September 11, 2001: Personal Stories 10-Years Later

Posted in a different thread as well:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
*slightly edited to keep on topic*


I was 18 when 9-11 happened. It was my first year in college and on that particular day I was getting ready for class when I saw the breaking news (CNN) about the first plane hitting a tower.

I remember the first thought I had was "how in the hell are they going to put that one out????" I kept watching wondering how things would develop and how much of the tower would burn.
On and off I would contemplate how the hell a 747 could have flown into a tower...eventually submitting myself to the simple idea that "S*** just happens"

As I was eating oatmeal with a side of toast I saw the second plane hit. I can't really describe in detail what I was thinking that moment but remember having goose-bumps (the chills) and the hair on my body stood on end, knowing without a doubt this was an "attack". I sat and watched as my breakfast got cold.

When I saw reports of the "pentagon" being hit as well I was wondering "when will it end?", "how many more targets?", "Whats next?", "what should Ido?" the feeling of shock from the towers turned into a genuine concern and fear of the unknown. Knowing at that point these attacks were "apparently" unstoppable even for a superpower...I had lost confidence in the US defences, and thought for sure "more was to come".

Anger didn't set in until they attached a name or group..."bin laden" and "al ciada"...

Patriotism, etc all started kicking in. The Flag looked different to me at that point...

Then I saw the buildings FALL...one after the other...and THAT moment is when I had a sudden moment of "clairty" and realized how much like a "movie" this all seemed. The surrealness of the collapsing towers snapped me out of the moment, and at that point something didn't feel right.

I thought for sure "al ciada" had planted bombs or something in the building to make them collapse in such a predictable manner...even I knew destruction doesn't ever go that smoothly...

I made it to my first class of the day "late" and not all there mentally. We were supposed to have an Algebra exam...I failed miserably.

Anyone else get shivers from some of these stories? 9/11 still has a place in my heart and mind. Anyone else?

Was with my boyfriend (at the time) and we had just got home late from partying (Australian time). We went into the house and sat on the lounge then put on the TV. A CNN special edition was on and we were not paying much attention to the program at the time. We saw the first tower already on fire then a plane crashed into the second building right as we started to pay attention. I thought it was a movie we were watching then I came to the realisation that this scenario was not make believe but actually happening before our eyes.

I just could not fathom what I was seeing. Very sad situation and will never forget that night as I sat transfixed to the TV throughout the rest of the evening and the following day. I still vividly remember my feelings of disbelief.

i was 18 i saw it live on tv and immediately whent to pick up gf from high school (now wife) and i think it was the fear that our world was going to hell but
we went at it like two rabbits in the spring time. im talking sex for about 5 hours straight. life affirming.
later that night i cryed for the victims of that day .

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


My 9/11 story here it goes:

I remember I was in the 8th grade when it happened. I got up to go to the bathroom and I passed by the library and I saw the television with two buildings hit. I told one of my friends that it was definitely not a suicide mission. I already knew somewhere within my brain at age 13 that it was probably a set up and I knew something big was going to happen. I came back to class and I saw my teacher crying, I couldn't believe it. I came home and I saw my dad sit on couch watching the television. It was crazy. It still amazes me to this day about what happened.

My memories of that morning are surreal. I was attending a professional seminar in Houston when the first of the attacks occurred, and as many of us were on the road at the time we were not aware of what happened until nearly an hour later. When word trickled in there was much confusion as we thought it was a tragic accident, until we watched the remainder of the events unfold on television in a lounge area. Utter shock and frantic whispering is what I recall when the realization that it was an orchestrated attack sunk into our minds.

My first reaction was to immediately return home to my family. My son was six-months old at the time and thankfully was with my husband who had the day off. The thing that surprised me most was that the roads of this bustling city were practically empty -- it was like driving through an abandoned city -- as most people were watching the news. I was grateful to make it home. The remainder of the day is mostly a blur.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I was working the night shift at this time.I was eating my breakfast
and watching a rerun of E.R. when my mom called.She was talking
to me about the plane hitting the first tower.The TV network switched
over to the news.I watched the second plane hit the second tower.
A few weeks after 9/11,I met my future husband.We chose DC has
our honeymoon trip.I have a picture I took of the pentagon during it's
restoring.It's hard to believe that it has been 10 years.

I was 13 years old at the time.

It started off as any other early school year morning. Got to gym for 2nd period, and it started raining like a monsoon was over us. My school was prone to flooding and several times the previous year they had to cancel classes because of it.

Anyway, since we couldn't go outside they had all of us corralled in the gym when something comes across the announce system. Most of us were playing basketball or volleyball, so we couldn't make out what had happened. Most of us thought it had something to do with the weather and went about our business. I now know that it was the school announce system telling the school that the WTC had been hit.

So I get out of gym class and run across the school in the pouring rain to get to history class, still oblivious to what was going on. I finally get into the hallway and a run into a buddy of mine. He says "Hey John, you see New York is under attack?" I just look at him like he's crazy. I go up to my teacher and ask him, and he says that its true. He turns on CNN and I gaze on at what had happened.

By that point one of the towers had already collapsed and reports were just coming in about the Pentagon. We all just looked on in horror at what had happened. The same thing happened in every class that day, and my entire family watched when I came home.

reply to post by N4mYourself


This is a thread for 9/11 stories not prayers several paragraphs long....

This account is not intended to offend anyone , neither does it detract from the seriousness with which we should view terrorism of ANY kind. I am fully against any kind of terrorism by any persons , against any innocent persons , or groups. I 100% fully beleive that terrorism and war are both unecessary and both are carried out in full ignorance of facts of life which negate the need for them. both war and terrorism are unecessary evils. both evil , both unnecessary.

having been engaged with anti-terrorism departments for many years and as a researcher into threats posed by unknown factions towards civil liberty (something quite temporal) , my remit was to compare and contrast human rights issues while carrying out investigations into , mainly immigrant populations within the uk. i studied at schools for the purpose of discussion with student radicals including islamicists , in the years after making observations within 2 port cities on belhalf of immigration and customs and excise , an hybrid unit already involved in assessing issues surrounding counter surveillance within an atmosphere of some concern at the actual time. all this was before the towers.
we had been dealing fairly heavily with pakistan , and southeast asian groups who had suffered an economic catastrophe where the western ptb through contract 'options' left them all in the you know what , and hopping mad. the level of hatred which had built up oversea, not only toward america but uk and other economic powers was becoming extreme to sa the least. muslims especially have strong belief system designed to protect them in war situations. and they started to want a war. now what was being done about this was of course not in my control but it was years before 9/11 that the tapes started rolling. they wanted payback and had goood reasons for it. we didnt want a public disaster but were developing economic alternatives such as permaculture to help change the world for the better before things got really silly. obviously our advice fell on deaf ears. i was only the eyes and ears.
war makes good sense to western economic powers. so when on september 11 the questions were immediately on the table. and we knew who could have done this, and how. it was the american government aided by israelis , and their plan was to start a war. several wars as it turned out. they really did want an excuse to cash in . and cash in they did. with the gold from the pentagon. it was at this point , many many things changed within the world of anti-terrorist operations. as onlookers we would not side with this kind of pure terrorism , because after about 3 days , while the celebrations of muslims were still ongoing , more on why later , it was dawning on some , just what all this meant. in was in fact the greatest of historical moments, history was repeated itself, coincidentalising itself , time , in effect , warped. we were looking left and right for who initially perpetrated the idea, not those who committed the act.
this is where the story becomes a kind of secret and we rarely ever speak about it. a story which if told makes most scoff and hate. then again , this is 'life' whatever that means> we had seen some things before it and we saw some things since , thats for sure .
well i was at the cafe in the old bishops palace next to yatscombe hall where we had had a huge party in the days before . thingshad got back to normal on the seven acre site , all cars gone at last and a friend had brought over a longbow the day before. we were firing away at the target , and the next day i found my back muscles had seized up quite tightly. no work for me then , as i am a gardener as some know. the world service was on , the book was out, i was having a peaceful time keeping an eye on my friends small child. and making lunch at 2 o clock , john humphries came over all serious , a plane has flown into one of the towers at the world trade centre in new york.
what happened after i will tell you because it doesnt matter any more if i do , its all true , while some foregoing above is not. its for another post if you dont mind i will do it another time.
one piece of advice, as i am a user who does know a thing or two, remember what the real meaning is of "too late"

I've posted about this plenty but I'll give it another go.

I was at work on the 11th. This is a busy time of year for me and, since my house was not yet blessed with children, I was at the office by 7 that morning. My building is on 34th Street and 7th Avenue and my office was, at the time, on the 38th floor. My wife called to tell me that a plane hit one of the towers so I stuck my head out the window and looked south. My wife updated me on what was being discussed on the news and then she said she had to get ready for work so we hung up. A little while later, the phones rang again. My mom, who lives downtown, was calling to see if I could see what was happening. I leaned out the window and told her I could see it perfectly. As we were talking I saw a the second plane hit the other tower. I mumbled some form of shock/surprise/profanity and hung up on my mother. I immediately called my wife to tell her to stay home (she worked near the World Trade Center). She was, at the time, unaware of the second collision. I told her this wasn't an accident and she should stay home and watch the news. She agreed.

My employees and my dad showed up shortly after that and we all stood there with our heads out the window, facing south, to see what was going on. Our neighbors in the office next door came over and told us they had tv in their office, as well as a far better view of the towers, so we all huddled into their office to watch the towers and listen to CNN.

One the first tower collapsed, it was as if the air was sucked right out of the room. Dead silence, other than the tv. One of the women in the room started crying. Everyone was standing there, jaws open, dumbfounded.

My father walked out of the room and came back in a few minutes later. He handed me a card and I looked down at it. It was his visitor's pass from the day before.

I spoke to my wife at some point and we discussed the various people we know who worked in the towers and others who worked near them. The fear of who we lost was immense. Her call waiting kept ringing so she started fielding calls and I went back to watching and, when the second tower came down, I went back to my office and started scouring the internet for information.

The reports of bombs in shopping centers, planes heading everywhere, Shanksville, The Pentagon etc were unending. What was real? What was b.s.? It was all a jumbled mess of panic, dread and fear.

My uncle, who's office was on Wall Street at the time, was unaccounted for. Two of my best friends were unaccounted for. Other friends and associates were missing. By nightfall, my uncle was home, having walked uptown from the mess. My two best friends were home. One of them was in an office facing the towers and when the second plane hit they all left. He was a block away at the time. He wound up trapped in the debris cloud and he, and a group of coworkers, wandered away from the cloud, winding up, somehow, in brooklyn, before they realized that they had even crossed the bridge. He lives uptown so he had to turn and head back into the hell to get home.

Then we got word of those friends that were in the towers that morning. The husband of my wife's college friend. We had been at his wedding a year earlier. We had attended a wedding with him a week earlier. He was last seen heading back up to his office to make sure his staff didn't head back to their desks when the all clear was sounded after the first plane hit. He was never seen again but, according to his coworkers, he stayed in that office, sending everyone back down and he waited there to make sure nobody was there.

Another friend of ours, who had been in a summer house with us a year earlier, was among the missing, later declared dead.

The last of our losses was a friend of mine from college. He was a broker and I had opened up an account with him a year or two earlier. We spoke about once a month. He was unfortunate enough to have been in the towers when the bomb went off in the 90's. He walked down over 100 flights to safety that day. He was also on the long island railroad car that afternoon when that guy Colin somethingorother shot and killed all those people. He was sitting next to a guy who was shot and killed and the guy pointed his gun at Doug and, for whatever reason, didn't shoot him. Doug used to joke that he was down to his last strike and that he'd never get a third chance at living. He didn't.

RIP Joe Maio, Tom Kelly Doug Irgang

Because I ran out of room, I'll add this here:

As horrible as that day was, the worst moment for me, other than the news of friends lost, was walking home from work a few days later. I walked along 5th avenue and every store had removed their displays and in the windows there were messages and candles burning and flags draped. I walked up 5th, crossing back and forth checking each window. The streets were more or less deserted and the comfort of others drew the few people out together. We walked 5th and then madison avenue. criss crossing back and forth. People were crying and comforting complete strangers. It was so sad and yet the kindness and caring that those ten or so strangers showed each other was very, very moving.

Well, i live in Brazil and at the time of the attacks i was at school (17 years old back then). We were on a Math class, i guess, when a friend of mine, who was at the principal's office, came running into the class saying that the Twin Towers were hit by a plane on a terrorist attack. At first i didn't believe him, but i noticed that he was nervous.

We started to talk with the teacher and other people from other classes and then we realized that it was true. There was a girl from Chicago on our group and i remember her calling to her parents to know what was going on and to know if there was someone in NYC at the time. Luckily, nobody she knew was there.

When i got home, my parents were glued to the tv, watching the news, that was constantly showing the attacks. That day i realized that the world had changed.

I remember starting that day at work by checking my email. At the time I was working on the 42nd floor of a large office building in Chicago, my company occupying floors 38-43 at that time. My brother called me up and told me that a plane had just crashed into the WTC. I thought nothing of it at the time figuring it was a small private plane that had an accident. I grabbed a friend of mine and went down to the cafeteria in the basement of our office for a cup of coffee and a smoke. We were chatting and occasionally watching the feed from the TV in the coffee shop when we saw the second plane hit. As the minutes dragged on a larger and larger crowd gathered with us to watch the unfolding events. No one spoke, the silence was really odd. While we stared at the TV in disbelief for what seemed like an eternity, we saw the first tower collapse. Gasps and cries came from the dozens of people who had congregated in the coffee shop. My friend and I went back to our office to call our families and to see what was going on. I remember nearly everyone on my floor congregating in small groups listening to the radio or checking the internet for news. About 15 minutes later the word had come in that our building was being evacuated as a precaution seeing as how we were only a few blocks from the Sears Tower and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. As part of my floors fire safety and emergency group, It was my job to stay behind and make sure all the offices and cubicles had been cleared. When I verified that my floor was clear, I and a few of my remaining coworkers exited the building via the stairs and came out onto Adams street. Nearly all of the loop was cleared out by this time and I will never forget the eerie sight of tens of thousands of people calmly walking to the train stations and bus stops to leave the city and how quickly they all left. A friend of mine who lived very near me, drove in that day and I caught a ride home with him instead of taking the train. Except for the emergency vehicles and police, the entire city seemed deserted by the time he left the parking garage and hit the street.

I’ll always remember that morning.

I had just gotten to Spain to settle into a study abroad program for my junior year of college. Being in a foreign country for 9/11 was a different experience than what most Americans would identify with. We were isolated from the post-9/11 beating of war drums and flag waving patriotism; we were forced to view 9/11 through a non-American filter.

I learned to talk about 9/11 in Spanish, before English. I knew of it as 11/9, el once de septiembre, los atentados en las Torres Gemelas...and later, Operacion Paz Duradera (Enduring Peace?) in Afghanistan against los Taliban. I heard a little bit about what Bush had to say, but not so much about the secondary figures like Rumsfeld and Rice. More than that I got to hear what Aznar, Rajoy, and Zapatero - the President of Spain, Head of the EU and Head of the Spanish opposition party - had to say about it.

The most striking contrast would probably have to be the coverage. While most Americans back home were sucked into the 24-hour news loop, people with me in Spain had no such option. Spanish life kept on going. There was solidarity, but no palpable change in existence. This, I think, wore off on us. While our parents and friends would call or send emails of dismay and horror over the next few weeks, we were very much detached from the whole process, except for what the afternoon or evening news had to say.

I think this made us react differently - or at least for me it did - than what would have happened if we were at home. When I finally got back to the States in May, life had changed but I couldn't put my finger on it exactly. I think it first came to a head on the first anniversary when I was back at school in Tucson and the bell rang loudly to commemorate the events. I looked out on a mall full of normally rambunctious college kids who were all standing still and I realized I had missed a major cultural shift.

A few years after I left Spain, in March of 2003, I believe, Spain was then attacked. It just so happened that the attacks in Spain on the rail system were on the very same trains we would take to go to Madrid from Alcala de Henares (a suburb). In fact, they left from the station just a ten minute walk from where I lived, a van with a Quran was supposedly found in the central Cervantes Plaza, just a few minutes from my appartment and directly in front of our campus. Ironically, this hit home more than 9/11, because I was in the Twin Towers once in 1999, but I road those trains every week for a year. It made it more personal, I could have been a victim if the timing was different.

My Story:

I came home from morning classes at the usual time, around 12:30pm and sat down for lunch around 1pm with my American and Japanese roommates and the lady in whose apartment we lived. As we finished our food, she went into the living room and turned on the news as she would always do after lunch and called me over "Hay un incendio en Nueva York".

We were watching one of the Spanish networks and I don't know if I hadn't gotten used to their accent or they simply didn't say it, but it was not clear to anyone in the room that it was anything other than a fire. I sat watching when they switched to a second camera shot: the other tower was now smoking. I thought rather innocently, "How could the fire have jumped buildings?" Just then one of the announcers said a second plane had struck the other tower.

I called my American roommate back in when I heard about the Pentagon and the Japanese kid, who did not speak English and whose Spanish was terrible looked puzzled. We tried to explain, "terrorista", which drew that awkward Japanese laugh when they don't understand what you are saying. He finally put two and two together between our airplane gestures and my use of simple Spanish words like "muy malo".

My American friend and I decided to head back to afternoon classes early, around 3:15, so probably while we were walking to the campus the towers fell. We got to class around 3:30pm (probably 9:30am in NY) and broke the news to the handful of students from Arizona, Colorado and California who were in our program and didn't yet know. The professor, from Spain, but a full time professor in the US walked in and didn't say anything. He started talking about our Lazarillo de Tormes reading (it was a lit class) and finally a student chimed in, "didn't you hear?" He had not and I suppose no one knew the buildings had fallen or how serious it really was because this was happening while we were on our way to class or already there. Finally, a student walked in late and said the Twin Towers had both collapsed and he the professor let us go early.

For the next couple of days, a lot of Spanish neighbors and people at the local stores we would go to would give us words of condolences. The travel agency on the walk to campus had a picture of NY in the window with the Twin Towers prior to 9/11, the next day they had a rose in front of the window

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I was working (as a civilian) on the Marine base at 29 Palms, CA, and was oblivious of the first crash as I zipped though the gate, as usual, with My base pass on the window of My car. And as usual, I went to the diner on base for breakfast.

Walking through the doors, I saw everyOne, standing still or seated, looking up at the TV. I looked up, too. On the screen was the now famous footage of the Towers both engulfed in smoke. After a moment, I moved up to the order counter and asked the staff member, "Did someone do that on purpose?"

"Seems so," She replied. When I heard that, the oddest sense of exhilaration coursed through My body. I was not horrified. I was excited. Perhaps an odd response, but I had felt that a shoe was going to drop in the world somewhere for quite a while and this was the first shoe.

The second plane had hit, it turns out, about the time I was zipping onto base. The counter woman took My to-go order and I watched with the Others as smoke poured out of the tops of the Towers while I waited. Momentarily, My order was ready and I left, headed to the building I worked in.

When I arrived, I did not see the cars I expected to see in the parking lot. Odd... I entered the building and met one of My coworkers.

After acknowledging that each of Us knew about the Towers, I asked, "Where is Everybody?"

"They shut down the base when the second plane hit. Every vehicle coming in has to be searched before They are allowed in." It took some of My coworkers over two hours to arrive.

My coworker had a small TV, and We kept watching. No work got done that day, I tell You what. As more and more of My staff arrived Each joined in watching as the Towers continued to smoke. Suddenly, the top piece of (I guess it was) Tower Two began to topple. Watching, I was sure that it was going to fall to the street below and crush anyOne that was down there when, just as suddenly, the Tower disintegrated and the piece dropped downwards, not over and down to leave the rest of the Tower scraped but standing.

My staff and coworkers exchanged looks with Me and the Others. SomeOne said, "Looks like They planted explosives, too."

"That looked just like a demolition! Yeah. How did They get into the building to plant them!?!" a coworker, who had experience in demolition, asked.

I interjected, "I'm sure it was demolition. There's no other way that could happen."

Others also chimed in with similar comments. We continued to watch and discuss how the Towers could have been wired to implode.

Only a few hours in and Osama was fingered. And then We asked, "How could the Arabs have gotten in to plant the explosives?" Personally, I thought it was odd that Osama was brought out, not with statements like, "It seems Osama bin Laden was responsible. We will know more in the coming weeks as this incident is investigated." The statements were more, "Osama did it!"

How very weird that the Man was condemned in the media with no trial, no investigation, nothing. They already KNEW He did it. No placing Him as a suspect. Just statements that He was responsible.

And eventually it was 5:00 and time to go home.

When, in the days following 9/11, it was announced that the planes' impact and fires caused the Towers to collapse through the path of greatest resistance, and NOT controlled demolition... I knew right then that something was VERY amiss. At work We were all incredulous that They would claim no CD.

And then the "coincidences" began piling up, and, well... Here I am, certain that We have been lied to, and that this event was carefully planned by Those who had access to military behaviors, security firms, CD firms, and so on. It was a ritual, an insurance fraud, a destruction of evidence, and so on. And an AWESOME Pearl Harbor to justify war that the war suppliers could make money.

My assessment, of course.

EDIT to add: I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop...it will, no doubt.

reply to post by spokaneman1983

We were not allowed to watch TV, call anyone, radio, ect. No outside world contact.

Wow..is that how they treat people in basic training? What was the point of hiding information like that? Its your right to know...? Guess the military thinks its ok to hide even the latest breaking news from their young recruits.

Sorry..I know this isn't a personal story ..which I will get to mine later...but I was totally shocked when I read that you had to sneak out and go get a paper to find out the truth..something isn't right about that at all.

On Sept 11, 2001, I was in my early thirties. I was doing the laundry, I believe that was a Monday. I had a five year old in kindergarden and a two year old. My husband was supposed to be leaving from the Dulles International Airport for Michigan that day, but the trip was canceled. We were living in the Shannadoah Valley in a small town called Winchester, VA, which was 45 minutes from downtown DC. My husband called me up from work and told me to turn on the TV, something bad was happening in New York. I turned on the TV and at that point, only one plane had crashed into the towers. I thought some pilot had been doing drugs and had just had an accident. That was the only idea I could dream up. Then I saw the other plane hit the other tower on live television. Again, I could only think they must have partied together, or it was a sucide day for pilots.

The buildings were burning fast, I was hoping people were evacuating. Then people started jumping out of the builings. Another plane crashed, this time into the Pentagon at Washington DC. I had a second cousin in his sixties who worked there. As it turns out he wasn't in the building, but his office was ruined. At that point, I started to feel the United States was under attack, and I had thoughts of going and getting my son out of kindergarden and leaving for West Virginia with a BOB. I didn't even know that was a real thing back then.

Then the plane in Pennslyvannia went down, I later felt it was shot down by our military. I know no one wants to think of that. I drove back to Cincinnati, Ohio through there twice a year annually, and I know that is one of the most desolate places on the East Coast in the US. There is nothing there. Nothing. So the next thing I saw was the twin towers fall, I felt I had just witnessed a mass murder. It was a horrible feeling, coming to the understanding there is intense human evil on this planet. We were all glued to the television set for weeks afterwards many hours a day. We felt tramatized. The no planes flying for three days was very creepy. The helecopters patroling around DC went over my land occassionally, every half hour. They flew low with army men and their machine guns leaning out. That was way too much drama. My brother was somewhere on the East Coast, on business, and had to rent a rental car to drive back to Ohio.

The next event was the anthrax attacks. A postal worker in our town got anthrax and nearly died. He had worked at the Sterling VA office. We were at the hospital with my child who had a severe ear ache at midnight, the same night the anthrax victim was admitted. Our postal worker for our street started wearing a face mask and gloves to put mail into the box. People were dropping dead around the country. We left our mail in the box for two weeks before we decided to open all the bills out doors and to burn all the other mail off in the burn barrel, bringing almost nothing into the house. Winchester, VA was keyed up with police everywhere on high orange security alerts. There was a police officer in Targets with a gun on her belt. People were flying American flags everywhere. It was very intense.

Events became too much for us as a family, so we took a job promotion and sold our lovely five acres in the valley, and moved to Kentucky. There in Kentucky the people were not thinking of the event much, or at all, they were so removed being in the middle of the USA. While leaving Virginia to house hunt we had to travel through the Baltimore Airport. There were three army men at the security check point with machine guns. That was very intense. Traveling was just starting to be very unpleasant. After we moved, the sniper attacks started next in Washington DC. Everyone wanted to move to the bedroom communities outside of Washington DC. Our property we just sold doubled in value. We moved too soon and lost out on that. We could not afford to go back to Winchester, VA after the real estate prices increased. Then the army men of Kentucky left for war, and the whole town seemed desolate in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Large fighter planes had practiced landing at our small airport, which was one block from my house. The whole house would shake when they landed. their engines shrieked.

I can remember the day they pulled the Saddam Hussien statue over, these were extrordinary stressful times in America. Eventually, we moved away from Kentucky with a job promotion. My husband almost moved back to Kentucky a year after we moved away. While we were house hunting there was this emormous funeral for an army man who had died in service over in Afganastan, it was on the national news. I sat in the car and waited for it to pass, thinking this 9-11 event was so terrible on many levels around the globe. We decided not to move back to Kentucky. Where we live now, SC, is so emersed in it's own culture the rest of the USA seems like it's somewhere else. So I guess all parts of America experienced events differenly. God Bless All.

My children were small at the time, not in school yet. I was "sleeping in" with them in the bed when the phone rang. I ran to it as to not wake the kids and it was my mom. She was crying and yelling. She said, "I am on the way to your house honey, I am so scared so I am not going to work. Turn on the TV, the WTC has been hit by a plane and I think this is the beginning of a War with Iraq". In one breath my mom said all of this and I was in SHOCK! I had not had my coffee yet and my mom is on her way. I turned on the TV, made coffee for the two of us and watched with disbelief.

I called my Grandmother and told her to go get the cousins from school because I had no idea what was going on. She refused.... She said it is in NYC and this is where it will stay for me not to worry. I was worried and worried beyond belief!

Mom got to the house and for the next two weeks we watched the news in disbelief and cried so much my husband (at the time) was beginning to worry. It was as if we were mourning the death of many we did not know. That is what we were doing. Even though we didn't know these people we were (and I especially) VERY empathetic to their stories and their lost or dead loved ones.

We saw people jumping, burning, smoke engulfing their bodies and firemen crying and most of their brothers were missing and the ones who weren't were just as confused. They thought they were going to go in these buildings and put out a fire....they had NO CLUE they were walking into their own coffin. SO SAD!


Such a tragic day and I honestly am not satisfied with the "justice".

When we watched the "firework" show on CNN it was as if everyone was excited to see our "new" weapons. In a way I felt sick to my stomach with all the talks of the "fireworks" and what time we will see the "show" displayed in Iraq. Just weird! I like peace and love....not war. Where was the proof Saddam had weapons of mass destruction? Why are they giving him plenty of time to get rid of them before they send someone in to look for the so called WMD? It just didn't make sense. I wanted proof and I wanted who ever responsible to get theirs ...but I am not so sure that happened or will ever happen.

Like the rest of you....that day is one that I will never forget and I cannot tell you how many times I wondered and said allowed, " How did this happen to US"? My sense of logic continues to struggle til this day. There is no "logic" to the situation at all for me and it angers me still. I am still angry and still saddened by the lack of love and peace and the push for war and evil.

You reap what you sow.

Peace and love to all of you!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxo

Jenn