Remember 9/11
 

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Tomorrow, don't forget to remember our fallen heros from NYFD, NYPD,
NY Port Authority, air crew, passengers and the many civilians we lost.

Do you need a flag to fly tomorrow? Use this one.

.....Kelly :)

Why do ppl keep saying, "Remember 9/11?" As though any of us could possibly forget? (That's not directed at you, navane).

I can't believe it's been so long. I remember that entire day with extreme clarity.

I can't even remember this past Monday in that kind of detail.

I know what you mean.

On the night of September 10, 2001, I was coming home from a meeting. Back then, I usually listened to NPR in the car, but that night, I switched it to the classic rock station. Usually when I do that, I put it back on NPR when I get home, so it's already there when I get in the car in the morning. That night I forgot to do change the station.

When I get in the car in the morning, the music is loud and it's not Morning Edition. I go to push the preset button for NPR when on of my favorite songs started. I'm not sure of the name, but it has "Love that muddy water - hey! Boston! You're my home!" in it - you know the one I mean.

I was so excited to hear that song - I just knew that September 11, 2001 was going to be a good day. Little did I know.

It was also the first day that both my kids were in some sort of school setting (they were 2 and 4 at the time). This was my first day I had a couple of hours just for me. I went out to breakfast, and as I was pulling in to my parking space, the news at the top of the hour (on NPR), 9 AM, came on, reporting what they thought was a small twin engine-type plane crashed into one of the towers at the WTC. I thought that was bad, but not devastating. I then went into the breakfast place when we heard there was another plane - they didn't say what kind.

I went home and turned on CNN. I was so shocked. I went and picked up both my kids. We're in Connecticut, and even though I knew we were okay, I wanted my boys with me. When I got to the schools, no one was aware of what had happened - when I told them, they didn't believe me.

My husband works for a defense aerospace and optics company. He was in vendor meetings all day and was not reachable. Again, I knew he was safe, but I needed to have contact with him. He called a few hours later.

I remember that day clear as a bell. It's our generation's bellwether (as are the Challenger and Columbia explosions, to a lesser extent), just like our parents' generation had "Where were you when JFK was shot."

I will never, ever forget that day.

i agree with catie and honey i remember exactly where i was as well.

I was in 8th gradereligion class and we didn't even do anything in school that day except watch the news after that happened.

I was getting ready for school when I found out. That day marked my being 16 for exactly two weeks, so I was a little excited (but also grumpy because being 16 had sucked so far). I had a club meeting before class so I was rushing my dad. My mom ran out in her underwear, yelling at us to turn on the tv...something about a plane crash and a building. Unfortunately, when I was 16, I was extremely selfish. If it didn't revolve around me, I didn't care. Plus, I was still embarassed about seeing people in their underwear, so I fussed at my mom to go back in her room and put some clothes on. Even though I caught a few glimpses of fire on the TV, I didn't stop to watch because I didn't want to be late to my meeting. It was the African American Student Union, my favorite club. I dragged my dad out the door, but when I got to the room my meeting was in, everyone was silent and staring at the tv. I knew something was up--we'd always begged our teachers to let us watch TV if there was nothing left to do in class, but it'd never been allowed. That's when I found out exactly what happened. I was shocked and scared. The reporter was saying something about "acts of war." War was something we read about in textbooks...something really old people went off on tangents about...it wasn't something that happened anymore. A war couldn't really be coming, could it? The thought terrified me and blew my mind. All my classmates with family in NY were crying and asking people to pray. I went to Catholic school, so we prayed multiple times during the day. If my memory serves me correctly, we had an emergency mass that day. We weren't allowed to donate blood because we were teens...we didn't have any money to buy supplies to give. We all felt so helpless...like little kids even though we were almost adults, we should've been able to do something. All we could do was pray...

I remember waking up seeing it on the TV News. Then being told that "terrorists" hit these locations. Then wondering why would "terrorists" hit building with plane when the Republicans are in office? That was just crazy... Especially with General Colin Powell in the 3rd government position--he KNOWS how to fight wars...

I also remember many of my military friends were hella pissed off about what happened. It was like, they have trained and trained on "readiness" for any attack and they were not allowed to do somethings that they knew about--let's just leave it at that...

Then, it dawned on me, we fell for the gank move, big time...

While we couldn't possibly forget, I'm not sure what other term you would use.

I was at my desk working when a co-worker/friend came by and asked if I could get any AM radio stations in on my radio because a plane had crashed into the WTC and the internet news sites were so jammed nobody could get on them. I couldn't get any stations in at my cubicle so we took my radio over to another co-worker's office where there was better reception. We were listening to coverage when the second plane hit. An adjacent department got a TV up and going by the time the Pentagon was hit and the towers collapsed. I thought it was horrific when they hit the WTC, but when they hit the Pentagon, that was a more chilling fear because it seemed they were trying to take out our government. Plus, there was so much confusion about how many planes were still out there, reports about car/truck bombs near the White House, etc.

If you can bring yourself to watch them, the National Geographic cable channel has been showing a couple very good documentaries, especially Attack on the Pentagon. We really didn't hear that much about the Pentagon attack at the time but this documentary really talks about it in a lot more detail. Be prepared to cry.

ETA: That afternoon, I went down to the little store in our building for a bottle of pop and saw a newspaper from that morning. It said "Michael Jordan to come out of retirement" I remember that so clearly because my first thought when I read it was "that paper came out when the world was still normal"

I had taken the day off because I wasn't feeling well; turned the tv on about 10 or so. Devastating.

9/11 is my mother-in-law's and niece's birthdays.

Sad and happy day.

A chapter sister was working at the Pentagon the day the plane it. Thankfully she was not injured.

I definitely remember that day very clearly.
I was in 7th grade and was in geography class when our principle came in and told us that a plane had hit the WTC and that there was a bomb dropped on the Pentagon. So we had mixed information but didnt know what was really going on. Only the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders knew (I went to a catholic elementary school so it was k-8) so we had to act normal the rest of the day. One of my friends was really scared because her dad works for the FBI and she thought he was supposed to be in Washington DC that day, but he ended up being somewhere else. So I didn't really know what was going on until I had gotten home and saw my dad home. I realized it had to be bad if my dad came home really early from work. My family and I watched the tv all afternoon. It was amazing and scary to watch that footage. You never think anything like that can happen.

I remember they evacuated most of the taller buildings in Chicago and the Federal building where my uncle works. So after that a lot of cities took a precaution that day.

On a lighter note, 2 years ago in my chemistry class we went around and said one thing we remember most that day. The mood was very quiet and sad and me being the jokester decided to say "I remember exactly what I was wearing that day" Some people were amazed and then they asked what I was wearing and I said "A green plaid skirt and a white polo shirt.... the same thing I wore everyday" hehe :)


May we never forget...

Remember and honor the victims and the heroes.

It is NOT the USA's fault.

That day I was giving a test to my 8th grade science students. A girl came in late and said that two planes had smashed into the Twin Towers, another one into the Pentagon, and that there was a fire next to the White House.

I will NEVER forget.

How naive.

I was working in downtown Baltimore...initially we thought it was an accident with a small cessna plane as that weekend before, a small plane has hit another building elsewhere.....and then we watched the rest of the events unfold online...many of us started panicing because we worked next to a gov't building....I remember calling one of my co workers....a doctor on his way to a conference near the pentagon (and also muslim...mind you we still didn't know what happened but it just didn't look good) and told him the first chance he gets to turn around and get home. I remember another friend of mine around 10am and he was trying to get across the brooklyn bridge and then the phone went dead....I remember talking to him aweek later and how he told me that he was late going to work and if he didn't just happen to stop in a coffee shop (lateness be damned) he would have been dead...he lost all of his coworkers that were on the upper floors. I remember also calling friends in DC and freaking out for about 3 days until I could account for everyone.....and luckily no one was hurt...

I was homeschooling my two girls - who were then 11 and 9, so the television wasn't on. My sister came over and said "Have you seen?". I was 7 months pregnant with my eldest son - and I remember watching in disbelief, and wondering what this meant the world would be like for my unborn child.

I remember how mad everyone was with my high school in the weeks following 9/11.

I was sitting in my 4th period, chemistry class, in my senior year, waiting for class to start. Other students were walking in, and then all of a sudden, one student came bolting in, and started saying a bunch of stuff about how bombs and planes had hit the WTC, the white house, the Sears Tower... everything. He made it sound like the world was coming to an end, and everyone just kind of looked at him like he was crazy. But we all sat through class wondering what was happening. We were clueless.

After that class, out in the hallways, everyone was talking about what happened... but no one knew any details, or even what had been hit. The administrators didn't want any tvs or radios on, and for what reason, no one knows. We were high school students, and they treated us as if we were first graders.

Everyone was also nervous, because growing up in Nashua, NH, we had the FAA Center, controlling most of the planes in the northeast, right down the street from us. And when everyone started to hear that the planes came out of Logan Airport, things started getting crazy. Students had parents taking flights that morning, and I knew of one student whose dad worked at the FAA Center.

I then went to my last class of the day, for two periods, still not knowing exactly what happened. It was my Aerospace class, and needless to say, the professor was glued to the tv. I hadn't looked at one all day.

At one point, while we were all watching, a younger adult (don't know who he was) came in and told Dr. Price to turn off the tv. He turned around and said, "make me". The guy left the room and didn't come back.

Following that, new rules and guidelines were created at the school to direct administrators in how they should handle events such as this.

Also, tours at the FAA Center are no longer allowed, as it is believed that some of the terrorists had visited there. And any signs for the FAA Center were taken down. Large green signs on the highway are half blank now because they used to indicate the exit where the Center was located. And the plane that used to sit outside the building, next to the highway, was removed, so that there is nothing to indicate the location of the Center.

It's amazing how much I can remember that day and afterward, but it's hard to remember the time of pre-9/11 when things seemed simpler.

I was in 11th grade in Mrs. O'Keefe's Public Speaking class. I remember aides delivering notes to all the teachers, then the principal coming over the intercom and telling the teachers to read the notes to the classes. Everyone was in shock and we had a million questions, and to this day I can't believe my teacher's reaction: "I don't know any more information than you do, but we are not going to let this interrupt class." Every other person I know was allowed to watch TV and see all the footage, and we weren't even allowed to discuss what had happened.

We ended up being sent home at noon that day- I grew up in MD and kids in my school have parents who worked at the Pentagon. I also remember we were allowed to use our cell phones to call our parents, and I panicked because both my parents worked for the federal government (one at NSA headquarters) and neither answered their work phones. Luckily, they were released immediately when the attacks on the Pentagon happened.

Strange stories- my ex boyfriend's friend's father was supposed to be on the flight out of Logan. He didn't get a first class seat so he decided to wait for the next flight. Also, one of the kids in one of my HS classes had a mom who worked at the area of the Pentagon that was hit- she stayed home that day with his sick sister.

I was asleep and got this early morning phone call. I couldn't imagine who would be calling me before 8 am. It was my sister and she sounded hysterical. She said, "we're being attacked!" I got up and spent the entire day watching CNN. It's was so surreal. I couldn't believe it was actually happening.

My big used to work in one of the towers. I think it was for Dean Witter. Even though I knew she no longer worked there she lived near by. I tried calling her frantically for 4 days, left messages but didn't hear back from her. Finally, I thought she might be in Ohio and even though it was 2 in the morning there, I called her and as soon as I heard her voice I started sobbing and blubbering. I was so happy she was okay.

My dad was on a flight home from Toronto the day it happened. They were about 30 minutes into the flight when they had to turn around. He spent the next few days there in Canada until airtravel resumed.

Damn, that whole thing was so scary. I never want to experience anything like that again!

Later, I read that two KDs were among those who perished. At least one of them was on one of the planes that hit the towers.

So much pointless loss. :(

i was 20, my daughter was 10 months old at the time. my best friend called me from downtown Richmond, she was at VCU and left her dorm to find everyone pretty much frozen in place. she called me and said "Bee, a plane hit the WTC". i wasnt too upset, i thought it was unfortunate. then she said "one hit the Pentagon, too" and i specifically remember saying to her...today was a bad day to be on a plane. she paused and said, "i dont think thats it. i think its more than that..." i turned on the radio (my parents had a parental lock on the tv to keep my sisters off so i couldnt watch it) and just sat there with my daughter scared as HELL...Richmond has one of the biggest supply centers in the area, and its about ten minutes from the house! plus, im about 15 minutes from Fort Lee, an hour from Norfolk...it was way too close for comfort.

i didnt get to see anything on tv until about 7 that night and we all just sat there in utter shock. i will never forget that plane flying into the side of that building...we found out later an aunt of our friends was in the first building, and as soon as things went down she made her entire office staff leave. she saved about 75 people...

My stepmom was on a flight out of Logan, sitting on the runway, ready to take off, when all flights were grounded. Everyone on the plane was mad and didn't know what was going on.. until they got off the plane and back into the terminal.

It was my first week on my internship for my grad program. We were getting ready to leave the first client's house when we saw that the first plane hit. By the time we got to the second house, their tv was on and we saw the second plane hit. We left there immediately and went back to the office. I was in a panic because I was trying to call my mom and couldn't reach her. I called my then-fiance and asked him to call her. Except his coworker answered, and let me blubber incoherently before transferring the call to him. My mom had called him at work because she couldn't reach me. She had already picked up my daughter from daycare and was already at home, and told me to not rush to get home.

My child's father was on defcon status in Alabama (he was just finishing the Army's flight school, I think). I couldn't get in touch with him, of course, but he had one of his classmates sneak a call to me to let me know he was ok and to make sure we were ok.

I live right outside of DC and I remember the Beltway being so quiet and not being able to reach anyone locally by cell phone. My two best friends from college (one in NC one in Atl) called me to see if I was ok and got through with no problems. A 45 minute trip took three hours that day. I just remember being in shock and extremely mad at whoever had the cojones to hit the PENTAGON!! Once I got home, I just held my daughter and let her watch Nickelodeon (which was one of the few channels NOT covering the situation--I am forever thankful for that). I remember seeing the air traffic radar screen blank out as all planes were ordered to land. Every time I drive past the Pentagon, I get very emotional and feel so bad for the families who lost someone.

I had just got out of class and was driving home; flipped on the radio and heard “talk radio” figured I was on the wrong channel and changed it, only to hear more “talk radio.” Thought that I must be on AM and switched it to “FM” only to realize I had been on FM; so I switched back and actually started listening. Fastest drive home ever.

I was on a military base in KS and made it to my friends quarters b/f the 2nd one hit. DH was out of town and unreachable, as usual. Both kids were in school. We had just moved from the Pentagon and the spot hit was my DH's old office so that was horrible as he knew folks who died. Within minutes I looked out and saw armed guarded with M16's on top of all the buildings on Post. Getting in/off post was a nightmare after that b/c they had to beef up the security posts and man them 24/7.
My BIL's pal was a United pilot who was airborne at the time and was telling my BIL what the pilots were being told. It was very scary for them before they all landed. The smartest thing FAA did that day was ground ALL aircraft.

It was my senior year of college. It was very early on the west coast when everything started to happen. One of my sister's ran into my room and woke me up. Downtown LA was evacuating and no one was sure what to do since we were so close to downtown. SC was putting out emails that the university would remain open that day but no one wanted to go to class. Parents were calling and telling girls to drive home but the freeways were a mess. In the end we decided the best place to be was with our sisters in the house, in front of the tv, where we felt as safe as you could possibly feel on such a terrible day.

I was sitting in my 10th grade Biology class during 1st period. We were dissecting frogs and usually have the TV already on for morning announcements. Someone walked in a whispered something into my teacher’s ear and he turned the channel to CNN and we saw the 2nd plane hit. I remember feeling really eerie when it happened. I think we got held over from our other classes until everyone could really grasp what was going on.

I remember waking up in my house to my mom's TV, it was REALLY loud, and my mom was on the phone w/ my aunt (who lives in Tucson). i remember just plopping down on the bed and watching The Today Show (i believe) showing footage of the first plane crashing into the WTC. I remember thinking that it was fake. That it couldn't be really happening here. Then I remember watching the second plane crash in (we are 2 hours behind NYC, so i believe it was all recapping) the second tower and just feeling numb.

I was in 11th grade, and I remember just listening to all the crazy rumors, believing them. Like the Washington monument had been lit on fire and had crumbled. The Lincoln memorial had been blown up, etc. Then in my psychology class, through a grainy TV we watch the WTC crumble. It was crazy.

I was at work when it unfolded. At the time, I worked in commodities trading so we have tons of TVs everywhere normally tuned on CNN. I remember watching when they first reported that a plane flew into the WTC and just thinking it was some doped up pilot going crazy. I then remember me and my co-workers watching the live coverage and then all of a sudden a second plane crashed into the 2nd tower. We were all like "WTF"?

I also remember that CNN did report for that the US military had shot down a plane (it was the one over PA) that was headed for the nation's capital but then that story went away.

It was an eery day, that indeed.

I was living in Everett, WA at the time. I woke up thinking:
"I am getting married exactly 3 months from today!" http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...inkies/woo.gif My clock radio went off (set to the radio). I remember hearing the annoucer say: "If you are heading to Seatac airport turn around. No flights will be going in our out today." I was like "WTF?" I turned on the TV and my jaw dropped.

The wedding thoughts quickly left my head

I did go to work...but nothing much was done at the office

I looked through my Ground Zero photos this morning. 9/11 took on new meaning for me when I was able to visit it last year.

I saw all US and State flags at half staff on my drive in to work today and immediately remembered where I was that morning.

I vividly remember the drive to work that morning. I left the house early, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. My office had limited internet access and not a single radio. Our VP walked walked into our cubicles and calmly announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and walked out. We thought to ourselves that it may just have been a small Cessna and almost shrugged it off. Minutes later, she came back to let us know that a second plane had crashed. Immediately, we knew something was wrong.

However, it wasn’t until my lunch break that I ran downstairs to my car, turned on the radio and sat in the parking lot and cried for a half an hour straight. I came back up to work, frazzled. We all had to work a full day.

I drove to my house, finding only my father home. My mother was stuck in traffic on her way home from work and my sister was up at school. He was standing in front of the TV watching the news and shaking his head. He recalled the day he was working at the Trade Center after the bombing in 1993. Telling me that this was nothing compared to what happened just 8 years earlier. In the following few days, all my father could say was, “We lost a lot of good guys down there. Those were my kids.” I am just so thankful that he retired from the NYPD in the Spring of 2001.

I was glued to the television the remainder of the night, watching the footage over and over. It was impossible to take my eyes away from it. All I could do was pray.

My mom was canning tomatoes in the basement and my dad had run out to get more bushels. I was getting ready for school.... my 2nd year of college. In Dearborn. Yeeeeah. I turned on the TV and saw smoke billowing from the first building. I yelled down to my mom to turn on the TV and she's like yeah whatever and so I yelled at her again and my dad walked in at that moment. He came over to the TV and called my mom to come upstairs.

I didn't know if I should go to school or not, being in Dearborn and all. I went. One of the Arab fraternity guys was sitting in the university mall, just staring at the ground. Another came in and said that some guy at a gas station told him to go back to his own country and he responded "This is my country". I decided not to go to class and instead walked around campus with one of my sisters to find a TV, which we found across campus. I kept trying to call my cousins in NY but phones were done with by this time. We walked back to the mall and anytime we saw something in the sky we got scared. My campus is across the street from Ford Headquarters, located in the largest Arab populated city in the nation. My mom called me and told me to get my ass home because there were Arabs celebrating in the streets a mile away (they were shown on CNN I believe). Ford HQ evacuated the same time I left so it took me forever. We sat in front of the TV all day and I had my AIM set to notify me when one of my cousins signed online. When one finally did, her first response was "Wtf is going on???" She was in Staten Island so I'm not sure how much she knew.

My aunt was on her way to work on the BQE and saw everything. My cousins were at work on the docks and saw it. My dad's cousin was on the 37th floor and forgot a paintbrush so he went back downstairs and that's when the plane hit and he got out. His crew wasn't so lucky. The Brooklyn FDNY department that all passed, was near my uncle's restaurant. He knew them all. My uncle found papers from WTC in front of the restaurant. (Smith and Union if you're familiar with Carroll Gardens)

I think we HAVE to say remember because people forget, which is sad. We all need to remember that we are neighbors, friends, family, and to treat each other with respect. We need to remember that we are Americans and be proud of it, even though things in our country aren't going that great. We need to remember that there are people fighting for the freedoms that we love so dearly.

We have to be reminded to remember.

We were just waking up, and my son had gone downstairs to get ready for school. He came in our room and told us to turn on the news, something really bad was happening.

It was a few days later that I found out a lifelong friend was among the passengers who perished. My heart is still broken for the family left behind. They'll never be the same.

The service at the National Cathedral helped me grieve and regain hope. When the choir sang, I thought of my friend...he loved to sing, it was just the type of the he'd do.

It was my first year of teaching near DC. (I was not close enough to see the planes, but close enough to be a very real situation for many students' parents.) We had just finished a flag ceremony outside and were walking past the front office. I noticed the secretaries staring at the tv, so I had my class pause while I popped my head in to see what was going on tv. That's when the 2nd plane hit. I remember feeling rooted to the floor. The kids knew something was up, but had no clue what. We actually were discussing government and being a good citizen since it was part of my beginning of the year plans. As part of the discussion I mentioned that "not every country has the same beliefs and rights as we do. Some in fact get angry with us." I remember my voice catching, and I had to move on since we were supposed to be mum. Fortunately the students didn't even question it. During lunch I frantically called my mom since that's when they were talking about other cities. She had zero clue about anything. I practically yelled, "The TV! Turn on the TV!!" I also remember the out-pouring of support and brotherhood that happened in the days and weeks after.

What brave brave people and heroes that gave some or all.

It was the last day I ever watched television news.

Those images over and over again, the planes crashing, people jumping off the buildings, the buildings falling, people running for their lives. I don't remember anything else from that day except how horrified I was and that I had to turn the television off to stop all the sights and sounds.

I think that we will always remember exactly what we were doing when we heard the horrible news! :( That day will always be part of my memories forever.

My heart and prayers still go out to all the families this tragedy touched!