I was teaching 1st period Physical Science when a student who was an office aide walked in my room, with a very serious look, and told me to turn on the TV. This was perhaps 15 minutes after the first plane hit. I could tell by the look in his eyes that something significant had happened...and that "science" could wait. We changed classes and my 2nd period Chemistry students came in. During that class, we saw the 2nd plane hit. By 3rd period, every teacher had their TV on and students sort of just walked silently from one class to the other as the bell rang. Students asked questions that I couldn’t answer. We watched one tower fall, and then the other. We learned about the Pentagon…and Shanksville.

 

Several students that sat in my classroom that day would end up serving in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, including the young man that told me to turn on the TV. I can still remember the faces of “my” kids that day. For so many that sat in my desks, that was their last day of childhood.

 

I’ll never forget.

That show just started on the History Channel. I highly recommend watching it...

That show just started on the History Channel. I highly recommend watching it...

 

I got my DVR set

That show just started on the History Channel. I highly recommend watching it...

 

I've never seen most of this footage before. To tell the truth, I don't know how much of this I'm going to be able to take...

I've never seen most of this footage before. To tell the truth, I don't know how much of this I'm going to be able to take...

 

I'm in shambles already and it's just 20 minutes in...this is as real and as powerful as it gets. Of all the specials on 9/11, this is the one that just fills me with outrage and all sorts of other emotions.

What I remember most is the feeling I had that day...what's next? It was so unclear how many planes there were or what other attacks could happen.

 

I had a landscaper scheduled that morning and he showed up right after the 2nd plane hit. I went outside with him for about a minute and told him hey I've got to get back inside. Something big is happening.

 

I was supposed to fly to NYC on 9/13 which felt really weird at the time. I was glad my conference was postponed. When I finally made the trip a few weeks later, a group wanted to go down to ground zero. I couldn't do it. Maybe I should have. Idk.

 

That day made me angry and sad mostly, but later proud that we united (for a short time) as Americans.

Watched 102 Minutes That Changed the World on the History Channel just now. Still has my complete and utter attention the whole program.

 

I was supposed to fly to Portland on either the 12th or the 13th for a Mental Health conference. Probably the only time that funds were available for a bean-counter to go. That fell through.

My wife & I were barely two months married. We were broke, I was without health insurance, & we had to borrow an old, beat up car from my in-laws so that my wife could drive to & from the job she had just started.

 

But at 9:00 or so that morning, none of that mattered. A horrifying day that made me feel small for whining about how tough things were for us financially.

 

However, I loved my country's immediate response to that terrifying event. I remember the United States Senate getting together on the steps of the Capitol Building (I think it was that) & singing, I think, God Bless America.

However, I loved my country's immediate response to that terrifying event. I remember the United States Senate getting together on the steps of the Capitol Building (I think it was that) & singing, I think, God Bless America.

The way our country came together was a comfort at that horrible time.

I thought I'd share this story with you folks. I was actually was going to give it its own thread but after thinking about it, I think it will fit into here.

While sitting on the plane yesterday (9/11) the last person to board was a lady dressed in formal military attire. As we started to take off. The pilot got on and told us we had the honor of carrying Captain Jessica Martin to her final resting place in Rochester NY. She was a recent casualty in her effort to defend our great country. He advised us to look outside of the plane as the Colors were presented in her honor as we taxied down the runway. There was a special container for her personal property and a specialized container which had held her coffin, sitting next to the folks presenting the colors. Upon arrival, the captain of the plane asked that we all remain seated while so her escort could deplane first. Luckily that did not take long as the flight attendant had already moved her up from the back of the plane to first class prior to take off. It was my first experience transporting a deceased soldier. It was a very moving moment, especially considering the day it took place.

I'm wondering if the events of 9/11 never happened, would this hero not have enlisted? Would the escort be wearing a business suit at some random job.

9/11 has never been forgotten and it will forever change the way we live.

RIP Captain Jessica Martin. Thank you for your service.

I thought I'd share this story with you folks. I was actually was going to give it its own thread but after thinking about it, I think it will fit into here.

While sitting on the plane yesterday (9/11) the last person to board was a lady dressed in formal military attire. As we started to take off. The pilot got on and told us we had the honor of carrying Captain Jessica Martin to her final resting place in Rochester NY. She was a recent casualty in her effort to defend our great country. He advised us to look outside of the plane as the Colors were presented in her honor as we taxied down the runway. There was a special container for her personal property and a specialized container which had held her coffin, sitting next to the folks presenting the colors. Upon arrival, the captain of the plane asked that we all remain seated while so her escort could deplane first. Luckily that did not take long as the flight attendant had already moved her up from the back of the plane to first class prior to take off. It was my first experience transporting a deceased soldier. It was a very moving moment, especially considering the day it took place.

I'm wondering if the events of 9/11 never happened, would this hero not have enlisted? Would the escort be wearing a business suit at some random job.

9/11 has never been forgotten and it will forever change the way we live.

RIP Captain Jessica Martin. Thank you for your service.

Wow. Just wow.

Thanks for sharing, TAC.

Verklempt moment.

Yesterday, 9/11, I was having breakfast with my Senior in High School daughter and asked her: "How much of 9/11 do you remember?"

 

Not really any of it, was her response.

 

She was 5 at the time. Pretty soon the young adults of our world will have no direct knowledge of that event or day. It made me feel old.

 

Just thought I'd share.

I was at work and walked into the "Dispatch Floor" at work and saw it on TV. It was shortly after the first plane flew into the tower. all the channels were switched to that and no one knew what was happening. The first thought I had as people were guessing if it was a small plane or not was reading about after WWII when a military plane flew into the Empire State Building, the pics from then looked like it was caused by a small plane but when the facts came out it was something like a bomber it made me wonder if this was a passenger plane instead of being a small plane.

 

My wife at the time worked at the same place I worked and I went to her office to tell her that a plane flew into one of the world trade center towers and she came in to watch on tv. She then called her sister who lived in Manhattan at the time and was at work. Her sister told her she was looking out her office window at the trade center tower and could see the fires etc. Just then we saw the 2nd plane fly into the other tower and her sister screamed on the phone while we saw it on TV the same time. I knew immediately and said out loud it is a terrorist attack.

 

I was so distraught that after about an hour of being glued to the TV I took my lunch and went straight to St Pauls Church in Florence to pray.

 

A day that changed the world we live in forever.

I was teaching 1st period Physical Science when a student who was an office aide walked in my room, with a very serious look, and told me to turn on the TV. This was perhaps 15 minutes after the first plane hit. I could tell by the look in his eyes that something significant had happened...and that "science" could wait. We changed classes and my 2nd period Chemistry students came in. During that class, we saw the 2nd plane hit. By 3rd period, every teacher had their TV on and students sort of just walked silently from one class to the other as the bell rang. Students asked questions that I couldn’t answer. We watched one tower fall, and then the other. We learned about the Pentagon…and Shanksville.

 

Several students that sat in my classroom that day would end up serving in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, including the young man that told me to turn on the TV. I can still remember the faces of “my” kids that day. For so many that sat in my desks, that was their last day of childhood.

 

I’ll never forget.

 

Reading your story of that day I can only think of one thing. How proud we all should be when it's the children who are touched so much by something like this when it happens that they grow up so fast and beomce the ones who go off to foreign soil to defend our rights.

 

One day it is a student sitting in the back of your class that is quiet and you don't hear from that much. the next thing you know, that quiet kid who sat by himself goes off and joins the military because of what he witnessed in your classroom and is goes off to risk his life to make sure you can have another class and teach a group of kids never even realizing that young people who used to fill those seats are now willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for these new kids.

Yesterday, 9/11, I was having breakfast with my Senior in High School daughter and asked her: "How much of 9/11 do you remember?"

 

Not really any of it, was her response.

 

She was 5 at the time. Pretty soon the young adults of our world will have no direct knowledge of that event or day. It made me feel old.

 

Just thought I'd share.

 

My daughter just recently turned 8, so she wasn't alive when it happened. But it was either last year or two years ago on 9/11, my wife & I were watching a special on some channel that showed the chilling images. My daughter came into the room and sat next to me and watched for quite some time. She asked some questions about the events and I did the best I could to answer them. Then she asked me a question that I knew was coming: "Why did those people (the terrorists) do that?" I immediately choked up and gave the best answer I could, explaining the reality of evil.

 

I got choked up because I could see her naively innocent view of our world come crashing down & it absolutely broke my heart. That's easily been the hardest thing for me as a Dad--seeing an innocent being introduced to pure evil for the very first time--and then seeing her become more & more accustomed to that evil with the passing of time.