My sister's maid of honor, who I knew since middle school, was in one of the towers. Her husband used the money awards to fund scholarships for my sister's kids.
On 9/11, I was involved in hostile environment training for reporters. The private school I worked for was providing site for a training group and I was handling it for school. That morning I had picked up a bus load of reporters and driven them into an ambush and fake kidnapping. When I came back to park bus there was nobody around and I heard about it on radio that was playing in maintenance shop.
On 9/11, I was involved in hostile environment training for reporters.
Seems like a sort of appropriate coincidence!
I remember that at first people were unsure if this was an isolated attack, a one time thing, or the beginning of a shooting war against the U.S.-- one which might involve an actual invasion of the U.S.! (Or at least a ground attack by "hostiles" who had infiltrated.
It was kinda weird, we had been doing this for a while and I was having fun, like playing army or Cowboys and Indians as a kid and getting paid for it and then going drinking afterwards. Drinking with reporters and retired British Marines was fun, suddenly this shit was serious.
Is anyone capable of forgetting anything about that occurance? I had just driven my wife to work and was returning home - I remember exactly where I was, driving north on Toronto's Mount Pleasant Avenue in the dip just north of Bloor Street when the progam I was listening to broke for the news announcement. I called my wife (I had a car phone then) and told her about it, to find a TV somewhere. I got home and turned on the TV and was in time to see live the second plane hit the second tower. I was shocked. How it affected my life must be obvious from a lot of the articles I post - my appreciation of Gatestone Institute and my disparaging of SPLC. Need I say more about that?
Although I didn't know anyone closely involved in any way, I did kinow the father of one of the victims in the WTC.
I was sitting at home on my computer. On weekdays I tried to be online at 8 AM or 8:30 at the latest-- to catch the stock market news before the open. At the time I was a trader (self-employed, working for myself).
One of the sites I watched was set up as a news ticker-- just lines of type going across the screen. For example: "S&P Futures are down 1/2 of a percent. Oil production has increased in S Arabia for the second week in a row. Microsoft will report earnings on Thursday. Congress will be starting to debate..." etc.
Then there was one line that a plane had crashed into one tower of the World Trade Center. Interestingly, I had thought something like "Well, there's an idiot born every day"..or "the pilot must be drinking" . And there was no reaction other than that announcement...everyone thought it was some sort of strange accident.
But shortly thereafter there was one line saying a second plane hit. Then I (and probably everyone else) knew it wasn't an accident. Very shortly thereafter (a few minutes IIRC?) Pres. Bush came on and stated these were terror attacks!
Although I didn't know anyone closely involved in any way, I did know the father of one of the victims in the WTC.
I didn't know any of the victims or even their families. But I did know some friends, this couple who did know some.
They lived at Battery Park City-- an upscale group of apartments part of which was only a block or so away from the WTC. He was a stock broker (but only to clients of "high net worth" and a;so traded for large institutions. (He traded YUGE blocks of stocks for them). She was an interior decorator but was also into some of the "mystical" pursuits I was interested in.
When the first plane hit, the building staff went around telling people to evacuatate the building. She grabbed her keys and her most valuable possession (her cat!) and was walking out of the bldg when she actually saw the second plane hit-- from 1 1/2 blocks away!
He was up in Boston on business and flew back IIRC two days or so later (He was the only passenger). . He knew several people who worked in brokerage houses in the WTC.
He was up in Boston on business and flew back IIRC two days or so later (He was the only passenger).
There's an interesting story about that. When he told his wife he was returning to NY by plane-- right after 4 planes had been hijacked by terrorists a few days earlier-- all on the same day-- and 3000 people were killed- she told him that was crazy-- that he should either drive or take the train.
He replied that being on a commercial airliner at the moment was probably the safest place in the world at that moment. (Because after what happened, you could be sure that airline security was then perhaps the tightest security in the world!!).
The airlines had decided to resume normal service. But of course most people were now afraid of flying. So-- aside from the flight attendants and the pilots-- he was the only one ofnthe plane!
I think that in order to set straight those who don't like Canada or Canadians, besides the "Canadian" Caper that rescued American diplomats from being incarcerated hostages in Iran, the hospitality shown to Americans along with travellers from around the world by the Canadians when flights were diverted to Canada due to 9/11 is well documented in this SNOPES article (indicated to be TRUE ):
Having read that article, I promise I will never tell another "Newfie" joke - it makes me proud of my fellow Canadians.
I've told the story here before, but my brother got out of the north tower with a few minutes to spare.
Wow-- a close call. (As I remember there were a lot of official foulups that day. For example, IIRC at first people were told that there was no need to evacuate...
Later that same day Donald J Trump gleefully bragged that he now owned the tallest building in NYC. No surprise that he lied about that too.
If other presidents had said something like that it would be shocking. But with Trump its definitely in character.
Was it today that he said the the Federal response to that horrible hurricane in Puerto Rico was excellent. Not just "adequate"-- he claimed it was exceptional. (Anyone who'd been folloowing developmwents of that story know what he said is false-- in fact the repsonse was exactly the opposite!
Same here. The loss of innocent lives that day in all events was truly heartbreaking. Young, old and in between. Both in the air and on the ground.
No matter who instigated it, it proved that no matter how powerful our country is, we are still vulnerable to attack by our enemies right here on our own soil. We should never become so complacent as to think we are untouchable. From both outside our country, and from within, where we are seriously the most vulnerable today.
I had just finished up breakfast for my one year old son .. grabbed my coffee and turned on the TV, as my phone rang at 6:47 am - it was my mom asking if I had my TV on … at the same time she was telling me a plane hit the World Trade Center - my TV was coming on and showing me what she was telling me..
I was dumbfounded could not figure out how an airliner could be so off course - For a moment, a brief moment, I remember thinking this has to be a joke … I woke up my oldest son for school, walked back in the living room seconds before the second plane hit … Ashley Banfield stands out so vividly in my mind .. she was my connection to what was happening, I guess..
It took me several days to get ahold of a buddy of mine, he and his twin brother were firemen in different houses .. his brother lost his life when the first tower came down .. ultimately both of them lost their lives because of 9/11 ...
I did nothing that day outside of taking care of my children .. I could not turn away from what was happening in NYC..
I do not think I knew what else to do, I could not help - the television was as close as I could get, all I could do was send love and hugs to NYC..
Over the years .. I have come to realize that my memories of that day are in slow motion - perhaps it is how my mind processed those first moments of pure shock... the horror, disbelief and grief for the loss of innocents was a tidal wave soon to follow
Evening..Sitting in the lounge watching the TV 10.45pm at night here in Victoria, Australia.....Suddenly there was a new flash and the towers came on..one was already on fire etc and I saw the other plane hit the second tower...I was so shocked..rang my brother and said America was under attack and turn on the TV..the rest they say is history..Never to be forgotten and Sept 11th will go down in history, as the day the world stood still...in total disbelief.
I was at work and went into the lunch room when the first tower had been hit. We all thought it was just a terrible accident, until the second tower was hit. Then we knew it was an intentional attack.
I was working at a transportation logistics company (brokerage for truckloads, flatbeds, ltl's, and expedites). We were pretty cut off from everything- restricted internet access to non work related sites. A real rat race job where the phones were always ringing off the hook.
Found out the first plane had hit when customers called in canceling their pickups and deliveries for the day in NY. Everyone thought it was an accident- pilot error. Then all of the carriers started to call in after the second plane hit that they were suspending operations along the entire east coast. Everything shut down.
One customer that was in NY, not too far from the WTC, kindly kept us informed of what was going on. They were stuck at work. The roads heading out were completely jammed. His company told all employees to stay at work- even if operations were suspended.
That is what I remember the most- the panic as everything shut down almost instantly.
Doing annual qualification trg on the base, specifically I believe we were in a NBCW theory class. Honestly we at first thought the instructors were pulling our legs to make the trg more realistic until more people started confirming it and we were sent back to our units.
How has it effected your life?
It resulted in me deploying to Afghanistan 3 times (which I enjoyed) and it made crossing the US/Canada border a much bigger pain in the a**
I was in the field that day doing water system assistance. We got to the first water system and found out what happened. We didn't have the radio on in the car so we had no idea. I got really scared and knew we were under attack and was just waiting for bombs to drop.
It all got too real when I got home that night (we lived on base) and there was a 50 cal rifle aimed at the traffic coming in. And then it was 100% ID check all the time coming in the base and they got rid of the windshield stickers. Those stickers were identifiers to terrorists. I'm glad they got rid of them because I had a bit of a scare during the First Gulf War because of that gd sticker. The kids were little and didn't understand what was going on.
Rather than going to the Ft. I had a meeting downtown that day. On the way to Falls Church I heard of both towers being hit. I drove right past the Pentagon on it's south side to catch 395 S for my exit to 7. The Pentagon had not been hit yet.
There is a DoD facility in Fall Church near the border of Alexandria. It is called Skyline. A lot of under ground parking. By the time I got to the office in Sky 3 the Pentagon had been hit. The Pentagon was a few miles to the North of us, but from our vantage point we could not see the smoke.
A fella had a tv and we watched the towers collapse.
Soon we heard a boom that rattled the building. We continued watching TV and tried to get some things accomplished. I am going to say, it was 20 minutes later when we heard a second boom.
The entire complex was told to evacuate.
So we are all walking downstairs. Elevators were locked out like in a fire condition.
The parking area was vacating to nowhere fast. I thought, not for me and walked out across the street and waited for the parking to clear and give a hand here and there setting road blocks with the FD folks.
At this time the smoke rising from the burning Pentagon was clearly visible. A continuous good size rising stream of black smoke.
Eventually the parking area under the Skyline complex cleared out. I walked back across the street and down into parking. Found my little 4x4 pickup waiting for me and took the long way home.
The next day getting into the Ft was next to impossible to get into the usual gate with 100% ID checks and 100% car checks.
I was then went to a rarely used back gate and got right in. I had to use that gate for a long time. A LOT of people got in trouble when flashing secure ID at that gate.
For the longest time the skies were quiet. No aircraft except for the occaisonal NG F16.
Speaking of F16s, they are what caused the booms resulting in our evacuation of Skyline. I saw one kind of up close and in person while waiting parking to clear at Skyline. I would liked to have been a back seater if he had a back seat.
He came in fairly hot right after an AF Huey arrived to take a look around. This guy in the F16 pitched his nose up, almost vertical and positioned himself right next to that Huey. This guy in the F16 has that bird of prey pretty much standing on it's tail talking to the Huey pilot and investigating the Skyline situation as they both take a lap around the place.
Everything looked good, he laid the nose of that Falcon down and Boom he was at the Capitol in an instant. I will remember that for a while.
Rather than going to the Ft. I had a meeting downtown that day. On the way to Falls Church I heard of both towers being hit. I drove right past the Pentagon on it's south side to catch 395 S for my exit to 7. The Pentagon had not been hit yet.
That reminds me of one rather indirect contact I had re: the plane hitting the Pentagon.
Of course the conspiracy nutcases (The so-called "truthers") insisted that no plane ever hit the Pentagon.
Shortly thereafter I remember reading numerous articles they wrote giving lots of "facts" proving their case. Of course all those "facts" were not true facts but rather "alternative facts" (AKA total lies) . . . if anyone is is interested, here's an excellent article on the subject: Was the 9/11 Pentagon Attack Faked?
I am quite familiar with Washington D.C. and nearby Virginia. The Pentagon lies very close to two roadways: I395 and South Washington Blvd. The weather was clear-- and the Pentagon was hit during rush hour.
My cousin is a respected acupuncturist who lives in Maryland (just North of the District line). One of her patients in Virginia was driving up to see her that day...and drove right by the Pentagon. She actually saw the plane crash into the building! (She discussed that experience with my cousin who told me about it).
Just more evidence re: just how nutty these conspiracy nutcases are!!!
The way I would typically go in the mornings during good traffic was to take the GW Parkway S from 495 after the American Legion Bridge (Cabin John Bridge) and take an exit to the West (right) at the north end of North Pentagon parking. Stay to the right and next thing I was on 395 heading S.
So, actually I got views of the north, west and south sides on the Pentagon.
Going home I usually went the other direction on 7 though Baileys Cross Roads and fenangled (my coined word) my way to 123 and then some more back roads where I caught 193 right at an entrance back to 495 headed back into Maryland.
I had just got out of the shower and was getting dressed for work, turned on the tv and....wow. Second plane hit about a minute after I started watching. Pretty horrifying. I woke the wife up, (x-wife now). I got to work, but no one was doing much but sitting around a radio. After about an hour, the plant manager shut the plant down, (450 employees), sent everyone home.
I actually thought about calling my buddy who was still in the Marines, (Major at the time), to see if he needed me.
I was in my car headed to the Trolley station near my home when I heard the news of the first plane hit. Then I was on the Trolley headed to work when I heard of the second plane hit. It was damned scary listening to the reporting on the radio in both places, as it sounded like war had been declared against the US. When I got to work there were more reports and the devastation was very hard to digest all at once.
Slowly the reality of what happened began to sink in. The loss of life. The destruction. All beyond the believable imagination. Then the most unbelievable part when the buildings began to melt and collapse on themselves, still filled with people.
It serves to remind us just how vulnerable we really are, no matter how big and powerful our military may be. We are no less at risk than any other country, even though we may like to think so.
I was @ a worksite on Lake Maxinkuckee in Indiana installing a major landscape. I had just signed off on a delivery of pavers for the custom driveway. I turned on NPR and sat in the truck and listened. I had three crews of guys, all Mexican, who started to huddle around the door and ask me what was going on. I speak 'work' Spanish and it was extremely hard for me to tell them what was happening. I used my broken Spanish and hand signals and we all stood around freaking out for a few minutes. One of the property owners, the wife, came out of the house hysterical and I snapped out of it. I helped her call her daughter, who was already on her way.
I called in and my boss insisted that we stay on the job even though my guys and I wanted to go home. We worked until dark that day, with the truck radios on the whole time. As the news came in of the towers falling, I told my guys the best I could.
We had a 90 minute drive back and along the way saw the panic, the gas gouging, the grocery stores packed. I didn't SEE what happened until I got home after 11 PM that night. I sat there in shock. That is one of the few times that I had to take a sleeping pill so I could go back to work @ 6.
I keep all of my car radios tuned to NPR since then.
I was at home. I worked in a clinic that had late hours on Tuesdays, so I didn't need to be at work for a few hours yet. We didn't have cable or satellite at the time, so no TV, and I didn't listen to the radio much, either. My mom called, because she knew I probably hadn't heard yet.
A few minutes later, the power went out.
There was a gas transmission station near the clinic that supplies gas to a fair bit of the East coast, and we were told when we moved there that it had been ID'd as a terror target because of that. My first thought was that it had been hit, but it was just a coincidence. Got my attention, though.
The clinic did have satellite, so we watched as much as we could while at work.
I'm sure you're being much harder on yourself than you should. I don't know how one ever comes to terms with something like that, but to the extent that anybody can, I hope you can.
I also knew my cousin and old college friend were right across the street in the Prudential Building. I was not sure if they were alive. My friend actually lived on Gold Street at the time. They moved within 4 months of it happening.
I had just made a McMuffin run when the first tower got hit. The 5 minute drive home seemed to take forever. Watching it unfold, I became sick to my stomach and the McMuffins went into the trash.
Did anyone know anyone directly involved-- victims, first responders, etc?
My sister's maid of honor, who I knew since middle school, was in one of the towers. Her husband used the money awards to fund scholarships for my sister's kids.
On 9/11, I was involved in hostile environment training for reporters. The private school I worked for was providing site for a training group and I was handling it for school. That morning I had picked up a bus load of reporters and driven them into an ambush and fake kidnapping. When I came back to park bus there was nobody around and I heard about it on radio that was playing in maintenance shop.
I was very busy with this project for a long time
Seems like a sort of appropriate coincidence!
I remember that at first people were unsure if this was an isolated attack, a one time thing, or the beginning of a shooting war against the U.S.-- one which might involve an actual invasion of the U.S.! (Or at least a ground attack by "hostiles" who had infiltrated.
It was kinda weird, we had been doing this for a while and I was having fun, like playing army or Cowboys and Indians as a kid and getting paid for it and then going drinking afterwards. Drinking with reporters and retired British Marines was fun, suddenly this shit was serious.
Is anyone capable of forgetting anything about that occurance? I had just driven my wife to work and was returning home - I remember exactly where I was, driving north on Toronto's Mount Pleasant Avenue in the dip just north of Bloor Street when the progam I was listening to broke for the news announcement. I called my wife (I had a car phone then) and told her about it, to find a TV somewhere. I got home and turned on the TV and was in time to see live the second plane hit the second tower. I was shocked. How it affected my life must be obvious from a lot of the articles I post - my appreciation of Gatestone Institute and my disparaging of SPLC. Need I say more about that?
Although I didn't know anyone closely involved in any way, I did kinow the father of one of the victims in the WTC.
I was sitting at home on my computer. On weekdays I tried to be online at 8 AM or 8:30 at the latest-- to catch the stock market news before the open. At the time I was a trader (self-employed, working for myself).
One of the sites I watched was set up as a news ticker-- just lines of type going across the screen. For example: "S&P Futures are down 1/2 of a percent. Oil production has increased in S Arabia for the second week in a row. Microsoft will report earnings on Thursday. Congress will be starting to debate..." etc.
Then there was one line that a plane had crashed into one tower of the World Trade Center. Interestingly, I had thought something like "Well, there's an idiot born every day"..or "the pilot must be drinking" . And there was no reaction other than that announcement...everyone thought it was some sort of strange accident.
But shortly thereafter there was one line saying a second plane hit. Then I (and probably everyone else) knew it wasn't an accident. Very shortly thereafter (a few minutes IIRC?) Pres. Bush came on and stated these were terror attacks!
Although I didn't know anyone closely involved in any way, I did know the father of one of the victims in the WTC.
I didn't know any of the victims or even their families. But I did know some friends, this couple who did know some.
They lived at Battery Park City-- an upscale group of apartments part of which was only a block or so away from the WTC. He was a stock broker (but only to clients of "high net worth" and a;so traded for large institutions. (He traded YUGE blocks of stocks for them). She was an interior decorator but was also into some of the "mystical" pursuits I was interested in.
When the first plane hit, the building staff went around telling people to evacuatate the building. She grabbed her keys and her most valuable possession (her cat!) and was walking out of the bldg when she actually saw the second plane hit-- from 1 1/2 blocks away!
He was up in Boston on business and flew back IIRC two days or so later (He was the only passenger). . He knew several people who worked in brokerage houses in the WTC.
He was up in Boston on business and flew back IIRC two days or so later (He was the only passenger).
There's an interesting story about that. When he told his wife he was returning to NY by plane-- right after 4 planes had been hijacked by terrorists a few days earlier-- all on the same day-- and 3000 people were killed- she told him that was crazy-- that he should either drive or take the train.
He replied that being on a commercial airliner at the moment was probably the safest place in the world at that moment. (Because after what happened, you could be sure that airline security was then perhaps the tightest security in the world!!).
The airlines had decided to resume normal service. But of course most people were now afraid of flying. So-- aside from the flight attendants and the pilots-- he was the only one ofnthe plane!
I think that in order to set straight those who don't like Canada or Canadians, besides the "Canadian" Caper that rescued American diplomats from being incarcerated hostages in Iran, the hospitality shown to Americans along with travellers from around the world by the Canadians when flights were diverted to Canada due to 9/11 is well documented in this SNOPES article (indicated to be TRUE ):
Having read that article, I promise I will never tell another "Newfie" joke - it makes me proud of my fellow Canadians.
Lol Buzz how could anyone not like us, we're awesome!
I've told the story here before, but my brother got out of the north tower with a few minutes to spare.
Later that same day Donald J Trump gleefully bragged that he now owned the tallest building in NYC. No surprise that he lied about that too.
Glad your brother survived
Me too.
Me, also
I agree.
Same here. The loss of innocent lives that day in all events was truly heartbreaking. Young, old and in between. Both in the air and on the ground.
No matter who instigated it, it proved that no matter how powerful our country is, we are still vulnerable to attack by our enemies right here on our own soil. We should never become so complacent as to think we are untouchable. From both outside our country, and from within, where we are seriously the most vulnerable today.
I had just finished up breakfast for my one year old son .. grabbed my coffee and turned on the TV, as my phone rang at 6:47 am - it was my mom asking if I had my TV on … at the same time she was telling me a plane hit the World Trade Center - my TV was coming on and showing me what she was telling me..
I was dumbfounded could not figure out how an airliner could be so off course - For a moment, a brief moment, I remember thinking this has to be a joke … I woke up my oldest son for school, walked back in the living room seconds before the second plane hit … Ashley Banfield stands out so vividly in my mind .. she was my connection to what was happening, I guess..
It took me several days to get ahold of a buddy of mine, he and his twin brother were firemen in different houses .. his brother lost his life when the first tower came down .. ultimately both of them lost their lives because of 9/11 ...
I did nothing that day outside of taking care of my children .. I could not turn away from what was happening in NYC..
I had the same experience....
I do not think I knew what else to do, I could not help - the television was as close as I could get, all I could do was send love and hugs to NYC..
Over the years .. I have come to realize that my memories of that day are in slow motion - perhaps it is how my mind processed those first moments of pure shock... the horror, disbelief and grief for the loss of innocents was a tidal wave soon to follow
Evening..Sitting in the lounge watching the TV 10.45pm at night here in Victoria, Australia.....Suddenly there was a new flash and the towers came on..one was already on fire etc and I saw the other plane hit the second tower...I was so shocked..rang my brother and said America was under attack and turn on the TV..the rest they say is history..Never to be forgotten and Sept 11th will go down in history, as the day the world stood still...in total disbelief.
I was at work and went into the lunch room when the first tower had been hit. We all thought it was just a terrible accident, until the second tower was hit. Then we knew it was an intentional attack.
I was working at a transportation logistics company (brokerage for truckloads, flatbeds, ltl's, and expedites). We were pretty cut off from everything- restricted internet access to non work related sites. A real rat race job where the phones were always ringing off the hook.
Found out the first plane had hit when customers called in canceling their pickups and deliveries for the day in NY. Everyone thought it was an accident- pilot error. Then all of the carriers started to call in after the second plane hit that they were suspending operations along the entire east coast. Everything shut down.
One customer that was in NY, not too far from the WTC, kindly kept us informed of what was going on. They were stuck at work. The roads heading out were completely jammed. His company told all employees to stay at work- even if operations were suspended.
That is what I remember the most- the panic as everything shut down almost instantly.
Doing annual qualification trg on the base, specifically I believe we were in a NBCW theory class. Honestly we at first thought the instructors were pulling our legs to make the trg more realistic until more people started confirming it and we were sent back to our units.
It resulted in me deploying to Afghanistan 3 times (which I enjoyed) and it made crossing the US/Canada border a much bigger pain in the a**
I was in the field that day doing water system assistance. We got to the first water system and found out what happened. We didn't have the radio on in the car so we had no idea. I got really scared and knew we were under attack and was just waiting for bombs to drop.
It all got too real when I got home that night (we lived on base) and there was a 50 cal rifle aimed at the traffic coming in. And then it was 100% ID check all the time coming in the base and they got rid of the windshield stickers. Those stickers were identifiers to terrorists. I'm glad they got rid of them because I had a bit of a scare during the First Gulf War because of that gd sticker. The kids were little and didn't understand what was going on.
Rather than going to the Ft. I had a meeting downtown that day. On the way to Falls Church I heard of both towers being hit. I drove right past the Pentagon on it's south side to catch 395 S for my exit to 7. The Pentagon had not been hit yet.
There is a DoD facility in Fall Church near the border of Alexandria. It is called Skyline. A lot of under ground parking. By the time I got to the office in Sky 3 the Pentagon had been hit. The Pentagon was a few miles to the North of us, but from our vantage point we could not see the smoke.
A fella had a tv and we watched the towers collapse.
Soon we heard a boom that rattled the building. We continued watching TV and tried to get some things accomplished. I am going to say, it was 20 minutes later when we heard a second boom.
The entire complex was told to evacuate.
So we are all walking downstairs. Elevators were locked out like in a fire condition.
The parking area was vacating to nowhere fast. I thought, not for me and walked out across the street and waited for the parking to clear and give a hand here and there setting road blocks with the FD folks.
At this time the smoke rising from the burning Pentagon was clearly visible. A continuous good size rising stream of black smoke.
Eventually the parking area under the Skyline complex cleared out. I walked back across the street and down into parking. Found my little 4x4 pickup waiting for me and took the long way home.
The next day getting into the Ft was next to impossible to get into the usual gate with 100% ID checks and 100% car checks.
I was then went to a rarely used back gate and got right in. I had to use that gate for a long time. A LOT of people got in trouble when flashing secure ID at that gate.
For the longest time the skies were quiet. No aircraft except for the occaisonal NG F16.
Speaking of F16s, they are what caused the booms resulting in our evacuation of Skyline. I saw one kind of up close and in person while waiting parking to clear at Skyline. I would liked to have been a back seater if he had a back seat.
He came in fairly hot right after an AF Huey arrived to take a look around. This guy in the F16 pitched his nose up, almost vertical and positioned himself right next to that Huey. This guy in the F16 has that bird of prey pretty much standing on it's tail talking to the Huey pilot and investigating the Skyline situation as they both take a lap around the place.
Everything looked good, he laid the nose of that Falcon down and Boom he was at the Capitol in an instant. I will remember that for a while.
That reminds me of one rather indirect contact I had re: the plane hitting the Pentagon.
Of course the conspiracy nutcases (The so-called "truthers") insisted that no plane ever hit the Pentagon.
Shortly thereafter I remember reading numerous articles they wrote giving lots of "facts" proving their case. Of course all those "facts" were not true facts but rather "alternative facts" (AKA total lies) . . . if anyone is is interested, here's an excellent article on the subject: Was the 9/11 Pentagon Attack Faked?
I am quite familiar with Washington D.C. and nearby Virginia. The Pentagon lies very close to two roadways: I395 and South Washington Blvd. The weather was clear-- and the Pentagon was hit during rush hour.
My cousin is a respected acupuncturist who lives in Maryland (just North of the District line). One of her patients in Virginia was driving up to see her that day...and drove right by the Pentagon. She actually saw the plane crash into the building! (She discussed that experience with my cousin who told me about it).
Just more evidence re: just how nutty these conspiracy nutcases are!!!
I don't know what those nut cases are all about.
The way I would typically go in the mornings during good traffic was to take the GW Parkway S from 495 after the American Legion Bridge (Cabin John Bridge) and take an exit to the West (right) at the north end of North Pentagon parking. Stay to the right and next thing I was on 395 heading S.
So, actually I got views of the north, west and south sides on the Pentagon.
Going home I usually went the other direction on 7 though Baileys Cross Roads and fenangled (my coined word) my way to 123 and then some more back roads where I caught 193 right at an entrance back to 495 headed back into Maryland.
I had just got out of the shower and was getting dressed for work, turned on the tv and....wow. Second plane hit about a minute after I started watching. Pretty horrifying. I woke the wife up, (x-wife now). I got to work, but no one was doing much but sitting around a radio. After about an hour, the plant manager shut the plant down, (450 employees), sent everyone home.
I actually thought about calling my buddy who was still in the Marines, (Major at the time), to see if he needed me.
I was in my car headed to the Trolley station near my home when I heard the news of the first plane hit. Then I was on the Trolley headed to work when I heard of the second plane hit. It was damned scary listening to the reporting on the radio in both places, as it sounded like war had been declared against the US. When I got to work there were more reports and the devastation was very hard to digest all at once.
Slowly the reality of what happened began to sink in. The loss of life. The destruction. All beyond the believable imagination. Then the most unbelievable part when the buildings began to melt and collapse on themselves, still filled with people.
It serves to remind us just how vulnerable we really are, no matter how big and powerful our military may be. We are no less at risk than any other country, even though we may like to think so.
I was @ a worksite on Lake Maxinkuckee in Indiana installing a major landscape. I had just signed off on a delivery of pavers for the custom driveway. I turned on NPR and sat in the truck and listened. I had three crews of guys, all Mexican, who started to huddle around the door and ask me what was going on. I speak 'work' Spanish and it was extremely hard for me to tell them what was happening. I used my broken Spanish and hand signals and we all stood around freaking out for a few minutes. One of the property owners, the wife, came out of the house hysterical and I snapped out of it. I helped her call her daughter, who was already on her way.
I called in and my boss insisted that we stay on the job even though my guys and I wanted to go home. We worked until dark that day, with the truck radios on the whole time. As the news came in of the towers falling, I told my guys the best I could.
We had a 90 minute drive back and along the way saw the panic, the gas gouging, the grocery stores packed. I didn't SEE what happened until I got home after 11 PM that night. I sat there in shock. That is one of the few times that I had to take a sleeping pill so I could go back to work @ 6.
I keep all of my car radios tuned to NPR since then.
I was at home. I worked in a clinic that had late hours on Tuesdays, so I didn't need to be at work for a few hours yet. We didn't have cable or satellite at the time, so no TV, and I didn't listen to the radio much, either. My mom called, because she knew I probably hadn't heard yet.
A few minutes later, the power went out.
There was a gas transmission station near the clinic that supplies gas to a fair bit of the East coast, and we were told when we moved there that it had been ID'd as a terror target because of that. My first thought was that it had been hit, but it was just a coincidence. Got my attention, though.
The clinic did have satellite, so we watched as much as we could while at work.
Big red X marks the spot. Do I need to say more?
I have been eyeballing this article since 9/11 and I can't seem to talk about it.
Wow, Perrie. That must have been awful.
It was and I am still so angry at myself for so many reasons about that day. I ended up with PTSD and had to see a shrink for a year more or less.
I'm sure you're being much harder on yourself than you should. I don't know how one ever comes to terms with something like that, but to the extent that anybody can, I hope you can.
Thanks Sandy. For every me, I know people who have lost so much more. I guess that keeps things in perspective for me.
Glad you are here.
Thanks Dave. Glad I am, too.
I also knew my cousin and old college friend were right across the street in the Prudential Building. I was not sure if they were alive. My friend actually lived on Gold Street at the time. They moved within 4 months of it happening.
I had just made a McMuffin run when the first tower got hit. The 5 minute drive home seemed to take forever. Watching it unfold, I became sick to my stomach and the McMuffins went into the trash.