Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Wanker on September 11, 2003, 08:20:02 AM
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I was at home, goofing off before going into work, practicing a few laps at Brands Hatch in Grand Prix Legends. I had the radio on, and they reported a plane crashing into the WTC. So, I stopped playing and went into my bedroom and turned on CNN. Within a minute, I watched the second plane slam into the undamaged tower.
I sat there completely transfixed for the next four hours. Didn't go to work until noon that day.
Where were you?
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I was delivering Duct work with my buddy listening to every thing unfold on the Howard Stern show live, begging to find a TV some where!
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On holiday in Turkey. Woke up late, breakfasted and then went for a wander down to the local Turkish cybercafe. On the walk there I noticed that in every bar on the way there was a crowd of people around the TV.......found out why when I got online.
Next few hours were spent in the hotel room with BBC world news.
(http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/extern/640697.jpg)
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Fifth avenue and 45th Street...NYC, NY.
I saw it live......
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Was at work, the word spread very fast, we all went to watch the TV and it was unreal when we saw the second AC crash "live" on TV...
One of my strangest moments in life i think.
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At work on the phone with my wife...it came over her radio as she was commuting. Her first task as she arrived at work that day was to organize a team of Burn nurses to fly out to New York.
I was upset so I left work and went home...I'd rather explain to my then-5 year old what had happened than our nanny since no doubt she had the tv on. We ended up going to Costco and replenishing our emergency supplies and I've used this date ever since to rotate our emergency supply stocks.
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Was at work.
Brother and Father had just got home from a morning shift, just after the first plane hit. They saw the second one strike live on TV. They telephoned me - I didn't believe them at first, and neither did anyone I told at work. A strange day.
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I was in AH when some guys on channel 1 started screaming about some plane crash...took me a few mins before i realized they where not kidding.... Some guys was sure they where kidding and started throwing crap around.
Went over to the sofa and stayed there waching CNN the rest of that day.
Cant belive its been 2 years already
Good luck today USA, lets hope the day goes by without any incidents
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I was in my office, when I got an email with a pic from a friend in NY. He was watching it happen. Everyone in the office came in to my office and we borrowed a TV from the library that is 2 floors below us, hooked it up to the cable and watched everything play out.
After about an hour most everyone went home, it was too hard to concentrate after something like that.
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I was just back from school, and saw a newsflash on my local tv.
Then i swithced to CNN and got it all in my face, that day I will remember very well.
It was just to much to absorbe in a few minutes, but now i remember it pretty clearly.
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I was in the office and heading into a meeting when I bumped into my father who said he had just heard two planes had hit the Towers.
I ran to my computer and started to look at the unfolding disaster online.
A sad, horrible day.
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I had just arrived in a small fishing village on the coast of France called Casais near Marsaille for some business strategy meetings. Sort of a retreat so to speak. I had been on an all night flight from DFW to LGW and then on to Marsaille via British Airways. Meetings were to begin the following day. I was drinking a beer and eating a pizza when a coworker got the call on his GSM phone. I just could not believe what I was hearing.
We then finished our food quickly and walked back to the hotel bar where there was a big screen television. It was surreal. I had been there at the WTC several times. I knew people who worked there. Thankfully all made it out but at the time I thought the loss of life was much greater.
I remember visiting Monte Carlo the following weekend but really could not enjoy anything. It's sort of a blur. I remember being in a really cool dance place/bar and some cute girl started a smilling conversation with me but I just wasn't interested in fun. She was from Romania. I never new if she was there for fun as well or maybe working. I told her I was really depressed after everything that happened. I guess she could see it in my eyes. She stayed with me through the next day. I don't even recall her name.
Wish I could easily post a picture of where I was in the south of France...
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i was at home ill while i should have been at school, with a chest infection. Was lying in bed when i got a phone call from my mum telling me something had crashed into the twin towers. I turned on sky news just as the second plane hit the building. :(
Spent the next 2 weeks or so glued to the news.
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Lower Manhattan.
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I was on 20th and Morrison driving into work listening to the radio. That's when they said the second plane had just hit.
MiniD
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It happened at 5:45 here. I hadn't turned on the TV all morning. I got in my car around 6:00am to go to work and the morning dj's were talking about a plane hitting the WTC, I was in shock and just sat in my driveway for a long time. Then I ran in and told my wife to tape CNN the rest of the day. Then I went to work.... and accomplished nothing.
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Was at home piddlin' around (work outta my home) and my wife called from work when the second plane hit. My son and I turned on the TV and watched in disbelief. We were both floored when the first building collapsed. Cancelled my appointments that day, too shocked to work.
I hope I never harden against the emotions still felt when I remember that day. Except the hardness of resolve to persue those responsible to the end of time.
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Just walking off the practice field after morning marching band practice. The first words I heard about the entire event were from my vice principle, addressing my band director.
"The World Trade Center collpased."
Most of my school sat transfixed to TV sets the rest of the day, crying and consoling and panicking and the like. I left and went home and watched CNN for the rest of the day.
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It was around 15:00 here
I still lived at my parents' place, they were in Madrid for the day, my father attended a meeting there with personnel from 25 or 30 foreign embassies and my mother went with him because she was worried about him driving with some recent eye surgery.
So I had lunch with my girlfriend and my brother, and after we finished my brother had some music channel on and didn't want to switch, but he got a phonecall and we got the midday news starting with the black fumes around the first tower, they still were reporting a "small plane accident". Then the second plane crashed and the commentator just had to let scape a swear word...
I called my brother to hang the phone and come, and told my girlfriend to remember what she was doing right then, because she would be asked about it in the next years.
My parents called ten minutes later, and said that there had been a mobile phone beep storm at the meeting and everyone had gone back to their embassy, so they were coming back home.
We had to go back to work, but didn't do much there, just watched TV.
My girlfriend lived alone and felt pretty uneasy, so she stayed with us that night.
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Just getting up - lazy college student. None of the guys I lived with went in - the school basicaly closed because none of the teachers went in either.
The few that had early classes ended up being huddled around TV's in the union.
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watching, capturing and posting it
(http://www.pogbird.com/usa/tower.jpg)
(http://www.pogbird.com/usa/2ndtower.jpg)
(http://www.pogbird.com/usa/pentagon.jpg)
(http://www.pogbird.com/usa/collapse.jpg)
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Arlington, Virginia. Because of the Pentagon Renovation program, our office was relocated to Crystal City, a mile or two away.
By 10:00, the word from on high was that it was probably unsafe for federal employees to be gathered together anywhere so we were directed to go home.
I spent two hours driving the eight miles to my apartment in Alexandria.
The sky was filled with smoke and the streets were lined with people walking to the nearest open metro stop.
I watched as F-16s escorted the remaining aircraft into National Airport. It's odd... you never really notice the noise of air traffic in and out of National... until it stops.
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I was in the carpool lane heading to work....
We got to work and hooked up PCTV products so we could watch the news....
I think we caught the second plane live...
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Was in my office in Amsterdam, My secretary came in and said I need to turn on the TV...Just in time to see the second plane hit the tower.....
strange now that I think about it, my first thought was, someone just signed their own death warrant!
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I was still at the Academy, about to wake up and study for an Aero test I had that morning when my roommate burst into the room and turned on the tv, half-dragged me out of bed and told me what was going on. We sat there and watched as the towers collapsed and the media kept replaying the image of the second plane hitting.
Still had to take the Aero test that morning too, the bastards. Every other department had enough of a heart to reschedule. There were guys in my class with relatives who worked in the WTC that they hadn't been able to get a hold of. I guarantee they didn't care about airfoil design that morning.
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I was home sick and my wife called me to tell me about the first tower so I turned the TV on just in time to see them fall. :(
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Woke up called my buddy as we were to go fly our R/C planes that day. He had told me what happened, I in disbelief told him "yeah right" your full of chit. Turned on the TV then watched TV for the next two hours, skipped all my classes later in the day. Called my buddy and went and flew our airplanes(just to get out of the house). The one thing that stuck in my mind is how eriely quite it was. We had the only "planes" in the air that day.
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Asleep like 50% of the world.
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Was in bed when a friend called and told me what was happening. Turned on the tv and damm, he wasn't kidding. I work at home so I spent the rest of the day watching the tube.
Charon
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Originally posted by Pfunk
The one thing that stuck in my mind is how eriely quite it was. We had the only "planes" in the air that day.
Aye - the lack of any ambient sound from aircraft engines for the weeks following was 'odd.'
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Was in my dorm room, getting ready for class. A friend from the University of Michigan, who I hadn't talked to in probably a year, sent me an IM and told me to turn on the TV. One tower was smoking, but people still weren't sure what was going on.
We sat there, having a discussion of whether it was terrorism or an accident. We came to the conclusion that it was probably no accident... the sky was too clear, and the hit on the building was too well-placed. Our suspicions were confirmed a minute later when the second plane hit.
Spent the rest of the day talking to others in my dorm, and wondering if I should bother going to class.
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I had started my first day of school (ITT) the previous morning of the 10th so I slept in late with my wife. We got a phone call just before 8 am local and was told to turn on the tv. We saw the north tower burning. The sky was clear. How odd, I thought, that a plane could hit the WTC in clear skies and broad daylight. Then the next one hit the south tower. Holy **** I thought. Thats when I knew that it was something far beyond a mere accident. Then we got reports of the Pentagon being hit. Then a plane crashing in Pennsylvania. Thats when I really started to freak a little. It was like WWIII had started and I had no idea what was going on. 2 days later I was sitting in a Navy Reserve recruiting office wanting to know if the navy would re-instate me as a third class petty officer. They said no, we'll make you a second class petty officer so I signed on for a 6 year hitch. I have volunteered twice for active recall and have not been recalled either time. Now, I have finished school and am teetering on whether to start a full time job or for when the phone rings, "SK2, pack your seabag, you're going to XXXXXXX for 12 months! Report to the reserve center in 72 hours." *click
Was a wierd, wierd day. Still think about it a lot.
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Sitting in my office watching morning CNN.. I watched in like everyone else. Total shock....
I no longer have a TV in my office...
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Woke up around 5 am Hawaii time, turned on the TV and there it was. By that time both towers were gone. Woke up my then fiancee and we both watched the news for most of the rest of the day in disbelief, anger. I had a feeling they wouldn't be letting us go to work, so I called to see if any of my coworkers came in. One did get in early, and told me that management was sending everyone that came in home. Pearl, like other military installations went to their highest security alert levels that day and stayed there for a while. Things at work have never been the same since then, probably for the better.
mauser
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I was with Tomato, and we had just finished a walk along the Cornish coastal path from Gorran Haven, finishing up at the fishing village of Mevagissey.
(http://www.alanadsl.legend.yorks.com/mevagisseyharbour3.jpg)
We went to a café and had fish and chips, and the radio was playing - the news was on. It was too indistinct to tell what was being said, but I could hear agitated American voices. Just then, Tomato came back from the ladies room, and I said "Something's happened in America" We got a taxi back to Gorran Haven afterwards, and the taxi driver told us everything. So then we listened to BBC R4 on the car radio. We couldn't believe what we were hearing. I tried to call a certain lady friend in New York to find out more details - couldn't get through on the phone for the next 2 days...
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I was at work, Telecommunications Company. So we had TV's all over the place. The news broke shortly after the 1st plane hit. Then we all watched in horror as the 2nd plane hit. Then the Pentagon...then the airliner crash in a Penn St field... that was it, I went home. Seemed I had this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Next day I requested a voluntary return to active duty from retirement.
Received a few Months later a nice certificate exclaiming what a good American I am to volenteer.... a Thanks, but no thanks...
pffffft... I tossed it out.
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September 2001 was a double tragedy for me and my family. We had taken my father to the hospital on 9/10/01 for a lung biopsy. A spot had been found on one of his lungs during a routine exam xray. The specimen was tested and found to be malignant, so while they had him under, they took some of his lung.
We watched the 9/11 horror from my dad's CCU room as he struggled to breathe. I've never really gotten to mourn those poor souls from that day. My dad died 9/21/01.
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I had just got home from work at1530 here. Sat down and read and ate my dinner, then turned on the news and said to my wife as I always said before then "wonder if anything intresting blew up" Which was the last time I ever said that. Was CNN showing split screen, 1 side WTC other Pentagon.just sorta went into shock and overload the Tower was burning I thought skyscraper fire? then why is smoke so close to ground, then the flash came up about a car bomb that didnt really happen. Im thinking is it WW3? They said planes hit the WTC 1/2 hour ago. They showed the plane and I was thinking about that Clancy book wondering how someone managed to sneak 2 planes in from canada that were R/C controlled then reality hit and I realized that those were regular airlines that musta been hijacked, and I instantly knew then what kind of people were behind it. Spent the rest of the day watching the TV. I know I must of saw the 1st tower collapse but I guess I was so shocked that I never remembered it. When the 2nd fell I was so filled with a white hot rage and sorrow. I wanted to hurt someone responsible for it all. The next day at work they said all Americans could go home but I didnt wish to( I was also the only American there at that time.)
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Driving in to work just listening to the sports report when the radio guy mentioned a small plane hitting the WTC as an interesting bit of sideline news. Then his co-host chimed in and said it was a sunny morning and how odd it sounded. On to different news. Just as I pulled into work the guy came back on with apprehension in his voice and said another plane had just hit the other tower and how we must be under attack. Then I get to my desk turn on the radio and they said a plane had just hit the pentagon and the white house was being evacuated. I went home and heard about another plane crashing.
Gotmy guns out and oiled em up and did a ammo count. Wasnt much else I could do. I thank God I at least had some guns to clean.
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I'll never forget that God forsaken day. I was driving to work and the news was talking about a small private plane that had hit the WTC. I was thinking "what kind of idiot flies a small plane into a huge building, and how did he get near it?" But I really didn't give it much thought.
Got to work and we were pretty busy at that time so I started drawing. I had been working for maybe 5 minutes when I got up to go ask my engineer a question. I got past my cube and 1/2 way past the guy's next to me when I heard on his radio that the 2nd plane had crashed. I stopped mid-step, one foot on the ground the other in the air. I was shocked and litterally stunned. I knew instantly what it meant, there's no way that could be an accident, for 2 planes to hit.
We pulled out the little TV and put on CNN. The whole office was in our meeting room wathcing the little tv. NONE of us expected them to fall, it never even crossed my mind. I remember thinking, "how the heck are the firemen going to fight these fires?" Then the 1st tower went down. I never want to feel what I felt then ever again. I couldn't move, could barely breath or talk. They had been talking on the news how like 40,000 people worked in each tower. So I was initially thinking that we had just seen tens of thousands of people's deaths.
The boss came in shortly and sent everybody home for the day. I went home watched cnn and this board for the rest of the day.
awefull memories :(
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yes, I also remember how odd it was that I saw/heard no planes for 2 weeks afterwards. That was scarey to me...
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My sister called me, and I tuned in just in time to see the second plane hit. I was glued to the TV for the next few hours. My neighbor and I didn't know what was going on, but we both filled out bath tubs with water in case things got worse and there was a problem with city water.
We both did a quick comparison of supplies and decided to stick together and pool our resources if needed, and both loaded our guns. I spent a few minutes going over proper gun usage with my wife in case she needed it. Better to have a gun and not need it then to need it and not have it.
When I finally went to work around noon, I had some stuff in my car (good thing it wasn't searched) in case stuff went sour locally. When I got into the office, everyone was in shock. After a few hours of all of us being glued to the news (the day http://www.cnn.com almost died because of traffic), everyone went home. I picked up non-perishable supplies and water treatment pills on the way home. The next day, I started thinking about things like anthrax, so I bought a case of Pedialite and some particulate masks. Pedialite because severe dehydration is one of the big things that kills ya if you've got one of those diseases, and particulate masks in case there was fire/collapse/etc in LA (where we live) and we needed to go downtown to help.
For almost a year afterwards, I kept obsessing in my mind about what it must have been like on the planes and in the buildings. I saw, clear as day, the hijackings and the moment of impact. I saw the dark hallways of the WTC, filled with dust and the flickering light of fire as people lay burned and semi-conscious. I saw in my mind people forced up against a window by fire making the decision to jump, and imagined myself falling. I saw uninjured people from the top levels trying to figure out a way past the obstructions in the stairways on the levels where the planes hit, then looking upwards in confusion as the structural groans started, then running in panic as each floor above them collapsed. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM closer together until, in their last moment, the ceiling above them crumbles, then blackness.
Even today, whenever I fly on a 767 or 757, I look forward along the length of the cabin and do a little math. At 450-500mph, I ask myself, would the passengers at the back be able to comprehend the destruction rushing towards them as the plane flew into a building?
I don't think I'm the only one, but nobody ever talks about it.
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was home enjoying my day off.
I am just as mad today as i was then:mad:
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woke up to Howard Stern describing the scene live. Thought it was a joke for the first 15 mins.
My Uncle was working in the Pentagon... lost 15 friends.
My cousin was in court downtown NY. She was treated for dust inhalation, she was also interview on Fox News that day.
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I was sleeping. I was awaken by the phone ringing. I just let the recorder pick it up. It started ringing again right away aw nuts work is calling. The computers down I gotta go in early. So I answer it. My mother is on the phone I could feel the stress in her voice. She told me to turn on the TV that we are under attack. What??? Under attack what the hell are you talking about. I reach for the remote turn on the set. The first thing I saw was the 2nd plane hitting. I knew right then and there who was behind it. No question in my mind. I spent the rest of the day like the rest of the civilized world watching the TV. Unable to fathom the kind of animal that would do this. As they replayed it over and over all I could think about was the people. Sitting at their desks just living their lives doing their job. Then a split second later their whole body aflame. I could see the animals in the cockpit chanting allah ackbar allah ackbar.
NEVER FORGET NEVER FORGIVE 9/11
To this day everytime a plane flies over my house I look up and curse Islam.
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My roommate and I at the Academy usually ate breakfast in our room while watching TV before going to class. That morning, Alex happened to turn it to CNN where we saw a smoking tower. My first thought was "What an idiot! I wonder if it was the pilot's fault or the air traffic controller's fault". That feeling remained fixed until I saw the second plane hit and I knew that lightning wasn't about to strike twice.
All my classes that morning were in the Physics department, but we all just hung out in the physics conference room and watched the news. I could barely swallow the lump in my throat as we watched the towers fall.
Every 45 minutes or so, we would be informed of the security level being increased a notch. By lunch I was walking with my ID out, getting my belongings inspected every time I tried to enter a building. The base was shut tight for a couple days and all vehicles were moved away from buildings. The gates were being guarded by SPs carrying M-60s and M-16s instead of M-9s.
The first time I heard an airplane was right after lunch. A pair of F-16s went screaming over the Academy securing the airspace. Over the next few days, the sound of an F-16 was the only engine we heard.
Over the next couple of days, the teachers decreased the focus on academics and talked at length about officership and how it was going to change now that this has happened. They had no idea.
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I was in flight.
Dispatch contacted me and ordered us back on the ground "right now". I didn't like the guy from dispatch as he already has an history of pissing me off. I answered him "fuk you, let me do my work, call me when u are done with your coffee". The moron came back to me very politly and said it was really important, plus I eard all the company planes being called back too.
I landed, and walked furious into the pilot lobby ... to find everyone gathered around the TV. As I looked at the screen, I see one of the twr on fire, and really wonder why everyone is more preoccupied by this rather than "calling back all aircrafts home". With the seconds, the second tower burst into flames from the second plane. While eveybody is screaming I thinking "holly ****".
Then later on the Pentagon got hit, I recall thinking that those terrorists are "awsome". Make so much destruction with so little money using the targetted country's equipment. The idea was brillant! A Special Ops dream.
Then we got sent home, I stopped on the way to my GF work, to see only one twr standing up ... I had an horrible chill in my back, those things u take for granted, NY and his twins.
I went home right away, tuned the TV up and right away the second twr collapsed live ... I remained with my mouth open for a good 5 minutes.
I called my dad in France, he knew about it, he said the news came while he was playing golf, he canceled the game, he was so shaken up.
Then I was out of job for 3 weeks by F.A.A. ruling, later on I was out of job for good because I was forreign and the company didn't want to take a risk. Bad image for the business they said.
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Originally posted by SFRT - Frenchy
I
Then later on the Pentagon got hit, I recall thinking that those terrorists are "awsome". Make so much destruction with so little money using the targetted country's equipment. The idea was brillant!
Get ready to stop, drop, and roll.
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Man, it feels wierd that it was two years ago... I can still remember exactly how I felt, exactly what I was doing, exactly what I said when I found out.
I was asleep, and the phone rang... I turned over and grabbed a pillow and shoved it over my head but the stupid phone kept ringing and ringing for like a minute. So finally, I get up to go answer it, and (wouldn't you know it) I get a dial tone when I pick it up. I turn around to go back to bed and it starts ringing again. So (with a yelled curse word), I turn around and pick it up. My mom said "Somebody just bombed New York!"... I said to her "Are you out of your F***ing mind?" Honest to god, that is exactly what I said to her, strange out I remember it. She works at an elementary school, one of the other teachers had been watching the news during a break and it went around the school like a shot. Apparently the story got changed around some in passing and that is why she thought someone had bombed NYC. I watched the second plane hit on "live" TV, and both of the towers collapsing. Horrible stuff.
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And I will stand by those words. As much as I would like to personally twist Osama's neck like the rest of us in here, and I pray for the 9/11 victims; you have to give him credit, his plan was brillant. Doing so much with so little. A lesson is gorilla warfare.
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It was around 2.00 pm here when I got a phone call from Zeb - had heard from our son that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I turned on a small, portable radio I keep beside my desk and soon heard news of the second plane crashing...... then I knew this wasn't just a tragic accident...... my heart was filled with sorrow and I wasn't able to concentrate on my work for the rest of the day, very little got done. Most of the time was spent listening to news reports and talking to colleagues, until I could go home and watch TV.
I was particularly worried because I knew that Wax, my Hell Gods CO, lived on Long Island and that his work probably took him into the city..... it was with great relief that I saw his name appear on my AIM list later that day. I think I probably felt worse than most in my office due to having made so many friends over there over the previous 3 years.
It certainly put a dampner on the UK Convention which I went to a few days later.
I will never forget.
Flossy
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i was at the barber. at around 9am another customer came in and said "somebody bombed washington".
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I was working for the Bank of America here in London at the time. The first news was that a small private plane had hit the WTC then all our systems started going strange. Spent the rest of the day in disbelief, not doing my job at all, none of us could even if we wanted to.
One thing I remember, the contigency plans put in place by the Bank of America to carry on, business as usual. I didn't think it was bad taste, just amazed how nothing can interupt the world of finance. Considering what had happened, they hardly skipped a beat.
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Originally posted by Trikky
.... the contigency plans put in place by the Bank of America to carry on, business as usual. I didn't think it was bad taste, just amazed how nothing can interupt the world of finance. Considering what had happened, they hardly skipped a beat.
that is good
anything else would a have been a victory for the terrorists ...
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I was in an interview for the job that I have now.
It was at the recruiters office in downtown KC. I was to fly back home to Boston that afternoon. The recruiter walked into the interview and said planes had been hijacked, hit the towers, etc. and that I wouldn't be flying anyway today, let alone Boston.
My first thought was that someone had stolen empty airliners and did this. I just didn't imagine loaded planes being used.
We finished up with the initial interview process, and since I wasn't going to be flying back home, setup follow-up interviews for the next day. As I left downtown KC they were blocking off all intersections to any government buildings.....the place was empty.
I couldn't even get a train ticket back into Boston. On Friday, I finally got a rental car at KCI and drove back to Boston. I met many, many people along I-70, etc. doing the same exact thing as me. It was unbelievable the amount of people driving back to the northeast.
When I returned the rental to Logan, their were one-way rentals parked all over the place. There were literally car-carrying them out to Saugus to make room for more.
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I was in bed, woke up 5 mins. after the first plane hit, went out to living room and sat down watching then the second plane hit, I thought it was a recording until the word LIVE showed up...
Odd how I woke up when the first plane crashed..
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030911/wl_nm/sept11_britain_muhajiroun_dc_1
Any of you brits have an adress for these guys?
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It was afternoon, we're five hours ahead and I was asleep in bed having coming home from the night shift. Woke up around 3:30 pm and flipped on the TV to try and wake myself up. They were showing some stupid disaster movie, called "Attack on New York" or something like that with lousy production values. "Stupid daytime TV", I thought. I changed channels only to find more of the same on every channel and it dawned on me. This was real!
I felt numb and pondered absurdly that the world was ending and I was still in bed. I saw nothing live and am glad of that. Both towers had collapsed by the time I woke up. I thought of my friends in the USA and my time there.
I went to work that night, security had been beefed up. The stars and stripes flies proudly alongside our national flag and we could have been a target too, being an American company. Absurdly my supervisor took me aside and quietly suggested I keep an eye on the guys, making sure they didn't spend too much time in the cafeteria watching events on TV. Talk about lacking a sense of proportion! The world was going to hell and he was worried about production quotas.
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Originally posted by icemaw
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030911/wl_nm/sept11_britain_muhajiroun_dc_1
Any of you brits have an adress for these guys?
Don't worry icemaw, MI5, the CIA and the rest have their addresses. They can't take a p*** without being monitored.
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One followup item, I was supposed to fly from LA to Altanta that afternoon on United for business. The timing was just a little to close, and to this day I wonder if the plane I was supposed to take was one of the LA bound ones that were involved in the attack.
A co-worker of mine was flying back from Europe and about to fly over Nova Scotia when the attack happened. He was reading a book, and the plane suddenly VEERED over and did a 180, hard. No quiet bank, it was an e-sapping power turn at maybe 1-1.5Gs, and the captain came onto the intercom and said that due to an emergency, they would be flying to Geneva. He didn't say what was happening, but my friend said that the door to the flight cabin was then closed and the stewardesses were all standing at intersections of the plane watching everyone like a hawk after a few minutes.
Geneva was full, so they were routed into another airport. All hotels booked, he slept on the floor at the airport for a few days.
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Wind Tunnel lab for the aerodynamics class I was taking.
Now, same day, 2 years later, I am in the same room after having tought the Wind Tunnel lab. Weird coincidences....
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Originally posted by cpxxx
Don't worry icemaw, MI5, the CIA and the rest have their addresses. They can't take a p*** without being monitored.
Oh I am not worried I just want to send them a christmas card!
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I remember it vividly, I was in my Law and Justice class for high school. I was taking all the easy classes as it was my Senior year. We were having a discussion on civic liberties and oddly enough we were discussing Palestine and Isreal because one of the students in the class was Islamic. We never knew what happened until we got to our second hour, just in time to see the first building collapse. We spent all second hour, which was Government just watching CNN and commenting.
My friend made the comment that G.W. was going to go riding into whereever it was with a pickup and a shotgun. It was a weird metaphor, but it somehow fit at the time.
After 2nd hour was lunch so everything went smoothly. Then when we got back to school the bomb threat's started. We had 7 threat's in 5 day's. We didn't have any real classes until almost 2 weeks later. The Islamic guy in the class, dropped out of High School, got his G.E.D. the next day and joined up in the Marine's. I believe he's over in Iraq right now.
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I called in sick that day and went back to sleep. At about 1130 that morning, I woke and went on-line. My home page was a news site. I read, "Both World Trade Center Towers leveled by terrorist." I did a three stooges double-take, rubbed my eyes and read it again, same thing. That woke me up completely. It was like I was trapped in an episode of the twilight zone. It couldn't be real. I ran to my TV and cursed it for taking a few seconds to warm-up. The rest of the day I spend switching from channel to channel in an effort to get every bit of information that I could. Most of the 100+ cable channels were 24 hour news that day.
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I was finishing up a calculus class around 8:40 am CST (9:40 est). Another professor wandered in and told us about it. I skipped the rest of my classes for that day and went straight home... sat infront of the TV all day and night.
After two days, I couldn't watch anymore and forced myself outside. Didn't turn on the tube for about a week after that... I was emotionally exhausted.
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Oh ya and while i was delivering the Duct work they mentioned that one of the WTC AC was a UNITED AC ...... My brother flies for UNITED out of Chicago i was very very worried till i found out he never got off the ground that day for his flight to the east coast.
He live in Louiville and commutes to Chicago where hes stastioned.:eek:
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I'm gonna go play my tape today. What I remember most is the uncertainty. We didn't know what happened in Pennsylvania, or how many planes were highjacked or ... anything for sure. Was there another plane headed for Washington? Did the F-16's shoot one down?
Very surreal day.
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I was at work, where I noticed a couple of people watching a television, and stopped to see the first tower on fire. Then the second tower...then the rest.
I was struck by how well people treated each other that day, and for a couple of days following. Even rush hour traffic felt "nicer". I remember all the flags.
I also remember going outside at night, figuring it would be the only time I would ever see a night sky without airplanes. There were two fighters making a big loop around Detroit.
I remember how soon the whole event was packaged for televison, complete with logo, theme music, and catchy titles.
I remember how soon the whole thing was exploited and distorted by politicians to further their agendas.
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I had the day off work and was playing AH. I heard from someone online that they'd been an accident and a plane had crashed into one of the towers. I switched on Sky News and began flicking between Sky News and CNN. Still talking to everyone else online about it and how some people in NYC could see the smoke. Then whilst watching on live TV I saw the other aircraft impact and then everyone realised it wasn't an accident. US people online began worrying bigtime about friends and family in NY and quickly disappeared. News of more hijacks made the atmosphere even more unbelievable. I don't think I've ever seen anything so spectacular yet tragic in my life - far worse than what I found the worst before, the IRA bombing Rememberance Sunday, Eniskilen.
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I was at work listening to sports on the radio. the local morning show was really funny and all of a sudden they got REAL serious. every day they have a guy named Steve Czaban call in from D.C.
none of them could figure out what was happening then the second plane hit.
"Sports is over"
"yeah i gotto go"
"alright stay safe"
the radio station immediatly cut to some national news feed.
my co-worker and i went outside to look up at the biggest building here in Milwaukee that was 5 short blocks away.
i tried to call my dad in atlanta since i know he had been spending about 50% of his time the last few months in NYC for a business deal.
he was home in Atlanta planing on going to the trade center for a meeting the next day.
14 of his employees were lost in the terrorist act. over 50 people he knew personally died.
i cried.
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Working. Just delivered a bid to a local municipality when I noticed all the city workers glued to the TV. Needless to say I stayed and watched as long as I could. No words were needed, a look of shock was on everyone's face.
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My best friend who works Crisis Management for the city called me to turn on the news immediatly about a plane hitting the World Trade Center.....
As I turned it on, not 3mins later the second one hit...........
The feeling of "WTF" is going on sent a rage through me that I have never felt before in my life. The only thing I could immediatly think of was that this is no accident. And whats about to happen the rest of the day.
My wife got locked down in her school with her kids, our port where I work shut down, and then one thing after the other started shutting down in our town.
Of course the worst of all things is going through my mind....my wife is pregnant and due in 5mos, and what world is my child going to be born in..........
Like many others I know, I watched the news for the next 48-72 hours without sleeping.......wanting to know whats going to happen next......
God Bless our patriots today......and God Speed
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I was sleeping in my bed after a long night of work. My mom kept banging on my door trying to wake me up. I flipped on the tv, saw some smoking buildings then dozed back off. My mom knocked on my door again, waking me up and I said "I dont care if they drop an atomic bomb on DC, quit waking me up!".
I finally decided to get up and get some coffee and see what was going on. The only real emotion I felt watching it unfold was excitement.
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Originally posted by midnight Target
I'm gonna go play my tape today. What I remember most is the uncertainty. We didn't know what happened in Pennsylvania, or how many planes were highjacked or ... anything for sure. Was there another plane headed for Washington? Did the F-16's shoot one down?
Very surreal day.
I had forgotten about that. The uncertainty of the whole day. I kept thinking what's next? NY or LA going to fall under a big mushroom cloud sometime today? It was the first time I ever felt vulnerable and the first time I realized that there are people out there that want me (all of us) dead.
For a short time, maybe a couple of months, I felt complete unity with EVERYBODY in my nation and will most around the world. I can remember the weeks following that I was wondering how long it would last. I also wondered how Bush could go to 90% aproval rating over night, before any response.
I will never forget the pictures of the palestinians dancing in the streets when they got the news, may they all rot in Hell. That started the anger. Better stop now before I go off the deep end again.
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Some of you sparked other memories - details more than anything,
I can remember having multiple TV on (had 4 in the house IIRC) different news channels - I was really taken back by the confusion displayed.
I think at one point, one of the major networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, etc) reported that there were 10-15 airliners not responding to radio coms.
Of course after the Pentagon was hit and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania everyone was speculating that many more planes were still up, unaccounted for, and heading to their targets. Target guesses ranged from The White House in DC to the Liberty Bell in Philly.
Around the time the first tower fell, we started to see the first military aircraft in the sky - odd considering our then location in NE PA isnt close to any airbases I know of. Two pairs of F18's went over our area roughly 5 minutes apart - I suppose they might have come from Willow Grove NAS - but thats almost 60 miles south from where we were - and we're not a straight shot to anywhere.
Took the time to strip and oil the 1911 in some futile gesture to convince myself that I could do something... dunno - guess I felt as though I was sitting on my bellybutton when I should have been helping - having returned from OCS not a month before the attacks - I was rather restless.
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After a 16 hour sleep from 3 days of double shifts I was on 10th street and 2nd Avenue (1.5 miles away) chatting with my Serbian immigrant super on my way back from the corner to pick up some beer. I remember there were some Union construction guys with a huge grey inflatable squatting rat with big teeth picketing the building site of some condos nearby. I heard what sounded like thunder, and thought WTF? Not a cloud in the sky.
I went back to my apartment, cracked a beer (breakfast of champions) and logged onto AH. Somebody mentioned on CH1 one of the Trade Center towers was on fire. Somebody immediately accused Bin Laden and someone else mentioned Pearl Harbour. I could tell it was no joke.
I turned on the local news and watched the coverage for a while and saw the 2nd plane fly in. I debated going downtown to check it out, but decided to go up to the roof (good move).
I couldn't believe when the top half of the first tower disappeared in a plume of smoke. The muffled sound of it hit about 4 seconds later.
The dust started seeping through my windows about 20 minutes later.
Only later did I remember I had some trader friends working for Cantor.
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I was nearing the end of a 24hr shift, my friend called me at the station (it was just before 6am here on the left coast) and told me to turn on the tv, so I did and watched the second plane hit live. I was late getting off work because my relief was on our helicopter on a flight to Reno and when the Faa grounded everything they couldn't leave for a few hrs, till they got special permision.
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I walked into my living room with my toothbrush hanging out of my mouth and i turned on the TV. Good Morning America was on and they had a picture of the Twin Towers and the first Tower was smoking and they were saying that a small plane or something had crashed into it. I couldnt belive what i was looking at. I remember looking at the massive hole in the side thinking "A tiny plane couldnt have inflicted THAT much damage on that huge building".
When i got to school i went to my first per. class and asked my teacher to turn on the TV and tune it to any news station. Thats when i saw the 2nd plane hit. My entire school saw the buildings collapse, and saw the smoke rising from the Pentagon and the crash in Penn. live.
Will never forget that day.
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I was in Las Vegas attending an exhibition.
I rem coming down the lift at the Hilton to be told the show was cancelled due to a Bomb alert............ it seemed wierd. We have bomb alerts in the UK.......they dont have them in the US.
I remember passing a few (in retrospect highly innappropriate) cryptic comments. A n took off to have a look at the strip. ( I had only arrived the Sunday before)
Starting in "Treasure Island" I took some coffee and caught the news developing.........it was early moring Vegas time and the media was just beginning to catch up with what was happening in New York.
Gradually as I went from hotel to hotel down the strip the full import of what had happened unfolded.........I watched the first tower fall in the "Parisien" (or is it the Paris I cant remember now) they were both down by the time I had reached New York New York.
The strip was wierd......it was not busy and was mostly populated by folk who would have been at the show.
That evening I taxied out to where a group of us were "entertaining" my taxi driver had an accent I recognised...........he was a Pakistani who had been raised in Manchester he had taken his US citizen ship the week before...............he was worried.
So I ended up stranded in las Vegas for an extra week my carrier (Virgin) was booked solid (after cancelling my flight and many others) and in the end I shuttled across the States and home via Continental the Wednesday a week later. Fortunately it was company expences and not my own.
During this time however I had missed the UK Aces High Conference which took place on the weekend following 9/11
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my sister wanted to watch tv that morning.........so we turned on the tv. saw them on fire and my mom is like telling my sister we aren't watching what she wants to watch. go to school and it is my friends birthday.......(i was lmao for a stupid reason)day contuined as normal. came home said screw homework and watched the new. theen i go back to school next day and figure out we got no homework LOL.
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Yea, I remember the uncertainty over the number of planes.. I also remember the uncertainty over what got hit. I was watching the news, my mom was watching the news and she'd keep calling home saying she'd seen that there were still like 20 airliners up in the air that weren't responding to the recall and if I had seen that too, and other stuff. I remember she said that Los Angeles or San Francisco had gotten hit, that the White House had gotten hit, that all kinds of **** had gotten hit. There were a lot of rumors flying around that morning.
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Originally posted by Sandman_SBM
Arlington, Virginia. Because of the Pentagon Renovation program, our office was relocated to Crystal City, a mile or two away.
By 10:00, the word from on high was that it was probably unsafe for federal employees to be gathered together anywhere so we were directed to go home.
I spent two hours driving the eight miles to my apartment in Alexandria.
The sky was filled with smoke and the streets were lined with people walking to the nearest open metro stop.
I watched as F-16s escorted the remaining aircraft into National Airport. It's odd... you never really notice the noise of air traffic in and out of National... until it stops.
i know exactly where those two f16s came from cause its not far from where i live (or where i used to live) which was langley AFB and i was at school that day and firast heard about from a 6th grade girl on the activity bus after school cause her mom was at the pentagon when the plane crashed
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Originally posted by Munkii
I remember it vividly, I was in my Law and Justice class for high school. I was taking all the easy classes as it was my Senior year. We were having a discussion on civic liberties and oddly enough we were discussing Palestine and Isreal because one of the students in the class was Islamic. We never knew what happened until we got to our second hour, just in time to see the first building collapse. We spent all second hour, which was Government just watching CNN and commenting.
My friend made the comment that G.W. was going to go riding into whereever it was with a pickup and a shotgun. It was a weird metaphor, but it somehow fit at the time.
After 2nd hour was lunch so everything went smoothly. Then when we got back to school the bomb threat's started. We had 7 threat's in 5 day's. We didn't have any real classes until almost 2 weeks later. The Islamic guy in the class, dropped out of High School, got his G.E.D. the next day and joined up in the Marine's. I believe he's over in Iraq right now.
your high school diploma in your G.E.D. (general education degree) so thats how he joined the marines
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Now that I recall, this seems rather funny... wasn't really at the time...
I can't recall the time but it was maybe fifteen or twenty minutes before we were directed to leave... the chief of staff, a Navy captain, walked in to the office where we were all gathered watching the news. We were all riveted... A mile away from the Pentagon and we knew nothing about the crash there until we saw it on television. Anyway... the Captain walks in and tells us that we can all go home if we like. Of course, nobody moved.
Well... behind the office building is a Hilton Hotel. We can see the back of the hotel, where the service workers enter and exit and where the garbage is collected in one of those big bins that they drop with a tractor truck.
BOOM!
Well... they dropped one of those empty boxes. Imagine a office full of wide eyes and gasps... we each looked at each other in almost perfect unison, we said... "Gotta go!"
By the time we were all packed up and getting out, somebody started to worry about large gatherings of government employees and we we're ordered to leave.
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Originally posted by icemaw
Oh I am not worried I just want to send them a christmas card!
With 15 or 20 razorblades?
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Flying in Aces High Actually.
Someone came across on channel 1
who had a tv in the same room.
I alt F4'd out & turn on CNN.
Was stuck there in Living room for the next 3 days watching.
Time fly's by so fast.
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Was in Rifle Colorado, with a Helicopter on a Seismic operation.
We were grounded for 6 days. And not one word about losing "revenue flying" was spoken.
Such a terrible action, perpetrated by the utmost of cowards.
Say what you will about "America", but know that they are one of the reasons we, who do, live in freedom.
I am retired Canadian Airforce, and I will stand shoulder to shoulder with my brother.
My American friends, you have my thoughts and thanks with you today.
RTR
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My wife and I were getting ready for work. I was headed downstairs to tell my then almost 5 year old son "love you son, bye." like I do every day. My wife had just turned the "Today Show" on and was watching some fashion thing I think and as I am going down the stairs she says "Hurry turn the channel downstairs before you go!" Well I had to interrupt my son's cartoon Clifford for and said "It will only be for a minute. I need to see the news really quick." Then I sit there in disbelief and watched the second airliner crash into the tower. I knew right then that my son and I had witnessed the changing of the world as we knew it. Then my son asked me..."Dad why did those bad men have to crash that plane and kill those people?" From a kid not quite 5. I couldn't answer him but grabbed him and held on for dear life. I just knew that if I let him go the world was done. For the next year I felt I had made the worst decision I could have ever done by exposing him to something so emotionally destructive.
I know now that he fully understood that the men who did the deed were bad men according to him. And that not all people in the world are bad when they don't agree with our principles as a nation.
Then I went on to work and when we got there everyone was coming into the office to ask me what had happened. I logged on here to get updates and then saw on a tv that showed up the first tower falling. We got 0 phone calls except for our German boss who was supposed to be flying from Frankfurt to Atlanta. He called that afternoon and said "They turned us around over England and we came back. I don't know when I will be there."
I left work about 3 p.m. and went to the local recruiting station (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard) to see if the USA could use an old (30) broken down football player. I was politely told by each branch of the military that I was medically disqualified due to having reconstructive knee surgery. Talk about a huge letdown to a man who wanted to just do something to help out his country. Now when I see someone I know who is in the military or any man or woman in uniform and offer my thanks and support to them and their family. Without people like them we would not be the nation we are today.
That night we went to a prayer service at church. It was moving and very somber but had a vibe of anger that I have never experienced before then. People may have been praying for our country but they were also praying for the destruction of a group of people. While I don't agree with that I do believe that all those who celebrated the death of thousands will pay dearly in whichever afterlife they believe in.
God Bless America and all our friends around the world. Even those that disagree with us from time to time. Thanks to all our friends around the world who still think about our nation and people on this day.
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Just for crumb ya think maybe when he said awesome he mean it the way you think he does.
awesome
\Awe"some\, a. 1. Causing awe; appalling; awful; as, an awesome sight. --Wright.
2. Expressive of awe or terror.
Take a min to process it.
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Asleep. I'd stayed up till 5am that morning studying javascript for a future project. I was still dead asleep when a friend called 5 times in a row. The second call woke me up, but somewhere around the third call I stuffed my head under the pillows and crashed out again. Woke up about 3pm and got my morning soda. I dunno what it was that made me kick on the news, maybe a gut feelin? Anyway, on went the news and the first thing I saw was a video replay of tower #1 dropping. At first I thought "WTF? Is this some movie promo?". After doing a quick run through the other news channels, I got the idea that somethin really horrid was happening.
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Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School (http://www.worldaccessnet.com/~delta6)
Put the P-61B in Aces High
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I was driving down from Boston to my company's office in Connecticut. I was meant to be in a planning meeting at 9.30am and then go on to a sales call. I'd had a CD on all the way down and when I got to the office it looked deserted. After hunting around I found everyone in the big board room wathing the TV. No-one could quite believe what was going on. The first concern was to find out if our colleagues in the NY office and based at NY clients were fine. Eventually the CEO sent everyone home and I remember driving back along the mass pike with no-one else on the road and jets zooming overhead.
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i was at work, i heard when it happened on Howard Stern. Thank god i listen to the radio. i listened to the howard stern untill he went off the air, then i switched stations untill i went home and watched it on tv the rest of the night.
listeneing to the radio on 911/2003 and hearing the reports and the phone calls is just heart ripping even 2 years later. :(
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I was at my desk when my former manager came charging into my office "A jetliner just hit one of the World Trade Center towers!". I asked him "What? Was it an ATC error? Did they get bad instructions? Was it foul weather?" The idea of it being a deliberate act was incomprehensible.
By 10am I was in line at Wal-Mart buying a AF/FM/TV1/TV2 radio so I could stay informed, because everybody at the office building had jammed up the Internet connections and I couldn't get to the news URLs.
As I returned to my building, I saw everybody leaving. They had closed the site due to security concerns. The office complex is within the flight path of Tampa International Airport and there was a concern that a plane could easily be directed into the site. Several companies have offices here - FedEx, AT&T, IBM, PriceWaterhouse, and American Express Financial Services to name a few. I returned to my office, plugged in my radio, caught some updates and speculation about the attacks, called my wife to let her know I was going to go donate blood, then shut down my PC and closed my office for the day.
As I was leaving, I stopped by the ATM to get some cash for emergency purposes and a lady at the AmEx Financial Services lobby was hanging a sign on the door that they were closing for the day. I remember her vividly. She was middle-aged and had a tissue against her face to dab at the tears and was explaining in a hushed tone to a gentleman in the hallway why they were closing.
By 11am I was at Home Depot standing in line to give blood, along with thousands of others. The local radio stations were donating drinks and food and had loudspeakers set up outside so everybody could get the national news feeds. Standing there in the sun, wearing my work attire, watching the other people's reactions to the news, I made a commitment that every Sept 11th I would donate blood. Unfortunately, that's a commitment I haven't been able to keep. Last year I had a lung infection and this year I have a bad cold. Florida Blood Services won't take blood from sick people.
By 4 pm I was home and my wife was in tears. She had tried to call me at my cell phone but couldn't get ahold of me, and she had gone to the wrong Home Depot location and hadn't found me. She was concerned about me and had feared the worst.
For the rest of the week, we were glued to the continuous, commercial-free, news coverage. I kept my normal work hours on the 12, 13, and 14th in order to minimize the impact of the tragedy on business, but my heart really wasn't in it. I was depressed for the next few weeks. The normal daily concerns seemed extremely trivial. I was going through the motions. There just didn't seem to be any useful purpose to negotiating contracts and meeting sales figures anymore.
I remember one of the bits I saw on the news was a reporter asking about airline travel "When are things going to return to normal?" and I thought "Well that's a pretty stupid question. Never! There's going to be a new 'normalcy' now." And there is.
Then, 2 years later, I was again addicted to the network news coverage. This time, it was the invasion of Iraq.
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thank you GS
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i'm sure when everyone heard the news on AH they all landed their planes and left to watch the news most likely
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in bed asleep...
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Originally posted by PSYKOJR
i'm sure when everyone heard the news on AH they all landed their planes and left to watch the news most likely
It would be interesting to see the logs of conversation on chan1 that morning. It's how I found out about it.
I remember the Americans mostly logged, but some euros and japanese played on. After the towers came down, my phones weren't working. My sister's young family live about 3000 yards from the Capitol in DC and I was desperate to find out if they were OK.
Some anonymous Swedish guy I found on one of the instant WTC forums on IRC called them for me and confirmed they were all right. Too cool.
Thanks anonymous Swedish guy!
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I was hard at work. Then my boss rang from another site and told me what had happenned. I didn't believe him so checked the BBC. I immediately rang my parents to inform them. The whole office spent an hour or two simply stunned. Then we got back to work with determination. Security got real tight - I think but don't recall - that they went from being unarmed to armed. Days later, a torpedo appeared in an office being used for storage down the corridor...
As an aside, I have not actually seen video footage of the events - I didn't have a TV at the time and do not have one to this day.