9/11/01 Where were you when you heard or saw the attack?

[UnSafe]

As we close in on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it made me think of what I was doing and how it affected me at the time. Although most of us were far removed from the actual attacks, it affected all of us to some extent or another.

So- Where were you and what were you doing when it happened. See it on TV or hear about it later? How long did it take to dawn on you that the first plane's impact on the WTC wasn't just a horrible accident? Did you think it would lead us all to the current situation- Afghanistan, Iraq, TSA, Obama?

Me- Still in the Army, another busy morning running Sick Call. Someone mentioned the first impact and I paused in the waiting room to see the smoke and flames on CNN. Thinking it was a small aircraft that had accidentally struck the tower, I went back seeing sore knees, runny noses and butts. When the second plane struck and it was identified as a large commercial jet, the reality quickly sunk in. Somewhere around that time, I got a call to clear out the clinic and beat feet up to BDE Hq for a briefing. Everyone was pretty much running around like chickens with their heads cut off, unsure if there would be attacks locally.

By the next morning, the post was locked down. I had to park off post and run in with my stuff in a rucksack to avoid the hours long line at the gate. I remember thinking over and over that I'd just passed 20 years in, but had agreed to stay longer in exchange for a better retirement rate and would likely spend my extended stay in some third world chit hole and get my boots blown off in the process.

 

[Isha's Pa Pa]

I was asleep and my Wife woke me up and told come look
that a plane hit one of the twin towers then we watched the
other plane hit the other building and I knew then it was terrorist or someone !
Was a sad day for everyone God bless us all !

 

[RWS]

i very rarely remember exact moments in time like that, but i remember that and when the challenger blew up. on 9/11 i was taking my wife & first daughter in for her 2 month check up. heard it on the radio on the way, then watched on the waiting room tv

 

[rebelracer79]

I was in 7th grade I heard it on the radio as my mom drove me to school. We thought it was an accident then we heard about the second plane and knew it was bad. What sticks out most to me was our football coach/history teacher and how pissed he was. The hour we were in his class we watched CNN the entire time with class discussion and commentary by the time we got out of there we were all pissed.

 

[hanson405]

I was in 8th Grade Earth Science at Moore West junior high. I remember too thinking it was a small aircraft (I believe this what they were saying initially.) Then watching the second one impact. Don't really remember what I thought about it honestly.

 

[FullAuto]

I was at Thunderbird casino. I got off work at 8 A.M. and was still in the breakroom. The TV cut to the live shot of the first tower on fire. I saw the second place hit live. There were several of us watching it in the breakroom. The first words out of my mouth were "someone's getting their ass kicked now".

 

[WTJ]

Drinking coffee and watching it on the box. Spent the rest of the day doing weapons and equipment checks.

 

[mugsy]

I was stationed at the Pentagon as an Air Staff officer - specifically though I was across the road in Crystal City just outside the Pentagon. We were watching the World Trade Center on TV when we heard the "whumph" from somewhere outside and one of our guys ran into the building we were in saying "a bomb just blew up at the Pentagon".

A civilian who just retired out of my office at Ft Sill was in the Army section of the Pentagon (which took the brunt of the impact) but was in the first office section that wasn't destroyed. Sadly, several other people in her section were killed.

 

[Glocktogo]

I had just got off the night shift at the Boeing plant in Tulsa. I was getting ready to hit the sack when my buddy called and told me to turn on the TV. We were still on the phone when the second plane hit. I immediately called my wife, who was at the time working in the BOK tower in downtown Tulsa. I pretty much ordered her to leave and come home. At the time, I was concerned that there would be more attacks.

 

[loudshirt]

I was in Darwin Australia with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). We were on our first night out on the small town of Darwin after a couple of days of training and a couple weeks of traveling. It was late in the evening when we all got recalled to the ship. We had a formation to tell everyone what was going on. We got underway as quickly as possible. Since we were deployed on ship news was hard to get do to security at that time. We did get some information but most of it was power point and grainy pictures. For a couple of hours we were wondering if it was just some fake exercise. By mid October we were doing security operations in Pakistan and the night before Thanksgiving most of Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 1/1 were in Pakistan waiting to head into southern Afghanistan. A day or so later we went into southern Afghanistan and set up Camp Rhino. We were there until about Jan 3rd 2002. We got back home the first half of March 2002. It was not until about Sept 2002 that I ever saw any video of the World Trade Center.