Where were you and what did you you that day?

[SkyShark]

I wouldn't feel so bad abou that. That is just youth. I remember I was in 6the Grade when the Challenger blew up. Didn't think twice about it. I remember my Dad coming to the school and picking me up. Brought me home and they (mom and dad) sat in front of the news. I was just happy I got out of school early. Got bored real fucking quick and annoyed my parents enough till they let me go out side and throw the football around. I kicked myself in ass later in life for it. Now I accept that it was just youth. It's all good man.

[Darksaga]

I was in Okinawa delivering some new equipment on Torii Station. We were locked down in our hotel because a typhoon just passed over the island. I watched the whole thing unfold on Japanese TV. When we finally got the okay to leave the hotel and go back to work, the Okinawans were already lined up for blocks to give blood to the red cross.

The Okinawans are good people. I was at Kinser 93/94.

[hobbit]

I was in the office of the Rick Wagoner (Chairman of General Motors) at the Renaissance Center - the tallest building in Detroit. His security detail burst into the room and we were evacuated - get this - before the employees got the word to evacuate.

That's very unusual isn't it? A corporate ethos that places a higher value on the life of a Fortune 500 CEO, than it does on say....the janitors?

[CloakAndDagger]

I was getting ready for work...I came downstairs and the TV was already on. The picture was showing the WTC smoking (at that moment I couldn't tell it was both towers) and first thing I heard the anchor say was, "...hit the World Trade Center," <camera cuts to a split shot showing the Pentagon smoking> "and another plane has just hit the Pentagon."

I knew then and there it was a terrorist attack and we were now at war. Being an MI Reservist, I expected to be one of the first called up (I actually had to wait 3 1/2 months), so I skipped breakfast and went and packed my dufflebag. I knew it was different from the last two/three attacks (USS Cole, and the double African embassy bombings), a Republican president and an attack on our soil.

.......
I was in Basic Training during the African embassy bombings, our Drill Sergeants announced it and did the "We're going to war" deal...I didn't believe them (about the war part, not the bombings) because I knew our President was a pussy and wouldn't do anything but launch tomahawks (like after Kobar Towers).

I was on duty for a Reserve Drill and inside a "windowless building" when the USS Cole got hit. We all knew Clinton wouldn't do a damn thing, especially since he was getting out of office in a few months. That made me doubly resolved to convince everyone I could to vote for Bush.

When Bush took office, I was minorly annoyed that he didn't have us go to war over the Cole bombing, but I also realized the Clintons left a fucking mess of everything: all the way down to literally vandalizing the Whitehouse and removing the W-key from all the keyboards. (Yes, Dems, I remember that, too!)
.......


By the time I got done packing my duffle, I was able to catch on the news that both towers had been hit, a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania, all airtraffic was ordered grounded, and there was a panic about a fifth plane way up north. By then, I deduced it was UBL and Al Qaeda: from the boldness of the attack, and from the fact that no terror group had claimed responsibility, yet (up to that point every other terror group claimed responsibility for their attacks within an hour of the attack, but not AQ, I don't think they even publicly claimed responsibility for the Cole until after 9/11).

But I still had to go to work...I had the car radio tuned to news the whole way (and I hate talk radio while driving). On the way, one of the towers collapsed, that finished the job of putting me in a shocked mental state. I wasn't even sure I heard the broadcast right.

When I walked into the office, the receptionist asked if I knew, I answered, "Yes," before she even completed her question. I headed to my cubical, had to answer that same question several times on the way. The guy a couple partitions over had a radio on, and after a while they announced the other tower collasped.

About half an hour later, there was a bomb scare near the navy-yard entrance (about 1/2 block from the office), so we had to evac several blocks. Another hour went down the drain (as if we were going to get any work done anyway). After the evac was called off, the owner sent us all home, but with full day's pay.

I got home, and got a call that my church was holding a special service later that evening. I also finally got a phone call from my Reserve unit, but it was less than I expected, just a "roll call".

I went to the church service, and afterwards went with some friends to Appleby's. I think that was the first time I ever ordered alcohol in front of my church friends (I wasn't the only one that day). I had two of the biggest drinks I could find on the menu. If I wasn't driving, I'm sure I would have had more. I'm glad I didn't, I'm not a liteweight, but I still cannot remember whether I had anything to eat that entire day, so I was a bit fuzzy when driving home (...won't do that again).

Yes, vivid memories. I have more memories of that day than the sum total of any given month of my life (besides Sept. 2001).

Damn.......I just spent and hour and a half on this...time to get some sleep!

[smokn38]

I was at home watching ESPN waiting for my 3 year old son to wake up, enjoyng my day off. My mom called and asked if I had seen the news. Flipped over to Fox News as the 2nd plane hit.

I sat there speechless, and stunned.

[Looon]

I made the 30 minute drive from work after the planes hit, and got home just in time to watch the first tower fall. I remember watching some people jump, I imagine to end the suffering and put the impending doom into their own hands. RIP

Vengance is being exacted onto those that did this by men that appear as an Avenging Angel of Death, some wearing Scrolls on their shoulder.

[MrsDocMac]

I was fresh out of Basic and it was my senior year of high school. I was in spanish call with Mrs. Palmer and I was reading some required stuff and translating it. I got finished and decided I would turn on my little radio I carried with me. I turned it on and flipped through stations thinking,"Damn, when are they going to play some music?" All of a sudden I realized they were all saying the same thing.

I listsened and sat in shock. When I realized it was real and had actually happened, I told Mrs. Palmer to turn on her radio. She told me to turn mine off and quit making shit up. I took the headphones out of mine and the whole class sat there, numb. Five minutes later, as the second tower came down, I was called out of class. Me and a buddy that enlisted together were both called to the principal's office prior to a school wide announcement. Our reserve unit had called to let us know that we would need to report there directly after school was out. The principal decided that in light of the events, she would let us go then. School stayed in session the rest of the day though.

We went to our unit and did miscellaneous duties through out the day. We answered phones, pulled gaurd at the battalion. Anything needed, we did it till about 2200 when we were relieved. We did that everyday after school for the rest of the week.

[hobbit]

One story little covered by the American media, but much ballyhooed in Taiwan, was when a visiting delegation of 30 Red Chinese journalists were kicked out of the country on 9/12. They'd been staying at the Hotel Watergate in Washington, watching events unfold on a conference room TV, getting drunk and screaming with cheers when each of the towers collapsed.

[Looon]

One story little covered by the American media, but much ballyhooed in Taiwan, was when a visiting delegation of 30 Red Chinese journalists were kicked out of the country on 9/12. They'd been staying at the Hotel Watergate in Washington, watching events unfold on a conference room TV, getting drunk and screaming with cheers when each of the towers collapsed.

I never heard that!! Thanks for the info.

[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.

[Baseplate]

I had just finished a nut buster of PT and had gtten out of the shwer and was taking a nap before work call. Woke up when I heard what was going on on the radio. We were scheduled to Ft Stewart that week for a live fire. It was delayed for a few hours byt we went any way when I got back less than24 hurs later there were over 20 messages on my phone.
MOM crying sisters crying sisters hysterical girlfriend going nuts. Ad this was after I called them and let them know everything was cool and I was going t be in the field for the next day

[Black 6]

I have sat here reading these post, drinking beer while I ate brakfast, remembering what I was doing, reliveing the feelings I had that day. And I had to get another beer.

I was sleeping, as I was working the late shift that week. My wife who liked to hit the snooze button 10 times before she got up was in the shower, and had forgotten to shut off the alarm. It went off and wok me up to the pentagon getting hit, I layed there for a moment makeing sure I hadn't been dreaming. I got the conformation and I ran out to the living room where I had a buddy (DS 1 vet) that spent the night sleeping was at, and woke him up and told him someone just hit the pentagon. He thought I was joking and I turned on the tube and we sat and watch everything that had happened. I went to work and brough my radio and sat in front of it the rest of the day. I do not remember helping a single person, just waiting for more news. I mostly remember the anger I felt, I do not remember any fear at all, just a hate that almost drove me crazy.