At 8:46am on 9/11/01, I was on a plane bound for Chicago. I thank God every day that my plane made it safely there.

Sophomore in high school. Sitting in Geometry.

 

I was a sophomore in high school but didn't go that day Because I had a doctor appointment. Turned on the news and watched everything happen, very crazy at the time. Remember waking my uncle and telling him the pentagon had been hit and he was like no way they'd shoot it out of the air first.

 

 

One of the few times I wished he had been right. :lol2:

 

Same, in HS sitting in a math class.

 

Freshman in HS, sitting in health class. The teacher turned off the TV when the bell rang, because "it's not important, we have material to cover".

 

Didn't do a lick of work the rest of the day, or the next if I recall correctly.

 

The thing I remember the most vividedly was how eeriely quiet the lunchroom was that day. You could've heard a pin drop.

 

Same here, in school. Freshman in high school, and like HT was in a Math class (Algebra I).

 

 

I remember the teacher getting a call from his wife who was also a grade school teacher at the elementary school I had attended, I remember him say "a plane ran into a building?" We turned on the tv in the classroom and started to watch. We were kind of assuming at first it might have been an accident, then the second one hit and everyone was stunned. For the rest of the day in every single class all we did was watch the tv and watch the events unfold. When I got home from school I still turned it on even though I had watched it all day. Still though I don't think you could have found anything else to watch, coverage was on almost every channel that day. Even MTV had coverage and entertainers were calling in giving their thoughts (insert Dave Chappelle stand up skit there). Crazy day, I can remember it all plainly.

I was in a training for Americorps in Morehead. In a weird twist, it was with a woman who worked in the Pentagon. The mood went from light and humorous when we joked about her phone ringing to very serious as she broke down in front of us. We all suspected that someone close to her had passed away. Never in a million years did I expect her to gather herself and say "we've been attacked". I raced home to wake my wife and broke the news to her. We sat in horror and watched the coverage the rest of the day. Not many words were said.

Watched Zero Dark Thirty last night. It got me thinking about that day. It still angers me. I'm not sure I would have been as professional as the Seal Team that took down Bin Laden, or the CIA Op that located him. I may have taken down everyone in that compound. Would it have helped, maybe, maybe not. But the images from 9/11 kept entering my mind while watching them go through the compound. At that point, I wanted people to die.

I was on the ramp at CVG working at the time, it was crazy.

Eating breakfast at Hanover in our kitchen. Our cook came in and told me to turn the channel. I kind of chuckled at her, but she got dead serious. Got to FoxNews right before the second plane hit. I was late to Finance class. Most of the people in the class had no idea. I had to tell the Professor. It was weird. I got back and the second tower came down. For those who don't remember very well, the whole country just stopped, just shut down.

 

The Super Bowl w/ U2 playing at half time was the best half time performance ever.

It was also a bright sunny day in Cincinnati that day. I was helping a driver in and person where we were had it on radio. One thing I remember is how eerie it was with no air traffic for a few days after, and then finally seeing a plane in the sky.

I highly recommend watching the 102 Minutes That Changed America special on the History Channel tonight. It's very powerful.

Same, in HS sitting in a math class.

 

Lot of that going around.

 

I was a senior at Trinity and sitting in third period: Calculus.

 

It had already been about two hours and no one knew it had happened. Someone came up who had been down at the office and just said casually "Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center". We reacted as if it had been an accident; what would come to be the reality would never have crossed our minds. Went through that class, then fourth period, then lunch... still didn't know the severity of what was happening in New York, D.C. and Pennsylvania.

 

When we sat down for sixth period, an announcement was made about what happened and all the TV sets in the school were turned on. I don't know what my face must have looked like, but I think it was a while before I took a breath. The first image we all saw was a tape of the second tower collapsing.

 

We watched coverage through all of sixth and seventh periods. It was all horrifying. Who could have done this? Why would someone do such a thing? "What can men do against such reckless hate?" I don't know that I spoke one word through those classes.

 

...and then something happened I'll never forget: I went to choir practice. The choir met during eighth period for rehearsal every day. We walked into the music room, sat down and our director walked over to the TV, turned it off and started playing scales for warm-ups. For the next 45 minutes, we sang Christmas carols. Arguably the biggest event of the year for the Trinity Music Department is the Christmas concert. We'd rehearse for it the entire fall semester. And so, on one of the darkest days in this country's history, as people watched in shock or mourned the terrible losses of that day, a strange sound was beginning to emerge out of the second floor of the arts building at Trinity High School...

 

Good Christian men, rejoice

With heart, and soul, and voice;

Now ye need not fear the grave:

Jesus Christ was born to save!

Calls you one, and calls you all,

To gain His everlasting hall:

Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!

 

I'm not sure anything anyone could have done or could have said in that moment would possibly have given me as much grounding -- as much solace -- as sitting with those guys and singing a few hymns. I'd be shocked by the television coverage for days to come and alternate between furious rage at the perpetrators and sorrow for the condition of the world for even longer after that. But in those 45 minutes in that music room, the world stopped turning for a moment -- I'll always be grateful for that and I'll never forget it.

One thing that will always stick with me is all the people who were hanging out of the windows begging for rescue, only they were too far away to receive help. Many of them ended up jumping to their deaths, I can't imagine what that would have been like. That is the image that sticks out to me more than anything from watching coverage that morning, that and all of the paper raining down. Such a surreal scene.

Had just gotten to work a couple minutes after the first plane hit. Had a co-worker telling me about it while we were watching the TV. Gruesome? Yes. But, at the time, thought it was just some horrible accident. (Pilot, controls, etc.) Thought we were watching a "replay", when the 2nd one hit. But then the guy on TV (Shepard Smith?) started saying "what you are seeing is live...a second plane has just hit". You knew. And you knew it was not good.

Heard a brief, but interesting interview with ABC's Sam Donaldson this morning, comparing the 12 year anniversary of Pearl Harbor to today. He said the big difference was, America had fought a war over it...and won. It was over. And even though you were in the middle of the cold war with the Soviet Union, you still felt safe from a future attack from the Japanese. Not so much the case today.

In somewhat chronological order.

 

- Was working out of home office and got a call from a worried mother (was on road about 50% of the time) and turned on TV. Sort of went numb like most.

- Discussed with wife about getting kids out of school. Came to conclusion there was no need. But had the discussion in the middle of dead-end street while talking to other parents.

- Remembered thinking - "things will never the be same after this day." Was right.

- Remembered the response of the people of NY and at the Pentagon. Not the panic and helter-skelter running around you see in movies. People acted with purpose, especially the police and firemen/women. They were in the middle of a incredible tragedy but they did what the had to do - to help, to survive.

- Gave blood the next day. Unfortunately, it was not a critical need.

- Remember the silence of the following days after air traffic was grounded. If you live near an airport you do not realize the relatively constant background noise of planes and jets - till its not there.

- A coworker's sister-in-law was one of the stewardesses on the flights. Have often wondered if she was the head stewardess who was murdered in the cockpit. He was later laid-off as companies reacted to the dampened business cycle afterwards.

- Watched us got to war. At first in Afghanistan (makes sense), then Iraq (makes less sense, especially now). Have wondered if someone simply said - "while we have all those forces over there lets take of some unfinished business". Cynical, yes. But sometimes you wonder the thinking that goes on in the Capital.

- Watched things like the Patriot Act happen. At the time it seemed 'necessary'. But now it seems an erosion of our liberties.

- Often traveled on the PATH train from World Trade over to NJ a few years afterwards on a semi-regular basis. Have walked by ground zero and the surrounding buildings like the small church the survived the collapse. The walls of the PATH train were still broken with holes and rebarb and exposed as you left the station years later. An eyrie reminder of the day.

- Keep thinking how last year we were brutally reminded that 9/11 can still be day where enemies make their mark. Its not over.

 

That's it.

Was at work, one of warehouse people came in and said the radio reported a small plane hitting the tower. We assumed it was an accident. He came in a few mins later told us about the second plane. At that moment we knew it wasn't an accident.

In Our Hearts Forever

 

I have been a Flight Attendant for United Airlines for 25 years. I was on a trip when it happen. These are the friends and co-worker's I lost that day. Not a day goes by that I don't think about it. Thank You for remembering.