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My 9/11 Story

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agreed...great use of the 1,000th post and I too would love to hear NewYorkBuck's account...

one other note...a friend of mine's father was on the medical board at Columbia at the time. he went down to the site later that night to see if any doctors would be needed. as it turned out most people either made it out or didn't. there wasn't much need for doctors to treat the wounded.

it's amazing how people were affected. one of my best friend's here in Columbus is a field hockey coach who lost a friend of her's on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
 
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Thanks to both of you guys for sharing your experiences. I hope that being able to tell those stories continues to be good therapy for you both. Just reliving the day through your words had me welling up inside. I can't imagine how harrowing the day truly was for you two.

I left work in Lewis Center that day and it felt like I was the only car on the road. When I saw my daughter that night, I couldn't bring myself to let go of her. The tragic loss of life on that day changed my outlook on life just as it did countless others.

A few days after 9/11, I talked to several of my friends who were still in the Marines. I must tell you, there was anxiety about the attacks, but also impatience for a shot at revenge. There was anger in some of their voices I had never heard before. And we had been all over the world together and had seen some messed up stuff together. But this was off the scale in terms of pure emotion and hatred. My old buddy Dustin Theony, who had worked with me on several assignments and been my partner in a lot of our counter terrorism work, was beyond angry. He was livid. It turns out he had the same thoughts I did when the second plane hit. The first words out of his mouth were OSAMA BIN LADEN. Just as mine were. We talked for hours together watching the news from 2000 miles apart. But then the call came in that he had to go. A briefing was coming up and he had to give it. He was back with the 21st MEU and he was the resident terrorism expert. A lot of young Marines were unaquainted with what was about to go down. They needed Dustin to start the proper training in Urban and Mountain Warfare and to begin classes on living in the Muslim culture. They were anticipating a long stay in the Middle East.

I have yet to talk to him since his return, if he even has. Dustin was a warrior in every sense of the word, and I doubt he has come home much if at all.
 
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everyone was affected by it in one way or another...directly or indirectly. the few days afterwards were some of the best and worst days I had in New York. worst because of the obvious tragedy, but best because it was remarkable how the poeple in the city pulled together...it was the most it ever felt like home to me.
 
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wadc45 said:
everyone was affected by it in one way or another...directly or indirectly. the few days afterwards were some of the best and worst days I had in New York. worst because of the obvious tragedy, but best because it was remarkable how the poeple in the city pulled together...it was the most it ever felt like home to me.
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This is a wonderfully accurate description. I completely agree.
 
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Amazing stories guys. Thanks for sharing so much of yourselves.

I was no where near NYC that day, but like most, will never forget exactly what I was doing or what I was feeling. I had just gotten out of the Army in June of 2001 and had decided to stay home with our young son for a while before going back into the work force. That day I was sitting in our townhouse in PA watching Elmo with my toddler when my husband called and told me to turn on the TV. I spent that entire day glued to the TV. A part of me was so thankful to be home holding my son...but a part of me that will always be a soldier wanted to grab an M-16 and hunt those suckers down that were responsible. I remember friends and family would say afterward things like, "I bet your glad you're not on active duty anymore." Those statements always made me a bit angry because once you take an oath to protect this country, you never forget that. I wasn't relieved, I almost felt guilty sometimes.

I know countless soldiers that have been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq doing their part and for those who continue to serve...thank you.
 
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I was in the Army and assigned to the Pentagon when the plane hit. One of my former soldiers, called and told us to check out cnn.com because of course they had up on the website about the WTC being hit.

Just minutes after receiving the call, the front security guy comes in and tells us to get out that we are under attack. My one soldier and I lock everything up and we start to evacuate the Pentagon with everyone else. As we are walking out of the Pentagon, there are people going crazy around us, women are crying and what not.

Upon walking out the doors, we walk through a massive amount of smoke, so we start to realize what is going on as none of us knew. The reason for this is that the Pentagon is so large that when the plane hit, we didn't hear or feel it (we were on the other side of the building).

We then walked around the side of the building that was hit and saw the roof collapse. FBI agents started to tell all of us military personnel to form a line to keep civilians away from the building. While this was going on, we could hear an occasional explosion (I was told later that this was from fuel tanks for the helipad, or who knows.)

Suddenly, people started running away from the Pentagon yelling that there was another plane inbound. It seemed that everyone cleared the sight and went across the street, it was then that we saw an F-16 zoom over.

I got with my NCOIC and we all headed back to Ft Myer to get accountability of some of our soldiers that were in the barracks and call our families.

While I didn't know anyone personally that perished in the Pentagon that day, I did know of some people (one girl lived a few doors down from me in the barracks) and people that I know assisted in pulling bodies out and doing first aid.
 
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I will always remember what I was doing....It was my freshman year of high school and I was sitting in the back of my study hall class (a long and narrow classroom with about 150 students or so). So I was pretty far away from the 19" inch TV in the front corner of the room. My study hall teacher who was a war vet, got a phone call to turn on the TV. This was after the first plane hit. I remember talking to a couple of upper classman who were sitting around me and were discussing what was going on. My study hall teacher comes storming back with one of the scariest looks I've ever seen. He starts yelling at me that I was laughing and blah blah blah. I was very upset by then since it was within the first 3 weeks of my high school experience. That and the fact that I wasn't laughing at all but rather discussing what the heck was going on, on TV. We all sat there watching the 2nd plane hit the tower. Shortly after that happened, my study hall teacher had to turn the TV off. Every class the rest of the day they had the TV on, even during lunch period and I watched both towers fall in my classrooms at school.

My mom was at home during the day and my Dad had been working here in the U.S. and in France a few weeks at a time. He would work here for 2 weeks then over in France for the next two, etc. He was scheduled to leave on Sept. 13th to come home. I remember getting home from school early (they let us out like an hour early) and as soon as I saw my mom we broke down. We were worried about the situation domestically but also what was the future with my Dad being in France. He ended up not getting home until that Sept. 17th. I am grateful for him being safe. But at the same time you keep in mind the lifes that were lost in NYC, P.A., and Washington....I will never forget
 
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BuckeyeMac;1256384; said:
I will always remember what I was doing....It was my freshman year of high school and I was sitting in the back of my study hall class (a long and narrow classroom with about 150 students or so). So I was pretty far away from the 19" inch TV in the front corner of the room. My study hall teacher who was a war vet, got a phone call to turn on the TV. This was after the first plane hit. I remember talking to a couple of upper classman who were sitting around me and were discussing what was going on. My study hall teacher comes storming back with one of the scariest looks I've ever seen. He starts yelling at me that I was laughing and blah blah blah. I was very upset by then since it was within the first 3 weeks of my high school experience. That and the fact that I wasn't laughing at all but rather discussing what the heck was going on, on TV. We all sat there watching the 2nd plane hit the tower. Shortly after that happened, my study hall teacher had to turn the TV off. Every class the rest of the day they had the TV on, even during lunch period and I watched both towers fall in my classrooms at school.
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I have this exact same story except say "Challenger explode" instead of "towers fall."

I woke up the morning of 9/11 around 10 am I think. By then, it was rerun instead of live. I walked out into the livingroom of my then fiance's house where he had a friend staying and she turned to me and said, "The Trade center in New York is gone. " I said "What?" to which she replied, "It's collapsed, airplanes ran into it and it just fell down." I rubbed my eyes, turned away from her to go take a leak and said, "That joke isn't even close to funny, try harder."

6 years later it still isn't fucking funny. My aunt, on the phone with me that day said something that has stuck with me as I watch the repercussions of that morning unfold in the history of humankind.

"This event will change all of our lives, forever. Nothing will ever be the same."
 
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Heard a weird one a few months back. I was out of town on business and had dinner with a friend from grad school and her husband. The last time we had seen one another was their wedding, which was the Saturday after 9/11.

They were talking about how most of their out-of-state friends were able to fly in but a few could not, but they figured no big deal. Well, these guys went straight from the wedding reception to their honeymoon and when they came home they found a few gifts in the mail. One from an old friend of the husband.

As they were settling in the husband starts opening the gift from his buddy Todd. At the same time his wife hits play on the answering machine. One of the messages is from another old buddy of the husband calling to talk about what happened to Beams. He hears on the answering machine at the same time he is opening the gift that Todd Beamer was killed on one of the 9/11 flights.

It was a powerful reminder that those who were killed were not just faces on the screen. My thoughts continue to go out to those killed and the loved ones left behind as well as all those who suffered this tragedy first hand.
 
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i take the subway into world trade center every day. once it arrives, the subway kind of opens up and you are in ground zero. usually its no big deal, but today everyone just stopped talking and stared. when i got off you could have heard a pin drop in the station. thousands of people not saying a word, probably recounting where they were on that day. i wasn't a new yorker on 9/11, but being around ground zero on 9/11 and seeing the looks on everyone's faces really makes you appreciate what new yorkers went through that day.

great post wadc
 
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Like everyone, I remember that entire day like it was yesterday. I was a freshman in high school, and was in the wood shop when it happened. Another teacher came into the room and whispered what had happened to our teacher, and we heard him say "Was is an accident, or what?" We all suddenly got very interested. Then they turned on the TV just as the second plane hit. We all sat around stunned for a bit. The Pentagon was hit just as that class ended. I informed my history teacher that the Pentagon was hit, and his response still gives me chills. He apparently knew a few people working at the Pentagon that day. He had a desperate, almost scared, look on his face and he said "You are kidding. This didn't happen." It's tough telling someone that it happened in that situation, I can't even imagine what it would be like to tell someone in NYC, or someone who had family directly involved.

Thanks a lot for sharing, wadc. And everyone else. Pretty humbling day. Makes nearly everything seem insignificant, except for our friends and family.
 
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