Official "share your 9/11 story" thread

[Chanlin]

I was working for a small software company. I've posted stories about this place under threads titled "What not to do when evading taxes" and "My most and least favorite boss."

I had just graduated from High School the year prior and I didn't know, but I was going to be laid off in about two months. I got into work and one of my Co-workers, Scott, who was known as the office clown, asked me if I heard about the plane crash. Of course I assumed he was joking until he turned on the radio.

I remember my boss jokingly saying we might be in danger since we were on the top floor of our building (it was a 1 story building, hence the joke). I also recall a lot of people being scared because there was a large shopping mall across the street from the building we were in.

[dragon_wings]

I was a freshmen in high school. My school had block scheduling (4 1.5 hour classes each semester) so I didn't know about the attacks until after I got to second block shortly after 10. By then we were mostly watching replays but we saw the North Tower collapse. Everyone was shocked and scared cause we were in Knoxville, TN, and Oak Ridge is a 30 minute drive.
I was worried about my aunt who lives and lived in upstate NY so I used my cell phone to call my mom even though it was against the rules. Though I wasn't the only one.
We watched the news during second and third blocks but my fourth block science teacher wouldn't turn the tv on so we tried to get some work done.

[Docmayhem]

I still have a strong sense of unreality about that day. I guess that sometimes your mind refuses to process something that you find too horrific.

At the time, I worked in a place that was more or less across the street from Republic Airport on Long Island.

I had just settled in at my desk, when one of my best friends came up to me and told me that a plane had just crashed into one of the twin towers. I called home and told my wife to turn on the TV. She asked me which channel, and I said, "I don't think it matters." When she did, she saw the news coverage, but there weren't any details yet.

My friend went back to his desk, and I tried to work, while thinking what a tragic accident it was. Then my wife called back and told me that another plane had hit the other tower, and I knew that it was no accident.

I spent the next few hours trying to work, but I eventually gave up and headed home around 3pm. The roads were empty, except for the occasional police car.

My friend found out about the first plane, because his girlfriend (another of my best friends) worked at the Verizon building on the lower east side of Manhattan, and called him as she was evacuating. She saw the second plane crash with her own eyes.

[Midnight12]

I feel ashamed about what I was doing that day to this day

I was sleeping in since I had the afternoon shift. my mom called me from work to wake me up and tell me turn on the tv to the news. I remember she sounded upset as if something had happened and all she could do was call me to cry but she had not started crying upset. I saw the first tower smoking...and then the second plane hitting. I muttered something about being sorry mom i have to go and hanging up and thinking I should probably call work as when something scary happens my brain goes logical instead of emotional. I called work asking what I should do they said just stay home so I did thinking why was the news continuously replaying this, we don't need to see this over and over again when the first tower fell. I left the room and sat in my room for a long while with my thoughts because I couldn't stand it.
I think i recall that I didn't want to be anywhere at all that day. As in not there not on the physical earth, and wanted so much to wail with the people in NY

I felt even worse weeks after when the local radio stations kept playing the inspirational songs and I blurted out one day stop it enough. And every head turned to me and I burst out crying saying that I was sorry but everything really did get to me and ran to the backroom waiting to be fired. (which did not happen)
I still feel bad for not crying on that day or for not letting myself feel until too late.

[kansasgal]

I had just moved my family to Pennsylvania on September 10th for a new job. I got up that morning and was driving to get coffee when I heard the announcement of the first plane, and then I heard the announcer say that the second plane had gone in and that we were under attack.

We saw the plane go down in Shanksville. I went home and told my husband "I moved us 3,000 miles away from home and now the world is ending"

[Cat]

The day before, I had just meet my new roommates, and started Grad school.

That morning, I was in physics lab. My physics professor was known for her off-color jokes, so when she said "Two plane just hit Twin Tower. Is that mechanical or human error?" (error were the topic of the lab), we thought she just made a joke, so we more or less ignored it, especially when she continued the lesson, for a short time anyway.


She let us to the Weather Center to watch TV. I knew it was real then. Saw my most hated meteorology professor in the WxCenter, watching TV, eyes teary. He seemed human then. More people joined us in the room, and the Towers fell.

I was too shaken to drive, so I found my old roommate and bummed a ride off her. My school was near NY state, and near a small airport.

[lordlundar]

Where was I when the first plane struck?
I was sitting in a conference room on the 25th floor of the South Tower.

Um, wow. I really wish I could say more.

As for my story, I was at home, just getting up and a little groggy (it was roughly 7:00am local time)And I turned on the TV to watch the morning stuff only to find that every channel was covering the north tower being hit. There wasn't much info at the time so I just thought that some silly moron goofed and crashed into the tower and had this bemused shock on my face.

Then I saw the second tower hit. Bemusement gone and the realization that this was no accident. Further reports coming in about a third collision at the pentagon and the fourth plane crash and I was at the same time wishing it would end and hoping I was dreaming. By this time my family was up and we were watching it together.

Then the South tower fell and my hart just sank right with it. My dad was angry, I was just shocked. And just when I thought my heart couldn't sink any lower, the North Tower fell and proved me wrong. Part of me wanted to curl up and hide from the world at that point but a larger part of me wanted, no needed to find out as much as possible. So I was watching news networks for hours until they were repeating the same stuff every 5 minutes.

[protege]

I was at work on 9/11. It started off like any other day. I was at my desk, looking at items that we'd bid on from the previous day. One of our guys was on the phone with a company in the WTC, and his phone suddenly went dead. Found out later...that one of the planes had landed in that firms office, while they were having their morning meeting. Except for their CEO, and a couple of support people, they were all killed instantly

But, we didn't know that at the time. What we *did* know, is that according to the radio, a plane of some sort had crashed into the WTC. At first, we thought it was an accident. Then the second plane hit, and our terminals went dead. I was working for a financial services company, based out of NYC. Not in the WTC, but close by. The wire service we get our news and quotes from...was knocked out. We weren't the only ones--quite a few local firms were in the same boat. We were all running blind. There was no TV in the office either, so most of our "news" was coming in over a football message board, that one of my coworkers was watching.

With nothing to do, I left work around noon, and was hoping to get my car looked at. There was a Mazda dealer more-or-less on the way home. However, getting there was pretty damn difficult. Why, you ask? Simple. Pittsburgh is the busiest inland port in the country, and many of the bridges and tunnels, were shut down due to terrorism fears. As a result, it took an hour to get across the Monongahela.

Once across though, until you've seen a mass evacuation, you really don't know how scary things are. I'm sitting at one of the million or so red lights on the South Side, and was amazed at the city buses coming the other way. They were *all* packed to capacity. All the seats were filled, the aisles, and people were packed in like sardines. I still don't know how those vehicles managed to move under their own power...

But once outside of the city limits, I finally got to see what was happening. As my car is being worked on, I ate my lunch in the dealer's lobby. I can't remember if the Towers had come down by then or not. But, what I do know, that most of the people watching TV with me were in tears, and some were wondering who was responsible. I, on the other hand, was still trying to make sense of it all. Even now, I can't understand why so many innocent people were killed

Once I left the Mazda dealer, it was time to head home. All of the traffic lights were set to green, and nobody was obeying the speed limit. Can't say I blame them. I took every shortcut I could think of, and it still took a half-hour to get home. When I pulled in the driveway and walked in the door, I found my mom in the kitchen...crying. Not so much because of the disaster, but because we have family in DC, and we couldn't reach them.

My aunt, who doesn't work in the Pentagon, couldn't be reached. There were reports of bombs going off in and around the various government buildings, and we didn't know if she was OK or not. Then there was my cousin...who lived on Capitol Hill. Again, reports of explosions near her home. Couldn't reach her either

That night, we were all watching the news, and were horrified. Both Towers had come down, the Pentagon damaged, and a crater in the Pennsylvania countryside...not too far from us. That 4th plane, was seen circling Pittsburgh. At the time, it was feared that they'd hit the "big airport," which houses a military base, or the port...which would have stopped most river traffic here. Speaking of that 4th plane, those passengers had the biggest set of balls possible. They gave their lives so nobody else would be killed.

10 years on, I still can't believe that it happened. It's still like some horrible nightmare. A nightmare, that's spawned two wars, wrecked our economy, driven some people to paranoia, and unnecessarily turned some groups into monsters.

[Kheldarson]

I was a sophomore in high school.

I was currently attending the Roanoke Valley Governor's School and every first year student was being herded into the lecture hall/auditorium/meeting room in the front for a class on our required elective. My class was one of the last to be brought in.

So we were the first ones the school secretary ran into. She told us even as the principal got on the intercom to inform the teachers to turn on the news.

I remember freaking out personally. Others were too, but I remember thinking, "I hope Grandpa didn't have a reason to go to the Pentagon today." Not that he should've, of course, as most of his buddies were long retired, but it was still scary realizing that my family was close to there.

I don't remember class. Or the drive back to my home school for the afternoon classes. I do remember every TV was on. And most of my teachers weren't really doing anything. A lot of students were leaving to go home early. There was a stunned feel to everything.

[Dave1982]

I had just started college in 2001, and was asleep in my dorm room when the planes hit. There was this one particular asshole who lived in the room next door who had somehow figured out that if you jiggled the door handles a certain way they would open from the outside even if they were locked (they were old, and a couple years later they were all replaced), and he decided to go around waking everyone up to let them know.

So of course at first I was really pissed off because I had no morning classes that day and I was woken up by an uninvited guest who just started yelling. Then someone turned on the TV and I saw it.

[artcurmudgeon]

Where was I on 9/11?

I was in Aberwystwyth in Wales(UK), I was in a tea room with my then fiancee(now wife) and the owners asked me if I was an american, and if I had heard about WTC. I was floored. About the same time, my now wife's cell started blowing up with txt msgs "world trade towers gone" and "WTC hit by plane". It was really surreal for me as I didn't know anyone in NYC, and it didn't effect me personally but I feel very much touched and vulnerable because of it. I was stuck in the UK for an extra week because of flight restrictions.

What shocked me the most was when I was in our pub that night having a drink, and old military retiree asked me when I said I was there because of 9/11 and needed a drink, "So where were you fooking yanks when the IRA was bombing us? Where were you when we remember our fallen?"

I don't normally feel ashamed to be an American. I am rather proud of my roots and where I come from and make no apologies for it. But I honestly had no answer for the guy. Dont know if I ever will.....

[MoonCat]

I was at work that morning. Tuesday is usually our slowest day of the week & everything was normal. Then one of my co-workers sent a message around to everyone's computer, saying the first plane had struck the WTC. Like so many others, I thought it had to be an accident, but I couldn't imagine how that could happen. Then the second one hit and we knew it wasn't accidental.

I still have the list of messages that went around, one after another, from co-workers who had radios, as they heard new details. I remember wondering if this was it - the whole country might be under attack. I wrote a note saying something like "I commend my soul to the earth, blessed be the Lady and the Lord.." and adding that I loved my family. Now it seems silly to think that anything would happen to me, in my kinda-dumpy, unimportant town, but at the time it seemed more than possible.

I even called my youngest sister who was living in N. Dakota. I didn't know if there was anything near her town that might be a target. I got her BF on the phone & he said there was an air force base nearby (IIRC). I couldn't call home & talk to my mom or my other sister because I knew they weren't up yet & neither would hear the phone ring. When she woke up later that morning & put on the radio, my other sister said she thought someone had switched planets on her while she slept.

We didn't have many calls that day; those we did, we could usually hear the customer's TV or radio on in the background. We had one manager who told us to be sure to pick up the calls later in the day because people were "going to remember they wanted to call us & it might get busy." I couldn't believe he said that (and it didn't happen either...people had more important things to do.)

I also remember thinking that hell, we were going to war, and I thought about how my parents had gone through WW II, and it dawned on me that they hadn't known the Allies were going to win. They just had to live with that uncertainty. And I thought, I don't know how to do this. My parents did this; I don't know how!

The one thing that gave me comfort was reading messages online, from all over the world (I think it was on the BBC website), in which people offered their condolences and voiced their outrage. So many, many people, in every country, offered their sympathy, their love and their friendship to Americans. And I never forget that it wasn't only Americans who died that day. Many of the people in the towers were visitors from outside the US.

Blessed be all the victims of 9/11, their families and friends.

[Rine]

I was in 10th grade and first saw the hazy images of the first tower on fire. I didn't understand what was going on because I left my glasses in the classroom during class change. I got back to the classroom and the TV was on the news channel (which was the channel for our ITV.) We all watched for a little while, watched the school news show, and changed back after the pledge.

We saw the second plane hit and I remember the teacher from the next room over come in, slamming the door open, and screaming, "DID YOU F--ING SEE THAT?" In each class that day, we watched and discussed what was happening. We all cried when the towers fell. During lunch, all the TVs in the cafeteria were on the news and it was the quietest high school lunch I've ever been in. Hardly anyone talked.

As for me, personally, I was so scared for my mother since she was supposed to be flying that day. I had no idea where she was, what plane she was on, etc. I didn't know anything until I got home to find my parents were home. The area military bases were on lock down and all civilians were sent home.

So many things have changed since that day...

[Shalom]

I was on duty at the Aid of Rite in Garfield, NJ. I was a floater, with no home store; this was where I happened to be that day.

We opened up at 8. Not long thereafter, I can't remember the exact time, a customer came in and asked, "Did you hear what happened? An airplane hit the WTC."

I figured it was a small craft or something, and didn't make too much of it. I do remember exclaiming, WTF, was the pilot drunk or something?

A few minutes later, another customer came in and said another airplane had hit the other tower. I said, All right. Once is happenstance, twice is enemy action. Something is going on here. There was a radio on the counter that one of the regular pharmacists or techs had left there. I tuned into WINS. After about thirty seconds of stunned disbelief, I grabbed the radio, booked it to the back room, and jacked it into the PA system so everyone else could hear what was happening. (It wasn't meant for external inputs; I had to yank the Muzak feed to get somewhere to plug into. I don't remember where the adapter cable came from, if I had one with me or it came from store stock.) We left WINS broadcasting over the overhead speakers all day. I remember thinking that this was more than likely against company policy, and I really couldn't care less. I do know that not one customer complained about it. Finally shut it off about 6 PM, by which time they'd started repeating themselves, and I couldn't take any more of it. The WINS anchors usually changed off every 20 minutes. I can't remember who was on when the planes hit, but I do remember that one guy stayed on the air for the next 4-5 hours straight, without any commercial breaks either. He was getting kind of hoarse by the time someone finally relieved him. (edit: it was Lee Harris)

I never saw the video of the Towers falling. I still haven't, and don't want to. Hearing it all unfold live on the radio was bad enough.

(The store had one window in the pharmacy, in the drive-through, but it faced southwest. Couldn't see a thing through it, for which I am devoutly grateul.)

Some of the front end guys had a battery TV, and were watching the news on it until the North Tower came down, at which point all the New York TV stations went off the air because that was where their transmitter was. The Spanish station (WNJU-47) had its antenna on the Empire State Bldg, so they stayed on the air; I have a vague memory of them trying to broadcast in English during the crisis. One of the VHF stations, I think WCBS-2, finally took over their transmitter and got back on the air that way. Manhattan was wired for CATV since the sixties, so the locals still had reception on VHF, but the outer boroughs hadn't gotten cable until the '90s and many houses still didn't have it, so when the VHF stations all went down, that was it.

My uncle worked in the Towers. Thank God, he was late leaving for work that day. His company had been acquired by another, and he knew he was going to be laid off at the end of the month anyway,. He didn't have all that much to do, just a few projects to finish up, so no point rushing in early, right? He was just out the door on his way to the subway when my aunt called him back to the house and told him he didn't have any office to go to anymore.

(Many Jewish people were late for work that day. The conspiracy loons point to this as "evidence" of a Jewish conspiracy, that they'd been warned or something. Truth of the matter was, this was in the week before Rosh Hashana (Jewish new year), during which the morning prayers run longer than usual due to added supplications for forgiveness (Selichot). They were simply late getting out of the synagogue. It wasn't the first time these prayers have saved lives...)

One last thing: I remember thinking, once the new security measures had been out in place shortly after 9/11, that now Americans are going to start feeling what Israelis have been living with for the past 53 years.

[blas]

I was in my second or third week into my freshman year of high school.

I was in my first class of the day (block scheduling), and an announcement came over the PA system. For the rest of the day, we all watched CNN and didn't do any work.

My grandpa had a flight that morning to go from Minneapolis back to Sea-Tac airport. He had to drive back home and stay with us a few more days.