Where were you when you heard about 9/11

I was at home here in Japan. One of my co-workers called me and told me to turn on the TV. I watched the second plane hit on live TV.

It was surreal. I was like, is this a movie or something? It's still hard to believe it really happened, but we all know it did.

 

We were sleeping in that day...then my dad called and told me that a plane had hit the WTC, and that they thought it was an accident. I turned on the TV in the bedroom and basically watched the news for the next three weeks. I remember feeling a looming sense of horror, a realization that I was living in a time when very bad things were going to happen.
My biggest surprise in the last seven years is that they haven't been able to hit us again.

 

I was at home. My brother woke me up and told me that we were under attack. I told him to shut up, and tried to go back to sleep. He showed me the TV, and I was shocked. We both went to work that day. All of our co-workers were completely distracted, as were we. Not much work got done that evening. We were all in a state of shock. The few weeks, months, and years that followed will never be forgotten by those who were old enough to realize what was happening. I had just graduated high school at the time.

Much respect goes out to the volunteers who put their lives on the line to help at ground zero.

 

I was in middle school when i heard about it... I was in the hall way and my math teacher explained to us what had happen, it was sad because a lot of kids in my school got calls about their family member missing...one of my friends lost his father who was a firefighter...in the city there is a memorial with the names of firefighters and his name is on it which i thought was nice!

 

I was at work, we stood in front of a TV the rest of the day.

 

I was in a local record store skipping my college psychology class. Then left, went home, and watched the news all day in shock.

 

I was at college in Tennessee. I remember being pissed because my roommate had the TV on really loud and it woke me up.

I was still fading in and out of sleep, but heard someone on the TV talking about "towel heads" and "how dare they do this".

This made me get out of bed to see what was happening. The second plane had just hit the tower. I immediately figured terrorist attack because of the building that had been hit. A swarm of thoughts rushed to my head and confusion set in.

People in TN were FREAKING out because the world's largest collection of nuclear arms was not too far away at Fort Campbell in Clarksville.

My uncle works for the Pentagon and was inside the building when a plane hit at DC, luckily he was not injured. It was a crazy day that Im sure I'll never forget nor should anyone.

 

I was sitting in the commons area of the College of Health and Public Affairs at the University of Central Florida, waiting for a 9AM class to start. All of the TVs in the commons were tuned to CNN. The news coverage cut away to cover a fire that was spotted on one of the upper floors of the first tower and footage of the fire was being broadcast from the CNN building when the second plane hit the towers.

 

My wife's uncle use to work in the exact location where the plane hit, his department was moved a few weeks earlier, before the attack. He was close friends with some of the people that were killed.

 

I was at work in Sunrise. We heard about it on the radio. Then after the second plane hit, they called from my baby's day care to say they were closing and to come get her. Everyone at work was then sent home and I watched it on tv when I got home - absolutely mortified.

 

I was leaving my house in Temecula to go to work, when I was listening to the sports radio. I thought it was some sick humor. Once I realized it wasn't, I called my wife and woke her up. An employee came to work with his tv, and the coverage just floored us at work. A day I will never forget. It was pure sadness, with a sense of I couldn't do anything to help the situation.

 

I was at work here in the UK when my partner called me to say that a plane had hit the first tower and that another had happended as we were talking. I thought Oh f**k its WWIII! it was so quiet in the area as reality struck and that we are quite close to an RAF base which is rumoured to be the place all dignitrys head to in time of crisis. Even though it hadn't affected me directly the fact that as countries were are practically brothers and I was angry and probably the first time I have shed a tear for anything other than family.

It changed the world as we know it but good will eventually prevail

 

I was in class in college. It was an early class, 8:30 or so and I got out a few hours later. I hadn't heard a thing about it until I got home and turned the TV on.

 

Was driving into my office for the VA company I worked for at the time (Large DoD, Govt IT supplier)...listening to Imus on radio, etc, when 1st plane hit, then made it in to see the Conf Room TV showing the flames from the 1st tower trying to figure what type of plane hit it, when the now famous footage of the 2nd Commerical Airliner struck.

Spent the day tracking down employees, co-workers, business partners, and customers as best we could to see what support we could provide, etc.

Crazy series of weeks and months that followed obviously.

P.S. Jumping on a plane to AZ this afternoon....and I am proud to say, I feel safe!!!!

 

i was already in Asia

 

I arrived at the Doctors(I was scared to my soul that I had testicular cancer..it wasn't) to find the first tower already hit. While we were watching, the second plane hit.. I knew we were at war.

 

Wow...the exact same thing happened to me, except it was my aunt trying to wake me instead(I was living w/ them at the time), and I was already in college and working. Other than that, down to the letter.

I remember being supremely pissed that I couldn't join the military and defend our honor and freedoms, as well as having a strange calm come over me as the events were happening. My aunt was freaking out and calling a bunch of people while wandering from TV to TV in the house. Everybody else seemed to be in shock over what happened, whilst I couldn't seem to be more dispassionate. It just didn't affect me the same as everyone around me. It was as if I had immediately accepted what happened and moved on to the next step of retaliation and prevention.

I'll never forget that day, b/c that was the day I pondered my humanity and realized how differently I dealt with tragedy.

 

From the other thread

 

I was in 8th grade (yes, I was that young) and was on my way to school. We were just about to get off the bus when it came up on the radio. Being I was so young, I understood what was going on, yet I didn't understand what was going on. We got to class and most of the morning we watched CNN and it really hit me. Seeing the footage over and over again was just mindblowing that someone like that could have happened to any one of us. We had a field trip later that day which we went to and it was kind of a weird day.

One of my friends aunts was suppose to be on the flight but she missed it..

 

I was at work at the County building in downtown Miami and all of a sudden a co-worker, who always had a radio on said "a plane just hit the World Trade Center." I said "are you kidding?" Annoyed, he answered sharply "no, I'm not."

I immediately went to my boss's office where there was a tv and turned it on and the second plane had hit. By this time, a commentator, I don't remember who, was saying how this was terrorism and enumerating the reasons such as, the pilot of the second plane would avoid the area under normal circumstances.

People slowly began filtering into the office and I turned to one of my colleagues and said a couple of times out of disbelief, "this is an act of war!" One of my co-workers came in, thinking that it was an elaborate hoax. As they were just about to show the video of the first plane hitting again, I had to leave as I couldn't watch it again, and our secretary said "go, get out of here!"

About an hour later, they ordered the building evacuated, except for essential personnel. People all over downtown were walking around with stunned looks on their faces.

 

Was on my way to work when i first heard about it. Watched the 1st Tower(maybe both) collapse on TV here at work with the rest of my coworkers.

 

I just got to school, walked into my English Honors class when everyone was starting to watch the TV. I still remember the first images I saw of the first plane hitting the tower when I just walked in. The neighboring English class in to watch so the room was packed. But as I was sitting down at my seat, I remembered my uncle worked in one of the Towers (his office actually moved earlier I believe). And that pretty much setup what happened next.

One of the guys sitting next to me made a really horrible comment. The guy, Derek, I knew from my football team as the jerk who played TE, lived up to his title. He started ribbing me saying "You know anyone that worked there? I bet they died" and "That **** looks cool". I don't remember at which point I did it, but I unleashed a right hook at his jaw that knocked him down. Would've gotten in trouble except the girl sitting across from him overheard and vouched for me. That and my spotless record as well as his well-documented one got me off scot-free and a reminder to keep my emotions in check and him getting a suspension as well as calling his parents in (his dad was a veteran too).

 

sleeping. my mom woke me and told me to come look at the tv..i was in 6th grade, we watched tv till morning recess(wow i miss elementary school)..i didn't really understand the seriousness of it at the moment

 

i also remember crying that night cuz i was scared about my brother. he wasn't in NY but he was in the army and idk i just balled

 

I was in my freshman year at high school in Math class when they announced that there was an explosion at the World Trade Center and there was a big hole in the building.

After that period ended, everyone gathered at the main hallway in school where there was a TV on with about 500 people gathered in a small area. We all witnessed the second plane hit live and the whole hallway just gasped and many people started crying.

I went home and just watched the news for the rest of the day.

I had a family member that worked in a neighboring building but frequently had meetings at the WTC, but was on a business trip in Canada at the time.

 

I was sitting in 10th grade english class, and the first we heard was some kid coming in and saying "hey, the pentagon is on fire"- which, not to sound cold, but for a few seconds was almost laughable (just in an ironic sort of way mind you- imagine, not knowing any of the other events that had transpired that morning at that moment, and hearing that one of the most important buildings in the US had a fire, just sort of unbelievable)- anyway, we obviously turned on the tv and realized the extent of what was going on, and we sat in silence. It was scary, because we lived in PA near Three Mile Island nuclear plant, and being that there was that plane that crashed in PA, we had no idea what was going to happen.

The curious thing was how certain teachers reacted. Some just turned on the tv and sat there, some refused to turn on the tv (out of respect to the students who knew people that might be in trouble) and just talked to us, and some even attempted to keep class going to distract us all from the fear (my history teacher for example gave us a pop quiz he was planning on doing anyway, which he obviously didn't grade but just did to pass the time).

eventually they sent us all home early and we watched the news for i can't even remember how long. I was lucky enough not to know anyone personally who was harmed that day, but my heart goes out to all affected. certainly a day none of us will ever forget, nor should we.

 

Some interesting stories here.

For me, I was a frosh at college at St Bonaventure University, about an hour and a half south of Buffalo NY. I had receieved word that my grandfather who I was very close to, had died from Cancer just a few days before. His funeral was going to be the 12th. Well, he (and most of my relatives) lived in Chicago suburbs, so I was supposed to catch a plane out to Chitown from Buffalo while my family drove. Guess when that plane was supposed to take off? Yeah, about 12am on Sept. 11th. I woke up to go to breakfast with my roomie. He wandered off to the lobby of our dorm to grab a newspaper and came back talking about a small plane that had hit one of the WTC buildings. We went to breakfast and as we were watching the TVs in the cafeteria we saw the second plane hit, and the pentagons big smoking hole, and all the chaos. It was about that point when the announcers were saying all air travel had been suspended, that he looked at me and said "Dude, arent you supposed to be flying today?"
I was at a loss of what to do really. I frantically managed to wrangle up an emergency contact number for one of my aunts, who gave me the number of another aunt with whom my mom and family was staying. After consulting and watching some news, we realized that there was nothing we could really do to get me out there in time for the funeral (I didnt have a car). So it was really a personal mess for me. The shock and sadness of my grandpas death, then the shock of 9/11, I just kinda went blank and vegged out the whole weekend.
At least they made a nice video of it that I could watch. Sadly, just a few months later his wife passed and we had the funeral ... on my birthday. Not a pleasant period of time for me, but looking back it did give me a very strange personal story to tell about that crazy day. It was just so incredibly unbelievable, the whole thing.

 

I was sleeping (west coast) and my ex-girlfriend who lived with me at the time was getting ready for work, and she had the radio on real loud. You ever have a dream and at the end real noises work their way into your dream? Well my dream turned into me watching a TV at a bar with the news of the world trade center being attacked. It was so vivid. So I woke up, and my ex asked excitedly, "guess what happened?????"

And I replied, "they bombed the world trade center!!!!" She looked at me like, how the freak do you know that?

I was in law school at the time and ditched classes that day and watched TV the whole day. I got this funny knot feeling in my stomach. That very day. I felt, this attack has opened up a new world and things will not be the same anymore.

 

I remember I was in 8th grade at the time, we heard our principal saying over the intercom that one of the Towers was hit by an airplane,my class and a few others, were sent into the library when they turned the news on, and we saw the second plane hit the other tower.

I felt, angry, shocked and scared, that whole day felt very surreal.

 

Sleeping in a bit on my birthday before I went into the office to tie up some loose ends, then pick up supplies for my party that evening.

My GF calls, says "Turn on the TV, the WTC was hit by planes and the Pentagon is destroyed."

Never did I think as I sat there, stunned along with millions of others, that seven years later the murderous bastards who perpetrated those heinous acts would still be breathing air.

 

Living on the West Coast it all happened kind of early in the morning. That said, I was on a "work sabbatical" at the time. I was sleeping (of course) and my phone was going crazy but I ignored it. After it had rang about 50 times in 10 minutes I got up and brought the phone to bed and "*69ed" to discover it was my g/f. I hang up to call her back and it rings again...

My buddy says (keep in mind it's 6:00 AM) "dude, the US is under attack, go turn on your TV". I hang up and HONESTLY the first thing I did was look out my bedroom window skyward, expecting to see Japanese Zeros or Alien spaceships or something....

I went and threw on CNN and the channel did not change for 3 days. I went to CNN.com (which was down for a long time) and kept refreshing to see if I could get up to date information.

I had a roomy at the time who worked graveyard shift. I was sitting in front of the computer with the TV going at around 1:00 in the afternoon when he woke up. He says "hey, what's going on" on his way to the can and I answered with "well, terrorists flew two airliners into the World Trade Center, crashed another into the Pentagon and another one crashed in Pennsylvania. the World Trade Center does not exist anymore and the Pentagon is on fire". I'll never forget the look on his face.

At about 3:00 another friend of mine called, he wanted to go and grab something to eat, get away from the TV for a little bit. We went downtown and I've NEVER seen the streets that deserted on a beautiful weekday afternoon.

I can tell you everything I did that day. I ate at "Mahoney's", I recall verbatim what my g/f and friend said to me on the phone. I went to the g/f's place at around 7:00 PM, I stopped at the Starbucks on the way, grabbed her a Chai and myself a latte, stopped at the 7-11 on the way and grabbed the "Special Editions" of the local fish wraps, flipped between news programs at her place while reading the papers.

I can't tell you what I did last week at work or 3 weekends ago but that day is one of those moments in time when I can remember every single thing I did that day.

 

I was on the bus towards home when the bus driver told all of us that a plane hit the pentagon. I was like what the F is the pentagon?