Where were you and what were you doing?

Woke up after working late shift when I was in the police, turned on the tv to watch the news and the first plane had just hit. I stayed in bed and watched the rest unfold. Tragic day

 

I was in a hardware store and saw it on a tv behind the counter. not a pleasant memory. Brian's story is quite riveting.

 

I was on duty. I'm a Professional Firefighter. We were all watching it on TV. When the second plane hit, we figured we lost some guys...we were all armchair quarterbacking the fire attack strategy. ..then the collapse happened. We knew there were Firemen in there...we didn't think it would be 343.

 

Glad Brian made it out. I couldn't imagine.

I was a Carpenter running a construction site in Brookville PA. It was early stages and basically a slab in the middle of a field. We must have been on a flight path for some airport, because we had noticed early on how many planes/jets flew over that area regularly. Seemed like one was in the air every time you looked up.

My foreman and I were laying out where the walls were to go. Measuring,popping chalk lines and shooting down "track" for the walls. We needed more chalk so I sent my buddy to the trailer. He was gone for an extended time and when he returned, I asked him "where the hell have you been?" He said listening to the radio, we are under attack... Of coarse I said, You're FOS. And he said "Look, you see any planes? They're all grounded"....He was right, not a plane in sight. We drug out a cord and a radio and pretty much spent the rest of the day in a holding pattern listening to the reports.

18 Carpenters perished with the others. Things sure changed that day, didn't they..

 

I was getting the day started at the funeral home. The owner's wife called and said a plane had hit the trade center. We hooked up a tv in the break room just in time to see the second plane hit. An older co-worker simply said "Bin Laden"...I had never heard that name until he said it. My wife and I watched the news together for the rest of the night.

 

I was working in one of cummins inc. sheet metal shops when someone called us over to a computer and said a plane had hit the world trade center. My first thought was that a small plane had accidentally hit the building. Then the second one hit and we knew that this was an attack on our country. Latter in the day a manager called us all together and said that both towers were down and that the pentagon was on fire. It was not a good day.

 

I got up to go to work and turned the TV on. I yelled to my wife that it appeared that a small plane had accidentally hit the tower. I was trying to grasp what had happened when the second one hit. It was chaos in my house until I got to work and told the supervisors and owners. Not a lot of work happened for the next few days. My cousin works at the Pentagon and his office was demolished by that plane's attack.Luckily he was on the other side of the building at the time. He would have died if he had been in his office.

 

I was working. Listening to this on KQRS morning show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDy0AykFfNs

The wild thing is Tom Barnard, the radio talent, named Osama Bin Laden right after the second plane hit.

 

When one of my cousins called me from the Hoboken waterfront to say he saw the first plane hit, I went to the top of the school across the street and saw plane #2 bank around the first tower and flew right into tower 2.
Another cousin, Kim was actually in the first Tower when it was hit, she just didn't get into her Merrill Lynch office yet. All around her were the remains of the many jumpers as if someone just airbrushed bloody body parts amid shards of broken concrete. Cousin Gina woke up with morning sickness and called out sick thank God as she worked in the south Tower. Our daughter Maria was not heard from until 6 PM that night since she worked a ground level office at the time. We never believed we'd ever see Kim again until I got a call from around 7 PM saying she was on the ferry coming across the Hudson and could I please come get her. All the streets were closed off and barricades were going up faster than traffic was slowing was down to avoid. I never heard my name mean so much to one person as it did Kim. We cried and cried and then finally worked our way back to Union City to Mom's house. She had to know our family was all right as she was already tuning her small house into a hospital, Church or restaurant for whatever people needed the most of first. As hundreds of people came off the ferry they looked like pale gray zombies with furrows of tears streaming down their shocked blank faces. Our next door neighbor's daughter, Nancy didn't come home that night, or the next or the one of the after that. She worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm that took the head hit.
So much went on that night that never made the news. After I found Maria in Jersey City, I left her in the my truck safe and sound as I walked into an US Army recruiting office. I wanted to sign up right then and there but was told I was too old. Since that horrible day, nothing has ever been the same nor will it ever be again. God bless America and God bless all those grieving families who to this very day have not had a moments closure yet except for the passing of time. These things and more we think and pray about every single day since that terribly cowardly act of hate struct so very close to home.

 

I didn't louse anyone or know anyone in the USA that day i missed it all i was on a hunting trip,the world change that day very sad time RIP.

 

I was working as a foreman on Prettyboy Dam in Maryland with my crew of Mexicans...when the NG came rolling in to block the road to the Dam.

 

I was picking up a relative at a train station when the terrible news came on the car radio.
It's strange how sights and noises, even smells form part of such memories, however brief. They are imprinted forever in my thoughts.
God bless all those innocent people who died on that day, and their loved ones and friends. And my thoughts go out to all the victims of senseless violence in the world.

 

Sitting in my high school cafeteria taking the ASVAB test. There were several members of the military present and it seemed like all at once their phones began to ring. A few minutes later they told us what had happened.

 

On my way into the Persian Gulf on what was to become a very much longer deployment than originally scheduled.

 

I was actually an exchange student when it happened. I was living in a small island nation called the Faroe Islands which is in the north Atlantic between Iceland and Norway. I saw the second plane hit just as I got home from school. Thought it was a bad movie at first.

I have to say the most touching part was every flag in the capitol, Torshavn, was at half mast the next day. They didn't loose any countrymen, but realized the gravity of what happened. That I will never forget, and it still gives me chills thinking about it. The next day I hung my small American flag in my bedroom window, it stayed there for a while and eventually took it down.

Ten years later I was getting married and my host family made the trip the the U.S. for the occasion. During the dinner my host father stood and gave a speech in broken English. He spoke of many things, but focused on how touched they were by me hanging that flag in the window, and how their neighbors still talk about it. It brought everyone to tears.

The reason I share this is that I want everyone to understand how this moment in time did not just profoundly affect Americans. It affected the World and united us in more ways than most will ever know. for that i am truly grateful.

 

Fighter jets just flew over house an minute ago and made a U turn back towards N.Y. Shook the house just like on 9/11. That was crazy.

 

I was sitting at the computer checking my emails and my grandma called and told me what happened and wanted me to go to both my kids schools and bring them home. I turned on the TV and then watched the news when they reported the second plane hitting.

I had no idea about Brian being there though. Thanks Ken for sharing the story. And Brian we're all so glad you got out ok.

 

Last spring a few of us from HQ supply were attending the Penn. state show. When we arrived in town we noticed a small
sign that read 911 memorial and an arrow pointing the way. After getting our booth set up Clay, Randy and I decided to
go check it out. It was about half hour drive. When we arrived the parking lot was empty, the memorial was not yet
complete and it was cold and windy! Its a visit Ill never for get.
Its the site of where the third plane of 911 went down fighting.
There was one small building open and we entered we were met by a park ranger that looked very surprised that someone
was visiting in those conditions. She must have been very bored because she showed us around and told us things about
that day on 911 and the story of that unfolded on that flight. I followed the news pretty carefully after 911 but I didn't hear
half of the things that I learned at this site. I was shocked.

Well yesterday I read that the memorial is now complete. I thought Id give you guys and the NTA a heads up that the next
NTA show will be at the same resort that we were at in Penn. 30 minutes away from this site. I suggest you don't miss the
opportunity. Hey, NTA how bout a bus?

Vic Heincker