Share your 9/11 story...

I was a sophomore at Shorecrest High School. Since it was a Tuesday, I was headed off to a B Day, meaning periods 2-4-6, with English 10 being my morning class. Before I left home, my mom mentioned to me in a concerned voice that she heard on the radio that there had been some sort of major incident in NY.

On my way across the campus, I walked passed a group of girls who were making light of the situation by sarcastically saying "OMG the world is ending - we're all gonna die." My teacher, Mrs. Brown, turned on the TV and had us write our reaction in our notebooks.
 
Threedee said:
I was a sophomore at Shorecrest High School. Since it was a Tuesday, I was headed off to a B Day, meaning periods 2-4-6, with English 10 being my morning class. Before I left home, my mom mentioned to me in a concerned voice that she heard on the radio that there had been some sort of major incident in NY.

On my way across the campus, I walked passed a group of girls who were making light of the situation by sarcastically saying "OMG the world is ending - we're all gonna die." My teacher, Mrs. Brown, turned on the TV and had us write our reaction in our notebooks.
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Shorecrest HS in Pinellas County?

Wow, insightful of Mrs. Brown. Do you still have your notebook? It would be an interesting project to collect copies of those notebook and make a compilation book.
 
I woke up late taking the early morning off as I did not have any court appearances that morning, my division partner was doing a trial. As I got ready to head in I saw on television that a plane had hit WTC and that there was a fire. I remembered that something like that had happened a few weeks earlier at the Statute of Liberty so I figured it would be an interesting story to watch the rebuilding of the top of that tower.

I got in my car and was listening to Howard Stern when Robin Quivers said that a second plane had hit the other tower. I made a three point turn and went home to watch the remainder on television. I went into the office at 3PM to check up on things, it was a tense situation. My division partner was still in trial as the judge refused to grant a mistrial but the remainder of the Courthouse was closed.

My girlfriend, at the time, and I went to her friends house to watch the president's address that night. I remember speaking with my sister assuring her that there would be survivors who they would be pulling out for a couple of weeks. I was wrong.
 
Jarod said:
Shorecrest HS in Pinellas County?

Wow, insightful of Mrs. Brown. Do you still have your notebook? It would be an interesting project to collect copies of those notebook and make a compilation book.
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Actually Shoreline, King County, WA.

As for the entry, I came across the notebook a while back, probably to tear out the used pages and use it for something new, and it was just a short post expressing how angry I was.
 
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I came into work, was listening to music on the radio... when I heard, at 6:50 AM for us, a report of a plane hitting the WTC. At the time they were reporting that it was a small plane, but they had little information. Regardless I switched to the news channel (talk radio) because I wanted to hear what it was about. I hadn't yet realized that it was an attack, nor did they on the radio and several people were making jokes about the skill of the pilot.

They were reporting live on the scene when the second plane hit, the lady reporting was shouting "Oh my God! Oh my God!" before she said that she just saw a second passenger plane hit the other tower. Immediately I knew it was an attack, and turned around to my coworkers telling them that we're under attack, then immediately called my wife to tell her to turn on the TV (she was a newly minted stay at home mother at the time)... It took a few seconds for that to really sink in... one of my coworkers left and got a small television from her car and we began to watch the news...

I have friends that worked in that tower (there was telephony equipment in the basements of the WTC towers and in some of the surrounding buildings), so I then called one of them to tell them to get the heck out of there, but (of course) nobody answered. So I shot off an email to ask if everybody was okay.

We then heard about the Pentagon... And watched, breathlessly, as the buildings collapsed.

At about that time, one of my friends that worked in the WTC Towers emailed me (not the one I emailed) to inform me that she and everybody in my company had safely evacuated. (I have to admit I was nearly in tears that she thought of me at all on that day). I was able to report to our management team who announced to the building that all our personnel were safely evacuated from the WTC towers before the collapse...
 
Damocles said:
I came into work, was listening to music on the radio... when I heard, at 6:50 AM for us, a report of a plane hitting the WTC. At the time they were reporting that it was a small plane, but they had little information. Regardless I switched to the news channel (talk radio) because I wanted to hear what it was about. I hadn't yet realized that it was an attack, nor did they on the radio and several people were making jokes about the skill of the pilot.

They were reporting live on the scene when the second plane hit, the lady reporting was shouting "Oh my God! Oh my God!" before she said that she just saw a second passenger plane hit the other tower. Immediately I knew it was an attack, and turned around to my coworkers telling them that we're under attack, then immediately called my wife to tell her to turn on the TV (she was a newly minted stay at home mother at the time)... It took a few seconds for that to really sink in... one of my coworkers left and got a small television from her car and we began to watch the news...

I have friends that worked in that tower (there was telephony equipment in the basements of the WTC towers and in some of the surrounding buildings), so I then called one of them to tell them to get the heck out of there, but (of course) nobody answered. So I shot off an email to ask if everybody was okay.

We then heard about the Pentagon... And watched, breathlessly, as the buildings collapsed.

At about that time, one of my friends that worked in the WTC Towers emailed me (not the one I emailed) to inform me that she and everybody in my company had safely evacuated. (I have to admit I was nearly in tears that she thought of me at all on that day). I was able to report to our management team who announced to the building that all our personnel were safely evacuated from the WTC towers before the collapse...
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Did your office close early? Did you go home early?

My boss, the State Attorney for Palm Beach County, was in Denver, he had to drive home because plane service was suspended.
 
Jarod said:
Did your office close early? Did you go home early?

My boss, the State Attorney for Palm Beach County, was in Denver, he had to drive home because plane service was suspended.
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Yeah, the company put a freeze on all network changes, we were sent home about noon. For the next four weeks I pretty much was stuck on emergency rebuild of the equipment that was lost in the towers (there was a bunch of it). We had to take the backups and either dump them in another switch in the area or use one of the "temp" switches and mirror it onto them...

It was three weeks before they lifted the change ban on the network, and another two or so before I could get back to my regular duties...
 
I remember that day, clear as a bell. I got to school early, working on lesson plans for conducting a moot court on electoral college. Remember the year. I'd spent the summer in LA, learning about teaching the use of court procedures in classroom.

As I said, got to school around 5:45 am, CST. Did some research and made some power point slides for students, early in the year, but wanted to hit the year running. Around 6:30, thought it time for a cig break, way before kids could be coming. Went out my classroom firedoor, and sat on walkway. The sky was so clear, it took your breath away. I remember thinking, 'in a few weeks the trees are going to turn, but right now, dark green.' It was about 75F and a sweet early morning.

Around 7:30, some of my 7th and 8th graders started knocking on the fire door. They needed help in subjects or were volunteering in library. By 7:45, those that needed 'help' had gone back outside and I was left alone.

Things happened rapidly after that. My friend, now an administrator at a profit school, im'd me saying, "Turn on CNN! Something is happening at WTC!" In all seriousness, I didn't know what WTC meant.

Each of her im's caused my speakers to 'brrriiinnnggg' She knew I had TV access, she didn't. The library kids heard the 'brrriiinnngggs' and were watching the TV I had on. We all watched and listened. At first it was 'small plane' but our eyes said different. Rather quickly, so did those of reporters. Then the second plane hit, my kids went, "Osama bin Laden," I said, "Oh Shit!" Then I turned the TV off and went to find the principal. I told the kids in my room to stay, not go outside.

Found the principal, explained what we'd seen and what was being reported. She ordered all the kids inside the building and came into my room. We turned on the TV again, CNN, and she decided for awhile that all the middle school students would come into my room and watch. So far, so good.

Below 6th grade, no announcements. Well that ended up having the 4th grade teacher putting CNN on her TV, while k-3rd didn't know about the attacks. The students had no background in terrorism to deal with. By 9am the 3rd grade teacher had over 75 emails from parents. There were parents coming to the office to take their children home.

The middle school kids got it, I had done a better job than I thought. We'd discussed both the USS Cole and the destruction of the Buddha images. We'd talked about the Taliban regarding the images and also about ID'ing gays. The 7th graders the year before had drafted a petition to Colin Powell to act regarding both the destruction of the Buddah and id'ing of gays. We asked kids to sign and mailed it off at the end of May, 2001. That was a mini lesson that I sort of forgot, but not the kids. For all the esteem I hold for Colin Powell, he never did respond.

When 9/11 hit, I had 2 kids in HS and 1 in MS. The MS had called my school and said that all students were in the auditorium, watching what was happening. They had teachers explaining what they thought was happening. If anyone wanted to pick up their child, no problem None did.

Pretty much the same as we were doing. Pretty much the same heartbreak. Both my son's school and my own had children of commissioned officers. There was no doubt that their dad's were going to be seeing serious service, unlike what went before. There were 3, none of the marriages survived.
 
Our Courthouse was open the next day, but most judges cancelled jury trials for a time.
 
There've been many things that have killed far more people. 150k people die every day, so on 9/11 about 1/50 of the people that died on that very day died in the event. Was it worth going insane and launching many pointless wars that caused far more death and destruction than the bombing itself? Where were you when America decided to conquer Iraq, and send it's military in to swing their dicks around and treat the innocents like a conquered peoples, being punished for 9/11? Surely you don't where you were them, a date that caused far more suffering than 9/11, and that's the problem with America.
 
At that time I was managing a Dept of Defense contract for an Environmental Services Company in Cincinnati. I would spend a week in the office organizing all the paper work and scheduling pick ups for the following week. The following week I would travel to which ever DoD facility, meet my crew and package the waste materials and load them on the truck.

That morning I was scheduled to drive out to eastern West Virginia. I was going to drive to my farthest point east, spend the night at a local hotel and then start working my pick ups on Sept 12 and working my way west till I had completed all the pickups. The first one was at a Air National Guard Base in Martinsville, WV. I also had scheduled pick ups at Ft. Detrick in Frederick, MD, Letterkenny Army Depot and a couple of US Airforce wings in Correopolis, PA.

Since I didn't have to go into the office that day, since it was a drive day I had planned on taking my dog to the kennel (I was single at the time) when it opened at 8 am. Which I did, I left my TV on with the volume off when I went to drop him off. I came back home with the idea of taking off for West Virginia around noon. I then went to my den where I was chatting with a friend on IM. Shortly before 9 am I went into my kitchen to get a cup of coffee when I saw one of the towers on fire on TV. I had just turned on the volume and started listening to the report which at that time gave the impression that it was a small aircraft that had hit the building which didn't make sense considering the size of the fire. A few minutes later while I was watching the second plane hit.....and I like freaked!

I was like...oh good lord we're at war. So I called the office at work and they had just heard about the attacks. I was told to call my contacts at the bases I was scheduled for the next couple of days. Obviously my pick ups were canceled. After I was done making those calls I watched TV and saw the buildings collapse. I then went to work to do what I could. I got to work a little after noon. Shortly after I got there I called my sister up to ask her if she was watching the news....and that's when i realized it was her birthday. Needless to say she was freaked out.
 
It was one of my days off and I had to gotten up and drove into Phoenix, to get some things done, and didn't have the radio on.
It was getting close to noon and since I was close to an Asian restaurant I knew, I decided to go there to eat.
They had big screen TV's hung on all 4 walls and when I sat down, I started seeing the reports and the videos.
I just sat there in disbelief and watched the reports play out.
Listened to the radio all the way home and then turned on the TV.
Everything was repetitive videos and reports.

One of my Grandsons turned 7 that day.
 
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