of the ordinary folks.

I was at home flickin through the channels, came across Sky News with Nnews Flash, Plane flys into WTC, thought to myself ooh odd, must have been an accident or something. Kept watchin with interest once I seen the 2nd plane going into the other WTC, I thought to myself omg they are being attacked by terroists.

Watched as people were jumping out of those buildings to get away from the fire's on other news channels, Thought to myself omg they must have done that out of desperation to get away from the fires. Sat there in shock at the events unfolding before my eyes.

Then flashed across the screen Pentagon hit by Plane. Then I knew it was a terroist attack, but i was more concerned with the folks trapped inside both WTC'S, Thought how the hell are they gonna get them out of there.

When the first tower collapsed Ii shouted out OMG, no way, my sister came through asked what was wrong, Ii pointed at the T.V. even she went into shock over this.

When the 2nd tower came down there was about 15 people in my sisters house watching all of this on the T.V. we were all shocked. We were wondering where all the folks were.

When the 2nd tower came down, numbness really took over us all most of us were sitting there quiet not being able to speak.

The press that day in the UK were flying from one US news channel to the other it was sureal to say the least.

But what sickened me was the BBC putting on a programme later on, and some of the audience attacking the US Ambassador to the UK. I put in a complaint felt it was unwarranted for him to be attacked like that inlight of what was happening.

What I wont forget is a firefighter sitting on the pavement with his face in his hands that and the horrible events of that day Ii will never forget.

I vividly remember how I first learned of the planes hitting the World Trade Center towers. I had just finished watching a VHS tape of the English police TV series "the Bill" that I had taped earlier that night. When the tape finished I stopped the VCR to rewind and the channel that came on was a wide shot of smoke billowing out of both towers. The second tower had been hit not long before hand.

I dont recall hearing reports of an explosion at the Pentagon. All I remember was hearing about unconfirmed reports of a fire at the Pentagon. When I heard that I, like many others, knew this was a well planned/financed attack. My gut reaction was that it could be a prelude to a conventional military attack of the mainland US. By this time speculation was rife of many more hijacked planes, whereabouts unknown.

Here in Australia we have 5 free-to-air TV stations. Four of them were diverted to live feeds of US news stations. Incredibly it remained that way for 3 or 4 days from memory. To say that we were inundated with 9/11 would be a tremendous understatement.

I remember going to work the next day and looking up at all of Melbourne's skyscrapers. The newspaper's all had headlines such as "ATTACK!" or "US attacked!", I actually saved the free travel newspaper (Mx) from that day. It's in a drawer that I have with newspapers from when Princess Diana died.

9/11 touched me in a way I didnt expect. I distinctly remember thinking, "just how much evil is there in this World?" and I knew the inevitable US response would be to exact revenge on an entire nation in response and hence spread this evil further a field. A couple of years earlier in 1998 for my year 11 English essay on a current event I chose the African embassy bombings. I had based my essay around Osama Bin Laden and was very aware of the name when it popped up almost instantly on 9/11. I also knew the American response to the 1998 bombings was a missile strike. Since the magnitude of 9/11 was vastly greater I knew an invasion was highly likely.

So, in my own sense of values I thought "how can I do my bit to kill this evil, rather than simply shift it somewhere else?". So I ended up sponsoring a child in a third world country to counter all the evil that so hideously manifested itself on 9/11. It was my part in thumbing my nose at the evil that caused pain and suffering, rather than being a part of it.

Since that time I have come to be a firm believer in US government complicity in 9/11 but it has not changed my feelings towards the actual event in the slightest. No matter who killed all those innocent people on 9/11, they are still gone. Fathers and mothers stolen from their children. Sons and daughters stolen from their parents. We saw evil that day, live and in our living rooms. If only more people's thoughts turned to killing evil itself, rather than shifting it on to others...

[edit on 8/9/06 by subz]

I was a senior in high school in Austin, Texas sitting having my breakfast before band practice, I vividly remember Kix cereal and a tin of Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt. Because of my interests even at that age I always watched CNN Morning Edition while having breakfast. The first hit, immediately set off my penchance for paranoia, I thought it was time for CONUS to be the victim of an attack, I just did not know to what extent.

When the second plane hit I thought my eyes would explode out of my head, my mother (staunch Republican) screamed about it being a terrorist attack, it simply was beyond our ignorant scope of understanding at the time.

For me that sealed the deal, I had always toyed with the idea of military service in a combat arms profession and that one day put the nail in the coffin. In my recent Officer Board Interview for the Army I cited that one event as the reason for my Bachelor's Degree in International Affairs and me wanted to serve as a US Army Infantry Officer.

Being in Texas it did not hit home as it did for many of you on the East Coast, I quickly learned while studying in Washington, D.C. My girlfriend from Freshman Year, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey had the pleasure of watching her mom go down in Tower Two.

Me and a co-worker were on one of our company's clients, the Archive of the Portuguese Army, in the same building where the Army's Major General has one of his offices, and we had just come in from lunch with the director when one of the archives' workers (they are all military personnel) came up to us saying that an airplane had hit the WTC in New York, and nobody knew if it was an accident.

We went to a nearby TV to see what was happening, and some minutes after we had started watching, the second plane hit the second tower.

At first, the RTP (Portuguese state television) reporter that was commenting the images from CNN did not noticed that it was a second airplane and thought that it was a replay of the first one, but just as he was saying it he saw that the two towers were in flames and understood that the same thing that had happened to the first tower had happened to the second.

After that, we all start commenting about the reasons and consequences of that, and during our conversation they said that the Pentagon was also hit.

The archive director is a Lieutenant-Colonel that was in Moçambique (Mozambique) during the war for independence, and he is an historian and has some books published about historical wars, but unfortunately we had not the opportunity to talk to him about this, it should have been interesting to know the opinion of an historian facing an event that would change history while it was happening.

My first reaction was that it was an accident, but after the second hit it was obvious it was a terrorist attack. I did not had any idea of who may have been behind it, and my the first conclusion was that this was an attack to scare the American people and to show them that they were vulnerable.

Personally, I don't think I was directly affected by the attacks, but I am usually a "cold person", I usually think that it was bad luck for them being in that place at that time, but the stories that appeared after of the people who helped (or at least tried to help) impressed me more than the attacks themselves.

It was September 11th 2001. I was 15 years old, enjoying life in the UK. If I recall, I had flu that day, so I was off school. Something I will always remember about that day, well these words. A plane, is reported, to accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center North Tower


The reports on BBC were coming through, it interrupted the main programs to bring us UK citizens the breaking news. My mother could not believe that a plane had accidentally hit the North Tower. How could you not see the tower? so many questions that had answers that were not making sense.

Next thing I will never forget. While talking with my mother, trying to work out what happened, another plane came into viewing and crashed into the South Tower. This was no accident.

This could not be real? how can it be? this is the free world. The mighty West, we beat Communism and Fascism. My first thought was that this was some nutcase who was suicidal, etc. Terrorism was not what I believed.

I am an Ulsterboy. Northern Ireland. I know terrorism, raised around it and had my family effected by it. My cousin, an RUC officer, was shot and killed by the IRA. The IRA bombed Deal, a town which is near my home city. So I thought I knew terrorism. I struggled to believe that a terrorist group would fly planes into buildings. Maybe it was my age, I was young and still learning about the World, how people think, etc. Maybe it was due to my version of terrorism, the terrorism I saw and grow up to understand.

But something I learnt on 9/11 about terrorism and the World we live in. From Northern Ireland, I learnt that anyone can pick up a gun and shoot someone. Anyone can make a car bomb. 9/11 was not a "stunning attack", as i said, any coward can do something like that. It was not exceptional.

But remember, as we remember on September 11th, Hero's were born on that day and that ,ATS members, is exceptional

i was only in second grade but i remember the day clearly.it was a nice sunny day in brooklyn before the attacks,i was getting ready for school i even remember
my brother saying before he went to work "what a nice day".so i went to school and not so long after that it happenend all the teachers were crying and on their cell phones and none of the kids knew what was going on,so then because i only lived a few blocks away from my school my mother [who worked in the school]took me home for lunch like she did every day.when we got home she put on the news and tried to reach my brother and sister who both worked in manhatten [not in the WTC]but she couldnt because the phone lines were clogged with other callers but,they some how managed to contact each other and meet.and then lunch time was over and it was time for us to go back to school,so back we went.for the 30 minutes i was home eating lunch my class had reduced by 75%
leaving 3 kids.so we did nothing in school for the rest of the day that i can remember,so then it was dissmissal time and i went home watched the news looked over at the manhatten sky line [because you can see it from brooklyn]and collected papers that were falling from the sky.i am very fortunate that my father who is a new york city fireman was not working that day.in the months after he brought home dust from the towers that got in his bunker gear that i put in jars,glass from the windows,and even pieces of the frame of the plane that makes me shiver when i hold them even five years later.

-GTB

[edit on 9/9/2006 by gregthebunny]