Where were you in 01

[Cremator]

Was asleep from working.  My father woke me up and told me to go fill my truck up with gas because of the price gouging going on.  I later that day purchased my first ar-15.  I was 19.

[wpeters]

I was eight years old.   We were in the mission in San Antonia, Belieze.  Got a call form the states at about 12 CST time.   We packed up and drove to the big town a hour a way so we could watch the tv.    Blew my 8 year old mind that someone would deliberately fly a plane into a sky scraper

[Traveler]

I’d served my country in two war zones, Viet Nam as a Special Forces Medic from Nov 67 through May 69 and on 9/11.  I was on a contract with the Port of Authority of NY & NJ, in their offices,  standing on the 72nd floor looking out  the east side windows towards Kennedy airport  of the North Tower,  thinking what a perfect fall day, “severe clear” in aviation terms, what a great day  when a small dot caught my eye , within a split second it sprouted wings and continues its deadly flight path, I remember thinking it’s too low, it’s not going to clear the building, then it  struck the No1, World Trade Center.
  
The ceiling caved in and everything packed into the ceiling spaces above your head in any modern day office was now piled on top of everyone standing on the floor,  The building rocked  and swayed.  
My Medic Training kicked in and I made my way into the POA’s central office spaces and just listened , it was very still,  I yelled: “does anyone need help?”  through the haze of dust  I could see people starting to push the debris off of them and standing, I started yelling for everyone to move to the stairwell and start down, don’t wait,  I told them a plane hit the building somewhere above us.   One or two people wanted to wait In place for instructions, I remember the February 93 bombing and had decided at that time that I’d be my own decision maker and  I wanted to  get out now.  It took me 97 minutes to  get clear of  the complex and cross over to Broadway when the north tower came down,   the few that waited in place for instructions, were never seen again.

After the first collapse I moved toward a Mount Sini hospital annex on Gold Street and volunteered my medic services,  I spent the remainder of that day washing out people’s eyes and listening to lung sounds for early sings of respiratory distress.   I talked to my wife on a borrowed cell phone and told her I was alright, I loved her and I’d find a way to get home.
That night I caught a ferry that ran between lower Manhattan and my home town of Highlands, NJ where when I stepped off the ferry  was interviewed  by the FBI.  The world had changed and not for the better.  I went home, sat at our kitchen table and cried like a baby in the arms of my wife.

[colmbo]

On the 2nd (my birthday) I was lucky enough to twice fly the B-24 down the Hudson, past the WTC and around the Statue of Liberty.  I had never been in the NYC area, that first time around the statue brought tears to my eyes, it's a symbol of freedom and our nation.  That was a very special flight.

On the 11th we were in Portland, Maine with the Collings Foundation bombers.  When we got to the airport to open the airplanes for the day an airport worker told us "a 737 hit the WTC".  I told the wife no way, CAVU day, probably a general aviation plane.  The wife and I took the van to the shoe store and there a TV was showing the news.  By the time we returned to the airport everything had been shutdown…back to the hotel where we sat and watched things unfold.  My wife and I cried a lot that day, we knew our world was going to change.

[DubiousKB]

I was Getting ready to go to school when the first plane hit.... Then, once at school we all gathered in the gym to watch the rest of the morning unfold...  it changed the way I saw the world.   RIP.

[Someguy63]

I was actually only three years old and don't remember anything.

My aunt was in NY though and after dropping my grandmother to catch a bus to Maryland she thought about going to the top of one of the towers. Luckily she changed her mind.

She remembers seeing the huge cloud of smoke after she arrived at my uncles house in Brooklyn.

[Zerstorer]

Driving like a mad man south of I-77 from my office work to downtown Charlotte to pick up my family.  

My wife worked in the Bank of America Corporate Center at the time (the tallest building in Charlotte) and my then 1 year old son was at a daycare facility in the shadow of that building.  My wife had dropped her car off for work so could not get out of the city.  I ran out of the office and raced down I-77 at 90mph.  I can honestly say it was one of the few times in of my life I actually panicked.

So there I was speeding like mad when I see a cop behind me with lights flashing.  I pull on the side of the road (nearly losing control I might add) but he screams right by me with 20 other local police or state trooper cars in tow. I later found out they were headed to the airport to shut it down...  

A very bad day....but one I will never forget.

[Dichotomy]

That night I caught a ferry that ran between lower Manhattan and my home town of Highlands, NJ where when I stepped off the ferry  was interviewed  by the FBI.  The world had changed and not for the better.  I went home, sat at our kitchen table and cried like a baby in the arms of my wife.

My God    I'm very happy you got out brother  

I had a job I called my 'hobby I get paid for' and was working on a contract.  One of the quotes people said a plane had hit the WTC and I thought 'sheesh an idiot private plane did something stupid' then a little while later she said they were reporting another plane had hit and I immediately thought 'terrorism'.  I took an early lunch, stopped by the store, stocked up on powdered milk, water, and canned goods.  Went to my sons school and got him then went to the house.  I tried to keep him entertained all day as I watched events unfold with my father. 

Living in DFW at the time it was so eerie not to have planes going in and out of the airport for the next few days. 

Personally I'll never forget exactly how I felt that day.  Frightened, angry, wanting to lash out at the people who did this horrible thing.  I'm still surprised that the casualty rate was as low as it was, not that 3000 is a low number, but I figured it would be much much higher.  A lot of people did a lot of heroic things that day. 

Big  to the responders who risked and sadly many lost their lives.
 

[bortas1]

  I just turned on the tv in time to see the 2nd jet hit. wife was taking our son to school . I was watching it all on tv thinking it was a promo to a movie it didn't seem real to me. I was watching all day about it. school was called off and my wife went to get our son from school. I was bewildered about the whole thing. last nite I watched a few shows about it off of nat-geo . so much caious going on in all 3 areas. makes me wonder if we have anything in place to act on it if it happens again.

[bozon]

I was in the Israeli air force in the middle of a large flying exercise. At first I thought it was a prank when someone told me that planes crashed into both WTC buildings. But then the IAF went into high alert and I was able to get to a TV to watch the news. Without going into details, we spent the rest of the night in high alert.

[Nwbie]

On a treadmill taking a stress test as the first plane hit

Walking out of the hospital afterwords amazed at how quiet it was - about 6 miles south of Midway Airport in Chicago burbs - no planes in the sky was really strange..

 
NwBie

[Nypsy]

Standing on the roof of the company I worked at in Bergenfield, NJ watching F-15's fly overhead and the towers burning and falling.

[guncrasher]

at the recruit station only to be told I was too old.



semp

[Copprhed]

At work. I remember first hearing about in on the radio in my truck, and then walking into a lady's home to work on her AC and seeing it unfold on her big screen projection TV. It was damned near impossible to work, since I was crying. It's still the most horrible thing I've witnessed in my life.

[Oldman731]

Sitting in my office, which at that time looked over the south side of Independence Hall.  We had a TV and some radios and so were able to follow the news coverage.

Of course, no one then knew who had sent the planes; the al-Qaeda identification didn't come out until later on.  I looked out around 11 am and saw the National Park Service guards, with their meager pistols, trying to cordon off and defend a very symbolic target in the face of an anticipated enemy onslaught.  Madness.

- oldman (and <S> to Traveler)