Where were you on 9/11?

I was at work checking out the Internet. Told some co-workers and we all stood around my computer watching. We had people traveling in New York, and I have a dear friend that lost someone close to them at the Pentagon.

Three months almost to the day before I retired from Saudi Aramco. It's impact was more of an aftershock living where I was at the time. Reality came while visiting my brother in NY in December that year. He lost friends and acquaintances then. He rarely gets shaken, but this left him numb.

On my way to work, seem like the entire Denver field supervisors for Qwest was trying to reach me. I was a field Supervisor at the time. Got to the office answered the phone, first words I heard was. "Have you been recalled" my answer was "What the hell are you talking about. Then they told me and I turned on the TV saw what was going on. I then got on a conference call with the big bosses and we were all informed that the Qwest building was being evacd and would stay that way for the day. I called a couple of buddies who told me that the ships they were on were told to get underway asap and get to sea. Safer out there and weapons system could be used more effective out there. Me and some other friends then waited to hear if anyone would actually be recalled. Did not happen.

Flying from Denver to Dulles and being diverted eventually to Filthapeldphia. Not much information was shared during the flight but it was clear enough that something was wrong, plenty of cellphones going off and people of mild state of panic. One of the few times as a frequent flyer that I failed to recognize the serious nature of the emergency; upon landing in Filthapeldphia instead of Dulles the pilot explained why the plane was diverted.

Two rental cars and 72 hours later I ended up where I was supposed to be and got to work on the systems I was contracted to support.

So many gave their lives involuntarily, others willingly marched in to the fires and collapsed buildings to do what they could to rescue the fallen. In my humble opinion every citizen of the United States of America owes every first responder our respect and our condolences to those who died as a result of these attacks.

I am encouraged that UBL met his maker and his senior staff are on the fast track to the same fate. That may be a story for another time...

jf1acai wrote:

I was in my pent house suite of a Seattle hotel (free upgrade) ...I was schedule to leave for New York later that day instead I hijacked my rental car and drove back to Denver. When I heard a plane went down in PA, I checked out immediately. I was just two blocks from the Needle in Seattle.

Ironically, I was originally scheduled to be in New York (near the Twin Towers) on 9/11; however, my Seattle client wanted to meet on 9/11 instead of 9/12. The schedule was changed a week earlier.

VL, is that you? With better spelling?

No VL..... he was still throwing bags in planes.

By the way, speaking VL, I remember seeing him that following weekend..... carrying in one hand an American flag at the Evergreen High School football field for MAMFA and a boom box in the other hand...and playing "God Bless USA." He's a sentimental patriot.

homeagain wrote:

I am Woman wrote: I really looked forward to reading this thread. I guess the most notable historical event to hit this country in our lifetime isn't important to some of you. Showing disrespect to someone like WayneH is uncalled for. I'll go look at the LA Times link. It can't be as disrepectful as this forum.

Hi I am Woman......ANOTHER perspective.....I'm 64 Year young.....about 48 hours from today (10years ago) I boarded a non-stop flight from Anchorage,Ak. to Atlanta Geo.......I had been living in Wasillia, Ak. on an acre of
land,capable of living off the grid if necessary......9 hours later I landed in Atlanta,Geo.in the morning of Sept.1st 2001. We secured
an appt. 3 blocks away from my husbands' work office and waited for the majority of our belongings to arrive via rail. 10 days later
the event that will FOREVER change the way we look at the world occurred. I sat ALONE in a bare apartment,no family,no friends,no
understanding of "big city life" and watched the event unfolded on a 24 inch TV propped up on a chair. My husband was "mission critical"
at work and could NOT be with me. So-o-o when Wayne posts that he dreads this timeframe......I UNDERSTAND. The events that unfolded thru the following hours and days were MIND NUMBING for me.....I had NEVER lived east of the Miss. River,born in Colorado,
I had divided my life from Colorado to Alaska and it's great vastness of space.......the timeframe was a horrendous experience for me
and reliving the event is NOT one of my favorite things to do......it almost broke my marriage.....Just so you KNOW.

That's another reason I think it was horrible for people to make fun of WayneH. Not everyone wants to rehash this and they have a right to feel that way without being made fun of. I'm so sorry to hear of your personal experience that day.

I did read much of the posts in the original link last night. Thanks for posting that CG.

I was at the base gym on Lackland AFB in San Antonio Texas. I had a set of earphones and was listening to the news while I rode the stationary bike. There was a story on about the Monday night football game, which was played between the Broncos and some other team and they were re-playing a play in the game when it was interrupted, which torqued me off 'cuz well...there just isn't a lot of Bronco news in Texas. The interruption was about a plane, they thought a small single engine plane, had crashed into the WTC. So it was live and they were saying they didn't think it was a terrorist attack when the second plane went into the other tower and immediately the newcasters said it was a terrorist attack.

I was part of the people that ran the unit command center, so I got in my uniform and got to work as quickly as possible. Someone had hooked a TV up to an antenna in one of the classrooms...I worked with a training squadron...and a lot of staff and students just sat in this room watching things unfold. Right after the first tower went down, we were called into the auditorium for an assembly and that is when we heard about the Pentagon and PA crashes.

I lived on the annex, which was about a couple miles from where I worked, but I had to leave one gated area and enter another and it took me over 4 hours to get to work the next morning. And I was one of the first in my flight to arrive.

I know of no one who was initially impacted by these attacks, but one of my flight commanders was stationed at the Pentagon after the attacks as a intern in the Secretary of Defense's public affairs office and he said for the next year everyone that visited the Pentagon wanted to visit "where it happened". And, he was the lucky guy to take them over there and show them the destruction. He didn't talk about it a lot and every year on 9/11 his wife has a major anxiety attack.

Unfortunately, I believe there could and probably will be another major attack on American soil...I don't want it to be that way, but American's (not the individual people, but the groups that make the decisions and run the programs that are supposed to save us) by and large don't learn from previous experiences, so I think it could happen again.

Where was I?

It doesn't matter where anyone was unless the answer is "Manhattan" or "the pentagon".

I was watching and waiting like most other people, trying to make some sense of a sensless thing.

Some interesting stories here, especially that several were flying somewhere that day.

Nothing special for me, I was working in Golden. Most of the employees watched TV all day in the company conference room. I tried to stay busy at my desk and work, but looked at the web news most of the time. I remember everyone being very quiet, serious and shocked.

Nobody that matters wrote: Where was I?

It doesn't matter where anyone was unless the answer is "Manhattan" or "the pentagon".

I was watching and waiting like most other people, trying to make some sense of a sensless thing.

The MOST poignant moment
I have ever experienced occurred about 1 year later. The documentary was on grief and dying and they were interviewing eyewitnesses of the Towers fall. A mental health professional was attempting to assist the anguished people who witnessed people opting to fall to their death. The grief was overwhelming and palatable and one individual was unable to move thru the experience UNTIL the professional asked him to re-frame the scene. I am NOT a religious person,but rather more spiritual in nature,BUT when I viewed this exchange it was EXTRAORDINARY in it's nature and content. The professional asked the individual to visualize the victim being gently
caught and lifted away by an guardian angel......the face of this anguished person became peaceful and smooth and the individual was
able to create a calmness to the event that he witnessed. It was breath-taking in it's effectiveness and allowed this person to fully
engage in life again.(sorry for the break in texts)