Anniversary of 9/11

[arewethereyet]

While it's great fun to see the memes and read the comments regarding last night's "debate", I don't want the anniversary of this dreadful day being forgotten.

People got up and went to work or to catch a flight like any normal day...and then America was knocked back by this act of international terrorism.  People lost, people still suffering the effects, and families torn apart.  

A moment to honor the fallen and the ones still suffering.

[zebo-the-fat]

I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news, on my way to do a normal repair job, heard a news report about an aircraft crashing into the towers, didn't realise how bad it was - expected a small light aircraft like a Cessna or something. It wasn't until I got home a few hours later and saw it on TV that I realised how bad it was (the sight of bodies falling from the towers still makes me shudder all these years later)
I remember saying to my wife "Somebody is going to get nuked" thankfully it never came to that.

[arewethereyet]

I was at work and listening to a morning drive radio show. They announced the first plane hitting the tower and I thought the same thing...small plane went off course. Then they announced the second plane and I went online to see what was going on. Barged into a meeting with the two top guys of the company and told them to turn on the radio because something bad was happening in New York. We were released from work and I spent the day watching and rewatching the news. Being surrounded by military bases, we were on high alert. It just got worse and worse as the day wore on.

[Fireball]

I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news, on my way to do a normal repair job, heard a news report about an aircraft crashing into the towers, didn't realise how bad it was - expected a small light aircraft like a Cessna or something. It wasn't until I got home a few hours later and saw it on TV that I realised how bad it was (the sight of bodies falling from the towers still makes me shudder all these years later)
 I remember saying to my wife "Somebody is going to get nuked" thankfully it never came to that.

I was headed to work when the first plane hit. After the second plane hit, I too was thinking that someone was going to get nuked.

[Angrboda]

I slept late those mornings. I woke up and went on IRC and people were telling me all this stuff about the towers and such, and I thought they were pulling my leg. So I turned on the TV and saw one of the towers on fire.

[The Grand Nudger]

I was in the dfac at ft benning.

[Nanny]

That Tuesday was my first day off before my wedding the following Saturday. I was filling a bird feeder when I got the call to turn on the TV. "What channel?" I asked. "Any one of them" was the response. Awful day.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I lived in SoCal. My girlfriend woke me up with the first plane, and I too waved it off, thinking about the 1945 B-25 crash into the ESB. I went back to sleep. She roused me with the second plane, I got up. I didn't have a TV so I went over to the bar next door to watch there. It was horrifying.

I lived less than 1/4 mile from the PV Gate at NBVC Port Hueneme. The port itself was also of commercial use, and was the only deep-water port between Long Beach and San Francisco. I was definitely concerned, as I lived less than a mile from the quaysides.

[Jackalope]

I lived in Portland with my first wife who was four months pregnant with my son at the time. I was an early riser, and I remember seeing early reports on Yahoo news of a plane hitting WTC. The reports were slim on details so I had no idea what it meant until the second plane hit the other tower. One of the execs set up a TV in a conference room and we spent most of the day watching the news coverage.

I spent the next several obsessed with the news, wasn't really a good thing for my mental health. At the time, I wanted revenge. I feel very differently about all of it now. It's a very somber day for me, not just over the lives lost but also over the collective reaction to it (Patriot Act, global war on terror, xenophobia, etc).

[The Valkyrie]

I was 16.

I woke up at 5am and heard about the attacks on the radio and ran downstairs to watch the live reports on CNN and Sky News.