Seven years later. Let's all remember those that died in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania...

How many of us remember exactly what we were doing when it happened?

I was operating a 6 wheel forklift at a lumberyard, bringing stacks to a couple of guys to restack... One guy listening to the radio said, "Dude, a plane just hit the trade centers"... I thought what, a Cessna or whatnot from nearby? until it was said to be a airliner, and the second struck the other tower only minutes later...

To quote Alan Jackson, "Where were you when the world stopped turning?"
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I was in grad school in Houston at the time. woke up and happened to turn on the TV between news of the first and second airplane strikes.

I had a friend who was actually in the second building. She is an immigrant from Vietnam (tells a harrowing story of being a 4 year old on the lamb, being shot at while running to get into a boat that her parents had paid for to get them offshore, and living as one of the boat people for a while before being let into Australia and shipped to the USA).

Her story: She was in the second building for a training seminar. She was in an interior break room about 2 thirds of the way up when the fire alarm went off (when the first building was struck, though they just thought it was a fire). She went to go get her purse and noticed that windows were broken (just made her go "huh.").

She had gotten down the stairs quite a way when the all clear was sounded for her building. There was much confusion in the stairwells at this point, as some people still wanted out and other wanted to return and go back up. She went back up about 5 flights of stairs and then her building was struck.

The concrete of the stairwell cracked right before her eyes. She was sort of stunned and then started to get trampled (she is quite petite). Some large man she didn't know picked her up by the arm and said "I don't want to die alone", and then helped her get through the masses and down the stairs. They were separated on the street just as they got out of the building. She thinks he went back in to help others. She barely made it out of the danger zone in time when the buildings collapsed.

I spent the day watching the news with friends, including her boyfriend and best friend. They were hysterical, and we did the best we could to calm them down (someone eventually gave them a couple xanex each to calm their anxiety). She wasn't able to get word out that she was alive until late at night.

My current girlfriend (who I didn't know at the time) was also in NYC at the time for a debate tournament (she was a star debater in undergrad). She was walking in the city that morning and happened to have her camera. She has some incredible personal pictures of 9/11 and the following days (esp of the masses of pedestrian refugees flowing over the bridges).

I was only young when it happened, but I remember it clear as day. I woke up Wednesday morning (Tuesday night in NY) and wandered out to eat breakfast. The TV was on and the story was all over the news. I was shocked and honestly thought it was a movie playing, but at school I found out it was true.

Had just walked in the house from a night shift,TV on,(unusual for that) showing clip of first building on fire. Wife walks in and says "look at that!" I say "Wow,what movie is that trailer for?" Then watched second plane hit the other building.
Surreal,gruesome,depressing, and anxiety provoking experience even from 3k miles away.
Rick

I was at work where we only had radio access. A co-worker came in and told us a plane had hit the Trade Center tower. I recollected hearing about a B-25 that struck the Empire State Building in the 40's, assuming this was a 'like' incident (I had no idea what the weather was like in NY at that time)
Slowly the radio commentators tried to paint a clear picture of the chaos. When the second plane hit we all knew it was much more than an accident.

To this day it still bothers me that the news coverage of that day are censored. I believe Americans and the world need to see the graphic clips of common folks forced to jump or burn. It leaves no doubt that we are engulfed in a war for survival against an enemy that will do anything and everything to kill anyone they deem 'infidel'

May the victims and the heroic first responders who died that day be forever remembered and rest in peace.
C.

I believe the news clips are censored for reasons other than their graphic nature.

Sure that is a good excuse, but the whole event is a lot more usable as a public control device if the public has limited access to the real history of it.

That is what should bother you - that our media doesn't think we can handle the truth, and our government is willing to distort history and dishonor the dead for their benefit.

That is probably not going to be a popular opinion on this particular forum, but I hold to the truth I saw that day before there was time for censorship and spin, and not what it has become after processing in propaganda machine.

Locked in the Hanscom (AFB) Federal Credit Union because the Air Base went into Threatcon Delta. No one could leave any building.

Wondering if my younger brother made it out of the tower before it collasped (he ended up going into work late that day and was stuck in a bus on the bridge from Queens).

We were having breakfast in a hotel in Nashville, expecting to visit a Civil War battlefield and get us some Krisoy Kreme donuts before returning to the airport for a 6:00 pm flight home. I first saw a report of a fire in a building, but didnlt get where it was as I past by the lobby while bringing stuff out to the car. As we sat down to eat, we learned a plane had hit the north tower. Had to be an accident. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, my wife said she just saw the southtower get hit.

I knew we were under attack and wouldn;t be flying hoke. We decided to find a book store, get a road atlas and cahrt a course home. We sopped for lunch at the Ohio border and told called the car company to tell them we would not be returning the car in Nashville as planned, and where would they like it in the Springfield MA area?

Ohio was surreal. The radio jerks were telling people to stock up on gas and crying doom and gloom. The gas stations were jacking up their prices and there was an air of impending panic.

We made it to Buffalo NY that night and grabbed a few hours sleep. Coming into NY, we were seing big signs that Mahattan was closed and were being passed by big militarty earth movers.

We got home early afternoon the next day, returned the rental, took the car that was home to go to the airport to retrieve the other car. The next day, we went to the kennel to get the dogs. The one memory of that part of the trip was Laura Schlessinger reaming her music guy for playing John Lennon's Imagine as some intro music.

My wife and I had been discussing where to go for dinner that night (Sept. 11 is our wedding anniverary, 26 years today!). She left to run the kids to school and heard it on the radio. We switched from PBS to another station just in time to see the second plane hit. We watched the towers fall. Needless to say, we didn't go to dinner.

An old friend of mine worked in one of the towers. He had been having trouble with a project because people kept interupting him. His boss told him to stay home the next day and work on it. His boss saved his life, but he lost a lot of friends that day.

i had just come back from my primary school, at 10-12 i still knew the relevance of this,as i liked history and polotics
i came home, and it was happening then,
also its my cousins birthday

It was around lunchtime here and I was painting the hall to the flat with half an eye on Sky news. First indication was that an aircraft had crashed into one of the towers of the WTC. I changed to Fox with the usual talking heads going on about the '45 crash into the Empire State Building. I kept watching and saw the second aircraft go into the other tower.

Around half an hour later my wife ariived and we were in front of the TV for the next 16 hours or so - I don't think we even ate that day. I've never felt such a state of numbness in my life...

Atrange I was painting as well, the kitchen walls, there was a movie on about Nelson with Lawrence Olivier and I flicked over to Sky news and saw what had happened. I was watching as the second plane hit.

It's a changed world since

It began as a normal work day in the X-ray machine factory where I am a test technican (I'm still at the job, though the factory recently relocated), and our supervisor was on vacation...in New York. (He came back safely.) Not until the second plane hit the tower did we know it was deliberate; we heard it on the radio. I spent the day trying to repair an old device I was unfamiliar with, and the engineer was away and I couldn't ask his help. I remember going home as usual, but don't remember what happened afterward.

Charles,
I just wanted to say, I agree with you entirely. It's wrong to censor the images from that terrible day. Why should we sanitize evil? Let the whole world see what those people did to us.

Agree 100% Charles. Haven't been able to find any video clips of it,public or private for quite some time. No 'coffee table' books either. Would rather like to post pics that I saw shortly after they collapsed of people holding hands,each other, on the way down. Want to post that in my car windows to tell people THAT'S why we're THERE!
This rant will never end as long as I breathe........
Rick

I was in the office with the break/conference room across the hall. A couple folks were over there heating up breakfast and watching CNN when they told me a plane had hit the WTC. I, of course, shouted something across the hall about the 1945 plane into the Empire State, thinking some knucklehead had run a private plane into the the building. They kept going on and I went across the hall to take a look ... just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower.

Then I knew it was a real attack.

A few minutes later I went back to my office and got into a chat about the event on a DoD bulletin board for Army Public Affairs, of which I am a member. We were in mid-chat when it went dead.

I ran across the hall and found out about the Pentagon. Then the plane in Pennsylvania.

I knew at least one of the people killed at the Pentagon. I was there for a couple days in July 2001.

I was awoken by a call from my brother in law and sat down with coffee just as the second tower was hit. I thought this is the biggest blank check ever printed and wondered to what purpose it would be cashed.




As tragic as it was for those directly involved or at one remove, the response has been worse for all humanity.

We kept this, Sept. 12, 2001;

I was getting in my car going off to work when I heard on the radio of a plane hitting one of the WTC towers. Went back into the house and watched with my wife and kids as the second plane crashed into the second tower. The TV talking heads spoke of more planes in the air and possibly heading to Los Angeles International - LAX.. Although my wife wanted me to stay home I had to go to work - right near LAX!

What a strange scene. Instead of a plane landing ever few minutes there was nothing. Not a commercial plane in the sky. Only thing moving at the airport were police cars and the occasional firetruck. The only planes I saw were military - a couple F-16's.

Watched a replay of 9-11-01 last night on the TV. Can't believe how emotional it still makes me. To see FDNY's finest walking into that hell as others ran away, made me tear up. To know now that some of the faces I saw were part of 300+ killed is very sad.

What made me even sadder is the thought of how many of my fellow countrymen and women have forgotten what happened on that September morning in 2001. How today there are many people who are willing to believe the most outlandish theories on how the attacks on 9-11-01 were an inside job.

I pray for those who lost their lives, for those families who lost loved ones and I pray for my country that we remember, we honor those who died that terrible day.

i was just a little 6 year old when it happened im 13 now but that memory still haunts me in my mind, my cousin was workin over at the federal when it happened she got trampled over but thank god, she wasnt hurt that bad just a broken leg. the people who were lost that day will never be forgotten

I was unwinding from a night shift, chatting on line when I had to excuse myself, needed to move the truck for the dreaded sweeper. The news came on the truck radio about the first plane, and I thought nothing of it, I thought it was a movie commercial. when I got back in the house and chat room, everyone kept asking me what was going on, I told them I had no idea what they were talking about. Then they told me to turn on the TV---- duh what a novel idea, as I rarely watch TV. I turned it on just as the 2nd plane hit. About 20 minutes later work called and I had to go back to work. (state worker-state emergency!) Was strange driving out to work, as I could always see the Trade Center on part of my commute both to work and from work. That day and for days to come, all that was visible was the huge pillars of smoke. That day I truely knew how the guys at Pearl Harbor felt.