Where were you today 15 years ago?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by ferraris

I was in my high school Industrial Tech class. They came on the announcements and said something about how they want to keep us informed and not scare us. Then they worded it as "This morning planes bombed the World Trade Center and the Pentagon." With that wording we thought it was another country's military bombing NYC and DC. Being in Industrial Tech we had our share of under achievers and most of the kids just made dumb jokes and though it was funny. Maybe it was a defensive reaction on their part, but I think they didn't grasp the severity of what was happening until later.

I also had "shop" class that day. We started watching televised coverage of the attack during our second period Geometry class and then went to shop class for third period. Like you, many in my class were using the attack as an excuse to goof off and screw around while only a select few of us stayed glued to the televisions as we switched classrooms throughout the day.

When they started reporting "plane down in Pennsylvania" my heart sank since I have a relative who worked at the Tobyhanna Army Depot, a major military installation nearby in the suburbs of Scranton. Given our proximity to NYC I was worried that Tobyhanna may have been struck, too, and was morbidly relieved when I learned the plane went down in Podunk, Somerset County.