where were you 9-11-01

[team bradfield]

we were on our first camper vacation, staying in the badlands of south dakota, I had a nextel cell phone for work, no service, I had to check in with the office on a payphone near the office. on the 12th we went to Mount Rushmore and it was closed, all national monuments were closed, the park rangers informed us, we went to a truck stop off i-90 to find out what happened

 

[fla4fun]

I was at work. We heard the initial news, and then we all went into a big conference room without windows to do the company’s annual enrollment presentation. It was storming that day, and every time we heard thunder, we worried it was an explosion.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

I had just flown a plane out of NYC LGA about 8 hours before ....
I was pasted out in bed

 

[MyDogTink]

On Wall Street.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Just a normal work day. It was a Tuesday so I had ESPN on as I got ready so I could watch the highlights from Monday Night Football. I got in the car and my usual music radio station was reporting on it which was odd. I really thought it was a "War of the Worlds" type prank as they were known to do those sorts of things on April 1 on a regular basis - but it wasn't April.

 

[Tigger's ally]

I had just gotten off of a United plane at about 1 a.m. in Chicago that was traveling on to Portland ME. We were coming back from Aurora CO after playing in the ASA Men's National fastpitch championships. Because of my job, I had traveled thru the Portland ME airport many times. The United plane that hit the pentagon the next morning took off from Portland ME bound back to Chicago. I don't figure any of the crew on my flight would have been back up at that time, but I often wondered if the actual plane itself might have been. Would have arrived in Portland at about 5 in the morning. Could have been fueled up and loaded back up easily by the time it took off. Weird thing was, the camera footage that they showed from the Comfort Inn checkout desk with the suspect in it was the same hotel I had stayed at a couple weeks prior.

 

[Ensusieasm]

I was in a campground in Maryland. We were staying there for two weeks so that our son could start high school on time, while waiting to close on our new house after we sold our home in Pennsylvania. It was very unsettling.

 

[Genie+]

The morning WOR channel 9 cartoons were on TV when news interrupted with what appeared to be a small plane hit one of the towers. About 15 minutes live coverage when they said it looks like another plane coming. Next moment static and none of the channels had broadcast capability. Lives lost The next 2 years brought a much kinder public.

 

[kanerf]

Fort Eustis. Got stuck there for a week after the airports shut down.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

I was cooking lunch for daycare I worked at. had the only radio in the building so all the teachers were coming out to find out the latest news from me. slowly parents started coming for kids and we closed early for the day as last child left with parent

 

[barb969]

I was sitting on my couch watching tv.

 

[StageTek]

I was eating breakfast with my GF in her new apartment at Geenwich/Duane - she moved in Sept 1. We saw the first plane hit.

 

[Mercdesman]

K st. in DC. Few blocks from the WH

 

[Caseheidi]

DH and I were newly weds of 6-7 weeks and headed to work (Live on the West Coast). I was driving and turned on the radio. I was not long after the first plane hit, before the second one hit, and we listened to live coverage the rest of the way in. After dropping him off and getting into my office, I turned on my radio to listen (I was the first one in). I remember the rest of the office arriving, and how upset everyone was. One of the boss' brought in a small television, and we spent most the work day watching live coverage. I don't think we had a single client that day, and right after work just became very slow (in the Life Insurance Industry). I also remember one of my coworkers freaking out about her daughter who was in 1st grade, and took the day off to get her out of school because she was worried the school would be attacked. Really had her spooked.

My Husband had a co-worker who was returning from getting married in Romania who was over Greenland at the time. They got turned around and flew back to Amsterdam - the Pilots home town. Listening to his and his new brides experience really gave us a different perspective on things and made it more personal. I remember how we all worried about them for a few days until they were able to finally contact people and let us know they were okay.

 

[FtW Mike]

The morning WOR channel 9 cartoons were on TV when news interrupted with what appeared to be a small plane hit one of the towers. About 15 minutes live coverage when they said it looks like another plane coming. Next moment static and none of the channels had broadcast capability. Lives lost The next 2 years brought a much kinder public.

Genie+, My DW Lucille and I were home in Brooklyn. While I was in the back room working on finishing, an Embroidery Job we had contracted for . Lucille was in the living room watching Channel 5 WNYW. When she came and told me about the 1st plane , I assumed it was a small Prop number that would circle the Harbor and Statue of Liberty. When the 2nd plane hit. I knew we were at war. I told her to turn to Channel 11 WPIX as the had after the 93 Bombing swore the would never abandon using the antenna atop the Empire State Building.. Not the case as things turned out . ( We had Rabbit Ears for free TV.)
I left for work and spent the next 3 day at the MORGUE until we got relieved and could go home., Shower, change clothes grab a bite to eat and go back in for next tour.

 

[jbrostek]

I had just returned from 5 days up in NYC and LI. The first two days of that trip I was interviewing for a job in tower 2 and midtown Manhattan. The rest of the weekend was spent out on LI with family and my niece's baptism. The morning of 9/11 I woke up at home in MD having just driving home and having lunch with and old HS friend in battery park. I turned on the TV just as local news broke into the morning talk shows showing the first plane that hit. At first I thought it was too much fire for a small prop, and maybe a business jet had issues. While watching this I had to get ready, I had an interview at 11am for a gov contracting job. As I watched the 2nd plane had hit the tower and I sat there immobilized in front of the TV. I knew as they replayed this that the plane on my TV was clearly not an accident. I am not sure how much time went by till my phone rang, it was the recruiter for my interview. She was shaken and said that the interview had to be postponed indefinitely. That was just about the time that the local news broke about the pentagon strike.

I was pretty numbed by this all happening on the TV. It felt disconnected even while the images where places I knew and had recently visited. Before the towers collapsed I was able to get a call to my family on LI. I had family that worked in the WTC area and was trying to find out if they where at work yet or not. No one knew and trying to get through to numbers in the area grew difficult. Later on in my efforts to help I figured out why.

After the towers collapsed, most LD service in and around the area was hampered. I know most of lower Manhattan phone service was down as well. Tower 2 held a very large capacity voice/phone switch and it was offline after this burried in tons of rubble. It was about 3 days before I spoke to anyone on the phone up in LI, though I could get emails through. At least I knew the next day that my cousin managed to leave tower 7 before the collapse and that my other cousin was home sick that day and never in danger.

To this day I think about the people I met at my interviews in tower 2, and that I have never spoken to them since. I didn't know or recall all the names to look them up nor do I even want to. I did spend the next several weeks helping in whatever capacity I could including helping to get communications back online in lower Manhattan. That was till these efforts landed me a job and I had to get to work so I could continue to pay my bills (and before I ran out of savings.)

 

[friendofeeyore]

I was at work & we had the radio on. We spent good part of the day in the conference room watching all this on TV. My grandson is a San Antonio fireman. He & my granddaughter did the stair walk Monday.

 

[FtW Mike]

@jbrostek
ATT had a major Junction / Routing facility behind the North Tower and it took major damage. Phone service into and out of the 5 Boroughs as well as some of the surrounding counties were affected. It took my sister in Boston 3 days to get through to us.
The kid that worked for us started calling us at 10am and finally got through at 11pm.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

I was working at the GM Proving Ground in Milford Michigan as a software development engineer. The first plane hit as I was pulling in as it was reported on the BBC. My entire office was in one of the cafeterias watching everything unfold on television. I saw the second plane hit live and then when the towers fell. There were over 100 of us in there and you could've heard a pin drop. Then they shut down the Renaissance Centre (GM's global headquarters in Detroit) and sent us home out of an abundance of caution. What a day that was. Very strange teaching it to students who only learnt about it through history books (my freshmen wouldn't be born for another four years).

 

[Teamubr]

I'm too young to remember.

The folks on here that know me probably just spit on their screen. Actually I was working 12 hours shifts, 3 days a week in the surgery/burn/trauma ICU. I was off that day laying in bed watching the Today Show. Donna was working and I was talking to her relaying it all over the phone as she didn't have a TV at work.

СЛАВА УКРАЇНІ!

Lord Manhammer,

I don't know you, but Thank You! My son is from Ukraine and I still have friends/acquaintances there. He is from Vysokyi, a village outside Kharkiv.

j