9/11

Geico266

Geico266

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geico
Where were you and what where you doing 14 years ago today?

I was starting my day as usual and working on a house for my daughter and son in law to move into. She was pregnant with their first child, our first grandchild. Needless to say the day turned into a nightmare.

Local gas stations raised their prices gouging customers. People horded food and fuel.

9/11 was the reason I learned how to fly. It was on my bucket list of things go do. The poor bastards in the twin towers didn't get to finish their bucket lists. So somehow I felt obligated to finish mine in their honor.

The "New Normal" as we call it kinda sucks, but with radical Islamic *******s wanting to kill us it is what we have to do.
 
I was driving our Son to kindergarten, which was a good place to be. After that I watched the news for 3 days.
 
Board meeting - everyones' phones started ringing, and we politely ignored them. Immediately after, in the car as I drove to the office, it became apparent what was happening.
 
I was in my office at work on a conference call. One of the participants mentioned that a plane had struck the WTC. The call ended early and I went into a conference room where everyone was watching TV. We watched the events unfold there. Very sad day and I will never forget.
 
I was at work in NJ just over the Hudson. We could see the smoke, as well as the fighters over the NY skyline. I lived in Southern NY State at the time and I remember driving home on a stretch of RT 17 in Mahwah-Ramsey that because of it's elevation has an amazing view of the skyline.. There were cars everywhere pulled over on the highway with people just gazing at the horror..
 
Doing a computer training exercise (CTX) in Hohenfels GE. Our ops officer gave us updates during the breaks. Everyone was talking of war. Guess I was in denial because I thought surely there must be other units than ours that can fight this...wrong.
 
I was at work, and on the old space.com forums when someone posted that a plane hit one of the towers. I flipped on the black and white TV we had at the office, and watched the second one hit live. All of the internet news sites were down the whole day because of so much traffic hitting them so throughout the entire day myself and one or two others played news reporter and kept updating the thread because we were the only ones with TV and access to news. We had members all over the world, and we became their news source for the day.

A couple years later one of the news sites ran a story on us and how we kept everyone informed as to what was going on while all the major news sites were down.
 
Hotel room in Athens, Greece, so it was in the afternoon.

Saw it unfold on CNN World:

21328247211_6927df7423_o.jpg


My ex-wife had had a stroke and was in a clinic there. Took a while to get back home.

As an aside, the Greek people were wonderfully sympathetic, and flew their flags at half staff:

21320044045_b602dc9cb9_o.jpg
 
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Sitting in my office in Sterling, VA. Got a message on the aviation groups that someone hit the WTC with an airplane (no details). Found CNN down. Managed to get a portable radio propped in my window so I could hear the news (so many computers in our building it's hard otherwise). Eventually we rolled the TV from our conference room outside and managed to rig up some improv antenna to it.

I spent part of the morning talking to my daughter and trying to ascertain if any of my relatives (including my brother-in-law who worked for the port authority in NY and had been in the WTC on the previous bombing) or friends (one who worked for Morgan Stanley there) was affected.
 
I was in class at University of Florida waiting for the professor to show up. Professor never showed up and we got news of what happened. We left to go find a tv in another room and I've never felt so helpless in my life before.
 
Getting ready for work. When I saw 2nd plane I knew something was going on. My daughter called me from her mothers house very scared. Some fraternity brothers died in he towers. I was numb.
 
I was in middle school picking my nose, you old farts.
 
at home because of a severe headcold.
 
It was just as clear and beautiful a morning in Detroit as it was in NYC. I was on my way into work and heard about it first on the radio. At first I thought it was a tragic airliner accident, then it became clear that it was something much more horrible. Speculation amongst physicists is inevitable, and by noon some of the speculations were pretty wild. I remember having the feeling that we were now on a branch of the tree of possible histories that was never supposed to become reality, that nothing would ever be the same again. And of course, it never will. :(
 
I was in the men's room and when I came out, there were a whole bunch of people looking at the Ford Information Network monitor which was displaying the results of the first aircraft to hit.

We got sent home early because Ford security was worried about something happening in Dearborn (noting did).

Something to think about: since 9-11, the most terror attacks (and the most terror attack deaths) on U.S. soil have been made by white extremists (anti-government or race related) - not Muslims.
 
I was in a project meeting on a large office building project. Twenty or thirty people. The architect's liaison, Bob is also a pilot and received an email from a coworker. Bob then pulled it up on his computer and showed it to me. When the meeting was over we let others know. We had a TV that had been used to show the client renderings of some of the interiors elements of their building but no antenna. A trip to K-Mart provided us with an antenna. We all stayed glued to the TV till around noon when most of us went home to be with our families.
 
I walked into the food court at SIUE, completely oblivious. I was paying for my food and someone came running in from the area where they had a big screen telling everyone the first tower had collapsed. I watched that TV for a while, saw the second tower collapse.

Didn't know what else to do, so ended up in class a little later. Professor politely told everyone he knew what was going on, but the world would still be there when class was over and there was nothing we could do from where we were so he ran class as usual.
 
I was in a deli buying a cup of coffee and I overheard others talking about the first hit. I was
****ed at first because my first thought was some GA plane had hit the tower, and how could anyone manage to hit those buildings? I drove to work and found a crowd in the lobby watching the tube and then learned about plane #2. Obviously my GA theory was blown away. Since my wife was stranded in Canada for a few days, I had kid duty and left to retrieve my daughter from school when it closed early...
 
Wow it does not feel like 14 years. I was in my office and got a call from my wife. She said that a plane had hit the WTC tower. My first thought was a GA plane had hit the tower. As we watch the TV and saw in horror the second plane hit the other tower we all knew we were under attack. Such a sad day when people want to kill you because you do not believe the same way they do. SO very Sad.
 
Making rounds at one of the Dialysis Clinics........remember distinctly that when it came on TV that the WTCs had been attacked a couple of my patients complained that it meant they wouldn't be able to watch Jerry Springer that morning,........sigh.
 
I was flying oil workers to and from work on the North Slope in Alaska. Normally, I would wake up in the AM and turn on the tv to watch the news for a bit, but for some reason I didn't do it that day. Instead, I went straight to breakfast and that's were I saw the news of the first hit.

We had a flights scheduled all day (as usual) and went to do our pre-flight. When we came back from the pre-flight, we saw the 2nd plane hit and heard about the other two as well.

We also heard that all commercial flights had been grounded. We didn't know if that included us since we weren't 121 so we called dispatch to ask. They didn't know either, but they're two 737s were grounded for sure. They advised to to continue on and they'd let us know when they got something firm. We tried calling the local FSS, but they weren't answering they phone yet (they didn't open until 6AM). Instead, the airport manager answered. He didn't know anything either.

We loaded the passengers up and were just about to start engines when when we spotted the airport manager careening across the ramp and came to a stop in front of the plane. The FSS guys had just woke up and spotted the NOTAM (they lived where they worked) and told him to stop us. The word was that the military would be intercepting anyone that caught flying.

As it turns out, a lot of Alaska pilots were intercepted since they were in remote areas where they couldn't get news or NOTAMs. I think it was two days before we flew again. Alaska was allowed to fly earlier than the rest of the country because there were an awful lot of people stranded out in the bush. It still took several days to round folks up. The first day of flying, the planes that were picking up hunters simply flew over and dropped newspapers so that they would know what was up and why their ride hadn't shown up on time.

The plane I was supposed to fly was eventually purchased by my next company and spent many years in Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. I managed to fly it on several of the 9/11 anniversaries.

Side note: My uncle's office was pretty much ground zero at the Pentagon. Fortunately, his offices were being refurbished, so he was working at the Navy Yard at the time. Of course, I didn't know this at the time and it was almost a week before I found out he was okay.
 
I was just getting into work when I heard a Cessna or something had flown into the WTC. Didn't think much of it. Then started getting word that it was something much bigger. We all went to the nearest tv just in time to see the second plane hit. I had a couple friends that worked near WTC and couldn't get in touch with them for a long time. I also had a friend that was in NYC and flying back to California, just couldn't remember when. Turns out one of the planes had his route and time, but he'd left the day before.
 
Driving into work, listening to the radio. Someone mentioned that a plane had crashed in New York. I remember the conversation on the radio, "A plane? What kind of plane? A small plane or an airliner? I dunno... Sounds like it might have been a big one." Got into work and someone had CNN on. I can't remember the sequence of events after that, but I do remember watching the TV for most of the morning.

I live in a pretty busy GA corridor, it was odd to not hear anything for so long. Any time I did hear a jet, I made sure to look up and more often than not I saw military instead of airliners. Not long after that I was working in the yard and heard something. I looked up and saw a B2 headed west. Whiteman AFB is east of KC, and they were being moved to Guam, that put them flying right over my house. I saw a few of them over the course of that particular week.
 
I worked the night before and woke up to find my wife watching CNN (back when they were actually a news channel), we were both in shock and could only sit and stare at the endless news coverage.

Within 2 weeks, I'd been laid-off from my job at a large commercial repair depot, because all the majors were deferring maintenance and parking jets in the desert. I got called back for a short stent 3 months later, only long enough to help finish off the hardened cockpit doors on the Southwest and Alaska 737 lines. That was it for my aviation career.
 
I was in the motor-pool at Ft. Drum. My unit was at JRTC and I FINALLY had gotten rear detachment duty. Local radio station interrupted with the news that one of the towers had been hit by a plane. Didn't think much of it, until the second one hit and then the Pentagon. The phone started ringing shortly after that with requests for equipment status and numbers. Less than 2 months later I was in Afghanistan.
 
I was crying like a baby, watching the news, in Manhattan visiting family.
edit: Then a bunch of us men walked to the towers (after a lot of the cloud started to settle, so it was hours later) and volunteered to help clean the crap that was in the eyes out of the first responders.
That ended the feeling sorry for myself part, and made it all kind of personal.
 
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I was driving to a meeting when the first explosion went off...You people don't believe that crap, do you?
 
Driving to work in Boston to fire HQ. It was a long day.
 
Like millions of other folks, getting ready to go to work, at 6:00 in the morning here. Turned the tube on to see weather, just as the second aircraft hit. I thought what the hell? kind of movie is this?
 
I was on a 777 inbound from London to the U.S.

Pilot came on the mic and told us that the U.S. airspace was closed, and that we have turned around and were heading to Belfast instead. I just thought it was a technical difficulty with the ATC system or something.

When we got on the ground he came on the mic again to tell us that there was a terrorist attack in New York and that a lot of people died - still didn't know an airplane was involved. We saw that later on the TV's at the airport.

I still have the boarding pass for that flight.
 
I was still in the newspaper business in 2001. I was in my home office when the news came across the internet.

We watched the horror unfold with our kids -- and then all hell broke loose. The newspapers my company distributed put out "Extra" editions, for the first time in decades (and probably the last time), and we were suddenly tasked with distributing them all over the state.

Tens of thousands of them.

Unfortunately, our workforce -- 100+ drivers -- was mostly unavailable mid-day. This meant an all-hands on deck response, which meant every family member, every friend, and every driver I could reach worked around the clock for the next 48 hours. We would walk into a store carrying huge bundles of newspapers, and they would be gone before I could take them to the store manager! Huge groups of people were seeking information, and collectible editions, knowing how historic this event was.

It continued that way for multiple extra editions, and I barely slept for two days. I'm sure that was the last hurrah for printed newspapers.

Only afterwards could we pause, reflect, and grieve. My son was 11, and was inspired to join the military that day.
 
I was standing in the lobby of a hotel in Dresden Germany watching the second plane hit the towers. Along with the others standing there we were trying to figure out what the hell was going on. We were also wondering if we were going to be allowed to come home. Took us two weeks to get home and things had changed for the worse.....just keeps going that way too. TSA, HS, Patriot act....

Frank
 
I was at work getting the day started, when on the radio I heard that the World Trade Center was on fire. As I got the news up on the TV, the second plane was just flying into the second tower. The rest of the day was watching the news or talking about it to clients on the phone.
 
Arrow67 said:
I was driving to a meeting when the first explosion went off...You people don't believe that crap, do you?
Click to expand...

Why would you lie about driving to a meeting?
 
This isn't the usual account people tend to give... I tend to feel like a total outsider on this sometimes but here it is.

I was just starting college at the time. That morning I woke up late, had to rush to get out the door and head for class. Pretty proud of myself for hustling and walking in just on time, soon as I got into the room I could tell something was off. They were talking about the attacks on New York. I didn't know what they were talking about but the way they were so rattled had me thinking suitcase nukes, biological attacks, huge stuff. I watch the news and was well aware much of the world hated us and I watch a documentaries dealing with these things... I was thinking much bigger.

They decided not to have class and send us home, so I got back to my place and turned on the TV. I am probably the only person who watched that and felt relieved. I was thinking oh... it's just a couple of buildings in NYC.. tragic and horrific locally but confined to that area. I don't want to downplay the horror of it for anyone who was there but nothing earth shaking- nothing that should be world changing. Well so I thought at the time.

Where I was in central IL, you might not have even known anything had happened if you didn't turn on the TV or radio. It was a normal day, sunny and mild with a few poofy white clouds. No smoke, no fire, nothing but a very average nice fall day. The only evidence of it that didn't come out of an electronic box was when my neighbor came running out of the house in a panic and advised me to go fill up my gas tank before gas prices went sky high or we ran out. I thought "well that's silly, why would a terrorist attack in two cities cause the gas supply to..... ". Then I caught on... people like him everywhere would panic and buy gas. Supply and demand... ugh. It actually didn't go up much... but it was my first clue on how the public would react.

I fully expected an experience like the Oklahoma City bombing or the first world trade center attack some years earlier. A lot of it in the news, big talk for a long time, but ultimately for everyone but the people directly involved, something that would be mostly forgotten within a year. Well, now obviously not..

The 9/11 attacks were, in my opinion, a sucker punch.. or a lucky shot. They gave us their best shot, got lucky, caused a lot of hurt. However not for one moment did they have the capacity to take us down. There was not and still isn't any threat to our nation from terrorism in the same sense that we were threatened by.... say the soviets in the cold war. Not gonna happen, not even possible. So why did we panic so much? Why are we so afraid? The odds of any one of us being killed by terrorism are lower than our odds of being hit by lightning. Why are we so afraid?

I am so bewildered. I thought the principals embodied in the constitution were a big part of why we send our troops in to fight and die in so many of the battles we've been in and will go into. Yet we threw those principals right out the window for some questionable extra margin of safety... safety from something with an incredibly low probability of hitting one of us? No, I'm not callous... human life is precious. I just believe there are a few principals more important to preserve for the multitudes of generations to come after us than my one life or any other person's one life.

Now, I get why the people in positions of responsibility to protect life did what they did. That's their job and the fact is we can't really protect anything 100% from terror and still function as a country. The things they proposed and started doing they did to save people and do their jobs- I get that. However, it was the responsibility of we the people and the politicians to hold them back and say "No, you can't do it that way, the constitution says so, find other options.". We failed, miserably.

I'll end this post on a positive though. There were many heroes on 9/11. The firefighters, the police, the individual citizens... but the group that always sticks out for me is people on Flight 93. Unlike the folks on these other flights, these people got word about what was going on. I'm sure if the people on other flights had gotten word they would have had similar reactions. These folks stopped the terrorists. Airport security, the various alphabet government agencies, etc didn't do anything. An ordinary random sampling of Americans showed what they were made of. They may have lost their lives but they didn't let the bastards win.

What I wish we'd done in reaction to 9/11 was instead of illegal wiretapping and extra security and national paranoia, we'd just continued on with business as usual... and put up posters everywhere especially in airports with pictures of people from that flight and the slogan "We're onto you now, you won't be hijacking another plane.".

Let them try the same thing again. The government with all the new illegal searches will probably fail, we know that odds are the TSA will probably fail. But when those 3 or 4 goons with box cutters make their intentions clear to an airliner full of people after 9/11? They're toast.

We Americans fight each other all the time, for political, religious, and just general cultural reasons but when you threaten us and we band together on something... look out cause we're an unstoppable force. There is no reason to fear.
 
Anymouse said:
I was flying oil workers to and from work on the North Slope in Alaska. Normally, I would wake up in the AM and turn on the tv to watch the news for a bit, but for some reason I didn't do it that day. Instead, I went straight to breakfast and that's were I saw the news of the first hit.

We had a flights scheduled all day (as usual) and went to do our pre-flight. When we came back from the pre-flight, we saw the 2nd plane hit and heard about the other two as well.

We also heard that all commercial flights had been grounded. We didn't know if that included us since we weren't 121 so we called dispatch to ask. They didn't know either, but they're two 737s were grounded for sure. They advised to to continue on and they'd let us know when they got something firm. We tried calling the local FSS, but they weren't answering they phone yet (they didn't open until 6AM). Instead, the airport manager answered. He didn't know anything either.

We loaded the passengers up and were just about to start engines when when we spotted the airport manager careening across the ramp and came to a stop in front of the plane. The FSS guys had just woke up and spotted the NOTAM (they lived where they worked) and told him to stop us. The word was that the military would be intercepting anyone that caught flying.

As it turns out, a lot of Alaska pilots were intercepted since they were in remote areas where they couldn't get news or NOTAMs. I think it was two days before we flew again. Alaska was allowed to fly earlier than the rest of the country because there were an awful lot of people stranded out in the bush. It still took several days to round folks up. The first day of flying, the planes that were picking up hunters simply flew over and dropped newspapers so that they would know what was up and why their ride hadn't shown up on time.

The plane I was supposed to fly was eventually purchased by my next company and spent many years in Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. I managed to fly it on several of the 9/11 anniversaries.

Side note: My uncle's office was pretty much ground zero at the Pentagon. Fortunately, his offices were being refurbished, so he was working at the Navy Yard at the time. Of course, I didn't know this at the time and it was almost a week before I found out he was okay.
Click to expand...


I was in the bush as well. We learned of the events as they happened for about 30 minutes after the second plane hit the towers. Then our satellite was turned off, about 20 days earlier than scheduled. We had no outside communications, no Tv, radio or phone service. We had heard on the news that all takeoffs were banned but had no official notification. For three days we had absolutely no idea what was going on in the world. We were making wild speculations as to what was going on. We were making bets as to how many nuclear weapons would be used and when we would get satellite service again. Funny part is we also suspected that Osama bin Laden was involved.

We had people that were on hiking trips, river trips and working in the bush that depended on us to pick them up or make supply drops.

A couple of us took off with the food drops plus a note to inform the folks what was happening. We did not pick up anyone, just dropped additional supplies and the notes. We were not intercepted, I bet partly because of our remoteness, low speed and super low altitudes that kept us off most (but not all)radar that could see us.

One of the pilots spent time getting all the information we had and printed it all out. As we picked up the folks in the bush we would give them the print outs to read. For the first and only time in my bush career no one was laughing and joking while leaving the bush.

It was a bizarre few days. I saw only one other plane flying. On 13 September a Cub landed at our strip. We all ran up to him to ask about any news. He had been doing wild life flights and had no idea what had been happening. He did not want to believe what we were telling him and after gassing up he took off and went back to work.
 
I was driving to work listening to a new Jimmy Buffett CD when the clock showed 8am. I turned on the local news station and heard something about a small plane hitting a skyscraper in NYC.

I immediately pictured a low overcast day and a light plane bouncing off a building in the clouds.

I got to work about five minutes latter and everyone was gathered a TV in our conference room. I saw the picture of the WTC in flames and my first thought was 'it's clear day....WTF'.

Here's a good video on how the military reacted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Tj4XN6U_w
 
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