Where were you on September 11, 2001? (terrorism, Baltimore, New York, employees)

[Desert kid]

I was a 10 year old, 5th grader, at the time. The first thing I remember is that I had turned on my TV when I woke up (and from what I remember I was watching something on CNN the previous night), so I turned on the TV and the first image I get is the North WTC tower aflame. I remember running into the living room to turn on the bigger tv, and screaming for my mom who was still in bed, she thought it was a movie at first.

It was either CNN or FOX I remember watching, but I had to get ready for school, and mom for work. So we were both following it during the confusion following the first attack. At about the time I was ready to go, the south tower exploded on TV, and since I had it full blast both me and mom ran in to see it. Right after, I left for the bus, and on it's radio we heard that the Pentagon was hit. I remember there were huge discussions about what was going on in the school yard, since I was the history buff and was more on the up and up on current events everyone asked me what I thought.

Then we get inside (at the old school, they had us all stay outside until a bell would signal to let us in, and when I got into my classroom, it was on TV and we saw the North tower fall. Then from that classroom we saw everything else play out for that day.

It was one of those days where you know it would never would be the same again.

[msgsing]

I was at work in my cubicle hunched over my computer. Co worker came by from our breakroom where there was a tv. Said a plane had crashed into a building in NYC. Thought it was an accident. Later someone else said there was a second plane crash. At that point I realized there must be a terrorist attack underway.

[plannine]

Originally Posted by zz4guy

What were you doing when you heard the news? What were you thinking? Who did you call? What were your plans? Let's hear everybody's stories.

I had just finished flying from Israel to Australia to LA to Detroit in the previous 24 hours. Had serious jet lag, and thought I dreamed it. Then I had to go to work....covering reactions locally to the events.

[DewDropInn]

I had lost a member of my family a couple of weeks before and was totally drained. The night of Sept. 10-11 was the first night I'd really slept since then and I was totally out. At 8:30 am the next morning (Pacific time) I finally heard the phone ringing. Picked it up and it was my best friend saying, "You were asleep weren't you?" I said yes.

She said, "The World Trade Center towers were attacked by two planes. They have fallen completely to the ground. The Pentagon was hit and it is still on fire. There is a plane down that they think was trying to crash into something in Washington D.C." It was all over. All these horrible things had happened and I had slept through the whole thing.

I turned on the TV and realized immediately that thousands of people would not be going home to their families that night. I remember just wanting to be alone because I knew that there were thousands of friends and family members who were going to be going through the grief I had just gone through.

My flag is flying outside my house today in honor of all of the victims and the men and women who are serving our country today.

[Ceece]

I was getting my kids ready for school. I rarely turned on the tv in the morning since it slowed down that whole process, but I did that day. I got the kids to school on time then came back and called my parents who had not yet heard the news.

[NSHL10]

Doing homecare in Quenns/Nassau border. Was able to get in touch with sister (NYPD) who was done there for court just before first hit happened. She lost her partner that day. Thankfully a cousin who worked there took the day off to bring his daughter to kindergarden. 2 other friends of mine weren't so lucky. Both were lost that day.

It really hit home going to a daycare center in East Rockaway. You could see and smell the smoke. We knew many of the parents worked there and their children would now be orphaned. Days later you'd see cars still parked at the train station. Their owners had perished.

The constant wail of the fire engines on Hempstead Tpke in LI as the LI volunteers were meeting at Belmont racetrack to be assigned to Queens and Brooklyn as FDNY all went to the site, deperate to find survivors. I also remember the utter silence of having no planes flying. I usually have a plane over my house every 60 seconds. Nothing. Quiet like death.

My brother in law worked the pile for months. My sister still has respiratory issues.

I pray our nation never has to undergo something like this again.

[aspiesmom]

I was at work, when my supervisor walked into the main area of the office, and she announced that her daughter called her that there has been a terrible airliner plane crash into the World Trade Center in NYC. We were all pretty stunned and started asking a lot of questions. This is before it was confirmed that it was a terrorist attack. We all went out into the hallways where there are TV's, and crowds of us from all the offices on our floor stood around watching. We watched has the two towers fell, it was just awful, we were all so stunned. I heard about the people jumping from the towers, and I went into our office kitchenette area by myself and cried my eyeballs out. We were all released from work about an hour or so afterwards.

I have never felt such a national shock on the same day except for JFK's Assassination. I was 5 years old and will never forget where I was that day either.

[nimchimpsky]

i remember noticing how silent it was without planes flying over our house too. we lived about 10 minutes from reagan national airport so we had gotten used to having to tune them out, but it felt so dead without them.

[txgolfer130]

I was in a conference room at Fort Meade when all of a sudden phones, and pagers started going off. We called in and were told to put on the news. We had briefings and gave had a lot of calls that day, all trying to do our jobs and watch what was happening at the same time.

At the moment the 2nd tower fell, all I thought was there was going to be one hell of a payback, and I thought of the quote from the play Julius Caesar:

'cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war'

.

And with that we prepared for war and put away the tears and prayers for the dead and injured. We let burn the fire of revenge and retribution. And burn they did...and do.

After a few years I was finally able to watch more and more news events of what occurred on 11 Sep 2001. My fellow Americans helping each other. Inspiring. Heartwarming.

[sanrene]

I was just getting ready to ride with some girlfriends. My hubby was in the air and his plane took off around 8:00, but was going up to Canada. He was stranded in Nova Scotia for a time, until he decided to drive back to Western NY.