Let's Remember 9/11

[TomFurman]

Just met a fireman who was there on Saturday. Amazing stories,.. emotion.... and yet he told me he was bound by duty to rescue,.. and save. It was powerful.

[DrDonkeyLove]

Let's remember both 9/11's.

Different in scope but essentially the same perpetrators and the same sense of self sacrifice and heroism by our countrymen.

[baffled]

My dad was staying in Maryland for a series of business meetings in and around the DC area.

I was a senior in high school and had just gotten out of the shower when my mom called upstairs saying a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.

It was so surreal. I think half the school stayed at home and not one iota of work was done in any class for a few days.

I remember when my mom called up that I just thought some idiot had messed up and clipped his wing or something. Bad to be sure, but not anything like what had actually happened.

[The Ginger Beard Man]

Started talking about it with my girlfriend tonight and ended up going on for a while. I remember, among other things, standing on my roof thinking, "now I know what surreal means."
And standing outside St Vincent's that night, after finding out they weren't accepting any more blood donations, wondering if any survivors were ever going to be brought in, and then realizing they weren't.

[JDub]

That was the last semester of college for me. I was sitting in a criminal justice class and the teacher walked in and said we werent going to be having class but that he would like us to stay and watch the news together. No one in the class but the professor had any idea what had happened until he turned on the television to CNN. We were watching when the second plane hit. Everyone was in shock. I can remember in the days/months after trying to decide whether or not to persue LE after graduation or just go enlist. Such a sad time in US history.

[Protobuilder]

I was in Beijing.

Rarely have I heard such loud cheering.

[CharlieBob]

I was in Beijing.

Rarely have I heard such loud cheering.

Seriously?!?

[milosz]

Watching CNN was surreal to the point that I remember almost nothing of it.

What I mostly recall are the overdramatic cunts at work that night who were crying because it could happen to them next blah blah blah. Like a suburban steakhouse was a prime target.

[baffled]

I just remember that it seemed like Peter Jennings stayed on the air for days and days even though it was "just 17 hours".

Every time I turned on the TV, he was there, relaying the information from the WTC and Pentagon.

I grew up a town over from a lab that conducted nuclear weapons testing, so people were especially edgy in the first days after the attack.

[DARTH]

I always thought they (The Jawas of Al-Quada and what ever 8th century hard ons are exporting Jihad that week.)were going to hit us hard one day.

I was in Woodbridge, Va., 15-0 minutes down the road from the Pentagon.

I heard a boom, thought nothing of it, went back to half sleep and then a little later my girlfriend turned on the TV and we saw the WTC on fire and all the news and chaos and I remember sitting up and saying they finally hit us.

Fuck the Jawas!

Everyone who wishes us ill and trains and endeavours to that end, and all that would harbour or cohabitate with them should die.

[syaigh]

I was pregnant with my daughter, just 6 weeks and was supposed to be going to visit a friend but morning sickness came crashing down so I laid on the couch for a few minutes and turned on CNN. Saw everything unfolding. Finally got in the car and listened to the news on the radio and heard about the towers collapsing. I was pretty freaked out about the state of the world and bringing a child into it, wasn't sure if we were headed for all out war on our own soil at that point.

It was also my dad's birthday. And I called him to wish him a happy birthday, but you can't really say "Happy Birthday!" on a day like that.

[Luke]

It was a spring night here in Australia, and I'd just gotten lucky with a girlfriend under the stars. After getting home I was talking to her on the phone like you would when you were a corny 16 year old when suddenly dad busted into my room and said "America is under attack!"

We stayed up all night as a family watching the TV in horror. As the coverage rolled we watched all the paper falling from the buildings and dad said "that's all of the world's paperwork, if we're still here tomorrow we're fucked." At one point mum made drinks and wrapped a teatowel on her head like a sheik. It completely broke the mood and we all burst out laughing. It was a night of every kind of emotion.

This thread jogged my memory, it's night again here and I hadn't given much thought about the date today until now because of work and family stress. The wars in the Middle-East before and since have taken their toll on dad and we're weaker as a family because of it. 12 years ago we were sitting as a family wondering where it all might lead, tonight I counsel mum as we try and work with Vets Affairs to help him out.

I ran past the spot I was with the girl only recently and thought about it all for a second. Life turned out nothing like I thought it would, I don't have a story to compare with a NY firefighter but it never ceases to amaze me how that one morning caused so much around the world.

[Freki]

Was at work on the 27th floor of SunTrust Plaza in Atlanta when a guy stuck his head in my office and said a plane hit the WTC. I think I made a crack about a private pilot screwing up and we headed to our front desk where CNN was always on just to check it out and then realized it was a jetliner and not a private plane. Watched the second plane hit, realization this was something much, much bigger settled in on all of us, the Pentagon get hit, the collapses. Thought of leaving work after the Pentagon b/c we were in one of the tallest buildings in a major city and for a few hours you just didn't really know what the hell was up, but 5,000+ people trying to leave at the same time created quite the gridlock. Finally left mid afternoon and was glued to CNN/Fox till probably midnight.

Found out later my wife's cousin was one of the last people out of one of the towers before it collapsed. A guy from my hometown (much older than me, I didn't know him) was killed at the Pentagon and a guy I went to high school with who joined the Air Force was at the Pentagon when it was hit.

Rolling it forward, had a cousin killed in Iraq and now have a cousin in Force Recon (old school IGXers will know why its ironically funny to be posting that here...) stationed for action in the Mid East.

[Bob Wildes]

Can't add much to what has already been posted.

I was 49 that day and I realized that I would be long dead and gone before this
would be over between those that hate us and the USA and some of the rest of the
West and some countries in the East also.

[Cayenne]

An old friend of mine who worked in the Towers was, as was his routine, training at some workout facility w/i the Towers before starting his work day. I don't have the details on timing handy, but he later told me that he was running on a treadmill and then took a shower while lots of crazy stuff was already going on, (IIRC, the first Tower had already been brought down, but he did not know,) and should have been getting the hell out of there. When he emerged, dressed and ready for his workday after his shower, he first became aware of the events taking place and then he did get the hell out of there.

Lots of stories of heroism, people who could have escaped but remained to help others, who went to higher floors to help others, as well as the heroic first responders who ran into and up these tragic death traps. Respect and honor to these magnificent souls! Somehow, from an absurdist view though, my friends story and the image of him being zoned out, probably listening to music on headphones -did earbuds exist 12 years ago?- as he ran on a treadmill, while death and chaos were happening close by, has always struck me.

[Cayenne]

Delete duplicate post

[The Ginger Beard Man]

I was in Beijing.

Rarely have I heard such loud cheering.

Seriously?!?

There were people celebrating right here in NY that day.
A lot of shit went down around the area that got swept under the rug. I could tell stories and you would just think there's no way that could be.

Just one: They came out of a mosque in Astoria, Queens that night signing and dancing and having a good time. So the neighborhood descended on them.
When the cops and emts showed up and saw what happened, they slowed down, but kept on going.

[Shafpocalypse Now]

Was working. Walked past a conference room and sat down and watched the second plane hit the tower live.

[The Ginger Beard Man]

This guy, everyone ought to know about him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/rescorla.html

[Koko, Beware]

Was working in Soho, up Broadway about 20 blocks from the WTC. In NYC it was one of the most beautiful mornings you'll ever see weather wise. Not a cloud in the sky, perfect temperature. I walked to work that day as I usually did and by the time I rounded Houston onto Broadway the first plane had hit. You think...hmm, mistake, something awful. Then the second plane hits and you know. Saw both towers go down from my office desk (had a perfect view of them). Won't ever forget that feeling...like in an instant knowing that x amount of people had just died. Just like that. One of my buddies who worked across from me yelled out something like "There it goes!"...what do you say at a moment like that?

When the second tower collapsed we all ran out of our building like, fuck, let's just get home.

Will always remember the aftermath just as much. The days immediately thereafter when most everyone acted like they lived in a Hallmark card small town and helped each other out, etc. That went away pretty quickly but it seemed special while it lasted. And then the fucking anthrax and biowar rumors every day. Every day someone at work knew someone at an another office building whose mailroom had just been evacuated.

Surreal is the right word, GBM.

[The Ginger Beard Man]

Where were you? I was at home, on Broadway between Prince and Spring. The building with Banana Republic.

[Koko, Beware]

Man, right there. I worked at Scholastic on Broadway btw...Prince and Spring.

[Cayenne]

I was in Beijing.

Rarely have I heard such loud cheering.

Seriously?!?

There were people celebrating right here in NY that day.
A lot of shit went down around the area that got swept under the rug. I could tell stories and you would just think there's no way that could be.

Just one: They came out of a mosque in Astoria, Queens that night signing and dancing and having a good time. So the neighborhood descended on them.
When the cops and emts showed up and saw what happened, they slowed down, but kept on going.

I remember news reports of dancing and cheering in Palestinian territories. I think footage of celebrations around the world and right here in the USA, (I wouldn't be surprised to know that celebrations were going on in Michigan, for example,) would make for some interesting reporting.

[Grandpa's Spells]

I was in Beijing.

Rarely have I heard such loud cheering.

I remember noting who did what, and Chinese people left tens of thousands leaving notes and flowers outside the US Embassy. Where were you when this happened?

[nafod]

Was pulling into downtown Pittsburgh, and in the lobby of as conference when it appeared on a big screen TV. Went to a session, came out, and another plane had hit. Went to a session, came out, and the buildings were coming down. They were evacuating hi-rises in downtown Pittsburgh, so I rallied our folks and headed home. We drove very close to United 93's final resting place while driving home, without knowing it.