I was a sophomore at GT and had just once class that Tuesday morning, a calculus recitation that happened to be a test. The class was either 9 or 930 but I'm guessing the former since I knew nothing of the attack until afterwards. I finished my test and drove home. I'd been in the truck for 20 minutes or so and got a call form my mom who asked where I was. I told her I was on my way home and she said "good, don't go anywhere else" and then she told me why. The rest of the day is a bit fuzzy but involved just sitting around the TV with family watching everything unfold. I feel like maybe my parents were out of town the night before and I might have arrived to an empty house, but I'm not sure. Maybe everything just felt empty...

I remember. 20 years ago I was working down here in Miami, had recently moved to FL from NYC. I was in a side office having a discussion, heard all the commotion out in the main room, came out to see the TV, and saw the 2nd plane hit. I remember the first initial confused reports stating that a plane might've accidently hit one tower, the disbelief when I saw the amount of damage and fire, and the gut-drop when the 2nd hit when it was instantly clear what happened.

I had grown up and gone to school in NYC, most of my training, my first real home, and my first jobs were all in Manhattan (or what's known by NY'ers as the City). Having trained/worked in multiple ER's in Manhattan, I knew the scope of the chaos and crazy amount of pain to follow was a moment in time new to everyone working there. There was real fear in peoples faces in a place that people took pride in being able to take anything.

My sister worked in the WTC buildings during the first failed attempt years earlier, and I remember a similar craziness from the time I heard/saw the news, till I spoke to my sister who was fine. All while working on incoming patients who were for the most part physically ok. There was no fear, only arrogant disbelief and some anger. The second attack on 9/11 was a world apart.

I lost personal friends in the buildings including childhood friends, work friends, EMTs, Firemen and NYPD and MTA Police officers I worked with at local hospital ERs. I know one family - a father and two sons - who worked together there. they made it through the first attack, and they made it out alive for the second - although they watched as people jumped (one of the saddest and most unnerving parts of the horror). One of my closest childhood friends worked in a financial firm at the site, and it took me 3 days to find out he was alive and traveling.

My wife and I had a childhood friend who worked on the top floors at Cantor Fitzgerald, they never found her, they barely found DNA traces.

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Was already out of the Army post Desert Shield/Storm, in college in Arizona at the time.

I awoke to the phone ringing, was my house mate's GF who frantically and basically said: "I think we're being attacked, a plane hit a building in New York, turn on the TV".

After the call I let my sleeping house mate know on my way to the TV, turned it on, and by the time he got to the living room we almost immediately saw the second plane hit the WTC, then the rest...

Called in to work, took the day off, and started calling loved ones to check on them as we all watched the horrors unfold.

A few of my Desert Shield/Storm Veteran friends re-upped within days, with nothing but payback in mind.

Saw it on TV at work. Later that day without orders I went to my national guard armory as we knew we would have to prepare for something. That something was a few days later when we were ordered to go provide security at ground zero, and my unit was there until November.
In a way it was the guards finest hour, with literally all our troops showing up either on 9/11 without orders like I and many others did, or the next day when we were directed to assemble. Even the slackers who were frequently AWOL showed up.
Stupidity reigning supreme, we were directed by higher headquarters to show up unarmed! At our assembly/rally point camp smith about 50 miles north of the city, they even told us we couldn’t take knives with us!
When we did show up we were paired with NYPD cops and the first thing they asked was where were our guns? Stupid NY state.

Saw things there I will never forget, as well as certain smells as well.
Some time later we mobilized ( armed this time) for a year long domestic security duty.
Later of course came Iraq Afghanistan and others

I was a brand new 2Lt with only a couple months of active duty time. I was stationed in New Mexico, so events were unfolding as I was driving in. I recall driving through the gate, the last time I would pass through under the old rules where they simply were looking for a window sticker. I remember being very surprised that I wasn't stopped at the gate as three planes were already down. The base was locked down shortly after I arrived at work. We all spent the morning crowded around a TV with bent rabbit ears watching the situation get worse. Being in acquisitions, I was deemed not mission essential and told to bug out about noon. I wasn't recalled until Friday. A friend of mine who was a civil engineer at another base had the opposite experience and worked 3 days straight, grabbing sleep when he could.

I mostly remember being very angry. I wanted to be given a rifle and put on a plane to go shoot somebody, but it was not to be.

I also remember feeling wholly undeserving of the praise being heaped upon the military in the months that followed. I was with another 2Lt fulfilling our snack-o duties, buying junk food at Costco. A random woman came up between us, grabbed our hands, and said something like, "God bless you boys." The guys in my unit were there for our math and computer skills, not our non-existent warfighting abilities.

I hope that my efforts made a difference in the long run by putting better capabilities into the hands of actual warfighters.

On duty, Battle Staff, Emergency Action Controller, Northeast Air Defense Sector (NORAD). We scrambled the jets to attempt interception of current and possible future threats.

Thanks Para.

I remember the day vividly. I was driving to work listening to a local Chicago radio station as they described the freak “accident” of a plane flying into the WTC. They had picked up the feed of a New York network to try and get some better info on the crash (it was Peter Jennings if memory serves). Jennings was talking about it when the second plane hit the other tower. It was instantly obvious this was not an accident.

At the time, I was one of the attorneys for a smallish software company. I got to the office and a bunch of us were huddled in an office talking about what happened. Then one of the company execs broke in and told us to get back to work. It was September (end of the financial quarter) and there was software to sell.

I couldn’t believe the people running the company could be so callous. Terrorists had just attacked us. We had no idea how many casualties there were, or how the U.S. would respond. But, we were supposed to keep busy calling customers and selling software. I started looking for a new job after that.

GS-05 Security Guard at the Umatilla Chemical Depot (closed due to mission completion in August 2012).

My alarm hadn't gone off yet to get up and get ready for work, but my phone started ringing (land line). I answered and my mom asked if I had seen the news to which being clear across the country from the event I answered "no". Mom told me to turn on the news. I saw the second bird driven into the tower.

I told my mom thank you, hung up the phone and got into uniform. Only my uniform consisted of an extra unauthorized item underneath (my S&W 5904) which could have resulted in my termination or even jail time.

I got to work, drew my duty weapons (M-9, and M-16 A1), and was paired with one of the graveyard shift workers.

We locked the Depot down allowing nobody in or out even Depot employees (there were only very few exceptions like the Base Commander's wife and kids who needed to return home and a few essential employees).

The Graveyard shift was complaining about being held over, and they got to go home around 2:00 pm Pacific Daylight savings Time.

We moved our Armored Personnel Carrier (M-113) to the gate used by the contractors and Demilitarization facility employees and mounted the M-60 (I got to drive the APC out there and kept making the SGT fall out of the commander seat).

National Guard from other states arrived within a day or two to augment security and were told by the graveyard shift security that if during a vehicle or lunch bag search they found any items on one of us dayshift officers that it didn't really exist.

The first batch of National Guard decided to play who's toys are bigger with the locals and got restricted to Depot and their CO relieved of duty on the spot (they had taken a couple Barret rifles off post).

We had different groups of National Guard augment our security until we closed in August 2012.

We also moved all of our ton containers containing mustard agent into cement igloos from a pole barn without notifying the Chemical Weapons Convention (a big no no) to which our government sent a Mea Culpa and we after moving the items had a treaty team come inspect the ton containers using ultra sound to ensure no agent had gone missing.

I found all kinds of contraband as we were doing 100% vehicle and lunch bag searches for months afterwards of 9/11 and then went to random searches (every 10th or what ever number vehicle was given to us for that day).

the security force had swing shift split in half with half going to graveyard and the other to day shift. We went on 13 hour days six days per week mandatory with many forced overtime days for the seventh day. I worked many 35 day straight periods.

In June 2002 I got on the chemical crew as a materials handler, and in Dec 2003 I became an Ammunition Inspector (I spent eight years at this).

It was a good run. I still choke up around this time every year as even though we are very rural we are still America.

I am still a federal employee for just under six more years when I will be able to retire.

God bless all of you.

I was at the Pentagon when it was hit. We were preparing to pull cable into the Pentagon main frame when flight 77 hit the west side of the building.
Saw the huge fireball in the air. Ground shook. Pentagon police told everyone to run into the south parking lot. Pandemonium. Able to make it to a Verizon office with the rest of my crew and laid low for about 3 hours. Saw the CAPs (Combat Air Patrols) over DC and Va.
Ended up walking across the 14th st bridge back into DC. All traffic into DC from VA had stopped. Made it back to our Verizon garage in DC, Boss sent us home, told us to keep our company phones on.
Called back in 24 hours later as part of the Pentagon disaster relief project. Worked 12-18 hour days around the crash site setting up communications for a bunch of 3 letter agencies.
Security of course was extremely tight. Full battle rattle and FBI agents on gators with .50 cal machine guns mounted were heavy around the site for some time.
Saw a lot of things I'll never forget. Met and worked with a lot of americans who did extraordinary things in the days after 911. After twenty years I still tear up when I see pictures from that day.

8:46:40

A favorite tribute to those that lost their lives twenty years ago today:

The longest day of my life.

On 8/11 I was very busy at the office when my father called me and told me both my parents were flying to NYC. Didn’t pay any attention, was too busy.

Next day I received a call with the news of the first plane strike and dismissed it as a War of the Worlds type prank. The rest of the media hadn’t caught up and it was business as usual for them.

Then the penny dropped. My parents were in a plane bound for NYC at the same time. Normally they were expected to arrive when the attack happened. There were no details provided yet.
Twice lucky, their plane landed earlier their usual hotel, the Hilton Millenial (?) at Ground Zero, was unavailable so they went to midtown.
Comms were broken but i managed to find a NYC based board member at hkpro.com who tracked them down and told me they were safe around 5pm.

Those were the longest hours of my life.

0-0

Office in the Pentagon, across from the impact point. Just landed in Europe with a group of flag officers, and saw the last tower hit getting off the train in Duesseldorf. Caught the last C141 - the last flight - out of Europe, back to Andrew's AFB, and spent almost the next year on the Crisis Action Team beside Checkmate, walking over the bodies of my dead friends every evening, as the Pentagon was restored and we planned a response and the way forward. Media gave us each one of these when we stood down, and it hangs in my office today. I touch it every morning, and think about Todd Beamer's last words. And hope I can earn them, every day.

I am as angry today, maybe even more, than I was 20 years ago. God bless the souls of our lost countrymen.

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Queen orders Star Spangled Banner played at Changing of the Guard today, as she did 20 years ago.

A grand old girl! GB is blessed to have her!

Truly a sad day for us here. Those less than 20 years old have no idea what happened or what it meant to those of us old enough to know. There were heroes that day, on the ground and in the air (Flight 93) and we are grateful for them. We must always remember that day and those who died.

flashguy

NASA also shared the words of astronaut Frank Culbertson, who was aboard the International Space Station (ISS) at the time of the attacks and the only American on the crew.

https://www.foxnews.com/scienc...pact-of-9-11-attacks

I was working at Cardinal Elementary School before the students came in for the day. I remember the principal coming over the loud speaker and saying something had happened in New York City and that the teachers might want to turn on the TV. The teacher turned on the TV in room I was in. That is when I saw what had happened.

Shortly after that I went to the high school to work on a gym expansion. I remember everybody had their radios tuned to the same station. Shortly after I arrived is when the second plane hit. I remember being in disbelief. I was wondering what was going on. Then I heard the first tower had fell. After that it was very surreal. I walked away and went to work in silence (the best I could).

When I got home that night I continued to watch what had happened that day. I was holding my 7-month-old daughter. As I sat there watching the TV, I said to my daughter you will never remember this day, but you will never forget it.

I was driving down the highway after they had resumed flights and I remember seeing a plane come in to land over the truck I was driving. I pick up the CB and said "that is an eerie sight". I few moments went by and a few truckers agreed.

Through the years since I have had a few friends and family who have served in the GOWT, as far as I know they all came home. I am not sure if they all came home intact physically or mentally.

I am still angry to this day. With all that has happened in the recent weeks in Afghanistan I am even more angry. I pray that we never see an attack like this again on our soil, but I fear now more than ever it may happen again. God Bless all of those souls whom we lost on that dreadful day and god bless those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep us safe.