Where were you when the towers fell?

[Dragonfighter]

Light duty after an episode of chest pain and an ECG showing MI (though that was not correct). The first plane hit and people started talking about it, I went in to watch the replay and said. "We're under attack. That was on purpose." Everyone poo-pooed my conclusion until the second one hit. We locked down and kept watching as the Pentagon was hit and then the fourth plane went down in Pennsylvania.

[SQLGeek]

I was a senior in high school in California and had just gotten dressed for school when I turned the TV on while sitting down to eat breakfast. The second plane had just hit and I was watching the news coverage absolutely gobsmacked. I watched for a while before saying to my mom in a state of shock that I was going to be late for school. I clearly remember her telling me "Honey, I don't think that matters today." It wasn't until later in the day that I really realized the magnitude of what had happened.

It brought upon a long discussion with my grandfather a few weeks later, who was stationed at MCAS Ewa on December 7, 1941. I remember feeling like this was my generation's Pearl Harbor and how the innocence of youth had been stripped away. I was ready to sign up with the Marines that day but I never did. Funny how just a few months could change things.

[speedsix]

...that's a good way of putting it...it changed us forever...

[Medic624]

I was at my apartment (I was living in WA state at the time) and saw Fox news coverage as they were talking about the plane that hit the tower. I immediately called my fathers cell phone (at the time he worked in tower 2 but was in Tower 1 for a 9am meeting). Surprisingly he answered and said he was okay and that he was about a block away. He then said that he had just been in tower 1 and was supposed to be on the 62nd floor for a meeting but they postponed it until later that afternoon. Luckily for him he was hungry had just stepped out to get something to eat and waste some time before having to go back when he heard the plane overhead and saw it hit the tower. While he was watching it happen the second plane hit. While we were talking he was giving me play by play as the events unfolded and he scrambled to what he thought was a safer location just a few more blocks away. The last thing he said to me that day was....HOLY...S&*% IT'S COMING DOWN!

I didn't get to talk to him until the next day after he had walked all the way back to his apartment. (He lived across the river in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) and he said that he didn't think it was possible but he ran faster than he had in his life as the first tower crumbled.

He is a lucky, lucky man... When the first attack happened he had left that parking garage not more than 20 minutes before the bomb went off...

He lost many many long time friends and coworkers but thankfully for us he wasn't one of the victims.

I was so angry and sad for the innocent people who lost their lives but so thankful my dad had survived.

When I saw the pics of the wreckage I was amazed at the amount of absolute carnage. I remembered that as a small child I watched the towers being finished. I distinctly remember my Dad and I walking past the construction site (early 1970's) and I noticed there was a crane on the roof so I asked my father how they would get it down once the tower was finished. After he got the job at the towers he would bring my sister and I with him to his office on Saturday mornings when he had some work to finish. I remember typing a letter to President Jimmy Carter from my Dads office in the tower. My sister and I would lean on and look at the skyline and down from the huge windows at the people on the streets hundreds of feet below. Knowing they were the same windows that made us laugh and marvel at the height that some of the victims used to jumped to their death years later was a sad thought.

That's where I was and what I was doing...

[J.R.@A&M]

A colleague and I were scheduled to teach a class down in the Rio Grande Valley on record-keeping for small family farms. When I got to the office, the conference room that we were going to use was crowded with folks watching the TV. I got there in time to watch the towers collapse, which was a numbing sight. To my later surprise, the three pre-registered ladies actually showed up for the Quicken training. So we went ahead and did it.

[RPB]

I hadn't been born yet
Luke 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

But when those 2 in New York fell, Since my boss's wife greeted me in the parking lot as I arrived at work saying "A plane hit a building, come watch it" I was at the law office in Pasadena, watching on TV as the second one got hit

[OldCurlyWolf]

On the way to work when the first one hit. I had just arrived at work when it was reported that the second tower had been hit. That was when I realized it was not an accident. Dallas Texas 2001.

I was in a real sour mood that day.

[Heartland Patriot]

...that's a good way of putting it...it changed us forever...

You know, I wasn't much into politics before 9/11...wasn't into a lot of stuff that I now feel matters a great deal. And I'm sure it had deep, life-changing effects on a lot of people who weren't anywhere near NYC, D.C., or that tragic field in Pennsylvania...

[speedsix]

...I'd like to have a dollar for every gun bought in the 7 days since the attack...it woke a lotta folks up...for awhile...

[Express]

I was at work in Irving. Co-worker told me about the 1st plane.
We turned on the TV in one of the conference rooms and saw the 2nd plane hit, then the collapse of both towers.

It wasn't a productive day at the office as you can imagine.

On my way home, it was very odd and eerie not seeing any air planes in the sky around DFW airport.

[jimlongley]

The day after the attacks our tech support group was having a meeting. Since we had no idea how long the ban on commercial flights would last, and since several of our guys were trapped thousands of miles from home and having trouble making connections, some of us were going to have to go on the road (not a change for me) but we were going to be driving to various locations and plenty of time would be allowed for the drive at 400 to 500 miles per day. Someone brought up the fact that corporate rules for travel on a transfer allowed a maximum of 300 miles per day and shouldn't we be abiding by that standard.

Just as the boss started to answer, and it could not have been an informed answer just because of the way he was framing it, a pair of fighter planes flew by, very fast and very low, and we all sat there frozen for several minutes, and then the boss broke the silence by saying that he would check on it.

Never found out what the flight was about, despite two friends within FAA.