Posted on 09/11/2018 6:46:01 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
I recall the massive traffic jams in Jersey City as people left work and downtown around 1030am.
Do not recall if there Too much smoke to see towers fall but heard on radio. And could tell when each was not standing.
We were staying with friends ion their ranch outside Jackson Hole. We had just arrived in the 10th. The morning of the 11th our hostess came upstairs and to,d us to turn on the tv. The first plane had hit the tower and everybody speculated that it was a terrible accident. Then we watched in horror as the second plane hit.
The ranch had a target range and our host had just returned from a hunting trip in Alaska. He brought back some wanted posters from a tiny post office in Alaska. The posters were bin laden. We spent the day shooting at the posters. Then we had the idea to take copies of the posters to the local bars and let the bartenders sell them, as long as all proceeds went to the American Red Cross, on the honor system. A few days later my friend got a call from the ARC’s lawyer telling him he could not use the Red Cross name, even for fund raising. Can you imagine? They did not deserve our charity, I guess.
Was in Paris. Saw the ragheads celebrating in the streets. Will never forget.
At the time, I worked for a small business and the accounting office where I worked was at the owner’s house (in an office area set up there where his wife was my boss). In any event, the owner called us up at about no later than 10:00am and said he heard on the radio that hijacked planes had slammed into the World Trade Center and also the Pentagon building.
They had a cousin who had worked at the World Trade Center, but had moved to Philadelphia (IIRC) by the time of the attacks. They were able to speak to this relative a few days later and the relative said that they still did not know how many people that he/she knew at the WTC were still alive or who had died.
As a programmer I was working for a private firm in the south setting up tax data files for businesses to pay business taxes to multiple states. We were a new company so we were working multiple startup projects simultaneously. So the day before and early that day I had sent many test files to programmers in dept. of revenue’s at multiple states, including to Albany, NY. When the planes hit everybody in my office was glued to the TV. For obvious reasons nobody thought to do any work the rest of the day and could hardly focus the next day either. And I didn’t expect to hear much from the various states for the rest of the week.
But as God is my witness the one programmer who replied to me early the next morning (9/12) for my test results was the one in Albany, NY.
He was four years older than me. There is evil in the world and the good die young.
I knew we were at war.
Is it because we know history we said that? Yet that is not what happened. The pictures disappeared, the rhetoric was controlled, etc.
What happened?
I was in Ft. Worth, working as a consultant at the then-HQ for Radio Shack (which was co-housed in a mall).
When it all started I heard it on my e-feed from the only internet radio at the time — NPR. The report was “a 2-engine plane has struck one of the WTC towers.” Attempts to look at it online locked up.
We all were not sure what was going on, but we heard from others that nearby tall building were being evacuated.
Eventually RS brought TVs into several places but most of us congregated in the cafeteria where they had a number of TVs. The part that angered me (and other consultants) was we were expected to continue to work.
It got stranger and stranger as the morning moved on. Eventually RS released everyone including consultants. We were a little dazed as our group headed back to the hotel. We were in a small restaurant when the first tower collapsed (we heard about but did not see the 2nd plane hit). Most of us started crying as we realized what had just happened.
Being consultants, we analyzed what had happened and the loss of life as numbers since intellectualizing it was a shield against what were seeing and experiencing. It was the only shield we had.
I guess we were there for a while since we then saw the second tower collapse. I just remember the silence. The stunned silence.
I went back to my corporate housing apartment and called my wife who was besides herself (I was unable to get home for 2 weeks).
I called all my friends, even some somewhat estranged ones, to let them know that if I was to die tomorrow I cared about them.
The next day RS had a big sort of rally where they reaffirmed the corporate love for America — pins and ribbons were issued to everyone. I wish I still had them but I wore them whenever I flew and over time they disappeared.
Given nike’s “we hate America” kaperdink commercial it is difficult to picture a company that actually professed love for the USA. They are almost all gone since $ is found in the ironically liberal pockets.
I’m watching C-SPAN.
No color commentary by America-hating leftists.
I had just made my way down to a Panama City, FL Beach with my wife and five children. My mother called and told me to go turn on the TV, but wouldn’t say why. Yes, she’s like that. We lingered for a bit but then decided to pack up and return to the 11th floor room of the condo and see what was happening. 10 minutes after turning on the TV the first building began to fall. I had been to the World Trade Center complex so I had a pretty good idea just how large these particular skyscrapers were. Within an hour I was at a Home Depot buying a couple of gas cans and then filling them so that we would have enough fuel to get back to Indiana.
Remember, initially we had know idea when the attacks would end. By noon we were packed up and ready to cut our vacation short by a week, but later that afternoon we changed our minds. My wife said it would be just one more victory for the terrorists if we went home.
>>Was in Paris. Saw the ragheads celebrating in the streets. Will never forget.<<
Can you please provide more detail????
i know. angels looking out for us.
Was in a meeting at a Local Chamber, someone came in rattling off about the Twin Towers and zpentagon, didn’t make initial sense as I was trying to think what towers were near pentagon. Then a member and I talked for an hour outside.
It wasn’t until I reached the office and saw everyone gathered watching TV in the lobby when someone explained what was going on
I was one of the last to know
Since a person of prominence who had a history with radical Islamusts officed in my building, I decided to grab my laptop and head home
But first I went to church and prayed, tears streaming. I was never so glad to get home. Then watched TV late into the night
NEVER FORGET
I remember thinking that we would finally secure our border now that we were under attack...........
I had a friend who was in NY a few weeks after. He said the sight was horrendous but what he would remember most vividly was the smell.
I was waking up, turned on my computer, and logged onto the Airliners.net aviation discussion site. It was there I saw the discussion thread about the first crash into the WTC towers. I turned on the TV immediately to Fox News Channel and didn’t turn off the TV until 10:30 pm that night, only because I was completely tired and needed to go to sleep.
bastards!! Like the folks in New Jersey. I still think those f***ers should have been deported, or jailed if they were citizens
I was getting easy to go to work. Heard the neeflsah on NPR. As noted a nice “2-engine plane”. Thought it was likely a Cessna. Typical NPR.
Turned on the TV. Saw 2nd attack. “We’re at war”, as with many others, but being in the Army Reserve, I saw what was coming for my training & evaluation unit. Many did not, and weren’t ready to “put the Army brain in gear” when we mobilized. Especially when we learned of 9zmonth deployments and it h we Reserve units getting warning orders to mobilize.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.