September 11, 2001, is a date that will forever be known simply as 9-11. As we reflect on the day we think of those we lost in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington DC; and we remember the courage and bravery of the heroic first responders. We will never forget.
I was working at the Cohen Bldg, 3rd & C St, SW, in DC. Watched the 2nd plane hit “live” on TV, watched the smoke from the Pentagon from the rooftop. Cell service was out. Walked to NASA bldg and the wife and I grabbed a quick burger from Mickey D’s because we knew it was going to be a long day. Made the Metro to Alexandria just as all train service shut down. Took 7 hrs to get home. Brother in Law was on Duty at the Pentagon. He was lucky, being on the other side of the quad when the plane hit. Never forget that day. Surreal.
I did too. I saw it on tv.
no words, just shock
I’ll bet you didn’t know about this before
https://slate.com/culture/2001/12/bin-laden-s-special-complaint-with-the-world-trade-center.html
>Yamasaki received the World Trade Center commission the year after the Dhahran Airport was completed. Yamasaki described its plaza as “a mecca, a great relief from the narrow streets and sidewalks of the surrounding Wall Street area.” True to his word, Yamasaki replicated the plan of Mecca’s courtyard by creating a vast delineated square, isolated from the city’s bustle by low colonnaded structures and capped by two enormous, perfectly square towers—minarets, really. Yamasaki’s courtyard mimicked Mecca’s assemblage of holy sites—the Qa’ba (a cube) containing the sacred stone, what some believe is the burial site of Hagar and Ishmael, and the holy spring—by including several sculptural features, including a fountain, and he anchored the composition in a radial circular pattern, similar to Mecca’s.
https://www.crescentofbetrayal.com/
>Every element of the entire crescent design turns out to be a typical mosque feature, realized on the same epic scale as the half-mile wide central crescent. The minaret-like Tower of Voices part of the memorial turns out to be a gigantic Islamic prayer-time sundial. There are 44 memorial glass blocks emplaced along the flight path, exceeding the number of our murdered heroes by the number of their murderers.
I did know this actually. Did they ever change it? Seems not. Someone should remove it and make an appropriate memorial if it still stands as is described. Maybe Anti-Fa can help with that?
I’m referring to the Flight 93 memorial. I did not know about the original design of the WTC. Thanks for the knowledge.
Thank you so much for sharing this extremely enlightening read!! I’m sending it out to several people for their edification. Wow, and it certainly makes the case for why Bin Laden chose this site.
Thank you, very interesting, I didn’t know the particulars of the WTC design. Explains a lot.
I was aware of the horrible Shanksville Memorial design. I have a friend near Shanksville and she says people there were very upset and tried to get it changed. I also signed a petition and emailed a complaint about it.
hellsobserver,
Thank you for sharing, knew about the Flight 93 Memorial , but not about the ETC.
Can learn a lot here at CTH,
They are slowly but surely moving in on us. Our days are numbered if we let it continue.
I was working in London at the time. At 2pm, a British co-worker told me his wife had just called him that one of the towers had been hit by a plane. I dismissed it thinking his wife had it wrong. Then she called him again on the 2nd tower. Then a third time when the Pentagon was hit. It was only then I knew it was real.
Everyone was trying to access any news website on the internet, but everything was jammed and no one could get in. An Australian gal in our group said she was going to try to access an Australian news site because of the favorable time difference, and she was successful, then confirmed everything.
I called my husband who was in the car headed to downtown Boston. He knew nothing about it. Turned on the radio while I was on the phone, and said, Oh my God. My mom was supposed to join me in London on Sept 13 but could not. All flights had been cancelled.
We had 7 Americans at this UK work site. Two days later the British govt announced 2 minutes of silence at 8.46 EST 2 days later (in the afternoon in the UK). All employees gathered in one massive room with the radio on which announced the precise time for the nationwide memorial. Two minutes of silence in the room by an international group of IT workers.
Got home that night, watched British TV. They displayed the streets of each of the European capital cities: London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Dublin, Amsterdam showing all traffic at a dead stop at the appointed time. Cars, buses, pedestrians. Everything stopped in its tracks. I will never forget that as long as I live.
The US embassy in Grosvenor Square opened up its grounds that weekend for the public to write sentiments of condolences. Regarding whether I should go, I thought, why not? When I arrived, I was in complete shock. The line was wrapped entirely around the square and down the street, it was enormous. I debated whether to get in the long line, and thought, if these people can stand in line to show respect, so can I. No one in proximity to me in line was American. In fact, the people in front of me were speaking a language I did not recognize, and I speak several. Most people were carrying a bouquet of flowers, but I did not.
About an hour later arrived at the entrance to the embassy grounds greeted by a US Marine in dress blues. The embassy grounds had white tents with banquet tables and chairs and condolence books scattered around the many tables with ample boxes of Kleenex. I sat down to read some of the comments before I wrote, and then broke down grabbing a tissue trying to control myself.
The square where the statue FDR sits was completely inundated with flowers and momentos left by the visitors. Tons and tons of them. Think about the front of Buckingham palace with bouquets after Diana’s death. The British are so thoughtful about that.
I took the time to walk around the square (as did many others) to look at the flood of items people had left. NYC baseball hat with a note from a former NYC cabbie. An American football. A basketball. Homemade condolence cards left by flight attendants from American Airlines, Lufthansa, British Airways, United, on and on. A teddy bear. Candles. Flowers. Personal hand made, written cards from people across the globe expressing sorrow and warm wishes to the American spirit. To say this show of support was uplifting was an understatement.
Some days later I went to the last night of BBC Proms concert at Albert Hall, which is always considered to be the best of the best each season. The conductor of the Proms was American. They handed you a paper at the entrance with the national anthems of the UK and US. There was a lot of local controversy about the last night being a tribute to the US when the theme is always about the spirit and patriotism of the UK. But it was done well, and I hope no Brit was unhappy with it. The night opened with everyone singing the British and American anthems with our paper containing the words.
That is where I was for 9/11.
Thank You for sharing.
That was truly touching. Yes, there is a “special relationship” and it remains alive and well.
Thank you so much for your perspective, doyouseemyvision. It means a lot, even now.
I was on my way to the jobsite when the radio broke in with the news the North Tower was hit by a plane. I was aware that planes had hit the ESB before and figured it was a small twin engine that struck from the limited information given.
By the time I reached the jobsite I knew it was a large passenger plane but still thought it was an accident. When the truck showed up with my concrete, the driver asked if we had heard and surprised us when he mentioned that a second plane hit the South Tower. It was at this point we all knew it was an attack.
The homeowner graciously brought a radio out for us and as we went about our jobs we listened to the increasingly nightmarish reports.
Once we got the concrete on the ground I sent the laborers home for the day and I stayed with my two finishers for the next four hours. Afterwords the three of us called it a day and went home to watch with our loved ones.
I picked up my daughter at school as they were let off early too. It was my wifes day off and we watched together the nightmare unfolding before our eyes.
My wife is Canadian. Her permanent resident visa card was issued on and has the date on it as 9/11/2001. She is now an American citizen.
I was in my home office (no TV then) in Dallas when my wife called and said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I went downstairs and turned on the TV. Shortly the second plane hit. My eldest daughter was in college in Austin and called scared to death. I don;t think we turned off the TV for several days. My wife had a surgical procedure scheduled for the next day. We went to the hospital where the procedure went off without complications. Every eye in the waiting room was glued to the TV.
I just spent nearly an hour on another site watching an incredible video and audio compilation of the events. Good form dictates I not mention the site here but it is another one most of us look at frequently.
Say what you will about President Bush but he handled himself so well. I remember thinking “thank God Al Gore was not our President.” Bush’s bull horn speech at Ground Zero “… the people who knocked down these buildings will be hearing from all of us soon…” resonates as much now as it did then. It is a shame 19 years later he has dishonored himself.
You’ll remember shortly later the “main stream media” decided the people had had enough of the videos and ceased running them. “It was for the good of the country” they said. I think it was the first step in changing the narrative as our people were ready for a fight.
As terrible as the events of 911 were, I believe what is happening right now with the scamdemic, the main stream media and the Democrats (birds of a feather) is worse. We all said “Never Again.” But it is happening again. This time it is coming from within (at least on the surface). Half of the country has lost its way.
Pray for our country. Pray of our President. But get out there and VOTE. Make sure every person you know VOTES. Hit the streets.
United we stand. Divided we shall surely fall.
God bless America!
I agree that things in the country are far worse now than they were then….it was an awful day but we all came together, as Americans, against a common enemy.
Now, almost two decades later, we seem to have lost our way. Our political leaders and our media started framing a false narrative almost immediately and it has led to so much of the bitterness and division that we are now seeing. Will we ever really get the whole story of what happened that day?
Yes, prayer is our best course of action now… It always has been but there is a sense of urgency now that I have never felt before….
There are some of us who still remember 9/11/1649
Yes, the loss of over 2,000 of our Irish Ancestors at the hands of Cromwell.
I was living in South Raleigh at the time and went to my coffee shop before I went to work. The guy making the coffee said that he heard a small plane or helicopter hit a building in NYC. I did not think much of it. During the drive to RTP, the radio announcer gave the full details that it was a full blown passenger plane that hit the building and during the broadcast reported that a second plane had hit the other WTC tower. I remember feeling that the world had just changed.
I will never forget this. During the stop and go commute to RTP from Raleigh, you drive right by the RDU airport. I will never forget the planes coming in for a landing. It was as if they were flying nose to tail into the airport. Plane after plane were landing immediately. No work occurred that day since we were watching the live television broadcasts. Our boss told us to leave work early.
I must add two things: I was curious about the people who did this. In South Raleigh, there is a mosque close to NCSU campus and I decide to drive by and just look it. Who are these people? I will never forget that when I was driving down the road close to the mosque a black SUV began to follow me very closely. I got the message. So, it looks like all mosques were given a protective detail from the government.
The second fact is that the WTC housed very powerful routers to route internet traffic between US and Europe. Because of the design of internet protocols and the learning algorithms used in these flagship routers, the collapse of the WTC only disrupted the internet traffic for about 10 minutes since the other routers across our country immediately began to find alternative paths.
Apologies for the clunky opening, but this song by Alan Jackson is my mainstay.
I stood there and knew the world had changed forever.
I bought my own personal gun for the first time. Realized the baseball bat wasn’t going to be enuf.
Sat in church for the next 3 Sundays and cried the entire services staring at a hymnal page with my tears falling on it. I remember a young boy turned, chewing on the wooden pew back as he stared at me. I just cried harder thinking how we didn’t keep his world safe. Then the deployments started and the crying was done.
I was working at a major defense contractor at the time. When we first heard about it, a group of us huddled in the Security office where the only TV was and watched it all unfold. It was horrible to see. My wife (we weren’t married at the time) worked as a crisis counselor at a High School in Western Maryland and had students there who’s parents worked at the Pentagon. She had to help them try to get information while trying to calm them down.
I was with a special unit of the USMS as a 1st responder.
Donald Trump interview two days later
Then billionaire Donald J. Trump was presidential even then.
Yes, certainly presidential, as you say!
He has not changed one bit. About the chance there may be survivors in the buildings, he said, “I would certainly not want to be the one to say it’s not possible. Certainly, it’s a tough situation, but you can’t give up hope. There’s always hope.”
Thank you. I don’t think I fully remember this at the time.
So evident that he had a total grasp of the magnitude of the building situation. No doubt he also had a big percentage of the nat’l security situation too.
I wouldn’t have any idea then, I barely was aware of the guy then 🙁 but with it in context now…cool as a cucumber and totally informed. Look at the numbers he has at the ready, the understanding of the structre, safety protocols….well informed, highly engaged. In a political world, we’d think “he is well prepared”. In his world he is fully engaged. It is not for the camera. It was his job, not his “cover”. This is a clip for today.
I was at work inside a large two story building that is part of a very large defense contractors 1.8million square foot complex immediately adjacent to BWI Airport a few miles southwest of Baltimore.
A little after 9am ? Someone came into the office from the DCMA office next to our Facilities Dept office and told us a plane had hit one of the WTC towers in NYC.
We had a TV in our conference room but it was only a monitor for a VCR. Having a bit of electronics background I removed the VCRs coax connecting cable from the TV antenna jack and took a large paper clip, unbent it, and stuck one end into the tiny center hole of the antenna connector on the TV. That served as enough of an antenna that we could tune in one of Baltimore’s three local networks and get a reasonably watchable picture.
25 people crowded into the 12 person conference room and watched the second plane hit, the videos of the pentagon hit, and the reports of flight 93 in PA. Needless to say, everyone was stunned and worried.
About 1 hour later we got word that because of our being next to the airport and being a primary defense contractor, we might be in danger so we were told to go home. Some of us volunteered to stay at work since we were considered first responders in facility emergencies. I stayed for an additional 4 hours but was finally told to head home. It took me 3 hours to make a normally 45 minute 30 mile commute.
I love reading the stories shared here today. God Bless all of you.
September 11 is our wedding anniversary, we were married in 1983
My story is a long one. We live in No Va, hubbs had a meeting at the Pentagon with a bunch of Generals at OSD. So the day before, we had already planned that he would be coming home directly after the meeting, so around hmmm maybe noon.
So I dropped the girls off at their respective public schools, and came home to take a quick shower, and gather up my gear and head to the rink. Yes, I was figure skating. It was something I picked up the previous year, a way to wear myself out daily to cope with the death of my sister, who died from Smoking She had a brain aneurysm
So, as I was going down stairs at home, I heard on my favorite classical music station, that does not exist anymore because Washington Post bought it and turned it into a propaganda station
The words I heard were from my beloved Dennis Owens telling us to turn on our tvs
I turned on the tv to hear discussion about a plane hitting a building and as i was watching, in the back ground I watched the 2nd plane hit the building.
So, crazy me, I went to the rink, and my coach and all of my skating pals were standing outside looking up. Coach said, there is a plane flying around, so we were all a little freaked out.
Then I heard about the Pentagon. My mind went numb.
Of course, no skating, I went home. Called my husband, He had a cell phone, did he have a black berry back then? I do not think those existed yet. but he did have a secure government issue cell
No response. Hours no response.
I drove to both public schools and removed my daughters.
Came home, watched tv with the girls, and hugged them. I told them daddy was coming home. We prayed WE PRAYED
At around 1:00, my husband called, and it was the most bizarre phone call. He was lightly laughing.
He was with work friends at that “whatever cant remember building in Arlington” He said the sky was black. I asked if he was at the Pentagon. He said the was standing at the DOD bus stop, the bus came 5 minutes late, which was unusual, He got on, and as they were leaving the parking lot, the plane hit the Pentagon. Well, he told me all of that later. What he said on the phone was just strange. My husband is a nerd, very serious. He was laughing, and said something about going to get lunch and that he was unable to drive home bc the sky was completely blacck and the roads were clogged.
So that was a long day. I think he called a few times again to assure me. I do remember asking him to “come home right now” just out of despair, but I knew looking at the tv that it was probably better for him to stay put and make a plan to navigate home
He did come home (normally a 40 minute drive from Arlington to Broadlands)
He came home at 10:30 PM – the roads, the air, it was gridlock.
Oh, I am grateful that this posted. Thank you, My computer gave me a different message.
Have a Blessed day everyone
I was home preparing to leave for work. When the second plane hit the towers, the mask that had been covering my eyes to media lies was lifted. Suddenly I could see the lies. Katie Couric was on TV and I immediately knew nothing she was saying then or for years, was truth. So many needless deaths. So many lies. I pray that events unfolding now are lifting the masks for others.
In late December, 2001, I went to the New Year’s celebration in New York City. Despite the terrorist attacks only a few months earlier, I felt completely safe and secure. This was in large part due to Mayor Giuliani’s policies in effect and his leadership.
Nineteen years later, I have an overwhelming sense of peace and calm, knowing that God is in control and we have someone who loves America in the White House.
San Francisco. My husband turned on the news and came running in into the bedroom to tell me. My mom and others had also tried to call but I hadn’t yet checked messages. Husband went to work, ghost town, came right back home. I put an American flag in the window and looked out on the City all day, fearing something would happen there next. News on all day, for days. I remember taking my dog out that morning and running into an elderly neighbor. She didn’t say a word, she just looked at me and shook her head. She was clearly about to cry so she put her head down and rushed into the building. Everyone I saw that day had wide eyes and looked like they had seen a ghost. What a terribly sad day, I feel like i remember almost every single minute of it.
(Lots of interesting stories here.) I was in my home office in a western suburb of Indy, wearing a suit and tie to make a customer call later in the day in Chicago; as it turns out, that was literally the last time I had a suit and tie on for a work occasion (which never happened). My bride was puttering in the kitchen with the TV on, when I wandered in to get some coffee. I glanced at the screen, saw smoke pouring from the North Tower and before I could ask she explained that there’d been an accident of some kind and a plane had hit one of the towers. I said something to the effect that an accident seemed unlikely to me because there because of various rules about flying over the island at that kind of altitude. At almost that exact moment the South Tower was hit and the first words out of my mouth were “that was no accident.” I went back in the office and instant messaged my boss about what was going on. He gathered some folks there in the office in the classroom where there were TVs and they couldn’t get the sound from any of them. I spent the couple of hours giving running instant message commentary about what the news channel we were watching was saying. It made me think then, as it does now, of Ronald Reagan’s job in his youth of doing baseball game radio commentary to games he wasn’t actually watching (as I recall the story).
A couple of days later my wife felt the strong urge to go see our oldest, who was a sophomore at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN at the time, so we drove the 50 miles down to campus and picked him up and had a nice lunch somewhere. She just wanted to see if he was OK I suppose; our youngest was still in HS at the time and was at home. As we are parting company in the parking lot of this restaurant, a small plane of some kind goes puttering along at a relatively low altitude, headed north. We gaped at it and wondered WTH was going on since air traffic was supposedly grounded nationwide. Maybe 5 minutes later, an F-16 goes whipping by (I’m guessing IN Air National Guard plane) in the general direction of where the little plane had putt putted past. Later on we learned that some farmer had decided he wanted to go see his daughter up near Kokomo. He was forced down somewhere short of his goal as I recall … idiot.
One of the stranger things about it was this: Indy is a major air traffic control point. I have seen as many as 20 sets of contrails at the same time, high above, pointing every which way. That stretch of time when there was no air traffic, it was eerie that the sky was empty of them. And, here we are in the time of the Chinese flu, and much the same thing has been true, for much longer.
I live within earshot of the Indy airport; six miles from the end of the runway. In ordinary times, starting about 4am, you can hear the rumble of the cargo jets leaving (everybody and his brother has a distribution center here). There’s been so little traffic overhead that the other day a neighbor actually pointed out a contrail as being kind of unique. There was a long stretch where I’m not sure other than the cargos, which come and go in the dark, that there was anything much at all coming in here or passing overhead. It’s the overhead traffic that generates all the contrails and instead of having a dozen up at a time, it’s unusual to see more than one.
In Dallas the jogging trail that goes by Turtle Creek is on the SWair flight path in/out of Love Field. Normally there is a SWA coming in/heading out every 2 minutes…..now I notice one every 10-15 minutes….
Welcome to moderation.
I typed up a long story about my experience but when I tried to post it, it was rejected.
I will try later. In short
My hubbs was at the Pentagon at a meeting with a bunch of Generals on the opposite side
He left, took a DOD bus 5 minutes before the bus stop was destroyed, the video used to be on Wiki of the plane hitting. My hubbs was sitting on a bus and said it felt like a bomb
he was “stuck” in Arlington all day, black sky, toxic, cars. He called me, he spoke so weird I knew he was in shock. Weirdest conversation ever
he finally got home at 10:30 PM
I remember finishing some custom cabinetry and walking into the office and my wife looking up from her desk, pointing at the tv and gasping, “Look! What… in…. the?”
By noon, I was at the Marine recruiting office to re-enlist.
Could not understand why there was no line.
We Will Never Forget.
Thank you for your service!
Thank you for your service.
In the company’s arms room cleaning an m16. Somebody yelled New York’s getting bombed. Beginning of a wild ride.. Mainly remember the anger we felt.
I was at my house in Fairfax County, Virginia – just outside DC. I was eating breakfast and watching the Today Show before work when they reported the first tower was hit. At first there was confusion about what had happened and whether it was an accident, but when the second tower was hit there was no doubt it was intentional.
Around 9:40am, I heard a big thud sound outside my house, which sounded like a truck had dropped a dumpster on my street. I went outside to look and didn’t see a dumpster. I went back in the house only to hear on the news a couple of minutes later that the Pentagon had been struck. I think that was the thud I had heard. It shook me to my core.
I had staff working in Crystal City (in Arlington, just a mile from the Pentagon) and a soon-to-be brother in law working in the Watergate building. I immediately called them all to make sure they knew what was going on and to tell them to go home.
I still get choked up thinking about that day and how tragic it was.
I hope we as a nation never forget.
yes. We were in Loudoun County. Actually, from the top of one of the houses that was being built, we could see the smoke. we were crying hysterically
I was at work at Boeing. I worked on the 757 planes and was in the factory.
One of the guys yelled ” a plane hit the WTC”.
All the monitors on the floor came on and we all watched as the second plane hit and then as the Pentagon was also hit.
It was surreal knowing that 2 of those planes used that day had been in the very building I was standing in and that I had helped build them.
I arrived at work a little before nine when co workers told me a plane hit the World Trade Center. I thought it was a joke…they know how gullible I was back then. I even thought I was a Democrat. Maybe it was an accident. Then the second plane hit and we all knew we were under attack.
I remember how people pulled together.
I wondered how long THAT would last.
We’ve been under attack from many directions ever since . We’ve been flailing at hidden enemies who only now are coming into clearer view.
So we must remember our resolve, gather our strength because this battle is at a full court
Press now. It is spiritual, mental and physical so PRAY hard, stay informed, and have a plan to protect ourselves and fellow patriots. It ain’t just about us either. Other nations and people are hoping for our success. And the grace of God has brought us this far, it is sufficient to bring us through if we look to Him.
I was in Wayne, Michigan educating my Catholic children.
They attended a few preVatican II schools for several years.
I had just gotten off the graveyard shift and entered my vehicle at at about 5:50 PST. They were talking about the first plane when they went to a witness on the ground. This guy saw the second plane and said live “here comes another one.” It still sends chills up my spine to think about it. Normally I would go home to sleep but instead headed to my elderly mother’s house where I watched live coverage the rest of the day. I still have a huge problem with Building 7.
Yep! “I still have a huge problem with Building 7.”
I was driving into work when the radio announcer said something strange had happened in New York. The rest of the day was spent in disbelief as the pictures came in.
Then 3 days later the names started to roll in and among them was Brian “Moose” Sweeney, a fellow RIO in one of my squadrons, who left a rather remarkable message for his wife before the second plane that he was on hit the tower.
I was at my desk. On a side note, a good friend named Chip died in the towers. Chip was always fearless. Chip and I survived the Beirut Bombing together back in 1983. As a NYC fireman he charged right into the towers to help others. RIP Chip.
I live outside Philly. For weeks you’d ask people how they were doing. Very general comment, but we are between NYC and DC and the last plane crashed in PA so many people had stories they needed to tell. Know one I knew died, but I have several friends who lost someone.
Showed up for work, early on the west coast, doing from service work at a local retailer – my radio in my car was busted, so I had no idea until I walked into the department store’s electronics department, and saw the whole thing on fifty different screens – large screen, all the way down to desk top. I was apparently the only one in the store who already knew who Bin Laden was.
On September 11, 2001, I was working as a copier tech in Tampa, Florida.b. I was in showroom of the company doing maintenance on a piece of equipment.
I overheard a couple of salespersons talking about future ability to take airplane flights in the immediate future while I completed my task.
The IT tech who I would at customer demos noticed me and could tell I did not know what happened. He walked me up from the first floor showroom to a second floor conference room where a television was broadcasting the events.
The first image I saw was a panoramic view of lower Manhattan just after the South Tower collapsed. Soon after, the maintenance general manager asked me my opinion of what was going to happen next. My reply, ‘We are going to war’.
I was in the engine room of my ship working on reinstalling a main engine head. The telephone in the engine room started to ring. We ignored it because we were busy, but it just kept ringing. That was unusual. Finally, I left the job and went to answer the telephone. It was the Chief Mate, and he said, “Chief, I think you better come up here,” in what I recognized later was an unnaturally calm voice. I told him we were in the middle of a big project, and he said, “Chief, I REALLY think you had better come up here now.” I then realized something was very wrong and said, “Right. On my way,” and hung up the phone.
I RAN to the elevator and got there no more than three minutes from the time I hung up the telephone. I walked into his office and he just pointed at the television. I got there just in time to see the plane hit the South Tower. We watched that in silence. Then he told me there had already been a plane crashed into the North Tower. I thought about that for a minute. Then I told him, “We’re at war with someone. You better start getting ready to sail because I guarantee you we’re going someplace real soon.” We were underway for the Med just a few days later.
What I remember most about the weeks and months afterward was how sad I was that that horrible event had happened, and how much I wished we could go back to the way it was on Sept. 10. Afghanistan should be damned glad I wasn’t President of the U.S., because I would have told those bastards they had 48 hours to turn the entire Al-Qaeda leadership over or I would turn their whole garbage country into a radioactive sheet of green glass that glowed in the dark. They probably wouldn’t have acted–but I damned sure would have, and I wouldn’t have had one qualm about doing it, then or later.
mac, I think that was a lot of people’s reaction and feeling still. Bomb them out of existence.
I was working the last days at job on Long Island and one of the workers came into the office to say a plane had hit one of the towers. It was a beautiful, clear day. Everyone went to watch the tv when we saw the second plane come on the screen and we knew it was an attack. Terrorists had tried to take down the towers in 1993. My husband was uptown so I called him and left him a message that NY was under attack (he was able to get home later that night safely). My brother was a fireman with FDNY so I called my mom to say that I didn’t think he was there, but she said he was. His firehouse was downtown. We continued to watch and when Tower 2 fell, we knew it was only a matter of time that Tower One would come down. My brother called in the evening to say that his engine company was in Tower 1, but were able to get out, but that their Ladder Company was missing and days later were confirmed deceased. It was a bad day to say the least. You can imagine life hasn’t been easy for anyone who survived 9/11. It was more than some people did something.
I was proud to be an American that morning because the response to the attack was a national outpouring of compassion for the victims and their families and a desire to help. I think all of the cultural cynics who smirk at the idea of our unity and love for each other were proven wrong.
Our friend Michael Horrocks was the co-pilot on United 175, the second plane to hit the World Trade Center. Big ex-Marine pilot, 6’4″. High School and college quarterback. Young family with 3 little kids. He was building a brick walkway in his front yard, and promised to finish it when he returned home.
We went to the funeral – and there was massive security, with helicopters flying overhead, and guards on the ground just in case of another terror attack.
How could the greatest military in the world have left our major cities unprotected – for HOURS?
Very strange.
https://www.inquirer.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090911_Former_teammates_honor_their_fallen_leader__A_statue_for_Mike_Horrocks__pilot_of_Flight_175.html
Very strange, indeed…a NORAD “drill” and stand-down order on 9/11. Coincidence? I think not. Or at the very least, someone knew in advance there would be no “engagement”.
And all those put options on airlines the day(s) before?
Somebody knew what was coming.
It still tears me up, can’t believe we didn’t take out Bin laden immediately. We lost so many, so many families bear the scars. : (
Here on the West Coast, I would normally have still been sleeping but I was supposed to be taking my new kitties to the vet at 7AM (our time) so I was up early.
I saw the news about the first plane and thought it was really strange so woke up my firefighter husband. We both saw the plane hit the second tower and knew then that this was not an accident.
I woke up my kids, who were eight and ten at the time, and we all watched history unfold in front of us… They both still remember that day vividly, as do we all, I believe!
I was working at home and had lucianne.com, which is where I “lived” every day until I discovered the Treehouse 5 years ago, open in a separate window, as always.
They had the news pretty much immediately – commenters there, as here, were always quick with breaking events. I spent the morning on that site, as I would here now for any event as horrific as that atrocity (I really hated that the media NEVER used that word – they started right away calling it a tragedy, as if there were no humans responsible and it was weather or something). I had the TV on in the background with Fox, but the most truthful information I got was from real people online, not the media, as it should be.
I also remember in ensuing days how the left response hardened almost immediately. Right away I had a fight with a lefty “friend” who was blaming Bush for it (yeah, I knew little then about the Uniparty reality of W, but I knew the animals in the planes were the murderers) and dumped her (a decision I am still happy with years later).
I also said something, I forget what, about the perpetrators – mild, actually – in a crowd that was having a moment of silence a few days later – and was immediately virulently attacked by some little snowflake for daring to suggest that all Muslims weren’t angels. ? It was a huge WTF moment.
The Communist left has been the same, always, and I firmly believe they were part of that attack in some way.
We are so lucky now to have this President who recognizes and fights against all our true enemies. I know that defeating ISIS is only one of his great and many accomplishments – but if he had done only that, I still would have been a diehard supporter right now.
Our friend. Michael Horrocks
https://montco.today/2019/09/statue-former-wcu-quarterback-tangible-reminder-911-tragedy/
This choked me up.
Yes, we will always remember – September 11, 2001 and September 11, 2012.
May Our Father in Heaven bless them and their Families.
I was returning to the office of my computer business from a call. My business partner asked me if I saw what happened. He turned a monitor towards me and that moment is seared into my mind…
My college roommate deployed to Afganistan months later. As part of the NATO mission he was PPCLI (Canadian Infantry). They were sent into the mountains to hunt Taliban. I got a sat-call from him late one night. The Taliban wouldn’t engage them. He was so frustrated that they kept running away.
No doubt these big bad “terrorists” were hiding inside homes where they use women and children as shields. Lowest of the low. Hell is too good for them.
My wife, pregnant with our oldest son, and I had just finished eating our dinner (yes dinner) when my phone rang. One of my shipmates, Dwight, told me to turn on the television. I turned it on in time to see the second plane strike. I grabbed my sea bag, kissed my wife goodbye, and headed for my ship. Bicycling across the Yokosuka Naval Station I was stopped by a friend of mine, a Master Chief holding a shotgun, who informed me that no wheeled traffic of any kind was permitted on base. I pushed my bicycle back to our tower and jogged to the ship with my sea bag on my back. As the Assistant Force Protection Officer, I immediately stood up additional watches, etc. then began making preparations for getting underway. As the Combat Systems Department Leading Chief I had much to do, as the Senior Watch Bill Coordinator, I had more to do… We were underway soon after and headed to the AOR. Our ship was part of the USS Kitty Hawk carrier battle group, instrumental in what was to follow. We arrived on station quickly being forward deployed. Did our job, can’t discuss much of that, and returned to Yokosuka the DAY MY SON WAS BORN.
It may have been earlier in the morning. Maybe. Been a long time.
I was living on a farm in rural Virginia, Rappahannock County 1.5 hours outside of DC, where many high ranking officials and other elites had country homes. After the initial attacks, I drove to our local schools to pick up my children. On the way back, on this narrow country road, two large black SUV’s flew past me at double the speed limit. That was “somebody,” no doubt.
I am a New Yorker- which lately gives me grief due to our Governor….I was born in Brooklyn but have lived on Long Island since I was little…. But on that day I was devastated, heartbroken, felt empty and …. a wreck…Everyone in lower NY and surrounding areas knew someone who didn’t make it home that day… But in the following days I was proud of my city and my country… there were no brash NYer’s for a few weeks after that.. all kindness and support and American flags. I lost my junior prom date who worked at Canter Fitzgerald – Matthew McDermott… he was 30 years old…..a note to that- 4 years ago there was a fire in my house… cleaning up debris there was a picture only slightly singed in a pile I was sweeping… it was the junior prom picture of Matt… I keep it in my wallet now and always will as a reminder of the good and the bad of that day and life…. he didn’t make it out of the towers- but he made it out of my attic…. God Bless America
I also had a childhood friend who perished at Cantor Fitzgerald, and I know too many first responders, friends and coworkers who suffered unspeakable tragedy that day. NYers who lived and worked within sight of that burning plume were scarred for life.
I still can’t talk about 9/11 or its aftermath, and I can’t handle even a visit to the WTC memorial. Suffice it to say thank God for Donald Trump and “America’s” mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who bravely stood the gap that day, and continue to do so.
See, when staring in the face of evil, heroes fight back.
I am so grateful to these brave NYers, who have finally thrown down the gauntlet to expose bad actors within our government. America has been on shaky ground for some time now. It will take a miracle to deliver us from evil.
Pass Christian, MS – A few minutes earlier I had turned on the family room tv. The kids were being loud (I homeschooled at the time) and I needed an ear break so I went to hide in my bedroom for a bit. My oldest knocked on my door and my response, to my regret, was frustration with motherhood. I snipped a “what’s the matter” question through the door. He told me a plane hit a big building in NY. I told him “that’s sad, they must’ve lost control of their plane”. He said, “No, Mom, it’s a really big plane and the building’s on fire.” I turned on the bedroom tv, a slight glare from the light coming through the window made a corner of the screen difficult to see. We sat down on the foot of the bed, his toes barely touching the floor. We watched as the second plane hit and in stunned silence I slipped from the bed to the floor, crying for all those people who were just murdered. It’s one of those moments that I can remember every detail like it happened yesterday. Now I look back and think we were all used for someone else’s purpose.
I was in Australia at the time. (I now live in Westchester County NY.). It was night and I was staying with a friend. Her boyfriend at the time called and told her to turn on the TV. He knew my future husband (fiancé at the time) worked a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center. When I turned on the TV, I saw both buildings burning and the Pentagon on fire. The White House was being evacuated. It was turning shocking watching those events on TV. That night was the longest of my life as I watched the events unfolding and I could not reach my fiancé. I finally spoke to him around 5 pm on 9/12 (Australia time).
My husband heard the boom as the second plane hit the second plane hit. He heard the boom from the first plane but it was not that loud and he thought it was a boom from the South Street Seaport. The second plane hitting shook his building. After that, the security at Chase Manhattan Plaza barred people from leaving the building. So, he went to a conference room and watched the events unfold before his eyes. My husband watched people jumping from the World Trade Center buildings. He later remarked that those people had to be so desperate to jump to their death. He watched both buildings come down. After he was allowed to leave, he walked through the streets of NYC holding napkins over his face while covered in ash and debris. He told me when he made it home to an address on the Upper West Side he was shaking so bad that he had to take 3 hot showers to calm down. He knew several people who died that day.
My husband has never gone inside the 9-11 Memorial. He went to the reflection pools several years ago. It’s a day he will never forget.
Sorry for the typos. iPhone typing is not the best.
I can’t bear to visit the memorial, but my daughter went a couple of years ago. As soon as she walked up to the reflecting pool, she looked down to see the name of my friend who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. It amazed us how, with thousands of names etched on the memorial, she unknowingly walked straight up to his.
I was at school in life science class
9-11: The Ultimate Ugly
I lived in Los Angeles at the time. Was up, packing lunches and getting my family ready for work and school. The phone rang and I wondered who would be calling so early. It was my mother-in-law, crying. Turned on the TV. Phone rang again, this from one of my son’s friends who’s father was retired military. Her father told her to keep everybody home. Los Angeles could possibly be a target. We all stayed home that day, horrified, watching it unfold, praying. A cousin worked for Goldman Sachs in NYC. After many phone calls, was relieved to find out he was in London on business. What a relief for my family but unfortunately not a relief for so many. I will never forget.
A somber day here at the Pentagon today 19 years later. I still work here and I think about that day every time I see or enter the building.
I was finishing treatment on a patient, when we were called on the medical/dental clinic paging system to muster at the front desk because of some kind of mass casualty event. We did not know exactly what had happened. Our clinics grabbed all the supplies we could carry and went towards the smoke, dodging hordes of people running out of the Pentagon. It was like running against the crowd in the running of the bulls at Pamplona . I will never forget the look on their faces, it was shear panic and terror. We tried to get as close as we could as we were on the opposite side of the building from the crash.We had no gas masks and some of use took off our T shirts doused them with water to make improvised masks, but to no avail, the smoke was to thick and the sleet T-shirts were of no use. We withdrew our position helping casualties evacuate to our triage area, which was set up next to I 395. Since 9/11 they moved that highway further away from the building.
There were no ambulances available, no helicopters to transport casualties. It was a surreal scene. Everything seemed like it was occurring in slow motion with all the sounds around muted. It reminds me of the scene out of the movie Private Ryan on the Normandy beach in terms of what how you see, hear and perceive what was going on around you. We did the best we could with the limited resource that we had, which wasn’t much. IVs, O2 tanks, tourniquet and bandages. We were flagging down cars on the highway to transport the wounded to get to the nearest hospital. We were on our own, with limited outside help until Arlington County EMS and surrounding areas fires departments could get through on the traffic snarled roads. We treated casualties for hours. Once we finished in the early afternoon we were were ordered to the crash site. Our next job we were told was to go into the crash site for recovery efforts. We grabbed some surgical face masks and poured perfume obtained from some of our female co workers. We were warned that the smell of human remains and smoking debris would be overwhelming. Thankfully officials on the scene recanted the order as the FBI overuled them telling them it was a crime scene. We along with hundreds of others now adjacent to the crash site waited for further instructions for it seemed like hours. We then heard in the distance the sound of a jet overhead. It panicked the crowd as we thought it could be another plane intent on taking out first responders and casualties. Someone was able to identify the jet as an F-16 Falcon tasked to fly combat air patrol over the Pentagon. He flew low and slow over us dipping his wings as if to say we have you covered, there won’t be another plane crashing into you. Later on I learned the F-16s tasked to fly over the Pentagon has no weapons, there was no time to load then. They took off with orders to ram any plane intent on coming in. They were on a potential suicide mission.
Our last assignment was to go to the inside of the Pentagon ring as night was approaching. Our task… to set up the black vinyl body bags to be used in the final recovery effort.
It was a long day. I left for home in my scrubs snelling like acrid smoke. Our instructions were to report back to work the next day to the Pentagon to go about business as normal, whatever that new normal would be. It was a morale booster for us as we were not going to be intimidated by terrorists into cowering before an act of terror.
After previous operational and overseas tours in my career I never expected to be in the middle of such an event stateside. My sincere condolences, thoughts and prayers to those who perished on that day. I will never forget.
Thank you Gray Eagle. I can not imagine what that was like. I will never forget.
I was at work in the office when our parts guy popped his head in through the door and said ‘a plane just hit the world trade tower!’. None of us thought too much of it, thinking it had probably been a Cub or a Beechcraft gone astray. Then some minutes afterwards he came back in through the door and said ‘a plane hit the other trade tower!’ Right then everybody knew it was a terrorist attack. Work stopped and everybody gathered around the TVs to watch the horror show, walk-in customers who came in as well into they had to leave.
Unlike Oklahoma City, where during the first rush to blame Muslim terrorists I said ‘nah, how many of them even know were OK City is?’ I immediately thought of Muslim terrorists. Lot of loose threads still covered up about the whole thing, IMO mostly about the egregious misconduct and neglect by those who should have been on guard but had other things on their mind or let the excuse of ‘firewalls’ prevent the dissemination of information (many of same agencies didn’t have a problem going around firewalls fifteen years later).
“Firewalls” = “Pretending not to know things.”
Yes, one of those indelible memories.
1) Cuban Missile embargo
2) Shooting of JFK
3) Election of Ronald Reagan
4) Election of Donald J. Trump
I’d add the Challenger.
For sure