Where Were You When You First Heard About the 9/11 Tragedy?
Where Were You When You First Heard About the 9/11 Tragedy?
When certain cataclysmic events occur, and you first heard about or first saw them happen, then it is a function of our memories no matter how far back in our past to remember exactly where we were and everything around us at that moment. For example, although it was almost 58 years ago I can remember exactly that I was sitting about half way up in the centre of my law school lecture hall just between classes when a student (I can still see him in my mind's eye - a big guy with a handlebar mustache) came in from outside, went to the dias and announced and stunned the class about the assassination of JFK - a moment in time I will never forget.
On the morning of September 11, 2001 I had just driven my wife to her workplace in downtown Toronto for her 9 a.m. start of the day, then drove north on the quickest route home (I was already retired from my practice), which was Jarvis Street, which then became Mount Pleasant Avenue, and while I was in the dip of that road that occurs after passing Bloor Street the music I was listening to broke into a special announcement - that an airplane had just flown into one of the World Trade Center buildings. It was a shock - a vivid emotional instant. I immediately used the car phone to phone my wife to turn on the TV at the office and I raced home to turn on the TV and saw what was happening, Again, a moment in time I will never forget.
So WHERE WERE YOU when you first heard the news? Can you picture in your mind your surroundings at that moment?
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Surely I'm not alone in recalling in my mind's eye exactly where I was and what I felt when I first heard the news.
Evening Buzz...was heading for bed was nearly 11pm here...came on the tv and the second plane crashed into the other Tower..
I rang my brother said turn the tv on.. America is under attack. Then saw both towers fall and got to bed around 4am...had no sleep and listened to the radio till dawn..
Was heart broken for our friends across the Pacific..and could not believe what had happened..then the news of the other two planes came in...
The world changed on September the 11th...but we also saw the courage, determination, compassion of a country that was wounded, but pulling together...
In the darkest of times, humanity shone through..and we stand right beside you.
To the lost souls of all countries..
We remember you..to my fellow Aussies that were lost...We miss you..🇺🇲🇦🇺🥀
having my first cup of coffee watching don imus when the network broke away after the first plane hit. then while watching the live feed from a news helicopter, I watched the second plane hit. I continued watching until both towers came down. a colleague's son was working at the pentagon at the time and was slightly injured by that plane crash.
I was in Chicago (on vacation) with my two best friends. When I came out from taking a shower - it was on the news. Luckily it was a train trip (I hate to fly and don't plan to ever again) and we were stopping at Pittsburgh for a few days on the way back to Maryland. It goes without saying it really put a damper on our vacation.
I wonder if tomorrow, the members of this site can muster enough self-control to cause a hiatus, a moratorium on posting petty political articles/seeds for just one day as a sign of respect for the deceased and concern for the results of that tragic occurrence.
Do you really think haranguing people is "respect for the dead" ?
Thanks for your haranguing question.
OTOH-- what about some respect for the living?
The rest of us who have to constantly put up with those adolescent political proselytizing, juvenile political harangues, and personal attacks...?
ROFLMAO!
(
)
Oh Buzz-- you are such a silly goose!
Of course they can't... or won't.
Self-control.... ??? On a Social Media site????
I can almost guarantee that at LEAST one or two will attempt to make it somehow all about Trump.
Seen the movie before here.
Interesting that you just couldn't resist the temptation to mention Trump (hence a political comment) right after Buzz said:
I wonder if tomorrow, the members of this site can muster enough self-control to cause a hiatus, a moratorium on posting petty political articles/seeds for just one day.
A wise man Buzz is!
(Well, maybe he only gets part credit...after all he said "tomorrow"-- but you beat the predicted time frame!)
I guess I predicted that there were going to be some who cannot control their contrariness. I won't flag it as no value or off topic, but will let it remain as a label.
I guess I predicted that there were going to be some who cannot control their contrariness. I won't flag it as no value or off topic, but will let it remain as a label.
I used to think that all comments like that should be deleted. But lately I've been think more and more that some of those comments should not be deleted.
Heck-- if someone wants to publicl-y make a total a$$ of themselves -- why not let them?
Exactly.
It seems that trumpturd always makes it about trumpturd. Even on 9/11
The denial is strong . . .
Some folks do that on a daily basis! Also there is the whiny little bitch syndrome . . . .
And you, Texan, were the only one to bring up trumpturd.
Tess, those comments were not necessary, but since I did not delete Texan's I'll not delete yours as well.
[deleted]
LOL. I guess I'm the only one who had a comment deleted.
I was in my living room watching it happen live. I happened to have the TV on. I think I was watching the Today show or something and they just pointed a camera at the first tower, which was on fire already. At that moment, they just thought there was a regular fire happening. Then we watched the second plane slam into the other tower.
It took a moment for the people on TV to register that a plane had actually crashed into the building. I think they thought it was an explosion at first. As for me, I thought it was an insane accident. Back then, “terrorism” wasn’t a thing we readily considered.
The network people were slow to understand what had happened. While they were talking about maybe a small plane hitting the building , the damage that they were showing at the same time on the screen indicated, by the size of the hole and the fire , that is was far larger than a small plane. It was obvious from the first seconds that this was a major disaster and many people had been killed.
They were talking about maybe a small plane hitting the building
After all these years, that's one of the things I remember-- at first they were saying it was a small plane. Seemed strange-- wasn't it rush hour? The streets in that area must've been crowded... how come no one saw the plane hit? (Or maybe no one who saw it called the news media?).
BTW, I had friends who lived up in NY at the time. He was up in Boston on business. They lived 2 blocks from the WTC (in Battery Park City ). No one know what was going on, but after the first plane hit the staff in their bldg knocked on every door and told everyone to evacuate the building at once.
No time to think-- so she took her pocket book and keys, and her most valuable possession (her pet cat) took the elevator down and as she walked out the front door she actually saw the second plane hit. She (and the cat) were terrified!
I, too, thought the first plane was an accident, but when the second plane hit, it became something else.
Most people did.
At the time (starting at about 8:30 or so) I sat down at my computer to catch the early Stock market news before the open (Stock Market is open (9:30-4). At the time IIRC I was using a PC-- a '386. DOS-- not Windows,
So no graphics, no menus-- market news was lines of text scrolling down the screen. I was watching the Futures-- early reads on what people thought the market would do that day.
Then suddenly my friend Carol called. That was strange as we only called each other evenings. The first thing she said was
Is your TV on?
It wasn't, so she told me a plane hit the WTC. I didn't think much of it-- there are all sorts of idiots in the world, and that day one of them must've taken a plane up...and crashed it. Hopefully no bye-standers were hurt...but not really important.
Looked at my screen-- it mentioned a plane hit, then back to market news. (Futures didn't react at all to the news).
Shortly thereafter a single line of type:
Second plane hit the WTC.
Instant futures plummeted!
Then in a surprisingly short time thereafter then Pres, Bush announced it was a terror attack.
I had just picked up Egg McMuffins for my husband and myself when I heard the news. I must have ran every stop sign and light between McD's and home. I didn't even ask my husband if I could turn the channel. I just grabbed the remote and searched for the coverage. He knew something serious must have happened for me to turn off his John Wayne movie without asking plus the fact that I was white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf.
I was helping with hostile environment training for reporters. The private school I worked for had a farm and camp and once a month a company did that type of training there. That morning I picked them up at the motel in a bus and drove them into an ambush and kidnapping. That was realistic and scary for them. When I went back and told them, at first we had hard time convincing some it was not another training exercise.
I soon was very busy as they started having this training every week
I was just hitting a mnt pass summit on the way to a job site when i heard of the first plane finally got radio reception , got to the job site and then the second plane hit , bunch of us were standing around trying to make sense of what was going on and of course none of us could tell the other anything .
The job site boss pulled up and asked if anyone wanted to go home , a couple did , a couple decided to stay and do menial maint , he looked at me knowing i was the only military vet on the crew and quietly asked me what i thought .
I was looking up at the sky , noticing not a plane in sight , which to me was creepy , being where we were , was a major air corridor for that part of the state , you never not see a plane in the air .
I calmly looked at him and said i think today is the day that this country , this generation , has lost its innocence, today what happens in the rest of the world is now in our own back yards and its too close to home , today is this generations pearl harbor moment .
In retrospect , what happened that day has led us directly to whats happening today . the good , the bad and the ugly.
My next door neighbor in PA used to work on the 93rd floor of the north tower.
She was a pioneer IT person. black, gay, outspoken, but highly, highly valued by the company.
In 1993 when the tower was first bombed and disabled many of the lower elevators,
she and her team had to go down the steps through much smoke and some debris.
About half way down they were met and escorted by NYFD.
When it was safe to return she went to the blast site first and made up her mind to quit that day.
To the companies credit and foresight, they bought an office building in Teterboro NJ
and had her reproduce all of the space necessary to move their operations from floors 90 through 100
with duplicate computers, data storage etc. Should a similar incident ever arise in the future
They were a $17B international company making $3B per year and growing. They could afford the insurance.
When the circumstances were right for G and the company, she retired in 1998.
Her partner P continued to teach two blocks from the WTC.
No longer commuting together, G took P to the train in NJ every day and picked her up every evening.
On 9/11 at 8:45AM Flight 11 hit the North Tower at an angle killing every one from floor 93 to 99 almost instantly.
and eventually everyone up through 105 and the roof.
P was one of thousands without cell phone service that walked for hours that day in NYC and over the Brooklyn Bridge before
G was able to pick her up in NJ.
G's company lost 295 employees and 65 contractors that day.
The company was more or less back in business in less than a month in G's backup office.
Personally we lost two parents of my sons and daughters friends. Eventually they found one's wallet.
Another good friend who just started at the Pentagon survived because he went right when everyone else went left.
Hard to believe it's been 20 years.
The only person I knew who lost a friend or relative was the manager of the Sutton Place hotel in Toronto - he lost his son.
I didn't know anyone who was killed or injured in any of the attacks.
Nor anyone who was in any of the buildings involved or on those flights.
But I have known people who did know someone who died.
Another good friend who just started at the Pentagon survived because he went right when everyone else went left.
I remember that at the time there and for some time afterwards there were the so-called "(11 Truthers" who said 911 was a hoax-- never happened!
One of the rumours they tried to spread was that no plane ever hit The pentagon. (And to "prove" it they offered lots and lots of "facts".
Their attempts lasted for years-- but have pretty much died down.
He was moving into a new office on the outer ring when his attache asked why that plane was so close when
the air space is supposed to be restricted.
They looked for a few miliseconds before running down the halls in opposite directions banging on doors and yelling fire
He woke up because his arm was burning - he literally ripped his sleeve off his new Navy jacket.
I later saw pictures of him helping others outside in the parking lot.
These people were lucky too.
An untold story of escape from the Pentagon on 9/11 | PBS NewsHour
One of the conspiracy theories that was popular at the time was that no Plane ever actually hit the Pentagon. The so-called "Truthers" published all kinds of articles explaining why it was a hoax-- and how the government pulled it off.
Of course many people believed those conspiracy theories.
When it comes to believing (and repeating) conspiracy theories, I'll bet Americans are unbeatable. It must have something to do with the failures of the educational system, and it certainly has been accelerated by the social news media and the biased national media.
I had just finished a 12 hour patrol shift, walked in the front door and my wife was watching the coverage on the news. Moments after the second tower was hit, I was called back to duty and spent the next 12 hours providing airport security to insure that no airplanes left the airport.
I also remember that shortly thereafter there were numerous false rumours-- even photoshopped photos.
Perhaps the best know one was this one:
Its often referred to as "Tourist Guy"). It was widely circulated, and many ,many people believed it was real, but its a hoax.
Several people emailed it to me, lol.
(Has anyone here seen that?)
Evening Krishna.. yep did the rounds here...took one look and thought fake...
For those of you have a little time to read a story, this is a story about how the people of Gander, Newfoundland, handled the doubling of their population from the hundreds of planes that were redirected from landing in America, i.e. what Canadian hospitality is all about.
From the archives: 9/11 fear sent scores of jets to Canada
LINK:
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From The Archives: 9/11 Fear Sent Scores Of Jets To Canada
Buzz-- I actually remember reading that story at the time!
(After the initial shock wore off a bit, I spent hours reading about everything thathad just happened-- it was such an unusual occurance I wanted to understand it as best i could...and to know all the details).
A ceremony commemorating the 9/11 attacks takes place in Gander, N.L., Sept. 11, 2021. (CTV National News)
When 7000 passengers from multiple countries were forced to disembark to a town of 11,000 residents, Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, the hospitality shown them for a week will never be forgotten by many.
I have like 15ish photos of me and my friends, family members, and random motherfuckers who jumped into the pic., In front of the old WTC. in front of the SoL.
2 years later at 17 I enlisted to get revenge and fight my country's wars. At 35 I decided to enforce my country's laws.
LOCKED. Sorry, but I am no longer available to moderate.
I'm back. This article is unlocked for civil commentary.
Morning..glad all seems to have gone well as it can do with the 9/11 remembrances around the USA...
It is pouring rain here at the moment... perhaps it's is all the millions of tears that has been shed around the world since 9/11..
I think the world would have turned out to be a better place if they were tears of humbleness and humility instead of tears of anger and frustration.
Not tears of anger and frustration here..but of overwhelming sadness and heart break...for the souls around the world that have been lost..
I was working for an Israeli company, based in Tel Aviv. I was leading project meetings with people from Israel, Canada, East Coast in attendance in Northern California. I was heading into the office when I heard about 1st plane. When I reached the office, everyone was in conference room watching the news. Needless to say there wasn't a meeting that day or the next. Unfortunately out of towners could not get home due to flights cancelled. Some of us locals took people into our homes for several days until travel was resumed or they made arrangements to stay with friends/relatives. Some rented cars and drove to their homes in other states.
I just watched a 9/11 documentary on History channel, it still leaves me in shock and dismay.
Morning dragon ..yes I was watching a documentary here last night...still does not seem real..
And watching movies made before 9/11 showing the towers...
Would never imagine in a million years this would happen...
I watch a lot of movies, and when I do see one from before that shows the towers, it never fails to make me think about the tragedy.
I can't help but think how lucky I am when I recall being on the observation floor of the WTC tower myself, marvelling at the fantastic view of Manhattan, that such a thing did not happen when I was there. I'm still haunted by recalling images of people jumping from and falling from the higher floors.
After the attack there were many hoaxes going around. One that several people emailed me was the fake picture of "Tourist Guy" (Posted in comment #10, above) . Many people were sure it was real....
Your mentioning israel reminds me of another one that was also making the rounds at the time. It claimed that on 9/11, no Jews reported to work in the Twin Towers on that day. Why? Because (alledgedly) since "da Joos" were actually the ones behind 9/11, they were all tipped off in advance and stayed home!
Did you ever hear that one?
Anoon Krishna...that one did the rounds here too...until they found out how many Jewish people died along with Muslims and all the other religions..
Amazing the garbage some people dream up...and worse people who believe it..
It did jog my memory, but the hoax I do remember is that a bunch of Orthodox Jews danced while watching the towers burn.
until they found out how many Jewish people died along with Muslims and all the other religions.
In addition to rumours about the Jews being behind 9/11, I have also heard people insist that no Muslims died on 9/11.
(Unfortunately there are a lot of really nasty people on the planet...)
Yep-- that was another one.
Some people seem to have nothing better to do than to sit around concocting bizarre tales in order to demonize one race or religion or another.
(Heck, some of them even get elected to public office
.)
Never heard that one. The Israelis with me were devastated by the attack and contacting their families in Israel, they too were in grief over the attack. Canadians were also devastated and worried about an attack on their country. Everyone my meeting and those in countries I talked with in days that followed, were in disbelief over attack and all, every single one, had only prayers and hopes for America.
The grim side of recovery - pieces of people.
In the beginning we were told, assumed and believed that everything was pulverized to dust,
dust that billowed for days and days from the leveled buildings and the burning buildings around their base.
There were no desks, no furniture, no monitors or keyboards found. The 293 people whose bodies were found intact
were largely firefighters in the lowest floors of the north tower or immediately outside the exits.
Those 5 gallon paint buckets originally used to remove debris one bucket at a time
eventually collected 23,900 body parts. wallets, crushed jewelry.
There is still an ongoing investigation to identify 1,113 people.
That reminds me of another memory...
many peiople voluntered to give blood, to held the survivors. There was a vast outpouring of sympathy.
But the Red Cross soon requested people stop-- because there were few if any injured survivors in need of blood. Either people escaped safely-- or they didn't. And the ones who didn't escape all perished...
I was just getting ready to get out of bed (CA time) when the phone rang, it was Red who had flown into NYC the day before yelling into the phone, ''turn on the TV'' I turned on the tv just a second before the 2nd plane hit the tower. I remember saying to her why are you waking me up to watch a movie. It was then that I realized it was an attack on the US. My wife had flown into NYC the day before and was staying with her sister, that still rattles me every time I think of it.
We were a worldwide operation so the next week was a blur and I was on the phone 24/7 talking to all of our offices, we had many of our employees traveling and we were trying to track them down, get them hotel etc.
It was bedlam at work..I worked for Alcoa at the time so there were quite a few Americans here..
One in particular his brother worked at the Pentagon.. finally made contact with him etc..he was ok very shook up as he had to climb over desks and rubble etc to get out. Was not far from where the plane hit.. very lucky...
So glad your wife was there the day before..so many people would be counting their blessings not been on the planes or in the Towers on that horrendous day..
As I mentioned in comment 3. 1. 2., above a friend of mine was told by staff to evacuate her bldg -- and see saw the second plane hit-- from up close! And that her husband was away on business in Boston.
As I remem-ber, all civil flights were cancelled for a few days. The day they started up he phoned her and said he'd be on the next flight back to NY.
She said "Are you crazy-- after 4 planes were just hijacked by terrorists? Can't you just take the train?"
He replied that being on a commercial plane at that moment was probably one of the safest places in the world. After those hijackings, beefed up airport security checks would be very, very thorough indeed!
Ironically I was on a military training exercise, we all thought it was BS so they had us pack up our shit and hop back into our trucks to head back to base. Wasn't until we got back and saw it on a tv that I had "holy shit this is real" moment
I was at home getting read to head into the office, when my assistant called from her train and told me to turn on the TV. It was horrific. I was enraged. I couldn't even sit down. My assistant called again a few minutes later and asked if she could go home instead of coming in to work. I told her she could. I also called my parents and told them to turn on the TV.
Based on what had been occurring, the African embassy bombings in 1998 and the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, I knew right away that it was al Qaeda.
I don't think I have ever been angrier about anything than the 9/11 attack. At one point that morning, I don't remember exactly when, but maybe it was the second plane into the tower or when the first tower fell, I screamed out in anger so forcefully that my poor cat, who was standing behind me, ran and hid under the dining room table. I immediately went to let him know that I wasn't mad at him.
I stayed infuriated for days.
The night we found out that Osama bin Laden had been brought to justice, we were visiting Boston and had walked the Freedom Trail that day. I thought that was very fitting.
I remember those-- and several others at the time.
But what I find ironic is when people refer to the 9/11 Attack on the WTC. As if it was the only one!
Actually, 9/11 was the second al-Qaeda attack on the WTC.
Most people have forgotten (or maybe never knew about) the first al-Qaeda attack on the WTC. It was way back in February of...1993!!!
Who was responsible? Al Qaeda.
(It was only "partially successful". "Only" 6 were killed, and there were "only" 1000 injured. But if at first ya don't succeed, try and try again ...).
It's seeded here:
Lessons Of First (1993) WTC Bombing Went Unheeded
You are absolutely correct.
On 9/11 I had been taking people to Logan Airport all morning. It was the second year of a fairly good business - up until that point. We had about 40 reservations for the morning that day. Once the news came in, I had to pull over and I began thinking about all those people I took in and where they went. I had two phones blazing away and I didn't feel like working but I had to keep going. I think we had a few that went on the American flight. The only one that went to United was one of the ones I took in. I recall her telling me that the flight wasn't going to LAX but to a secondary CA airport. Maybe that saved her.
Interesting story.
I've heard a few about people who were saved by unusual circumstances. Some who worked in the Twin Towers and who were never late to work-- but who were delayed in getting to work that day. A few cases of people who almost never got sick but got a terrible cold that day and finally decided to take a day off. Etc., etc.
I was sitting on the USS John F Kennedy waiting to get underway for routine ops on the Caribbean when we were watching the whole thing go down in CDC.
Instead of the Caribbean, we went off the coast of North/South Carolina doing air defense. I was surreal to look at a radar screen for days and not see any commercial aircraft in a corridor where there are normally hundreds of aircraft every day. Only thing flying were our aircraft and other fighters flying out of Norfolk.
They went to Canada instead. I posted a link for an article about the hospitality the travellers received there.
I was living in farmhouse in a "holler" in West Virginia. It was a short-term rental, so we hadn't bothered to get satellite TV, and cable wasn't available. The clinic where I worked had late hours on Tuesday, so I was still at home. My mom called to let me know. She knew I didn't have TV, and probably didn't know what was going on. A few minutes later, the power went out. Near where I worked, there is a gas transmission station that had been determined was a likely target for terrorists, as it provides natural gas to a large portion of the eastern seaboard. My immediate fear was that it had been hit, but of course it hadn't. The power outage was just a scary coincidence.
Then you're probably one of very few who didn't watch it unfold as it was happening.
Yes. Internet didn't really support video then, so all I could see were still shots. There were TVs at the clinic, and we gathered around them to watch there, but only between patients.
Near where I worked, there is a gas transmission station that had been determined was a likely target for terrorists, as it provides natural gas to a large portion of the eastern seaboard. My immediate fear was that it had been hit, but of course it hadn't. The power outage was just a scary coincidence.
Something I remember well: as horrible as the attacks on 911 were, many people had another fear-- that the attacks that day were just the beginning! That 911 would be followed by continuous severe attacks every day!
Did anyone wonder what would have happened if they had aimed for Three Mile Island?
TMI was largely disabled by that time. There was some radioactive iodine water in the plant (I think) but it wouldn't have done much damage
I was working in High Point that day. One of the guys had a radio playing they broke in to say an airplane had hit the WTC. Didn't say a jumbo jet, sounded like they meant a Cessna or something. A few minutes later the second plane hit, pretty much brought the whole job to a stop. We all gathered around the radio listening.
When the planes struck NYC I was on assigned to Fort Bragg, NC. On leave to care for my wife who just had surgery. When the plane struck the Pentagon I was on the phone with my unit as they cancelled my leave. By noon I was back at my unit on Fort Bragg preparing to set up armed checkpoints and patrols throughout the community. It was a long 36 hours later before I could call and check on my wife. Luckily my sister in law was there to help.
I've lost friends in the Pentagon. I've lost friends in Afghanistan. And I've lost friends upon returning from combat.
I was at work. They let us go home since nobody was about to concentrate on anything. I went straight to the gas station and filled my tank up. Like clockwork, the evening news aired stories about widespread price gouging at the gas stations. Americans will take advantage of any tragedy for a quick buck.
I am having so much trouble remembering names, I have to look at face book and then remind myself that just because Dave isn't a member, I should not reveal too much about him personally.
Suffice it to say that on 9/11/2001 he was flying his typical early morning Philly to Los Angeles flight.
Flight crew had already expressed concerns about a large group of ME men on the flight.
About 1/2 way into the flight Dave started getting the messages to divert to the closest appropriate airfield.
An F16 pulled alongside and they signed to get on a common frequency to talk.
That's how Dave found out about the attacks. He let St Louis know he was coming in and had suspicious passengers.
They deplaned normally but with an obvious increased and increasing law enforcement presence.
The ME group coalesced for a few moments and then went in groups of 4 in different directions.
Some disappeared. Others were eventually stopped and every one of them had a box cutter, thousands in cash and false IDs.
Been looking to see what ever happened to the one's they caught, can't find it.
Dave kept flying for a few years until he could retire from the AF Reserves and the carrier he worked for.
OMG. That could have been another tragedy.
The original planner intended to have hijacked 10 flights with at least 25 hijackers.
The people he suspected of getting cold feet completed their "missions"...
most of the rest slipped away...
They apparently didn't foresee problems with different time zones or adjust their schedules accordingly.
Basic math errors may have kept the hijackers from doing to LA what was done in NYC.
I was on the road that day with a co-worker. We had to do some dome inspections at water treatment plants. The first WTP we got to one of our sampling techs came out and asked if us if we had heard. We didn't have the radio on, so no. We go into the office and we see it on the TV. Then they announced the Pentagon had been hit. I think that shook me more than the towers. We got back in the car after finishing up there and went to the next site. This time we kept the radio on. All the while I was looking for mushroom clouds. We got our shit done, got back to the office and I went home. Mr Giggles went immediately on alert when the first tower was struck so I didn't talk to him all day until he got home late that night. We were living on base and as I was driving to the gate I saw a humvee with what looked like a .50 caliber pointing right at the cars coming in. I told the kids to shut up and keep quiet until we got home.
I was in Iowa, conducting an examination.
...and? Don't be shy. A physical examination? An academic examination? What were your surroundings? What were your feelings?