Annual 9/11 Question

[Anonymous]

I lived in Alexandria just a few miles from the Pentagon. I was talking to my now DH on the phone about the attack and heard a sonic boom, and then we saw the Pentagon had been hit on TV.

I will never, ever forget what a perfect fall day September 11, 2001 started off as.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were stationed in North Carolina at the time and living in base housing. My neighbor came over and told me and I changed the channel from Disney to CNN. Later in the day I kept trying to call DH but got no answer. Finally, around 7:30 he called and said the Squadron CO had ordered all flight crews to remain at the air field for any call. At about midnight, I finally turned off my tv, went and got my oldest from her bed, my newborn from her crib, put them in my bed, and sat up all night saying the rosary next to them. Our section of base housing were all junior officers and their wives and children. I remember looking out the window before I turned off the tv everyone’s lights were still on. Everything changed that day.

I was also in the military at this time. Everything did change significantly that day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Whoa you could hear it from Fairfax?

I heard it in Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Whoa you could hear it from Fairfax?

I saw smoke from our classroom window in Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Additionally on this day in 2012 - Benghazi was attacked. Heart goes out to my fellow members at State who suffered this terrible tragedy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sophomore at NYU. Felt and heard the first plane fly about 1000 feet over my head near Union Square. Then watch it hit the South Tower as I walked to class.

My friend sitting next to me was discreetly listening to a radio in class. He told me it was an attack. I interrupted a 200 person lecture to tell our professor that a 2nd plane hit the other Tower. Professor didn't believe me and started yelling at me! This was pre wifi, but then a bunch of kids start getting cell phone calls from their parents. It was nuts.

Watched both Towers collapse in-person, about 2 miles away. Had two friends sleeping on the floor of my dorm for a week, because their dorm was at Water Street only a few blocks from the disaster site. One kid left his window cracked open and entire room was covered in dust and debris.

The one thing you never forget about 9/11: that acrid smell. I've never smelled anything like that again in my life.

The first plane hit the north tower

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Whoa you could hear it from Fairfax?

Yes. My neighbor was in her yard and heard it, too. A close relative of hers was killed.

[Anonymous]

My classmates and I were seniors, starting class for the day. We had parents that worked regularly at the pentagon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Working at a hospital in Maryland. Saw it on a patient's tv in their room. We started prepping for an onslaught of patients, but of course, they never came.

This was one of the peculiarities of 9/11. There wasn't a big need for emergency care because most of those affected either died quickly, or else did not require emergency care at all. All elective surgery was canceled on the East Coast, but this turned out to be unnecessary.

I was a nurse at a DC hospital, and helped treat one Pentagon burn victim for a couple of hours before he passed away.

[Anonymous]

I was working in an office building in Crystal City, a stone’s throw from the Pentagon. Too close…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sophomore at NYU. Felt and heard the first plane fly about 1000 feet over my head near Union Square. Then watch it hit the South Tower as I walked to class.

My friend sitting next to me was discreetly listening to a radio in class. He told me it was an attack. I interrupted a 200 person lecture to tell our professor that a 2nd plane hit the other Tower. Professor didn't believe me and started yelling at me! This was pre wifi, but then a bunch of kids start getting cell phone calls from their parents. It was nuts.

Watched both Towers collapse in-person, about 2 miles away. Had two friends sleeping on the floor of my dorm for a week, because their dorm was at Water Street only a few blocks from the disaster site. One kid left his window cracked open and entire room was covered in dust and debris.

The one thing you never forget about 9/11: that acrid smell. I've never smelled anything like that again in my life.

The first plane hit the north tower

I was a sophomore at Columbia and agree, I will never ever forget that smell.

[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.

It was a weirdly beautiful day and once we got home in the afternoon after picking up our kids on Capitol Hill it was eerily quiet because we had no airplane noise overhead (we live near the river so on the flight path).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It was a weirdly beautiful day and once we got home in the afternoon after picking up our kids on Capitol Hill it was eerily quiet because we had no airplane noise overhead (we live near the river so on the flight path).

It was. It was a gorgeous September morning. And the afternoon too, remember sitting with my family all in one room, and it was just the perfect temperature.

[Anonymous]

I was in north Jersey driving back from dropping my youngest at daycare and heard there was a collision. My DH was still in bed watching TV when I walked in and saw the image that was a much bigger deal than I thought. An hour later I was on a scenic overlook a few miles from our house, looking across at the thick trail of black smoke from across the river with a hushed crowd of onlookers.

[Anonymous]

Has the sky ever been so blue and the air so clear since that day?