Where were you on Sept 11th, 2001 ?

[aristotle]

We Americans are very good at letting bygones be bygones. It's a coping mechanism, individually and collectively. The Earth has turned on its axis many times since that day in September.

I was delivering freight in Somerset,Ky on a spectacular blue sky morning, listening to AM radio (WHAS out of Louisville) when it was announced a plane had struck the World Trade Center in NYC. Then, a few minutes later, it was announced another plane struck the other tower. Obviously, this was no coincidence. We were under attack.

After making my delivery, I put myself off duty and rushed home to watch live coverage on TV. I was glued to the television for the next several days. Initial feelings of confusion and disbelief were quickly replaced by anger. For a brief period of time, we Americans rallied together and seemed unified in purpose.

Now, with the time and distance of seven years, I am back to square one with confusion and disbelief. I, for one, am not quite ready to let bygones be bygones. The situation remains unresolved. Where were you that day? How did you react?

 

[RLENT]

As is often my habit when I am at home, I fell asleep the night before on the couch ..... with the television on. I awoke in the morning to confused news coverage - the first plane had already hit, and within a few minutes of me being awake, the second plane hit - while I was watching. I stayed glued to the television for the remainder of the day.

 

[Saturnista]

I was a manager at FedEx Express at the time. I was at home enjoying my day off. I was still living with my parents, and my entire family save my sister worked for FedEx. My dad worked in the "war room" and was at work at the time. My mom and I both had the day off. When she saw the news about the first plane crash she woke me up, and I watched as the second plane hit. At that point my Dad called to let us know that FedEx was about to ask everyone they could get to come in. Sure enough as we hung up the phone rang again. We raced to the airport and ended up loading air cargo containers either directly into trucks, or unloading them and loading the freight into trucks. We even had to drive to a military base nearby to unload a few planes of ours that had landed there. I ended up working 18 hours, slept in a conference room as all the hotels were filled, then got up and worked another very long shift. We had so many planes on the ground we had run out of gates to park them at, they had started parking planes on the ramps and one of the runways. I'm not sure how FX knew that the FAA was about to ground all planes, or if they took it upon themselves before the FAA, but alot of our planes were being ordered by FX to return before the FAA required it.

I think we had some good connections somewhere, because we were also the first private airline allowed to resume air operations. We resumed flying what seemed like a week before anyone else did. Hell, we were in the air before the USPS. I think it was on the 12th that we were allowed to resume air operations, as the government needed alot of what we provided.

I remember we had been sorting packages from an aircraft into a couple of tractor trailers, and we started coming across packages going to the WTC FedEx station. We started placing them aside. It was a eerie moment. At the time we had been told that several FedEx employees were presumed dead in the WTC office, thankfully the FX WTC office did evacuate safely.

It was a bad day all around.

 

[DougTravels]

I guess, as generations older than me will never forget where they were when JFK was shot, I too have a vivid memory of that awful morning. We were loading our trucks at our Linen Company, my wife had Howard Stern on the radio, he announced the 1st tower had been hit. We all stopped and turned on the TV when the 2nd one hit. That moment of change in all of our minds was staggering to say the least. Going from look at this awful accident to, my god we are under attack in a heartbeat. That morning I had to drive up to Flint from Warren Michigan the empty skies were very eerie, I was up by Holly Michigan and there was one one single engine plane in the air it was flying up ahead over I-75 and I had never been concerned about a plane before. I listened on the radio that day while both towers fell.

The next few evenings, from my deck in Hazel Park the skies were so quiet. I could occasionally see Jets from Selfridge Air Force running the border in groups. It looked like they were following the River from Port Huron area down to detroit then downriver.

Lets just hope the next generation has very few/none of these moments that you always remember where you were when they happened.

 

[Saturnista]

(This is Kat, the first post was Nick)

I'm a lot younger than most of you. I was a junior in high school. I remember that I had stayed home sick that day. I had the radio on in my bedroom and they broke into a music set to broadcast the news. I kind of shrugged it off and figured it was a commuter plane and started to drift back to sleep. When they said they'd gotten word about one hitting the Pentagon, I got out of bed and watched the rest of the day unfold on TV.

I live within shouting distance of Wright Patterson Air Force base. The AF hasn't been allowed to break the sound barrier in the area in many decades because of the complaints from the surrounding populated areas. That afternoon though, one of the scrambled jets that were heading for NY did break the sound barrier. I was standing in the street talking to some of my neighbors when it shook the whole neighborhood. The news incorrectly reported that a small plane had hit the VA hospital in downtown Dayton. We were all afraid that Wright Patt was the next target. It was a very scary day because we had all been hearing for many years that WPAFB was one of the top targets due to the cargo wing that's over there, along with all the technology projects that go on there.

In the afternoon they locked down the base. No one could get on or off for several hours. They let the city schools out early because of how many students were connected to the base, either living on it or with parents working on it. The schools and the base communicated enough to make sure that parents were home when the kids got there. The base was locked down for the next two days and our city schools were shut down because of it.

 

[Turtle]

The night before 9/11 I enjoyed dinner with a friend at the restaurant on top of the WTC. The morning of 9/11 our plane lifted off the runway at JFK at approximately 8:00 bound for Los Angeles. The flight was diverted to St Louis, where we then learned of what had happened. Rental cars were nearly impossible to get, so we were stranded there most of the day until someone from home could drive up to get us. She continued on to LA a few days later, I stayed home. Haven't been on a commercial flight since. I subsequently did some DOD hard drive data recovery in the final weeks leading up to the invasion of Afghannistan, locked in the basement of the Pentagon, but transportation to and from D.C. for that was provided by military aircraft. I try not to think about any of it very much any more, but my anger and outrage has never really subsided. I've been back to NYC many times since then and always find it painful to look at the city skyline. I can't seem to bring myself to go anywhere near Ground Zero. One of these days, maybe.

 

[chefdennis]

I was in the same place i was when the challenger exploded, I was in the car business at the time and a few of us wholesalers and buyers met for breakfest or lunch everyday. Four of us were sitting in a normally noisy breakfest hangout eatung, talking and lying to each other about the day befores business. When the news of the 1st plane came, we all watch and figured it was a bad mistake, then when the 2nd report came over , the place was dead silent for what seemed like an hour as we all were glued to the news...

I have been to NYC twice since, both times i avoided ground zero....While i am sure Turtles distain is alot more then mine having been in the tower the night before and having a personal connection, but I do understand it.....

As for our country coming together as one, yea we did and then we let "LIFE" creep back in, not that that is a bad thing, but in doing so we, moved on and while we still have the horrible memory...its just not as strong of an emotional tug as it was....that is both good and bad...yes we as a nation had to move on, but we didn't need to let that horrible day be put on a shelf in or minds, only to be brought to the fore when asked about it in a situation like this....

 

[OntarioVanMan]

And there Chef lies the problem...the American general public has never felt or experienced the ravages of war like Europe has....the carnage. misery....bombs falling death destruction all around...dismembered bodies of women and children on a daily basis....For a lot of Americans it was their first taste of death and rightly so they were disgusted, horrified and then angered. Like Pearl it was a sneak attack.

American policies being what they are...from a foreigners point of view is that America is way too quick to pull the trigger....maybe if they had more to lose there would be pause for thought...but since its never them being bombed thats ok....
America has a short memory sometimes...had the French not arrived Cornwallace would have got his re-enforcements and where would we be? And now you are their greatest critic...
Europeans have the experience of rebuilding after carpet bombing....maybe if say NYC or Chicago was carpet bombed it would be a rude awakening for the occasional Patriot.

 

[chefdennis]

You are absolutely right OVM, the fact that we have never before 9/11 had anything like this happen on our soil is one of the reasons why we moved on soo fast.

We are accused of having a quick trigger finger you are right there also, but i think that is to deter attacks on our soil as much as anything...and the fact that we haven't had wars fought in our cities as they have in euroe is also another reason we don't have the public termoil here on a regular basis that they have in europe...we don't have the riots in the streets here that alot of euroe and the UK does, i think because we haven't had that taste of the destruction that has happened else where. Oh sure from time to time we will have a city wide riot, but no where near what hapens elsewhere.

The fact is that most Americans are soft and lazy , they worry more about American Idol then they do about the Constitution and historical events like 9/11, (until they are affected personally) to let anything hang with them for very long, as was said,

"We Americans are very good at letting bygones be bygones. It's a coping mechanism, individually and collectively."

And that is ashame.........

 

[greg334]

And there Chef lies the problem...the American general public has never felt or experienced the ravages of war like Europe has....the carnage. misery....bombs falling death destruction all around...dismembered bodies of women and children on a daily basis....

OVM yes it is true we haven’t and so hasn’t the entire American continent. Europe has been at war with itself for centuries, they have been used to fighting and death up until the last world war. Since then they have experienced only fighting in the Balkans and then there was still an involvement from outside.

For a lot of Americans it was their first taste of death and rightly so they were disgusted, horrified and then angered. Like Pearl it was a sneak attack.

The problem has been along our anger has been misplaced, we blame the wrong people and let ourselves be fooled into thinking that our leadership is the right leadership to bring justice to our country.

American policies being what they are...from a foreigners point of view is that America is way too quick to pull the trigger....maybe if they had more to lose there would be pause for thought...but since its never them being bombed thats ok....

I don’t agree, we don’t have a quick trigger, go to other countries and see their attitude, especially in Africa. Our attitude was at that time revenge, but like I said it was misplaced.

America has a short memory sometimes...had the French not arrived Cornwallace would have got his re-enforcements and where would we be? And now you are their greatest critic...

When we fought our revolution, France was a completely different country. It was a monarchy but since has had 6 or 7 governments and even after the First World War criticized the US for our intervention on the German’s behalf to prevent France from tearing Germany apart. They can be critics all they want, because we don’t need them as much as they need us. Even with the financial mess we caused for ourselves, they are hurting a lot and if you read the EU news, the EU and France may end up disbanding soon enough with all the infighting going on.

Europeans have the experience of rebuilding after carpet bombing....maybe if say NYC or Chicago was carpet bombed it would be a rude awakening for the occasional Patriot.

We rebuilt Europe; we did it and not the Europeans. It was American money, American equipment and American knowledge. There was thing little thing called the marshal plan, it was preceded by CARE and other forms of aid to these countries. We left most of the equipment from our military operations and a lot of men who worked cleaning up the mess. We had advisors, people from colleges and universities and even volunteers over there helping rebuild. A lot of service men who were released found jobs there through the Red Cross to help.

To be exact, the brits use carpet bombing from 1940 to the end of the war; we used it from late ’42 to the early ’45 in Europe. The brits sometimes did it for revenge, other times for strategic reasons but mostly for revenge – they were very quick on the trigger. But again they, the brits came up with the idea to totally flatten Dresden and talked us into it. A lot of idiots talk about Bush being tried for war crimes which is really dumb, if there is an example of a war crime it is Churchill and Dresden – Bush has nothing on Churchill.

The truth is that our present generations are soft, we don’t know what war is like, we don’t even know one is going on. It is amazing that we can support a war and live like we are. My generation, the last of the baby boomers can’t grasp what a hard life is, we haven’t been though hard times at all. But we as a country cry when our 401ks lose money, when we lose our jobs and we want the government to bail us out.

 

[layoutshooter]

I was waiting to leave for work when I saw the news stories. I went to work armed that day. Was armed for several days after. I do remember JFK, RFK, MLK, George Wallace both shuttles and too many other very bad things. What concerns me more than anything is it appears that Obama did not see it or remember it. He is gutting our military big time. Some people just never learn. I hope that if we get "tagged" again that this time we answer right, no fooling around. There are only two types in this world winners and losers. I don't like losing. Layoutshooter

 

[cheri1122]

That was a day when I had reason to fear not only for the safety of the country, but of both my daughters, and it was truly awful.
When the plane crashed in SW Pa, I feared for my elder daughter, who had moved to a small town in SW Pa just a week earlier, and didn't yet have the phone connected. Immediately after leaving a msg on her cell, I heard a radio announcement from [then] Cleveland Mayor White regarding a 'suspicious' plane being held on the ground at the airport by the FBI. Details were sketchy, but the plane was loaded, and the FBI was hoping to remove the passengers without incident. We didn't know if the plane might explode, or what, and my younger daughter was in school just one mile from the airport. I wanted to go pull her out of class, but refrained - if she was safe, why scare her to death?
It turned out to be a false alarm, (one of many, I'm sure, in the first hrs, when no one knew what might happen next). The hour in which I wondered whether either of my daughters was safe was the longest and worst of my life.
The continued failure to find BinLaden has not made me feel any safer, nor has the reaction to various threats after the fact [ie: taking shoes off for preflight checkins].
Having to get a TWIC card on top of a FAST card on top of a Hazmat certification only points out just how uncoordinated American security is, IMO.

 

[layoutshooter]

It is all about the money, not security. Layoutshooter

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Phew..after I posted I thought a few of you would mis read what I said and take it wrong...

 

[aileron]

That day, I remember it like it was yeaterday. I was in college at the time in Athens, GA getting ready to go to class. I was just checking my e-mail before heading out and I got an e-mail from aviation-safety.net (I am an aviation ethusiast and this website send out messages when there is an accident or incident involving airplanes) about a plane hitting world trade center. Then I delete this message and another one comes that another plane hit the world trade center. Then I realized something was terribly wrong. I went to class, couldn't concentrate on anything, just thinking about what had happened. I went home and was glued to the tv the rest of the day and night. I tried a long lime to reach my family back in Romania by phone to let them know I was ok.
What bothers me the most after all these things is that we as americans are so ready to give up our freedoms for fear. Where will we end if we continue like this? Benjamin Flanklin's words come to mind:
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

 

[aristotle]

Phew..after I posted I thought a few of you would mis read what I said and take it wrong...

OVM, you're a gentle soul and we know your heart is always in the right place. No way to misunderstand that.

 

[aristotle]

The night before 9/11 I enjoyed dinner with a friend at the restaurant on top of the WTC. The morning of 9/11 our plane lifted off the runway at JFK at approximately 8:00 bound for Los Angeles. The flight was diverted to St Louis, where we then learned of what had happened. Rental cars were nearly impossible to get, so we were stranded there most of the day until someone from home could drive up to get us. She continued on to LA a few days later, I stayed home. Haven't been on a commercial flight since. I subsequently did some DOD hard drive data recovery in the final weeks leading up to the invasion of Afghannistan, locked in the basement of the Pentagon, but transportation to and from D.C. for that was provided by military aircraft. I try not to think about any of it very much any more, but my anger and outrage has never really subsided. I've been back to NYC many times since then and always find it painful to look at the city skyline. I can't seem to bring myself to go anywhere near Ground Zero. One of these days, maybe.

The 9-11 attack is still a huge gaping wound on our national psyche. And for many, their personal psyche as well. For some it is cathartic to remember. For others, it is best to leave it alone. In terms of contemporary America, it was a national trauma like no other. The cruelty of that day is just unfathomable.

 

[TJ959]

I'll never forget that day. We were on vacation and camping at the Michigan state park in St Ignace. We were leaving to go home that morning and I was hooking up the trailer. I remember being a little grumpy as my daughter was inside watching TV instead of helping me. She yelled out the window that the World Trade Center was on fire and maybe hit by an airplane. I thought, ya sure, but it can't be very bad. I went inside anyway and just in time to see the other tower get hit. My feelings were indescribable. This was a deliberate act, but why? Who did this thing? I watched for a while and then returned to my work. I just wanted to get my family home.

Both towers fell before I left that campsight. The Mackinac bridge had barriers and police roadblocks on both ends but they were letting traffic across it. What a strange sight to see automatic weapons out in the open in the middle of touristland USA.

The U.P. is one of my favorite and most visited places but now every time I cross that bridge I think of that day. My faith tells me to forgive but I can't forgive that day no matter how hard I try. I can't forgive the street scenes in Palestine where there was open celebration and joy. What kind of people celebrate the murder of ordinary working people going about their everyday lives?

 

[RLENT]

What kind of people celebrate the murder of ordinary working people going about their everyday lives?

Insane ones.

And that answer applies irrespective of who the victims are, the faith they hold or practice, what their political belief system might be, or where they reside.

 

[inkasnana]

MentalGiant and I were driving from Orlando to Tampa that morning. We had just moved down to FL and were on our way to a job interview. We had stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast and someone had a radio on. I asked what was going on and someone said that some plane had hit a tower at an airport in NYC. I was "sorry" to hear that but didn't give it much thought and we continued on our way.

When we got to our Tampa interview, we heard the correct story and that a second plane had hit the WTC. We had a rather quick interview and headed back to Orlando, listening to the news on the car radio. It was difficult to imagine exactly what was going on, especially after hearing about the plane that hit the Pentagon. When we got close to Orlando, all of the toll roads had been opened up and no tolls were being collected. We got home and watched the events on tv for the next few days.

Another thing that was memorable was the sudden "jump" in gas prices that day. There were stations in Orlando area that were suddenly charging $5.00 a gallon for gas. That didn't last too long of course, but it was causing panic in a lot of areas. When all of the planes were grounded, it was strange to be outside. There is normally a lot of air traffic over Orlando area and everything seemed so quiet and subdued. There was a real sense of fear in people those first few days that I had never seen before, and I hope I never do again.