Where were you when you first heard about 9/11?

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-16 07:51am

I'd been listening to the radio while I was taking a shower when I heard the announcement. I then heard about the second one and the Pentagon. It just didn't click until I heard that. From then on I was rivited to the TV.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-16 07:52am

And it's September 11th so stopped calling it 9-11. It's a stupid media buzzword and I think it's stupid and disrespectful.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-04-16 07:59am

I was at work, my boss came out and said that several planes had crashed into the WTC and that they were destroyed. I think this happened around the time the first tower had collapsed. I searched the web for info but all the news sights were down/too slow from all the traffic. It wasn't until the afternoon that I managed to get a proper grasp on what happened.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-04-16 09:00am

I was sitting in our High School library. The TV in the office was always on Fox News or CNN, so between classes and such teachers could turn the TV on in their classes. But, since it was during class, no other TVs were on.

I was sitting at a computer, kind of watching the TV, and an image of the first tower with smoke pouring out of it flashed up on the screen. I jumped up and ran over to look, and found out what happened. I then walked out into the library and said 'Someone flew a plane into the world trade center!'. People were like 'You're not serious...' and 'Dude, that is a sick joke.' I just told them to go watch the TV, and, well, the rest is history.

In other words, i am the one who alerted the rest of the school to what happened.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-04-16 09:05am

I was assigned as an S2 (intelligence officer) of an infantry battalion, and we were deployed for an FTX (field training exercise). One of our men woke me up early that morning as I was crashed out in my hooch, "Captain Simpson! The commander wants to see you in the TOC right away!"

Me: "Okay. What's up?"

"The World Trade Center's been attacked -- destroyed I think."

"Destroyed? By what?"

"An airplane, from what I've heard."

"Yeah, okay" I thought this was somehow part of the scenario involved with the FTX, although I was hard-pressed to see any connection.

"Oh, and the Pentagon's been hit too."

"Roger." Now I knew he was full of it. Found out soon there after that he had indeed been giving me the real story...

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-04-16 09:10am

I woke up, logged onto ASVS and saw some posts screaming "WTC ATTACKED" or somesuch. I then turned on CNN (and found that every news site except robot.cnn.com was slashdotted) and proceeded to watch the news for the rest of the day.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-04-16 09:25am

I was actually sleeping - didn't have class 'till 11:00. My dad called me and woke me up around 9:30; I saw at least one of the towers fall.

BrYaN19kc · Post by **BrYaN19kc** » 2003-04-16 09:48am

My roommate came in a woke me and my partner hurrying us to come into the living room. The first tower had just been struck. While we sat there watching we were shocked to have seen the second jet liner strike the other tower. From there, I walked across campus to work. Usually things are really busy, but word spread fast and our campus looked deserted as everybody was finding the nearest television to huddle around and watch the news.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-04-16 09:53am

jegs2 wrote:I was assigned as an S2 (intelligence officer) of an infantry battalion, and we were deployed for an FTX (field training exercise).[/i]

interesting.... that FTX....Was it with the 10th Mtn. training for peacekeeping duty in Kosovo?

Rathark · Post by **Rathark** » 2003-04-16 10:01am

Deleted

Post by **weemadando** » 2003-04-16 10:05am

UltraViolence83 wrote: Geez, everyone remember the disturbing displays of uber-patriotism that followed? Frankly, that scared me more than any terrorists could.

Far too true. The following weeks endless barrage of patriotism-by-proxy: uncensored, uninterrupted Saving Private Ryan the next Sunday on commercial TV, countless uses of all the hackneyed cliches that should have gone out the window at the end of WW1 - and this by the mainstream media, depressing amounts of flag-waving. It was all too much for me. Truly depressing.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-04-16 10:13am

Col. Crackpot wrote:
jegs2 wrote:I was assigned as an S2 (intelligence officer) of an infantry battalion, and we were deployed for an FTX (field training exercise).[/i]
interesting.... that FTX....Was it with the 10th Mtn. training for peacekeeping duty in Kosovo?

No. Was still here at Ft. Lewis with 1st Bde, 25th ID. Just one of the many FTX's battalions go on throughout the year. Interestingly, our BDE commander decided to keep us in the field to finish the FTX, but it was difficult to remain focused on the mission.

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2003-04-16 10:19am

It was extremely early in the morning, me and my friend had just left Denny's on our way to get to the golf course early to get a walk on spot and we heard it on the radio. At first, we had no idea what we were listening to, then I thought it was one of those prank calls the radio stations are always doing on someone. But then, we figured it out it was for real and we arrived at the Golf Course to watch the towers collapse on TV.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-04-16 11:01am

It was 8:30am, and work was just starting for the day, when the news came in that a plane had hit the WTC. We turned on every radio in the office and listened, thinking it was just an accident, when we heard that a second plane had hit, and then the Pentagon was hit.

I called SirNitram, who I knew lived close, and we gathered around the speaker phone as he told us what the New York news channels were saying. He then took a walk down to the Sound... and I'll let him tell you about that.

At noon, the Governor told every State employee to go home, and only then did I get to see the footage.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-16 11:03am

Well, I had gotten ready to go my first class of the morning at 8 AM (mountain time, 10 AM Eastern). Anyway we had been waiting for the class to open when the fire alarm went off. We all sat around outside for a while waiting for the fire department to come and make sure the building was clear. Anyway someone comes up late and asks whats going on. Then he mentions that it seems a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. My first thought was to the Empire State Building when it had a bomber crash into it. At about 8:25 I said screw it and went back to my dorm. I just happened to swing by the rec room first to get a look at the WTC even and that’s when it hit me. I stayed there watching what happened for almost three hours. After that day I made a point of wearing my US Flag pin on my lapel most anywhere I went. Anyway, for months to come the food store had a TV and instead of the standard sports channels everyone had it turned to CNN or FOX News.

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2003-04-16 11:29am

I was woken up by a phone call at a little after nine am. It was my mom. She said, "Happy birthday, turn on the tv." I was still really groggy at this point, so when I turned on the tv I just stood there for a moment and then said, "Shit."

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-04-16 11:45am

I was asleep, and my mom came and woke me up, telling me that terrorists had crashed planes into the WTC and the Pentagon.
My reaction: "

Hmm..."

Cyborg Stan · Post by **Cyborg Stan** » 2003-04-16 11:59am

Came back from class. One of my roommates came up, said that some planes crashed into the towers.

My first reaction was more or less, "Huh?"

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-04-16 12:05pm

Across the Street in Pentagon City Mall...and then saw the running, believe me it was not a fun thought of WTF happened.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-04-16 12:12pm

I was asleep. My sister called me and I turned on the news.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-04-16 12:25pm

I was sitting at my desk at work, completely oblivious to what was happening. One of my coworkers came rushing up to tell me about it, and I thought he was bullshitting.

I tried to go to cnn.com to confirm, but their site was not responding (turns out there were so many visitors that it was almost like a DDOS attack). I tried other news sites one by one, and all of them were jammed. With no radio or TV in the office, the Internet was my only real link to the world news, and it wasn't working for me. The end-to-end connection nature of the Internet turned out to be its Achilles Heel; while old-fashioned broadcast radio and TV work fine regardless of popularity, heavy use of Internet servers caused them to become useless.

Finally I managed to get through to a Canadian news website and confirm what had happened. All of us immediately knew it was a terrorist attack, since aircraft pilots in trouble will always head away from populated areas if they're going to crash. It was the only thing anyone in the office talked about all day.

When I found out that they were throwing up an iron curtain and diverting all flights to Canada and that we had decided to accept those planes, I was more than a little perturbed because I was right in the flight path to the airport. The world certainly changed for a lot of people that day.

Kelly Antilles · Post by **Kelly Antilles** » 2003-04-16 12:28pm

I was sitting at work when a friend emailed me asking if I'd heard from another friend who lived in NYC. I asked why and she told me about the towers. We immediately emailed another friend who had our friend's cell number and he tried calling to no avail. Cell lines were jammed. Five hours later, we find her. She's fine. We were relieved, but still in awe at the destruction.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-04-16 12:33pm

LadyTevar wrote:It was 8:30am, and work was just starting for the day, when the news came in that a plane had hit the WTC. We turned on every radio in the office and listened, thinking it was just an accident, when we heard that a second plane had hit, and then the Pentagon was hit.

I called SirNitram, who I knew lived close, and we gathered around the speaker phone as he told us what the New York news channels were saying. He then took a walk down to the Sound... and I'll let him tell you about that.

At noon, the Governor told every State employee to go home, and only then did I get to see the footage.

I had been sleeping in. It was my day off. I had no classes, so I was going to sleep until noon and then have the house to myself while my mother and sister were out.

I have to assume it was as the first impact happened when my mother burst into my room, yelling at me to get up. I had groggily replied that I was having my day off. Then she said it.

'The World Trade Center is on fire.'

I was up and out inside of a minute, running to the TV.

I was alone most of the day, watching the footage. LadyTevar called, I relayed. I tried, desperately, to get my mind off the sheer shock of it all on ASVS.

Oh yes.. The walk to the Sound.

The most traumatic thing about that day, for me. I had met some friends of mine, walking back from the beach, telling me you could see the city clearly, the skyline..

When I got there and looked out, New York City had vanished into a dust cloud, which, I later learned, was kicked up by the final attack of the day. A city I had seen every time I looked over Long Island Sound.. Gone. The thought in my mind was 'Holy Shit. What can make a city disappear?'.

Thankfully, my Father hadn't been one of those working in Tower Number 1. He worked for a company with signifigant people there, but he was on the other end of town when it happened. It was all rather much, for me...

Post by **Zaia** » 2003-04-16 12:59pm

I was taking a personal day that day, and had just put some clothes in the washing machine when I turned on the television and saw the video of the first tower being hit. I remember numbly sitting down to watch and then snapping out of the confused daze I was in to call my Aunt Susan, who works for Deloitte & Touche (a company with many offices in the towers--my aunt's office being one of them). Of course, I didn't get through, and sat there feeling the panic in me rise.

I have two uncles who work in the city too, one is a NYC cop and the other is a firefighter, so I spent the next seven or eight hours hoping that they'd be alright and that my aunt would have been travelling on business that day (both my uncles were physically fine and my aunt was in Connecticut that day).

I will unfortunately never forget the images of the people jumping from dozens of stories up rather than face the fire, or the video of the newsman doing an interview and then running like hell with his cameraman down the street away from the towers as debris fell and clouds of smoke overtook everything in sight. Or how achingly sad I felt when I saw the thousands of 'missing' people flyers, memorial candles and shrine flowers. Or how disappointed and angry I felt at the instantaneous faith so many had; all those people pouring into churches to pray for help and ask, 'Why did you let this happen?' because they weren't strong enough to deal with it on their own.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2003-04-16 01:01pm

sitting in a car driving home. thought they were making commercials for a new movie so i switched the channel where the same annoying commercial was running so i switched channels again and all of them were broadcasting the same.