Where were you when 9/11 Happened?

[VectorVictor]

Inspired by RedRedJarvisRedwhine's post on the front page, I thought we could get a thread going where we cover our 'Where were we when 9/11 happened' stories and discuss that day.

[darkhorse85]

I was in weights class in high school. Teacher came in and told us that a plane had hit the WTC. We all assumed it was small plane and an accident by the way he said it and never expanded beyond that. Got to my next period class and realized that it was a much bigger deal than he let on. No school work was done that day as we shifted around from classroom to classroom each period and everyone was gluede to the TV. September 11, 2004 I boarded a plane to fly to the Middle East for my first tour in Iraq. Just realized now that this was 10 years ago.

[wildman]

I had stayed over at a friends the night before drinking and playing games. Woke up to my pager going off about an attack on U.S. Soil. I hobbled up 2 flights of stairs as I was in the basement, with a broken leg. To tell my buddies on the 2nd floor of what was going on. Then had to go back down to the basement to watch it on tv. Thats about all we could do that day was watch the news.

[carlfense]

I was getting ready to drive to school. I turned the news on shortly after the first plane hit . . . and was watching when the second plane hit. I distinctly remember the shock as the reporters realized that it wasn't an accident.

[VectorVictor]

I was working for a corporation that sold televisions but, ironically enough, had no televisions in the entire building. We first saw something was up from a co-worker when CNN.com put the info up on their page, and then no one could access any news site for a spell because of the traffic. Eventually the sites came back on streamlined for only 9/11 news and no graphics (save pics from the WTC), but even that was janky at best.

 

The executive assistant to the CEO had come to me to ask what was going on, and I told her what we knew then, and we decided to go down to my car and listen on the radio. I remember us sitting there in the car, listening, and looking at each other...and feeling so small and helpless. We drove around for a bit, listening to coverage, she broke down on my shoulder quite a few times...and I did my best to console her.

[BigRedBuster]

At the time, I was living right outside of Des Moines Iowa and had an office in a building on our property. Our place was right in the flight path of the Des Moines airport. I remember getting a message from a coworker that something had happened in NYC. I went into the house and turned on the TV. After watching it all morning, I tried going back to work but my mind wasn't into it. I decided to work outside for a bit and a neighbor stopped by to talk about it. I remember standing in our yard and both of us commented on how freaky it was that there weren't planes flying over our house.

 

At the time, nobody knew if the attacks were over. I remember standing there when various random flights would fly in from non normal directions to get on the ground. We would be relieved when it landed instead of hitting one of the big building down town Des Moines.

 

It was a very strange day.

[walksalone]

I was working where I am now. When the 2nd plane hit, I called work, they told me to come in. I hauled ass to work, getting there just in time to watch the first tower fall from the break room of our office on the 9th floor. I was a shade less than 10 miles away. I remember that night, the bomb threat at the empire state building, and the NYPD clearing everyone a block around the building. Looking at how empty the city was on the traffic camera's was something out of an apocalyptic movie...

[Minnesota_husker]

I was a wee little 7th grader.. just got done with english class and walked in to my art class and our teacher said "Sit down and shut up" and we spent the whole class period watching and saw the tower fall.

 

My mother was a flight attendant, she wasnt working that day and my dad is a cop... so it hit very close to home.

 

My mom was laid off shortly after and it sent me in to an emotional tailspin....

 

I think that was the first time i saw the world rear its ugly neck...

[beanman]

Driving into my coop job at Goodyear in Lincoln from south Lincoln up 56th Street. On the station I was listening to they reported a Cessna had hit or something like that and I didn't think much of it. Then after getting to work we had the radio going in the lab and we all sat there the entire day listening in disbelief. I'll never forget that day... I recorded all the live footage on the news stations on my VCR and still have all those tapes. Watching people jumping out of the towers to their death was probably the worst part.

[StPaulHusker]

I was listening to Todd N Tyler. Here is how I remember it: I was sitting at my desk with the radio on. They were talking when Donnie Dodge came on the air and said that a plane had hit the WTC. They made some funny comments about a drunk pilot or something to that nature. Based on what was known, it seemed harmless. A few minutes later, Dodge comes back on the air and says that another plane has hit it. They said something to the fact that this was obviously not an accident and they turned themselves off and connected to a news station.

It was a strange time for me. I was in the National Guard. My unit had been deployed to Kuwait. I was unable to deploy due to an injury. It was difficult to make contact with anyone over there. Everything was in lockdown and some people had to stay in the field a day or 2 longer because no one had any information as to what was happening.

It's difficult to think about this day as well because so many people from so many countries and backgrounds died that day. Indirectly, I lost a friend in the Iraq War. Which probably wouldn't have happened if not for 9/11.

[SandhillshuskerW]

I was teaching in Sidney, Nebraska. I got to school and they announced an emergency staff meeting. We watched the news and came up with a plan as to how we were going to teach that day and what we were going to talk to the kids about. School was called off by 10:00 that morning because the Cabelas executives wanted their kids home with them. I went home and watched coverage all day long.

[Judoka]

I had just got to work and was watching the morning news on TV in the break room with another coworker, when the newscast cut to a smoking WTC Tower...we just stared and silently mouthed a collective "what...the...hell..." We didn't have time to speculate on why as moments later another plane slammed into the remaining undamaged tower. The rest of the day was a blur of deliveries interrupted with stops back to my parents house to see how my ever stressed mother was dealing with her latest source of stress, albeit a legitimate one.

 

My Dad was a Captain on the OFD at the time and when he said he planned on volunteering to help sift through the rubble of the fallen towers, I damn near lost it. We had almost lost him 3 times (that we knew of) over the course of his 25+ year career and he had already been exposed to an uncountable number of deadly chemical agents...he didn't need anymore. I just got married, he needed to stay as healthy as possible so he could live see his future grand kids. But I knew there was no changing his mind, this was his calling and he wanted to help. Much to my selfish relief and his dismay, he was never called help.

[NUinID]

I was watching my first period SH and reading the paper. It was almost time for the bell to ring. Cathy Timperly one of our English teachers came up to me and said a plane had hit one of the towers of the Trade Center. I assumed it was a small plane. The bell rang I walked upstairs to my go to my room and stopped in the library office to see if they had it on the TV. I watched live as the second plane hit the other tower.

[VectorVictor]

School was called off by 10:00 that morning because the Cabelas executives wanted their kids home with them.

 

I LOLed at this. So the Cabellas executives called the shots at that school, eh?

[StPaulHusker]

 

School was called off by 10:00 that morning because the Cabelas executives wanted their kids home with them.

 

I LOLed at this. So the Cabellas executives called the shots at that school, eh?

 

Welcome to Sidney.