13 Years After 9/11: What was Your Story on that Day

[Alvin York]

I was getting ready for work when my next door neighbor, Mrs Murry,, tapped on the glass door. She entered with a worried look on her face. "A jet just crashed into the World Trade Center" I immediately turned on the television to CNN. I saw the back of a second hijacked plane heading toward a group of buildings.There was mass confusion and theories being explored by various commentators. Instinctively I thought Al-Qaeda and that ****ing sick bastard, bin Laden. In my wildest imagination I never thought I would watch both towers come roaring down among a mass of steel, concrete and humanity. I felt very wounded that day and those wounds have yet to fully heal.

I believe in blood payback or vengeance or whatever you choose to call it.. For myself and many Americans it was a day of long awaited justice when the Navy SEALS took out the man who authorized another "day that will live in infamy". We still grieve for all the victims and their families.

And now the experts are telling us Isis is a more dangerous and fanatical terrorist group than Al-Qaeda I'm sure they would like a piece of the terror action.

Stay vigilant.

 

[NavetG8r]

I was asleep in my rack on the USS Enterprise dreaming of the liberty to come on the way home from our 6 month deployment. Yes, we were headed out of the gulf and into the Indian Ocean in route to Perth Australia and Rio De Jeneiro, with a Shellback day scheduled as we crossed the equator.

One of my guys woke me up and said "Petty Officer Rich, you better get up and come to the shop and check out what's on the TV (CNN). I got up, and got to the shop just in time to watch the second plane plow into the second tower. It wasn't more than a few minutes before we all felt the ship list to starboard as she turned to head back into the gulf. A few minutes after that the Captain came over the 1MC announcement system and told us liberty was cancelled and we were going back into the gulf until further notice.

The rest is history. God bless America. Death to all terrorists!

 

[Concrete Helmet]

I was asleep in my rack on the USS Enterprise dreaming of the liberty to come on the way home from our 6 month deployment. Yes, we were headed out of the gulf and into the Indian Ocean in route to Perth Australia and Rio De Jeneiro, with a Shellback day scheduled as we crossed the equator.

One of my guys woke me up and said "Petty Officer Rich, you better get up and come to the shop and check out what's on the TV (CNN). I got up, and got to the shop just in time to watch the second plane plow into the second tower. It wasn't more than a few minutes before we all felt the ship list to starboard as she turned to head back into the gulf. A few minutes after that the Captain came over the 1MC announcement system and told us liberty was cancelled and we were going back into the gulf until further notice.

The rest is history. God bless America. Death to all terrorists!

Thank you for your service.....To me this day should be held as a memorial to the good people of this great country who went to work that day and perished. Let's not let their lives perish from our memory. I was neither a part of what happened nor have I ever been part of our forces that have the HUGE responsibility of keeping us safe from terrorist bastards like the ones who did this. I just hope this horrific incident isn't swept aside as time goes by. The hardest part of my day today was explaining to my 6 year old son why it was important that he stay home from school and spend the day with me. He didn't mind but he kept asking questions. Let's just say it got very difficult to answer some of them. God bless America.

 

[BMF]

I just got off a 24 hour shift from the Jacksonville Fire Department....tired, I decided to take a nap....woke up to about 20 voice mails, turned on the tv and watched the first tower crumble....

 

[Alvin York]

I just got off a 24 hour shift from the Jacksonville Fire Department....tired, I decided to take a nap....woke up to about 20 voice mails, turned on the tv and watched the first tower crumble....

And you woke up to witness a large number of your fellow firefighters perish right then and there.

Look at the small number of posters that bothered to respond to this thread. Each year that goes by you see less news articles and television programs about September 11th. In the everyday world you encounter a shrinking number of people that even bother to relive this national nightmare. The more we forget the more the terrorists smile and feel emboldened.

 

[TheDouglas78]

That morning I was collecting chemical waste from the physchology lab on Campus working for the UF EH&S department when to members of the physical plant told us to turn on the radio. To hear bits and pieces about 10 minutes after the first plane hit. We continued going around campus while picking up from lab to lab while seeing bits and pieces of what was going on different televisions on campus. As the morning shift was coming to close, we were taking out explosive/violatile chemcals and helping students and professors shut down their labs as Campus was going into a lock down around all areas with explosive materials. I remember seeing all the students, facility and support staff's different reactions. When we got back to the facility to drop off the materials we collected, we were told to lock, seal, and cover everything. Then we were told to go home but have a phones ready incase something happened and take your "gear" with you incase of explosion. I listened to the radio on the way home and just watched the rest of the day on the television.

 

[TallyGator]

My wife and I were in Miami at a conference. Watched in the hotel lobby, then in the room...could not stop watching. Airport closed and rental cars gone, we had to hitch a ride with fellow Gator fans to get home. A day that continues to defy physics, common sense, and the supposed expertise of our military air defense. God bless all of the families who lost loved ones that day, especially the police, fire and rescue personnel who showed what bravery is really about. And to hell with anyone who was warned in advance and either profited from it, or failed to notify anyone.

 

[Gatordiddy]

Anaheim - Compaq Computer engineering convention. A buddy of mine and I were changing from one hotel to another and we had our luggage with us as we stopped off at a Denny's. A guy saw us walk in and said..."You don't plan on flying today do you?". No ...why? "Because the nation's airport system is shut down". And then we saw the TV in the restaurant. We left and went to the convention center where we sat in an auditorium with CNN on the big screen. Hundreds of people glued to the screen and all you could hear was occasional crying. I worked twice a month in the building right across the street from the Twin Towers and had stayed at the Trade Center Marriott until the Friday before 9/11. Our office windows were blown out when the towers went down so we had to move to the Wall Street area. I went back to NYC a few weeks later and peered through the fence... an awful, smoking hole in the ground.
What a sad and terrible day - for the folks in NYC, the Pennsylvania field, the Pentagon - and our nation.

 

[NVGator]

Wife and I were living in Redondo Beach, CA. at the time recently moved from NYC less than a year earlier. Had friends who worked in the Trade Center and were glad to hear they were fine. Woke up that morning to a bunch of missed calls but the one that woke me was from my sister who hardly ever calls. That one I answered and she told me to turn on the TV. Saw the first tower on fire and the second one get hit. The rest is known. My wife had a scheduled flight later that day to fly to Denver for work. It was canceled and my work was shut down for the day. As mentioned above, couldn't stop watching and trying to reach out to people we knew back in NYC.

 

[WobbleGator]

I was sitting in my European History class in High School. A classmate had gone to the dentist earlier that day and arrived in the middle of the class. She said she heard on the radio that a plane had flown into one of the WTC buildings. By the time we turned on the TV, the second building had already been flown into. Everyone just sat there staring at the TV in disbelief.

 

[JimtheGator]

I was at the County Courthouse getting a copy of something, I don't remember what, when a guy in the next line said that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I, like many others, assumed that it was a small plane, not an airliner. When I got home, I turned on CNN and watched with horror as the second plane came in and was glued to the TV for the rest of the day. My most vivid memory was my then 12 year old daughter asking me, as I tucked her into bed, "Dad, does this mean there's going to be a war?" My reply was simply "someone has to pay for this".

My wife knew someone from college, married to a close sorority sister, who unfortunately worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. He had sent his wife an email to meet him at their apartment, but he never showed up.

I cried a lot that day.

 

[bradgator2]

I was asleep in my rack on the USS Enterprise dreaming of the liberty to come on the way home from our 6 month deployment. Yes, we were headed out of the gulf and into the Indian Ocean in route to Perth Australia and Rio De Jeneiro, with a Shellback day scheduled as we crossed the equator.

One of my guys woke me up and said "Petty Officer Rich, you better get up and come to the shop and check out what's on the TV (CNN). I got up, and got to the shop just in time to watch the second plane plow into the second tower. It wasn't more than a few minutes before we all felt the ship list to starboard as she turned to head back into the gulf. A few minutes after that the Captain came over the 1MC announcement system and told us liberty was cancelled and we were going back into the gulf until further notice.

The rest is history. God bless America. Death to all terrorists!

God bless you man. Your little story gave me chills. Of course, I always get emotional on this day.

 

[QueenCityGator]

From being on campus in 2001:

I was starting my first year. I woke up in the morning at Jennings Hall. I did not turn on the TV because my roommate was sleeping, and regrettably I did not check the internet. I did my morning routine and went to a 9am Intro to Astronomy class at FL Gym. Nobody called me on my landline, and not everyone walked around with a cellphone in 2001. Class ends, and I head back to my dorm. I'll never forget hearing two people outside the Hub say "I can't believe what happened in NY and Washington." I had no idea what they were talking about, so I just continued walking. I get upstairs, and I walk by a couple rooms with their doors open, but I'm not really paying attention. The room across from me was showing a conference with an airline spokesman, so my first thought was "ok a plane crashed." Then the news station summarized all the tragic events.

In conclusion, I saw none of the events that day. Maybe that's a blessing, I don't know. I refuse to play the "what if" game (what if I turned on the TV/internet/phone/etc). Nowadays, people are so interconnected, but my only thought that morning was getting up and being on time for class.

Our campus, and nation, was and always will be in remembrance of this tragedy.

 

[Swamp Queen]

I was doing my internship at the Gainesville Sports Organizing Committee. I got a call on my cell at work, I believe from my Mom, letting me know that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and then another. My brother lived in Boston at the time so after I found out the planes originated there I immediately called him just to make sure he was OK, even though I knew he probably wasn't traveling. Just wanted to hear his voice. Everyone in the office was slowly finding out the news so we all just hopped on the computers to try to see what was happening. I remember the internet being REALLY slow. We didn't have any TVs in the office, only radios so of course we had those turned on to the news. Lunch rolled around and my supervisor asked if I wanted to go grab something to eat, I said yes but we were going to a restaurant that had TVs b/c we needed to see what was up. So he and I went over to Gator Greats downtown and just sat memorized by the TV. It was so surreal to finally see it after reading about it online. We finally went back to the office and for some reason stayed to do work, even though nothing was really getting done. When I got in my car to go home, I turned the radio on just in time to hear one of the surrounding buildings had just collapsed, maybe WTC 7? All I did that night was sit and watch the news. The next day my supervisor and the GSOC executive director were supposed to fly up to Indy for a bid presentation. Of course everything was still shut down but no one knew if flights were start back up that day, so they left mid-day to drive down to Orlando to the airport. I think I was the only one left in the office but as soon as they walked out the door I started crying b/c I was so scared something would happen.

We went to NYC in early November that year and went down to the site. The images are completely burned into my brain of what it looked like when we came up out of the subway. And I can't even begin to describe the smell. Definitely something I'll never forget.

 

[Tampa Gator]

I was working just outside the city in white plains. Went into a conference room for a meeting and came out to see a couple hundred people in front of the tv in the cafeteria. Shortly after everyone left for home. My dad was staying with me and was at Laguardia ready to fly home. He ended up renting a car. The worst part was driving through ct and ny towns in the weeks to come and witnessing all the funerals for those who had died in the towers.

 

[itsgr82bag8r]

My wife and I were in Miami at a conference. Watched in the hotel lobby, then in the room...could not stop watching. Airport closed and rental cars gone, we had to hitch a ride with fellow Gator fans to get home. A day that continues to defy physics, common sense, and the supposed expertise of our military air defense. God bless all of the families who lost loved ones that day, especially the police, fire and rescue personnel who showed what bravery is really about. And to hell with anyone who was warned in advance and either profited from it, or failed to notify anyone.

Ahh, yes. This explains much about your comments in another thread.

 

[Fishon]

I was in the FL Gym for a comparative psych class when the first plane hit. I was walking to Matherly Hall when I ran into a friend from work. he told me that a plane was "stuck in one of the twin towers." My first thought went to an incident where some idiot accidentally flew a small prop plane into a building in Tampa. My class in Matherly was financial accounting in the studio classroom where they tape all the large business classes. On the big screen in the back of the class was the smoking towers. Classes weren't canceled for the day until I got out of class. I went to my job at library west and watched the towers come down on a small black and white tv someone had set up in the back. I spent most of the day worried about one of my best friends who was doing an internship in NYC that fall. Luckily his building was far enough away. What a **** day that was. Just an awful feeling for everyone who died or lost someone that day plus the feeling that our country was vulnerable

This is weird but I remember picking up Tennessee tickets either that day or the next (I don't remember exactly). Whenever it was, they hadn't yet decided to cancel all the games that weekend.

 

[GatorBart]

Hiking in the Wind Rivers (beautiful high-country in Western Wyoming) - didn't find out until 9/14, when other folks who were hiking in, as we were hiking out, told us - I would not believe them, thought they were bull ing us. I had to see it for myself. I had been in the subways under the WTC many times back in the early 80s. I'm no engineer, but I thought it was impossible for those towers to crumble to the ground just because they got hit by an airplane. I still shake my head at it. I think I was in a good place when it happened. My brother, who doesn't even own a gun, was ready to go out and arm himself because of the mass paranoia (for some) that followed.

 

[TallyGator]

My wife and I were in Miami at a conference. Watched in the hotel lobby, then in the room...could not stop watching. Airport closed and rental cars gone, we had to hitch a ride with fellow Gator fans to get home. A day that continues to defy physics, common sense, and the supposed expertise of our military air defense. God bless all of the families who lost loved ones that day, especially the police, fire and rescue personnel who showed what bravery is really about. And to hell with anyone who was warned in advance and either profited from it, or failed to notify anyone.

Ahh, yes. This explains much about your comments in another thread.

That you would bother to comment reveals much about you, too.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Three months prior to 9/11 I read an article in the Orlando Sentinel that the FBI was expecting something major to happen. As the Towers went down I couldn't help but think of that article and that we just had 8 years of the Clinton administration closing basses and cutting defense readiness while he was preoccupied with his zipper. As for myself I called the wife, told her to pull the kids out of school and meet me at home.