Where Were You?

[Snaggletiger]

There are always defiining moments in life that you vividly recall so many things about that day or time that you wouldn't normally remember.  9-11 was definitely one of them.  I think we've probably done this one before (But I don't care).  Do you remember what 9-11 was like for you?

I was in my last semester of law school and was driving to Montgomery that morning.  Listening to sports talk, as usual.  As I pulled in the parking lot, they were signing off and one of the hosts (John and Barry) said, "And we just got a strange report of a plane crashing into a building in New York".  Honestly, I didn't think too much of it.  Not exactly the weirdest event I'd ever heard of.  I walked in the the school and the library was immediately to the right and I saw several people around a TV they had rolled out.  I could wee the NY skyline and one of the towers burning. 

I walked in and watched for a while.  Everyone was guessing about what could have happened when all of a sudden, the second plane hit.  Everything changed at that point.  You knew immediately that now it was deliberate and quickly news hit of the other planes.  Not only was it deliberate but America was under attack.  The rest of the day just got weirder by the hour and all I could think of was getting back home to the family because there was that eerie question hanging out there about what else is going to happen?

I recall every gas station having lines 15-20 deep.  People were panicking to an extent, not having a clue what to expect.  Strange day.  Remember where you were?     

[GH2001]

I was a 24 year old mainframe developer. Had only been on the job about 18 months. Had just gotten to work about 45 mins before the first one crashed. Since me and my co-worker had to do SOME web development in our jobs, we were a few of the lucky ones who had internet access. He got a call from his wife who was watching the news at home with their somewhat newborn baby. He hung up the phone and looked across the aisle and told me "looks like a plane hit a building in New York. Terrible accident apparently". We pulled up MSNBC.com which was in its infancy at the time. There on the front page was the plume of smoke billowing from the first crash. We seriously thought it to be a bad accident. Drunk pilot or something. We refeshed the page a few mins later in his cube, and both towers had smoke billowing. Our stomachs sank, and at that point it kind of dawned on us that it was not an accident. Then all the Bin Laden stuff started coming out in the next hour. It never occured to us that the buildings would collapse either. I mean, these fuckers were huge. If youve never been to them, the pictures did them no justice. They look tall and skinny but they were extremely huge in diameter. Their height just made them look slender. They were NOT. So when they collapsed, that was another stomach sinking moment.

Also eerie was the fact that I had went up in the towers to the observation deck just 1 year and 4 days before on Sept 7, 2000. I still have the pics of me atop the tower. I was sitting on a ticking time bomb and didn't even know it.

[Kaos]

It was a weird day for me. 

I'd been in west Texas working a trade show and had flown back on the night of the 10th.  The plane was pretty empty except for a few of us from work and I'd sat in the back and had one of those long half joking, half serious, late night conversations about plane crashes, what we'd do if we knew the plane was going down, who would fuck who, who'd try to be the hero and rush the cockpit and other random odd stuff of that nature. 

Get home around 2 or 3 in the morning and I'm going in to work late.  Scrolling through the stations, pissed off at JOX because they're giving Auburn shit about the close win over Ole Miss Saturday before, saying we will probably lose to LSU and ragging on the Campbell/Cobb combo.  So I flip the station and get Rick and Bubba. 

Those two yahoos are talking about a plane hitting the towers and then yucking it up in between.  I know this was before they realized how serious it was, but to this day, eleven years later the sound of their voice sends me into a jihadist rage.  I want to kill them both. 

Turned that off and went on to work.  By that time everybody is in a daze.  People are crowded around computers watching the CNN broadcast. 

I've got friends/contract workers who live in Brooklyn so I call them.  One worked in the South Tower occasionally so I was worried he was there.  He wasn't. They stay on the phone with me for hours as they watch from their apartment rooftop as the towers burn and then fall.  They see it happen. 

Boss comes around and forces everybody to go back to work.  Quit watching the TV, quit watching the feeds.  We have jobs to do (putting out trade magazines, critical work!).   Comes to the IT department and asks me if we can restrict access to CNN, MSN, Yahoo, Msnbc, Fox news and any other outlet that might have info so people will stop trying to watch.  But leave his computer unaffected so he can personally monitor. 

I drove home in a daze.  I remember being so frustrated and angry. I wanted to DO something but I didn't know what. 

It was surreal. 

I worked there two different times over my career.  I saw the space shuttle blow up from the training room there -- and had been to the launch prior because it coincided with an equipment auction we went to in Kissimmee.  And I saw the towers collapse from a conference room there while I talked to people who were watching the buildings burn. 

[JR4AU]

I was on I459 coming home from night shift at my "in between job" after leaving the police department and studying for/taking the bar.  I got my bar results and was admitted two and a half weeks later.  My wife called me, and said a plane had hit one of the towers.  My first thought was it was a small plane, and that it just bounced off.  She told me more.  Then she told me a second plane just hit.  I got home and watched all day on TV instead of sleeping.  It wasn't long after I got home that I came to the realization that we were under attack, and a war would ensue.   

[Catphish Tilly]

I was a HS senior sitting in 1st period Algebra II.  Nothing on my mind but Mrs. McCoy's legs that morning until a teacher from across the hall burst through the classroom door at about 8:15 and told her to turn on the tv.  Like everyone else in the world, you knew a plane crash was a big deal in and of itself but couldn't comprehend the whole story.  2nd period rolls around and classes transition but no one is doing anything but watching the news. In my Government/Econ class, we watched as the reports came in live regarding the Pentagon and shortly after that, the Pennsylvania crash.  By then, rumors and reports were rampant about other planes and... well you all remember that hysteria.  It was there that Coach, told us we were witnessing quite possibly the most monumental event we'd experience in our lives, that history was made on that day, and that our lives would be forever changed.  I'd say those were damn true words.

It's strange to think that transpired 11 years ago.  I have a cousin who is a Senior this year... they commemorate an event in school annually that many of them can barely remember.  I compare it to my minimal recollection of the events in Oklahoma City.  The modern tragedy is that regardless of memories of the actual event or not, kids just a generation after my own, won't recall a pre-9/11 way of life.

[AUJarhead]

I was between projects, getting ready to start the following week at University of Wisconsin.

My wife had jury duty, called me to tell me to turn the tv on.

Now, I've got some friends in my company, who were doing an install for the NY Port Authority, and had offices in the second tower that was hit.  They saw it out their window, and the project manager said to them, "just grab your stuff, and go work in the hotel today, we don't want to be in their way as they deal with this."  And that most likely saved lives of some of my friends, they walked out of the second building, and saw the plane hit above them...  the impact was about 30 stories below where their office was.

Because of 9/11, UW decided to postpone their projects about a month, and then the economy went in the shitter, and I never ended up at UW.

[Buzz Killington]

I was working as a warehouse manager for a manufacturing company.  I was in my office working when a co-worker came running in and told me to come to the conference room.  I ran in and saw the replays of the first plane hitting the tower.  We were all just staring at the television in amazement, thinking that it was some kind of a horrible accident.

Then, the word started coming out that it possibly was an act of terrorism.  I remember thinking that there wouldn't be anything else happening, because they "had our attention already."  Then, we saw the second plane hit.

I just remember the rest of the day was a blur and we all decided to gas up the vehicles, because I suppose we all expected to be underground for a while or something...who knows what we were thinking.

Then, for about the next 3 weeks, all I did was come home from work and turn on Fox News to see any and all updates they had from the day.

[Snaggletiger]

I know the weeks that followed were filled with speculation about where they would hit next.  You started thinking about what the tallest building was in each city.  Fortunately, the tallest thing around here is the Home Depot. 

Allashakhmud babbalin Dothan shabakkkhnakiem Home Depot IIYYYEEEEEEE

[ssgaufan]

I was three months removed from recruiting school, and walked into Walker High School to talk to a couple of kids about joining.  As I walked down the hall towards their classroom a teacher yelled at me to come into her classroom.  When I got in there, the entire class was speechless and glued to the tv.  I got a sick feeling in my stomach and just sat there with them and watched helplessly.

The two guys I went to talk to that morning decided that they would fund their college education through different means now that we were about to go to war.

[Townhallsavoy]

I was a junior in high school, and I checked in late that day.  The second plane had just hit along with the pentagon plane. 

I didn't know it was going on.  I walked into class, and the TV was on.  One of my buddies that sat next to me started punching me.  He punched me really fucking hard in the shoulder.

"We going to war!" he said.

I said, "Why?"

"Are you kidding?  Someone's attacked us.  We're going to fucking war!  We have to join up!" he said.

He then punched me again.  He was a huge guy, our middle linebacker, and it hurt really bad.

Then he punched me again, and I thought he was going to get up and head butt me, but he didn't.

He's been a marine for seven years now. 

[Snaggletiger]

I was a junior in high school, and I checked in late that day.  The second plane had just hit along with the pentagon plane. 

I didn't know it was going on.  I walked into class, and the TV was on.  One of my buddies that sat next to me started punching me.  He punched me really fucking hard in the shoulder.

"We going to war!" he said.

I said, "Why?"

"Are you kidding?  Someone's attacked us.  We're going to fucking war!  We have to join up!" he said.

He then punched me again.  He was a huge guy, our middle linebacker, and it hurt really bad.

Then he punched me again, and I thought he was going to get up and head butt me, but he didn't.

He's been a marine for seven years now.

Sani?

[Vandy Vol]

Sani?

He said middle linebacker, not tight end.

[Pell City Tiger]

I was stationed in Bay St Louis, Mississippi at the time. We had just arrived in the office from PT when one of the civilians ran in the office and told us about the first plane. We went to the conference room, turned on the tv, and watched as the second plane hit. We knew it was on.

I lost 2 friends at the Pentagon; Petty Officers Edward Earhardt and Matt Flacco.

[AUChizad]

Here's a two-fer for you.

Had an 8:00 Tues-Thurs class my first semester at Auburn (nevar again).

That day we had an exam, so I was out of there in like a half hour. Came back home and watched some TV to unwind before going back to bed, as was my routine.

Watched a lot of Fox News at the time. The first plane had just hit. Watched as the second plane hit.

AWK was getting ready for his first class of the day, about to leave, when I leaned out of my room and asked him if he was aware of "the Armageddon that's apparently going on right now". So that's his "where were you" answer too.

[Kaos]

Here's a two-fer for you.

Had an 8:00 Tues-Thurs class my first semester at Auburn (nevar again).

That day we had an exam, so I was out of there in like a half hour. Came back home and watched some TV to unwind before going back to bed, as was my routine.

Watched a lot of Fox News at the time. The first plane had just hit. Watched as the second plane hit.

AWK was getting ready for his first class of the day, about to leave, when I leaned out of my room and asked rolled over in bed and whispered to ask him if he was aware of "the Armageddon that's apparently going on right now". So that's his "where were you" answer too.

[Saniflush]

I had just finished getting laid that morning and was about to hop in the shower and get ready for work.  My oldest brother had already called a couple of times during coitus so I called him back before I hopped in the shower.  He told me to flip the tv on.  Flipped it on just in time to see the second plane hit. 

A week later I went down to the Marine Corps recruiting station where I was politely told to take my old ass home.  They didn't need any 31 year old corporals.

[AUJarhead]

They didn't need any 31 year old corporals.

Blood Stripes rule.

[Saniflush]

Blood Stripes rule.

word.

Battle of Chapultepec

[AU_Tiger_2000]

I was working at Lockheed in Atlanta in the aging aircraft division.  We had a C5 that was being rotated out of duty for repairs.  Another engineer and I were in the hanger overseeing an operation where we were jacking the tail to unload a cracked fitting around the aft door so that we could get it out.  All of a sudden the shop steward comes running in and yells about a plane hitting the WTC.  The other engineer (who was a pilot) made a comment about tourists in Cessna's.  Then he comes running back in and yells that a second plane hit and the buildings were on fire.  We actually looked at each other and made a comment about having to remove the jacks from the plane so it could be put back into service.  We spent the whole morning in the hanger so we had seen none of the coverage until lunchtime.  We hit a local sports bar because we knew that would be the place with the most TV's.

The eeriest looking part was Atlanta inside the Bypass was basically evacuated of workers.  My wife worked at the King and Queen buildings so I was relieved, but when they showed the downtown connector and Peachtree Street that night on the news it was completely deserted.  That image sticks with me as much as the more famous ones of the Pentagon or Ground Zero.

The other things that sticks with me was the service at our local church that Sunday.  We normally had about 250 at service, I think we were closer to around 400 that day.  Our pastor was one of the best speakers I have ever heard on a normal basis, but he was full of fire that day.  At one point he starts quoting the words to "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus", specifically about "lifting high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss".  An elderly WW2 and Korean vet in the congregation who I had never heard speak more than about three words, and those in the whisper of a 60 year smoker stood up in the middle of the service and yelled, "C'mon people!  Stand up!  Stand up!  Stand up for America!"  Man, I still get chills.

[dallaswareagle]

I had just finished getting laid that morning and was about to hop in the shower and get ready for work.  My oldest brother had already called a couple of times during coitus so I called him back before I hopped in the shower.  He told me to flip the tv on.  Flipped it on just in time to see the second plane hit. 

A week later I went down to the Marine Corps recruiting station where I was politely told to take my old ass home.  They didn't need any 31 year old corporals.

Or 41 year old SSG's from the US Army.