9-11 Where were you? |
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aka ron
Honor Roll Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 33539 |
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Posted: 11 Sep 2014 at 10:01am |
Forgive me if this has been covered before, the site goes back many years.
13 years ago today. Ever since the Challenger disaster, I kept a small TV in my workshop. As for everyone else, it was a nice September morning. The first plane hits one of the World Trade Center towers, I first hear it on the radio, I turn the TV on just as the second plane hits. The boss has come out of his office and we are fking freaking out knowing that this is not an accident. More reports, the Pentagon has been hit. This was a life changing event for me, I was in a long distance relationship with my current wife, I decided to pull up stakes and pursue happiness with the world in such turmoil.
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regulus
Junior Executive Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Location: Nova Catacumba Status: Offline Points: 4436 |
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I was a Delivery Driver at the time. Since I'm not a big fan of "Drive Time" Radio (Why in the name of Heaven must most radio broadcasters insist on having DJ, saturate the airwaves with stale jokes? ). I was listening to my favorite tunes on my CD Player. The Attack occurred between my first and second stops, but it was at my third stop where I was told a plane had hit the World Trade Tower. Hearing this I switched to my radio and ALL H-E-(DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS Broke Loose!!! I got to my fourth stop just in time to see the north tower collapse.
Life has never the same since them. |
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Poiuyt Power!!!
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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I was working at a local high school, subbing for a German teacher in a portable classroom. First period had just ended & the classes were changing to second period. This girl comes bouncing into the room, heads straight for the TV set & turns it on. I asked her to please not do that. She tells me that every other classroom had their TV on, because, as she put it, "some building had fallen down". I assumed it was some local store or warehouse.
Anyway, the TV comes on & I started towards it to turn it back off, when Tom Brokaw appears on the screen, sitting at his anchor desk with the lower Manhattan skyline behind him, the remaining WTC twin tower looking like an industrial smoke stack. She then said the principal had come over the intercom during first period & asked all the teachers to please turn on their TV sets. Apparently, the intercom in the portable I was in wasn't working, so I hadn't heard the announcement. I immediately sensed the gravity of the situation & understood why the principal wanted everyone to witness what was occurring. The rest of the kids came in, the bell to start second period rang & we all watched the ensuing events that are now part of history unfold. As the remaining tower was collapsing, some little dumbass was joking around & laughing. I got all over him. After I pointed out that there were probably thousands of people inside that building who just died in that very same moment, the smirk disappeared from his face & he seemed to understand the seriousness of what was going on. |
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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Ad nauseous
Revolutionary Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Connecticut Status: Offline Points: 23601 |
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I was in high school at the time. I heard that a plane/planes hit the twin towers I was incredulous. I heard it again while waiting for lunch in a line. I then heard that the Pentagon was hit, in class. I was in doubt until I got home. Where I saw the now famous picture on America Oniline, of the explosion from the second plane hitting the second tower blocked by North Tower on fire. That's when it hit me, we were attacked.
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One good thing about TV-you could always turn it off
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63906 |
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One thing I'll never forget was my immediate inclination to call my father in NJ---but he'd died just a month and a half earlier. I called my bro instead.
I, nevertheless, went to work that day. At the bus stop, I was greeted as usual by this rather wealthy-looking (I was living in the Pacific Heights area of SF at that time) guy about 72 dressed in his usual business suit, walking his basset hound. He smiled and said hello, and I asked him if he saw the news. He hadn't. I gave him a quick rundown of what I knew up to that point, and his face just dropped. I'll never forget that, either. I got to work, and about a half-hour later, they had us go home. |
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63906 |
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I guess they do this every year, but MSNBC this morning rebroadcast NBC's entire show from 9/11/01. Very weird to watch, knowing that, at the time, Couric, Brokaw and Lauer---had no idea that "9/11" was unfolding right in front of them. In my opinion, any of the news broadcasts from that morning---unedited---would be the best starting point for teaching kids in school about 9/11.
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aka ron
Honor Roll Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 33539 |
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The history channel is playing some of the documentaries made over the years.
What a horrifying thing to go through, RIP to all those poor souls.
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63906 |
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Strange thought---none of those people would ever know about "9/11". |
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aka ron
Honor Roll Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 33539 |
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I mean any victim envolved, Im sure there was some strange things going on, on those planes BEFORE the crashes.
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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The thing that haunts my soul is the thought of what those people who were forced to jump from the upper floors in order to get away from the flesh searing heat & flames must have endured.
How horrifying that must have been. |
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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Neil R
Junior Executive Joined: 14 Nov 2008 Location: Statesboro, GA Status: Offline Points: 635 |
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Had a friend call me about a quarter to 9 saying "turn on the tv, those buildings are on fire again".
I was watching when the second plane hit, didn't really understand the scale of the thing and thought a news chopper had smacked the building. Oddly enough my first thought after seeing what was unfolding was to go fill up the car. |
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DarkRealmStar
Junior Executive Joined: 30 Jul 2013 Location: Undisclosed Status: Offline Points: 3181 |
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I was getting ready for work as a legal secretary, in the bathroom with my radio on. I knew something was wrong because the song they were playing when I tuned in was "Drops of Jupiter" by Train. Although it had been a popular song, it was out of the heavy morning rotation. I thought, something's wrong, who died?
Then the morning show DJ said they'd be getting back to New York to see what's going on. At the time, they used to do a phone prank contest, calling Chinese restaurants on the East Coast, somehow connecting the lines via conference call and having the two phone answerers say hello and go from there. The contest was the listener on the line had to bet if the two people on the phone would start speaking in Chinese to one another when they realized they were two Chinese restaurants connected. I thought that was what was going on. Then the DJ announced a second plane hit the towers. At that moment I knew it was a terrorist attack. Long explanation I could give, but when I was dating my husband-to-be, he, being from England and having been in the British military as an anti-terrorist specialist, had told me in 1991 that it wasn't a matter of if, it was when, terrorists would strike the USA. His words came flooding back to me that morning. I went to work and we were all stunned. The bosses finally let us go home. I had called my Dad and went over to his place. We watched TV, went out to eat lunch, and I spent the day with him. When I came home that night, I thought it was weird that the apartment complex next door to my home was having a loud party in the front upper-level apartment. I thought maybe they decided to celebrate someone's birthday despite the horrific news of the day, or something. The noise just went on and on, loud music, loud voices celebrating and happy, something I'd never heard from that apartment before. Shortly thereafter, I had occasion to want to go over to the apartments to see if I could talk to someone in another apartment about their loud noise. (As it turned out it seemed they were running an illegal day-care center, with children packed into a bedroom.) I looked at the names on the directory to see which apartment it might be, and saw the name on the front apartment where the party on 9/11 had occurred. It was Hussein. That was kind of chilling to me. Like most Americans, I was shaken to the core and life has never been the same again. When President Bush declared the day of prayer afterward, I left work and went to a nearby church. It was full and I joined in, couldn't help but cry aloud at what had happened to our country on 9/11/2001. |
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DarkRealmStar
Junior Executive Joined: 30 Jul 2013 Location: Undisclosed Status: Offline Points: 3181 |
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13 years later, I still cry out loud. Listening to the lyrics of "Drops of Jupiter."
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Ad nauseous
Revolutionary Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Connecticut Status: Offline Points: 23601 |
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I also remember my dad downstairs saving pictures of thyes, wreckage of the Twin Towers and saying "That's it? That's all that's left?" He responded with "yes that's all that's left" then I said "they're gone?" And he responded with "they're gone" I was in shock! These two 110 storied monoliths with people in them that I've known since childhood were just....GONE! I was stunned and still stunned today! I also remember my dad saving pictures of the buildings before 9/11 and I asked him "why are you dong that?" Duh! He saving pictures of what it looked like! I've should of known better. I was only 14 at the time!
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One good thing about TV-you could always turn it off
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sgtrock21
Junior Executive Joined: 18 Dec 2011 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 6884 |
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I was leaving for work when my next door neighbor who also worked at the Army Aviation Support Facility informed me that airliners were crashing into the WTC! At work we watched everything unfold. The Air National Guard fighter interceptor base 50 miles North was placed in DEFCON one (under attack). Our MEDEVAC unit was on standby. We did not have to call in crews as they started showing up en-mass. After the FAA confirmed that flight 93 had been accounted for and all civilian aircraft had complied with the grounding orders we were able to take a breath but still did not know if the attacks were only aerial. It was a horrible, horrible day. I sometimes call it "The Day The Music Died" as we knew our lives would never be the same.
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EEEEts All so REEEdEEEculous
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DKS
Junior Executive Joined: 22 May 2012 Location: Crowley Status: Offline Points: 2165 |
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I was at college, actually buying my books in the bookstore when it came on the news. Class was then cancelled for the day so I went home and turned on the news to follow what was going on.
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"I see the sadness in their eyes
Melancholy in their cries Devoid of all the passion The human spirit cannot die" |
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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I'm glad that I got the chance to stand outside on the rooftop of the south tower once.
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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Ad nauseous
Revolutionary Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Connecticut Status: Offline Points: 23601 |
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I'm kicking myself for not going to the original WTC before it was destroyed. Ugh! |
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One good thing about TV-you could always turn it off
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63906 |
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I went up there with some friends back when I was in high school. I think it had just been completed. Somewhere, I have a pic taken from the observation deck. I know an 86 y/o guy who was one of the main electrical engineers for the building when it was being constructed. His office was the entire 63rd floor. He has Alzheimer's now, and remembers nothing about any World Trade Center. |
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Angry McPisseron
Honor Roll Formerly AngryMcPisseron Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Location: Fresno CA. Status: Offline Points: 13345 |
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I was sitting on the couch, watching ye 'ol boob tube.
The program I was watching was suddenly interrupted with a news flash that showed the first jet crashing into one of the WTC towers.
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PaWolf
Revolutionary Hoary Ol' Chestnut... doncha know.... Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: GreatWhiteNorth Status: Offline Points: 40769 |
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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I have a couple of pics I took from up there too, but I'm not in them. I wish now I'd have gotten someone to take one of me. I have another that I took lying on my back between the two towers with both of them stretching up into the sky. |
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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aka ron
Honor Roll Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 33539 |
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I just read this this morning, I was not aware that the F-16's sent to intercept Flight 93 were not armed.
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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I'm not sure how much I believe that, ar.
Hard to believe the US govt would intentionally ask two highly trained pilots to not only sacrifice their lives & essentially, commit suicide for their country, but destroy two billion dollar fighter jets in the process. Not to mention that they'd be creating twice as much wreckage & flaming debris that could fall on to people on the ground. I'm not saying it's false, but I'm not sure I believe it. It just makes so little sense. But then again, with those morons who were running things in 2001, anything is possible. |
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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aka ron
Honor Roll Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: WI Status: Offline Points: 33539 |
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It doesn't make much sense, does it?
Why have pilots ready at a moments notice with no weapons? Just to chase the next runaway private plane?
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