Passengers and workers packed their bags that they would never open.

[flying_wahini]

So hard to believe 9/11 was 22 years ago tomorrow.

Passengers and others went about packing their bags that they would never open. Slept in their own beds with their loved ones. First responders thought it was going to be an ordinary day.

I was working for American Airlines as a flight attendant at the time. I spent the day before flying in/out of NYC, and was on a runway in LA racing down the runway when the pilot stopped dead cold on the runway. He called me up and told me the FAA had grounded us. Didn’t know why.
(I suspect he did )Just so happened that the Pres Crandall of AA’s secretary was flying first class and waved me over to tell me about a ‘hijacking’. When we returned to the gate we were just learning it about from passengers. I was dragging my bag into the terminal when I saw people clustered around the TV’s. It’s putting it mildly to say I was nerved wrecked for days. My sister came and got me (she lived nearby) and it took me 11 days to get home from there.

Take a moment to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.
Thank people who cross your lives.
This IS the finish line.
May all the people who died RIP and so many heart broken people affected by it find some peace.

[gay texan]

1. Crandall

That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Used to work at the AA center in FTW.

If memory serves me correctly isn't that the guy that almost bankrupted AA while trying to give his buddies a golden parachute? Or was it Arpey?

I was traveling to work at IAH when all hell broke loose.

[LisaM]

2. I was walking around the other day. It was beautiful outside.

Then I came to the sudden realization that gorgeous, blue sky days in September induce a little PTSD in me. I subconsciously think of it as 9/11 weather.

[Otto_Harper]

3. That's the one thing that stands out clearly for me about that morning the weather

I was going into work very late that morning because I had to drop my wife off to pick up a rental car while hers was serviced. My drive to work was through half an hour of absolutely gorgeous Fall weather and scenery. Then, I turned the radio on.

[JHB]

8. Yeah, me too. It was crystal-clear.

Early on, when all the news could say was that a plane hit the North tower (and before it was confirmed to be an airliner), a lot of people were thinking "did the pilot have a heart attack or something"

It definitely wasn't like the incident in the 40s, when a B-25 hit the Empire State Building in dense fog.

That little bit of PTSD has surfaced harder on the anniversaries where the sky was just as clear as back then.

[catbyte]

14. I was home from work that morning with a head-splitting migraine and was cursing the sun.

The sky was a brilliant blue, even in Michigan.

[japple]

16. It was a beautiful, clear sky in GA, too. My husband and I were driving back to NC. We had just

buried my mother the day before. We stopped for gas and when my husband got back to the car from paying up, he said "turn on the radio...there are explosions, bombing somewhere." We drove home listening to the reports. Had to tune into radio stations, there was no wifi in those days.

[Ilsa]

21. It wasn't the start of a Fall day for me in south Texas,

but after moving to north Georgia, I get it. The start of September brings a shift: a cool, crispness in the morning air. It actually feels like the earth has shifted.

My spouse was working on the east coast. I called him to make certain he had gotten cash and reserved his car for a few extra days until the skies were open for flying again. It only took a couple of extra days for him to return.

[LeftInTX]

45. The day before, I was pruning my xeriscape. It was 83/69 (San Antonio)

Last edited Mon Sep 11, 2023, 02:58 AM - Edit history (2)

Nice weather!

Today it was 103 and humid.

[Backseat Driver]

57. I have the same problem with those days of silent beauty and "not a cloud in the sky" September days

before, on, and thereafter 9/11. I had to work that day, but had the television on when the news of the 1st plane into the tower news broke. Since I had already dressed, I listened as long as I could and then left for the 20 minute drive to work at a private practice physician's office. Not one co-worker who was in at opening knew anything about it yet, so I asked to turn on the television in the patient lobby (no one was there for their early appointments). We watched and learned about the 2nd plane crash and watched as both collapsed. We learned about the crash in PA and at the Pentagon where DH had been assigned for a while during the Viet Nam conflict. We had few scheduled patients actually show up that day.

Don't know if Mercury was in retro-grade on that day or not, ,but I had been the messenger the day of that tragic event. Certainly a very minor PTST, the weather, the lack of white noise all around me, me as the messenger at my employer's office, but I will never forget the beauty of that day nor it's darkness.

I learned one co-worker's daughter lived in Manhattan. One co-worker's relative was a flight attendant who had switched her work schedule with another out of Boston that day. It changed my employer's life as well. He went on to take 1st responder (fire) training and became a volunteer, joined a DMAT group that later deployed following Hurricane Katrina; then take whatever was needed for a second specialty, in emergency medicine to add to the first, Plastic (Cosmetic) and Reconstructive Surgery.

Today, we have a small city park with a monument to 1st responders that contains a piece of one of the World Trade Center towers. Every year since completion, there is a poignant special ceremony each year commemorating their service.

https://hilliardohio.gov/parks/first-responders-park/ Please read about and scroll down for video

[electric_blue68]

60. I wrote part of a poem about that blue sky...

something along the lines of...

"Under my wings I already have over a thousand deep blue sky memories..."

The idea being I've alreay seen so many blue skies like that in NYC (it's what my favorite summer weather is deep blue skies, low '80s, dry so it's always stood out) that I didn't think, and it hasn't become a association with 9-11 for me. Luckily.

[Shipwack]

4. I remember lying in my bunk on my submarine...

Wondering why we were getting emergency messages when we were in a non-alert status.

The rest I probably can't discuss.

A very moving post, flying_wahini. Thank you for writing it.

I'm going to call my sons now.

[Hekate]

5. California here. My daughter woke me up and ordered me to turn on CNN. There was TV where she worked

I was stunned by what I saw, but also disoriented in time because CNN kept running their video on a time-stamped loop. It was 9 a.m. where I was, but the attack had taken place at 8:30? Was I seeing things in real time or not? It took me weeks to sort that out in my mind.

Everything was much closer than 6 degrees of separation. My sis and her family lived in Massachusetts and both her children had friends who lost their grandmas in the Boston flight. I found out later that our cousin’s husband, a rear admiral, had been part of the many people who leaped in to try to save (and identify) comrades and workers at the Pentagon. His job went on and on. When BushCheney got their war, one of my niece’s friends who had just graduated high school joined up. His last phone call to his father was from Italy — he said that he and his unit were not appropriately equipped — he died outside Kirkuk. Another of my niece’s friends who joined up ended up flying the coffins home — it just about destroyed him.

I didn’t find DU until September 2002.

[moonshinegnomie]

6. my brother in law was in our ny office in on the 83rd floor

the got out safely thankfully as did our whole office
i was on the treding floor in chicago when we saw the towers hit on the big TV. only time in 20+ years i saw trading just stop.......we though we might be the next target and so most of us just walked off the floor

[Scrivener7]

7. My next door neighbor went to work as usual. No trace of her was ever found.

Another neighbor has never gone back into the city since that day. She got out through that area with the glass roof. The brigades of firefighters were running past her into the building as the people began falling on the glass.

A lot of friends helped in the cleanup. The things they found messed them all up. Turns out the site was lousy with carcinogens, so many of them are gone now too.

I think of Ukrainians and anyone in war areas where this kind of trauma hits them every day for years on end.

I cannot imagine.

[DFW]

47. My nephew is on long term assignment in Kyiv

He says the nightly interruptions to go down to the air raid shelters are getting very disruptive.

[Chainfire]

9. I was driving across town when I heard that a plane had flown into the WTC. My first thoughts

went back to the WWII period when a bomber flew into the Empire State building. Of course in the first few minutes thing were vague, and I am thinking some Cessna pilot had a really bad day behind the yoke.

I was working on a remodel of a home, that was in continuous occupation, and for the only time in my career, I violated the customer's trust by turning on their TV to get details. It is amazing to me how clearly the events and emotions of the day has stuck with me. Other hard wired memories revolve around the assignation of Kennedy, the killing of Oswald and the high points of the space program. Bobby Kennedy and MLK's murders are not as fresh. By the time Bobby Kennedy was killed it was becoming as common as school shootings today...

[Tickle]

29. I'm with you

You have a nice writing style

[TC 1]

10. A college acquaintance was one of the 3000+

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. 09/11 is hard for me

I think I shared that story here years ago. Once.

Thank you for sharing yours.

Yes. Hug, text, call, tell, think about your loved ones every day. Easier to say than to do. The world has a way of distracting us.

[kimbutgar]

12. A guy that I knew from the days I worked in the financial industry died in the Twin Towers

He was the nicest guy. He’d out every few months to take my boss ( who was a client ) to lunch and would always bring me back something like a cupcake, cookie or piece of cake. He’d say a sweet for a sweet. He was a married guy who had two daughters he adored. I felt so sorry for his wife and daughters. My neighbor up the street fro where I live was a flight attendant who also on one of those planes that went down. I didn’t know her well but I’d see her in her uniform taking the bus to get to the airport. And once in 1984 on a business trip I was fortunate to have dinner in the windows of the world restaurant. The view of Central Park at sunset was a sight I’ll never forget.

It seems that day was like only yesterday.

[cos dem]

13. I was supposed to fly from Logan that day.

Flight was around noon, but my friend dropped me off early on his way to work.

I was sitting in a coffee shop where I could watch the planes. As a (private) pilot myself, I can't get enough of watching aircraft. I had sort of a subconscious recognition that nothing had moved in a while, and then the servers at the coffee shop turned on CNN. Had to call my parents right away to let them know I was not on any airplanes at that time.

Somewhere, I still have my old-school boarding pass from that day.

[SWBTATTReg]

15. I remember that I worked for an IT outfit and was getting ready to fly into NJersey for a

meeting and then things happened (a.m. of 9/11). Needless to say, the fear and everything going on, work allowed me to go ahead and cancel the flight (airlines were shutting everything down anyways). The fear at work was incredible and were watching the TV nonstop.

I'm glad I didn't fly, the fear was to the point where you could cut it w/ a knife. I'm just glad that I didn't get into the air, after all, I was flying into the East Coast (Piscataway NJ). Although chances were low that anything would happen (6000 flights at any time in the US), I still was happy to not fly.

And I had friends that worked for American Airlines (STLMO was a big stopping point for American Airlines, until they shut down most of the operations in STL Missouri and moved their opers. elsewhere). Of course a lot of the airline employees got laid off w/ the immense slowdown in air travel after 9/11. At least, they got unemployment (regular and extended).

Indeed, to your sentiment that all of those who died, I agree, RIP.

[musclecar6]

17. My wife and I

Recently went to the memorial in Shanksville Pennsylvania where flight 93 crashed. As soon as you drive onto the grounds, it’s a very sobering experience to say the least. It immediately puts you back in time and you have that awful lost feeling we all felt on that day.

It would be nice if we could honor those people, by somehow coming to an agreement in this country to stop all the squabbling between the left and the right. We know who the deplorable leader of this craziness is, who has been nothing but trouble ever since the day this guy was born.

[Scrivener7]

20. Those are the people I can't fathom. For the others, it was something that

happened to them.

But the people on that flight 93 were just normal people having a normal day and suddenly they decided perform an act of unimaginable heroism. They knew they were going to die, and they chose to do it so others would not be killed.

Where do people get the strength to do that?

[Lonestarblue]

18. I was in London on my way to the airport to return home when the taxi driver asked if I had

heard the news. By the time I got to the airport, all flights to the US had been grounded and those that had already left Heathrow were returning. Heathrow was an absolute zoo, but I was on American Airlines and they were absolutely wonderful. They took each flight according to its initial departure time, found hotel rooms back in London, and hired buses to come to the airport to take people to their hotels. It was late by the time they got to my flight, but they provided me a hotel room for three nights and got me back to London. I have maintained a loyalty to AA ever since because of their actions on that day. Their Heathrow staff went far beyond the call of duty.

I spent hours every day in an Internet cafe trying to email friends and family, especially those who lived in Boston, trying to make sure none were on the fatal flight. It took me five more days to get home and several friends had to drive long distances to get home because when the order came to ground all flights, pilots landed wherever they were. I remember them saying that rental cars were in short supply because everyone was having to drive.

Article 5 of the NATO alliance has been triggered only once, and that was after 9/11. The US had friends then, and we still do today because Joe Biden repaired the relationships that Trump stomped on. I fervently hope that nothing like 9/11 ever happens again, to us or any country, but it’s good to know that we have people at our back.

[momta]

24. One of my most vivd memories of 9/11 happened the next day in London.

I wasn't there, but I watched on TV as the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace played the U.S. national anthem.

I cried.

[Lonestarblue]

27. Mine was the service at St. Paul's, which was broadcast to the masses of people outside

where I was. Oddly, the crowd was mostly very quiet, and what was also noticeable was the silence in the skies. No airplanes at all. Many tears fell during those days. The other memory is that mine was the first flight allowed to Boston, and at the end of the walk from the plane to the customs hall was a phalanx of men dressed in black and carrying assault weapons—something I had never seen in any airport in the US. It was unnerving, to say the least!

[3catwoman3]

19. My husband was flying for United at that time. He'd gotten home...

…from a trip just the day before.

He once had a check ride from Captain Jason Dahl, who was in command of United flight 93, which is the plane that crashed into the empty field in Pennsylvania.

We live in the greater Chicago area, and there are always planes in the sky, leaving contrails behind them. It was very eerie to look up and see empty skies.

[AllaN01Bear]

22. i was home when this hit the fan. am tolling my church bells 10 times in my mind

for the victoms
i was pleased when the canadians took americans into their homes and gave them meals whilst their planes were grounded . ""

[flying_wahini]

23. I called my boys (who were 2nd and 5th grade) the night before calling them from NY airport.

I told them I would be home in a couple of days…. It took me all day to reach my husband to let him know I was safe. In the meantime the school was pulling in TVs into the classrooms.
My second grader became hysterical when they showed the plane crashing into the WTCs.
It apparently a pretty bad scene. All he could see was an AA plane and it was NYC.
The teachers didn’t know much so couldn’t be faulted, but they called my husband to come pick him up.
Still makes me sick to think of that day. I remember seeing the WTCs from the plane that night before leaving.

[summer_in_TX]

39. WTH were those educators thinking?!?!

I was testing a group of special ed 5th graders that morning in New Braunfels, TX. An administrator came in to tell me the shocking news. We made sure the kids were protected. But we staff members all had lunch and took our breaks in the library watching TV.

We would never have dreamed of showing children such traumatic content, especially scenes with people falling or jumping from the buildings.

The next morning, we had a somber ceremony that strengthened us all and encouraged hope and resolve. Our principal had gone to every store in the area and cleaned them out of their glow sticks. She had us give those out and had us go into the halls and darkened the lights. I remember singing Peter, Paul, and Mary's "Weave Me the Sunshine. The principal spoke. I no longer remember her words, but still feel the infusion of courage and resolve.

[LeftInTX]

46. I picked up my kids from schools in San Antonio. None of them knew anything about it

I was shocked. My oldest was 15 and youngest was 9.

A few months later, my daughter's school was on lock-down. The local credit union had a hostage situation. However, I had not heard a thing because I was busy doing other stuff. When I picked her up, she was, "Mom, you didn't hear about it?". My response: "No".

[mommymarine2003]

25. My 18-year-old son had just joined the Marine Corps prior to 911.

I was getting ready for work. It was early in the morning because I lived in Tacoma, WA at the time. I turned on the TV to immediately witness the 2nd plane hitting the towers. It was so surreal. My next thought was that my family's lives were going to change because I knew deep down that we were going to wind up going to war and my son had just joined the Marines. My son and his buddy were to head to MCRD in San Diego in October 2001,but his buddy bailed. My son kept his commitment (probably because his grandfather/my father was a career Marine officer and a veteran of 3 wars, and he didn't want to let him down). In January 2003 my son was to leave with the 1st Marine Division out of Camp Pendleton with an armada of ships. We thought we had a few weeks to adjust to the idea that he might wind up going to war. On the night the ships sailed, we got a call that he and 3 others were flown to NJ to catch a flight to Kuwait. By the next morning, he called me from the Kuwait/Iraq border (he was in communications). It was my birthday, so it was not a very happy one. During this time period, I called my congressman, Adam Smith, and left a message. He actually returned my call after a late session back in DC. I basically told him that we had better not be going to war unless we were justified, as we should never send our sons and daughters to give their lives for a cause based on a lie. We know how that worked out, and I never could really forgive Colin Powell.

My son crossed the border on the first day of the war. He did two tours, the second one being in Ramadi. He came back with severe PTSD. It took him years to recover, including the first two years when he would not come out of his room except to eat. We were lucky, as he came home. One of his buddies committed suicide.

This is how 911 changed my life, and we were the lucky ones.

[momta]

26. I was getting my oldest ready for kindergarten. (Colorado)

I had already started reading the news online in the mornings, and the headline on CNN was that Michael Jordan was coming out of retirement...again. When I refreshed the page, the new headline was about the first plane hitting the WTC.

When I got home from taking him to school, I watched the news on TV for hours. When I went to pick him up later all the parents were talking about it, and I still remember some of the rumors that turned out not to be true. (A car bomb outside the capital, etc.)

[wnylib]

28. I had the day off from work. Woke up early for a day off, around 7 am.

I put the TV on to ABC's Good Morning America while I dressed, then took some tea and toast into my study to go online at The Guardian's talk boards. They don't exist any more, but used to be a large site with several topic forums.

About 2 or 3 minutes to 9:00 am, I went to the kitchen to refresh my tea. The TV was right around the corner, on a common wall with the kitchen. I had left it on and heard the Good Morning America hosts talking. I knew something had happened because they always went off air at 5 minutes to 9 for local news. So I finished re-heating the tea and walked into the living room just in time to see the second plane hit the south tower.

Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer were saying that the first one might have been an accident, but two of them means a deliberate attack. First one? I dropped to the couch behind me and stared at the TV, catching up on what happened with the first one. They were getting reports of other missing and hijacked planes. Then I remembered that I was still logged into the Guardian.

I started a thread there about the WTC towers. Got dozens of questions from people on their computers at work who had not yet heard the news. Then the Guardian's news team joined the thread to exchange info. They wanted to know what US TV was reporting and told us what news they were getting. I wheeled my portable TV to my den so I could watch and type at the same time.

I filled them in on the tower collapses, the estimated number of people working there, the Pentagon hit, and the takedown of Flight 93 in PA. The Guardian knew that NORAD had scrambled before I did. ABC was reporting that they had not scrambled.

My former BIL worked at the WTC for Fuji Bank, but was retired by 9/11. He had taken us up to the viewing deck when we visited him in the mid 1980s. I am from western PA, so although my home town was farther north than where 93 crashed, I knew the general area. A friend's mother was part of the search team using dogs. A co-worker had been on vacation in NC on 9/11 and was stranded for a few days because of the flight groundings. Another co-worker had a relative at the Pentagon who was injured. She was so upset that she could not function. She got some leave time, but never came back.

[Trueblue Texan]

30. My 18 year old daughter was 5 miles from Ground Zero...

...I heard the first report on the radio when I was driving to the DFW airport to pick up my niece, who was flying home from Hawaii where she was stationed. I didn't realize what I was hearing because I turned the radio off as soon as I heard about a plane striking a structure. The reason I turned it off was because I was honoring a commitment I'd made to myself not to listen to news after reading a horribly disturbing account in the newspaper the year before about a child left to die in a hot car. I put in a cassette tape instead.

When I got to the airport, there were two women at a bank of pay phones, crying...I thought, well, airports are full of life...no telling what they are upset about. Maybe they missed someone's deathbed goodby or something. Then my niece showed up and said she couldn't find her bag. "They're about to shut down the freakin' airport!" she said. There are so many drama queens in my family, I just mentally rolled my eyes at her and helped her locate her bag. I still didn't know what had happened. And frankly I didn't want to know.

Talk about the queen of denial.

Then I went shopping.

We lived a good 70 miles from town and I needed to do some shopping for an upcoming trip to NYC to see my daughter the following week. My niece was accommodating and slept on a bench in the store while I shopped. I'm not making this up. I was so unconscious.

Finally we were back on the road around 3 pm, turned the radio on, and that's when I heard the news.

It was like one second I was looking at an intact photo of my world and then suddenly all the parts in the photo shifted--the world was suddenly not the one I had been living in up to that point, yet I still tried to minimize the gravity of the situation. When I got home there were a half dozen messages on the machine from my best friend sobbing hysterically and asking me to call her and let her know if my daughter was ok.

Again, to my mind, this was more unnecessary drama. I think there was a message on the phone from my daughter telling me she was ok. Honestly I don't remember. Most of the rest of the day is a blur.

When I tell the story now, I always say how I was certain that my daughter was ok because she never woke up before noon. She gets irate when she hears this...understandably. For decades now, that story has kept me safe from the realization that my daughter might have been one of the lost ones. She's told me she had a job interview in that part of Manhattan that day and may well have been one of the victims of 9-11. I don't want to know. To be certain, she continues to suffer the trauma of that horrible event. I have managed to play games in my mind to protect me from what she knows might have happened. I am telling of these events from the very safe distance I maintain.

When the planes were allowed to fly again, 6 days later, we passed over downtown. Dozens of people on the plane left their seats to look out the windows at the ruins. The flight attendants literally commanded them to resume their seats. I stayed in my seat, refused to look, carefully maintaining my denial.

On the streets near downtown, the people remained stunned, the homeless more vacant eyed than ever, being denied the luxury of I had. Still, the images of that time remain undeniable. The picture I had of my world before that day has never returned, no matter my efforts to recalibrate reality.

My daughter was safe, but would not stay in NYC another 6 months. So many questions remain about the attacks and I will never in my lifetime understand how we continue relations with Saudi Arabia. Peace to the survivors, the families who live with the reality of 9-11. So very long ago...tomorrow.

[R Merm]

31. I was on a motorcycle trip through the Southwest, my wife was in the 1st trimester with our daughter

It was to be our last such trip for a bit. Left the hotel that morning knowing that a airplane hit one of the towers but nothing about any of the other planes. Was in the rangers station at Arches National Monument when the Park Ranger came out and told us that the first tower fell, and then what seemed like just a few minutes later that the second tower fell.

Neither of us believed her. We rode for about 40 miles before we came across a 4 room motel and grill that had a satellite tv with a group of people standing around watching video of the towers falling over and over again. At dinner that night everyone in our group was still in shock.

A couple days later we rode into Vegas, that was the day the lights were dimmed on the Strip, the city was emptying out, no one was flying in and many people were trying to get home.

Our trip ended in Phoenix at an empty resort that was to have had an FBI convention that was canceled at the last minute. The world changed then. Life was less carefree. Our daughter was born to this new world has never lived in a country not at war.

[FakeNoose]

32. I've heard so many stories from different people, having to do with 9/11

The one that sticks with me was my friend and co-worker who was on a flight with his wife and mother-in-law, flying home from Germany. They were supposed to land in New York on the morning of 9/11 and change planes for Pittsburgh. But ... you guessed it ... they weren't allowed to land. I think they were rerouted to Nova Scotia, and then returned to Germany. Nobody on the plane knew what was going on, but they understood it was something serious. My friend Rich had to extend his "vacation" in Germany another week before they could catch a flight home. By that time he wasn't even speaking to his mother-in-law. Turned out to be the most expensive trip he ever took.

[flying_wahini]

42. I like the part that he wasn't speaking to his MIL by then. So funny.

[Rhiannon12866]

33. I was at the dentist. She had turned on CNN and I watched that second plane hit the TWC over and over

It was chaos in the office, I'm in New York. I walked out of there scared witless. My mother was with me and we stopped to vote in the primaries, but the polling place at the school was deserted. That's when I decided I'd better start paying much closer attention to what was happening in this country and the world. So I started reading a whole lot more and I found DU in early 2003.

[Behind the Aegis]

40. I was on my way to the dentist.

I was playing the radio because my tape player was broken and was cursing that Bush was on the airwaves, so I just turned it off. When I got to the dentist, I saw the TVs and thought they were playing a movie. I watched and realized what had happened. I was in the chair, listening to the news, when the plane hit The Pentagon. I had the day off. I called in to see if I needed to come in, they told me to stay close to campus. Parts of campus were closed immediately because of certain types of research that were taking place.

[Rhiannon12866]

41. Yikes! Sounds like we had a similar experience

I was just there for X-Rays, but I think they forgot about me. My dentist was on the phone to the City and so I was left sitting in the chair watching that TV. I guess my appointment was later than yours since I kept seeing repeats of that second plane hitting, over and over. I was lucky that my mother drove (we made appointments on the same day since it takes an hour to get to the dentist in Albany) since I was so shook. Sounds like you kept your wits about you.

Did you ever see that film of what happened on that day made by those 2 French brothers who were in New York to film the life of a rookie firefighter, but one of them just happened to be filming near the WTC when the first plane hit so he had a front row seat on everything that the firefighters experienced? I think it was first broadcast on CBS, and I sent for the video.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

34. And NEVER forget all the bastards who said this was a false flag.

Or a hoax. Or that government agents were involved.

Like Vivek Ramaswamy, for one.

[flying_wahini]

43. Really, false flag my ass.

[LeftInTX]

49. Vivek was 16 at the time. He's full of it.

[Effete Snob]

55. +1

[Elessar Zappa]

56. We used to have those types here on this site.

Thankfully DU isn’t as conspiracy theory-oriented as it once was.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

35. I was at home with my wife when the news broke,

I immediately turned to my wife and said that there's a very good chance that I would be recalled to active duty and I needed to contact the nearest Marine base to find out if and when I was to report for duty, my wife was scared silly that I was going to war again.

I was ordered to report to Camp Pendleton in CA for possible active duty and deployment, I spent 3 months back on active duty but then was released to return home and back to civilian life.

RIP to the victims of 911.

[Hekate]

36. Other memories. My daughter asked me if I knew whether dear friends & family were safe...

New York. Boston. Washington, DC.

I think I was just too numb to realize. Then I started phoning them. My best friend and her husband were career civil service in DC. They heard and felt the plane hit the Pentagon. Getting out and home took hours. She did PR for some high mucky-muck who wanted her to show up and stay by his side for whatever the duration might be, but oops she never got the call. The woman has always been quick on the uptake.

I remember a very poignant essay by Bill Clinton. He and Al Gore had not been on the best of terms in the past few years, but they found themselves in the same place in Canada at the same time, stranded and worried about their families. They rented a car together and began the long, long drive home.

I remember when Dubya’s administration announced the air was fit to breathe. Nothing to see here, just move on.

[Hekate]

37. PBS decided to keep its children's programming exactly the same. Mr Rogers did a PSA, too

They advised parents of little ones to compartmentalize their and their children’s viewing, in order to not traumatize the kids. Mr Rogers, especially, advised parents how to answer questions that might come up anyway.

For that alone I will love PBS and Fred Rogers forever.

[LeftInTX]

50. I didn't get that memo.

Unbeknownst to me, the schools were keeping this under wraps. My kids were ages 15 - 9.

I thought it was kinda weird that they didn't know anything. Well, they were sure gonna find out. I flipped on CNN and we watched it non-stop.

Kennedy's assassination was one mass hysteria at my school. Kids were crying and we were all sent home. I was in second grade and other than Caroline and John losing their father, I didn't understand the gravity of the situation.

[JI7]

38. That's the thing that kept going through my head

how it was just a normal day and people just going about their day. And just moments later..............

After the attacks things just a few days or week ago seemed so far away.

I sometimes wonder how things would be if it never happened . I hate how we responded and things after that still seems to go on.

[flying_wahini]

44. Yes, Bush and Cheney and the PNAC people must have thought their Pearl Harbor attack

Came in for them.
I still remember Cheney was saying how we would be greeted as liberators. Still burns a hole in me.

[DFW]

48. I was in an office in downtown Brussels

This was nowhere near NATO HQ, so there was no immediate reaction in town. I got a call from a friend in London after the first plane hit. He called me back to say that the second plane had hit the other tower.

On the train back to Germany late that afternoon, it was all people were talking about, and when they heard I was an American and spoke French, Flemish and German, I was peppered with questions I couldn’t answer. I got a few more calls from London and then Dallas, but I really knew no more than any of the other passengers on the train.

[Skittles]

51. I had a plane ticket at the time

when I called AA a few days later to take care of changing the dates of the trip, I told the lady helping me on the phone, I'm so sorry, this must be so hard for you airline folk.......she burst into tears and agreed........what a dreadful time that was

[Hugin]

52. Yes, here we are at yet another anniversary...

The Republicans are threatening to shut the government down by throwing it into default, Tuberville is destroying the hard won military readiness by blocking promotion of critical leadership, and a murderous Saudi Prince is holding us hostage at the gas pump.

[woodsprite]

53. I was at work with my husband in Delaware

We had a conference room in our building and we were all crowded in there watching the news on a huge screen. Our two kids were at school/daycare in different towns. Our governor, Ruth Ann Minner, shut schools and daycares early. We left work to pick the kids up - one in Newark where we worked, and one in New Castle where we lived. We were told by the HR VP that since it wasn’t considered a “state of emergency”, if we left work early to pick kids up, we had to take vacation. Twenty two years later and I’m still pissed about that.

It took almost an hour to make it to our infant’s daycare - what normally was only a 10 min drive. It took over an hour to make it to our other kid’s school for pickup - normally a 20 min drive. There was concern in the state regarding Dover AF Base and New Castle Co airport. I remember attending a candlelight vigil held at Battery Park in New Castle and seeing the ladder truck with its extension ladder extended and an American flag hung from it. I remember in the days that followed, instead of seeing homeless people begging for money, food, or work or selling flowers at intersections, parking lots, and mall entrances, it was fire depts collecting donations for NY first responders and victim’s families.

[ECL213]

54. How many of those who died hated their jobs?

I remember thinking this in the days and weeks that followed. I really disliked my job at the time, and I couldn't stop thinking about how many of those poor souls might have been in the same situation. Just going through the motions for the paycheck and the benefits. I quit my job shortly thereafter and followed my passion. I rented an old warehouse and started a craft-distillery, and within a few years our spirits had won several awards, and now I have more joy, and money, than I know what to do with.

Ahh, I'm just f'ing with you. I'm still with the same f'ing company 22 years later...just going through the motions for the paycheck and the benefits, but I have a wife, a son, a dog, a house and medication, now, all of which make me happy to be alive...even though my wife made me return the still I bought myself for Christmas last year.

[FailureToCommunicate]

58. I repeat my goodbyes to the two friends I lost that

terrible day: One on the flight that hit the first tower, the other who had started his first day of work at the Windows On the World restaurant up there. He had shown up extra early to try to make a good impression. 🙏🙏

[LeftInTX]

59. This was such a moving post

As a nation, we cried and were shocked. For a brief time we came together in grief. Even Bush did a good job the first week or so.

Then, it fell apart with anger and war. And maybe too much shock and awe or whatever. I think we forgot how sad and traumatized we were. I believe it was one the worst days in our country. It was worse than Pearl Harbor. I wasn't around during the Civil War, but I think it was at least the worst day since April 1865. It was so horrifying and sad.

Thank you for allowing me to grieve again....

[electric_blue68]

61. (I was writing my loving the Two Tower post so late to this...

Got up late (10A) living in Brooklyn about ten blocks north of Downtown Brooklyn. Always have a Walkman on with the earbuds as I get ready to leave.
That day I didn't turn it on.
Left the building. Bright blue sky. Happy summer cloud. Head northwest - turn on radio.

There are multiple news talkers on. I do not know what building they are describing(!), but I hear " Firemen covered in ash. If this was a Science Fiction Movie but it's Not!".
I've now turned parallel to Flatbush Ave heading north east, and they All Fall Silent. This lasts about 25+ seconds as I walk the second half of that block, cross the street in the same direction, and then turn left towards Flatbush (northwest).

I take about 15 steps while it's still been silent, and you know radio "dead air" is unusual! I've had my Walkman in my hand the whole time. Suddenly one of them says "The Towers are gone! I stop dead in my tracks, spin 180° around (now facing southeast) starting at my radio as though it's turned into a little squawking monster in my hand.
Yet my concious doesn't quite get it!

It's only as I begin to put 2 and 2 together as in report, and dreadfully turn back northwest to look at what I thought was a happy summer cloud. But the color is wrong! Instead of white, blue whites, and light med blue gray's - it's pale gray, yellow-biege. And it's not fluffy, it's dense, almost gritty. And it hits me. It's a cloud, The cloud of Destruction. I clap my hands over my mouth, and run screaming back home.

My roommate is still asleep. I through myself on my bed and cry hard into my pillow. Then I stop. I never cry again again till I see U2 the night of their very first NYC concert in Oct which was scheduled way before. (it was an incredible cathartic experience that night! Cried my eyes out while dancing, and singing.)
I'm too scared to turn on the TV fearing I night have a serious anxiety attack. So I end up listening to our local Public Radio/NPR station till about 11PM. Then I watch the news till 4AM.

We can't go into Manhattan for ?days. There's no near-ish by Net Cafes that are working because the ?trunklines for the Net go from Lower Manhattan into Brooklyn, and they've been cut!

I go out the next day for groceries, and way above our neighborhood the smoke from the fires in The Pile are blowing southeastward. The day after that, or day 4 I go by ? water bottles, and ? else to deliver the local firehouse..

Finally I'm able to l go into Mahattan, and get online! A friend in Texas with whom we share a bunch of friends, and acquaintences w common interests is relived to hear from me bc she knew I sometimes work in Lower Manhattan.

Eventually when they set up The Tribute In Lights (one of the most sublime, and beautiful Memorial ever I go. When I get home to Brooklyn I can see them above the brownstones across the street for the 6 months they are lit. I go down to the fence for several years on that day.

It will always remain a surreal experience.

[electric_blue68]

62. A virtual hand on the shoulder for all who lost, or were terrified they lost someone. Those....

traumatized by watching it on TV, or from a distance.
Those affected by the needless Iraq War. Etc. 😔