[Ramius]

I was a boot Seaman on the CGC Polar Sea. We were in port in Seattle, and I was on duty. I was cleaning the stateroom of MasterChief Smith when the pipe came over the 1MC: "Now on Polar Sea: The space shuttle has exploded on takeoff. News coverage is available on the mess deck."

We sat transfixed for hours after that. I can't believe it's been 19 years. I remember it like it was last week.

[DarthDilbert]

It was the day I entered the Army. I was at the MEPS station in Kansas City and was playing pool when someone came in and told us the shuttle blew up. We didn't believe him and continued to play. A few minutes later we heard the commotion from the room where the TV was and quickly learned the horrible truth.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I was 21, in my senior year at college. It was a Tuesday and I didn't have a class until afternoon, so I was sleeping in. When I woke up I turned on the television as I walked by it on my way to the bathroom. As I spent a few minutes in the bathroom it gradually penetrated into my brain that I was hearing Dan Rather on the TV. At first I thought it was just a regular mid-morning news update (which he sometimes did back then) but then I realized he was reading off the names of the shuttle astronauts. I wandered back out to see what he was talking about. It must have been the first new flash on CBS, because it took a few minutes for them to show the video.

The first time I heard the ground controller say, "Obviously a major malfunction," I remember thinking, "No sh*t, Sherlock."

After watching the news coverage for a few hours, I did eventually go to class. I'd like to say that the shock and sadness I felt changed my life, but it didn't really. Unfortunately.

[ecurbh]

I was in middle school, and some of the classes had watched the events live, so I heard people talking about it in the hallway between classes. In band, the teacher came in and confirmed what had happened. We spent most of the rest of the day watching the news coverage.

I still have the newspapers of the day and one of the news magazines in my file cabinet.