9/11 -our JFK

I thought it may be interesting....

Like my parents will always remember where they were when they heard JFK was shot....where were you when you heard about the 9/11 attacks?

I woke up to the TV on (my roommate left it on for me) and literally walked out into the living room as they showed the second plane hit...I was wondering how they did that? (special effects?) til I understood what was going on.

How did it affect you? especially if you live in the States

i was so close that i looked out my window and i can see in burning down and falling, jets fly over my building and looking at the trail of smoke

I was a junior in high school, sitting in study hall. the teacher from next door poked her head in and said "two planes just hit the world trade centers". We turned on the TV and the school came to a screeching halt that day. all the sophomores were taking a state wide standardized test, and the test was interrupted to let them know what happened. My school was on a lockdown that day. My mom came to try to get me and my brother out of school, but no one was allowed in or out. My high school was on the same street as a huge government finance center (it has the largest square feet of any government center, I think it's just below or equal to the Pentagon) and there was paranoia that would be the next target.

i had just gotten up, already late for work.. exactly at 9am. turned on the tv. watched for an hour in horror.. then snapped out of it because i still had to go to work. i remember that none of the traffic lights were working that day, so it was chaos. my boss arrived shortly after i did, crying.. 9/11 is her birthday. happy birthday, right?. no one spoke a word all day.

[Edited on Sep 11, 2005 by porcelainheart]

My alarm, set to "radio", went off a few minutes after 8am CST, which was 9am in NY, and Connie Chung was on the radio. I was really confused, I thought the TV was on, she was talking about a plane, and something... and I remembered that the last time I heard network news on the radio was the Oklahoma City bombing. When I had that thought I got a horrible feeling in my guts. So I went to the living room, stood in front of the couch, picked up the remote off the coffee table, turned the TV on to CNN, and barely a split second later the second plane hit the second tower. That just knocked the wind out of me... I fell back, luckily onto the couch, and started crying... I was so confused. I didn't know what was going on. I sat there in horror watching... people jumping out of the building, then the buildings collapsed..

I called Linz... my friends Shelley and Krista had stayed the night at her house, and I'm trying to wake her up without alarming her... but just like "Linz. Wake up. You've got to turn on the TV now." Then I went to school. A friend was standing outside smoking, and he started to ask me if I knew anything about what was happening in New York at the WTC, but he didn't finish the sentence. He just looked at my face, and his face went white, and he said "Is it that bad?" and I said "They're gone, man. Just gone." We talked for a minute, and then word came that school was cancelled.

I went home, and Linz, Shelley, and Krista came over, and we just held each other and cried. What a horrible day. The worst was the fear and confusion. "Is this it? Is this the worst of it? Who's next? Are we at war?"

i was driving around the philadlephia metro for work (state govt). got a phone call saying i should get back to the office. listened on the radio and heard the news. my partner kept saying what a tragedy this was - i kept saying it was no big deal, planes crash all the time. came back to the office the pace was abandoned. i was locked out.

the part i remember the most was telling my roomates that there was no way the buildings were coming down - and i cited the first attacks: if bombs at the base couldnt take it down no way a plane was going to.

I also remember all the bullshit gossip going around.
I was going to buy a pair of jeans before work, and at the store the girl and I are talking about it and she says
"yeah, and now they are shooting ALL the planes over the U.S out of the sky...just in case!!!"
Um, yeah...even when something beyond my reality like the WTC being attacked happens, I was clear headed enough to tell her not to believe EVERYTHING she hears that day

I was sitting at my desk under bright fluorescent lights at an Air Force base in the middle of the country, watching footage from that morning being replayed over and over and over as we were being briefed on threat levels and procedures should our base become a target. We were told by a grim-faced Major exactly why we were a potential target, and that if we heard warning sirens we were to hide under our desks -- but only after following proper classified information evacuation procedures. We were told to stay in our area and not to leave the secure, windowless building.

I think we were all in total shock. What I remember most was the silence. Nobody talked. We all just sat and stared silently at the chaos and death and destruction on the television. The sound was on, but it was like you couldn't hear it because all your senses were overwhelmed by what you were seeing. I was used to hearing the rumble and roar of the planes taking off on the flight line, but that was gone too. The sky was empty. We jumped when the phone rang -- it was a civilian coworker telling us he couldn't get on base, that they'd closed the gates to all civilians and non-essential personnel. No one knew what was going on. People who were in charge of things sprinted down corridors to hastily-called briefings. I wanted to yell "I'm a civilian contractor! I quit! Fuck this, let me go home!"

We all wanted information. The news wasn't enough, we wanted to know what was really going on, what was going to happen. No one could tell us. It was numbing, terrifying. Could we leave the base? If we left, could we get back on? Could we leave the building to use our cell phones, call our families, walk to the BX to get some ice cream or something, anything? Simple questions like that got terse "I don't know" responses. No one asked the bigger questions.

When I was finally told I could go home, I sat on the floor in my brand-new empty apartment in my brand-new city with just the radio for company, listening to commentary, speeches, demands for action. All that anger and fear and pain that we felt as a nation, amplified by my stereo speakers and filling my apartment. I felt so small. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be 6 years old again, to crawl in my childhood bed with my dog and hide until the bad things went away, until I woke up from the nightmare images being etched into my brain, into everyone's brain. But I couldn't, of course I couldn't, no one could do that -- not even the 6 year olds.

All those people saying "Never Forget"... I want to say "How could you forget?" But I know we will. Our national memory -- and fear -- will fade. Our nation will forget, will place those events squarely in the history books. We will recall with a dim "Oh yes, I remember that, it was terrible." But we will forget.

[Edited on Sep 11, 2005 by Shalome]

Really? do you think we will?
I mean, your account of that day is so powerful. Nothing like it had ever happened like it, and look at what it has caused in its aftermath?

I hope it never fades. but you may be right.

I wrote that initially two years ago. I doubt I'd be able to write it now. In 30 years, I doubt I'll remember it in any way other than what I've written there, if only because I've read my own words so many times.


[Edited on Sep 11, 2005 by Shalome]

I was in Illinois attending a school for the Navy, I remember going back into the class room and the TV was on, there was a tower in flames on the screen.. No one still had any idea that this was an attack. We watched the tower burning then the camera changed, and there was the second plane inbound. I remember thinking WOW some one actually caught this on tape! Then it hit the second tower and I realized that this was a different plane, and the second tower. I thought that it had to be a hoax, there was just no way something like this would happen. I was in denial.
That was the end of school for the day, the base got locked down and anyone that was not military was escorted off base and all military was recalled back to the base. No one in or out. The place was nuts, no one knew what was going on, nor did they know what to do. There were rumors of car bombs at other bases going off, that the Pentagon had been hit, and that planes all across America had been hijacked. We had no idea, we were cut off from what ever was going on. The phones were so jammed with calls getting a call out to check on family was impossible. I knew I was going to go to war, I was scared. The only link that I had to the outside world at the time was CNN, and even then the reports of what was going on were vauge.

When people hear that I am in the military they tell me how proud they are of what were doing for the country, what a hero I am. Sure I have been to Iraq and I have been part of this administrations "war on terror" big deal, I'm not a hero. Remember all of the firefighters and police men of New York city, and all the civilians that risked everything to go back in to those towers. These men and women gave the ultimate sacrifice, they are the true heros. Remember them.

V_S

[Edited on Sep 11, 2005 by viking_samurai]

I was asleep in my dorm room. A friend of mine lived in the room next door. She woke me up and said I had to come look at the TV. So half awake, I watched it for a minute or two, laughed and went back to bed. When I woke up again, and actually processed it, I just about shit myself.

I was in Goose Creek, SC, the husband stationed on the Naval Weapons Station there. I was woken up by the phone close to 9 a.m. It was him calling me saying that he couldn't talk long, but something really bad was going on, and then he had to go. I didn't think about it too hard, and got up to wash and dress for the day. When I turned on the radio I realized that the DJ was really wigging out, and I called the station to ask him what was going on. I don't remember his exact words, but whatever he said made me go turn on the television, just in time to watch the second plane hit. Like everyone else, I just kind of stood there, absolutely stupified and not comprehending that it was real.

I can't remember how long I watched the news, but eventually I snapped out of it because the phone rang again. It was my work. That day had been a scheduled corporate office inspection, and when the visiting regional director had commented on events, and the fact that traffic had been very terrible on his trip because the base was shut down, my co-worker called me to see if I was okay, and if I was going to be able to get to work. Get to work? Well, yeah...of course...right?

No.

I think that's when it really hit me that this was some Serious Shit, capitalized. Like viking_samurai, our base was locked down, no one could enter or leave after they'd escorted non-military off and recalled all military. I spent much of the day pacing the apartment and watching the T.V. By the time my shift came around in the late afternoon, they were letting dependents leave if they needed to, and so I managed to make it to work. When I got there, there really wasn't much to do. Nobody was coming out to grocery shop. We took the radio from our boss's office and rigged it so it came over the intercom instead of the Muzak, and basically spent the day listening, crying, shaking our heads. The few people that did come in the store were some regulars that wanted to check in on all of the workers. I remember sharing a long hug with my best friend at work and an old lady that we saw every day when she bought her cigarettes. We stood there for a while, unable to speak, taking solace in human warmth and care.

After the late shift we usually went to the local 24 hour diner to decompress and gossip about the day. We all went, but the conversation was a bit more somber than usual. The upside of this was that we brainstormed ways to help with the relief effort--a group of us made hundreds of hand-crafted patriotic pins and offered them as a thank you for anyone who donated money to help.

Shalome's comment hit home when I was trying to write this. This isn't that long, but it took me 45 minutes to write it, and re-write it when I realized I was getting things mixed up.

[Edited on Sep 11, 2005 by Paine]

I was on my way to class and stopped at a convenience store for coffee. There was one person in line ahead of me and before I even got to the counter to pay, a guy ran in and announced that a plane had hit the WTC. By the time I got back to my car, every radio station was covering it. My first class of the day was linguistics and our prof spent half of the class talking to us about it and its implications.
After my two classes, I went to the gym, which was almost deserted. Then i went home and zoned in front of CNN for the rest of the afternoon.

I will always remember the exact words on NPR as I turned on the radio in the car - "… a plume of smoke where the towers once stood." I ran inside and turned on the TV. Too freaking surreal. I eventually made it to work. Everyone on the highway was driving about 40 mph. Just zombies listening to the radio.

On the way home, I had o stop at Borders to get something. There was a sign on the door that said they would be closing @ 5:00 because of what had happened - There had been a borders store on the ground level of Tower 1. The guy in front of me in line asked what had happened. He had been in his car all day with the CD player on. Once they told him, he walked out of the store like he had just seen a ghost.

I had been couch surfing that week, and the night before I stayed at my friend rays house. We drank heavily that night and the next morning we woke up early , very hungover.We came down stairs and rays mom said" we're under attack. . " This was a scary thing to hear from her because she;s been married to a navy ordinace sergeant for 39 years. We look at the TV and I think the pentagon had just been hit. And of course they showed footoage of the towers on fire. Ray gave me a ride to my parents place, and on the way we made guesses as to who they were going to blame for this. I guessed Osama bin laden, because I knew he had been involved in the first WTC bombing. Ray guessed sadam. I suppose in the end , both of our guesses were correct. After getting home, I was just glued to the TV All day and all night.

I was at work, lunch had just finished, and my flatmate (who went to school in the states) sent a text, saying the first tower had been hit - was it an accident? In the next few minutes everyones phones started buzzing and everyone stopped working. Then there were more texts from him. The company is one of the UK's largest ICT suppliers, so everyone was logging onto BBC and CNN. The world felt pretty small that day.

I was working in Prudhoe Bay. I was 4 hours behind NY City, but as work started at 6am, I was up around 4:45am. Getting coffee in the camp rec room, where the tv's are always set to CNN. Couldn't see the screen but the anchors were stammering and saying "Um" a lot, so something was happening live and unscripted. Walked over, watched the second plane hit. "FUCK ME!"

I was working in jersey at the time. i remember getting to my desk and going on cnn.com to catch up on some news. i was the first in the office to find out about what had happened. my brother and mother both work within walking distance of the WTC, and they both took the path train into the WTC that morning. i immediately panicked when i heard the news and began trying to get in touch with my brother and mother. it took me over a half hour to reach my mother...i was definitely getting a little hysterical. she told me that she had got in touch with my brother already and that they were both fine. so i calmed down, and made my way over to a conference room where i was scheduled to do a presentation for a project i was working on. in the middle of my presentation, a coworker walked in and told us that one of the towers went down. i was hysterical again. my coworkers tried to calm me down, and they did, but it took a while. i called my mother again, and she told me that her building was filling up with dust and smoke because of the proximity to the WTC (she was only a couple of blocks away). i left work after i had confirmation from her that she was out of manhattan and made it to brooklyn. i got home and watched the news for hours after that. i watched images of people jumping out of the building, and the repetitive loop of the video footage of the planes hitting. and i watched the interviews with people who couldn't get in touch with their family members that worked in the WTC. it finally got to me, completely took me over, and i broke down crying.

I was in an apartment in Santa Fe. My dad called and woke me up. He told me that I should turn on the tv. My first thought was that Michael Jordan had finally announced he was coming back.

"What channel?" I mumbled. "Probably anyone" he said. It's the only time that I have heard utter fear in my father's voice.

School was not cancelled that day, but I never gave any thought to going to class.

I can't believe it's been four years, and at the same time it helps me realize all that has happened in the time since.

Everything changed that day.

these stories are totally giving me chills.

i was in 4th period in class. i usually spent all day in the art room but a friend told me that i needed to come watch the TV in the other room. that 'we are being attacked' i didn't believe her, until i walked into the room. at that point the first tower had been hit. it didn't register at all. then i watched the second plane hit and both of the towers fall. my friends and i left school that day. the assholes incharge didn't want us to but we did anyway. then we spent the rest of the day at the house open-mouthed in front of the TV.

Me too, and yet I can't stop reading them...I'm fascinated to hear what was going on across the nation, in other people's minds, and brings back the emotions I felt then. It's hard to read, it feels...necessary somehow.

I was asleep and my mom came and woke me up. I was really tired and it was 6 in the morning or so so I wasn't happy. But when I looked at her and heard her talking she looked really upset - she kept stammering and saying my name over and over and looked like she was on the verge of tears. For a split second I thought maybe there was a spider she wanted me to kill, but then as she began articulating herself I got really frightened, like maybe dad or one of my sisters or another family member had gotten killed. This all occurred in my head in the few seconds before she actually said anything.

Then she goes "They... someone hit the world trade center and the Pentagon, and the first tower is gone." I was really worried but I thought maybe she was sleepwalking after watching Independance Day or something. I didn't know what to say, so she took me out into the living room and showed me the TV, where on CNN the second tower was standing all by itself ,and it was smoking. They were playing flashbacks of the plane hitting the second tower when they cut back and I watched it fall. My mom kind of wailed.

I sat there for a few more minutes, not knowing what to feel. Part of me was horrified, but another part of me went cold and still, and resolved that I should do something. Finally, I said "I need to tape this" and went into the other room to find a blank cassette. I still don't know how to think about that reaction.

The most important part of the whole thing that I remember was that, for the first moments and even hours of the disaster, we had no idea who did it or what it was supposed to mean. You just shook at the idea that some person or people had removed parts of the New York skyline and a piece of the Pentagon, and committed a murder so large it was beyond digestion. You wondered what kind of worldview you could afford to have.

And not that it's worth saying, but it's almost cheek to compare it to the JFK assassination. If you're going to stoop to doing that, then why wouldn't you compare it the other way around?