As it Happened: Real-Time 9-11 Coverage on Free Republic

Free Republic ^ | September 11, 2001 | FReepers

[Starrgaizr]

At 7:52am EDT, under the innocuous title "World Trade Center," Oldeconomybuyer posted the first thread, writing: CNBC reports a plane has hit the World Trade Center in NY. No details...

At 8:04-8:05am EDT on September 11, 2001, the following comments, among many others, appeared on several threads:

Holy Cow!! Another plane just hit!! / Another plane just flew into the building! / OMG!!!! Huge explosion out the side!!! / A SECOND PLANE JUST NOW FLEW INTO THE SECOND TOWER!!! / 2 ND EXPLOSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW / Another plane flew into the second tower. / TERRORISTS!!!! / O' the humanities! What the Hell! Another plane. I'm dreaming or what? / Dear God! They just hit the other tower. / Jesus, another one just flew into it. / A SECOND plane just flew into the tower. This IS DELIBERATE! / Second explosion. Just heard it in Brooklyn. IN the OTHER Tower. That seemed like a BOMB!!!! / I just saw a second plane hit the other tower-- looks like an attack. / Oh my goodness! / Just saw the second plane hit the other tower / Second impact on the other building !!!!! / This is unbelievable!!!!! / Most definitely terrorism / Oh MY Gosh! Another Plane just flew into the 2nd tower! / ANOTHER PLANE CRASHES !!!! UNBELIEVABLE !!!! / HOLY CRAP Another plane just slammed into the tower!!!!!!!! / SECOND PLANE FLIES INTO OTHER TOWER! /

At 8:08am EDT HalfIrish wrote: It takes a lot of cash to smash two jets, don't you think? Can you say Osama bin-Laden?

At 8:09am EDT, on another thread, Catspaw wrote: Osama bin Ladin.

The morning just got worse. At 8:44-8:45:

Fire in the Pentagon WWIII / Explosion in Pentagon, too!!! / WHITE HOUSE BEING EVACUATED !

We all know how things ended.

At 8:51: ALL AIRPORTS IN NATION SHUT DOWN BY FAA !

At 9:02-03: I just saw from my window. TOP OF THE World Trade Center just collapsed!! OH MY GOD! PEOPLE ARE CRYING HERE! / OH MY GOD...THE WHOLE BUILDING JUST COLLAPSED! oh sweet Jesus...look with kindness and mercy upon our dead / Does this mean that we're going to war? No, we are AT war!

Then: Second Tower just went!!! HELP US! / What parts of the Pentagon has been hit? My brother is there.

For all of the gut-wrenching real-time coverage on Free Republic, follow this link to the Remembrance Archive: Free Republic Threads From 9-11-01

NEVER FORGET. STAY ANGRY.

[Starrgaizr]

Brought back for 9-11-03. Will this generation maintain its focus until the war is won? Feel free to add your comments, memories, and thoughts as well to the linked Remembrance Archive thread.

[ConservativeMan55]

I didn't know about Free Republic back then.
All I could do was refresh Drudge every few seconds hoping for updates.

[concerned about politics]

Will this generation maintain its focus until the war is won?

Not if the Democrats can help it.

I remember seeing the first plane hit on TV. I thought it must have been an accident. Then, the second plane, and I called my spouce.
Shortly after, the Pentagon!
It was unreal, like a movie. I was at a loss for words.

[cake_crumb]

When the first plane hit, I thought it must have been a horrendous, one-in-a-trillion accident. Then the second and I knew we were under attack. When the triage center was organized, it seems like a ray of hope. Things would be gotten under control. People would be saved. Surely they were evacuating TowerII, it was over, rescue and cleanup were beginning.

Then the tower collapsed, taking the triage center, rescue workers and the rescued with it. Then the third plane into the Pentagon and it was burning and I was trying to tell my husband the Pentagon was on fire...the Pentagon is burning, we're under attack.

There are a lot of vivid, but very disjointed memories of those few minutes. Smoke. Raining dust and chunks of debris like volcanic ash. People running, screaming, searching for help and others, in need of treatment themselves turning back to help other wounded.

We all understood we were witnessing the end of the world as we knew it.

The Democrats and their useful idiots want us to forget that day. They want us to believe the war on terrorism is unjust, a "dirty little police action", that we are LOSING the war on terror AND that it should have been over by December 31st, 2001. They demand that we move on.

Well, we ARE moving on. We're moving on over the organized terror that appeasers in many other countries as well as this one refused to stop. We're not going to stop until it's won, and the bulk of the American people STILL support the both the war and the president regardless of what the media keeps shrilly telling us to think.

[dinok]

Its been 2 years since that day and I still can't look at the casualty list. I grew up in Valley Stream NY and was in the service.

Ever since Sergeant First Class Duggan, my drill sergeant from basic in the 80's died in Bosnia, I can't bring myself to look at lists of our dead.

That day changed us for ever.

[PurVirgo]

oops... great minds think alike I suppose - I just posted an article with some archived links from 9/11

[Starrgaizr]

Ping, and please ping those you think might be interested.

[republicanwizard]

Neither did I. I was in my second week as a college freshman working on a report when I saw a report about a small plane hitting the WTC at yahoo.com. That was around 9:00. I had class at 9:10 and didn't go look at a TV. The class ended at 10:05, and I wanted to see if anything was new and whether the damage was repaired.

In my entire life, being only 17 at the time, I have never had such a jolting experience as the one I felt when I logged in that day. It will remain with me until my final moment on this Earth.

[Cindy]

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: "ATTACK ON AMERICA!" (Updated Daily)
http://www.truthusa.com/911.html

[Starrgaizr]

Remembering is important... as I noted on February 1, 2002 when I created the archive thread, "Bookmark this thread, and bump it from time to time when the nation and the press seems to forget why we need resolve in the face of evil."

[kimmie7]

I wasn't here then. Thank you.

[PurVirgo]

Just in case you wanted to see it.

=) I would say that it is a good thing that we did this at the same time...

[ConservativeLawyer]

I remember I was watching Fox and Friends when they said a plane had hit the WTC. I imagined a small plane, perhaps the pilot having a medical emergency. But they then showed a live picture of the building and it was stunning the damage caused.

I then started flipping through the channels to see if there was any other coverage and happened to be on NBC when the second plane hit. I knew right then it was terrorism.

I immediately logged into FreeRepublic and started following the posts. I also emailed links to the threads to friends who I knew would be stuck in their offices with no information. I called my office and sent my staff home to be with their families.

What a day it was.

[kayak]

Thank you for this great compilation, Starrgaizr.

For anyone who is interested, I have many threads from 9/11/01 and the days following bookmarked on my profile page.

I also have what seems to be hundreds of other threads but most of the pertinent ones are down near the bottom, their titles preceded by "WTC:", an idea I finally conceived to help me locate them later.

[Ex-Dem]

Damn. Reading that third paragraph is like reliving that day all over again. Not that I've ever forgotten. Still feels like only a few weeks ago, not two years later.

[yonif]

I was in school, 12th grade. The school kept a silence about everything the whole day until school ended at 3PM when they said that we should go home and be with our families. They disconnected all the TV's and internet. However, some teachers were able to keep us up to date.

[Starrgaizr]

I dropped a bunch of kids off at school near Chicago. As we were pulling up, I cut off their loud music and went to the news. Newsies were speculating that two planes hitting the World Trade Center might mean terrorism (I thought, Duh!) but there were endless, pointless reminders to the listeners not to jump to conclusions. I hate this about the media, so patronizing and controlled when a little drama in their voices might be in order. I continued on the highway towards the Amoco Building and the Sears Tower. Before I got downtown the scale of the horror was clear, and suddenly there were warnings that planes might be heading to the Sears Tower. Cars were crazily turning around downtown to get back out of the city.

When I finally got home, Free Republic was the best source for news, photos, and most of all, genuine human reactions.

[nhoward14]

"These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way.

We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions -- by abandoning every value except the will to power -- they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies."

[ConservativeLawyer]

Welcome to 9-11-03. Lets pray for the families of the victims, our brave troops and our president.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

I vow I will Never Forget
the tragic events of September 11, 2001
And the sacrifices of All those
who help ensure my Freedom.
God Bless the men and women in the military,
law enforcement, fire departments and the medical field.
God Bless the unsung heroes who protect my Freedom.
God Bless America