September 11

I was active duty, and my base scrambled the planes to the Twin Towers.  I was helping take out wisdom teeth when the alert siren went off, followed shortly by a pair of F15's, that immediately went afterburner.  The Colonel I was helping and I just looked at each other, because that wasn't normal.  Then another flight of F15's took off, immediate afterburner.  A few minutes after that the first plane hit the Twin Towers.

It was a sobering time after that, followed by craziness as all the reservists were called up.

I still have my paper ticket for my ORD-DCA flight for the afternoon of 9/11. Yeah, that didn't happen. I was a new to industry chemist at a conference. I still remember that one of the large company VP's from the Boston area managed to rent a stretch limo to take as many northeasterners as could cram in back home. 

Scotty Con Queso said:

I was a junior in HS in the middle of typing class when the librarian stuck her head in our classroom to tell us about what was going on.  We turned on the classroom TV and about 5 minutes later, our chronically angry principal came over the loudspeaker and told everyone to turn the TVs off right now.  Nothing to see here.  Go back to our learning as God intended.  I remember being absolutely jarred for the day and a long while after. 

This is my memory of the challenger explosion; we were watching it "live" in the classroom and they just shut it off and sent us back to study.

I was working in Bradley Illinois and we were listening to the oldies station when it came on and announced what was happening. After the second hit it was quickly apparent that it was not an accident. I think that was the last time I talked to my entire family in the course of one day; I'm introverted but it was suddenly very important that I speak with everyone right away. That was my take away; when something goes wrong you use your "phone a friend". Seeing everyone come together was momentous; as a country we have divided very rapidly since and it seems destructive.

My Mom's birthday is 9/11. On 9/11/94 my Dad had his stroke. After 2001 Mom said she wanted to file for a new birth date. So I try to make sure Mom gets a good birthday every year. I make a point to not talk about 2001 with her on that day and to make it about her, especially since Dad is gone.

But I still remember how lonely if felt standing in the break room at Year One with coworkers inches apart watching the TV. Standing there all together not knowing what to say or do. As the news spread across the country the incoming phone orders stopped. It was weird because the sales floor was ALWAYS noisy with phone sales, but not then. Sales dropped through the floor almost immediately and we all got cut back to 32 hours for a while. I don't remember much about the rest of 2001, but that morning is still a core memory.

Mr_Asa said:

I remember, vividly, a girl I had a crush on saying "I dont get what the big deal is" or similar.  I just kinda looked at her.  She and I were friends, she knew I was going into the USAF when high school was over (and it had been the plan for months)

I have similar memories of my peers (and adults.) Some of us knew war was coming and a lot of people would die, and some of them just didn't "get it."

Everything was silent at night on our farm-no planes in the sky for weeks.

What does it mean to never forget if you weren't born yet?

This is a tough read.

I also watched Challenger at school, my teacher turned off the TV and changed the subject.  

9/11 I was at work listening to the radio, talking with Jasmine.   We just stopped talking, listened closer then went outside, to the silence.  Bewildered we just speculated until reality sunk in, we were just attacked as a country.   Mean while my wife of one month was home with a day off watching in real-time.   More than the shock or sadness, I remember the unity and strength that we all felt, wouldn't it be great to have that all the time.

I was in transition from an assignment in Germany where the 'force protection level' had been fairly high to Ft Drum New York where things had seemed fairly lax. I was on leave while house hunting. Early in the morning of Sept 11th we completed the drive from up-state NY across Canada to my family's summer cabin in Maine. We were sleeping when my dad called to say a plane had hit the second tower. No TV, I followed the news online with a cellphone modem (2001) connected to my laptop. The next day we drove *across the US this time* back to Ft Drum, NY and I signed in from leave to my new assignment with the Army's 10th Mountain Division.

I was in elementary school, but at a different school than Chris (long story). In a move that I have to imagine was to keep us from seeing anything happening on a screen, our school chose to have a fire drill that morning, but we stayed in our muster stations, like, way longer than we normally would, and we could tell the teachers were upset. Mom picked us up early from school. I knew we had family in New York, but my grasp of geography was not solid at that time, so I was freaked out.

A month earlier we had been in New York City. We were supposed to see the World Trade Center, but we couldn't fit it into the day after seeing Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We said we'd see it next year.

We did see it next year, but it looked a lot different.

Edit to add: Our sister, the young child being held in that photo, now lives very close to the Pentagon. It's kind of impossible not to think about that day every time we're visiting and drive past it.

Sophomore in college. I remember waking up and it was bright, sunny day. Temp was great was great in Stillwater, OK. 

I got up to get a glass of water (since on Tuesday all my classes were in the afternoon) and my roommate was just like "DUDE YOU HAVE TO COME IN HERE" as he's just sitting in his boxers watching TV after the first plane hit. When the 2nd plane hit we knew it was an accident, but never imagined they would collapse. And our other 2 roommates just sat there watching the news all day, like I'm sure everyone outside of NYC did. 

They canceled classes that day and Wednesday. As I'm sure you guys are all familiar with April 19th, 1995. 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I was at work, and I shared an office with a Navy vet who was a couple years younger. I walked in late and the first thing he said was "dude a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center." There was no info on the size of the plane at that point, and I thought Cessna. Someone dragged a TV out of the conference room and we got to see the aftermath of the second plane going in. All we talked about for the rest of the day was how to thwart a hijacking with the stuff that you'd have access to on a plane. I used to travel a lot with work. You'd better believe I had my eye on every motherberkeleyer on every one of my flights for many years after that.

That was pretty much how my day was.  Several of us watching the one small TV we had in our office.  I too thought a Cessna had hit the building.  Then we saw the second one hit.  The boss came by and said " I hope y'all are getting your work done".  I was speechless with that comment.  Probably a good thing.   

I was in Chicago at the time. I was in the process of driving out to my office in the burbs and when I got in to the office, it was soooo quiet and everyone was just in disbelief. I was like what happened and my cube neighbor showed the headline on her computer. It was just a really weird place. Then everyone was like is Chicago next? Are they targeting the Sears Tower as well? My boss sent us all home.

I was living between the Chicago River and Sears Tower in the heart of downtown at the time. I got home and everyone was freaked out. A lot of people wouldn't go into their apartment and were gathering outside and along the lakeshore. My neighbors and I were all talking in the hall and it really didn't sink in yet. We all just knew this was going to be a really bad thing. There was an exodist from my building shortly after that. A lot of people moved north and out of downtown. It was a day and time I'll never forget. I remember in the weeks after just wanting to contribute somehow.