Where were you nine years ago?

[BottomlessFilth]

I worked on the 17th Floor of the Trans America building downtown. We had a few TVs in the middle of our floor where the snack machines were. We all stood around in amazement and disbelief watching the tragic events unfolding until security informed us they were evacuating the building since we were so close to the federal building. We could not use the elevators, so walked down 17 floors of stairs.

That was one of the weirdest days in my life. Very surreal! I kind of wondered that day, if that was going to be the end for the US. I think everyone feared that. I remember the streets being pretty bare, not much activity going on. I think it made a lot of people, stop, think and evaluate their lives.

Just reminds me of a child who wholeheartedly believes in a parent's love and care for them, only to have the rug ripped out from under them through abuse. They are never the same, and their natural feelings of being/feeling safe & secure are forever lost. We all became aware, personally, of just how easy it would be for another country (countries) to wreak havoc on us. We are not immune....

[Miss_Mya]

I was in the OP medical center gift shop buying a gift for a family member that was in the hospital at the time. I really didn't know what was happening because I was still settling in here in KS (actually the United States) due to the fact that my mom and I just arrived from the Philippines a few months prior to the attack. It took me awhile to realize what was happening and I really could not believe it. Some one honestly had explain it to me. I have an aunt that lives in NYC and I was suppose to visit her at the beginning of September before the attacks happened. I never made it to visit but she called very shortly after the attacks and talk to me and my mom about all that was going on. She was very scared and she still lives there.

[scorp1827]

I was home getting cleaned up from morning physical training at the post that I was currently stationed. I walked from the back of the house in time to see the second plane hit the 2nd tower. I immediately got in my car and headed back to post, which even that close to the event took me 8 hours to get back. We were locked down for 4 days before we finally were allowed to go home.

[christopherstcloud]

I was sitting in my parents living room with my mother crying watching the replay of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center Building on CNN.

[MsElena]

I was home having my morning tea and watching the news. I was stuck to the TV all day and must've cried 10 different times. The one thing that hit home for me was seeing the fighter jets that came in with Air Force 1 when Pres. Bush landed at Offutt. I didn't live to far away, so it was easy to see all planes coming and going.

[Guest082824]

Marine Corps Base in Camp Pendleton Ca. watching the second plane hit...

My C.O. then said to me, Sergeant, pack your sh*t!

I don't know when or where we're going, but we're going, SOMEWHERE!!!

[BiggestBest]

I was the technical person for an organization than ran, among other things, a small training school. The students had just graduated high school the prior spring and moved from all over the country to start in the fall at this school.

Someone came into the office and said they heard about a plane crash on the radio. Various theories were discussed while I plugged in a VCR-playback TV and fashioned an antenna because the school had no cable TV.

Imagine these 18-year-old students, already feeling alone having just left the security of home a week before. Now they're watching on TV what must have seemed to them like the start of WW III.

A plane was absorbed into the first tower. Then another into the second tower. Then one into the Pentagon. Then the towers fell, 1, 2.

Students were sobbing inconsolably. Several students forfeited their tuition and went home over the next few days to be near their families, never to return to the school.

I was struck with the contrast that some of their peers would probably be headed to battle soon.

[Reddd]

The night before I'd broken up with a longtime girlfriend that had come along for a little respite before attending a Biometrics Conference in Orlando scheduled to start the next day. Needless to say the atmosphere in the room was a bit tense so I spent the night and early morning on the beach contemplating life and the path forward in the peace and solitude of the endless surf and watching the sunrise. With it all resolved in my head, I returned to the room braced for the tension and conflict of the failed relationship and instead found her in total hysteria and within seconds together we watch the second plane hit the tower. The contrast between the strong feeling of inward looking personal loss and peaceful soulful solitude i experienced on the beach and the tremendous collective lost as a country and utter ciaos a few minutes later is indescribable. The conference obviously never took place and we spent the next 4 days trying to find a way back home. The degree of civility, cooperation, support, and understanding of all those we encountered (including us toward each other) over the next few days with the lack of information and inability to plan anything was nothing short of amazing. Would that we behave in that manner in more normal circumstances.

[Grizzly]

I was a member of the International House of Prayer in Grandview MO at the time living in a Christian Communal house and I had just went to \bed after working all night cleaning theaters throughout KC,OP and Olathe. My roommate came down and woke me up to tell me what was going on. I told him he was full of crap and let me sleep. He would not let up and I got upstairs in time to see the second plane hit.

I was terrified and remember calling mom crying. Realizing I was still of the age to be drafted and was sure they were going to inact the draft.

[MuffLuver]

I was teaching a class at work when someone emailed one of my students. We all ran to a nearby conference room that had a TV and watched the horror of that day unfold. I didn't feel much like teaching anymore and the students were not up to either so we ended early. One thing I remember from that day was that many of the gas stations in KC jacked up their prices and fools waited in line to buy it.

[bustymaryjane]

In my best friends living room drinking coffee...we silently cried in aww when the buildings fell ...the moment when so many lives were lost. It took my breathe away..pure shock.

[arealwingdinger]

I was live on the air reporting it. Strangest day of my life. To have to remain calm and professional during such a horrific event. The Associated Press was going crazy reporting hijacked plane after highacked plane. We stayed live for about an hour and then turned it over to CBS. Then I watched with my co workers as the buildings fell, no one said anything, we all just watched in silence.

[Longermonger]

Nice thread. You guys gave a little too much personal info to LEO, but a good thread none the less. What's missing is your stories about where you were
when you heard that Bush got Osama Bin Laden. (JG, your theory that all conservative went off to fight a just and noble cause while all liberals stayed behind to be treasonous cowards that did nothing but protest is offensive and DEAD WRONG. BTW, where are your Iraqi nukes? Where's your proof that Saddam was selling them to AlQieda?)

[john_galt]

You just had to do it right??? I never said ALL dems would do this or ALL GOP would do that... I was commenting on a political cartoon and what I expected to happen (and I was right). How many embarrassed democrats tried to explain why they were tricked by the evil GW when they voted to go to war? Clinton, Kerry, Edwards, etc.

It must be equally embarrassing that FDR or Truman never got Hitler but that is history. (if you want to look into it, it was never confirmed by the USSR until 1964 that Hitler was dead)

Of a personal note; why couldn't you just let the thread go on without that last bit? Was it bothering you on some level? You just felt like throwing some feces at the tourists?

[Kaboom]

You both need to stop with this political crap and hate-mongering. I try not to nose my way into this but every thread that isn't a review or started by one of the ladies ends up like this.