Posted on 09/10/2007 6:41:30 PM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
I was a freshman in highschool writing something up during a free period when one of the teachers mentioned a plane had hit the twin towers. I thought it twas a small plane, but then the school principle grudginlgy delivered a small message about what had happened.
There wasn’t alot of info I remember some kids thinking the chinese had done it.
No ceremony, no prayers, or condolances at school. It sank in when I got home and turned on fox news. I might add there was a 9/11 moment of silence schedualed the next year and no one followed it, it probably doesn’t exist now.
Sister called, plane had hit WTC tower, fired up TV just in time for second strike. Terrible accident had become war. Lord, was I out of touch, I should have expected it.
He told me a plane had accidently hit the first Tower and that I should turn on the news. I turned on NBC (didn't have FoxNews then) and saw the smoldering Tower.
As I was watching that, I saw the other plane hit Tower Two. I was momentarily confused...couldn't figure out how Tower One was still smoking but I just saw the plane hit.
I said to hubby "another plane just hit the other tower. He said What do you MEAN another plane just hit the other tower?!"
I was on another call for business when the Pentagon was hit. I said to the woman on the other end "They've bombed the Pentagon." We mutually agreed to end the call.
I don't specifically recall about Flt 93.
I was on FreeRepublic.com, just starting my day by checking the headlines.
This was my email that went out to my family and friends dated Sept 14, 2001. My Brother-in-law appeared in a film with his Emergency Service Unit Truck #2 ESU NYPD that won Academy Award for documentary short called Twin Towers. 9/11 will always be a day in history I will never forget.
It was hard for me to imagine that just 3 weeks after 9/11 that these same people that I write about in my letter attended my wedding despite the tragedy that faced our country. I thought about changing the wedding date but my brother Alan said to me “Don’t change the date because after going to so many funerals we need a reason to celebrate. I had asked my brother-n-law to wear his dress blues at my wedding Oct 6th 2001 in honor of the men he lost.
10/14/01
I have been making some observations of the events that have taken place in our country. This is the second tragedy I have witnessed while sitting in front of a TV as a mental health worker amongst people that have already been dealing with trauma in their lives. The first time being the Challenger space shuttle in front of a group of emotionally disturbed children and now this tragedy in front of adult psychiatric clients. My ability to focus at my job despite being worried about my brother-in-law Rob and brother Alan along with thousands of other New Yorkers was being put to the test. I tried calling Mom Tuesday morning and she said she was alone at home. I asked if she had heard from anyone and she told me Alan had called from his cell phone and stated “ I think the whole entire city of NY is under attack and right now there is complete mayhem.” She then went on to state that she was unable to contact my sister Michelle to find out the condition of Rob. I later learned he was safe and just came off a night shift working for NYPD. Rob was at a training to extricate warrants for his ESU squad. I went on working but then started looking around finding my coworkers tearful and busy on the phone at Anna Jaques Hospital. I had not realized being from Massachusetts that so many of my colleagues also had relatives working in near the Battery of Manhattan. We then received a call from our Emergency Room to please come downstairs and talk to a women that had a confirmed death of a loved one on flight #11 that struck the World Trade Towers. We tried to comfort her while the TV in the lobby continued to show the tragedy unfolding. She swore the terrorists up and down as a large crowd was gathering around the TV to make sense of what was going on. We to could only watch in horror as we waited to hear from our own families in NY. I am proud of New Yorkers, I am proud of my brother Alan who volunteered to help set up a triage center in the battery of Manhattan, I am proud of my brother-in-law Rob who puts his life on the line every day as an Emergency Service Worker, Truck #2 for NYPD. I am proud of my brother Eddie that serves our country as a Commander in the Navy and defends us as a beacon of strength from this mad man Usama Bin Laden. I am proud of my Canadian relatives and what Newfoundlanders did to help Americans in transit whose flights were grounded. They responded to us with great compassion at a time of need. The City of New York, the Pentagon along with our whole nation are now in a state of mourning. We are dealing with a lot of folks that have remains are still missing and my heart goes out to their families. I am astonished at the humanity involved in resolving the pain and grief that exists but when you ask someone on the streets near this tragedy in the Battery of Manhattan they State “What would you expect from a New Yorker.” You Folks can’t see me now but I have tears coming out of my eyes as I am writing. Though my emotions have been struck my vision and thoughts of what needs to happen has not. This feeling of patriotism is spreading quickly across this nation. I heard reports in the news about people being trapped in the World Trade Towers calling their family to tell them they love them just before they perished. I have heard reports that people with cell phones on the hijacked plane called their relatives to do the same. I heard about one man that called his wife on the plane that was downed in Pennsylvania stating that he along with two other men planned to take on the hijackers after hearing the fate of the planes that already crashed into the Word Trade Towers and Pentagon. The grounding of this plane saved innocent lives. These people were sending us a message to us that they wanted their spirit to continue in our lives. I would like to leave you with some words I wrote in the past that I feel strongly about. I am sorry if my spelling or grammar is off but I am happy to share my thoughts.
Soul God always allows life to take us to the brink before we can learn. We see many things that happen in our lives to believe in a higher being greater than ourselves. I am finding it extremely difficult to understand that God doesn’t exist. We have witnessed people heal physically and mentally. We have watched disaster strike when people have united to support each other in the time of crisis. I ask myself? How can people celebrate the birth of a new life as well as they can accept the death of a love one? We make confessions to cleanse ourselves from the wrongs we do so that way we may move on with our lives. It’s the soul of other people we reach out for and try to find within ourselves. The spirit of those that leave us should remain as strength to guide us though life. People that have faith in life succeed no matter what the circumstance may be and will prevail.
My sister who is normally not a spiritual person after 9/11 sent me a quote from the Bible 1025 book of proverbs “When the whirlwind passes the wicked shall be no more and the righteous shall have an everlasting foundation.” This quote my brother-in law hung up at his precinct in Harlem on their bulletin board. There were three men that covered for Rob and his partner’s shift while they went to their training on 9/11. All three men were killed SGT. Curtin, DET. Vigiano and P.O.D’allara
One last thing. I walked around for days muttering “Dirty Bastards! Dirty, Dirty Bastards!!!”
Wow. I’ll never forget it.
Both my wife and I had the first half of the day off to go buy a car. We ride out to the car dealership and take it for one last test drive. While driving, I wanted to check out the factory stereo. I tuned into my favorite station for music and heard chaotic news instead of music. They had said a plane hit one of the World Trade Center buildings. I thought about how much of a mess that must be, and how that had to be one hell of an accident. We continue to ride in the new car, paying more attention to the news from the radio than the car, then we heard of the second plane hitting. It was then obvious to me what was going on. Dazed, we rode back to the car dealership and the salesman came out saying that he just heard they hit the Pentagon. We went back to his office and listened to his radio. As an afterthought we decided we wanted the car, and he went to get the paperwork. While waiting, we listened as one of the towers fell. I was in disbelief. I was wondering how a skyscraper like that could just fall... It was killing us to listen to all of this and not see it on television. The salesman came back as the other tower fell, then we went onto a finance lady who was in tears. I remembered telling my wife that with such a plan there had to be more targets and all airline traffic should be shut down immediately. Not long after that we heard that all planes were being grounded(I could be out of order on this). We signed the papers and drove away from the car lot with a new car that we loved, but we were shocked, grief stricken, and unhappy. The rest of the day was one of the most beautiful days one could ask for, yet is was eerily still, almost haunted. The entire afternoon seemed like the world was at a stand still. There were no signs of planes in the sky, which was so unusual for where we live. My two eldest children were very young at the time, and they saw it on TV that evening. Even they could see the horror, and was disturbed by it. The older of the two was scared of airplanes for a month or so after that day.
It’s certainly not a day I will ever forget, and I hope won’t ever be repeated. How ever I’m afraid it WILL be repeated, and next time it will probably be worse...
I was one of many passengers in flight to their destination when the WTC and the Pentagon were hit. My flight arrived at its destination without any special comment from the flight crew. My wife called me to tell me of the news and that her high rise office building back home was being evacuated as a precaution. Shortly after our arrival, the state troopers arrived at the airport and closed it down for departing flights.
I ws at work and a friend runs in and said that a plane hit the tower. I reached behind me and truned on teh radio as I began to ask him for details. The first thing I heard was a reporter say “Oh my God, another one just hit the tower.”
Sat around in somewhat shock for much of the day. Tried to give blood but was ineligible. Some customer called mad about something. I said, have you been listening to the radio at all? he hadn’t and I told him what happened. He got over his anger.
My company HQ is in view of the towers in New Jersey. They watched the second plane hit and the towers drop. One co-worked had kids stay at her home that night cause their parents were missing.
By all means, keep the faith, Old Sarge!
Milwaukee, Thank you so much for this thread. With all the political squabbles going on here these days, this brings us together again as Americans.
The story came on and everyone's first impressions were pilot error in the face of the bright morning sunshine. At that time it was being reported as a private small aircraft.
I phoned my wife to tell her about it and then went back to watch the coverage.
While I watched, at 9:03....Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower.
I called my wife back and simply said to her, "We are at war."
Everything was very clear to just about everyone watching at that point.
Here is an earlier thread from the same day
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/520262/posts
fortress
I had just gotten my daughter off to school when my older daughter called and told me to turn on the TV. I turned it on just before the second plane hit...called my pastor’s wife and told her to turn it on and we both started to pray. Horrific morning and days following..I was glued to the TV.
I had just opened up the community college computer lab, a Mac lab, and I had decided to give my mother a phone call to let her know I got the letters she asked me to send out. I was talking to her when she told me that she had said that a large airplane hit the first WTC Tower. She had thought she had seen a movie on tv, not knowing it was for real. When I had been told the other tower got hit, I knew that this was NO plane accident, but that this was an act of war. This is my reflection of where was I on September 11th, 2001.
I was working for Continental Airlines Cargo. I had arrived early to complete a presentation. I was dressed in shorts & a T-shirt because I was supposed to go paint a shelter for volunteer time.
I was the only support person for Cargo operations there.
When the first plane hit, one of the secretaries called me & told me somthing strange was reported on the radio...
I rushed down & told the VP & my boss. We turned on the TV in the conference room & saw the other plane hit a few minutes later.
They were all speculating from the camera’s viewpoint what type of plane, passenger, cargo etc.
Then we went to work, downtown Houston became a ghost town, as they scrambled to get planes out of the air & any precious cargo. Animals, donor organs, medications etc safely off planes & if possible where they needed to go by truck etc.
People don’t really think of things in the belly of the plane they are on.
It was surreal.
You are very welcome!
Good therapy to talk about this once and awhile.
I knew the FR crowd would be a great place to bring this up.....
Thanks, I looked but wasn’t succesful. That thread is a part of world history.
I was at the community college for a half-a-day, then was sent home with everyone else. Was in shock and frightened about being attacked again.
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