10 yrs later, WHERE were you on 9-11-01?

I in my office working just outside of DC. I was the first in my office to know anything as I was listening to the radio, but the station announced the first plane and went right back to the music. So I went looking for an office with a TV or a better radio – as I could only get that one station in my office. Finally found someone and by then several of us has gathered we listened to as the second plane hit, then the pentagon was hit. The son of one of my co-workers worked at the Pentagon so he immediately tried to call him and when he could not reach him he left to go home and try from there and wait with his wife. It took his son many hours to get home but as soon as he could he called his father, he had to borrow a cell phone to do it as he was not at his desk when the plane hit and that’s where his phone was – as the Pentagon workers were walking down the roads to Maryland (in his case) someone loaned him their phone. Most of my coworkers left the office before lunch to be with loved ones, pick up children etc. I sat in my office trying to work and listening to the news once the radio station switched over to coverage. The project I worked on was involved with Law enforcement around the world and for the next several weeks we were checking in with various areas as everyone found out that all our people were OK. And our meetings were all about what we could do to help – we sent people to ground zero to work with the folks trying to identify victims – those were some pretty emotional staff meetings. A few years later I changed jobs and worked with Pentagon staff for a time. While on that project I got to hear the stories of the Pentagon hit from people who were there, some would talk about but some would not. I think it will always choke me up to think about that day.

I had just started a new job that June in field sales; I had also been illegally evicted from a home my mother owned (REALLY long story; suffice it to say I still don’t speak to her, and it’s been over ten years) the same month. I was living here and there while working and keeping my residential status private. Anyway, I spent the night at a coworker’s house on September 10, 2001; I woke up the next morning, but I let him sleep. I wanted to play a video game before we went to work later, so I turned on the TV. The “Today” show was on, but what I was watching seemed so surreal, it felt like watching an action movie. I kept hearing that the World Trade Center had been hit, but the last time I heard of anything happening to the WTC it had been back in the ’90s when it had to be evacuated due to a bomb going off. My coworker had then woke up, and we watched the news together. I don’t remember what was said on the news verbatim because none of it made sense to me; none of it felt real. Then the second plane hit, and then the third plane hit the Pentagon; at that point, I thought the world was preparing to end. Later on, long after the fourth plane crashed into the field near Pittsburgh, Cleveland basically shut down, as did possibly every other sizable city in the nation. I had no way of knowing if we were going to live or die; who knew if there were other planes aimed at other sizable cities?

I apologize; I locked so much of this stress and uncertainty up over the past ten years that some of it may have triggered my agoraphobia. I no longer work because of a severe panic attack I had back in January 2003; I often wonder if my life, and the lives of others, would have been better had September 11, 2001 been just an ordinary late summer day.

I woke up in the morning to the terrible news and spent the day in front of the TV totally disbelieving. How could this have happened not just once but in three separate locations and twice in one location. It was just too difficult to take in and process. Yes, it will definitely be a day I’ll never forget, the world changed that day.

I also remember spending much of the day trying to call home both to let my family in PA know I was OK and to find out about the PA plane. I remember the news here did not have the location for much of the day, just that it went down in a field in PA. My family lives outside Philadelphia and I thought if planes hit NYC and DC then maybe Philly had been a target. Most of the day you could not get through on cell or landlines.

http://www.ctnow.com/news/nationworld/9-11-attacks-ten-years/hc-memory-healing-20110903,0,3242201.story

Interesting article on how much you really remember about 9/11 and how your memory can be false or changed

I was in middle school sitting in my history class when my teacher told us bout it and shown us the news..was a scary thought because our school was so close to military base

I was in Southern CA, so it started early there, between 6:30AM ~7:00AM. I was working at my computer in the home office. TV was behind me tuned in to the Today show with Matt Lauer & Katie Couric. I wasn’t paying much attention to the broadcast, but I turned around just in time to see a video of the first plane hitting the tower. It looked like a private plane to me at the time, so I just thought it was a horrible accident. I went back to work ~ until the second plane hit….

I had just been laid off in June, so I was home. I usually lay in bed for 15 minutes listening to our local news station on my pillow speaker before getting up. When I heard the second plane had hit (I missed the first one), I think I levitated, then uttered an exclamation of astonishment (not to be printed here) and ran for the TV in the living room as Steven, who was getting ready for work, watched, thinking I’d gone mad.

We both stood, mouths open, watching and then we both started crying. He had to leave just as the first tower fell. The rest of the day, I watched until it became just too much and had to turn it off.

We live just south of the east-west runway at Bob Hope Airport and are used to jets incoming all day. Later, when they grounded all planes, the silence was eerie.

There are a number of “where were you when” moments in my life and this is one I’ll never forget.