Where were you at 9/11/01?

[PandaOnProzac]

It was just any other summer night for me so I decided to stay up late and watch Leno and Letterman. I couldn't sleep though afterwards so I was up all night. Next thing I know I'm watching the attack on the Towers as it was happening. I thought it was just some building fire. Then the 2nd plance hit and I got the feeling it was terrorist related. I said a little prayer while feeling the sorrow and sadness inside. The rest of the day I spent it with family watching the aftermath.

For days and weeks following all I felt was anger, sadness but most of all patriotism.

Personally I can't join the military becuz of health reasons but I made sure even as a civilian I would do my part for the nation. In high school I was brought up in a military style marching band. Also I lived in a military family with my Dad being in the Navy. During National Anthems I have always stood at attention no matter what type of reaction I got from the surrounding people. After 9/11 I still stand at attention during the Anthem.

It is also becuz of 9/11 that I joined my fraternity of Kappa Kappa Psi. Through Kappa Kappa Psi I felt I could continue to honor my country. Whenever I wear the letters I feel like I'm wearing a uniform again.

In the one year commemoration I will honor the day by placing a white flower of rememberance at the flag pole and then giving a drum major salute to the flag. I don't care if people look at me weird by doing that or laugh. I salute the flag becuz I love this country and to remember those who died that day which may have included some brothers.

[BearyCuteAPhi]

I was walking to class and for some reason decided to go through the UC ( university center ) and there in the lobby was a television set turned on to CNN. They were showing the towers burn and collapse. It made me sick to my stomach. At the same time a great sadness overwhelmed me...it was just so sad. They canceled classes and shut down the entire campus. To get onto campus you had to show all this ID and there was only one entrance and exit. It was scarry! I remember watching the news and the San Antonio mayor came on saying that we (san antonio) was prepared for anything (attack) and that we had enough blood available as well as doctors and stuff....it was carzy!!! I was scarred...

ronnie

[josh8o]

i was sleeping...
i had class at 11:00, so i got up at 10:00 and took a shower. when i got back to my room i checked my messages and my firend allison left me a message about what was going on. all i remember is her saying "we are at war." i was shocked. i didnt have a tv in my room, so i went down to my firends room and was like "what's going on?" i sat in his room all day watching tv. i was asleep when the towers collapsed and all the planes hit.
i just remember feeling like i wasn't safe anywhere.

[queequek]

We were over Lake Okoboji, Iowa (by Minnesota border), taking our plants class, on our way to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Yeah, we were in the middle of the boonies, and we heard the story on our van radio . There was no TV or anything at our camp, so we went to Wallmart (like 20 miles away) to keep it update. What a shocking moment.
After we arrived in Canada, our Canadian brothers and sisters supported us. At the custom border (North Dakota and Manitoba), they gave us white ribbon and small Canadian pin.

[pbear19]

I was at home getting ready for work but my boss called right when coverage very first came on and said not to bother coming in. He said to just turn on the TV and he was closing the office for a little while. I ended up just sitting on the carpet in my business suit and heels for a couple hours watching the coverage. Then we opened the office, but we kept taking turns going home and watching TV the whole day.

Being that Hawaii is 6 hours behind the East Coast, many of us were asleep. Brady [my BF at that time] and I were sleeping when we received a phone call from his best friend in California. It was hard to determine what the hell she was saying because I could hear her crying. She told us to turn on the TV and sure enough, it was happening before our eyes.

I was nervous because Brady lived in Coast Guard housing. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to leave housing and go home.

I called my mom to let her know what was happening and she told us to come home right away. We packed up our stuff and went to my house. What normally takes 5 minutes took us about 45 minutes because they were doing a thorough check of everyone's cars.

I immediately thought of my sorority sister and her husband. They had left Hawaii on September 10th and they were on their way to their new home in Washington, but their flight took them to LAX first. It was a while before I found out they were okay.

What scared me the most was when Brady gathered his uniform and his weapons. At that point we weren't sure if they were off to go somewhere. He got the call to go in as soon as the sun came up.

I didn't bother going to class that day. I knew there was no way in hell my professors were gonna force us to go in on a day like that. My boss called me to tell me that I should stay home considering I didn't know what the hell was going on with Brady.

It's a day I hope I never have to re-live again.

[EagleChick19]

I was in my World History 2 class that morning. My professor allowed to watch about 10-15 minutes of it. All of the political science profs (the floor was the Dept of History, Poli Sci, and Economics...Go fig!) came into our classroom and watched it. She turned off the TV then, and then she went on with class. But, she dismissed early that day. I went back to my dorm room and called my big (She lives near Somerset, PA). She turned out to be okay. Then, I called my dad. He was sent home early from his job with the State of PA. He also turned out to be okay. I was very scared that day!!

[AOIIBrandi]

I was at work. I had just walked over to a co-workers cube (he happened to be from NY) and he said "A plane just hit the world trade center". My mouth dropped open, we gathered our other co-workers, and we went into the conference room to watch it on TV. We saw everything on TV starting with the 2nd plane. When the towers fell they told us we could go home.

I was pretty releived we could go home because:

1)I worked on the 33rd floor of a downtown building
2)The president was in Sarasota and we were in Tampa (about 45 minutes away by car).
3)We could see MacDill AFB from our windows at work - It was rumoured Air Force One was going to land there, also the home of CENTCOM - Central Command for Middle East Operations.

On my way home I kept trying to get in touch with my parents and sister ( I had already talked to my husband at work). I finally got them all & on my cell phone to boot I will never forget that day.

[USFSDTAlum]

I was on my way to my 9:30 class and listening to the radio when the second plane hit. They had already been broadcasting that a plane had hit the WTC but no one had mentioned the size of the plane, I thought it was one of those small planes and the radio people were saying it was probably faulty radar. I was parking as they came on and said a second plane had hit. I called my mom because both my parents work in DC for the gov't and both have high ranking status. I asked her if she knew what was going on, and at that time she as well was thinking it was a small plane. She told me she would call her supervisor and call me right back, I told her not to bother because I was walking into class. When I got out of class at 10:45 I walked to my car and didn't turn on the radio because I was trying to call my mom. Obviously I couldn't get through to DC. I walked into my apartment to the first tower collapsing live on screen and my roommates telling me that DC had been attacked. I think I called everyone in my family that day trying to find out if anyone had heard from my parents. There were originally reports that the mall was on fire and my mom works two blocks away. Suffice to say I spent the entire day hysterical until I basically passed out from exhaustion. I woke when my Dad called and could finally get through around 4 pm. Fortunatly no one I knew or any one I knew knew any one who was hurt. I found out later that my uncle who works at the pentagon watched the plane hit because he was late that day.

I will never forget the impact on 9/11 on America's life, and in my memories of it I will always remember my sisters who came running over to see how I was doing.

-------God Bless America---------

[ChiOqt]

I live right outside of Washington, DC and our area was in a state of total uproar and grief since some of the events were so close to home. I was on campus walking from the student union building to class and couldn't figure out why everyone was crowded around a radio on the quad. The phone lines were all down and traffic was twice as bad as it normally is. Everyone was trying to get home to loved ones, pick up their children at school,....How will everyone be remembering the event come 9/11? It's a day no one can ever forget.....

[KarenC725]

I was at work, listening to the radio and they mentioned something about the first plane. I tired to get to one of the media sites but they were all jammed. Then they mentioned the second plane. We went into the conference room and started watching. All of our key personnel were in route to Utah that day so there was no one to tell us that we could go home. Being on the 22nd floor of the General Motors building was not reassuring. So then we decided we were going home.

It took 45 minutes to get from my parking garage to the main street to go home. So much was coming in over the radio so no one knew if the building was a target or not so it was scary to be stuck so close to it. I came home and watched tv all day with my National Guard roommate.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I was in Manhattan. When I received a call about what was happening, I went into full panic mode. I tried to call all of my family. My mother works on Wall Street which is a few blocks away from the Twin Towers. My younger sister works on the West Side near the Empire State Building. My youngest sisters works in midtown near the United Nations. Fortunately, my mother and youngest sister had never left their homes. They didn't need to be a work until later. When they saw the news, they stayed home. My younger sister was at work. It seemed to take forever to get in touch with all of them.

My sister walked from the West 30's to Rockefeller Center where she used to work to Grand Central Station in an attempt to get home. That wasn't working so she walked to get to me. When she was near the UN, she encountered what could only be described as hundreds of people running screaming, "They're attacking the UN!" She thought that she would be trampled. I waited for her staring out of the window. I saw what looked like throngs of refugees that you see in a war torn country on the news. I was never so relieved to see anyone as I was to see my sister. She was terrified. She has never been the same. I somehow managed to get her into a cab and get her home.

The people flooded the streets of Manhattan for hours. I don't mean the sidewalks either. I mean the streets because the sidewalk wasn't big enough to handle all of these people. Suddenly at two o'clock, there was silence. There were no more sirens of firetrucks and ambulences and no more people. The only thing that I could hear was the sound of jet fighters in the sky.

The next few days were horrible. Most of my friends and neighbors were safe. Sadly, not all of them. Several of my neighbors who were firefighters were murdered. I knew one of them; he was only 23 years old.

[Rudey]

That morning I was supposed to meet my mother in the WTC, but she decided to go to some meeting in the Bronx and cancelled on me. I ended up in a diner in Queens watching it on tv. That day I ended up giving blood and heading down to volunteer.

I don't think I ever walked around New York and saw a single person crying; that day and for many days after, I saw more than my fair share.

-Rudey
--And as much as my heart hurts every day I get out of work downtown and see the area or each time I see an American flag, I know most people have already forgotten.

[shopgirl]

I was in bed when my sister's friend called. She blurts out that a plane crashed into the WTC. I said, "Oh my God!" and ran to the tv, kneeling in front of it, for I don't know how long. I was in a state of shock. From the moment she told me what happened I just knew it wasn't an accident. It was like "a plane crashed into the WTC" equaled "someone intentionally flew into the WTC".

I tried all day long to call my family, anyone in my family. They all live in New York. Luckily I didn't lose anyone. However, one of my uncles lives in Far Rockaway, and his neighborhood was affected the most by this tragedy. They lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 people. I have yet to know the extent to which my family was affected. I have not been back to visit since 9/11.

The two months that followed 9/11 were horrible for me. It was as though I was living in a daze. I cried so much. I was so afraid for the world, our country, our citizens, our future, our military, etc. I was worried that my father would be sent to the Middle East (he's a Marine). It was just awful.

Interestingly enough, I was knocked out of my dazed state, or perhaps fear, when we took over Kabul. When I heard that on the news I just felt as though things were going to be o.k.

I'm still touched by this event. I can't watch anything about 9/11 without breaking out into tears. Even reading your stories makes me cry. Reading your stories is an extension of the events that happened that day, and it just reminds me how everyone was so effected by it.

With Love,
Shopgirl

[Dionysus]

It's interesting how 9/11 effected some of us hundreds of miles away from NYC. It was a wake-up call that life is short and we all are vulernable.

Anyways, I was studying for a test in one of our lounge areas. A guy came in there and turned on the tv and said a plane hit the WTC. I got the impression that it was a little jet and nothing serious. Then he turned on the tv and I was like . This was before the buildings collapsed. When the buildings collapsed I shook for like a hour straight. I was dazed for the rest of the day.