Posted on 09/10/2007 6:41:30 PM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
Might be a good time to revisit how we all heard about the the attack on 9/11 and how we reacted to the darkest day in American history.
What emotions were strongest for you on that day?
How did you find out? Did you stay at work? Did you go Home? Who did you call?
Wow, you actually saw that happen? That must have been an unbelievable moment.
I was getting ready to take two children to preschool when a friend from the homeschool association called with some questions about curriculum. We’d been talking for 15 minutes or so, and I was making “Gotta run!” noises, when she said, “Do you have the TV on? Someone just flew a plane into the World Trade Center?” I said, “No, the TV’s in the other room. Can’t those idiots see a 120-story building?” I figured it was a drunk in a Cessna.
I didn’t know anything big had happened until after I dropped the two at preschool and went to the bank with the other ones. (3, 4, 5? I forget.) There were about 50 people in the bank, drinking free coffee and watching CNN.
I made sure the TV stayed off for about the next three weeks. The children didn’t need to see it.
I was still in bed when my wife yelled a small plane had stuck the World Trade Center and there was a fire. I got to the TV in time to see the second one hit and I knew it was not a accident. I got on FR and turned on the TV next to the Confuser. The story played out from there. Our grand children share a Sept 11th birth day four years apart and we had a party planned that evening. I don’t remember if we went or not...
Being involved in a radio-scanner enthusiasts club, the emails were flying about the mil-air comms, and various public safety radio traffic.
The news reports were confused and confusing. We started to put together the "what-ifs" of going into Chicago to help if Sears or the Hancock would be next. I could only think about how my parents must have felt when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
The next several days consisted of intense morning briefings and contingency plans in case a plane required to be shot down near us over populated areas.
The following night I took my teen-aged daughters out to the backyard deck, had them look to the sky to observe there were NO PLANES....except the air cover and tankers overhead - very unusual since we are in the landing pattern for O'Hare. Over the next few days, we saw fighter planes in the area.
The local hardware stores donated tools, buckets, etc for us to stock up in case we were called.
It was tough to want to help, and holding back for the organized response to New York or DC, yet wanting to stay back in case Chicago was next.
Damn, I thought, now that's something you don't see every day. How could they not avoid that building?
As I was tying my shoes, I saw the second plane come into view and hit. I was as stunned as the TV newscasters as it slowly dawned on me that the odds of this being an accident were exactly zero.
I went on to work in a 20-story building in Atlanta. We spent a lot of that day looking out the windows and talking about it. Looking out the windows, just in case.
I was driving to the base when I heard on the car radio that a second plane had hit. Strangely, the base was not yet on high alert.
Rushed into my manager's office to turn on the TV, people started gathering around, shocked and horrified. When they said the Pentagon had been hit, I almost lost it - our son-in-law was stationed at the Pentagon. Thankfully, my daughter was able to get through to him on the phone within an hour, as she watched the smoke rising from her office in Alexandria.
I had just been laid off my job, so I was home alone. I first saw it here on FR. Turned on the TV in time to see the second plane hit. After five minutes, a friend called from his job to ask what was happening. I tried my best to explain. After hanging up, I sat down in front of the TV again, and cried.
I was on the last day of leave from active duty. It was a treat for me to drop The Boy off at preschool. Missus was already at work. I had started for home, and the cel rang - Missus told em to get on the Internet and find out what the hell was happening.
I saw the second plane hit the South Tower.
I heard about the Pentagon.
They had grounded all aircraft, but there was one headed for DC, until it plowed the field near Shanksville.
As I watched the South Tower go down, my knees gave way and I sat on the floor, and watched her sister fall.
After I got my legs back, I paced the house shouting useless curses. Then I stopped to think: the unit hadn’t called me. So I called them. No orders yet, stand by, but do not make any long-range plans.
I went into duty the next day and it was like a waking nightmare. And then we struck back in Afghanistan. And then the Left got their breath back.
ping, gotta work, coming back later to share.
Your daughter is much older now. How does she view the event today?
Just finishing up morning PT with my troops.
Rolled back into the homefront to see the wife and kids in shock in front of the tv.....and just in time to watch the 2nd plane go in. My reaction was to grab my go bag and, well go.
first day of a new construction project for Morgan Stanley. at about the time the second tower went down I had had everyone rolling it up to head out home and I happened to notice the name at the bottom of my thick set of ‘prints for Morgan Stanley’s home office.... World Trade Center NY,NY. it was right there for the rest of a 6 month build. I thought about masking it out but I decided not to. I wanted the remembrance each morning when I saw that address about what those bastards did to us. I still do.
Curse the treasonous bastards!!
I said "what?",turned on the t.v. and the second plane hit.
I was working from home and had my 15 month old daughter with me. I took her downstairs to put her in the Pack n Play so I could make some phone calls from my office. Turned on the TV for her, and it just happened to be on Fox News. As Fox and Friends was ending, Brian Kilmeade announced that they had just learned the WTC had been hit by a plane. My initial thought was that it must have been a freak accident with a little Cessna or something like that. Of course, I sat there and watched the whole thing unfold in front of me. When the first tower fell, I was just stunned. And stupid me, I was thinking, well everybody got out, right? Surely the minute that plane hit people evacuated that building. I ran upstairs and called my husband’s office. When I told him, he didn’t believe me.
I remember when the gravity of it all sunk in, and realized the world I thought my little girl would grow up in had just disappeared. That’s when the weeping started and went on for days. My birthday is 9/13, and I learned that one of the pilots of the highjacked planes shared the same birthday as me. That upset me deeply for some reason.
Anyway, may God bless and keep the souls lost on that day, and give comfort to their still grieving friends and family.
Amen.
Me too! I went to the hardware store on the 12th so I could hang my old flag on the side of my house. They were sold out of flagpoles, but had nice wood broomsticks. The broomstick and flag have held up well for 6 years.
I was sleeping in because I had just returned from out of town late the evening before. My ex-husband called from work to tell me that a plane had hit one of the buildings.
Our sons were homeschooled at the time and I always had them watch important news as part of school so I woke both of them up.
We were all sitting together in the living room watching when the second plane hit and when each building fell.
As a Texan, it was the first time I ever felt a strong kinship with New Yorkers.
That feeling has endured.
I did the same thing once I got home.
Interestingly I passed the word at work that we would hold a silent prayer at the flagpole outside the plant at noon sharp.
Out of 200 people, 5 stood beside me.
Probably my worst memory of that day....
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