September 11, 2001

[AuTX Buckeye]

To this day... I can tell you almost exactly everything that I did and heard that day.... I can't tell you what I had for breakfast this morning or what I did on any of the other 364 days 10 years ago, but that day is still very vivid to me.

 

[Buckeneye]

I was a freshman in HS. Watched the 2nd tower get hit while in Basic Computer Programming ( aka, Counter Strike for 2 periods)

I'll never forget it: My teacher, the 11 people in the room, what I was wearing, what I said when I heard about the 1st tower...everything.

 

[Bucklion]

Never forget how surreal it was for me, because I was living in Dublin/Hilliard at the time, so I timed it that morning such that I was driving to work on campus just as the first plane had hit and people were unaware of what was going on yet, but something was happening. When I got to campus the ROTC were drilling in the parking lot, the band was rehearsing for the game Saturday, and as I was arriving at the campus full of activity (temporarily), details were just starting to emerge as to what was actually happening. An hour later campus was on lockdown and you couldn't hear a sound.

 

[DubCoffman62]

I got up early that morning and was on my exercise bike watching CNN when the first plane hit. I knew right away that it wasn't an accident.

 

[AuTX Buckeye]

I had just moved into my apt on Norwich (jr year). No cable, no internet, it was before classes started and my Mom called me on my cell phone said "I know your still probably sleeping but wanted to let you know that a plane has just hit the world trade center". At that point i turned on my stereo and tuned to 99.7 the blitz and listened to Howard Stern describe everything. The Cable guy showed up after the 2nd tower collapsed. I watched it for the rest of the afternoon, then got in my car to drive home to Canton to see my folks. I remember the gas stations had lines for mines and I remember everyone being panicked when they saw a jet flying over (Air Force One). Drove home and spent that weekend with my folks. Called a few of my friends who lived or worked in the city and just sat around stunned.

 

[Muck]

I could have sworn we've done this before but...

I was in a subbasement at Ft. Meade having just come on watch & was part of the skeleton crew of essential personnel that remained in the building when NSA HQ was evacuated due to concerns that it was a target of one of the planes still in the air.

By far the most CRITIC/Flash traffic we ever saw coming & going during my time there.

 

[knapplc]

I was seven days into my current job. I'll have been here ten years on Sunday.

That was the first time I ever remember the Internet basically crashing. You couldn't get onto any news sites because they were all buried. Everyone in the office ended up watching it on this junky little 13-inch TV we had in the library for training videos. There was no cable so we strapped tin foil to the socket where the bunny ears go, and watched as the second plane hit.

We were watching people jumping from the upper stories when a supervisor came into the room and told us all to go back to work, that we didn't need to stand around watching this. I remember the shocked looks on everyone's faces as we all just looked at her, like, "How can you not get how important this is?" I went back to my desk even though many stayed. I was the new guy, so I didn't want to make waves.

Bush came through here, and it was a terribly poorly kept secret that he was in Nebraska. I figured if anyone wanted to do something to him, they'd be able to find him because everyone knew he was here.

I called my mom and dad that night. We were more angry than sad. More disgusted than anything else. Upset over the waste and the ignorance and the ineffectiveness of it all.

 

[Mike80]

I could have sworn we've done this before but...

I was in a subbasement at Ft. Meade having just come on watch & was part of the skeleton crew of essential personnel that remained in the building when NSA HQ was evacuated due to concerns that it was a target of one of the planes still in the air.

By far the most CRITIC/Flash traffic we ever saw coming & going during my time there.

Good Ol' Ft. Meade.

Anyway - yeah I'm sure we've done this before on here somewhere.

 

[scooter1369]

All of this "Where were you?" stuff isn't why the thread got resurrected. It was because of the article I posted that is a list of events or processes that the author feels are more significant in the last decade than 9/11.

 

[Mike80]

All of this "Where were you?" stuff isn't why the thread got resurrected. It was because of the article I posted that is a list of events or processes that the author feels are more significant in the last decade than 9/11.

I know.

The best part of that article is the guy points to the Arab spring as being more significant. I very seriously doubt one happens without the other and beyond that, while the Arab Spring may be a good thing for multiple millions of people in the Middle East region, history says one dictatorship will be replaced by another and then by another.

 

[Taosman]

I would agree that the Arab Spring will become more significant than the events of 9/11. But that is an unpopular view here. And I'll leave it to the boys in the Poli to discuss the why or why not.

 

[Muck]

All of this "Where were you?" stuff isn't why the thread got resurrected.

9/11 is one of those rare occasions where it's difficult to separate the actual event from where you were/what you were doing at the time.

 

[CentralMOBuck]

I was in my freshman year of HS sitting in my Physical Science class. The principal came over the intercom and told everyone what happened. I don't think I had ever heard of or seen the WTC buildings before that day. Our teacher kept right on teaching, even though every teacher had TV's in their room and the principal said we could watch what was happening. In the next few classes we spent the entire class watching the news. I think in one of our classes (keyboarding) we spent the next few weeks with the TV on the news watching what was happening every day, it was background noise of course.

National Geographic has been airing some very good shows (new and old) about 9/11 all week. The George Bush interview was very good as well.

 

[Bucknut24]

8th Grade, I had PE first period, and we were outside so I didn't know anything was going on...we go to home room around I believe around 9? And the TV is on the news about a plane hitting the tower, my first thought was "what a dumbass, how did he not see those buildings", then the 2nd one hit, and even at my age, I knew this wasn't an accident, the rest of the day was just kinda surreal. My teacher had a brother who worked in the pentagon, so during the whole period she was on the phone trying to find out if he was in there or not. Thankfully he happened to be outside at that moment (why i dunno). I had US History next period, and all we talked about was the PLO (which I believe at the time was who was thought was responsible) and my teacher was furious and everything. I guess it took a little bit for me to realize the magnitude of everything, I mean, as an 8th grader, your mind doesn't go straight to terrorist attack, you don't think anything is even remotely possible like that.

 

[Muck]

I meant to link this last week but somehow lost it in the shuffle...

The NYT has an interactive page with both audio & text of the various ATC & NORAD calls handling the hijackings with a matching time location track of the planes.

This is an absolute fantastic resource, especially if anyone is interested in getting a better understanding of the confusion involved & the actual real time military response.

The 9/11 Tapes: The Story in the Air

A selection of audio recordings from the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.), North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) and American Airlines from the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The recordings, some of which have been published previously, are being released in a multimedia report originally intended to be part of the Sept. 11 Commission?s 2004 report.

The accompanying article...

Newly Published Audio Provides Real-Time View of 9/11 Attacks

For one instant on the morning of Sept. 11, an airliner that had vanished from all the tracking tools of modern aviation suddenly became visible in its final seconds to the people who had been trying to find it.

It was just after 9 a.m., 16 minutes after a plane had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, when a radio transmission came into the New York air traffic control radar center. "Hey, can you look out your window right now?" the caller said.

"Yeah," the radar control manager said.

"Can you, can you see a guy at about 4,000 feet, about 5 east of the airport right now, looks like he's ?"

"Yeah, I see him," the manager said.

"Do you see that guy, look, is he descending into the building also?" the caller asked.

"He's descending really quick too, yeah," the manager said. "Forty-five hundred right now, he just dropped 800 feet in like, like one, one sweep."

"What kind of airplane is that, can you guys tell?"

"I don?t know, I'll read it out in a minute," the manager said.

There was no time to read it out.

In the background, people can be heard shouting: "Another one just hit the building. Wow. Another one just hit it hard. Another one just hit the World Trade."

..../cont/...