In memory of 9/11.. Where were you?

[wakespeak]

Driving back from a vacation in Destin, FL. Was listening to the radio somewhere in Mississippi with wife and young daughters. We thought it was some kind of radio show at first. Listening to and seeing the country come together as we continued home was amazing.

[FINALLYSATISFIED]

I was still in highschool when this happened, a junior. I then joined the Marine Corps in 2005 to do my part.

[Camaro_Corvette]

In bed asleep

[Badbubba]

At work. Went to the cafeteria, only place with a broadcast tv signal, to view reports of a plane crashing into one of the towers. While watching the coverage and to my amazement, a plane crashed into the other tower. It was a surreal moment, confirming it was no accident. Then to further my disbelief, saw a tower collapse, then the other. Along came the other reports. Pentagon. Shanksville, not too far from me. Started to make me be concerned what's next. Working in basically a very large chemical plant. Could this be a target? Security was almost nonexistent at our facility. During all this time, thinking about the people affected. It was a paralyzing day. Wanted to do something, but what?

Addition: After getting home, looked up at the sky, nothing. There are about 5 local airports and Pgh international. Very strange to see an empty sky, no planes or jet trails. Hope to never see that again.

[fastgun]

I was on a late vacation in Florida. I was sitting by the pool when my wife came out of our room to get me. Was a weird feeling being several hundred miles away from home not knowing how far this was going to go. Fighter jets were flying up and down the beach. A very sad day for America.

[MattSS]

I was in line waiting to check out at what passed for a grocery store in Portsmouth, Dominica, in the south Caribbean. My wife and I had just moved to the third world from bummsville Illinois to begin her medical training. I had two thoughts going through my head... "why the hell don't they have any bread today?" and "why is everyone just standing around staring at the TV?... oh wait... that's normal". At least until I realized that the TV was set to CNN, and those burning buildings weren't part of a movie. Absolutely terrifying.

The local reaction was mixed... some stood with us, others pointed at us Americans and laughed, yelling "Bin Laden! Bin Laden!". One group of Muslim students threw a party. I understand it didn't go well for them.

I'll always remember where I was at that moment, and the moment the Challenger blew up...

[edgehead2000]

I was a freshman in college running from one class to another when the first incident occurred. It wasn't until later that night that I realized what had happened from family. All I could think of was how senseless these hijackers were; I was frustrated trying to understand why they would have done such a thing.

I think that America, as a whole, lost what innocence we had left that day. Prior to September 11, I had spent an entire summer with my oldest sister and brother in law in Germany, exposing myself to the world and gaining an appreciation of how other cultures viewed us. I loved the open interaction that their Spangdahlem air force base had with the local community. There were no fences preventing Germans from mingling on base, we just respected each others space.

Post-9/11, I again visited my sister for winter break and was saddened to new level of airport security and that the entire was base surrounded by a huge gate telling the world to stay out. The open mindedness that personified us prior to the attacks was gone. Heck, the whole world was now close minded and different.

Now 30 years old, I too have become close minded and selfish because of the fact that I have no desire to see us go to war with Syria. I consider myself a humanitarian at heart, I know that there are injured, suffering people half a world away, and that we are suppose to be the 'big brother' of the world but I just want us to focus on us for a while.

[swizlstik]

I was building two homes for Habitat for Humanity. It was a gorgeous day to be working outside. One my workers pulled up to the job site and said one of the towers had been hit. We all did a little freaking out but carried on. She came back a little later and told us that the second one had been hit. After that we all dropped what we were doing cause we all realized it was more than an accident. What the eeriest feeling was, was all the other planes being grounded. The silence that was in the air I'll never forget.

[tramtwo]

In a psych ward trying to kick

[MikeSVX]

I'm active duty Coast Guard. I was stationed on a ship in Baltimore at the time. We were going through maintainence, with contractors on board, overhauling our engines. The work had just started that day. One of the contractors came back onboard, he was on break sitting in his truck, and said we needed to turn on the news. The first tower had just been hit. I headed up to the CO's cabin and turned it on for him to see. We watched the second one get hit live. He called down to the engineers and told them to put the ship back together as quickly as possible. By the time the first tower dropped, I was standing outside the activities command center asking if they had any classified messages to pass to the ship. I saw the both towers drop on a television in the passageway. Within 4 hours, our ship was put back together, our crew had ran home to get anything needed for an exstend deployment and all our systems were lit off and tested, and our CO was reporting our readiness to his bosses. We were dispatched into the harbor to effectivly shut it down. No vessel traffic was allowed. There was a fear that there may have been plans to attack targets near the water with boats. Our ships endurence is listed as 2 weeks. We were underway for a constant 3 months. We would pull into a peir for about an hour to take on fresh water, fuel and food, then pull back out.

After the initial 3 months, we back off a little bit, we stay underway during the day. We would tie up at sunset and then get back underway at sunrise, but even while tied up we had someone on watch monitoring the area for traffic. By this time we actually had 3 small boats under our command as well.

[King Nothing]

I was sleeping and my mom came crying and woke me up "saying we're being attacked" I tried to enlist the next day. RIP all the victims and families of those victims

[LIyellowSS]

I just got off a midnight shift, PD, and was watching the news. I knew i had to go back to work. I dropped my wife and girls off at my mom's so no one would be alone. My father, FDNY, was already at work. I raced back and found myself at the WTC site a few hours later. Seeing it first hand is undesrcibable.
May all the victims of 9/11 rest in eternal peace. There are still victims suffering and dying today from WTC. May God watch over you.
God bless the Unites States of America.

[Big C CamaroSS]

I was working at my uncle's vegetable processing plant. The lady in the lab told me when I went in for a tag. Her son called and told her what he was seeing on TV. I thought it was an accident because I couldn't believe something like that could happen. Every time I went in for a tag, I got updates. I think at first the reporters that it was an accident, but soon enough the truth was realized. It had been a dry summer and the corn crop wasn't to good. The day shift went home early (around 2pm) so the pickers could get a jump on the corn needed for night shift. I was glad to go home so I could see what was happening. I turned on the TV and saw footage of the planes hitting, the burning towers, and the towers falling. I stood there stunned and remember feeling as if I'd been punched in the stomach. My wife and I went on a 5 day trip to NY in 2011. We visited the site and it was a sombre, kinda strange feeling. I'd like to go back again and see the new victims museum (it was being built when we were there). That says a lot because I am NOT a traveler.

[Lord Ryan]

Opening shift at a sportbar type tavern. Lots of TV's playing events in real time. Had a slipped disc in the neck, could barely move. Was really nervous cause I couldn't defend myself. I guess I thought it was going to get all Red Dawn in the streets. To much self medicating back than.