The morning of 9/11

9/6/03 | Scab4faa

[scab4faa]

As September 11 approaches, I thought it would be nice for all of us to reflect on that morning that has been burned into our memories for the rest of our lives and share with everyone what we were doing and our feelings when we first saw or heard about the tragedy that was befalling our nation. please bump and keep this thread going for all of us to share our memories and NEVER FORGET....

[scab4faa]

On September 11, I awoke around 8am and turned on the TV like I did every morning to watch the news to see what the weather was going to be like for that day. As usual the news would go on in the background as I got dressed with little getting my attention. I had seen the picture of the North tower burning but didn’t think much about it. I heard that maybe a small plane had crashed into it but as usual, preliminary reports can be filled with very little truth. So I dismissed it and went on with my morning routine thinking that the firefighters at the towers would be in for a long day putting that fire out. When I heard “Oh my god there’s another plane!” from the news reporter and looked up at the screen just in time to see this

My mouth fell open as I watched for the next 5 hours barely breathing, only taking my eyes off the screen long enough to wipe the tears away that kept sliding down my face. I will never forget watching those images and wishing that it was some movie I was watching and not real life. We must NEVER FORGET and always remember what happened that day and the sorrow and anger we felt that brought our nation together. God bless America and God bless our troops.

[annyokie]

I knew nothing. Hubby and I were out packing the wheel-bearings on the pick-up. We came in to hear his daughter's message "What a thing to wake up to" and turned on the TV.

We spent the rest of the morning turning off TV's at the neighbors' and calming people down.

[WSGilcrest]

Check out this thread:



********************************************************

*** PLANE CRASH - WORLD TRADE CENTER ***
CNN BREAKING

*******************************************************

I was stuck at work all day listening to the reports on the radio in my tractor. The thing that struck me the most was the eerie quiet for the next several days after all the airlines were grounded.

[risk]

For some very odd reason, I had awakened early. I was working on a project, and so I turned on a portable FM stereo (Sony Walkman) and started listening to music while I tapped away at my computer.

In flipping from one channel to the other, I noticed a common discussion going on: something about aircraft, evidently another hijacking. Hadn't we heard something from the mideast recently, something about bin Laden. I flipped again. WTC. Burning. All planes being asked to land. I knew something important was happening. Then it happened: the first tower collapsed.

The next thing I noticed was an erie silence. I live near an airport, but nothing was coming or going. More discussion. More concerns about other hijackings. The second tower collapses, flight 93 goes down, and the Pentagon is struck.

I didn't have a TV at the time, so I wasn't seeing any of this. I'm not sure that it mattered, because at work, everyone was playing streaming video reports from all over the world.

It would take me months to understand everything as I do today.

Questions remain in my mind:

why haven't we crushed our enemies in northern Pakistan? Why have dozens of bombs exploded in Israel, let alone an additional two after 9/11? Why are hundreds of illegal aliens crossing into America every day, still? Why have we not eliminated Iran's nuclear program? Why have we not eliminated North Korea's nuclear program? Why has Pakistan not agreed to disarm, preferring that to a sound neutron bombing? Why is CAIR still intact? AIM? Why is Saudi Arabia still sending terrorists into Iraq? Why is Saudi money still pouring into the "hate America, hate Israel" propaganda machine that is its religious and educational establishment? Why is Kosovo still a breeding ground for crimes against Europe and beyond? Why are Filipino terrorists capturing and torturing Christians, MILF relatively unscathed? Why are bombs detonating in Bali, killing Australians? Why haven't we united with Russia against the Chechen rebels?

People, where is the outrage?

[risk]

Illegals: I don't know about hundreds per day. But per month?

[lavrenti]

Here's the thumbnail sketch.

I worked then five blocks north. I had to come in late because a collegue had a diva moment and demanded to take my slot so she could move in to her new place.

Dropped my daughter off at school.

Heard a roar overhead and the sound of metal plates run over by a truck.

Looked at smoke down the street. Walked several blocks to investigate.

Saw the first hit and go down. Picked up my daughter. We watched the second go down.

Walked home, cutting across the masses moving north from downtown.

Then proceeded to work four months at my office, at night, with the smell of rotting flesh and burnt electrical wiring in the air.

Since then, I suffer fools lightly.

[annyokie]

How horrible for you! I cried and cried as I watched the Firemen go in to die.

I'm glad you are safe. Bless.

[Samurai_Jack]

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
And the slow parade of fears without crying
Now I want to understand
I have done all that I could
To see the evil and the good without hiding
You must help me if you can

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long

'Cause I have wandered through this world
And as each moment has unfurled
I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams
People go just where there will
I never noticed them until I got this feeling
That it's later than it seems

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what you see
I hear their cries
Just say if it's too late for me
Doctor, my eyes
Cannot see the sky
Is this the prize for having learned how not to cry

~ Jackson Browne

[annyokie]

Well, finally a song post that is apropos.

[tob2]

Woke up late that morning and thought my nightmare was being aired on every channel I get on TV. The only dream I had the summer of 2001 was of burning buildings, collapsing buildings, and people falling from the sky! I could barely tear myself from the TV, wondering about my friends who worked in the World Trade Center. They got out safely. Since that morning, my child-like sense of safety, security, immunity from tradegy for the USA has been challenged. My love for my country has increased a thousand-fold. NEVER FORGET!

[Fester Chugabrew]

That whole day weather-wise was very much like yesterday here. Crystal clear, and cool. Not a jet trail in the sky. Today's weather is similar. Definitely brings back memories of 9/11/01.

I recently purchased some homemade video of NYC before the towers fell to view this week, and a couple commemorative DVDs. Will take Thursday off from work. Can no longer treat that day with a "business as usual" attitude.

I could not believe, when 9/11 was happening, that people were calling me up to place orders for trailer parts as if nothing were happening. It was strange, and more than a bit bothersome.

[Tax-chick]

I was getting my kids ready for preschool. A friend called to ask a question, and as we were trying to talk (with 5 kids each!) she said, "Do you have the TV on? Someone just crashed a plane into the World Trade Center!" I said, "Shoot, can't those idiots even see a 200-story building?" - picturing a drunk in a Cessna!

Then I had to go, and didn't learn anything else (I don't ever have TV or radio news on around the children) until I got to the church to drop off the kids, and people were talking. My comment was, "Mind your audience, please," since we were surrounded by 2-4 year-olds.

Then I got to the bank, and it was full of people drinking coffee, eating popcorn, and watching CNN. We were in and out quickly! After that, we went home and I kept the news off, only made a quick look at the CNN website. Later my husband came home; they'd evacuated the building he worked in because it was the tallest "skyscraper" in Tulsa.

We were stunned. We all prayed, but did not watch or listen to the news, because we felt, and still feel, that it was not an appropriate focus for young children.

[Jim Noble]

why haven't we crushed our enemies in northern Pakistan?

Good question. Very, very good question.

I think the answer is that the occupation and reorganization of Pakistan requires military development that the administration is not prepared to undertake.

Bush could have had anything he asked for when he addressed Congress on 9/16/01. He chose not to ask for much.

He could have asked the American people for anything, as well, and we would have answered the call.

Now, our force options are such that they require (or soon will require) cooperation from a world that sadly, does not exist.

I posted in October 2001 that we should form a military alliance with India to undo partition, crush Pakistan, and wipe our enemies from the face of the earth.

We chose Musharreff instead.

I don't believe he can deliver what we require. It isn't about Bin Laden. The spirit of the NWFP tribes who breed terrorist destroyers of modernity must be crushed, and we will not do it.

[areafiftyone]

Actually I was on Free Republic at the time (at work). My bosses wife called and told me to look out the window. There was smoke everywhere and all you heard were sirens. I started posting on Free Republic while everyone was rivited to the windows. After the towers collasped we were evacuated from the bulding and finally after a few hours I made my way to Grand Central thru the hordes of people and smoke. I was living in Westchester at the time. When the trains finally started running I was able to get home. When I arrived in Westchester there were police sharpshooters standing at the station watching people get off the train.

[LizardQueen]

I was getting ready for work and had the news on as I always do. They had just announced that a small plane had hit one of the WTC towers as I was getting ready to leave the house. I thought it was sad, but didn't realize that it wasn't just a Cessna putting a ding in the side of the building.

I drove to work with the radio on - they were still saying small plane. Got to work and no one was paying attention to the news so I mentioned it and we tried to get to CNNs web site - couldn't. Then we put the radio on, and I fired up this web site and realized the magnitude of what was happening.

I spent a frenzied 20 minutes trying to get ahold of my family on Long Island - they go into the city a lot and I didn't know where they were supposed to be that day. All the circuits were busy. I ended up getting my sister in Ohio who had been on the phone with my folks when it happened so I knew that at least they were alright.

The guy in back of me had the radio on, and I clearly remember that when he stood up to announce that the first tower had gone down I thought he was making a cruel joke and got mad at him for "being such a sick bastard". I ended up having to apologize to him once we figured out it was real. The whole thing had such a "War of the Worlds" feel to it at first that none of us believed it.

We then spend the rest of the day monitoring the news - not much work got done. They put a TV in the cafeteria and we watched the news in there for awhile. I kept having to leave to go cry in the bathroom where no one could see me.

Our boss was also in the air that day, and once we realized that planes were continuing to drop from the sky we got really worried. Luckily he wasn't on any of them but got grounded in Myrtle Beach, SC and drove all the way back to VT in a Geo Tracker with a canvas roof - it was the only 1-way rental the renta agency had.

Once I knew my family was safe, I then started calling my husbands family (all in NJ, work in the city) and friends in Boston (who fly a lot). Fortunately all were ok, though one of hubby's cousins was on the news footage being chased down a lower Manhattan street by the dust cloud from the collapse of one of the towers.

Unfortunately, I ended up finding out that one of my parents neighbors, a fireman, was killed in the Tower 2 (I was friends with his brother in high school) as was my 10th grade science lab partner who worked at Marsh & McClennan and was trapped and couldn't get out.

I still react with rage and tears thinking of it. Mostly rage - I want to kill the sons of bitches that did this.

LQ

[Ol' Sox]

I had broken a small bone in my wrist the night before while playing with my sons and was at my doctor's getting it x-rayed and immobilized. The nurse came into the room and said that a plane had hit the WTC. I thought of the incident when a bomber lost in the fog and mentioned it to the doc. Just as I was leaving, someone hollered out that a second plane had hit. I sped to work and spent the morning making video of CNN available over the IP network to our employees and reading Free Republic.

A little after noon, we dismissed everyone - we're only 50 miles from the city and literally everyone at work knew someone that worked at the WTC. I went home and got my wife, and we went to the beach where we could make out the funeral pyre coming from the fire. It turned out that I knew one man from my church who died there, another from church who escaped from the 45th floor of Tower 2, and the mother of one of my son's classmates was killed.

[SSN558]

I was at work and passed a designer in the hallway. He said, "Is the United States at war or what ?" Soon we were all glued to the radio as the day passed.

Later that night at school a girl in my presentation group wanted to turn the presentation into something else related to the attacks. The group was emotionally distressed. I told them, "we have to do the presentation as planned, and get it done." "The United States is going to war and it won't be for awhile." "When the President of the United States flys to Barksdale Air Force Base it is not for a peace talk."

[shhrubbery!]

What I remember is that it was a beautiful, crystal clear day.

I was finishing up the morning chores while listening to 'Curtis and Kuby' on New York City's WABC radio, when Curtis announced that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Like Bibi Netanyahu, I'd been expecting something like this for years (Netanyahu had predicted a mushroom cloud rising over the WTC).

Still, coming as it did on that brilliant late summmer day, it was a shock.

It reminded me of how we must be prepared for death at the most unexpected moments.

[contessa machiaveli]

september 11th was a NY morning exactly like today. the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky and hints of autumn in the air. i woke up turned howard stern on and prepared to edit some articles. a few moments later howard mentioned a plane went into the WTC (didn't think much, there are helicopters galore around lower manhattan. i decided to turn on the TV and saw the 2nd plane hit. i spent the next 5 hours listening to howard's show and staring in horror at the TV. we all know the rest.
2 days later the air(i'm 40 miles east of the city) had an odd burning odor. i didn't realize it contained the smell of the remains of 3000 humans, some of whom were from my town.
since that morning, i see the world with anger and cynicism and will never be the same.

[Cincinnatus]

For a link to some good 9/11 and Ground Zero personal accounts, go to http://home.nycap.rr.com/rgoing/