12 yrs ago our world changed

I think I was in 3rd grade.

I had finished grad school, decided not use my degree, changed careers once, and been at it long enough to get a technical certification (CISSP) in the new field.

Since then, I've gone through periods of employment, non-employment, changed careers again (going back to using my degree.....and loving it), been through three relationships (one of them was an engagement), and gotten my "You've worked here for five years" pin from the current employer.

Took a personal day off from work, slept in, first coffee, initial report of a plane into the tower. Media still uncertain. Folks were in town for an appt., saw my car home and stopped for coffee. We watched the second plane hit. Not a fluke at this point. Pentagon. We sat in disbelief.

Local news cut in, our county 911 center received calls from a hijacked plane flying over, our county commissioner was on phone interview w/ the station, breaking news, Flight 93 crashed in Somerset Co.

Eerie experience, shock, tough to process the images, America came together. Looking back, seems like it was drawn out forever.

After the flight ban I broke up when I heard the first plane and saw vapor trails in the sky again.

Couple years later on the anniversary I took the folks to the Flight 93 Memorial. Beautiful day, met good people from many states away, still tough to fathom what happened there that day.

Never gonna forget.

SilverFleet wrote: The other thing that was really strange at the time was the FAA ban on flights keeping all the commercial planes out of the sky. I remember going down to visit my uncle at his house in Hull, MA (across the water from Logan Airport) either later on 9/11 or a day or two later, and it was eerily silent. The sky there is constantly filled with planes, and there was nothing in the sky except seagulls.

At the time I lived right in Greater Cincinnati's airport path & heard planes constantly. Yeah I remember taking the dogs outside and being eerily quiet for a change.

Jerry wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: The other thing that was really strange at the time was the FAA ban on flights keeping all the commercial planes out of the sky. I remember going down to visit my uncle at his house in Hull, MA (across the water from Logan Airport) either later on 9/11 or a day or two later, and it was eerily silent. The sky there is constantly filled with planes, and there was nothing in the sky except seagulls.

At the time I lived right in Greater Cincinnati's airport path & heard planes constantly. Yeah I remember taking the dogs outside and being eerily quiet for a change.

My aunt and uncle live right by OHare airport and said the same thing.

mtn wrote:

Jerry wrote:

SilverFleet wrote: The other thing that was really strange at the time was the FAA ban on flights keeping all the commercial planes out of the sky. I remember going down to visit my uncle at his house in Hull, MA (across the water from Logan Airport) either later on 9/11 or a day or two later, and it was eerily silent. The sky there is constantly filled with planes, and there was nothing in the sky except seagulls.

At the time I lived right in Greater Cincinnati's airport path & heard planes constantly. Yeah I remember taking the dogs outside and being eerily quiet for a change.

My aunt and uncle live right by OHare airport and said the same thing.

I was working driving by the Cincy airport when the first plane hit, when I finished my job and headed back home it was so surreal driving back by the airport with NO planes in the sky. I actually pulled over and got out just to listen to how quiet it was.

I was down in NYC 5 days or so after the attack to help with the restoration effort of communications, and to this day I can still recall that smell. It is indescribable but I will never forget it.

I remember where I was that day as well, and how I heard about the first plane, and we all thought it was a wayward single engine prop plane with a dim witted pilot. Only to hear later that another one hit. We left the building and went to a co-workers house that lived close by so we could watch the television. I remember sitting in disbelief when the first tower fell, and thinking it was a replay when the second one went down later.

I was at a factory in Jefferson City, Missouri for a couple of days. Someone heard it on the radio and then we rigged up an antenna to feed a TV in the conference room. Like everyone else, we watched dumbfounded, horrified etc as the towers collapsed. I couldn't fly back to Michigan as the planes were all grounded, so after a couple of days I decided to just drive home. It was a beautiful September day, sun shining, just cruising along the interstate. The overriding memory I have of 9/11 is of all the flags I saw hanging from the overpasses, the backs of semis, every where you hang one. I'm not American, I'm Canadian, but I was proud of this country that day.

It was my freshman year in college. I lived at home and commuted. I had a one hour break between my first two classes. I would always go back to my truck and study or sleep. I chose sleep that day and I didn't have the radio on. I saw one of my friends as I got out of my vehicle, and he told me that "some guy flew his plane into the WTC." We both were thinking smaller single engine plane, but when we got to class it became all too clear that it wasn't. The TV was on, and by that time the towers were down. There was a real uneasy feeling (even in central NC) because we had no idea if this was over or not. Classes were let out half an hour later and I went back home. I sat with my parents and just watched the coverage. No matter how many times I saw it, it still seemed unreal. It was such a beautiful, cloudless day. I sat on the deck for a while in silence. I worked that night at a local food joint in a very uppity part of town. I remember the huge sense of community and pride that night. Its like everyone sat together and talked instead of quietly rushing through dinner. It was one of the most memorable days in my life.

One of the things I really remember is Jay Leno. I used to watch Leno regularly. For the first week or so after the attack, it was a somber affair. The next Monday- he came back and said "We need to get back to it, it's time to be funny again" or something to that effect. That really meant something to me. I live in MN, about the safest place on earth from terror attacks, I knew no one affected- but it still meant something to me that someone with that kind of clout said "screw this, i'm not gonna let them win, Ima get my funny on".

The other was going to Vegas later that year, and seeing all the memorials taped to the New York New York fence. Even in Vegas, they cared.

Cole_Trickle wrote: It was such a beautiful, cloudless day.

This was something I thought about afterwards - it seemed like the weather was beautiful everywhere in the US that day. Kind of a cruel irony. My office isn't that far from the MSP airport so there's usually planes going overhead, but only seeing F-16s for the next few days was eerie.

Just starting my junior year and my 1st few weeks at the Vo-tech in mid coast maine we were about to go on break and the class clown came down saying someone flew a plane in to the WTC, cant say I thought much of it until we walked up stairs in to the break room and there was this panic amongst people while one of the teachers turned on the radio.

Some how I felt compelled to go to the main office (may be the hot chick I liked went there or the fact I knew they had a TV) to see in dismay the first building just sitting there and watching in utter shock and dismay as the 2nd hit, still ended up having a full day of school but TBH I don't remember much of the day after that until got home and EVERY station had some sort of coverage on and it hit again with the major impact of the event.

Now if this is the pushing factor of me going in to the army or not IDK but I still feel it was a VERY strong point for me to.

Mazdax605 wrote: I was down in NYC 5 days or so after the attack to help with the restoration effort of communications, and to this day I can still recall that smell. It is indescribable but I will never forget it.

Thanks. I still didn't have a cellphone at the time and since there were no working payphones I didn't talk to my fiancé for two days. I got our first cellphones that Friday.
I was supposed to go to Albany that weekend to look at reception halls. I was working 6p to 2a at the time and when I wasn't doing my shift I ended up working roadblocks around police stations and shuttling rescue workers to and from the site. I hope to never smell that again. Besides the smell I remember these missing posters taped to every vertical surface.

I walked out of the WTC about 1-2 min before the first plane hit, and saw that plane hit the North Tower from Greenwich St. I was still downtown when the first tower collapsed, and watched the second tower collapse from the street. On that day, I saw the absolute worst of humanity, and also on that day and over the next few weeks, I saw the best of humanity.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of the victims in NY, DC, and PA. And words can not express my gratitude to the first responders and military personnel who put their lives on the line every day to help others and keep our country safe. THANK YOU!

I was working at Silicon Valley start-up and heard about it on the radio on the drive into work. My boss at the time was a Muslim who was born in Afghanistan. Half the people at the company were Indian or Pakistani. At work the mood was pretty intense. In addition to the shock that everyone felt, there was the additional layer of uneasiness as people quietly wondered what this was going to mean for brown-skinned and/or non-Christians living in America. The news media kept droning on with comparisons to Pearl Harbor. The fact that Japanese Americans were put in internment camps wasn't lost on me. My wife is Japanese.

It was also my 8th wedding anniversary. So for 12 years I have lived with Sept 11 being a day to remember great loss and great happiness.

I've not been alive that long but the day the challenger blew up and 9/11 are two days I'll never forget. When I first heard the news I thought it was a joke of some kind; who would DARE attack us? No matter the freedoms we "lost" since then I'm glad to live here, in a country where people really care about their neighbors even if it sometimes takes a tragedy to let us see it.

Type Q wrote: I was working at Silicon Valley start-up and heard about it on the radio on the drive into work. My boss at the time was a Muslim who was born in Afghanistan. Half the people at the company were Indian or Pakistani. At work the mood was pretty intense. In addition to the shock that everyone felt, there was the additional layer of uneasiness as people quietly wondered what this was going to mean for brown-skinned and/or non-Christians living in America. The news media kept droning on with comparisons to Pearl Harbor. The fact that Japanese Americans were put in internment camps wasn't lost on me. My wife is Japanese. It was also my 8th wedding anniversary. So for 12 years I have lived with Sept 11 being a day to remember great loss and great happiness.

understand about the challenge of celebrating on 9/11 .... my BIL and one of my brother's BD's are on 9/11 .. makes it tough

It was a very busy day at Gander Newfoundland. Pretty much every flight coming from Europe to the US was diverted there.

Anyone else surprised at the number of "Support Our Troops" type of things yesterday, but a lack of "Support Our Emergency Responders, Civil Servants, and Good Samaritans".

I never want to take away from supporting our troops, but 9/11 should be more about the fact that we're all Americans and we should support one another. Race, political affiliation, sexual orientation, rich or poor, lots of people died on that day due to indiscriminate violence.

Instead of seeing 9/11 as a call to arms, we should remember it as call for unity between fellow Americans. We may disagree about all the rest, but in times of need we're going help each other and remembering that should be the spirit of the day.

In reply to PHeller:

That's a great sentiment. But nahhh, it'll never happen. We (like everyone else on the planet) have to let our pettiness rise to the top always.

93EXCivic wrote:

toad9977 wrote:

poopshovel wrote:

I was in 8th grade at the time.

berkeley you.

Well berkeley you too!!! If you have a problem with it talk to my parents! They're the ones at blame for my age!

berkeley both of you. I was in 7th grade.

children ... children .... children... we know you can't help it, go back to your playpens and let the adults do the thinking

wbjones wrote: children ... children .... children... we know you can't help it, go back to your playpens and let the adults do the thinking

Meh, kids say the darndest things; they mean well but too often know naught of which they speak.

On 09/11/01, I was at Forbes Field, Topeka, KS; the Solo Nats in front of me and KC135s behind me. A friend had a hand-held TV and we were watching the North Tower burn when the second plane hit. Security ramped-up as fast as everyone's spirits dropped.

Normally, the skies above Kansas are criss-crossed by arrow-straight contrails of passing planes. That day they disappeared, except for the ones that were eerily now forming circles.

It was a long, quiet drive home.

Extremely interesting documentary on the Discovery channel about the white house chief of staff- and it highlights the one that was there during 9-11