Where were you on this morning 5 years ago?

[dilloduck]

I took my son to school and came home to watch it all. Bin ladens' bunch pissed me off that day and made me hate Arabs. He should have known this kind of shit was gonna piss America off enough to kick some Arab ass--He brought all this crap on his Muslim buddies. I hope we never let up on em til they squeal like a stuck pig. He started this war dammit--make no mistake.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

I babble for awhile, so be warned.

I was working a swing shift, same as now, so I woke up to what was going on. I was a regular viewer of ABC World News Overnight at the time, so the channel was still on ABC when I turned the tv on. The second plane had already hit, and I can't tell you if it was Peter Jennings or someone else, but the first words I heard that day were, "It's obvious that this was no accident. This was an attack."

As I watched, the only thing I coud think about for awhile was the people in those buildings. So many floors and so many people that had to know they were going to die. I just sat with my elbows on my knees and tried to wrap my mind around what was happening.

On a normal day I would turn the tv on, flip over to ESPN, watch a few minutes of SportCenter, then turn it off and do the usual bathroom thing. I guess it was that force of habit that made me turn the tv off when I got up to use the bathroom. To tell the truth, I don't have any other explanation for it. When I was done in the bathroom, I turned the computer on and got online (AOL. Seems like a lifetime ago). When the welcome page came up the first thing I saw was 'Twin Towers Collapse'. I swore, turned the tv back on, then messaged my cousin (a bigger news freak than I am) to see what all he knew.

My job is related to the airline industry. Though it wasn't prominent on my mind at first, there was no way it wasn't going to cross it eventually. American Airlines was the biggest company we dealt with, along with Delta and Southwest Airlines. When I arrived at work that afternoon, there were piles upon piles of work for American Airlines stacked in whatever empty corner was available with "Do Not Run" stickers all over them.

It was something that affected me deeply, as it obviously did a lot of people all over the country. I just couldn't seem to avoid finding connections. My job being the most obvious. A good friend of mine was living in New Jersey at the time and had applied for a job doing something at one of the WTC towers, but didn't get it. My cousin is a doctor in the Navy and at one point was being considered for a transfer to the Pentagon. He ended up in Guam, where oddly enough he was safer.

 

[Nuc]

I was living in Brooklyn at the time. I was hungover and my bro called and woke me up to tell me a plane had hit the WTC. I turned on CNN and when the second plane hit I knew it was an attack. I hopped on my bicycle (better than subway or car in the situation) and rode to the Manhattan Bridge thinking that they might need volunteers. Cops wouldn't let people over. Evacuees were streaming across the bridge, most of the women were hysterical. At this point the first tower had fallen, second one was in flames. I rode to the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and watched the second one go down. I knew we had entered a new era.

 

[5stringJeff]

Nuc, bravo to you for volunteering on that day!

I was asleep. My alarm clock was set to the local talk-radio station. It went off around 5:30, which is when I got up to get ready for PT (I was still on active duty). I let the radio play while I drifted in and out of sleep, trying to get up. I started listening to someone describe the first plane hitting the WTC, and he sounded horrified. I didn't think much of it. Then I heard him say "Oh my God, oh my God!" as the second plane hit. It freaked me out to listen, so I got up and turned on Fox News. I skipped PT that morning, watched the news for about two hours, left for work at 0830, and got onto post about 1000 (an hour late) because of the stepped up security.

I called my stepmother to check on my dad (who's an airline pilot, thankfully on the ground that day) about 30 minutes after the second plane hit. She was cleaning house and hadn't heard. I told her to turn her TV on "right now." Her reply was "Jeff, don't scare me." I told her, "New York is being attacked" and hung up.

 

[Nuc]

Nuc, bravo to you for volunteering on that day!

Thanks, but no credit is due. I wanted to volunteer but they weren't letting us into the city. My wife worked at ground zero however because she was in the Health Dept. She had some grim stories everyday when she came home from work.

 

[Annie]

I was living in Brooklyn at the time. I was hungover and my bro called and woke me up to tell me a plane had hit the WTC. I turned on CNN and when the second plane hit I knew it was an attack. I hopped on my bicycle (better than subway or car in the situation) and rode to the Manhattan Bridge thinking that they might need volunteers. Cops wouldn't let people over. Evacuees were streaming across the bridge, most of the women were hysterical. At this point the first tower had fallen, second one was in flames. I rode to the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and watched the second one go down. I knew we had entered a new era.

It sounds like you and I had about the same early coverage on CNN. I was at school about 7:50 CST, with a couple of 8th graders in my room. My computer 'brrinnnngggd' to alert to an IM message. It was a friend of mine, a teacher at another school, w/o a tv. She knew I had one and had heard on the radio about the first tower. She wanted more details.

I turned on the tv and we were watching the smoke and flames. I was im'ing her to tell her what was being said about a 'small plane', but describing the gaping hole. The kids were mesmerized. The bell rang, I was going towards the door to let the kids in, when one of the kids gasped, I looked to see the second plane heading in. I said, "Oh Shit!" really quite loud. The kids then kept looking at me, then the tv.

One of them said, "bin Ladin". I looked at her, she said, "the guy wanting to blow up the Buddha statues you made us write about last year." Ok, she is now at University of Chicago. Anyhow, I turned off the television to compose myself and notify the principal.

The rest of the day was spent with jr. high kids all in my room, watching.

 

[pegwinn]

I was on my way to work (Camp Pendleton) via the Naval Weapons Station in Fallbrook, CA. We had a readiness inspection beginning that day that was supposed to last a week.

Got to work and saw Marines milling about in the parking lot clustered around cars and listening to the news on the radio. At that time it was still classed as an accident

About six hours later my OIC came over at a doubletime and hollered "Top, the fuckin ragheads hit New York. CO wants all officers and senior enlisted in at the headshed in twenty minutes."

I sent a runner to let one of my Gunny's know I was headed to a meeting and to hang out for an hour then sound liberty.

Things got busy for a while after that.

 

[kurtsprincess]

I was asleep until my husband called to tell me to watch the news. Said we were under attack. They went on instant alert and he wasn't sure when he would be able to make contact with me again.

I was sitting here alone watching it on tv when the second plane hit. I can remember the awful certainty that dawned on me watching the towers collapse. My/Our world was forever changed.

Being the wife of a military man ....... I've been living off and on for the last five years with that little pain in the gut....knowing that it's not a "if" he goes, but a "when", and how often, and for how long.

Suddenly we are having to make sure we have a will, power of attorneys, and endless family support briefings.

It was akin to the day my doctor said "you're pregnant". There is this monumental shift in the fabric of the universe when you realize that your life is forever changed by this one event.

That's what 9/11 felt like to me..........