911--What's YOUR Story?

I am listening to car-crash radio to the forum moderators telling their stories of their memories of 911. I thought some of us might want to tell our personal stories.

Here is mine:

I was on my way to work, and had the radio on. It was a beautiful day as you might remember, blue, blue skies. I was almost to my office, when they announced the first plane. I envisioned a small craft for some reason. I thought it was an accident of some sort. I drove on to the office.

I was on the elevator when a coworker asked me to drive her to the car-repair garage. I said sure, and turned right around with her, and back to the parking lot.
I followed her to the garage, and she went in to do the paperwork, and drop her car off. I was still tuned in to the radio news and while she was inside, the second plane hit.

Lightbulb. Something is bad wrong.

My friend got back in the car, and I told her a second plane had hit the WTC. She said really? And then asked what I was doing for lunch. (What? -- how could anybody think about lunch?) I was all about the radio, and just dropped her off at the office, and sped off to my Mom's house, because it was nearby. I knew I had to get to a television.

Mother was upset when I got there. She had the television on. We watched it together, both horrified. My father was just then returning from having breakfast with some friends, and he came into the house.

I met him in the kitchen. "Dad, we're under attack". He said "What? I heard a little plane hit the WTC, but I didn't think we were under attack".

I told him a second plane had hit, and they thought there was a third plane headed for the White House.

He took the remote and sat down in his recliner. We were all quiet as Dad listened to the news. Then, he said the following words, which honestly was the first time I'd ever heard these words. He said:

"Osama Bin Laden". That's all he said.

Anyway, I stayed glued to the television for two weeks, until the news people were saying "if you have been glued to this for two weeks, please take a break from watching it."

It was very traumatic, as you know.



[edit on 7/24/2010 by ladyinwaiting]

I was in school, history class, when the first plane hit. A math teacher came into the room and whispered something to the history teacher. The history teacher moved a TV to the front of the room and turned on the news. He turned on the TV about 45 seconds before the second plane hit.

Some friends and I had just enlisted in the military, and we looked at each other and said " oh sh*t, we're going to war" I then got out of school the rest of the day and was glued to the news for the next..... well I'm still glued to the news.

It was a very nerve racking day and I will never forget it. Even though I was half way across the country it had a huge effect on my life. Every time I see the footage of that day, it makes me sick to my stomach. That was the day everything changed.

I don't remember it very clearly, I was about 10 years old and in Grade 5. It was "lunch recess" when a few kids who went home for lunch had returned, and said something about planes hitting the world trade centers in New York City, and everybody pretended they knew what the world trade centers were as is the norm in grade school. And then we returned to playing our games on the field without the slightest inkling of what had just happened. Of course, at that age, nobody can understand the gravity of thousands of deaths and whatever motives were behind it. What was apparent at that age, however, was that our minds were plastic and easily malleable to the will of the media, and whatever alternative theories on 9/11 are all but lost on my peers, having been bombarded with talk of terrorists for the most important growing years of their lives.

reply to post by SUICIDEHK45

I then got out of school the rest of the day and was glued to the news for the next..... well I'm still glued to the news.

.....I'm still glued to the news, too, Suicide. A real news junkie.

I was watching the Today show before work. I was in middle of my last cup of coffee and cigarette before heading out the door when they went straight to the live coverage of the first plane having hit.
I sat back down and started watching thinking "what a horrible accident".
While watching, I saw the second one hit live and instantly thought "OMG America is being attacked."
Matt Lauer seemed to be dumbfounded and everyone was noticeably just as shaken as I was.
I should have left for work but had to keep watching for a bit more. To see if any sense could be made of this.
Finally got in the car and as soon as I got on Hwy 40, the traffic was jammed to a near standstill. Looking around at all the other cars I could tell they were all listening to it unfold on the radio just like I now was. The Pentagon got hit while listening on my way to work. I just kept repeating "Oh s*__, oh s*__.

At the time I was chef in the most tony of areas in St. Louis--Ladue.
It is usually slammed busy, but I don't think I made anything but a couiple of simple seared tuna steaks the whole day. Everyone was coming back into the kitchen with me and the owner just watching TV.
The owners daughter and son-in-law worked in Building 2 and my boss was totally beside herself and couldn't get any calls through.

Myself I was just sort of in a daze the whole day, watching it all happen throughout the day.
During what would normally be a busy lunch for the St. Louis "celebrities" ended up being a time of quiet. We all stood around and watched TV and broke open bottles of gin, vodka, and wine glancing at each other now and then then back to the unfolding scene.

My bosses daughter and son-in-law were some of the first to leave building 2 and their whole computer company was alive and ok,. Luckily.

I will never forget that day as long as I live.

[edit on 24/7/2010 by Chamberf=6]

reply to post by Chamberf=6


Good story. We were all in a kind of state of shock.

An interesting thing about my father......As that day progessed, he didn't talk. He was quiet. My mother and I kept asking if he was okay, and he would nod, but not say anything.

This alone upset me. He had been in a war. He was older and I kept thinking how unfair it was. That he should have to experience another war. At one point I said "Well Dad, I know you were hoping to finish out your life without another war".

He really kind of laughed, even though I could see his eyes beginning to well up.

He said "That won't happen, we are in war, again, now".

I watched it all unfold on the News and believed every word that was told. Now looking back, I see how well the media lied to us. I see how well the military experts that were on some of the news channels talking about OBL saying he was the mastermind of 911. Little did I know they were lying to us all along.

Ryland: A Sibel Edmonds 'Bombshell' - Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Until 9/11

www.bradblog.com...

I have to admit, when the second plane stuck the WTC, I felt we were under attack.
The government did a wonderful job of shock and awe even I fell for it. Watching the WTC coming down like they did, even left me in shock, I have to admit, I was in disbelief, it was surreal.

I was in Grade 5, and it was a normal day as far as I could tell. Nobody announced anything, I figure the school decided to ignore it and not tell anyone. My mom told me what happened as I was getting drove home from the school. We stopped at a small store to get some gum and the TV was showing footage of the second attack and collapses.

Once we got home, my grandmother seemed pretty off, somehow. I later learned that my uncle worked in tower one and got out, and he just called her saying he was okay. Somehow, that day is etched into my memory, from that car-ride home onwards.

i was in computer lit class, bored out of my mind looking at knives on the internet, i know it was slightly rebelious and my teacher was looking over my shoulder at a distance it was kind of annoying but i continued looking at knives i thought were cool, i don't recall the moments thereafter, but my teacher had the radio on and thats when i heard the towers had just been hit. in a way i felt like it was my fault, like it was a representation of the tension between me and my teacher who i felt was invading my personal space.

I was on my way to work in Clifton NJ, I was traveling east on route 3 and if anyone is familiar with route 3 there is a large hill that is near the Tick Tock Dinner that looks over to NYC. I could see smoke rising from the tower after the first plane hit. I immediately turned on the news station and heard a small plane had hit one of the towers. I arrived at work and turned on the news station in the office and heard a second plane had hit the towers, out came the little portable TV we had at work and everyone sat around watching the nightmare unfold.
Everyone was just stunned at what we were seeing, my parents worked in NYC at the time and trying to reach them was impossible, all circuits were busy and cell phones were not working. After we watched the first tower collapse, we decided to close the office and sent everyone home. I tried calling home to let my wife know, I was on my way home, but all circuits were busy. I had a 70 mile drive home and could not reach anybody on the phone. I remember traveling west on route 80, a road I travel everyday, and have never seen the traffic moving at 80-95 mph, this road is usually a slow moving traffic nightmare. Dozens of EMS and fire dept vehicles were racing towards NYC. I arrived home and explained what was going on to my wife, who knew nothing about what had, she was reading a book sitting on the couch. She and I were glued to the TV after that.
I finally spoke to my parents at 6:00pm that night, it took them 6 hours to get out of the city. The tunnels and bridges out of the city were closed. It will be day I will never forget and it opened my eyes to making preparations for all emergencies.

I was in the army, I was just getting into work after PT. We had just spent the last two weeks in the field and I was looking forward to spending my time with my other family (the non-issued one). My boss had been telling each one of us as we showed up for work and we put the TV in his office on, just watching in awe. It was only a matter of minutes before we got a call from what I can only assume to be HQ, telling us all that we were now on a one hour recall, meaning that none of us could be further away than one hour from base and everyone on leave had to immediately return.

Our commander had called us all into formation and then began giving us a speech about how this was it and we would eventually be going into battle. We all kind of took it with a grain of salt, as we had been hearing the same sort of speech for years. One thing that I remember crystal clear about his speech, is that he told us to look around, then told us that some of us would not come back alive and that some others wouldn't come back intact. I took these words to heart, as this was considered to be my family. I had no idea that it would be me.

This speech was only around an hour or two after the incident so none of us took it more seriously than what would be expected. Anyway, the very next day, we all got called in to be fitted with DCUs (Desert Cammos) and at that point, we just knew that we were going to get the opportunity to be called on first. That's when it really sunk in.

That whole day was mostly getting our affairs in order, such as going through a process to get our paperwork such as wills and shots in order as well as inspection of gear. Our particular unit had been on a couple other deployments in the last few years so for the most part, our things were in order.

We were all filed into this large room, where our Div. CSM (Command Seargent Major) and Div. Public Relations officer was telling us all how to handle the coming Press Corps that would be wanting to speak with soldiers of our unit. We were ordered to keep our mouths shut, only speaking the words, "I don't know" or "no comment". We were absolutely forbidden from speaking to the media, much less telling them about our inevitable deployment.

Without going into detail, it was only a couple of days later that we were loading onto C-17s fully stocked with supplies, dressed in DCUs. We were extremely excited as all of us wanted to be unleashed on our new enemy and we were now getting the chance. Not many people join the army and wish to never get a chance to use their training. Nobody was scared, from what I could tell and we were just told over and over again, about how we were lucky that our country called on us to take revenge for what had happened only a few days earlier.

We thought it funny that Bush was constantly on TV, talking about giving the Taliban an x amount of time to produce Bin Laden, and here we were loading onto C-17s, armed to the teeth. Like a lot of things out of Bush's mouth, his giving the Taliban an x amount of time, was complete BS. We meant business and we were more than happy to dish it out, after all our country did call on us to bring justice to our new enemies. The bravado and testosterone was so thick on the flight, that it could be cut with a butter-knife.

I won't go into too much further detail but the rest is history.

--airspoon


[edit on 24-7-2010 by airspoon]

reply to post by airspoon


Now that's a moving story, airspoon. Thank you for telling us.
I appreciate you guys going, and performing the way you did. I'm glad you're back.

I had moved back to New York City four days before 9/11. I had a contact at an employment agency, so on Monday I had called them and we set an appointment for me to come in on Tuesday morning around 10:00 PM, if memory serves (their offices were at the Chrysler Building in Midtown).

I was on my way into Manhattan on the subway from Brooklyn, the F-line has a section that goes above ground for two stops and while on that section, people on the train all started looking out the window and whispering to each other. I asked a guy near me what everyone was looking at, and he just glanced at me and said in the most nonchalant way, "the Twin Towers are burning."

Thinking it must be some small fire visible from where we were, I looked out and saw the double inferno we all know so well, by now. I was amazed the guy seemed so nonpluses by it because clearly it was gigantic. I asked him what happened and he told me, "a plane hit it." That was all the info I had at that point, so I thought a single plane must have clipped one and then hit the other, somehow.

The train was stopped there for a while and we just watched it burn, but eventually, it started up again and after a very long ride I made it to Midtown. By then I was late for my appointment, and while I realized it was probably not the main concern at that point, I figured I should at least get to their office because who knows how they might react if I didn't. Well, I got to the Chrysler Building and found the whole thing had been evacuated, like pretty much every other landmark building in New York had been by then, so the meeting was moot anyway.

Not sure what to do next and not being able to get connection on my cell phone, I tried to reach my parents on several pay phones but circuits were jammed. I did eventually get thorough and left a message on their home machine (I didn't have their work numbers on me at the time and hadn't programmed them into the cell phone because it was new, I had bought it the Sunday after I got to NYC).

I wandered then to a diner that had TVs so I could get info on what was going on. A guy there told me that the first tower had fallen and as we watched on TV the second fell. We thought it was a replay of the first tower falling because the sound was off. It's quite likely I felt the first fall but was on the subway at the time and didn't realize it wasn't just the jostling of the train (I was too far away to feel the second come down). I started complaining to the people working at the diner to turn the sound up in case there was important emergency information we weren't hearing and the idiots actually said they couldn't do it because the manager wasn't there. I just started yelling at them and they complied.

After another 20 minutes there, I then wandered to the Roosevelt Hotel where they had set up TVs in the lobby and brought out phones so people could call loved ones. I called one friend in Los Angeles (where I had just moved back to NYC from) and gave him my numbers for other friends so he could call them and let them know I was okay. Then, something really crazy happened...

...some woman down stairs at the front door screamed, "OH MY GOD, IT'S A BOMB!!!" Everyone in the lobby started rushing toward the rear exit of the lobby and in the press, people were getting jostled and a serious panic was about to start. I got the distinct feeling in about 30 seconds people might start getting knocked over and trampled. I noticed the security guards were kind of panicking too and didn't quite know what to do, so I just shouted out, "CALM DOWN," and it worked. Everyone just kind of settled down, got their wits about them and stopped pushing and shoving each other out of the way. I really do think I may have stopped a panic in the hotel lobby at that point.

With no other idea of what I should do, I started walking from about 44th St. down to my friend's apartment which was way down on 3rd St., about a 2 mile plus walk. On the way, I kept seeing one emergency vehicle after another driving south. One was a blood transport van packed full with the stuff. I remember finding that pretty chilling. There were also a lot of off duty cops driving down, probably just getting in from their homes outside the city, holding their badges out the windows of their cars so people would give them right of way (their own cars, not cop vehicles). I also walked past the NYC Police Academy on 20th Street and saw them marshaling all of the cadets on the street outside the building. I think they were getting temporarily deputized early to help with all the chaos.

Finally, I got to her place which wound up being a kind of central rally point for all of her friends and within a couple hours, five or six of us had come by and we all watched everything on TV from then on, just like everyone else. One guy I met there that day was the boyfriend of her best friend and to this day he and I are very close friends - funny how that works, we met on 9/11. He worked in one of the buildings right next to the WTC and had left the area before the collapse.

There was one friend we couldn't get in touch with not only that day, but for the next day too. What was distressing was that he was a volunteer K-9 search and rescue handler, and obviously he was going to be down there. Turns out he got there only 20 minutes after the second building fell and had merely been working non-stop and hadn't had a chance to call. He was fine (mostly, he hurt his back permanently and has permanent lung issues, now). He was also about 6 or 8 blocks away from Building 7 when it came down (he doesn't think it was blown up, but that's a matter for the 20 other threads on that topic). He's since become a paramedic, which he combines with his search and rescue activities.

I wound up staying at my friend's apartment that night. At the time, I thought the cloud of ash had gone right over where I lived in Brooklyn and didn't want to have any of that dumped on me, but found out later it missed my section altogether. The next morning, she and I went to a diner for breakfast and I have never experience NYC that dead in my life except on days of very heavy snowfalls. There was a distinct chemical smell in the air and a haze from all the stuff that was then still burning or hadn't yet settled. I'll never forget that smell, I'd never smelled it before, and haven't since.

[edit on 7/24/2010 by LifeInDeath]

reply to post by ladyinwaiting



Your dad was pretty sharp to make the connection to OBL so quickly...I was pulling into the Pentagon parking lot switching back and forth between Howard Stern and WTOP. I remember listening to this real donkey, who was an eye witness, they were interviewing in NY...he was so amped in his description.

Anyway, I got a text on my blackberry that everybody I work with were OK and not to come in. Took me 3 hours to get home. Was into work the next day. That's one tough building, built like congregated cardboard.

reply to post by didact


Wow, I sure wish you would give us some more details.......?

Was in my office at Bayway Oil refinery in Linden NJ - just after 9AM
boss came into our office and said 2 planes had hit WTC towers and both were on fire. Me and my partner told him that was pretty sick joke - he
said was true had watched the planes strike the buildings with many of our co-workers. Went up to top (5th floor) and watched the towers burn until South Tower collapse and smoke and dust blotted out the scene. Sent us home just after lunch, by which time were preparing for IWO JIMA calling
in all off duty cops to guard the gates. Cranes were dropping huge concrete blocks in roads to prevent any truck bombers from rushing the
gates. Went home and turned on scanner in my firehouse - listened to radio transmissions from scene rest of afternoon - were on standby as Paterson FD had already dispatched entire duty shift to NYC. Heard
commands being passed down clearing the collapse zone around WTC 7
Watched pn TV as it collapsed .....

reply to post by ladyinwaiting

911--What's YOUR Story?

I was sleeping, when a female acquintence of mine began screaming from the next room "The world's going to end!" "They're nuking us!"

Figuring that this was something I should investigate, I crawled out of bed to inquire what was the matter. My first throughts were roughly "russia....cold war over...nuked us anyway...los angeles and new york probably, we're 50 miles from LA, I'm not dead...ok." I wasn't fully awake yet, and she wasn't entirely coherent herself, but after some attempts at explaning I gathered that someone had flown a plane into a building somewhere. So, since we weren't being nuked, I went back to bed. But she kept screaming in horror and it kept me from falling back asleep.

So I took a shower and left to give her some time to calm down.

I went to visit another acquaintence of mine at her home. She was far more lucid, and glued to the television. I sat down on the couch and watched with her. And yes, someone flew some planes into some buildings.

I've never really understood why it was so traumatic for people.

I had to call 911 two nights ago from my job. I thought the officers who arrived were calm, they handled the arrest of the perp on the property without violence or incident.

I was living in Connecticut at the time. I was at work. Usually when the store opened there was already a line at the door. That day there wasn't. The store was empty all day. Occasionally a regular customer would wander in and would tell me what was going on. The manager of the store wouldn't let me leave to go home. That made me mad.

I got off work at 3pm, I heard Sikorsky and the Groton Submarine base were on high alert, and that all the bridges going into NY were closed and people were walking to get out of the city.

We watched TV the rest of the evening. My first reaction was amazement that the towers fell so fast. Never seen that before.

We drove to NY about a month after 9/11. The whole wtc area had high fences to keep people out. People were climbing on the fences and each others shoulders to see. I have some pictures.

Sorry, guess I should have read a little on the thread and not just answer the headline.



As far as the 9/11 went down, I was asleep and woke up, lit a cig, turned on the tube and the first plane had just hit. Everything unfolded from there, it was the strangest thing to see on TV or to wake to, I had just woke from a nightmare, and my hubby had one too, I dreamed about falling through tons and tons of some kind of gray dust stuff, seemed like I fell all night but never hit the bottom, and my hubby dreamed an airplane had crashed into his parents house, and dead people were all over the streets and yard, then we turn on the TV and flipped out!