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Where were you???

9K views 45 replies 45 participants last post by  Mark L 
#1 ·
When they attacked us?
Terry and I were in Tulsa OK. on Don Yaw's farm setting up tests in preparation for the Master National. Stunned silence prevailed. We were fairly close to Tinker AFB and soon after we got word several AWACS planes roared off right over us- pretty chilling.
NEVER Forget- or forgive regards
Bubba
 
#28 ·
I was working at Keystone Helicopter where we had contracts to maintain and modify helicopters for PAPD NY&NJ (Port Authority Police Department New York & New Jersey. We had a lot to do keeping those guys in the air as well as the New Jersey State Police fleet.
We also serviced the United States Capitol Park Police who serviced the Pentagon site as well as Maryland State Police.
We were real busy as at the time no aircraft were flying anywhere except military and police.
When no one was flying we had many helicopters flying in and out of our facility near Philly daily.
It was really crazy.
Normally we didn't work on military aircraft but had several Marine VH-1 birds in for unmentionable stuff. VH-1 is the Presidents squadron basically.
We were busy.
 
#29 ·
In the basement of the DNR office I interned at, counting emerald shiners and gizzard shad that had spent a week preserved in a formaldehyde solution. I remember being half loopy from the solution, we were in the basement because it was raining out, and somebody came down and mentioned something about the World Trade Center and plane. I didn't really pay any attention, but my co worker turned on the little one speaker early 80's style radio sitting on the bookshelf and started getting the confused reports on what was going on. At that point, not another minnow was counted and we sat there occasionally looking at each other shaking our heads in disbelief. I went up stairs and everybody was doing the same and I asked about a dozen different people if this was real. It's amazing how you can remember things so clearly (what you were doing, what the weather was, what the room looked like you were in) when events like this happen. A true sign of a significant, life altering moment.
 
#30 ·
I was on my way out to the field with a setter, my boss drove in and told me that the two planes had hit. I went to my peaceful place of training dogs in a field and then watched TV the rest of the day. Everytime I walk into Sheetz gas station and the deep fryers beepers are going off, I flash back to the EPIRB beepers at Ground Zero . I will never forget....
 
#31 ·
I was in my last semester at Auburn University and walked out of a class to see a bunch of people standing in a room with the news on...I asked what was going on and stepped in to watch the second plan hit....I will never forget
 
#32 ·
I was asleep (worked night shift) my dad called and woke me up wondering if I had been called in yet. He told me what was happening and I turned on the news. Got paged not too much later to come in and was standby with my team waiting for whatever might happen next. A very confusing time because nobody had any idea if it was over or just the stat of more attacks.
Interestingly/coincidently we had trained a few months earlier on hostage rescue on commercial airliners.
 
#34 ·
I was in my truck, pulling into the parking lot at the horse barn when the radio mentioned a small plane had hit one of the towers. I went into the lounge and turned on the TV and watched in horror as a second plane hit, then later as the towers collapsed. All my barn help was there too....we were all stunned and in shock.

At lunch, I went home and got out my American flag, usually hung out on appropriate holidays, and put it up in its place on the front of the house. Neighbors were doing the same.
 
#35 ·
Flew from NY to San Diego the day before doing a software implementation. Got to work around 5am PST and my wife called and told me about the first plane and while she was on the phone the second plane hit. I was following the events online and via phone.

With no planes flying I was stuck in San Diego for the weekend and decided to drive to Las Vegas. Vegas was eery. The streets were pretty empty. People stuck there were not gambling. No one was coming in. The casinos shut down a lot of the games and some shows.

Never forget. May God bless the USA!
 
#36 ·
I was a junior in high school. All we did that day was watch tv and freak out because my family couldn't get ahold of my brother who was in the Air Force in the Middle East at the time. I heard this a few days later and it gave me chills

http://youtu.be/O38EHwabch4
 
#37 ·
I just got off from my 7th and final night patrol of the rotation (Maryland State Police-Barrack "I" Easton-Field Operations Bureau). I was sitting on my sofa in the living room updating my patrol manuals with newly issued updates. I was watching the news and winding down for a nap to get rested up for some time off. I watched all of the tragic events unfold, called my wife and waited for the phone to ring. I spent the next 2 days on recall to work patrol/ security in the traffic around the Capitol Beltway and on standby. I will never forget. God Bless America.
 
#38 ·
On 9/11/01, I was a freshman at UT, having been there merely a month. All of us were still trying to figure out how to live on our own, how to be completely self-reliant, and how to deal with the new world we'd been thrust in.

When we woke up that morning, we walked out to the common area and stared at the television, with smoke pouring out of the Pentagon and Twin Towers. We all looked at each other, trying to figure out how we should respond. Do we go to class? Do we call someone? Do we need to go somewhere else, to a safe place? We all made sure we had each other's cell phone numbers, and headed out to the academic buildings to figure things out.

Most buildings had televisions setup in the lobbies, all tuned to news stations. Professors mostly cancelled class that day, but hardly anyone went back to the dorms. Most folks seemed to want to stay in public areas, watching the televisions and not talking much at all. I called home around midday and checked in. It was a very surreal day.

Every generation has a day they'll never forget. Pearl Harbor, JFK assasination, Neal Armstrong's moonwalk, etc. My generation has 9/11.
 
#39 ·
I was coming into town on my way home from night shift at Firestone. I had stopped off at the store and got back into my truck and it started in over the radio, when I got home it was all over the news. I did not sleep all day and work was called off for two weeks. Adam Ward
 
#40 ·
We were driving to the Master National in Oklahoma listening to the radio in the truck. We could not believe it.
Helen
 
#41 ·
Not untypically, in a pub, the "Horn and Trumpet" in Bewdley, Worcestershire.

I'd taken a long walk through the woods from home, and nipped in for a pint of cider and a sandwich. By way of business I knew some of those killed; not bosom buddies but I thought of them as colleagues. We knew one of the waitresses in the restaurant quite well; I think she copped it.

It was a quiet old walk back home.

Eug
 
#42 ·
I was on Rt 66 heading towards Falls Church Va., my parents home. Traffic was backed up and black suv's with blue flashing lights were screaming towards D.C. on the shoulders and medians. I turned on the radio and they reported an aircraft from Dulles was headed toward the Pentagon, then it hit. Wasn't long before the smoke rose over Rt 495. They reported that an aircraft in Pa. was being scrambled on by our fighters. Then they reported it was down. I thought for sure we took it out. When I got to parents home and saw TV they were asking for blood donors to come to Fairfax Hospital. I went. Stood in line for over 3 hours. LOTS of blood donors turned out. We were given clip boards to complete which included medical histories. As I am a cancer survivor I was dismissed.
My flight from Dulles back to Wisconsin was delayed about 4 days. Never forget....
 
#44 ·
#45 ·
I was at work when one of the docs came in and said there was an attack on NY. My boss (whose father lives in NYC) sent everyone home. He NEVER had done that before. I called my son out west and while we were on the phone he walked into a gas station and saw the 2nd plane hit. No mother wants to see their child (albeit an adult) witness something so painful.

I knew that one of my good friends was living in NYC at the time. Her stepmother was a pilot who should have been piloting the plane from Boston to SF, but a fellow pilot asked if he could take the flight and she agreed. My friend didn't know that and assumed the worst. She rushed to the scene and photographed the nightmare. Because of communication being almost nil out of NY, it took her days to realize Dunja was not the pilot on that flight.

VT is only a 7 hour drive to NY. The next few days with nothing but military jets flying over was eery.
This was painful for everyone, but for those who were at the center of it all and lost so many friends, co-workers, neighbors and a way of life it's heart breaking. Simply unforgivable.

M
 
#46 ·
I was assigned to the motor unit at that time, and I was leaving my garage about the time the first plane hit. By the time I got to work, the second plane had just hit the second tower, and I knew without even seeing anything on the news that we were under attack and in my opinion "At War" with whoever it was. I remember being angry at the guys working patrol and the Sgt. who were standing in the briefing room watching the news. I told them if there was ever a time we needed to be a visible presence it was then. (I guess having spent time in the military including a visit to the Gulf during Operation Desert Storm gives you a different view on things then someone who doesn't have that "life experience".)

I went out and only wrote three tickets that day, not many for a motor cop, and spent the rest of the day waiting to be needed for an attack somewhere else. I was never more proud of the uniform I was wearing then that day.

One thing I remember that I thought was incredible was what Starbucks did that day. My wife was a district manager for them at the time, and they closed every one of their stores nationwide, and told their employees to go home and be with their families.

I still have and will always have an American Flag flying in front of my house every day...

Mark
 
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