Where were you on 9/11/01

**Ravens'N'Hoos** · 09-11-2006, 11:27 AM

I was working on a Congressional committee staff at the time. When I arrived at my office in the Rayburn House Office Building, directly across Independence Ave. from the Capitol, the first plane had just hit moments earlier, and the second had not yet hit. When the second one hit, and it was clear this was no accident, and especially after the Pentagon was hit, my colleagues and I felt an enveloping sense of dread. We could see the Pentagon smoke from our window. We kept hearing on the news about explosions, fires, bombs, etc., on the Mall, at the State Department and elsewhere nearby that turned out not to be true but gave us a feeling of a wave of attacks coming our way. We wondered if there was still another plane in the sky, headed toward another target near us. It was a very tense, confusing atmosphere. We evacuated our building soon after the 1st tower collapsed. What is normally a 10-minute drive home took nearly an hour. When I heard later about the plane crash in Pennsylvania, it was very chilling to think that plane might have been headed toward the Capitol, less than a block from where I was sitting.

It was surreal to go back to work the next day on the Hill but I felt a sense of duty to not be intimidated. I remember the sense of dread continuing as we all waited and expected additional attacks with each passing day. If you'd told me then that there would be no additional attacks in the next five years, I would've been incredulous. I'm extremely grateful that that's been the case.

**DrUnk** · 09-11-2006, 01:13 PM

Approaching 395 on my way to work, when the planes hit the towers. Then got to work, and heard about the Pentagon, and went into a frenzy, becuase my baby sister had just moved to DC, and I couldn't get in touch with her.

**BaltimoreRon** · 09-11-2006, 01:17 PM

I was in a meeting at a Government building. Someone interrupted the meeting, whispered the news to one person in the room and that person realyed the story to the rest of the room. People looked around at each other in horror, and then the moderator of the meeting...continued where she had left off. I thought I was going to go nuts. I was worried for family, friends, fellow Americans, etc. They did, BTW, let us out early.

The first thing I did when I got home was to rummage through the shed and put up an American flag.

**Ravenfanmike** · 09-11-2006, 01:34 PM

I was off work that day and slept in. I woke up around 0900 and was watching the replay of Sportscenter. Then went to sign on the computer when I saw a picture of the WTC on fire. I went downstairs and immediately watched for the rest of the day. When the first tower went down, I ran to the basement and pulled out an old US Flag. I rigged it to a metal pole and with all the rage I had in me, I slammed the pole into the ground and yelled out "Knock this Flag down you Fu@% assholes". I have since put up a permanent Flag pole in my front yard.

**BaltimoreRon** · 09-11-2006, 01:52 PM

When I got back to my cube, I watched events unfold on the internet and I also joined in on the ongoing discussion on the RN2 board that existed at the time. I wonder if that thread is still around somewhere in cyberspace?

**BirdFan** · 09-11-2006, 01:55 PM

If you have a flag, please consider flying it for 24hrs in remembrance

I was at work that day, but left early. I went home, took my flag out of the closet, put it up in the front yard, and have flown one every day since then. I've replaced it a couple of times, but there has been an American flag flying at my house since 9/11/2001.

**Drkraven** · 09-11-2006, 02:45 PM

I was working as a homecare nurse arranging my day. They kids were all in school and I was doing my paper work. I was watching the Today show and saw the first tower on fire and actually saw the second plane hit. My husband was getting his oil changed I remember saying the first one could be an accident the second one was not.
I left to see my patients and all the radios were just news, cell phones did not work. I heard on the radio that there was unconfirmed report that a plane went down around Camp David, as the crow flies I'm 25 miles from there, as it turns out it was wrong. I could not work after that and turned around and went home. I was driving past my kids school and they were armed SWAT guys on the roof and went home and lost it. My husband could ont get to his office in Balto so he came home. We picked up 2 of the kids and watched the rest on tv. I remember how strange it was not to have planes in the air and how strange it was when planes started flying again
I could not turn it off, could not sleep and was a mess for a while afterwards. One of the nurses in my company lost a brother in the towers.

**Bez513** · 09-11-2006, 02:51 PM

I was at work in Annapolis Junction which is right across from NSA on I-295. We watched the news in our command center. We got notice that our business park needed to evacuate since NSA would be a prime target for terrorism. It was gridlock getting out and back home. I was glued to the TV the rest of the day and night as events unfolded. However to this day I can't bring myself to watch these 9/11 movies or watch the planes hitting the towers again. I'm just not ready for it.

Today I listened to Howard Sterns replay from his 9/11/01 show. It gave me goosebumps as he covered what was going on that day and hearing him and others on the show be shcoked and dismayed by what they were seeing on tv. I know alot of people dislike Stern and all but for that day his covering of 9/11 was serious and heart-felt.

**Dabruise** · 09-11-2006, 03:05 PM

I was sitting as a poll-watcher at the Annapolis Library all day. We couldn't have a TV there so I had to run out and get snippets on the radio.

My Mom was running for City Council for the second time. She won but we were too devastated to do much celebrating.

**highwater** · 09-11-2006, 03:53 PM

I was at home, on the PC listening to music, not the news, so I had no idea what was happening. After the second plane hit, my wife called me from work to tell me about it. Like everyone else, I was stunned -- my first comment was, "TWO planes hit the World Trade Center? So, that can't be an accident, right?" As ignorant as that sounds now, that was my first reaction, because I wanted to think it was an accident, but knowing it happened twice made that an impossibililty.

I went downstairs to watch CNN and MSNBC, and heard a breaking report that "something" happened at the Pentagon. It was a surprisingly long time before that "something" was explained. Then I saw, live, the first tower come down. I had to turn the TV off after that.

I retreated back to the Internet and logged on to a usenet newsgroup about Bob Dylan, and was greeted with a series of e-mail messages from shocked Dylan fans from other countries, expressing their sympathy and offering their condolences and support. It was touching but reminded me that this was an event from which you really couldn't escape.

**Ravenator** · 09-11-2006, 04:20 PM

I was in the 10th grade at the time and actually didnt hear about it untill after my first period had ended because my homeroom teacher (where we got attendance taken) was a History teacher. He was the first one to have the TV on in the school. When i went to my second period class, our teacher had turned the TV's off in order to try and get us to concentrate on something other then what was going on in NY. Shortly after a student was called up to the office and informed that the first tower had fallen. This prompted our teacher to turn on the TV as we watched in disbelief as the second tower came down. A member of the freshmen class that year lost her sister on flight 93. Something that nobody will ever forget, that is for sure.

**skimmy** · 09-11-2006, 04:42 PM

At the time I worked for a large NY based bank (Chase Manhattan) out of one of their Wilmington, DE datacenters. I was in a early morning meeting (I remember being very tired from staying up to watch MNF the night before) that started at 8:30am and was originally scheduled to run until 9:15~9:20 to get us out of there before the markets opened. We were on a conference call in the meeting with a few of our NY counterparts, a few of which were at a Chase office at 380 madison ave and the others were at a different office at 60 wall st. No one I knew that worked at Chase was really in danger since they were all at least a few blocks away, but it was just very memorable to me how we all reacted and how that meeting which was originally very heated in discussion had totally changed to everyone being generally worried for each other and each others families well being.

**Kaven** · 09-11-2006, 05:33 PM

I remember initially on television people saying it was probably a small plane hitting the tower by accident. When the second plane hit, the tone and demeanor of the coverage changed quickly. Things haven't been the same since.

**StingerNLG** · 09-11-2006, 07:07 PM

I was on my way to a work client that morning. I'll never forget it. The company I was seeing was Logotel, a T-Shirt making company off I-70. On my way over there I had heard that a plane had hit the first tower, and at the time everyone thought it was some sort of accident. When I got to the client, they had a big TV in their conference room and people were glued to it. By the time I got inside the second plane had hit. We just watched the TV for the next few hours in utter disbelief. The feeling in my gut when I watched the towers go down was something I'll never forget.

As soon as people started to figure out this was al-Qu’eda, all I could think was "It's on."

I'll never forget that day.

**DrUnk** · 09-11-2006, 10:04 PM

I'll never forget that day also, although I'd like to. I'm man enough to admit being glued to the tv, and crying, 'til I just couldn't watch anymore.

**AA-Raven** · 09-12-2006, 12:16 AM

on my Honeymoon down at Disney....remember well, we were going to go to 1 of the parks on the shuttle bus when the driver told us that all the parks were closed and that we needed to go back to our rooms, we asked why, and she simply stated turn on the TV and your see....been married now 5yrs....but the 11th is something your never forget, even more so cause I'll always be celebrating my marriage just a few days before it happened

**SykesvilleRavensFan** · 09-12-2006, 08:00 AM

I was at work (no radio, no TV). A friend of mine worked in New York and started emailing me about what was going on and sending pictures. I was stunned. I told some of my co-workers what was going on and we got a radio and turned it on and started listening. At that time I worked next to BWI airport, so when the plane hit the Pentagon the owner of the company got everyone together in the conference room and sent everyone home for the day.

The thing I remember thinking was so eerie for days afterwards was driving to work and not seeing any planes in the sky.

**BaltimoreRon** · 09-12-2006, 08:12 AM

I also remember how eerie it was without planes in the sky. And when you did hear one, every head around would turn up to look at it, as if it was the first one they had ever seen.

**flraven** · 09-12-2006, 08:17 AM

I was at work as well, at the Alex. Brown Building in downtown B-more. The guy in the cube next to me told me that the first tower was struck, then my boss and I went into one of the conference rooms to watch the coverage on CNN on one of the huge TV screens. That's where we saw the plane hit the second tower. Many people filtered in and out of the room, taking in the awful scenes. At about 11am, they let everyone go home, partly because the Alex. Brown Building was one of the tallest in downtown B-more and being on the east edge of town, might be a target. No one knew what to think.

We were a part of Deutsche Bank which had their main office building right next door to WTC, and that building was ruined when the towers fell. I kept remembering all the times I went to the WTC, taking the PASS train from New Jersey to the station underneath. We had a couple people in my dept (IT) up there that day, and they made it out okay, having to walk/run up to the ferries near Chelsea Piers to get across into NJ.
We also had offices in several of the WTC buildings, but no one was harmed. As for all those who perished that day, we shall never forget.

**Greg** · 09-12-2006, 09:53 AM

It was 1 week before my daughter was born and I just got back froma Doctors appointment,and there police were all over.

My son, Joey, was born on the 17th. Amy was past due with him and sleeping when this all happened, I was just getting to work when the second one hit. I thought "they must be confused, they probably got a report from somebody talking about the first accident." By the time I got to my cube it was clear there was no confusion.

My dad (RIP) called Amy that morning and asked how she was doing, not knowing he woke her up. She said "fine" and he asked if the news was bothering her and then kind of joked "if that doesn't get you in labor nothing will." She asked what he meant and then she finally realized something big was happening.