Remembering 9/11

[Cottontail]

13 years ago, Suzie and I were about to get married.We were set to have our wedding on November 3, not quite 2 full months after the 9/11 attacks.Suzie had her wedding dress made in New York City, so on October 11 we left work at 5 and headed towards New York.

About 6 am we reached Washington DC. Suzie’s dad is in Arlington so we decided to pull over into the Iwo Jima Memorial parking lot and catch a couple hours sleep in the Jeep before the cemetery opened. At 8 we got on the George Washington Parkway to get into Arlington. Well, the roads had all sorts of blockades and cones on them, but surprisingly little security or police protection. I missed the entrance to the cemetery at the roundabout and had to head towards the Pentagon. We finally got a spot to turn around…in one of the parking lots of the Pentagon. No one stopped us, and we didn’t see a single police officer or military patrol. It’s not a great photo. We were hurried, because we were both awestruck and a little scared to be where we were, but we got close. It was certainly the most sobering wrong turn I ever took. I never imagined that we’d see anything in DC or NY that trip. The photo was taken about 8:15 am on October 12, 2001.

Then, a couple days later we were in Staten Island on the way home and took a shot of lower Manhattan. You can’t really tell in the picture because it was a hazy day, but there was still plumes of smoke rising from the ground. The photo was taken midday on October 14.

Let’s pray that we don’t have to go through anything like this in our, or our kid’s lifetimes.

I'm sorry, but since this is a scan, the best I can do it attach the photos as a PDF.

 

[Darky]

I was graduating from my MOS school here in 29 Palms, getting ready to go to my first duty station. The first plane hit while we were checking out, the second hit as we were leaving medical with our records. I knew that my time in the Marine Corps was going to be different than expected. I was one of the fortunate ones, only deployed once and since I was an Air Wing comm maintenance guy, it was an uneventful deployment. It was definitely a day that left a Mark on nearly everyone who was alive and old enough to pay attention.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

i was brushing my teeth and flipped the tv on expecting to watch the price is right before work, ex wife was in the shower. i watched the second plane hit live and dropped the brush on the floor, then dragged her out of the shower to come watch. i'll never forget the complete terror i felt when that plane hit the building.

 

[WB9YZU]

I remember exactly where I was.. all day...

I was working as a shop TV Tech.

There were 5 in-shop tech working with some 20-30 TVs running with the volume at 1/2 or more depending on who was standing around to get a view. The lunchroom had 5-10 people in it at any given moment. Everybody who had a TV on their bench had the news on.

The coverage was on mostly all channels. Every 15minutes the 1st plane hit. Then the talking heads would come on and speculate about whatever the direction they felt this was going, where the Prsident was, and who exactly was in control. Then the 2nd plane hit, and speculative reports came in about a 3rd plane and an attack on the Pentigon. When the speculation turned to Al-Quida, and we all learned much more about the middle east and this disturbed man we had educated, then armed.

The general feeling of everyone around me was of intense disbelief, then of wanting revenge.

It was a long day...

 

[jdjohnson]

I know i wont forget that day. I was heading to one of my MOS school's in NC. Ended up catching a glimps of the second crash on a tv as i walked past a bar in the pittsburg airport. Then they made the call over the loudspeaker that the airport had to be evacuated. Ended up staying in pittsburg for a week until i was able to get back to base. That was a long time to think about what was going to happen once i got back. Alot has changed since that day. I remember exactly what i was doing when i found out that we got bin laden too.

 

[89eliminator]

i was in 7th grade. I will always remember as i was eating breakfast before school, my mom said "its 9/11 today. its a day of emergency". of course this was just a mere observation on the day and month but it has always stuck with me. i found out of the attacks in my science class. I didnt really know why it was happening, i just knew it wasnt good. Having non stop coverage on EVERY channel afterwards was quite the site as well.

 

[kmanxj5050]

I was in 7th grade also, in gym class. We all got sent to another class with a TV and watched it all day. I remember seeing the second plane hit and the buildings fall. Pretty wild.