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9/11/2001 What were you doing?
- Thread starter BigIron
- Start date
Fresh LTJG in the VS squadron in Jacksonville. I was the assistant urinalysis officer administering a random pee test. My wife called to ask WTF was going on in NY. We all went into the ready room and watched the rest unfold. Hasty AOM around noon & the squadron was on to the GW the next morning in New York Harbor.
Only cruise experienced pilots were allowed to go, the rest of us got left behind to man the desk. 6 deployments later, I've spent a lot of time in the middle east.
Only cruise experienced pilots were allowed to go, the rest of us got left behind to man the desk. 6 deployments later, I've spent a lot of time in the middle east.
Halfway through my second deployment as a JO to 7th Fleet. Misawa was immediately locked down and Skipper told us he didn't know what would happen but to be prepared for anything. We sent 2 crews the next day to 5th Fleet to augment the squadron that was out there and they flew some of the first aircraft to begin ops over afghanistan. Later found out that our former squadron Intel Officer, LT Jonas Panik, was killed while preparing the CNO's morning brief in the Pentagon.
I was getting underway for a workup (I think we were just a few minutes before getting untied from the pier), alone in the wardroom minding my own business (probably looking for food). One of my SWO friends came in and solemnly asked me if I had been watching the news on TV?
About an hour prior I had given one of our ATs a ride from the pier to the base gate to meet his wife (he had forgotten to pack his boots and my car was quicker than waiting for the duty van). The most exciting things going on that summer had been shark attacks in the news (aka media hysteria) and ID card checks at the gate (remember when base sticker = salute/wave through and no need to roll down the window?). When we drove back through the gate I remember thinking the sentries seemed to be gradually paying less attention but the main thing on my mind was getting back before the brow came up.
About an hour prior I had given one of our ATs a ride from the pier to the base gate to meet his wife (he had forgotten to pack his boots and my car was quicker than waiting for the duty van). The most exciting things going on that summer had been shark attacks in the news (aka media hysteria) and ID card checks at the gate (remember when base sticker = salute/wave through and no need to roll down the window?). When we drove back through the gate I remember thinking the sentries seemed to be gradually paying less attention but the main thing on my mind was getting back before the brow came up.
Ten years ago, I was a college freshman at Kansas State. I had just soloed an aircraft for the first time the day before, and I was getting ready to start the next phase of my flight training that day. So, as I normally would, I woke up, turned on the news, and ate some breakfast. Instead of flying or going to class that day, I got to watch as the second plane hit the tower, and then became a leech in front of the television for the better part of the day, changing between the different news channels.
I was working in my civilian job as an intel analyst, ironically at the time on Iraqi WMD issues (yes, they used to be a legitimate and pressing concern.) I got a call from my wife asking "What's going on?", to which my response was "Huh?" In the intel world if you don't work in an operations center, or on indications & warning issues, or have CNN running in your office, you can be remarkably isolated from what's really going on out in the world. I went to find a TV in the building, and watched the WTC collapse. I went back to my desk to start to dig thru initial reporting, only to be told a few minutes later to clear out of the building. Driving home that morning I couldn't help thinking "it's way too nice a day for all this to be happening." My second thought was a paraphrasing of what Yamamoto thought after Pearl Harbor -about Japan having woken a sleeping giant in the US. After having watched the UBL/Al Qaeda pot simmer on the back burner of intel concerns for a number of years, I thought "They (AQ) have no idea of the hell that is about to be unleashed on them."
Driving to work. Heard about the first plane on the radio so I stopped at a friends house to watch the coverage on TV. We watched the second plan hit live. The first thing I thought was that the world had just become a very different place and that US cruise missiles would be spooling up very soon.
I was a senior in high school walking from my first class to my second class when an announcement came over the PA telling all students to immediately report to their next class and turn the TV's on. We watched in disbelief as the second plane hit and the towers collapsed.
Sitting in a dentist chair at NAMI, day two of OCS, having just received what I thought was the worst news anyone could receive - that my eyes were not good enough to be a pilot (later circumvented).
There is worse news.
Did not see footage of the attack for three weeks.
There is worse news.
Did not see footage of the attack for three weeks.
Sitting in a dentist chair, the subject of two root canals. The office did not know of the attack until a patient arrived, reported, after the plane hit the Pentagon. Office TV was then turned on and I was left to my own devices in the chair, mouth filled with "instruments", while all watched the TV "out front". I remember vividly CNN speculating, no proclaiming that it was the work of Saddam Hussein who had been for many moons trying to shoot down any aircraft enforcing the UN mandated "no fly" zone in Iraq.
I was the AOIC of VRC-30 DET-2 on board the USS Carl Vinson. We had just left Thailand and I had a nasty head cold and was med-down, sleeping in my rack. I woke up due to the ship vibrating, it was moving at full speed....I thought, that's odd. Turned on the tv in the stateroom and on a black screen were big white letters, two aircraft have hit the WTC. I thought that was an odd mishap. So I dressed, went to the ready room just in time to watch the towers fall. The rest is history.
I was a MIDN 2/c at Penn State. It was a Tuesday; I remember we did PT outdoors in the parking lot of Shields Building, the registrar/bursar/admissions building by Beaver Stadium and East Halls. My first class was an IST class where we were doing group projects. My group was ahead of the curve, so we had a quick powwow, cleaned up some stray cats and dogs and went home after 20 minutes or so.
I took a nap, and was asleep went it started. Woke up none the wiser and went off to my 1015 class: The History of Islam. The prof said "a plane" hit the WTC. Like many here, I thought of the B-25 hitting the Empire State Building in WWII, and figured it would be a minor thing. Just in case, the prof cancelled the syllabus for the day, and we spent the day talking about the Islamic connection to terrorism and religious extremism, and the Islamic law of war.
My roommate was parked in front of my computer when I got back; I had a TV card which was our only connection to cable. That's when I found out that the towers had gone down. Later, I ran by the hole in the Pentagon during the '01 Marine Corps Marathon. Plenty of armed Marines with loaded M-16s around the course where it wrapped around the building.
I took a nap, and was asleep went it started. Woke up none the wiser and went off to my 1015 class: The History of Islam. The prof said "a plane" hit the WTC. Like many here, I thought of the B-25 hitting the Empire State Building in WWII, and figured it would be a minor thing. Just in case, the prof cancelled the syllabus for the day, and we spent the day talking about the Islamic connection to terrorism and religious extremism, and the Islamic law of war.
My roommate was parked in front of my computer when I got back; I had a TV card which was our only connection to cable. That's when I found out that the towers had gone down. Later, I ran by the hole in the Pentagon during the '01 Marine Corps Marathon. Plenty of armed Marines with loaded M-16s around the course where it wrapped around the building.
I was sitting in US History class as a junior. Rumors were circulating but the teachers wouldn't let us turn the classroom TVs on for fear of panic (I grew up 30 miles outside NYC). A section of F-15s flew over the school pretty low and people started to freak out...
STARFlight145
Registered User
I was in 8th grade homeroom. They stopped class as the teachers tried to piece things together. I came home from school and asked my dad how his day was. He was a Sikorsky test pilot at the time in Stratford, CT. They happened to have a number of Blackhawks that were to be delivered to Columbia. They loaded them up with gear and responders and flew them into the city. With the exception of F-15 air support, they were the only aircraft over the city at the time.
I'll never forget his face when he came home from work that day, it's still vivid in my mind 10 years later.
I'll never forget his face when he came home from work that day, it's still vivid in my mind 10 years later.
