9/11 Where were you?
 

After a hectic weekend, I turned on the TV and all the 9/11 programs were on the air already.
Took me back to 11 years ago when I went to New York on 9/8/01 for work and my birthday with my wife and my oldest boy.
I was there and it changed my life. Were were you?

Sorry for the bad quality shots, but we didnt have digital camera back then. These are the Kodak prints.
I have some more so I will post as I get a chance to.

It was crazy being in the middle of it!

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Back then I worked in New York City, one block from the Trade Center within Ground Zero. Saw the second plane hit, our building just missed get buried by Trade Center 1, and sadly saw Tower 2 collapse from a few blocks away, over my shoulder as I was running. Needless to say a life changer for me as well.

I was working at a customers house when I heard it on TV. They still thought it was a small plane that hit the first one. After the second one, it was obvious. After watching the towers fall on live TV, I can say with no shame, I wept for those who lost their lives and their families.

I was in my fourth grade English class and my teacher was reading us a story. My principal called her out of the room and when she came back in he was crying. When we asked her why she was crying she just said, "you'll see" and kept on reading. I didn't know what those towers were at that age, but I still remember that moment like it was yesterday. Better than yesterday actually.

I was actually driving around in South Carolina, checking utility lines for the local EMC.

I was working remotely out of my house and learned about the first plane crash, while listening on the radio. I immediately went downstairs and turned on the TV and watched (LIVE) the 2nd plane hit the other building. Very sad and disturbing day I will never forget! My daughter was only (8 days) old when the devastation took place.

It is hard to believe that 11 years have passed as I remember that day very fondly... we had a staff meeting starting on 9/11 and my local peers had gathered in a meeting room while we waited for the out of town folks to arrive. Then the news broke and things got pretty intense as 3 of our remote peers were flying to MKE for this meeting, all of which were airborn when the attacked started. So we were anxiously awaiting more details, especially since one of the guys had just left LaGuardia airport. By late morning we had received a call from all 3, who were forunate to be on unaffected flights... but all ended up landing in a host of remote airport locations. With the airways shut down, they all rented cars and drove back home.

Needless to say, that is one staff meeting I will never forget as we spent the entire week pretty much watching the news along with helping coordinate some of the support our company was offering in the attacked areas.

i was about 11 so i was in class, got home and heard some planes hit some buildings. honestly that was pretty much it. i didnt really know what they were talking about.

Haha me too. Didnt even know what a terrorist was until that day.

I was in 8th grade Social Studies class, every activity in the school stopped immediately. Was a horrifying day!

I was on the way to the Pentagon to finish up a job in the Photo Lab. I was sitting on the WW bridge when the plane hit. Needless to say I didn't get there and I couldn't get my tools for two mounths.

I was in 8th grade history class, the teacher left the classroom for approx. 10 minutes, he came back in and told us something had happened and it would change our lives, throughout the day, students were getting picked up by their parents and we were all wondering what was going on as the school would not release the information. The other thing I remember was the police cars, about 30 miles away to the west, Flight 93 crashed. We looked at the trajectory of the plane and if it would of been in the air a few minutes longer it would of passed just to the south of our house then. I have been to the Flight 93 memorial, it is very sad, but it gives hope that there are people out there who are willing to sacrifice their lives to save another.

I was in the 3rd grade, nobody told us what happened and my mom and dad came to pick me up early. I was just excited to get to go home early, but I remember my mom being pretty distraught when that second plane hit.

Freshman year in highschool, first period, English class.

All the other schools were having their parents come get them and doing air raid drills, but ours made us stay and continue the day normally. Needless to say, we didn't do anything

I was in prison... The muslims were attacked by other inmates once word spread the attackers were muslim. Whole joint went on lock down for 2 weeks.

I was in first block art class senior year of high school. We got word of the trade centers being hit by a plane and turned on the news just in time to see the second tower get hit and all the aftermath from then on. One of those days I'll never forget where I was or what I was doing.

I was in 5th grade! I remember the teacher started crying when she turned the TV on.

11 years old in 6ht grade math class.

I was in 6th grade at the time. My older brother and I used to watch the news before leaving to school. That day, I was just getting out of the shower when he called me over to take a look. I got to watch the second plane hit the WTC. That scene totally shocked me, as I had seen something terrible that hopefully no one will ever have to see or live through again. Later when I got to school, I was asking friends if they've seen the attacks. No one had any idea of what I was talking about. The school day just went by like any other.

I was doing a welding repair on KA205 column when we got the word that the first plane had hit. We kept working until we heard that a 2nd plane had hit the second tower. I rememeber thinking that we were on some sort of attack. We stopped and went to find out what was going on. We got to a control room and that was when the 3rd plane hit and I knew something was bad wrong. 2nd worst thing I have ever seen. I WILL NEVER FORGET.

I had just moved to new jersey that on the 9th of september. crazy stuff man.

YEP Never Forget!

I was in high school, sitting in German class. I can't believe its been so long.

My wife and I were on vacation, in the hotel getting ready to go to Disneyland. I turned on the tv to GMA a few minutes before the second plane hit while my wife was in the shower and had to tell her. We later went outside with the rest of the tourists because we were all in kind of shock...there were people who didnt know what was going on and then we wandered around L.A. for 2 days because the park was closed. I remember going to a greasy spoon on the second day and it was all over the news...the restaurant is run and frequented mostly by hispanics...some of whom I suspected were illegals...and it was eye opening for me because until then I had thought of them as a separate part of society, but they were just as angry and hurt as we were...if they could have taken the field of battle under the American flag I have no doubt they would have.

Living on maui I woke up to my clock radio around 6:30 which was 12:30 east coast time. The DJ kept talking about planes attacking the towers. It all sounded like a bad morning radio show. Finally turned on the TV and was blown away. I knew immediately that this was very bad. Went to work for a couple of hours then came home and watched the news constantly. Maui felt like a ghost town for the next month, nobody wanted to travel. My sister worked for the army jag corp at the Pentagon. I was relieved she was OK, many coworkers were not. A day where I can remember more in detail than any other day.

Camp Pendleton California...MCT - Marine Combat Training...I had just graduated boot camp...and we weren't told what happened until that evening...I'll never really know exactly what I was doing the moment it happened...I think we were PT'ing.

We knew something was up however because a Light Armored Vehicle unit was across the street from us in Camp Horno and when we got up to PT we saw the entire base come to life...LAVs, machine gun posts...it was crazy.

For us having joined in peacetime, this event forever changed our military career.

I had enlisted in the Marine Corps a month prior during my senior yr in high school, so when i saw that on the tv during school that day I already knew I was going somewhere, didnt know where just I was leaving. Boy was I right Iraq twice Afgan twice and no Kosovo

I was in Tampa on a business trip setting up a new 300+ employee office's servers, PC's and IDF, when we got the news; Was supposed to fly home 2 days later - the guy I flew down with and myself drove our rental car back to Atlanta (v6 Stang btw!) - it was only for local driving as I recall, but Eff that we wanted to be home with our family. In those initial days it was any ones guess what was next. We weren't sure if there would even be gas affordable to get back if we stayed longer given there were no flights at at that time no one said when they'd start up again (gas prices went nuts for a while, before regulators came in and handed the doomsday scalpers their asses).

Having been in New York just 6 months previous in Dec 2000 for Christmas, and having captured my own photos of the towers and feeling the awesomeness of New York for the first time, I feel lucky to have seen them first hand and realized just how massive and an incredible feat of engineering any skyscraper is - up close and personal.

RIP all those firefighters, policemen and women, and all those trying to save lives that day that lost their own; doing their jobs. True every day American Heros.

I'm Hispanic - first generation born in the US - and growing up around mostly Hispanics, I can tell you that the majority come to respect and love the United States just as much, if not, even more than they do their home countries. I don't wanna get political and don't mean to get away from the original topic, but I can guarantee you that if they could bring their whole families, they wouldn't even miss their home countries.

Strange how something like that can cause you to pin point your exact moment, what we were doing, who we were with, etc. Although this is not Memorial or Veteran's day, I think this entire country needs to remember that tomorrow marks a day even larger than the attack on Pearl Harbor in my book. There really is true, absolute evil in this world that wants to see us die. I can never even come up with the words to say to the men and women, both past and present who protect my freedom from that. A humble thank you is all I have to offer. I am proud to be an American citizen. If that offends anyone, I do not care. God bless the United States of America.

+100000000000000000000

it was my on my bday :( I was in school when it went down and I just remember the silence....everyone just watched and it was probably one of the scariest/confusing moments of my life. Now I turn 26 tomorrow and that's scary as well.

I was at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in PA. During the attacks, we (ALL 104 nuclear power plants in the US) were placed on lock-down; we were considered by the government to be secondary targets. 11 years later and the industry continues to spend hundreds of millions every year in security upgrades.

Grade 9 here....rocked my world, even in Canada.

I was on the phone ordering rims for my old eclipse, I heard while on hold there was a plane that hit the first world trade center. I couldn't leave the tv for hours. Tons of planes were re routed to our local airport, and even to this day it feels unreal.

I was in 9th grade getting ready to go to school, already knew I was going to be in the Air Force. I was confused at first, my mom was really upset (she was Air Force at the time too) and if she was that upset, I knew things were going to get real. Watching it on TV solidified my desire to join. My dad tried to recommission but he had just missed the age cut off for majors. Did everything he could to try and get back in, but they couldn't waive it. All the folks at my school knew my military background so they were asking a lot of questions that I didn't have the answers to. Definitely felt a lot of rage at that age, now it's just determination. Bin Laden was killed the day I started my tech school, and needless to say I put in every ounce of effort I had to learn my profession. It was a reminder of why I joined. God bless all the first responders, the victims, and their families, and God bless the brothers and sisters in arms around me every day, they all work harder than anyone I've ever met every single day they wake up and I'm glad to serve them.

I was on Deployment in Kosovo. We actually had a TV in our room that got 1 station so I was the first back to the room after working in the motorpool. I switched on the TV just in time to see the 2nd plane hit. I was just standing there in shock when the rest of the guys came in. I have family that worked in the towers. Thankfully they all made it out. I pray for those that didn't.

I'm orignally from NYC and was fortunate two of my family members did not go to work that day (they worked at the WTC). At the time of the incident, I was stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. Was watching TV when they mentioned a plane hit the WTC. At first I thought someone in a small private plane accidently crashed into the WTC, that's when the 2nd plane hit and also heard about the Pentagon being being attacked as well. That moment I knew that we (Army) were going to go to war.

3 years later, came to work and our Company Commander said he had something to tell us and that it would change our lives forever. Our unit had just received orders to take part in the invasion of Iraq. I crossed the Kuwait/Iraq border April 4, 2003.

I cant' recall any other 9/11 events, but last year on 9/11, I was on a dismounted combat patrol (Afghanistan), when a suicide bomber blew himself up about 300 meters in front of us. No one was injured.

Other than that, 9/11 has changed my life entirely (4 combat tours)..

I was off work that day and was watching one of those morning shows (forget which one). They were doing an interview in New York and had the cameras facing out of the building they were in and you could see the towers in the background. All of a sudden I saw this big ball of fire erupt from the first tower hit. Everyone in the interview room saw it and started speculating what hit the tower. The general concensus was that it was a small single engine plane. Then about 10-15 mins later another ball of flame erupts from the second tower. I knew then something bad was happening. The rest is history.