Where were you and what did you you that day?

[Strykerguy56]

I was in 11th Grade Physics Class when the first and second towers got hit. I remember one of the other teachers coming into the room crying saying a plan had hit the towers. If my memory is correct, we all thought it was something along the lines of a cessna or a lear jet or something. Finally the teacher put on CNN and we got the full story from there. Talk about a surreal experience. It was a weird mix of adrenaline, rage, and concern.

Our HS German club w/ a bunch of exchange students were supposed to be in the towers that morning, but they were tied up in traffic on the NJ Turnpike. I remember for the rest of the day we just sat and watched TV every period with the exception of one, even gym class. With the exception of my Business Law class, every teacher and every student was glued to CNN all day.

The worst thing I saw was kids crashing paper airplanes into the walls in our cafeteria and laughing. I was a pussy back then, but had I seen that kinda stuff today some corrective action woulda been taken.

I guess they say that every generation has a moment that defines it. Id say for people my age (20-30) this might be it. The events of 9/11 have touched off a huge change in political, economic, military, and social ideology. My biggest fear is that people will forget what happened that day. My hope is that generations to come will see how important and infamous this day really was.

[abn-rgr]

I was in the J3 office of our state HQ. I was talking to a buddy of mine and the TV was showing footage of the first plane hitting. We were standing around joking about how the pilot was a dumbass when the second plane hit. We look at each other for a couple seconds and then took off to our offices at a dead sprint. By the time I got to my office, the phone was ringing off the hook from soldiers wanting to know if they needed to come in. It was kind of surreal. After work that day, there was a line at the gas stations about a mile long. I went home that night and drank a bottle of Bookers bourbon.

[LEROY]

I was recovering in bed from a hangover. I get a call from my TL. Get your shit and be at the armory in an hour. I show up late not knowing what was going on. My ATL informs me, while I'm in the front leaning rest for being late, that were going to war. We ended up not going anywhere. Some people stayed on orders and worked at the airport or I didn't get to see the replay until a couple of days later.

[Jenny Lynn]

I was at my ex father in-laws, we had just buried my ex mother in law and most of the time after the news reports was hugging one of my friends from back home who was then living in NYC tight as she tried for 2 days to call and account for all her family, which THANK GOD she was able to do.


As Abe Lincoln "The Man" so eloquently put it:
"It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated, here, to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

[rgrokelley]

As Abe Lincoln "The Man" so eloquently put it:
"It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated, here, to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

Not wishing to hijack the thread, but Mr. Lincoln can go fuck himself.

He's the guy who pretty much started the ball rolling on massive Federal government controlling things they shouldn't

[Jenny Lynn]

As Abe Lincoln "The Man" so eloquently put it:
"It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated, here, to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

Not wishing to hijack the thread, but Mr. Lincoln can go fuck himself.

He's the guy who pretty much started the ball rolling on massive Federal government controlling things they shouldn't

Ranger Rgrokelley, I honestly did not look at things from that perspective but I do understand it now that you mention it, did not mean any offense but do like what Abe said at Gettysburg. Take care. Jenny

[rgrokelley]

As Abe Lincoln "The Man" so eloquently put it:
"It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated, here, to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

Not wishing to hijack the thread, but Mr. Lincoln can go fuck himself.

He's the guy who pretty much started the ball rolling on massive Federal government controlling things they shouldn't

Ranger Rgrokelley, I honestly did not look at things from that perspective but I do understand it now that you mention it, did not mean any offense but do like what Abe said at Gettysburg. Take care. Jenny

Nah, no offense. I'm a historian, so I know what an ass clown Lincoln was. The only reason he is as famous as he is, was because he was assassinated. If not, he might have been impeached. Congress was not real thrilled with him. As it was, the Congress did impeach his vice President.

[Rangeratlarge]

I was at Ft Polk on the pre-deployment exercise for my rotation to Kosovo (I was 10th MTN LRS 1SG at the time). I had slept in that morning due to being up all night at the TOC because we had teams out on missions. As I walked over to the shower to go through my morning routine one of my guys told me. I thought he was fucking with me because I am from NYC and they all knew that.

After I realized it was legit. I tried to get to a phone because my sister works in the financial district of NYC and did business on a regular basis at the Twin Towers. Spent 2 days confirming she was OK and could not believe my eyes when I finally saw the video that day. As a New Yorker who grew up with those buildings in the skyline and having been in them it hits home. I have relatives and friends who spent days and weeks after digging in rubble.

You have to have seen them in person to really have a true sense of the scale of the attack. I relate it to being like the difference in seeing pictures of the grand canyon then seeing it in person for the first time. You thought you knew it was grand but until you see it in person you can never really know. Even today if you go to the site and see the surrounding buildings you can get a good sense of the scale of the attack because the towers dwarfed the surviving buildings!

I knew why I was in Afghanistan...never a doubt in my mind!!

Never forget!!

[Jim]

BUMP!

[RMP-RLTW]

Damn! I figured some 3/75 guys would have chimed in. I already gave my perspective in the "No shit there I was" thread. I'll give a quick run down though.

We were on RRF1 at the time and were about to cycle off. We were headed to Honduras in a month or so. Needless to say Honduras was canceled. There is no way to explain the energy, excitement, rage etc. that was floating throughout the work area in B co. 3/75 that day. It was incredibly sad and the most exciting day of my life if that makes sense.

RIP brothers!


Ryan
RLTW!

[Jim]

I was standing next to a trash can / ashtray in center court of the Pentagon. We had watched the twin towers being hit; so to fully absorb what had happened we went outside to have a cigarette and discuss it. Suddenly there was a massive explosion on the other side of the building. My initial thought was that the fuel cell or maybe a propane tank had exploded at the Pentagon heliport. We moved back into the building on the opposite side from where the aircraft hit. We sent almost everyone out of the office by the Metro entrance. I called to tell our folks in Huntsville that the people who were TDY to Washing for a meeting were safe and not in the building. Then we ensured that all the classified documents were secured, made a few other calls to ensure that we had notified everyone who needed to know that we were evacuating.

By this time the evacuation alarms were all going off all over the building. We evacuated and rallied to one of my co-workers place, a highrise that is a mile from the Pentagon. We watched the building burn from there. We could not get near the actual site of the attack, because security had cordoned off the building. My co worker had just retired and had been the Defense Attache in an unnamed country. His wife correctly commented that the world had changed -- what an understatement.

OK, so I'm quoting myself. It has been long enough to add some humor. When we went to Jerry's apartment, after an hour or so, someone said "Jerry, I need a drink." Jerry showed him the bar. Most people drank a beer. I pointed out he had a bottle of 18 year old Jamison. He said, "I'm saving it for a special occasion. My answer was, "Jerry, if this isn't a special occasion, there ain't none." We broke open the bottle!

[IEDmagnet]

I had just ended a shift at the Sheriffs office, came home and kissed my daughter (it was her first birthday) and told my wife I was going to get up early to spend some time with both of them. Fell asleep only to be awakened by my wife screaming "we've been attacked". I sat up and asked what happened, she said they hit the WTC. I replied "they've done that before and laid back down"....she said "they hit the Pentagon too!" and I shot straight out of bed. I got a few expletives out of my mouth and the phone started ringing with US Government on the ID. My wife answered and handed me the phone, the NCO on the line said something about geese flying north on a Delta jet, I was still half asleep and asked what the hell that meant. We were placed on alert and I stayed up the rest of the day. Went to work that night in SWAT gear with an Army uniform pressed and hanging in my patrol car. Answered one assist EMS call all night, not a single person was on the roads all night. Half our shift met in a Bilo parking lot to listen to the President's address at 2000 that night, the other half was in a Wal-Mart lot on the other side of the county. I can see the events of that day like a movie reel playing over and over.

[Grifter]

Only a 5 yr gap Ranger Jim...Fukin standard.

I was with Ranger Swagger in England although I was Gun 2 gunner for C.Co AT at that moment. Totally thought for sure we were going to get first class tiks to the game from there..

Instead we came home..

[Jim]

Only a 5 yr gap Ranger Jim...Fukin standard.

I was with Ranger Swagger in England although I was Gun 2 gunner for C.Co AT at that moment. Totally thought for sure we were going to get first class tiks to the game from there..

Instead we came home..

Karl, this was such an interesting thread, that when I found it, realized it should be seen by more folks.

[SpongeBob]

One hek of a bump.....lol

I was just getting off radio watch....just to find out the next days weeks months years would be an ass kicker.

RIP all the warriors who lost their lives.....