In remembrance

To the almost 3000 innocent victims of Sept 11, 2001, we remember you. 

Where were you?

I had just taken an exam on paired t-tests (engineering statistics class)- I remember it was one of those gorgeous mornings, warm, sunny, beautiful.  And then, my friend was in the hallway, "We're under attack!!!"; - we were puzzled, we heard the news.  We came back to our dorm rooms and never left the tv.  We didn't have words.  My friend, who was an art student and had been locked away alone in his studio all day, came in about 2 pm, puzzled why we were all in front of the tv.  One of the pilots went to our Uni and was from our area- we had several memorial services where the marching band played American tunes.  It was all just horrible.

The world remembers, you're not forgotten. 

I was 15 years old when the attacks happened.  I was sitting in my first hour history class, my teacher noticed there were a lot of students out in the halls even though it wasn't passing time yet and went out of the room to see what was going on.  He came back in the room and said the Twin Towers had been attacked and turned the tv on.  I remember sitting in all my classes that day with the television on in the background, some teachers tried to keep lessons going, but in some we just sat there the whole hour and watched the coverage.  I just remember it seemed so surreal and was so hard to comprehend the enormity of what happened in the moment.

I was at work when I heard, in the HR department of a travel industry call center.  Spent the afternoon calling the people we'd just offered jobs to to say the next training class was cancelled.  We were swamped with calls from people cancelling their vacations for days. Since I was hired as a recruiter I nearly lost my job soon after.

I was at work on my job in a mutual funds transfer agent in St Pete, Florida.  Our supervisors got us together in small groups to announce what had happened & that they weren't sure if we'd stay at work through the day or let us go home.

The phones went all quiet (shareholder services) & we were glued to the internet.  It was all still just happening, so I kept trying to ring one of my brothers (who is a commercial airline pilot) - because they had not yet announced which airline carrier(s) had been involved & his flight schedules normally take him all over the US.  Fortunately for my family, he wasn't working that day & his airline wasn't one of those involved.  I rang my other brother too, who lives in the Baltimore/Washington area, to make sure he was okay too.  Then I called my mom & grandma to let them know the guys were okay - both mom & grandma were pretty out of it by then (both about to go into nursing home care) so they didn't really understand what was going on - probably just as well.

IIRC, they let us go home from work early, because the stock market had closed & I think our offices were closed for a day or two as well - coinciding with the stock market closure.  (We generally weren't open for business when the market was closed.)  Business was bad after that & we went through another round of corporate downsizing/restructuring as a result.

I was working in midtown Manhattan. It took me all day to get home. I lived in the southern part of Brooklyn and walked a good part of the way.  I was walking with a coworker who was heavily pregnant.

I was 15 and sitting in my Bio class, when the principal made an announcement about it over the PA. I can't even remember what he said, but all of the teachers turned on the tv and we just watched the news coverage for the rest of class. My dad came to pick me up (as did many other parents) and I remember looking at the log and seeing that he wrote "state of war" as the reason for taking me out of school. I spent the rest of the day at home glued to the television. My parents went to pick up my brother from college, so I was alone with my thoughts for several hours.

I can't believe it's been 10 years. Every time I read or see something about 9/11, I am 15 years old again and right back in that Biology classroom. What a terrible day in American history.

I can't believe it's been 10 years. Every time I read or see something about 9/11, I am 15 years old again and right back in that Biology classroom. What a terrible day in American history.

I was also 15, and sitting in English class. It's the only class where I still vividly remember the seating arrangements. Mr. Manlove received a phone call from another teacher, and turned on the tv almost immediately after the first tower was attacked. We all watched in silence as the second tower was hit.  I couldn't really grasped what it meant then (it's not exactly something you see everyday), and I didn't know how to respond.  With news of the other attacks, we feared that nearby Philadelphia might also be targeted.

It's crazy to think that in the past 10 years, I've graduated highschool, moved from NJ to NC, started and finished college, fallen in love, started and left my first big girl job, moved to england, and am about to finish my masters. I'm still that freshman in english whenever 9/11 is brought up, though.

I was 16, in French class in New Jersey.  There had been rumours circulating about something going on but we didn't really know.  After the 2nd plane hit, the Principal made an announcement over the PA about what was happening and suggested that anyone who's parents worked in the city should go to the office to try to get in contact with them.  So many kids ran out of classrooms crying.  We didn't have any TV, and they had us stay in school for the full day.

When I got home, I turned on the TV.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  I don't remember much from that time in my life, but I remember that day like it was yesterday.  Those feelings, that pit of fear in my stomach.  I can feel it right now just thinking about it.

One of our guidance counselors, who was pregnant, lost her husband.  A couple of students lost family.  Just a terrible, terrible, terrible day.

I was 24 at an HR induction meeting at Georgetown University.  When we came out at after 10am I misheard the receptionist, thinking that the WTO in DC had been hit, not the World Trade Center.  Went to the roof of Lauinger Library (where I worked) and watched the Pentagon on fire, wondered how I was going to get home as my only walking route was past the White House/Capitol, the Mall.  Ended up getting ahold of my housemate who worked in Arlington, we met at Iwo Jima monument to survey the scene, then felt like the only people in the world driving into DC. This was then followed by weeks and months of tanks, security alerts and men with machine guns on the streets of DC. Got home, watched tv and not knowing what else to do, went to a local church (even though I'm not religious) and just cried.

I was working as a civilian contractor at the headquarters of US Army Intelligence at Fort Belvoir, about 15 miles from the Pentagon.  I'd been in a meeting, and when I came out one of my buddies waved me over to the TV and told me what was going on (the 2nd plane had hit a few minutes earlier). 

When the Pentagon was hit a few minutes later, people began leaving the building like it was a sinking ship.  Even though it was all civilians who were leaving, I was still mad that they didn't stay at work.  While it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that we'd be attacked I thought it was pretty unlikely, considering all the other targets in the Washington DC area.  Plus, I wasn't about to let some terrorist scare me out of doing my job.   

We knew the Army would be going to 24 hour operations, so in the mid-afternoon a few of us who were going to do overnight shifts left to go home and try to get some rest.  When I went back at midnight, there were checkpoints set up, soldiers in flack vests and helmets with M-4 rifles, military working dogs, the whole show.  I remember thinking it was a little late for all that.

Mr. Manlove

I can't imagine the amount of snickering from the back of the room that dude has had to endure throughout his career.   

I was at work near Annapolis, MD and my friend in NC emailed me and told me a plane hit the WTC. I thought she was putting me on, then I thought she meant a small commuter plane. It was impossible to access any news website as the servers were all overloaded. We went over to the conference center where there was a TV and we saw the second tower fall. They let us leave early and driving back to Baltimore was eerie. There was almost no traffic and I-97 runs right under the flight pattern into BWI, so you always see planes. There were no planes flying, so it was totally quiet. I sat in my apartment in front of the TV, wishing I could be with my family instead of sitting there alone.

I was teaching at Head Start in Pennsylvania. I had a whispered message saying something was going on and parents might want to pick up their children. No parents came, the radio was on in the kitchen, I avoided finding out details until the children left. I felt it was important for me to go on as normal and not have the young children sense anything was wrong. After they left I listened to the news and then went to work my second job at an after school program. The children there all had heard about it and we simply spent the afternoon talking about it. I didn't put the tv on as I felt these children were too young (5-12 yr olds) to be watching these images without their families there with them.

I then went home and was glued to the tv. I tried to call my mom who was in NJ, I knew my dad was in Florida and I thought he was due to fly home on that day, I wasn't sure his exact plans. It wasn't until much later I heard from my mom (she had gone to church) and found out my dad was still in Florida and had planned on flying the next day, but naturally that was delayed.

I remember being woken up that morning with news of the first plane hitting the towers.  As I walked blurry eyed to the tv, the second plane hit.  I sat in front of the tv all day unable to comprehend the mind of someone planning something like this.  My daughter lived in Manhattan, just a few blocks away from the towers.  I was terrified and unable to reach her by phone.  It took a couple of days for her to contact me.  She had crossed over to Canada just before it happened.  It took her awhile to get home because they immediately shut down the borders. 

I was working at Comcast (in their advertising division).  We had just moved into our new office, so none of the tv's were connected yet.  One of my co-workers and I were the only ones in the department at that moment.  She was listening to Howard Stern and yelled out that the WTC was hit by a plane.  I couldn't believe it and thought it was some seriously sick joke.  We went into one of the directors' offices and hooked up her tv.  We turned on the Today Show and saw the second plane hit, then sat there watching in complete disbelief as the events played out.  I remember thinking that perhaps the first one was an accident of massive proportion, but when the second plane hit, we knew.

I also remember a co-worker of a good friend was in bits as she spent her early morning trying to wake her brother, so he wouldn't miss his flight back to LA that day.  He had gotten drunk at a wedding the night before, so she and her mother kept calling and calling him to make sure he made his flight.  When the planes hit, as far as she knew, he was on the plane.  Needless to say, he missed it.  He got to the airport just after the planes hit.  He was supposed to be on one of those planes and if he was, my husband and I would never have met.  I thank my lucky stars every day that he was not on that plane and that it allowed me to meet one of the greatest men in my life.

I was sitting at my desk at work, checking plane reservations to come to England at the end of the month for a visit (THAT never happened). I had the TV going (worked in the art department, we had lots of media) and saw it happen.

The company I worked for was an engineering company; we did risk assessment. Some of our guys were in the Towers that day (several insurance companies were headquartered there). Because it was so early, several ducked out for coffee and were outside when it hit. I think six didn't make it out.

My boss was among the first non-emergency personnel given a pass to the site to take pictures, some days later. His wife told me he still has nightmares about some of the things he saw (and some of the pictures are forever under lock and key).

The worst thing he told me, though: they had to wear their passes around their necks to enter the danger zone. In the last block leading to the barricades, the families of the missing waved their pictures for him to look at. Scores and scores of them.

I hate this day.