I know this because I had been an instructor at UNT in Denton, Texas for about four weeks. Some of the professors invited me to the gunclub to shoot trap and skeet. I had never shot trap and skeet and was a little freaked out. But my sponsor and mentor, gave me some suggestions on ammo and such. For me, I had only ever shot skeet with the red sling thing on some property down near Waxahachie.

Anyway, I cleaned my pump shotgun (a Winchester 1600) and did my best to ready things as we had an early start. The next morning I left early, since I did not know how to get there and was following written directions. I stopped at a drive through at the exit for the gun range and ordered some food, as I pulled up to the window, the lady who took my money was crying. that was my first indication that something was wrong. Then the two ladies working the 2nd window were stating over and over, "I cant believe it, this cant be happening". This seemed odd, but I figured it was about their own internal politics and probably why the 1st window had been crying as well. I went on to the gun range without further interruption.
I had set my Motorola Talkabout pager to only vibrate for actual pages and emails, (this was the coolest pager on the planet, in many ways I still miss it). So I pulled it out and checked the 'news' update, That's when I learned what was happening.

No one with us had a cell phone, and only I had info coming in from the outside world. For the next 45 minutes we mostly stood and kept checking my pager for updates. As the escalation of horror really started to sink in, we decided to just go to our loved ones.
I sat on my couch and cried with my wife and one year old little girl. Later I drove in to the office to get my laptop from my office but security had physically locked all the buildings. Denton was locked down, everyone was closed (I think). The only restaurant I found open was a Wendy's and you had to go in, the drive through was closed. There was a mom screaming at the manage that she wanted to take her kid home and he was telling her that he was free to go. They were offering time and a half for anyone who stayed. The kid was begging his mom to just let him work. I got some sandwiches and took them home.
On Sunday the 9th, we had visited a new church, New Life Church of Denton, and we were impressed (we would attend there until we moved to Virginia in 2008). I only remember this because Pastor Jim called me and stated that normally he would call first time visitors on Tuesday to talk to them, but instead he was inviting me to a city wide prayer meeting at a neighboring church. The community wanted to get together to pray.
Tomorrow I will talk to my students about 9/11, we will share their stories with each other. My daughter is also a freshmen in college and many of my student do not have any recollection of 9/11. Maybe it is like Vietnam for me, I grew up with it but it always seemed like it happened a long time ago.
I do know this, I will never forget.
I don't think I could.

quote:

Originally posted by redstone:
My daughter is also a freshmen in college and many of my student do not have any recollection of 9/11.

Yep. Most current college students would have been in diapers at the time, and many current high schoolers weren't even born yet.

They probably view it similarly to how folks in my generation (I'm 34) think of things like JFK's assassination. We learned the facts about it in school, but can never really fully grasp the emotional/societal impact like those who lived it.

I stepped into the shower in a normal world. 15 mins later I stepped out into a chaotic one. I have been there ever since.

Had been home caring for my wife the three days prior and was headed back to work that morning. I was getting dressed when the first one hit. Glued to the tv when the second hit I knew what it was.

That was the day that I started carrying 100% of the time. I went to the safe and retrieved a Glock 17 and holster, kissed my wife and off to work I went. Didn’t get much work done that day.

I’m not sure why that event was what made me carry regularly but I’ve not been without a firearm on my person but a handful of times since.

On September 10th I was prepping for my annual physical (no eating or drinking anything other than water) and dreading the invasion of my body on the next day...I had no idea

I had just finished my physical (still in the backless gown) when everybody rushed into the lobby where the TV was on to watch.

I had one of those Motorola’s too! I loved it.

I was at work. My boss had stopped by a few minutes before and asked if I could fly up to NYC that day to help at a show. Then I heard some commotion and went into the lab. I was working for a manufacturer of large screen digital projectors at the time so that had the TV up on the screen. We saw the second plane hit on like a 200” diagonal screen. Pretty surreal moment.

My Bride and I had just sat down to eat at a little cafe we frequented and the waitress, who we knew fairly well, came to the table with our drinks and the menus obviously upset. I asked her if she was ok, and she said “I guess you haven’t heard that we’ve been attacked”.

That’s the event that caused me to resolve to carry concealed every day as well.

I was at work, in a big meeting. They stopped the meeting and all of a sudden there were TVs from the meeting rooms tuned to the news. I too knew exactly what it was with the second plane and who was behind it as I had not forgotten the previous attempt. I still remember hearing them telling people to go back into the buildings as it was safe...

My late friend from Wyoming was certain that the 3rd plane (not the Pentagon one) was taken down by our fighters.

Hope *OUR* President will have the sealed documents released.

For maybe two or three days people here were mostly nice to each other and gasoline was $5/gallon almost immediately.

I was working on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, placing telephone cable to a hand's quarters about 3/4 mile back from the road. About halfway was the foreman's house. He heard the machine, and came out. I figured he was just wanting to chat or advise me of something.

After some small talk, he asked if I heard about the airplane crash in New York. I said I hadn't, and then he says what he'd so far heard. I called the office, and asked a secretary. She said there's now two planes that hit the WTC. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach shit is going down, and I really have the urge to finish up and get home.

That last portion took forever to bury,it seemed. I got up to the hand's house to announce my business there, and his wife answered the door. I asked her if she heard more about the plane crashes, and she said she worked nights and I'd awakened her, so she knew nothing.

I turned on the radio in my truck, and there was a cacophony of sirens and screaming. The lady started crying, and said one of the old residents told her last night we were soon going to war.

On September 10th my girlfriend (who is now my wife) got into an auto accident. She t-boned a pickup at 50mph that was being driven by one of my bosses wives (another story). Fortunately all parties walked away but she did suffer some minor brain damage.

Anyway, she stayed with me through the night and I brought her back to her place in the morning. I went home to get ready for work and she called me to tell me about the first plane hitting the tower. I was back with her at her place watching it live when the second tower was hit.

I ended up going to work where someone brought in a portable tv and we watched the towers fall on that little black and white tv.

I called my dad at lunch and we talked about it and agreed the world had changed that day.

As a boy growing up on long island 9/10 was a normal day of high school, 9/11 was not.

Was watching the news before class my senior year in college. I can picture the room, like I was just in there moments before. I can't ever remember things, but I remember everything about that morning. I remember my thoughts after the first one, I remember the confirmation of my fears and the second plane hit live on TV. The combination of shock and anger was a surreal experience.

I was getting ready to drive my car in for service, then go to work, when I heard on the radio about the first plane. I called my girlfriend to the living room and we both watched on TV as the second plane hit. It was so mind-boggling that I didn't grasp at once that it was terrorism.

About five years later I was talking on the phone with a police chief of a town in Connecticut, a bedroom community for NYC, who told me about meeting the commuter trains bringing home survivors that night. He felt obligated to be there to give comfort to those who arrived, and to those who were waiting for people whose fate was unknown. As he told it, there were a lot of them.

I don't remember what I was doing on the 9th, probably watching football with my wife and son. The 10th was Monday of my last week working at a company I'd been at for 16 years. There had been a separation package and I had volunteered for it. Tuesday I was driving into work and heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Centers. I thought it was some small private plane, as how could a jetliner get that far off course? Before I got to work, I heard about the second plane, and knew it was an attack of some kind. I called my wife, who worked for Morgan Stanley in Chicago at that time and they also had offices in the WTC. Everyone at her office was watching it all live on monitors they normally had tuned to business news. Morgan Stanley's security chief was one of the heroes of that day, as he got all but a handful of their people out, but tragically lost his own life trying to get the last ones out. My wife was supposed to be in NYC at a meeting that morning in the WTC, but it got rescheduled at the last minute, so she was safe at home in the Chicago offices. I will never forget any of this for that reason alone.

I was a school resource officer working with middle school kids. I was getting dressed for work when the first plane hit the tower. My whole unit all came in went right to our school assignments.

We deployed a bunch of folks to the mall and hospital and anywhere else we could think that could be a target. I watched the towers collapse with my kids and we all took it hard. They seemed happy we were with them that day.

My wife was in a cab on a business trip near the pentagon and she saw the fire seconds after the plane hit the building.

I was a sophomore in college and woke up feeling like crap. I decided I was going to skip my first period class (History of WWII) and was laying in bed watching TV when they broke in with reporting of the first plane. Like many others I watched in horror as plane #2 hit. It was very clear to me then that we'd soon be at war, but at the time the who was still somewhat unknown. What a lonely feeling, being 4.5 hours away from friends/family with only a handful of folks around me that I even knew beyond passing in the hallway.

Just finishing up the at the Wing staff meeting when the Commander’s secretary came into the room and said a plane had just hit the WTC. As a History major, I remembered about the bomber crashing into the Empire State Building during WW2.

By the time I got back to my office, the second plane had hit the other tower. I called my wife at her office and said someone had just done a “Tom Clancy” (alluding to “Debt of Honor”) on the WTC.

We (the Wing and Base) then went into Threatcon CHARLIE, not knowing where we were going, but knowing we would be going somewhere.

I was pulling a 5 ton tractor with a 5 ton wrecker to the NG shop in Lavina, TN that morning. When I got there the shop crew had already put up a satalite dish and was watching CNN. I had a new hire with me, a Major that was learning the maintenance ropes as per headquarters orders. He is now a General. He worked with me for about 4 months. Guess I taught him well.

On September 10th I had just returned from a vacation trip from my airline job. At the time I was also flying Hornets in the west coast training squadron as a reserve instructor pilot. By noon on the 11th I was in a long line trying to get into the base. By the 13th I found myself sitting strip alert and flying CAP over the western United States with live weapons.

I was back in school at a local college, trying to break free from the career as a paramedic I was in. Getting ready that morning for an exam, I got a phone call from my mom telling me something was wrong. I turned on the tv and saw the second tower hit. I felt so sick watching. All I could think of were all of the lives I was watching come to end.