September 11, 2001: Where were you? (2 Viewers)

I was home while working offshore then, so watched the second plane strike the tower live. This along with the collapses and jumping victims.

This is the only mind numbing event that I can recall witnessing during my lifetime.
 
Morning muster onboard USS Bon Homme Richard. Spent the next 6 days wearing the same underwear anticipating an attack from Mexico way.
 
at home (had just moved back to NO a few months before) doing some grad work and listening to NPR - they said a plane hit the tower and i first thought it was a 2 seater or similar (one had hit the empire state bldg back in the day and that's what i flashed to)

i spent the next few hours just standing in front of the TV

earlier that year, i'd broken up with a longtime on again off again GF who lived in NY - 9/11 brought us back together and started many trips back and forth to NYC - it felt really, really weird up there (not the same kind of weird as Katrina, but in the ballpark)
i was also up there for the blackout of '03, that turned out to be a mostly positive/communal experience, but there was a definite "is it happening again" feeling at the beginning
 
standing at the copy machine helping change toner for a file clerk that I would not remember if she and I had not been hearing that together. We were being told by a runner who I would not remember had he not been giving me that news. It froze those two people, that I did not know for long, in my memory forever.

I got to the tv about one second before the second one hit.
 
running service calls----when the 2nd plane came in i went to the grade school and pulled the kids into my service truck. i worked, they helped----- without ever saying a word about why my only explanation for yanking them outta school was i needed them.
 
Teaching my 8th grade computer class. Brought my class into another teacher's class who had a tv. It reminded me of when I watched the Challenger explode live when our social studies teacher brought the tv into our class so we could watch the launch when I was in high school. We spent quite a while helping our middle school students try to understand what was going on. Lots of scared and upset kids.

They don't prepare you for that kind of lesson in college.
 
I recall camping in my backyard to await the Columbia passing, yet she never arrived. I went inside to turn to CNN to learn of the disaster.

I had watched another shuttle reentry, though at night. This was spectacular. I watched the radar and the shuttle reached Houston from NO in about 5 mins.
 
I was working at home that day. My SIL called me. I remember every random person I talked to that day including that I'm the one that told my niece newly away at college and hadn't yet heard. It's still very "The Day After" surreal.

It also makes me remember where I was for my anniversary 9/10/2001 when I couldn't remember what I did 2 years ago for my anniversary (till Facebook told me and it was almost exactly the same dinner we had last night).

Went to a dinner party a few weeks ago where we did a "Where were you when Kennedy was shot" reminiscence. Only one other person didn't have a story (wasn't born yet. I was in a crib, I assume). I am old and need younger friends apparently.
 
On my way into work as a Marine stationed at MCAS Miramar in San Diego. I had just transferred there from North Carolina and was living in temp housing at MCRD. I was on my way in and was listening to Howard Stern when the second plane hit. Needless to say, there was some heavy action going on when I got to the base.
 
Air Force also. 6 of us were out on a Mississippi farm guarding the site where a training plane had crashed a couple days prior. I got it all over the radio. I flipped through the dial making sure it wasn't a radio prank. The whole thing felt very "War of the Worlds" because of that. No tv, or images until the next day when we got pulled back to the base.

Working at the same Air Base in Mississippi where Uber was. I had worked the day shift on the 10th, but had to fill in for someone that evening. I was getting off the midnight shift and had allowed a conversation to run too long. Someone mentioned the first plane hitting and having been recently trained as an Avionics guy for the guard - my first thought was something had to have really screwed up for that to happen. We flipped the station to the news and moments later the second plane hit. Everyone began to scramble to try to figure out what we needed to be doing to secure the facility - no orders had come down yet, but we knew what was happening. I looked at my supervisor and told him I had to go, my wife and 3 month old son were at the house waiting for me, but if he needed me to stay or come back in to call. Got out the gate and home before the base went into lockdown, woke my wife up and told her what was happening - we sat on the edge of the bed watching the little 13" tv/vcr combo. I don't recall going to sleep that day, just sitting there praying and wondering how the heck people could do something like that.
 
I was at Tulane in first year of Law School (ironically the only other school I had thought about was Yeshiva in NYC because they had offered me a bunch of money to be one of their non-jewish students...what a first semester/month that would have been).

I got out of my car at what wound up being the minute the first plane hit and walked to the law school. By the time I got there everyone knew a plane had hit and thought it was a small commuter and an accident. Went into an 1.5 hour crim law class and when I came out went over to the TV room...I remember asking someone whether they had figured out what happened and he said "both buildings fell". I was like WTH...last i knew a small plane had hit one tower.

Nice side story, we all went to the smoking circle waiting to hear if classes were cancelled and as i was standing there a girl came out with a few other people crying her eyes out because her dad was supposed to be downtown NYC and possibly in the Trade Center and she was worried he could have been dead, hurt etc. I remember vividly thinking " man I wish I could help her." Well i did just the opposite...a month later I asked her out and 2 years later I married her. Poor girl. BTW, her dad was fine and had not gone down there that day after all.
 

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