Where were you nine years ago?

[john_galt]

Yes, it is the ninth anniversary of 9/11 and we are all thinking about it (or should be). I was on my way to work, and running late, when the guys on KCMO started talking about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I was thinking this is just like 1944 when a B-25 hit the Empire State building. The morning show idiots were scratching their heads about if this has ever happened and what kind of plane it was. I was thinking commuter flight and also wondering if this was some kind of sick joke by the radio station. They continued their morning antics as I turned off 635 onto Kansas Avenue. I was starting to believe that it was a real event. As I turned into the parking lot at work they broke in again and said a second plane has hit the WTC. Unlike Brian Williams (who took till the end of the day) I knew that we were at war with someone right then.
As I went inside, I went upstairs and told someone to find a radio or television that things were happening. I went out onto the production floor and started spreading the news. Someone found a radio in an desk and turned it on. Throughout the morning we stopped work when we heard of the Pentagon, flight 93, and the falling of the towers. As a veteran I felt like I had to do something, that the country had to strike back hard, and who were we going to blow up for this attack. One guy worked there (a Mexican national) chose this day to wear his Mexican bandito pissing on the United States T-shirt. We had complained before but management didn't want to cause a problem. I don't know who talked to him but it was his last day working there.
I remember at the end of the day walking outside and not one plane was in the sky. The business was in a flight path for KCI so we always saw planes overhead. At least the country was united for the first time I could remember but being a cynic I knew it couldn't last. I saw one cartoon the next day with a donkey and an elephant calling each other pal and chum walking side by side with determination. I predicted that by next year the elephant would be in uniform going to war and the donkey would be in tie dye protesting that war. I wish I had not been right on that. Within a couple of days I heard a woman near where I lived talking about how her husband had suddenly gotten orders to leave the country (he was special ops) and I knew things were moving. Of course we all heard the complaints on TV about how nothing was being done by George W. but I knew different.
Now it is nine years later and there is still a big hole in the ground in Manhattan, Islam is trying to build a monument to their victory, and half of the Congress wants to throw in the towel before we've even began the big fight. Lets hope that nine years from now things will be better.

[Bubba]

I was living in Dallas at the time. When the first plane hit I was on the road heading for the office. When I first heard about it I thought it might have been a small plane and figured it was probably a new/student pilot.

By the time I got into the office, the second plan had hit. I knew then it was no accident! We had a TV we used for showing videos so I hooked it up and started watching the news feeds. I remember very vividly how my heart sank when the buildings colapsed.

As the rest of the stories started pouring in I knew we were in for something most of us had never experienced.....an attack on American soil. The rest as they say....is history!

[Cheaper2buyit]

I was sleep from along night of partying over my buddies house. When he starts yelling the commies have hit new york. After he started blasting the tv i know our world had changed. We called all our freinds & camped out my house nobody went to work.

[topnotchmassage]

I was driving from Parkville, Mo back to Independence after spending the night with my now, ex-girlfriend. I think I had just hit 70 E when I heard the breaking news come through on my car radio. Like most people I'm sure, 'Wow, what an unfortunate accident!'...of course, it was a matter of only mins before I heard about the second crash. By the time I got home, and was able to grasp the horrible reality in it's entirety, I found myself becoming aware of a certainty that we would all be dead by the end of the week.(Please keep in mind I was only 20, and had not yet been witness...even from a long distance point of view...to such an act of war in my adult life)
It's really something, how clearly one can remember a certain event after so many years.

[Gryphon]

I was doing my required annual small arms qualification with the military branch I was in at the time. We didn't have a TV or radio and the instructors just mentioned that someone had flown a plane into the Pentagon (no mention made at first about the WTC). I assumed it was some idiot in a Cessna since everything went on as normal with the training. When I headed back to my regular base and turned on my car radio I heard what had happened. The normal 10 minute drive back to the hospital took 2 hours due to increased security. We spent the afternoon waiting to see who was going to be sent to New York to help deal with survivors. A few were sent but soon came back when it became apparent there were almost no survivors to treat. The next day I spent four hours sitting in my car in line to get onto the base due to increased security measures; I finally got a call from my commander to go home but keep my mobility bag packed and in my car. I never did get to work that day.

Because I spent most of the 24 hours after the attacks under a communications blackout, I didn't see much of the footage of the towers falling, people jumping from the windows, etc. at the time. The whole time period was surreal because most civilians were seeing more firsthand information about what was going on than I did, yet I knew I was likely to be among the first sent to deal with the perpetrators.

[dirty dog]

I was sleeping in my bunk, when there was a lot of yelling and screaming, by this time I was at the honor camp in Marion USP, having transfered from Leavonworth which was maximum security at the time. We had a TV in the common area and everyone was watching it. We had a couple of guys from Arab decent in the camp and a couple in our unit. They locked the prison down and pulled all of the guys from the units and placed them in their own unit, I guess for their own protection. I was released 5 months later, but it was a very different world from when I went in.

[Guest052813-01]

I was in my supervisor's office on a conference call with her supervisor calling from New York City. We had heard about the first plane hitting the first tower and, thinking it was a small commuter plane at the time, asked New York if they knew anything. The New York supervisor did not have any idea as to what was going on (even though their office was in Manhattan).

As the day went on and reports came in, I was just listening - partly in awe as to who could have done such a thing, partly in anger as if we should nuke someone over this, and partly in fear as if something might happen here. I also kept looking in the sky as the FAA shut down all flights to see if there were still planes in the air, stopping to fill my gas tank on the way home making sure I got it filled as I thought gas prices would jump dramatically during the day (which they did - the next day gas was $6.95 per gallon), and coming home to hug my family and make sure we were ready in case something happened here.

[undrtkr]

I'm reminded of that event every year as it is also my birthday. Needless to say that day was a double downer for me. I was at work listening to the radio when they suddenly broke the news. I remember the panic rising in the office when the second plane hit and then news of the Pentagon getting hit. I also remember the public panic at the gas stations in town.

I've always felt we as a country haven't done enough to wipe these assholes off the face of the Earth. 9/11 seems like a non-event to those who weren't intimately affected (and by that I mean politicians and media).

[Thequeen]

I was sitting in my college class and as soon as the first tower hit they had announced it and they let everyone go. They had opened a media room for ppl to go in and watch the news but I headed to work. I watched the news footage on the computer and after the other planes hit my boss came out and said we were closing the office and to go home. I went home and started calling around to check on a friend of mine from high school who had moved to new york. Finally got ahold of his parents to find out he had woke up late that morning and as he was getting ready to leave the planes hit. He was able to see the smoke from his new york apt and needless to say he stayed home that day. He didnt work at the WTC but would have been close to it had he been on time. It was a sad day and to this day when i see footage from it I still get a little teary eyed and I have a few books with pictures and newpapers headlines and it is hard to look through them.

[gman44]

I was in a hospital getting surgery and it was comp't

[jac01]

I was driving to work in Leavenworth from Lawrence on 24/40. I was listening to Johnny Dare and right as I passed the Paradise Saloon, Johnny broke from the usual Mancow/Stern type antics and said that a plane just hit the WTC and that they would be switching to ABC news live coverage. They were basically reporting it as an accident at first. I made a stop in Tonganoxie to get a beverage and when I got back to my car, Peter Jennings was on and announced that a second plane had hit the other tower. By then I was a mixture of fear, anger, and disbelief at what was happening. As I was on CR 5 to Leavenworth, the news reported that a third plane had hit the Pentagon and at that point I was just livid. This was no goddamn accident! When I got to work, the mood was just surreal. I tried going online, but the internet was I can only assumed jammed with users and I couldn't access anything. Later in the day, certain gas stations such as Wood Oil jacked up the price of fuel to $5 per gallon. I still to this day will not purchase anything from a Wood Oil because they preyed on the fear of the nation and attempted to profit from the deaths of innocent Americans. Gas lines were ridiculous from the people that freaked out and panicked. I have to give credit to the Kansas Attorney General (Stovall?) for moving quickly to stop the consumer abuse that was happening and filing price gouging charges against the stations that were ripping people off.

[Random8585]

I was getting ready to walk out the door to go to work when I heard GMA first report that a plane had hit the WTC, no specifics, they were speculating it was small plane. I headed into work and listened to 980.

There was a live report with Charlie Gibson and he was talking to a man that lived in an apartment building near the towers. The man was describing the situation and that it was a large jet that hit the tower and then he made some type of exclamation. He started to explain that a second plane had struck the other tower and that he could feel the heat of the explosion.

When I got to work, no one had heard a thing. I remember looking up at the sky a few times later that day and the next and being amazed by no contrails in the sky.

[Allie_Kat]

I was asleep and my friend called me and told me to get up and turn on the news. I was so terrified. I didn't know what was going on.

[ydiner]

I was traveling in Texas attending a meeting on a large miltary base. The base went into full lockdown while I was there, was unable to travel and return home for several days. I have family that works in Manhattan and was of course concerned for their safety. After the immediate shock subsided, I remember thinking these types of situations can bring out the worst and best in mankind and of course that occurred on both counts. Seeing extreme measures of kindness and ignorance is my lasting impression.

[growler]

I had just finished getting my employees out to the job site for the day. And was returning phone calls, when someone in the office, who was listening to a radio. Said a plane had just hit one of the world trade building. We had a little room with a TV. We went in and turned it on and started watching NBC's The Today Show. As we watched it wasn't long before a second plane flew into the second building. After the second hit, I knew it wasn't a accident rather something planned. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched the first building come to the ground. Knowing it was just a matter of time before second one did the same thing. I remember going outside afterwords, to tell my empolyees. And noticing that the sky was so blue & clam not a cloud in sight. And if you hadn't known what had just happened, you'll thought what a beautiful late summer day.
(2996).... www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfvSKgrjHqE