September 11, 2001...We Will Remember. We Will Never Forget.

i was in the 8th grade and my mom had woke me up for school and said there was a fire at the World Trade Center, when i had arrived at school i had seen the secound plane hit live as a i walked into my classroom, history, my teacher said that we all had just witnessed the most historical event that our generation will see. to this day i hear those words as if they are still being said out aloud, about 9/11/06, a year before my senior year and 5 years after the fact, i had called a coast guard recruiter and the navy recruiter, i had a feeling i needed to try and due something, i had no plans to go to college at that time so i figured i better do somethign with my life that would help others well as fate would have it i had failed the physicals for both branches, heart and lungs, i tried not putting down that i have asthma pretty bad but they found it when they went through my physical. i to this day wonder how if i had made into one of those branches what would have been.

to all those that gave or put there lives in danger, we all are truly in debt to you, as little as good it probally does Thank You, the stories on here give me goose bumps and cant even imagine all that you've went through.

Re: The "Where were you during the 9/11 attacks" thread>>>

I was in my senior year of high school in a Government class. I remember that there was chatter about 9 AM or so and we found out as a class the attack happened. We went out in the hall and looked for a class room that was able to get TV and watched. That day, was very sad and no one was organized except one teacher whom said you can't let these scumbags affect our life and taught a math class like nothing happened. Tough teacher, but I could tell he was a bit shaken, still talk to him from time to time this very day. I told the Government teacher right after finding out the attacks that we would be in Iraq within a few years because I thought it was people from there that were behind the attacks. I wish I never predicted that event, but it was a very sad day as I stayed up most of the night watching the news coverage.

Re: The "Where were you during the 9/11 attacks" thread>>>

I was only 5, and I didnt go to school that day because I faked being sick.

Then I was watching the news and it popped up that the twin towers had been knocked down, so I tell my mom and shes like yeah right.

Then she hears it from my dad, so we go to school to get my sister.

dp

Re: The "Where were you during the 9/11 attacks" thread>>>

Making phone calls to friends/colleagues to make sure they got out.

Re: The "Where were you during the 9/11 attacks" thread>>>

I still have nightmares about that day, that week, etc.

My wife and I worked at a hospital here in KY. Noah was almost 8 months old.

The Franciscan hospitals had recently been acquired by Bon Secours so we were all being integrated into their system. As one of the lead accountants at our hospital, I was sent for training at another hospital that week. I was about 6 blocks away from the Towers that Tuesday morning.

From Tuesday to Thursday, I don't believe any of us slept. I know we didn't leave the hospital. There were 6 of us there for training. I saw things there that I hope no one would have to see.

We worked at identifying body parts by the jewelry they had on, the clothes they wore. We tried to piece anything we could together so that families would know what had happened to their loved ones. I truly can never forget that day and really cannot put it all into words. It is something that I don't think I can ever fully talk to my kids about either.

Out of the 6 of us that went for training, two of the guys have committed suicide because they couldn't get all of the images out of their heads. Two died in accidents (automobile). The only two left are me and a guy in Greenville. They were the only people I could really talk to about this.

God bless,
David

I merged the 9/11 threads

I was driving to work that morning listening to the local radio station. They have Steve Czaban on every morning talking sports. Czaban was giving play by play of what was happening.

Re: The "Where were you during the 9/11 attacks" thread>>>

dethomas07 said:

I still have nightmares about that day, that week, etc.

My wife and I worked at a hospital here in KY. Noah was almost 8 months old.

The Franciscan hospitals had recently been acquired by Bon Secours so we were all being integrated into their system. As one of the lead accountants at our hospital, I was sent for training at another hospital that week. I was about 6 blocks away from the Towers that Tuesday morning.

From Tuesday to Thursday, I don't believe any of us slept. I know we didn't leave the hospital. There were 6 of us there for training. I saw things there that I hope no one would have to see.

We worked at identifying body parts by the jewelry they had on, the clothes they wore. We tried to piece anything we could together so that families would know what had happened to their loved ones. I truly can never forget that day and really cannot put it all into words. It is something that I don't think I can ever fully talk to my kids about either.

Out of the 6 of us that went for training, two of the guys have committed suicide because they couldn't get all of the images out of their heads. Two died in accidents (automobile). The only two left are me and a guy in Greenville. They were the only people I could really talk to about this.

God bless,
David

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Geez, there are no words. Thank you for sharing.

I was managing a call center which was my first job out of college in Silver Spring, MD (Washington DC Border). A co-worker of mine got an alert on her blackberry (we were a blackberry service provider) that a plane hit the first tower. I thought it was like a the small plane that had hit a building earlier and went back to work. Shortly after she told me another plane hit the other tower and at that point I thought there was either a complete failure of air traffic control or we were under attack.

The CEO of our company was in the air flying to our offices from California. When he arrived he told everyone in the company they could go home. I was living with my uncle in Vienna, VA at the time which required me to take a 50 minute subway ride through the city which included a transfer at Metro Center which was underground in DC. I remembered the attacks in Japan where they blew something up and then gassed the subways when everyone was trying to leave. So I stayed and worked until 4:30. I get to the Metro platform in Silver Spring where there should be a packed train and I saw a total of one other person on the entire train.

I wasn't scared at that point but it was eerie and I was just numb from watching the footage on cnn.com. Being in DC that day amplified everything.

...I ended up buying a house in NE Washington DC a couple months later. My neighbor who was a Parks Police Officer (Federal Officer who protects federal land) tried to tell me what happened after we became very good friends, he couldn't even get very far before stopping. I can't even imagine what he went through.

Kinda long...


I was in the Air Force stationed at the Pentagon at the time, where I maintained numerous computer systems in the NMCC. My “office” consisted of a very small group of guys (and one girl), and we were very close-knit because there was never a “day off” for us. Due to the importance of the systems we maintained, and who our customers were, we had to have someone on duty 24/7/365. That stretched us really thin and forced us to do everything we could to back each other up, have each other’s back, and fill in for each other when needed (4 years of very long hours). Having said all that, I was working grave shift at the time and my “weekends” fell on Monday/Tuesday so on the day of the attacks, I wasn’t at work.

I remember getting up early that day (I was used to sleeping during the day) because I wanted to get some errands run. I was in the shower when I heard the phone ring and ignored it, figuring they’d leave a message. I made some coffee and listened to the message. It was my sister from out of state and she was somewhat hysterical stating to call her right away so she knew I was OK. I distinctly remembering saying to myself, “What the f@#& is she talking about?” I turned on the TV and saw what was going on in NY and also “at the office”. I tried to call my sister back and as everyone knows was unable to. I kept trying to call family, but couldn’t get through to anyone. By then, the news coverage was focusing on the Pentagon, and in the initial coverage I couldn’t get a good fix on the extent of the damage. I knew the building like the back of my hand, but due to the camera angles, etc. I couldn’t tell where the plane hit exactly. I distinctly remember how frustrating that was! I tried many, many times to get in touch with the office but was unable to. I carried a pager in case I was needed at work (we all did). I distinctly remember hoping to get a page from someone at work telling me they were OK. I never got a page. I turned on the computer long enough to send an email to my entire address book letting them know I was OK, then got in the car and headed north toward work (about a 20-min drive). I got as far as Crystal City (just a few blocks from the Pentagon) where I was stopped by the authorities. I told them who I was and what I did, where I worked, showed them my IDs and access badges, etc, etc. They would not let me pass. I distinctly remember how mad I was. I was furious. At the same time I was still extremely worried about my friends and coworkers.

I went back to my apartment. Somehow I was finally able to get through to one of the younger guys I worked with who rented an apartment in downtown Arlington and he told me that he was pretty sure everyone we knew was OK. It was his day off as well, but he was able to exchange an email with one of the guys who was on duty. That made me feel a bit better. As it turned out, no one I knew was hurt that day. Looking at the plane’s trajectory and angle of approach, if it had been a bit higher and hit the inside A ring (courtyard) instead of the outer E ring, it would’ve been a direct hit to where I worked and would’ve likely wiped out my office. That has certainly stuck with those of us who worked in that tiny office.

I was back to work on Thursday (a day later than expected). I distinctly remember the horrible smell. It lasted for weeks. Like every other member of the military, that day shaped the rest of my career. My heart goes out to those who lost friends and loved ones 10 years ago. Try to have a good day.

I have a question for you guys in DC on that day. I had a friend who told me that she was passing the mall at some point in the day and saw tanks appear in her words "out of nowhere". She's pretty reliable person but I've never found anyone else who was able to back that up. I'm curious if anyone else witnessed that.

Will never forget. Always in our thoughts and hearts.
Ultimately, my family and this tragedy is what pushed me to join the greatest military in the world.

TwinGnats said:

I have a question for you guys in DC on that day. I had a friend who told me that she was passing the mall at some point in the day and saw tanks appear in her words "out of nowhere". She's pretty reliable person but I've never found anyone else who was able to back that up. I'm curious if anyone else witnessed that.

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Some of them were not tanks, they were armored anti terrorism units.

[youtube:h114iumq]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf5wptVyTjQ&feature=share[/youtube:h114iumq]

Wow, It's insane. Sometimes I forget just how large of a community FCB really is. Seeing all of these stories from the people who were there. Even though I am reading this online, I am sure many of these will stick with me.

Thank you to those who were there and helped out.

That's not to take away from anyone else, because this affected our entire country.

When I was a kid, when it would come to Memorial Day, or anything where troops would get extra praise, people that knew my dad (20+ years in the Marines, 3 Vietnam Tours) would shake his hand and say thanks. He was already retired at the time, and would say "Dont thank ME, thank the ones still fighting the fight." I never really understood the point of that.

Im on active reserve right now as a special consultant but havent been in combat in over 4 years. I had someone I know come up to me when I went to get the newspaper this morning. They waved hi, and as we approached each other, the man patted me on the shoulder and told me "I appreciate all you do for our country." Without even thinking, it came out of my mouth: "Dont thank ME, thank the ones still fighting the fight."

Zymco said:

Its incredibly sad that I try to look up converge on youtube to remember back to that day, but half of it is conspiracy theories. Anyhow I am so proud of my country and so grateful everyone that went above and beyond for their country and for the man next to them.

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I take those as an insult personally, like they are playing off the deaths of 3,000 people, and their families and the survivors for some silly little shot at being noticed. It's a fun little game when it's the moon landing, but when it's a national tragedy like this, it's really sad.

What's really messed up is that this brought back a few memories of Cory Lidle's crash, so I youtubed it. I saw comment after comment about how it's a conspiracy theory and a 9/11 tie-in (may he rest in peace)

September 11, 2001 was a day that I will never forget. It is so etched in memory, as it is in the memories of nearly every American who was alive when it occurred. God bless those that lost their lives during that day as well as during the events that occurred because of it (Afghanistan and Iraq).

I was a freshman in high school during first period woodshop class when news came of the attacks. My instructor was a little "off-the-wall", so it was hard to glean any information from him. At the time, he really didn't know himself. My second class was health and PE. We were in the health portion of the class then (it was split across the semester); the teacher held class as usual, but left the radio on so we could hear news as it came in. At the time, I remember the main focus was on the Pentagon attack, although it turned out to be the least deadliest of the attacks.

In third period, Algebra, we had some semblance of class but also listened to the radio. On the way to lunch, a fight broke out between two of my friends (who obviously weren't friends). I remember one shoving the other into a locker, but it was stopped before it could get much further. Fourth (and last) period was Biology. We had no "class"; we all discussed the happenings of the day (as we knew them) with our teacher. None of us truly knew what happened, since we had no TV access.

Going home, the events of 9/11 were on my mind. However, I didn't know the significance of what had happened. I didn't know that both towers were wholly destroyed. I didn't know that 4,000 people had died. Walking in the house, I recited to my mother about the fight that happened during lunch.

"Fight? Do you realize what happened today? Do you know that thousands of people lost their lives?"

Then, it sank in. We watched the coverage. I flipped through channels, amazed that very few had regular programming. ESPN had a credits-type feature on the screen in remembrance of what happened that morning. Our night consisted of watching coverage and more coverage of the attacks. I remember the shock of seeing replays of the planes hitting the towers.

Even as someone who wasn't there and who didn't lose anyone in the attacks - that day had a major impact on my life.

I was a Senior in an all boys Catholic high school in the Bronx. As I was leaving my physics class, someone mentioned a plane had hit one of the towers. At this point no one knew what was really going on.

I walked into 2nd period which was psychology. The professor turned on the TV and we watched the 2nd plane hit the tower. It was as if time stopped. No one could believe this was happening. It was like a nightmare.

The rest of the day consisted of going from class to class trying to figure out what was happening and people all over the school contacting loved ones to see if they had gotten out. Our school was lucky in the sense of a minimal personal lost. One of our brother schools lost over 40 parents. 40. If I remeber correctly, of the 40, there were 9 sets of parents. 9 sets of kids who don't have parents anymore.

During 7th period, a young man whose originally from Albania, said something along the lines of "Who cares about any of this, I didn't know any of those people, who gives a ...". I went nuts on him. Started yelling about how I'm sure that so many members of the US armed forces didn't know any of your people when the Serbs were trying to wipe them out, but they went over there...etc. I consider myself to be a very even kealed kind of guy. What he said just really made me nuts. Spent the next week or so basically watching news and hearing of more sad stories of loss.

Worst day in American history in all my 26 years.