Posted on 09/11/2012 6:34:33 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
I was working at Air Force Weather Agency providing Weather Data to Units Worldwide including Air Force 1.
I was enroute to my weapons qualificatrion when I heard on WABC Radio the first Reports of a Jet Striking the World Trade Center.
There was a little banterring back and forth between Curtis Sliwa,who was the host of the show and a reporter who was explaining it was inconceivable that a plane could have accidently struck that building on such a Clear day in the North East.
A short time later they reported a Second jet struck the other tower.At that time I knew it was know accident and that we were under attack.
A short
I had retired in January of 2001 and was working for a safari outfit in Zimbabwe on 9/11. We got the first reports that evening over the bush radio, and the reports were very confused at that point. We scrounged a short wave radio that one of the cooks owned and sat in the camp kitchen listening to the confused reporting for most of the night. 50,000 dead were being predicted when I finally went to bed. Over the next few weeks we got more news from clients that came in, and my flight home in November was pretty nerve wracking.
I’m in NJ, and was at Newark airport in the morning, a week to the day prior to the attack. This was when you could freely roam around the airport. I had some time, took a walk across the terminal to United. I bought some coffee, and there was a middle eastern man standing there getting coffee, he looked right through me with an evil stare taht I will never forget. 2 days prior to the attack, I felt very down, just sad. My wife at the time asked me “what is the matter with you?” I remember saying, I just feel so sad, like something bad is going to happen. She insisted on the eve of 9/10 to try and shake it off and so when I woke up to that beautiful morning, I breathed in and smiled, trying to put the feelings behind me. I left for work on 9/11, and couldn’t believe what I was hearing... my mom’s next door neighbor was lost, as well as a few in the local community.
49th and Second Avenue, 43rd floor
We, coworkers, watched as the second plane followed the river from the south and crashed into the building. I remember locking eyes with an older coworker: “we’re under attack.”
I had just returned home from a trip to Kohl’s to buy hubby a new suitcase. He was scheduled to fly to Dallas the next day.
Mom (in OKC) called and told me to turn on CNN - that we were at war. I sat glued to to the television all day. Scott worked in a large tower in ATL, so he came home early. Aside from the sheer terror that day, that night we went outside to listen to the eerie sounds of no aircraft overhead. We lit candles and placed them on our driveway.
At home. My wife had just left to take the kids to school and I turned on the TV just in time to watch the plane hit the second tower. I sat glued to the TV the rest of the day. It was surreal. Very difficult to process. It was hard to imagine that there was not a single aircraft in the air anywhere over the U.S. Went to a class that evening, we just sat and watched the news footage. Absolutely unreal.
I was driving to work in the northern Chicago suburbs and listening to WLS. When the second plane hit, the WLS host, Don Wade, pretty much called it for what it was. I spent some of the day emailing a friend in the Bronx to see what he knew. Some time in the morning, one of my fellow employees who had been on break came in to say he had just seen on TV that one of the towers had collapsed. Everyone was in stunned disbelief. We had to see it for ourselves. And then the later reports about the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. My wife worked in downtown Chicago and was sent home. I spent some days after that wondering when the next shoe would fall. I live on the flight path to Midway Airport and it was strange to see the quiet and empty skies.
I was at a hotel in McAllen TX getting ready to get some breakfast and waiting for a friend to pick me up to take me to the airport to fly back to Houston. Needless to say, that flight was cancelled, I ended up spending the night in Corpus Christi so I could drive my boss’s car back to Houston the next day. I think I cried all the way back to Houston.
I was watching Fox news with a cup of coffee in my hand. I remember vividly that I had my gray housecoat on... a burp stain on it from my then baby daughter. I remember thinking I have to wash this ratty thing. The first plane.. I thought was a horrible accident. The second plane.. I knew something was so very wrong. The rest of the day was a wave of emotions.. fear (my husband wanted me to take our kids and go to our cousins in the mountains), rage (how dare they), sadness (those poor people, those poor families!). Calls from relatives from Indiana followed.. pleading with us to come and stay with them because they felt it was safer than where we lived. ALWAYS REMEMBER!
I was driving into work listening to the radio and was thinking is this a re-run of the B-25 that struck the Empire State Building. OIF vet
I was driving into work listening to the radio and was thinking is this a re-run of the B-25 that struck the Empire State Building. OIF vet
I was packing my suitcase to fly out to Toronto later that day for a business meeting. I had CNN on in the background and heard them talking about the first plane. Since I had a few hours before heading to the airport I sat down to watch the news. Then the second plane hit and I got really nervous. When the plane hit the Pentagon, I called my boss and told him there was no way I was getting on a plane that day. And then eventually, FAA closed down all flights. Spent the rest of the day watching in horror as all of the events unfolded. Changed my life forever, and unfortunately has left me with a different attitude about middle eastern people.
I was driving into work listening to the radio and was thinking is this a re-run of the B-25 that struck the Empire State Building. OIF vet
At work. A coworker said: “Someone just flew a plane into the World Trade Center!” Thinking he was reading e-mail, I said, “That has to be a hoax!” He replied, “No, my wife just saw it on TV!) About that time, the second plane hit. We did not have tvs at work, and my unit was the only one in our bureau that is desk-bound. So those who had to go about the building to do their jobs stopped in frequently to get the latest news. I was an L-dotter at that time, and got lots of updates from there. BBC was also the only available news source for a while - the others were overwhelmed by the volume of hits.
On a 6:40AM United Airlines flight out of O’Hare. It was kind of a mess...
And my spouse had gone on a biking/camping trip. He heard nothing until he got home. (Said it was the most peaceful camping trip he’s ever been on.) A niece was on her way out the door, to catch a plane to Thailand, where she was to spend a year as a missionary. Her sister called her back in, telling her the planes had all been grounded. She was able to go a week later.
Where I am almost every time some thing dramatic or life changing happens, on a drilling rig on some ocean. This time the Gulf of Mexico.
I was at my desk sorting out reports on a problem we were fighting when I saw a squib on Yahoo news about a plane hitting the WTC. I thought it was a small one and remembered the B-25 that hit the Empire State Building.
Got a call from the beach with more news, went to the galley, guys were glued to the TV, the rig crew working didn’t know about it yet. Soon the airspace was shut-down and a helo landed on the rig. We decided to stand down operations since if anyone got hurt we could not fly them out. Almost every one was distracted from being safe at work as well. We waited, just like everyone did and wondered about our families and if this was part of an even bigger plot.
A Civil Engineer in our group said the fire would weaken the steel within two hours and the building would collapse. Then the second plane hit.
LIke crimes, something like this is only the beginning of the damage to people. We are forced to trust each other less and we lose freedoms as a result. We become more cynical.
I said exactly the same thing. Once I saw the second plane hit, I called my boss in Houston (he was the US Marshal) and said “turn on your tv, we’re at war”. I spent a lot of time in NYC due to the trials of the first WTC bombing and I knew without a doubt what was happening. Had friends at the Pentagon so I just about lost it when that got hit. Took hours to ever get through to any of them to make sure they were ok. It was a long, sad day.
I was at work in Fort Worth. Like many, I believed the first plane was a small one and that it was an accident. Nevertheless, we turned on the TV in the main conference room to watch. Shortly after, we saw the second plane hit the south tower. Most of us stayed in the conference room until the second tower collapsed. Then we decided it was time to go home and be with our families.
I was in my Western Civ class (highschool) when another student ran into the class screaming about the crash.
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