The twentieth anniversary of this horrible day in our nation's history is upon us. Everyone here who was past the age of six on that day has a story to tell. This thread is an opportunity for any members who wish to tell us their experience.

In the two decades which have come and gone since, there have been anniveraries of this horror on which I have tried to remember not too much. It can be painful, as anyone who loves this country knows. Other years, I've re-watched all the documentaries, looked at old newscasts which played out in real time, pulled up old photos on my PC, re-read emails I sent and received, and wallowed deeply into it. This year, I'm not so much sad as I am angry. Our sick joke of a president tried to get us out of Afghanistan in a hurry so that he could stand on a podium in front of the parents, spouses, children and friends of those who lost their lives on that day and in the years following, just so he can say some pretty words his speechwriter loaded into his teleprompter. He wants to declare a "victory". Only a leftist could consider the debacle of the AFG pullout a victory.

I don't want this thread to be about Biden or his twisted, America-hating administration. I don't want to see any angry comments about these imbeciles.

You're invited to tell your story, but, let's consider this thread as a wake or a funeral. Everyone here knows how to behave at a funeral. Loud, angry voices have no place at such gatherings.

Other than these things I've noted, tell us anything you wish. Those of you who served during and after September 11th, you, especially, are invited to speak, but all here who remember that day have a voice.

Thank you for beginning this thread Para.

I was just 7 years out of the Marine Corps and had I not just gotten married, I likely would have reenlisted. Not a day goes by that I do not think about the Marine Corps and how different my life would have been had I gone with my first instinct and went back in.

No regrets though…I did my 4 in the Corps, served in Desert Storm, and have been blessed with 2 boys who are far better young men than I could have ever pretended to be at their age.

Every year on 9/11 I rewatch “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”. Most of you have seen it at least once; the anger I feel by the end of the movie after viewing the criminal incompetence and abandonment of our fighting men, fuels my memory of ‘never forgetting’ for another year.

God bless you, America.

I haven’t owned a TV since mine was stolen from storage in 1972 when I went to Korea. On that day, though, I was an emergency services dispatcher and there was a regular TV in the center along with everything else. I therefore watched live what I normally wouldn’t have seen. At the time when the last hijacked aircraft were reportedly still in the air (along with rumors of more) my wife worked for the State Department in downtown DC and one of my brothers occasionally worked as a contractor at the Pentagon.

To the degree that I can in situations like that I avoid worrying about things I cannot affect, but I still have vivid recollections of sitting and wondering how my wife and brother were going to be affected while I was handling the routine calls of my job.

It reminded me of the somber feelings all over the day when JFK was shot. Everybody mostly silent, several tears. Even as a child, I felt these tones, adults everywhere were stunned. As an adult 9/11/2001 when we received the news at work, everything stopped and we were radioed to return to our service center for clarification and updates as they can in, my first emotion was anger and confusion. What a day, God Bless America my home was under attack..

I’m sure my little story is not of much consequence in the larger picture of life but here it is..

On that fateful day my wife had picked up our two son’s from grade school and the older one could see that my wife was upset about what had just happened and said “what’s wrong Mommy?” My wife explained and finished that we were about to go to war. Of course my oldest didn’t really comprehend it but fast forward to today as I type this his unit is getting spun back up and has been told this will be an extended deployment..

God bless our soldiers..

I’d not watched any TV and hadn’t even turned on the radio in my car that morning. I didn’t know a thing had happened until I arrived at work and only the first plane had hit the WTC. There was the notion that it was just an accident, a small plane, etc. Of course, the morning’s events continued to evolve and we all watched TV in a conference room most of that day.

Once the scope of the attack was becoming somewhat clearer, I remember thinking that it was about to be like Beirut and other seemingly far-off places for us, that we’d have bus-bombings and suicide attackers on our own streets after this.

My most vivid memories of that day and the days immediately following were of the sea of American flags one saw, everywhere: in the marketplace, at work, on the road, full-size American flags strapped to vehicles.

May God bless this land and its people.

It was a pretty big deal for me. I was 26 at that time. This was the first real issue that we had as a country that impacted me. The military activities in Eastern Europe, Somalia, etc. I had not paid attention to. At 26 I still had a lot of growing up to do. Things had happened that I should have been more aware of, Reagan getting shot, Mount St. Helens, Clinton Impeachment, all sorts of things that I was too young, or too stupid to have paid attention to. The attacks I witnessed that day, opened my eyes.

I was in the middle of moving. I had been in Dallas Texas, and was moving to Olympia Washington for a second time. I had stopped in Arizona and was helping my dad remodel his house. He was getting remarried in a few weeks and it was a relaxing month of helping out my dad.

I was in the shower. My dad opened the bathroom door slightly and told me my sister called and said a plane hit one of the towers. I assumed it was a small Cessna size plane and an accident. I was out of the shower and in front of the TV pretty quickly. My dad and I watched as the second plane attacked the second tower. Shocked. In disbelief at what I was watching.

I had never felt rage like I felt at that moment. My dad had mentioned some guy who I remembered as Bin Ladel (I was thinking cooking ladel). I walked a block away from the house to a bagel and deli shop that used to be here. I got a bagel and coffee. I headed back to pops house and watched the TV for the rest of the day. It was more than I wanted to see.

In the following days, I picked up a copy of The Arizona Republic newspaper each day. I still have the papers from the days after the attack. They are in pretty amazing condition still to this day. I’ve never opened or handled them much to preserve them. I’m not sure what I’m saving or preserving them for.

This day was a turning point for me. This was the day that I really became a patriot.

One of my memories that I have from that series of events, is the solidarity between Americans. People were a little more polite, a little more kind, a little bit better toward their fellow American. That faded away shortly and things became politically charged again. It sure was nice when people were able to look past the politics and come together.

It was also very eerie. Where I live (central AZ) we are in a lot of flight paths. There are contrails crossing the sky all the time. The days after, there was no sound of a high altitude airliner. No contrails. It was very odd.

Those are my memories of that day in a nutshell. If you want to read a really interesting article about that day, read this. It’s a very interesting perspective and a good read.

https://www.politico.com/magaz...14230/#ixzz4JrUgGxjQ

I was sitting at my desk when a coworker told me a plane had hit the WTC. I too thought it was a small plane and an accident. I was working for a company that made projectors and they had the news on in one of the repair areas. We all gathered in there and watched the second plane hit.

It was a crazy time. We had people all over the world that got stranded and delayed. The stories they told of the kindness of strangers was heartwarming. One guy was coming back from Europe and got diverted to Canada and was stuck in a school gym for several days. Locals were coming by dropping off stuff for them, and even taking people home to eat dinner and be able to wash clothes.

I was doing phone support at the time and we didn’t get any calls for like three days.

I had worked a late shift and was still in bed that morning. My wife (then girlfriend) called from work which was already a little odd, especially since she knew I’d still be asleep. When I answered the phone all she said was, “Turn on the TV.” I asked which channel and she said it didn’t matter. That set off my oh shit alarm. I turned on Foxnews just in time to see the second plane hit. My only response was, “We’re at war.” Spent the rest of the day checking with friends/family in military and LE. I feel like that morning will be vivid in my mind til the he day I check out.

I remember that after the contentious 2000 election with the bad feelings and mistrust, how instantly the country was united, and quickly forgot all the petty things that had seemed like a big deal a day before. Later I thought this must have been what the Pearl Harbor attack felt like. My closest memory was as a child when Kennedy was shot.

I remember walking my dogs after breakfast and a neighbor ran outside to tell me a plane had been crashed into the World Trade Center. I remember the story (around WW2) about the plane that crashed into the Empire State building and thought he was overreacting.
When I got back home and turned the TV on, the second one had just hit and it was obvious this wasn't any accident. The only question at that time was who? I never imagined someone in the desert of Afghanistan could have pulled off something like this.

When I saw the smoke and fire from the building, having some knowledge of building, metallurgy, and structure, my next thought is Oh Shit, those things are going to collapse. Why isn't anybody talking about that?

When the first one finally did, it was clear the second would too. Meanwhile there were jumpers. We've all seen the Hollywood version of war even if we've never experienced it, but to see this real event in real time was pretty shocking to most.

Soon the Pennsylvania and Pentagon crashes were reported and there were stories about a number of other planes hijacked that fortunately proved to be false.

I never watch the news, but that morning I was up early and flipped on the TV prior to work. To this day I have no idea why I was up at 5 am, but I was.

I heard it on in the background and did not really understand what had happened.

My wife and I were in our first home in Portland Oregon, so things had gone really bad by this point. I let the dogs out, paused by the TV and saw what must have been the smoke from the first plane hitting. It would not be until later that I would see the first video of the plane hitting.

I told my wife and put a call into a friend who worked downtown NYC. He lived in Darien CT, and took the train into the City every day.

I went to work. I listened at the chance I got on the radio. Every home or office I was at had the TV on. It seemed as if the whole of the world was in shocked horror.

There were so many stories of car bombs, and other untrue things happening that people just did not know. The news reported anything and everything.

I heard back from my friend that evening, he was fine. The phones were overloaded and our call was cut. I tried to reconnect, but the world was trying to do the same. All I got was a busy signal.

I don't have family or friends that we lost. The tragedy I think shaped my desire to see NYC, and even for my wife to work there. When we moved to CT, it was a different world. My kids were in school with children who lost their mother or father in the collapse. On our street of 23 homes, two families had lost a son or a sibling.

It is an interesting look back, as I have not done a deep look back in over 10 years. The world broke for a day or three, but we stood up and stepped forward and lived on.

Grief is a hard thing even when you have no real connection. My kids, I pray, will never know a day like this one. Yet, looking back at history, I know at sometime it will come.

Thank you Para.

I was Operations Officer in a TICONDEROGA class guided missile cruiser. We were in port in San Diego. I remember very clearly standing on the flight deck at 0545 for officers call (O call). One of the junior Operations Specialists ran right into the middle of O call and said that a plane had just flown into a building in New York. The XO looked at me and I turned to his division officer, an Ensign at the time, who looked mortified to find out exactly why this junior petty officer just ran into the middle of O call. Fortunately, we had a new LDO (Limited Duty Officer - prior enlisted sailor who became an officer in a specific skill) who put his arm around this young man's shoulders and "escorted" him off the flight deck. The rest of us had a small chuckle and got back to business. About two minutes later the LDO walks right up to the XO and says in the voice of Senior Chief Petty Officer (his rank before he became an officer) and told, not suggested, the XO that we were done and needed to get down to the Wardroom RIGHT NOW.

The rest of the day is mostly a blur. I remember small moments from that day.

Naval Station 32nd street being completely devoid of traffic.

Coronado Bay Bridge packed with cars that weren't moving.

Messages coming into Radio with headers I told myself I would never see.

Watching tower 2 fall with the rest of the wardroom.


I will never forget.

I had been in Shelter Island NY visiting friends, and had returned to NYC on 9/9 to say hello to a work colleague before returning to San Francisco on 9/11. We met at Windows on the World for lunch on 9/10, and for some reason I decided to return home a day early - I was scheduled to fly UA 93 from EWR to SFO on 9/11 - but instead paid a change fee and took a red eye on 9/10.

Every 9/11/xx I wonder what made me decide to suffer a red eye flight, and go home a day early.

The sky told the story to me, here in western WV. We are underneath two commercial aviation routes - daily there are crosses formed by contrails going north/south and east/west at this intersection.
But on 9-11-01, there were no contrails that morning. That's when I knew something was wrong in the world. I was out driving, away from TV.
We all know what happened and transpired that morning.
The one thing I can't forget is the sunny -but empty- blue sky.

Can't believe it has been 20 years. I remember that morning very well, of course.

I was a Staff Sergeant assigned to the Command Center at USSTRATCOM (basically, we controlled the nation's strategic nuclear forces). We had a multi-day nation-wide exercise going on, and broke for lunch. The intelligence folks called down to us and stated a plane hit one of the WTC buildings. I immediately thought back to 1942 or so when a B-25 bomber flew into the Empire State Building (heavy fog, and the bomber was lost). Well, we turn on the TVs, and it was a perfect sunny day, with a big gash and smoke coming from the first tower. I called my wife and told her what happened, and she thought it was part of the exercise that I had mistaken for real life (in retrospect, that is kinda funny). Finally, they turned on their TVs and realized what was going on. The office-workers in the main HQ building were not as up-to-date on stuff as we were, since we had a full-time Intelligence Cell reporting directly to us.

I was still trying to figure out how a plane could have 'accidently' collided with such a big building, when we watched live as the second airliner plowed into the other tower. My exact words were "Oh, crap." I IMMEDIATELY knew this was no accident, but a full-scale terror attack. I first had assumed it was a Lear Jet or other small commuter-type aircraft. I saw what could only be a fully-loaded passenger liner with over 100 people onboard die immediately, not even counting the thousands in the two buildings who were dead or dying as I watched.

The phones started ringing immediately, and I took a phone call with the National Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense, the National Military Command Center (at the Pentagon), etc. We were tracking up to a total of 8 airliners that couldn't be confirmed. I heard Vice President Cheney order the military to shoot down civilian airliners that were un-responsive and/or acting suspicious. The FAA issued their grounding order, ordering all commercial aircraft in the US to land. We tracked Air Force 1's location, and like most people, watched President Bush give his address from Barksdale AFB, LA. I recall noticing the Wing Commander (a 1-star general, IIRC) accompany the President, armed with a holstered pistol.

They told us he was flying to the Midwest for secure communications facilities, and we then knew he was coming to our Command Center.

I called my wife, who worked on the 3rd floor of the STRATCOM HQ building (I was 70 feet underground). I told her to leave if she felt it was necessary. She freaked out, thinking I knew something about other airliners that might be targeting her office. At this point, NOBODY knew how many there were, or where they could be heading - I figured a plane rumored to be heading in our direction would maybe target the STRATCOM HQ, as it would represent our nuclear capabilities. I figured they wouldn't try to hit my Command Center (a hole in the ground), as it would lack the visual 'punch' of the WTC, Pentagon, etc. And even if they tried, we were deep enough I wasn't worried about my safety. Eventually, they sent everybody home from upstairs.

Eventually, President Bush came into the Command Center. He was 40 feet away on the other side of some glass windows. Secret Service guys seemed to be everywhere. Needless to say, I had NO IDEA when I left for work that day that anything close to this would happen. I'm a history major, so I thought this must be sort of how it felt to watch the attack on Pearl Harbor. I witnessed the world change, and more importantly, I recognized it as such as it happened.

Eventually, President Bush left. My wife saw F-16s flying combat air patrol over Omaha, Nebraska, as AF1 was parked on our base (I was underground the whole day so I couldn't see this). I NEVER imagined that scenario - armed fighters flying CAP over US soil; specifically, right over my location). The 3rd plane hit the Pentagon, and then the 4th crashed into the field in Pennsylvania. The attacks were over, but of course we didn't know it yet. I finally went home after 6pm (we had a 12 hr shift), and I just walked through the doors of my house and hugged my wife. There were no words.

We walked the dogs that night, and it was creepy that there were no aircraft flying. There was the occasional military aircraft flying into-out of my base, but nothing like 'normal.'

Of course, the events of the next 20 years were unknowable to us then, but we did know that there would always be a 'before' and 'after' for us. Just like we can't go back to December 6, 1941, we can never go back to September 10, 2001. . .

I had flown cross country to the East Coast (New Jersey) via NY for a business meeting. I was supposed to fly back on the 12th...that, of course, didn't happen.

$.02 worth,
Boss

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We walked the dogs that night, and it was creepy that there were no aircraft flying. There was the occasional military aircraft flying into-out of my base, but nothing like 'normal.'

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But on 9-11-01, there were no contrails that morning.

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It was also very eerie. Where I live (central AZ) we are in a lot of flight paths. There are contrails crossing the sky all the time. The days after, there was no sound of a high altitude airliner. No contrails. It was very odd.

The lack of air craft sound. I remember it vividly over the next few days. I was working, driving in Portland traffic and it was still quiet.

I was scheduled on a flight out of LaGuardia on the AM of 9/11 to DC to meet with a company that was negotiating to acquire our firm. I was not able to make it as my second child had been born on 9/5 and was immediately transported from Bridgeport, CT to Yale Children’s Hospital where she spent her first 9 days fighting for her life. Two of my partners went without me flew past the towers after tower 1 was hit before the second plane and landed in Dc to an already attacked Pentagon. They ended up having to rent a uhaul truck to drive back to CT.

My dad worked in tower 1 for a large part of my youth growing up. I spent many days in the tower, dined in the Windows of the world, and can’t look at the skyline without being pissed off. I have many acquaintances and friend that did not make it out.

As to that specific day for me. My daughter was done with her first of three surgeries and after two anaphylactic episodes from the morphine surgery which required the awesome nursing staff at Yale to revive her, she seemed to be heading in the right direction. My wife and I were in the car heading to spend the day with my daughter listening to Dee Snyder’s morning radio show. When we got to Yale they were beginning to lock down the hospital and towing vehicles in the streets. Rumors all day about hospitals being filled up all the way down the Metro North train line. There were at least 300 beds scattered throughout the emergency area and the hallways that of course never saw any victims. A few days ago my daughter turned 20, a stark reminder of how much time has passed since 9/11. This Friday, we celebrate 27 years of marriage and my daughter will be in town for the weekend and be joining us for our anniversary dinner.

My work has me in Manhattan quite often. I was based in the Trump tower at 40 Wall for almost 5 years. I went to the memorial for the first time in 2018 and found a few names I wanted to see. It was somber. The only other places on this earth that make me feel like I did at ground zero are the memorial at Pearl Harbor and the battleground in Gettysburg.

I will never forget the people that did this to our citizens. I love our country, the ideals on which it was founded, and the great citizens who sacrifice and serve in our military. I am dismayed at the dumb asses that are systematically tearing it apart. This 9/11 anniversary weekend I’m going to spend some time at the range in reflection.

I was about a month into my freshman year of college at SUNY Potsdam, a little town at the far northern tip of New York state. I didn't have an early morning class that day and slept in. My roommate was already gone for the day. The phone rang. It was a girl from my study group, and the tone of her voice alarmed me. "Don't you know what's happening?" I told her she had just woken me and I didn't know what she was talking about. "An airliner just crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers! Turn on channel 3!" The line went dead. So I turned on our little TV and saw a skyscraper billowing smoke. I sat there in my bed, watching, stunned. A few minutes later, another airliner slammed into the other tower, and what had been a tragic accident a few seconds earlier turned into sometime much worse.

I got dressed in a hurry and headed out of my dorm to the building across the way, the student union. It housed one of the two main eateries, and was situated in the center of campus. In the lobby, there was a crowd of students and I joined them. Before long, it was standing room only, and we were packed in tightly. There were several large screen TV's hanging from the upper level, all tuned into the same live news station. There was lots of murmuring and speculation, and a number of students from New York City crying. I don't know how long I stood there, but we watched the first tower collapse, and with it, a handful of students who had family members working in one of the two towers collapsed in utter grief and despair. Then the second tower came down, and there was more wailing and agonizing cries. Somewhere in there, reports about the Pentagon getting hit as well came in.

By then, my roommate had found me. We looked at each other and discussed the possibility that the whole country was under terrorist attack. We lived a few hours east of there, and piled into his old Buick. He dropped me at home, and headed off to his.

I've never experienced anything like it, and I hope never to again. Being in a room with people who were watching a skyscraper collapse on their loved ones was an experience I can't describe the feeling of, only the event as it happened.

I've heard it said that 5 events in your life will always stick to you. Things like JFK being murdered, the Challenger exploding, perhaps the death of a parent. In my mind, the events of 9/11/01 are the probably on the same level as Pearl Harbor was to my parents. Pearl Harbor united this country for many years. 9/11 united us for a while.