September 11 2001 - Where Were You?

[crokett]

I was just getting to work after picking up my new windsurfing board at the shipping depot. As I was driving on to campus, Bob and Tom announced on the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC buildings and I remember thinking it was some small plane that the pilot had really screwed up. By the time I got to my parking space they updated us that it was a big passenger jet. After I got inside we spent most of the morning glued to the CCTV in the break-out room - CNN was piped in. I didn't really do any work that day.

[bmyers]

I lived in AZ at the time. My mom called me on the phone at 8:45 a.m. NY time. She lives in NY.

She said "Turn on the TV".

I said "What channel?"

She said, "Doesn't matter, any channel"..

I knew it was gonna be bad..

Bill

[MikeMcCoy]

I was working at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Charleston when all of that went down. The entire command went on immediate lock down and every TV available was switched on.

[docrowan]

I was at work, my wife called me and told me that a plane had crashed into the WTC and I immediately thought small plane, too. I also reminded her that a B-25 had crashed into the Empire state building without it collapsing. I remember spending three hours horror-struck in the breakroom watching the coverage and seeing the buildings collapse live on TV. I found out my brother was in New York at the time and was able to see the WTC burning from his hotel. He had a devil of a time getting home.

May God comfort those who are still suffering as a result of those attacks - the spouses and the orphans.

[Pappy]

I was off that day and first learned of it as I walked into the Deere dealer to get parts for my lawn tractor. I called the wife and headed home. Most of the day was spent in front of the tv.

[Uncle Cracker]

Where it seems I always am... working.

[atgcpaul]

I was in San Diego at the time and heard it announced on my alarm clock
radio at 8am PST. I seriously thought it was a sick joke until I saw it on TV.
3 days later my fiance and I drove cross-country so we could make it to our
wedding in Lancaster, PA on Sept 22. I'm getting goose bumps just thinking
about that time. It was a very somber drive.

Paul

[Mrs. Wallnut]

I was at home on my day off waiting for my nephew, who was about 6 months old at the time. I had just finished cleaning up the kitchen when Mark called me and told me to turn on the television. He didn't tell me why just to turn it on to CNN or Fox, I don't remember which one. We stayed on the phone for a long time. Mark was driving truck at the time so we stayed on the phone. I was watching the when the first tower fell and I remember sitting there crying and holding my nephew a little closer and I remember hearing that Seattle, Boeing I believe was put on some kind of alert and wondering if there was going to be somewhere else that was going to be hit by a plane. I walked over and got the kids from school and walked them home and all that night watched more of the news.

The next day I was back at work and when I got there they had taken one of the televisions from our electronics department and moved it into the break room and hooked it up so that we could keep up on what was going on. Actually on 9/11 when they heard what was going on they moved the television up there.

My prayers and thoughts go out to the families of all the people who lost their lives and their families who are still feeling the hurt of losing their loved ones.

[MikeMcCoy]

I just finished reading the responses so far and the details of the answers really shows what an impact that event had. I'm getting to an age where I consider myself lucky if I could tell you exactly what I did all day yesterday but I remember exactly where I was standing, who I was talking to, and what the conversation was about when I heard what had happened.

[pacwind3]

West coast here, we lived in Portland. Wife turned on the TV before work and we heard nothing but confusion as to what was going on.
The part I remember the most was eating dinner outside a few days later. No planes in the sky as all flights were grounded. Such a crazy time!

[Papa]

9/11/01

My wife and I were driving through rural South Arkansas on our way home to Alexandria, VA. We had been listening to CD's and turned on the radio as we pulled onto the interstare at Little Rock to get a traffic report. We were just in time to hear a live report of the second plane crashing into the towers. When we heard about the Pentagon crash, we were shook up because our son, a naval officer, usually worked in the section of the building that was attacked. We tried cell phones and land-lines at rest stops to get in touch with him or our DIL, but nothing was getting through. It was about 3:00 p.m. that afternoon that we gor a call from our son telling us that e was all right--he had been playing in a golf tournament that day. MY DIL never complained about him playing golf again. She bought him a new set of golf clubs for Christmas.

[smorris]

I was at work trying to figure out what had just happened to take one of our systems offline in NYC. My wife who worked in a DoD facility at the time called to say they had gone into lockdown and the guards were now armed so something bad must be happening. About that time my boss came in to tell me to quit working the problem and what had happened.

[radhak]

We lived in NJ that time, but I was on an official trip to Asia that started a month before (Ironically, we were inspecting old 'Y2K disaster' issues ), and I had taken my family with me.

We had flown into India from Singapore the week before, and I was at work late in the evening (because India is 10 hours ahead of EDT), getting ready for a video conference with NJ. Suddenly somebody in the team got a call from his wife in NJ, and we were all in panic mode as we had friends and family in and around the area. We could only go to websites for information, and of course most websites were down. Phone calls to the tri-state area were now log-jammed, so I called my brother-in-law in San Antonio. He was still sleeping, and when I tried to tell him, he would not believe me : he thought I was pulling his leg (which I have done other times ), and kept saying, 'You are kidding, right?', till he switched on the TV. That point onwards we kept him on speaker-phone, listening to his TV!

My other worry was that my brother was supposed to be in a seminar in manhattan that day, though not downtown. He came out okay, but says it was one of the most surreal experience of his life : there were clouds of dust outside, nobody knew what was happening, phone lines were down, electricity was spotty, and of course, all the 10 million in the city were out in the streets, confusion all around.

My company lost 14 employees in the 1st tower, and we all still have a booklet with their pictures and biography at our desks.

7 years seems long in any other context; but for this, it seems like yesterday.

[BobSch]

I was working at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Charleston when all of that went down. The entire command went on immediate lock down and every TV available was switched on.

I work for the organization that's responsible for the power grid for the midestern part of the country and the news had the same affect on us. The control room door codes were changed, the parking lot gates were closed and every TV in the place was turned on. The next day they had maintenance removing the company name from the building, just an address now.

[Black wallnut]

I was driving west bound on I 90 mile post 32 listening to a Seattle country station KMPS on the radio on my way to deliver a full load of frozen french fries to Food Services of America in Everett, WA when the radio morning crew broke the news that a plane had just collided with the WTC. I remember calling LOML and telling her to turn on the TV. I also told her that I bet this is a terrorist attack, thinking that it was just a small plane. I gess I was part right. I soon changed my radio to an AM news/talk station. It was a very somber day as were the days after.