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Where were you?

gunjunkie45

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Minuteman
  • Nov 28, 2009
    1,991
    6,725
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    Wisconsin
    Where were you twenty years ago today? How did you hear about what had been done to us?
    I had been out of the Army for 8 months, was on vacation in the Boundary Waters with some friends... One was an investment banker, never away from his phone... that's how we heard. Paddled out immediately and caught up with the world the next morning. I reenlisted the next week... What about you?
     
    Working my first real job on my own after tech school. I had The Bob and Tom Show on the radio on my toolbox and heard about the planes from them and a few others at work.
     
    Just getting off shift at the fire/EMS agency I worked for. The oncoming shift had it up on the TV, I thought they must be kidding. Couldn't believe it but will never forget. Three days later I got hired at my current department. Spent the last 15 years developing or delivering programs to make America more resilient to a CBRNE attack against our nation. A day that must never arrive (and in all fairness most likely will not).
     
    Was at work and my sister called me and told me to check the news. She worked in Tower Two but had to stay home with her newborn twins since the nanny had shingles. She lost several friends that day and said one of the saddest reminders was the cars left for weeks at the train station parking lots by those lost. Her husband was taking the ferry across the Hudson when the first plan struck. We had a week long fly fishing trip on the Green River that week and had to cancel since all flights were cancelled.
     
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    Hah I have all of you beat (unless you were at ground zero) ....maybe. I got up early that day.......to catch a flight for work. Turned on the tv to watch as I ate breakfast. Was a movie on with planes crashing into the towers...pretty good effects...except they kept replaying it.....Realized it was the the news. Was like holy fuck. Drive down to the airport as I was in Los Angeles and this was happening on the east coast. Airport closed. Next week went back to an empty airport to go on my trip. They had the air crew in the jetway applauding the handful of people getting on the plane. I was embarrassed for them. Still remember that like it was yesterday.
     
    I had already been out of the Army and been a cop for two years. I was actually getting ready to go on shift and had the news on. My first thought was, "Damn, what a tragic accident," until I watched the second plane fly into the tower. I instantly knew the first plane was no accident.
     
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    I was just heading to my gross anatomy class when the first plane hit tower 1. I thought "what a huge oversight on the part of the pilot and air traffic control."
    Got scrubbed and gloved up, and just began removing the cadavers facial tissue when the door burst open and they turned on the tv in the classroom lab. At first I kept cutting thinking " yeah, I saw this just before I left" until the ticker and headlines all changed, just like our nation.
    As tragic as it was, and still is to remember, oh what i wouldn't give however for the patriotism of September 12th, 2001.
     
    I was driving down the highway to work. Heard a plane had hit one of the towers on the radio. I’m my mind it was just a small private plane. Got to work a few minutes later. Talked to the owner and that’s when I realized it was a commercial jet. Stayed close to the radio the rest of the day and listened to it all unfold. Didn’t see any video till that evening. I can still show you the exact place on the interstate where I heard the news and who the radio DJ was. Every detail of that day is a vivid memory.
     
    Airborne headed to our destination airport. We were told by ATC to land at the nearest airport that could accommodate our aircraft size based runway length available, etc... Muncie IN became our new home for several days. We did not learn of what had happened until we were on the ground as no explanation was given as to the “why”. My FO and I are still great friends to this day. Called my mom and reassured her that we were ok.
     
    Airborne over the US in a freighter, ATC let us go to our destination. All of the passenger planes were landing on whatever was below them, so it seemed. It was after the second plane hit, and the controller said there were other planes that they were not talking to. I had started in BOS at midnight, two legs into the sort, two legs out. A friend had to wait on both the United and American flights to taxi out so he could get to parking that morning.
     
    Doing a two week train-up for my guard unit, getting ready to head out when one of the guys called and said, "turn on the TV now!". No being the President, I knew exactly who was attacking the country.
     
    Was at work in a machine shop when one guy says a plane hit one if the towers . He was listening to Howard Stern . I told him it was a bit . Then the next one hit . Then unconfirmed reports of car bombs .
    By that time the owner and a few of us were huddled around the radio . My wife and daughter were on lockdown 45 minutes south at the Daycare she worked at . Told the owner of my shop I'm leaving in about five minutes . Going home , getting a pump gun and a couple boxes of shells and getting my family . From the tempo of the news reports it sounded like the effin Tet Offensive to me . Wife drove a Ford Escort . I drove a pick up . Figured I had a better chance getting them home and safe . Boss tried to say hold on let's wait and see but was cut off by another guy in the huddle . Guy says yeah I'm going to get my family . Words can't describe my feelings around the event .
    Of note the deluge of tv shows about 9/11 by networks and people who are lower than whale shit . And whale shit's in the bottom of the ocean . Pisses me off to no end . What a bunch of ingenious horse crap .
     
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    Had just gotten moving that morning when my room mate told me to look at the TV. Turned it on just as the second plane hit the tower. Drove around for a couple days playing Pink Floyd's Careful With That Axe Eugene at full volume with the windows down.

    I still get tears in my eyes every time I think about it, especially the folks on 93.

     
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    I was at work that morning. I don’t remember exactly what I was doing. My wife called me and said that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center, and that the building was on fire. I had lots of things racing through my head while she describes it to me, and tells me what the news is saying. I’m thinking the whole time a private plane, like a Cessna, and thinking that it’s gonna take a long time to put out the fire, and I hope everybody was safe. While talking to her, she says, “Oh my God! Another plane just hit the other tower!” I immediately told her that I’d call her back. That I had to go find a TV. There was a TV in one of the maintenance offices, and about 10-12 of us sat there till about 1:00, until the bosses told us to get back to work, and just watched in disbelief at what we’re were seeing.
    After I got home from work, we spent the rest of the night watching the news. I had to explain to my 4yo about the evil that exists in the world, and what we were watching was the result of pure evil.
     
    Third Street in Cambridge MA. Project Manager for a site contractor digging a giant hole for underground parking and headquarters of Genzyme and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

    For an hour traffic was insane as everyone abandoned Boston...than it got eerily quiet.

    We were the only company that stayed on site. Nothing we were going to do by going home.

    All civil air stopped and only thing flying was mil jets flying air patrol.

    That night about 0100 I was woke by sound of fast flying mil jet and lady across the street screaming in her sleep...aweful.

    Sept 10,2001 was the last day of the United States as it should be.
     
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    Third Street in Cambridge MA. Project Manager for a site contractor digging a giant hole for underground parking and headquarters of Genzyme and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

    For an hour traffic was insane as everyone abandoned Boston...than it got eerily quiet.

    We were the Not company that stayed on site. Nothing we were going to do by going home.

    All civil air stopped and onlything flying was mil jets flying air patrol.

    That night about 0100 I was woke by sound of fast flying mil jet and lady across the street screaming in her sleep...aweful.

    Sept 10,2001 was the last day of the United States as it should be.
    I think that was actually Nov. 2, 1963, but Sept. 10th was another hit.
     
    Working for Amtrak as a Safety Manager heading to New York City. I got a call to stop in and see a few people at the Philadelphia 30th St Station. We were in a conference room when ABC news broke in and said a plane had hit the world trade center. While we were watching the second plane hit the other building. I knew we were under attack and and went to the platform and got on the head-end of the next train heading south. I could be a set of eyes and head towards home at the same time. Only got as far as Wilmington when they put a stop on all public transportation. No planes, no trains. I stayed there until I was relieved by the station master and then I took a cab to Baltimore Penn Station. Worked late there, then was assigned Washington Union Station on the 12th. On the 12th, we were the only game in town for travel between Washington DC and Boston Mass. I worked there until the last train and went home. For the next 10 days, I was assigned to stations from Newark NJ to DC.

    It was a busy time but we had to get people moving and somewhat back to their normal routine.
     
    On the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Walked into the shop for a break and pulled up the internet to check email from home. The news was talking about the first plane hitting and then a second plane hit the other tower on live video.
     
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    On a bow hunt way in the mountains. Got to a peak where a could sometimes get cell signal. Turned the phone on to twenty panicky texts from my wife to get home, the US was under attack.

    Thought she was overreacting and that there was no way the north tower had fallen.

    I looked up and suddenly realized the skies were clear. Completely and utterly clear.

    From that peak I can see a hundred miles in basically every direction and I have never been there without a plane moving somewhere.

    But skies were completely and utterly empty.

    That's when I thought maybe it was real.

    I made the five mile hike as fast as I could and a several hours drive as fast as the Jeep would go. I cracked the frame at the front cross-member getting out.

    I'll never, ever forget, and I learned everything I need to know about that particular group of people on that day
     
    On a bow hunt way in the mountains. Got to a peak where a could sometimes get cell signal. Turned the phone on to twenty panicky texts from my wife to get home, the US was under attack.

    Thought she was overreacting and that there was no way the north tower had fallen.

    I looked up and suddenly realized the skies were clear. Completely and utterly clear.

    From that peak I can see a hundred miles in basically every direction and I have never been there without a plane moving somewhere.

    But skies were completely and utterly empty.

    That's when I thought maybe it was real.

    I made the five mile hike as fast as I could and a several hours drive as fast as the Jeep would go. I cracked the frame at the front cross-member getting out.

    I'll never, ever forget, and I learned everything I need to know about that particular group of people on that day

    It took awhile to realize that the people much closer were the bigger problem.

    Id gladly face just the one foreign foe.
     
    i was at work already in irvine california. always went into the office before 5am to avoid traffic.
    started to get the news feed over my computer screen, probably bloomberg feed...
    i walked over to the noc and turned half of the monitors to whatever news channels i could get.
    surreal at the time. i am not sure if i did any work that day.
     
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    It took awhile to realize that the people much closer were the bigger problem.

    Id gladly face just the one foreign foe.
    Amen, brother. The true enemy is much closer, yet well hidden. Some of us are seeing it now.

    The Potato is only a front man. Im not religious, in fact anti religious, but this puts it into perspective and we always need to remember:

    1631462726871.png
     
    Golf course at the Greenbrier Hotel in WV. They still had the “secret” bunker then although not a secret anymore. My mom called and told me a plane had flown into the Twin Towers. I told some others waiting on a nearby tee box and then rode into the clubhouse to watch the news. I feel like I saw the second plane hit live but but may have been a replay. Either way, it was shocking and at that point clear it was no mistake. We were under attack.
     
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    Was listening to Rush or some other talk show when the program was interrupted by this event. I immediately thought which arab nation has airlines flying into this country...Saudi Arabia. I was wrong on the airline but right on the terrorists. As I left the office to go home to watch the news, I told my coworker that this was war.
     
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    was in a conf call with my company's cfo in his office, and our bankers in charlotte. i guess they got the news first and had to hang up quickly as they were in the tallest building there and weren't sure if they were a target. boss and i ran across the hall to our conf room and half the company was in there watching it live. as noted above we either saw the 2nd plane hit or a rerun shortly thereafter.

    the nice thing about the aftermath was that all of a sudden, folks were nice to each other, for example, letting cars out in front of them vs abruptly pulling out. that, and the totally quiet skies for a couple of days with planes grounded.
     
    9/11 remains the only day of my life I have stepped foot in NY City. Was 17 at the time, traveling home by train with my 13 yr old sister. Just the two of us (traveling home from visiting family).

    We watched the first tower fall from the train outside the city. Then, when authorities allowed the train into Penn station, Police rushed the train and through us all out on the street.

    My sister and I sat outside the station for the whole day, got 2 phone calls out on the Nokia brick my parents gave me for the trip.

    Throughout the day we met people covered in dust and debris that walked from the WTC, and some that even escaped from the Towers themselves before they collapsed.

    At the end of the day, we were let back on the train and able to continue our journey home. My parents were very thankful when they picked us up late that night....
     
    It took awhile to realize that the people much closer were the bigger problem.

    Id gladly face just the one foreign foe.
    Isn't that the freaking truth.

    The Taliban Al queda were both less of a threat to this country than the current admin and their supporters
     
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    A day has passed, and that day late, with a dollar for consideration, I have all of yesterday's thoughts standing there in review.

    Mostly, I thought about my Brother Bob, and his Sons. Bob wasn't here, yesterday, to reflect on the facts of the day. The Covid took him on January 3, 2019. He was my best friend, my mentor, and my muse. Ten years my senior, he was as much an Uncle as a brother.

    The key thoughts, though, were about his Sons. The two older ones were booked on flight 93, scheduled to be the first flight out to the Coast that day; they were flying for business. But fate intervened and they were able to catch one which departed earlier. But we didn't know they were safe until late in the day.

    As my yesterday wore on, I came across a pair of tiny model airplane engines out in my shop, made by Bob and his boys in their PAL Model Products business. They were, and are, still sitting pristine in their boxes, nearly a decade old, but never opened except for an occasional reminiscence or two. Later in the day, I was surfing the net and came up with a set of plans for a Midwest Dakota, one of Bob's favorite airplanes. His love of flying models had always been roughly as dedicated as mine has for rifles. The PAL engine is a replica of the old 1950's OK Infant .020, one of the then revolutionary small glow ignition engines that revolutionized Free Flight modelling, and for which the Dakota was designed to utilize.

    I printed out two copies of the plans, and will be putting at least one of the planes together in his memory, complete with the PAL Infant .020.

    The Tube was full of programming related to 9/11, and as I watched the ceremonies and such, I reflected on how immensely different the Liberty Plaza area of Lower Manhattan has become. A park back then, it's more park-like now, with a sacred aspect it never had back then. You see, it was a place I frequented every day, sitting on the park benches eating my pushcart lunch, then returning to OLP (One Liberty Plaza) or 1WTC, where I had worked for Litton Office Supplies (I had an office in the basement, next to the parking garage that was blown up in the now mostly forgotten first bomb attack). I was out doing some computer wiring at another location that day.

    I also worked for Merrill Lynch in 1WTC and OLP. But by the time the planes struck, I had moved on and was living in the New York Finger Lakes, medically retired, and getting down to brass tacks with my rifle stuff. When the Towers fell, I had Merrill Coworkers, and probably even some family go down with them. My family was/is NYC Irish, big and spread all over NYC, and full of police and firemen. My Grand Uncle Ed Lavin had risen to become a City Fire Battalion Chief, but he was retired and gone by then. His sons, though, Eddie, Neal, and Lawrence...; they could have been caught up in it. I'll probably never know, now; we've all been out of touch since I moved Upstate just a few years before the catastrophe. I'm honestly not sure I want to know; I'd rather remember them as I knew them.

    My other Brother, Bill, was living in Rockaway LI; observing the goings on from his back porch deck/dock on the Reynolds Channel. He was simply astounded by what he could see (and hear) going on a few miles West of him. We spent a lot of time on the phone together that day.

    And finally, on a lighter(?) note, the day after the disaster (20 years ago today), a funny thing happened in Penn Yann, NY, the next town North from us then on Rt 14A. The small airport (no tower, etc.,) had a flying school, and an Instructor took up one of his students that day in a single engine aircraft. He was intercepted by a pair of NYNG F-16s, and escorted to the Syracuse airport where he was arrested for violating the nationwide no fly ruling established the day before. Dumb mistake, I heard it cost him his license for life. That was bit of a shame, because he was also the pilot of "Fuddy Duddy" the restored B-17 that flew out of Corning/Big Flats daily for tourist flights.

    ...A fine day for reminiscence... A lot has passed since then.

    Greg

    PS; Did you now that in the entry corridors of the WTC, the NYC Fire Department Chaplains were spread out, giving last rites to the first responders as they entered the buildings. Most everyone involved understood that it was most likely they were going to their deaths.

    ...And still, they went...

    I KNOW I couldn't have done that myself.

    May God look down with love in His sacred heart for each and every one of them...
     
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    Walking the streets of Resistencia Capital, in Argentina. A friend of mine ran up to us telling us our country was attacked. We ran to a house that had a TV. There they do not censor anything, watching the people jump was horrible
     
    On my way out the door to take my 6 year old son to school when the phone rings. My wife answers and it is her mom telling her to turn on the TV. The first plane had crashed into the WTC and everyone thought it was an accident.

    I left, drove my son to school, then headed to the office. When I arrived, everyone was gathered around a TV and just as I arrived, the second plane hit. That is when the terrorism talk started and I remember getting pissed, and wanting to throw something.

    The next two weeks were pretty quiet. The phone rang a little less and there were a lot less emails.
     
    A day has passed, and that day late, with a dollar for consideration, I have all of yesterday's thoughts standing there in review.

    Mostly, I thought about my Brother Bob, and his Sons. Bob wasn't here, yesterday, to reflect on the facts of the day. The Covid took him on January 3, 2019. He was my best friend, my mentor, and my muse. Ten years my senior, he was as much an Uncle as a brother.

    The key thoughts, though, were about his Sons. The two older ones were booked on flight 93, scheduled to be the first flight out to the Coast that day; they were flying for business. But fate intervened and they were able to catch one which departed earlier. But we didn't know they were safe until late in the day.

    As my yesterday wore on, I came across a pair of tiny model airplane engines out in my shop, made by Bob and his boys in their PAL Model Products business. They were, and are, still sitting pristine in their boxes, nearly a decade old, but never opened except for an occasional reminiscence or two. Later in the day, I was surfing the net and came up with a set of plans for a Midwest Dakota, one of Bob's favorite airplanes. His love of flying models had always been roughly as dedicated as mine has for rifles. The PAL engine is a replica of the old 1950's OK Infant .020, one of the then revolutionary small glow ignition engines that revolutionized Free Flight modelling, and for which the Dakota was designed to utilize.

    I printed out two copies of the plans, and will be putting at least one of the planes together in his memory, complete with the PAL Infant .020.

    The Tube was full of programming related to 9/11, and as I watched the ceremonies and such, I reflected on how immensely different the Liberty Plaza area of Lower Manhattan has become. A park back then, it's more park-like now, with a sacred aspect it never had back then. You see, it was a place I frequented every day, sitting on the park benches eating my pushcart lunch, then returning to OLP (One Liberty Plaza) or 1WTC, where I had worked for Litton Office Supplies (I had an office in the basement, next to the parking garage that was blown up in the now mostly forgotten first bomb attack). I was out doing some computer wiring at another location that day.

    I also worked for Merrill Lynch in 1WTC and OLP. But by the time the planes struck, I had moved on and was living in the New York Finger Lakes, medically retired, and getting down to brass tacks with my rifle stuff. When the Towers fell, I had Merrill Coworkers, and probably even some family go down with them. My family was/is NYC Irish, big and spread all over NYC, and full of police and firemen. My Grand Uncle Ed Lavin had risen to become a City Fire Battalion Chief, but he was retired and gone by then. His sons, though, Eddie, Neal, and Lawrence...; they could have been caught up in it. I'll probably never know, now; we've all been out of touch since I moved Upstate just a few years before the catastrophe. I'm honestly not sure I want to know; I'd rather remember them as I knew them.

    My other Brother, Bill, was living in Rockaway LI; observing the goings on from his back porch deck/dock on the Reynolds Channel. He was simply astounded by what he could see (and hear) going on a few miles West of him. We spent a lot of time on the phone together that day.

    And finally, on a lighter(?) note, the day after the disaster (20 years ago today), a funny thing happened in Penn Yann, NY, the next town North from us then on Rt 14A. The small airport (no tower, etc.,) had a flying school, and an Instructor took up one of his students that day in a single engine aircraft. He was intercepted by a pair of NYNG F-16s, and escorted to the Syracuse airport where he was arrested for violating the nationwide no fly ruling established the day before. Dumb mistake, I heard it cost him his license for life. That was bit of a shame, because he was also the pilot of "Fuddy Duddy" the restored B-17 that flew out of Corning/Big Flats daily for tourist flights.

    ...A fine day for reminiscence... A lot has passed since then.

    Greg

    PS; Did you now that in the entry corridors of the WTC, the NYC Fire Department Chaplains were spread out, giving last rites to the first responders as they entered the buildings. Most everyone involved understood that it was most likely they were going to their deaths.

    ...And still, they went...

    I KNOW I couldn't have done that myself.

    May God look down with love in His sacred heart for each and every one of them...
     
    At work, in my booth, listening to the local a.m. radio show while welding trunnions for the pre-cast concrete burial vaults we made for the low level nuclear waste disposal site next door...
     
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    I was on the 15th MEU. We just got done training in Darwin, Australia. We had about 6 hours of libo that night. About the 3rd, or 4th hour. Got word to head back to ship, that the US just got bombed. One week later, we were flying off the ship.
     
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    Deep in the woods in AR for unit SERE exercise w/SF group. That morning was our "link-up" to be "recovered from behind the lines".
     
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    Was in the air, flying to Fort Irwin, NTC as the Torch party leader in preparation for an NTC rotation. Got stuck in Dallas when all the flights were cancelled. Had something crazy happen at the airport when we were there.
     
    At work in the Emergency room, when I heard some patients in the waiting room getting excited. I took a couple of nurses with me, and went in to investigate, (thinking precipitous birth), and saw them all looking at the TV. We saw the second plane hit. The hospital (in west Texas) went into immediate lock-down. I too learned everything I need to know about those people in that moment.
     
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