Where were you on this date 6 years ago 9/11, 2001

[See You In Hell]

On September 11, 2001 I was still visiting the country of Peru. I had just completed the Inca Trail and was experiencing Machu Picchu. I had absolutely no idea of the horror that had taken place until later in the day when I was checking into the little posada at which I was saying. When I was checking in and the clerk found out I was American she kept repeating something about "Nueva York" and "terroristas Islamicas". My Spanish was, and still is, too limited to really grasp in totality what she was trying to say. She led me around into a public room of sorts that had a large TV in it. Scores of tourists were huddled around the TV watching, in Spanish, the reruns of the towers engulfed in smoke. Not knowing exactly what unfolded, although the TV clearly showed it was bad, I ventured down to a nearby cyber cafe which was also teeming with tourists all glued to computers looking at various news pages. Only then could I realize the gravity of what actually transpired. Not being in the US at the time I felt an odd degree of detachment and a mixture of emotions. Although cliche it truly did, at least for some time, seem like it was some sort of dream sequence from a movie. Everyone was in shock and disbelief no matter where they were from. I had in the span of just a few hours that day gone from the euphoria of visiting a site I thought I might never in my life see to the utter depths of despair in witnessing the aftermath of those brutal attacks.

For the balance of my South American trip everywhere there was a TV or newspaper this was the major story. An interesting point the Peruvian media brought up repeatedly on their news broadcasts was the number of citizens from other countries that were either killed or missing in the attacks. Apparently, several Peruvians were among the casualites. Even to this day when I hear about 9/11 or see broadcasts about it those same feelings of disbelief return along with what still seems like a sense of detachment. I can only imagine how I would have been affected by the events had I been in the US instead of out of the country. Even thousands of miles away the sense of loss was horrifying and unbelievable.

 

[shaq]

I was in class in my senior year of high school. I remember my teacher walking to the front of the classroom and writing on the board that we had been attacked

 

[OrbWeaver]

I was driving to a morning class and it was on all the radio stations. When I got to the building my classes were held in, the TVs were turned to the news. I don't remember how the sequence of events ocurred after that. I think the first tower fell between my first and second class. I was just horrified at first, and then numb for awhile.

 

[freakchylde]

I was sleeping in my ex's bed and unemployed.

 

[Tess]

I was sleeping when my mom called to wake me up. I just remember watching TV before the second plane hit and thinking, man someone is going to be in trouble. How do you accidentally crash a plane in to a building?? I'm a little too naive some times..... Anyway, I was so mad that evening when I saw the news footage of the celebrations that were going on -especially the small children who were also cheering. It was and is so scary to see little children raised to think something so violent is some sort of victory :-/

 

[Meedleyx10]

I was in 8th grade at the time (at 19, I guess I'm still a pup around these parts!), I had a really really bad cough/sore throat but I was at school and was scheduled for my mom to come pick me up to go to the doctor and get checked out. I guess it was right after the first tower was hit when she came and picked me up, at which point I didn't know anything and she told me what had happened (as we were still hearing the initial reports on the radio). My dad is air force, so we live(d) on the Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, as we were leaving the housing area where my middle school was we noticed security forces heading towards the gate to housing. When we got to the gate at the base itself (where the clinic is) we were passing through the gate/getting our ID's checked and right as the guard walked up to out car, the announcement came over his radio that the base was going on complete lockdown (no entrance, exit, or cars on the road). We were told to head straight to the clinic, get inside, and stay there. Turned out afterwards that the lockdown was in response to the notice that the Pentagon had just been attacked. I panicked a bit initially because one of my aunts and my grandfather both worked in DC at the time (both were fine though). Once we got into the clinic, the doctors still checked me out (not like they could go anywhere or anything) and then we all (the other patients there, doctors, orderly staff, etc.) sat around the waiting room watching CNN. We were watching as people were jumping out of the windows and then the second tower finally collapsed and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room, or building for that matter. After a little while longer we were allowed to leave and go home. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, my dad (again...Air Force) was coming out the front door in his BDU's and was ready to go. He had just gotten back from 2 1/2 months doing some teaching at Tech School and was on leave. Unfortunately enough, my dad had JUST cross-trained from Civil Engineering into Readiness/Disaster Preparedness. About a week and half or two weeks afterwards he was overseas. He was at work literally 24/7 almost every day from the 11th until he deployed. Things were REALLY tense around the base for a long time afterwards and I think everybody got a little nautious every time we heard a plane landing or flying overhead (which was something that had formerly just been an everday thing that we would've lumped in the same category as birds chirping and clocks ticking).

It's kind of funny how vivid my (and apparently everyone elses) memories are of that day despite how disorienting the whole day was.

 

[Pellaz]

I was asleep, since I work nights. My roommate called me and told me "go put the TV on, you won't believe this." I turned it on just in time to see the first tower fall. I was stunned, of course. About an hour later my manager called to tell me nightshift had been cancelled and the dayshift folks had been released -- it's a government facility, and needless to say, we thought we were a target.

The building is right next to Peachtree-Dekalb Airport here -- second-busiest airport in the State of Georgia -- and I remember the absolute silence from the airfield, with all commercial and general aviation flights shut down, was eerie as hell for two or three days afterward.

A good quote I heard on the radio today, about all the political rancor we see nowadays: "It's okay to disagree...but not to be disagreeable." Therein lies a weakness that we dare not show to the enemy.

 

[jaimek]

I was living in Virginia Beach at the time, and when I got out of the shower that morning and logged on, I was bombarded with instant messages. Both towers had been hit, but the Pentagon crash hadn't happened yet. I had no television, and being on dialup I couldn't get through to any news sites, so I had to rely on the IMs to fill me in on what was going on until I went to work at 12, at which point I got caught up on the footage. It was the sight of the jumpers that struck me more than anything else that day... that and the vague unease/relief of living two miles from the biggest naval base in the country, because until the point that it became obvious the attacks were carried out for shock value, we were a potential target.

It was a horrible day, and I hate the political machinations that have been carried out using it as the springboard.

 

[Diamond45]

Six years ago I was where I am now - at work (different office at the time, just one floor lower). My co-workers were listening to CNN audio online. I was asking them what was going on but they wouldn't respond. I tried going to CNN, Fox News, etc. but all the websites were busy. I finally found a site that told me what was going on.

Not long after that - they evacuated our facility (government) and we all left as fast as we could - which is difficult considering we have a couple of thousand people here. We were told to stay away for a couple of days until things could be straightened out.

Not exactly a time to remember....

 

[AMBR]

I was starting the first day of homeschooling my youngest. We were just starting math when my friend and editor at the newspaper called and told me to turn on the news; a "small" plane had "accidently" hit one of the Trade Center Towers. We were on the phone talking about it for awhile when we saw the second hit. It is one of the most shocking, surreal moments of my life.
Everything after that was so warped.

I actually went to do an interview at 10:00 at a police station and we ended up just sitting around watching the TV. After the first tower collapsed I though, "Oh shit, my 11-year-old son is home alone WATCHING this!" By the time I got home, he was on the front lawn yelling, "The tower collapsed!" over and over. I thought he meant the first, then I discovered he meant the second. I was in total shock. It was then I suddenly realized, Dave was going into the city for a meeting that day. I wasn't sure if it was at the Trade Centers. I got so frightened I actually almost passed out. Not able to take the stress anymore, I decided to drive up to Sandy Hook and watch. The TV coverage was just to painful.

So I drove up the shore towards the Navesink Twinlighthouses that sits up high on a bluff with a great view of the city. All the way up the shore as far south as Asbury Park the smoke was thick and brown over the water. When we got to the overlook there were maybe 50 people there, some with cameras on tripods or binoculars, but it was deathly quiet. I just sat there on the grass, immobilzed and watched the city burn. Here's a rather small photo someone took and posted on the web. This around 11:00. I'm sitting in front of the crowd on the left.
Here's the view today.

Wasn't until late in the afternoon that day, Dave returned my message on his cell phone. His train was in Newark Penn Station when they were ordered off. Then ordered back on and taken south with almost no explanation. Some people made it to the station from the city, somehow, and told them what had happened. He said it was the strangest site to pull out of the station and see the towers gone.

 

[Kaosaur]

I was late for school that day.

My high school was just off of 16th and 5th Ave. Looking straight down 5th Ave, you had a pretty clear view of the towers.

I happened to be crossing 5th Ave right as the first plane hit and saw it out of the corner of my eye. Watching it all happen live... :/

 

[Stardust2112]

I was in midtown Manhattan, working at an office building right above Grand Central Station. Once we realized what was going on, I was worried that the transportation hubs (Grand Central, Port Authority, etc) would be hit next, so I got the hell out of there, determined to walk back to the Bronx in the three inch heels I was wearing if I had to. Luckily I only waited about an hour for a bus and it didn't take too long to get home. I think that's because I didn't dilly-dally long after the first tower fell. I just took my purse and left. It was weird, though, because the streets were full of people and you could have heard a pin drop. I think everyone was in shock.

While I knew I was going to be okay, I couldn't reach any of my friends who work in Manhattan because I was the only one with cell phone service. My brother was in the city that day, too, for a work-related meeting and I had no way to reach him. It was scary for a while, but as everyone got home and was able to use their landlines, the phone calls started coming in.

~C

 

[Yippee38]

I was getting ready for work (late as always). At that time we turned on the news in the morning. We've since learned better and have happier days without that kind of start. Anyway, I was brushing my teeth and walked into the living room. CNN was talking about the first crash and showing pictures. They said a small plane accidentally hit the tower. My first thought was, "Bullshit!" The hole was WAY too big for a small plane, and the sky could not have been clearer. How the hell could a plane "accidentally" hit the World Trade Center. I finished brushing my teeth and called YardleyBates. I kept popping into the living room while getting ready to go. I was watching as the second plane hit the second tower. It was weird because the CNN people were watching it live at the same time I did. Their reactions were stunned. I remember thinking, "I guess it wasn't an accident after all. OMG! It was a terrorist attack!"

I called YardleyBates again. This time I was worried. She was going into one of the largest building in Chicago that was full of people. I realized that it wasn't a huge risk though. Terrorists would go for The Sears Tower or the John Hancock Building first. It was still worrisome.

I drove in to work which took about 40 minutes. When I got there, nobody had any clue what had happened. I told them and grabbed the TV we used for training videos. Me and another manager got it receiving a snowy picture. We all kept working, but we all kept drifting into the conference room to see what was going on. Several of us saw the first tower collapse. Pretty much the whole building was in there when the second collapsed.

Being out in the warehouse was bizarre. Our warehouse was about mile from the end of runway 9 Right at O'Hare. There were constantly airplane flying overhead pretty low. Today it was silent. Very eery. Some of the guys in the warehouse told me later that they saw two F-16s fly over later in the day. They were supersonic as they heard the boom. They were pretty high though because those of us in the office didn't hear it. They were intercepting one of the planes that were still in the air.

I had a habit of reading a couple of tech sites every morning (I was Manager of Information Systems for our building). The next day I was reading arstechnica.com and they had a blurb on their main page about a thread in their forums. They had opened it to non-subscribers so everybody could read it. I went there and checked it out. A lot of the readers from other countries were posting their wishes. Somebody started posting pictures from around the world. Looking at those pictures, my emotions finally caught up with me and I sat in my office with tears running down my cheeks. Those pics are archived there permanently. Here's the link: http://arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/01q3/war/index.html The thread was renamed to, "Thank you."

A week later Yardley and I went on a planned vacation to Disney World and scuba diving in West Palm Beach. It was great because there were no lines. We were absolutely unafraid to fly because we knew that something like that would never happen again, especially after only week. We knew there was no way the passengers on an airplane would let that happen again. The downside was that I got food poisoning twice while we were there. A friend of mine who was one of the top guys as Sea World suspected that some places kept food on hand longer than they should have because of the sudden drop in the crowds.

 

[MetalPrincess8]

I was only 18 when it happened, and I was getting ready for work. Every morning, I would put on the TV while I did my makeup, but that morning, all that was on was NEWS NEWS NEWS...i was like "damn...isn't there ANYTHING else on besides NEWS?" then i started paying attention to what was going on...right then, the second plane went through the second tower...seeing it live on TV was a memory that will be burned in my brain forever. I ended up going to work after watching both towers fall, and watched the rest of the news coverage while working. Still can't get over that it happened six years ago now. God bless all that were involved in that on that awful day. We all love you!

 

[Creeps]

I had a doctor appointment early that morning and swung into a Sam Goody on the way back to work... ironically, buying the new Slayer album god Hates Us All when I heard it on the radio in the store.

 

[BlackRoseMetalHeart]

I had a doctor appointment early that morning and swung into a Sam Goody on the way back to work... ironically, buying the new Slayer album god Hates Us All when I heard it on the radio in the store.

You just reminded me of the Live in NY Dream Theater album (or maybe it was a DVD or both) that came out that exact day. (Another reason I will always remember it was a Tuesday.)
Either way, all stores had to immediately pull it from the shelves and return their stocks of it to receive replacement cover art, since the original cover art showed a NYC skyline with the two towers engulfed in flames. Freaky!

 

[Rycher]

You just reminded me of the Live in NY Dream Theater album (or maybe it was a DVD or both) that came out that exact day. (Another reason I will always remember it was a Tuesday.)
Either way, all stores had to immediately pull it from the shelves and return their stocks of it to receive replacement cover art, since the original cover art showed a NYC skyline with the two towers engulfed in flames. Freaky!

 

[Pellaz]

I had pre-ordered Live Scenes From New York from somewhere, so it was already en route when the band and label recalled that version. It is positively weird that it was released with THAT art on THAT day.

 

[Ostracised]

I was in Japan. It was around 3 in the morning, and I got the call that we had just gone to Threatcon Delta due to the attacks. I didn't believe them at first because there was a base exercise scheduled that week, and it sounded so farfetched that I cussed the guy out that called me. I don't think I've ever felt so helpless in my life as a did when I turned on my tv half a world away and saw what was happening on the land I swore to defend. That's a big part of the reason I'm still in.

 

[LunaTEKKE]

I didn’t have the news on that morning. My landlords were having the condo that I live in appraised. The appraiser was supposed to arrive early enough for me to still get to work on time – and I was furious when he showed up 30 minutes late. When I finally got to the office, a co-worker told me that he had brought in his TV.

“What for?”

“A plane hit one of the World Trade Center Towers and then another plane hit the other tower and one of the towers fell and then another plane hit the Pentagon and everyone says it’s the start of WW III.”

“You’re bullshitting me.”

“I wouldn’t bullshit you about something like that.”

I spent the rest of the day at the office pretty much sleepwalking through my job and listening to updates on the radio. Our company had group tickets that night for a Diamondbacks game, which was obviously cancelled.

A close friend of our company’s owner lost his son in the WTC attacks. A gentleman that our company had done business with (I didn’t know him personally) was also killed at the WTC.