What were you doing when 9/11 happened?

I was up early watching cnbc asper my regular morn routine. The first plane hit and they said it was a small plane,all i could think of was somebody really screwed up. I called my wife who was in the car heading to work in georgetown(DC) and told her as much,we talked for a few minutes and hung up. The 2nd plane hit and knew immediately that something REALLY bad was occuring. Called my wife again to find out if she was at work yet,she wasn't,she was stuck on key bridge in traffic,i was panicking a little at this point as the plane hit the pentagon right at this time,she told me she could see the plume of it from where she was. A really scary thing happened then,she said "oh sh!t,a white van just stopped and the guy ran out away from it",scared us to death(turns out it was just some guy with a video camera,sheewee). Actually it might be the video that is quite popular and seen on TV pretty often.

She finally got to work and just stayed put. The rest of the day was pretty surreal. A freind who worked in DC left and came to my house,not sure where to go and just wanted to hang out and not go home to an empty house.

Another uneasy thing happened late in the afternoon. We where standing out on the deck and heard this tremendous roar of a plane(s?) approaching,the no fly thing had been into effect long time ago and the noise got louder as it approached. It turned out to be air force one escorted by a few fighter jets,they were flying extremely low,seemed they were buzzing the treetops.

I really don't remember the rest of the evening,as i said it was so surreal and a state of disbelief i suppose. I'll never ever forget that day.

JOHN

I was sleep! My mother called to tell me! I turned on the TV and the second building was on it's way down!

We were packing to leave for Las Vegas to join up with my wife's sister and brother-in-law. Seen the second place hit the tower. I excat words were "we have been hit by a terrorists attack." We sit there for two hours in a daze and just kept staring at the TV.

They were showing the first tower burning on the morning show, but thought it was a small plane that had accidently hit it. I went to work and shortly after I got there a co-worker said a plane had hit the WTC, I said yeah I saw it before I left for work. She said no, it was the other one. My first thought was, How the heck does that happen, 2 in one day? Then the reality started to sink in that neither was an accident. There was a TV brought into the lunch room. I wasn't there when the first tower went down, but I was watching when the second one did.

We had the radio (NPR) I think on in our little office. It was just so scary all day. I could not wait to get home and watch what was going on. It was kind of futile to even be at work that day, because nobody was really getting anything done. I work in a hospital, not a patient care area, so I spent a lot of time running back and forth to the lunch room to actually see for my own eyes what was happening. You just couldn't imagine the enormity of any of it by what you were hearing on the radio.

I was here. (nyc)
I stayed here over night (NYC)
I am still here. (nyc)
It was awful then got worst.

But I do like what they've done with the place.

Worked in 2 WTC on the 93rd floor for 3 years in the 80's

While on career vacation I was working for a car service company. I had dropped someone off earlier that morning at one of the towers (forgot which one). That person was never seen again.

Had one friend who apparently was in the elevator when the plane hit; they found him at the bottom of the shaft. Lost several other friends and one player I used to coach.

Was rehired in late October for a company several blocks away and had to walk past the smoking site for months. It was very eery walking to the subway at night and seeing the hulks of the buildings. The smell didn't go way until the spring.

I will never go to that spot again

ill never forget that smell.

At my job at USDA in Washington about a mile from the Pentagon. We were at a trade show when someone said planes hit the Towers. Most of the buildings are connected underground by tunnels (built during the Cold War, obviously), but instead of taking those, we decided to walk outside since it was such a nice day.

Heard the loud BOOM as the plane hit the Pentagon . Sounded so close my colleague and I instinctively ducked. Saw the smokoe about 10 seconds later. By the time we got back to the office I saw what had happened. My father was a bigwig in the military before he retired, and he always said "WHEN they attack (he never said "if"), get out of the city as fast as you can. You can figure out how to get home from there."

So I jumped on one of the last Metro trains headed out before they shut everything down. I'll always remember this rather large lady yelling "They're gonna blow up the trains!" over and over again. I wish someone had slapped the s*it out of her for causing panic...

Anyway, we had to go under the Pentagon to get south. The train was dead silent. Reagan airport is next to the Pentagon and when we emerged from the tunnel we were at the airport, and there wasn't a soul in sight. One of the eeriest things I've ever seen.

Got as far south as I could go, and there was a guy at the last Metro stop in Springfield who had an SUV. Said he was going to Fredericksburg and he would take anybody who needed a ride. So 5 of us, who were all total strangers, got in and listened to the radio the whole way back. nobody said a word.

It seems like it happened yesterday...

Bushman