So Where Were You?
Fred Cole ·
September 11, 2012 at 3:34pm
Today is the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
Where were you that day? When and how did you find out? What are your recollections?
I don't know if there was a thread last year, or any other year, asking this. There probably was, but we get new members all the time, and even if you shared last year, it can not hurt to share again this year.
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Sep '11
Re: So Where Were You?
Goofing off in the office, waiting to start a big project for a unit of Cantor Fitzgerald on Thursday, the 13th. A friend from ABC News called, and said "some idiot just flew a 737 into the World Trade Center--watch the monitor."
We spent the rest of the day aghast--watching the towers collapse. And with it, my project, the client, and--ultimately--my business.
We spent the evening at a church in Allentown (which we subsequently joined) in prayer.
Jun '10
Re: So Where Were You?
I was home all day. I just happened to turn on the TV in the morning, something I rarely do. It was very early in the coverage. Only one building had been hit. TV anchors were still wondering if an air traffic controller had screwed up. Then, I sat in front of the TV for about sixteen more hours. It was probably the only day in my life that I forgot to eat.
May '10
Re: So Where Were You?
It was a gorgeous September morning. I was washing the dishes and listening to the morning news show on the kitchen radio, the normal routine. The host announced it immediately, being in New York. I called my husband, who was in Portland, OR on a business trip and told him he might want to turn on CNN. Details were few. I got in my car to go to my yoga class. The second plane went in; I screamed and started crying. This was not an accident. No one in my class had even heard about the first plane. We held class just like every Tuesday morning. When I got in the car after class both the buildings had fallen. It was surreal.
From there I went to my daughter's school, as I had some PTA responsibilities to attend to. Parents were panicking and pulling their children out of school. We ended up shutting the whole system down and sent the kids home. My daughter was 6. I told her some bad people had attacked New York and blown up some buildings. We turned on the TV and watched a little, until she said it was enough. Surreal.
May '10
Re: So Where Were You?
PS - I have the New York Times from the days that followed. Every year I get them out and make myself look at the pictures. I always cry when I get to the page with the picture of the people falling from the buildings. It still chokes me up and brings tears to my eyes. My husband was a financial industry guy. I had calls from all over the world from friends asking if he was okay. His office was in mid-town, but he lost friends and colleagues. It was horrible.
Dec '10
Re: So Where Were You?
My sister-in-law called and woke me up with the news. I was working evening shift, so I was asleep still when the first one hit. I was awake and watching when the second plane came in. After that I went and got a haircut right before the base police showed up to send all the non-essential people on base away. I was living on base (which by noon was in complete lock down). My biggest recollection was that I would run out of staples in a couple of days (it was right before payday), the commissary would not be open until after things settled down, and there was no way on or off base to get anything. With an infant and a toddler in the house it was pretty worrisome.
Nov '11
Re: So Where Were You?
I was still attending classes at SUNY Plattsburgh. I either didn't have a morning class or I blew it off and slept in.
This was in 2001, back when the History Channel still had history on it, and so I'd leave the TV on all night. Most cable stations switched over to news coverage, picking up some cable news feed, but History wouldn't do that until 3pm. So when I woke up at like noon, it was the regular stuff.
The light on my voice mail was blinking and I had three messages. The first I don't remember, the second was a campus wide voice mail saying that because of the terrorist attacks on NYC, please no unnecessary calls down state. That didn't register with me. The third was from my friend Carla, who knew my habits, telling me to wake up and turn on the TV and look at the news.
So I did, and I saw the Pentagon had been hit. It was another 10 mins until I saw about the World Trade Center. Then I started watching the news for a while.
Jan '11
Re: So Where Were You?
At the time, I worked for MMC, who lost the second-highest number of people that day (behind Cantor Fitzgerald, I believe). Though I worked in Baltimore, I had been in the WTC just a couple weeks before for a meeting. A good friend who sat next to me in the office happened to be in the WTC for a regional meeting that day; he was lost.
As it was, I took the bus into work that day, and it happened to be stuck in a traffic jam. I was late. I was trying to sneak in unnoticed, so I came into the office through the back hallway. It was already past 9:30, and no one was at their cubicle. I buried myself in the database for a while. I may, therefore, have been the last person in the country to know what was going on.The others were all in the conference room trying to watch the news. I only realized something was going on when I heard one of my coworkers crying. I went over to ask if she was OK, and she thought I was an idiot.
Sep '10
Re: So Where Were You?
At the time, I worked for a very large financial services company. I was on a conference call, in Dallas, with people in Boston. Someone from Data Center Operations was on the phone. She mentioned that a plane hit the World Trade Center in New York, and she needed to drop off the call. We continued our conference call, thinking it was a little Cessna or such (as some of the early jumbled reports suggested). When I finally got to CNN's website (the internet was exceedingly, and understandably slow that day), and saw the smoke, I saw it was a big plane. It was only a few minutes later that the second plane hit, and we all instantly realized this was no accident.
My oldest was 2 years old at the time, and I distinctly remember talking to my wife about the world he would grow up in.
I can remember the call, the exact desk I was sitting in, the view out the window (it was a beautiful day in Dallas too), etc. The memories are still very vivid.
Aug '10
Re: So Where Were You?
USSTRATCOM's annual exercise "Global Guardian" was working toward completion and some of our B-52's were preparing to deploy to another base (here in the US) in conjunction with the exercise. I was part of the deployment and was leaving ahead of time with the maintainers to be the Duty Instructor Pilot when the B-52s showed up. I was (at the time) a single dad and my father had come up to look after my 9 yr old son while I was away. We had processed the mobility line at ~0500 and since we were waiting for the airlift to collect us, the services commander decided to allow us to wait in the chow hall - in fact, he kept the food line open for us to get a bite to eat. I was at the end of the line, with the deployment commander when the word came back that a plane had hit the WTC. We all thought it was a Cessna. We had just gotten inside and watched the second airplane hit. I turned to the commander and said, 'we aren't going anywhere today, we're at war'. He was called out immediately after.
May '10
Re: So Where Were You?
Thanks for posting this. It is a memory that still haunts me, and it is important to observe and remember that day.
I had just walked into a class at GWU in downtown DC, when someone said that a plane had struck one of the towers. Someone found a black and white TV, and we huddled around it. While watching the news coverage, we all heard a loud boom. Initial reports said it was a car bomb, but it turned out to be the sound of Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon. All hell broke lose after that. Several of us went out on a 5th floor balcony and could see the black smoke rising from the Pentagon from across the Potomac. One of the professors with us was a Vietnam Vet. I remember him saying, "We're now at war." The streets were swarmed with people with cellphones to their ears and no reception.
Most everyone started leaving, but I stayed for a couple of hours just to take it in. I used the Pentagon Metro stop every day to catch a bus home, so I had to figure out an alternate route anyway. The city grew so silent.
Aug '10
Re: So Where Were You?
(continued from 9) B-52's deployed a few weeks later although I did not go until May of 2002 - when I met Joan.
Edited on September 10, 2012 at 4:26pmMar '11
Re: So Where Were You?
I was debugging some comm software in my office in downtown Chicago and a coworker said that a plane had hit one of the towers. I mentioned that a B-25 had hit the Empire State Building back at the end of WWII, but that had been in heavy fog. I thought it was a small plane at first; some VFR noob must have gotten lost and panicked.
Then she said another plane had hit, and I knew it was no accident.
We were two blocks away from the Sears Tower. No one knew how many planes were involved or what the targets were, so the boss came in and sent us all home. I had to walk around the tower to get to the train station, wondering the whole time if it was targetted too. Every commuter in the Loop was walking to a train station, or waiting to get on the El. All the trains home were local, and there was standing room only for about 2/3rds of the trip. I had a radio and headphones and kept the passengers around me up-to-date on what was happening.
Apr '12
Re: So Where Were You?
I was running late for work. The roofers had shown up unnanounced to replace our roof. While I cleared walls and called the insurance company, my husband turned on the TV to see what they'd been discussing on the radio. It took me a few minutes to remember that my father was flying home from London that day. I didn't know the flights, just American connecting in NYC. Six horrible hours passed before I knew for sure he was safe (sure, the news had ID'd the flights as domestic, but I wasn't resting until I heard his voice).
Although you wouldn't think much of Dayton, we are home to WPAFB (primo nuke target in the Cold War) and had recently hosted the Bosnian Peace Accords. Local news had a field day theorizing we might be next, even reporting a plane had crashed at the VA building (it was actually leaves being burned). We were stressed for our own safety and praying for those already in jeopardy.
Later that night, I went to church for the first time in years. A few months later, I was enrolled in RCIA and on my way to becoming Catholic.
Edited on September 10, 2012 at 10:15pmApr '11
Re: So Where Were You?
That's weird Percival; my experience was eerily similar. I was working in Denver and commuting from Colorado Springs at the time, on a contract with AT&T Broadband. I didn't hear about the first plane until just before the second plane hit, and I was talking about the B52 as well.
Then someone in the office said that a second plane had hit, and we all knew it was no accident.
I called my wife and she had seen the second plane hit on TV.
It was scary.
It was a long trip home that afternoon, I found myself watching the sky all the way home.
The worst part was afterward, watching the documentary by the guys following the Firefighters. The sound of the bodies of the people jumping out of the upper floors hitting. I still affects me to think about it.
Aug '10
Re: So Where Were You?
B-25; Buffs didn't exist then.
Dec '11
Re: So Where Were You?
Head Count detail. US Army.
Nov '11
Re: So Where Were You?
You are invited to elaborate.
Nov '10
Re: So Where Were You?
I had just had my second daughter on the ninth and was on high blood pressure medication. I saw the TV footage in the hospital, but I felt out of it and it took me a long time to actually put it together, that what happened had actually happened in the States. So it did not have the emotional impact on me as it did for others.
Dec '10
Re: So Where Were You?
I thought of the same thing. The B-25 had caused minimal damage to the Empire State Building and I assumed the same for this crash. Couldn't be more wrong.
Edited on September 11, 2012 at 4:07pmFeb '11
Re: So Where Were You?
I was on my way home from work, putting gas in my car outside Hevron. The guy at the gas station said something like "Now the Americans will understand what we live with."
He was ungenerous. He was also wrong.