9/11/2001 What were you doing?

[xj220]

I turned tv on as I was getting ready for breakfast to see the first tower had just been hit. I was a junior in high school and like everyone thought it was a Cessna or other GA plane. As I was watching tv eating cereal, I saw the second tower get hit. I knew something was up but didn't really comprehend it fully. During my short drive to school, I listened to the radio to see if there were any more developments which there were: the Pentagon had also been hit. Immediately, I knew it wasn't an accident and that something big was happening. During the first couple classes, we watched tv but had it on silent while we carried on with our day to day activities. I remember that it was in French class where I saw the first tower go down. At that point, we stopped class and just watched the events unfold for the rest of the day.

I don't know if it was that day or a couple days later, but I was at the gas station and an older guy who was also filling up started talking to me. He mentioned that he remembered what he was doing when Pearl Harbor was attacked and said that I'll remember this day, too. And I did.

I don't remember much of life before 9/11, but we're all accustomed to it's after effects.

 

[Gatordev]

I was in San Diego at the RAG. I woke up at 6am and went through my normal routine. I sat down at my computer and made some comment to a close friend of mine in FL over IM. He asked, "Do you have your TV on?" I said no and he told me to turn it on. About that time, the second plane was inbound. I remember telling him that the front gate was probably going to be a pain and that I would need to leave earlier. I had no idea.

I don't remember how long it took me to get across the bridge and on base, but I watched the second tower go down in the ready room with everyone else. Cell phones to the east coast were pretty useless.

I had duty the weekend following 9/11. A surreal experience, complete with an E-6 who needed to go to Balboa for a Fit for Duty exam after showing up to night/mid check "intoxicated."

 

[smittyrunr]

It was Firstie (senior) Year at USNA, I was in Naval Law class. Most mornings CNN would be on when we walked into class and we'd spend the first few minutes discussing current events. Not that day, however, as the TV was set for a video we were watching for that week's lesson. So no one in the class knew until we saw other TVs on the way to our next class. Rumors flew that the mall in DC was on fire, the White House had been attacked, in addition to the WTC. Sitting in Rickover Hall while the prof trying to decided whether to continue with class for the day, we had CNN on, eventually one of my friends came by and said all non-essential people were required to leave and all MIDN to return to Bancroft (the dorms). I remember being in the wardroom with my classmates watching the towers fall and realizing the world we'd graduate into in 9 months was going to be very different than we'd thought the day before.

The topic of the video for Naval Law? Lawful and unlawful combatants.

 

[81montedriver]

I was a junior in high school. First heard the news about 1030am in physics class. One of our students was on the computer and there was a picture associated with a news article that an airliner had flown into the first WTC building. Once the second one got hit, school was closed for the day and parents were being called to pick up their kids. The messed up part was since I only lived an hour from NYC, there were alot of students at school who were panicking, not sure if their parents were alive or not. The following week at church there was a memorial service for all of the folks who had died from my parish in the attacks.

 

[Schnugg]

Underway as Air Ops on the Stennis off SOCAL when it happened. Had just wrapped up a CQ det. Due to execute an LSO BAGEX on the 11th and pull in on the 12th.

Needless to say that BAGEX never happened.

We put together a scratch air wing (of FRS IPs) and armed RAG hornets and set up DCA parols over San Diego and Los Angeles until the 22nd when we pulled in.

Things happened very fast.

 

[Bobola2005]

I was a freshman in Highschool. About to get on the bus to go to school when I turned the TV on and saw the first tower burning. I told my mom that she should turn on the TV and we both watched the second plane hit. The next day I was supposed to fly up north to attend my brothers wedding. We didn't make it as they closed down all air traffic for a while afterward.

 

[TheBubba]

That was Plebe Year for me. I was walking back to my room from class to enjoy an off period and finish up some last minute stuff for my next class. I was walking up the steps by 1st wing, the ones that go up the side of the Mid Store in the parking lot. I was on the landing when a Firstie told me that a plane had hit the WTC, and I was to go directly to my room and standby for an announcement from the Supe. I went to my room, turned on the news and my roommates and I watched as the 2nd plane hit the towers. It was surreal.

I found out the next afternoon that one of my friends, who worked in the North Tower and normally would have been at work at the time, had stayed home with her mother, who had gotten sick the night before.

 

[gaijin6423]

I was sitting in my 'History of Total War' class during my 2/c year at the boat school, listening to my professor say, "Mark my words: This country is in for a rude awakening if it doesn't pull its head out of its ass," only minutes before the first plane hit. I noticed mids standing around in small groups when I came out of that class, but didn't really register anything. I walked up to my academic advisor's office (where a TV had been rolled out into the hall), just in time to see the second plane hit. I stood, staring, when the buildings came down, and wound up carrying a girl from my company about halfway back to Bancroft hall after she collapsed in tears. Her father worked in the WTC. (As it turned out, though, he had left the day before on a last minute business trip.)

They cancelled classes for a few days until things were sorted out a bit. Most of the Marine priors offered to fill sandbags for the various machine-gun positions that went up around the Yard, but were turned down.

 

[rondebmar]

Was planning on being married at 1800 that day...and, after checking with our small wedding party...did just that! No respect for the muslim world from this quarter!

Ten years tomorrow!!

 

[Flash]

I slept through the whole thing, I was waiting to start the Prowler RAG and had a stash job while waiting to start that I didn't need to show early for. Got up, drove in and first heard about it on the radio, noting the random sailor in utilities that was randomly posted to check IDs at the gate. All that was left to show on TV was the smoke.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

I was working in Waco on an EP3 running ICS wires in the flight deck. About 12 of us were crammed in there to listen to my radio as I was the only person on the crew that had one. At first we thought it was a joke by the local radio idiots but found out it was real about 20 minutes into it.

 

[usmarinemike]

Evening field day formation at Barracks 225 at MCAS Futenma. We had just carried out a FPCON C exercise(I think we called it THREATCON before force protection was the rage) a few days before at the squadron. That really worked out for us because we knew exactly what to do.

 

[GreenLantern330]

I was in 6th grade... I know really young.. the teacher let us go to the bathrooms to change for PE when the first tower was hit, they ran to the bathrooms and dragged us back into our classroom... where they made us do PE inside after we moved the desks around. The teacher tried to turn on the TV when the principal came on the PA system telling all teachers to not turn on TVs and to turn them off it they were on. So we sat there doing jumping jacks while our teacher looked extremely worried wondering what the fuck was going on... Parents started coming to get everyone around 11am and then we all knew something was up. A few students, like myself, had to wait late for our parents to get off work to get us, which was when my parents finally explained to me what had happened and then my sister and I saw it on the news at night. After I had finally seen it, I knew things would never be the same.

 

[fc2spyguy]

I was in Japan. I was the duty CSOOW (combat systems officer of the watch) had to get all the combat/weapons departments ready to get underway. Would be another day before I was allowed to get off the ship to grab enough stuff for what would become an extended underway. I didn't even know what happened for about 12 hours+ and didn't see a tv for another day or two. Couldn't believe it when I did finally see it.

 

[RobLyman]

I was Technical Director on the 2nd floor of the Modis building downtown Jacksonville. Someone saw a news story on msn.com. I remember thinking it was a small plane. Then I heard "jet". It took a bit to realize it was an airliner. As soon as I realized that, I knew it was deliberate. We all watched it unfold gathered arounda single TV. By the time the Pentagon was hit, we figured a tall building wasn't a good place to be. We all went home for the day.

Now, instead of an office with a window in downtown, I have an office with a windshield far away.