Annual 9/11 Question

[Anonymous]

I had Good Morning America on TV, not really paying attention to it, while I cleaned up and our six-month-old daughter was nearby. The show reported the first plane hitting the tower and the assumption was that it was a horrible accident. Then shortly after the second hit and the clear deliberateness of it. At the time we had friends who worked in the Pentagon and I held my breath in shock until that news hit the TV and then I yelled, and the baby burst into tears, poor thing.

I realized how roads out of DC were utterly jammed, and my brother and SIL were in a DC hotel, supposedly coming out to our house in the suburbs later that morning on their way home along I-95 to NC. Not a ton of cell phones commonly used then but my brother had an early one and somehow got through to me eventually to say they were in the traffic jam and just would head straight home to NC instead of coming to VA. I'd already phoned my mom, whom I knew would not have a TV or radio on until at least 7 p.m, as was her routine. I had to tell her repeatedly that the towers were entirely gone, because she just could not grasp that structures that massive were simply vanished.

[Anonymous]

Just gotten to work as a nanny at 8:45. The phone rang and it was my dad calling to tell me that the first tower had been hit. My employer at that time worked as a producer at at a major news station. He told me not to leave the house with the baby, to stay safely home.
Luckily the baby slept all morning so I got a chance to watch the entire sad news unfold. When the Pentagon got hit, I saw the smoke in the distance.
Both my employers walked all the way home from downtown to their house near Chevy Chase Circle.
I just remember feeling so much disbelief that anything like that happened. I still do.

[Anonymous]

Morroco - people were weeping for me and wailing "your president is dead!" -- not their fault, there was a lot of misinformation right when it all went down

Beautiful country and people suffering from earthquakes now. I'm donating through red cross
https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/news/2023/teams-responding-after-earthquake-in-morocco.html

[Anonymous]

In Vegas Baby!! I was working down there. Was in WTC the Friday before but has a Vegas conference planned that week.

Lots of people thought I died that day.

[Anonymous]

I was a junior at Bucknell (middle of rural Pennsylvania); I had a class from 9:30 to 11 am in a quiet corner. I left for class knowing that one plane had hit the north tower; I remember seeing the picture of a hole in the tower and thinking it was a smaller private plane.

We had the class with no indication anything larger was happening; no one had a cell phone, no one walked by our class.

At 11, I walked to our dining hall where there was a television. By the time I arrived, there was a horde of people around the television. The towers had already collapsed.

I still bought food and then went back to my dorm. Watched ABC for the rest of the day; tried to reach my family and finally did late afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Breastfeeding my newborn and watching the today show. A beautiful September day and so emotional and confused and scared.

[Anonymous]

On vacation when the news came on about a plane hitting the first tower. I assumed it was a small, private plane at first. Sat there watching the news about the second one hit the towers.

DH aunt/uncle were returning home from overseas and were one of the many people delayed at Gander, Newfoundland. My cousin was in NY FBI, spent hours by the phone trying to ensure they were all okay.

My SIL is a teacher in PA. One of her students was a child of one of the pilot who lost their lives that day.

We flew back into DCA the first day flights were back on. I held my cell phone in my hand the entire flight.

[Anonymous]

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky that day. I remember how crystal clear and perfect the day began. Those sorts of days freak me out to this day.

[Anonymous]

In my dorm room in NJ. Campus was eerily quiet. We spent the day glued to the TV and comforting kids whose parents died in the towers.

[Anonymous]

I was in my junior year of college and fell asleep with the television on, which happened often. I woke up to see the coverage. I went and got my roommate and said, "some a**hole just flew an airplane in to building in New York!" We watched as another plane flew into the other tower.

Call it extreme naivety, but my mind didn't go to terrorism when I saw the first one. I thought it was some kind of instrumentation issue. That was the last time where terrorism was my second explanation for a mass casualty event.

[Anonymous]

If people who lived during Pearl Harbor didn't remember it every year, maybe that's because they didn't watch it unfold live on TV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous[b wrote:]In Vegas Baby!![/b] I was working down there. Was in WTC the Friday before but has a Vegas conference planned that week.

Lots of people thought I died that day.

This a somber day and this is how you respond?

[Anonymous]

Dropped my child off at first grade in Fairfax. Was cleaning and watching the Today show and saw the first plane hit the WTC. The window was open and I heard the plane hit the Pentagon.

[Anonymous]

In 8th grade science class 11 miles from the pentagon. My teacher's wife worked in the Pentagon. He was crying as we listened to the radio. I took the bus home and couldn't get ahold of my parents, who worked downtown. They weren't able to get home until late that night. I was home alone the whole time. Probably the most scared I've ever been in my life. A few people I knew lost parents. I will never, ever get over that day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There wasn’t a cloud in the sky that day. I remember how crystal clear and perfect the day began. Those sorts of days freak me out to this day.

Same. Whenever we have one of those fall days I think about 9/11.