Where were you when you found out about the 9/11 hijackings? What did it make you think or what were you thinking.
For me it happened when i got to work. I was late (about 15min <bad bad bad Tim> ) and stumbled into a huge crowd or people talking and walking around in the lobby of Unocal.
( If you dont know.. Unocal/Spirt of 76 is like the 3rd largest oil thiggimibobbie in the world or some jazz) anyway
I walk in and say " hola" to my guys and girls. First to say anything was my friend Mike. he is 45 and wants to be a 23 yr old.
" Dude Tim! Where ya been? An Airplane just crashed into the world tower man!"
WHAT! no way! do they know why it happened?
"No! but i bet it was something like a terroist would do!"
Bah no way man.. dont get all crazy.. this is a big thing but you dont want to start jumping to conclusions.
"OH SHIT! A second plane hit the other tower!"
no. no way.
"oh my gawd"
then we sat for 3 hrs watching replay after replay over the internet, on Tv.
Mike called his wife and she was hystarical.
I could hear her on the phone crying like you wouldnt beleave. See... her brother worked in the north tower.
So mike left for home to be with his wife and kids. Alot of others left also.
This was the first time in my life and ever that i felt like i wanted to have someone to call.. someone to go home to and have them hold me and tell me everything is gonna be alright. I mean.. i had never felt so helpless in my life. And in all reality i had no connection whatso ever. Sure i had friends in newyork and such. but.. nothing.
finally they sent everyone home at about 2pm. I went home to my apartment and kinda sat in silence thinking about stuff. how many people had died. The visions of the towers falling in my head.
I dunno.
Share with me. i know my story was choppy and prolly stupid but it was.. hard.
Then my parents woke me up and said 'two airplanes just crashed into the world trade center towers'.
First words out of my mouth : Is the puppy alright?
'Cuz he was hurting the night before, and whining and stuff. Poor puppy.
Oh yeah, this post was about 911. 911, heh, THE EMERGENCY PHOEN NUMBAR. What was I talking about again?
Oh, right. I thought it was april fools and my parents woked me up to trick me.
Except it was september.
Now that was good for 2 minutes of jaw-dropped silence while going "err.. err.. did that? nooo... err.. yeah.. that did just happen".
Spent the rest of the day with CNN on, trying to get a hold of my friends in New York (some of them worked in the tower, some near to it). Also learned later that my oldest cousin was in the north tower at the time it all happened; she was on the 2nd floor, so made it out in one piece.
Pretty heavy day really - ended up sitting on IRC too (i run a server on another network), we ended up having one channel with about 600 people in it, being fed news from CNN and any other channel that broadcasted anything about it.
I was glad to have 600 people around, even if it was virtual.
ben(at)netmastering(dot)nl
Mom was scared to let me go back to school that afternoon. They often target colleges, she said. But I told her it would be fine, I doubted Indianapolis was on their hit list.
Lyinar Ka`Bael, Piney Fresh Druidess - Luclin
Well, once our headmaster guy clarified what was going on, I thought I was gonna barf. My cousin worked in the north tower. I found out later that he was all right. Anyway, I didn't have the sudden urge to cry. Like my younger sister, who did just that all day. I felt anger. Burning anger. The kind of anger you find yourself in when...well, when terrorists have hit your country. The kind of anger that rips a big fuckin hole in the back of your Levi's. The kind of anger that makes you want to grab an unsuspecting bird and choke it to death. I wouldn't do that, though.
So that's MY story.
No kidding.
We get back inside, and I stopped to go to the bathroom. A couple of other people lagging behind were walking to thier classes when a teacher came out of his classroom, told us to hurry, we were under a terrorist attack.
.... I thought he was kidding.
So I went to my French class.
The news was on.
.... We watched the second plane hit.
Oddly enough, I was the only one flipping out. (I have friends who live in NY) Everyone else.... they didn't really... do anything. The principal came in, told us "not to scare the freshman" cause they were shook up about it.
.... Then we had our french test.
And the rest of everything, test wise. In American History, they let us hav e the TV on... but nowhere else.
When I came home, I just sat there with my mom, and my sister.
..... and we didn't really start crying until the people started jumping.
...... I will -never- forget.
The teacher said "Oh my God" and went to turn on the TV. I think the second plane had already hit by then.
Turned on the television for the morning news just before second plane hit.
Watched that, then woke up Gen.
I was sad that so many people died like that.
Gen watched CNN/Fox most of the day.
I went about my day.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
Unfortunately, I don't remember too much more.
Then at 3:30, I came home and saw it on CNN.
That's aboot all I can remember.
some lady was out walking her dog when the first plane hit. i was at the corner of suemandy dr and kimberly lane. right outside the entrance to the mall the best buy is at. she comes running up to me. "HEY! Somebody ran a plane into the world trade center!"
excuse me?
she repeated it again, then ran off.
i figured she was on crack.
so i walked to work, walked inside, and EVERY tv int he place was on cnn.
what.
the.
fuck.
that's all i said for two hours.
we never even opened that day. people were outside, so we stuck a "CLOSED DUE TO NATIONAL DISASTER" sign on the door. (corporate faxed it over. said not to be open that day.) we all stood there watching tv, some people cried, i was in shock.
i ended up leaving around three in the afternoon. (i was on the clock the entire time.) i walked home, the phone rang, and my mom was on the other end.
"hello?"
"zack?"
"i heard, mom. i don't know what to think."
she broke down on the phone.
that was the first time in my life i'd ever heard mom cry.
we apologised for every bad thing we'd ever said to each other, and we actually became a lot closer that day.
weird, huh?
I was on the road when I head about the Pentagon being hit about Mission Valley going east on the 8
I head about the last one about 1pm after classes.
"As I write this..."
"The World Trade Center was just hit by a plane"
So I hope over to CNN thinking it was a small plane, only to see the carnage on screen. Right then I knew something was wrong. Went straight to the TV.. every channel. When the second plane hit, the newscasters thought it was a bomb. A caller pointed out "No, look between the towers and you'll see another jet"
I think I spent the next 12 hours in stunned shock, on the boards, in both IRC channels, on the phone with all my friends.
And then we watched as the second plane hit.
Then the Pentagon and the one that did not make it to the White House.
I watched CNN most of the day. Wished that my dreams did not come true.
Called my mom and told her it is not the end of the world.
Realized that many more people die due to terrorism all around the world and it is about time that America woke up.
I am sad that so many people died. And I am sad for thier families.
But reality is that there is nothing that I can do about it. Nothing that would make a difference anyway. Just hope that it does not happen again. And be happy that I have INT in my life.
A little while later we watched the second plane hit, and I called my parents on their cell phone to tell them what had happened. My parents just happened to look up at the sky and my mother told me that every cloud looked like an angel. I told them goodbye and was about to leave when a guy from work asked me to call work, so I did. They told me what all had happened and that I was going to start guard duty that night at 8 pm until 8 am.
So I called Nae and Josh to let them know I was ok. Nae wasn't awake yet and Josh was going nuts. When Nae woke up she looked at the TV and Josh told her what was going on. We were all very afraid.
All night that night we were watching CNN and talking about what had happened. Then, a few days later they told us that we were deploying to Pakistan to begin an operation there. I'll never ever forget it, because it outraged me to a point that I've never been so outraged before.
TVs were not shut off that day, I don't think.
My wife and I ran for the television and the internet knowing it was something bad. She found CNN just as the first tower collapsed.
in second period the scinece teacehr told us that a drunk guy in a cesna crashed into the world trade center and took off a few floors, but for the most part the building was fien
third period history teacher said their was a terrorist attack, still none of the students in my cklass knew what was oging on and none of our teachers wherent saying anythign useful
at lunch, one fo my friends asked the principle, hhe told us 2 hijacked planes had rasehd into the twin towers, i was slighty shocked but it was kinda sureal, i didnt really relzie what happened and how big of a tragedy yet
becosue of the attack the subways werent runnign so i ahd to walk home, its a decent size walk (about 4 miles) and lookign aorund on the street and at the poeple while i was walking was when it really hit me, everywhere their where closed stores that are suaulyl very busy, and even worse, everywhere, poeple tlakign to themselves, other peopel, andon cellophones, talking about what happened, and some alone, looking so sad
then i finally got home, watched tv for a while, heard the estamtes of how many poepel they thoguht died and relized just how close the palne was to my school
sorry, its a bit long
It was one of my close friends, babbling and near hysterical. "A plane just crashed into the WTC... you HAVE to turn on the news."
My initial reaction: "You're fucking kidding me, right?"
Secondary reaction after turning on the television: *insert much cursing, confusion, then going to wake up the rest of the house*
I think the gravity of the situation sunk in as the second plane hit. Til then, people were speculating it was an accident, whatever.
The whole of New York state was under martial law for two days following the attacks. No going out after dark, period. Police checkpoints every couple of miles on the roads.
I was confused... where I live (Rochester) is a good seven hour drive from NYC. I think I spent the 11th and 12th mostly on ICQ, assuring people that we were all right, and far enough away to have not been touched.
I spent a good week in denial. It was all just too real, and too close (globally speaking). My fiance is a Marine... at that point, he was still on active reserve duty. That's when the terror factor really struck home for me.
Fortunately, he was not called back in. He's out of reserve now. I'm very glad. Selfish? Yes. Do I care that it's selfish? Not really.
Shit... I'm shaking all over again even as I type.
Everyone was scarred by this... no matter how much they try to hide or deny it.
For about an hour, it was mass chaos and rumor and misinformation. By 10:30 EST the word had come down from above - shut down the government offices and get everyone out of them. We honestly didn't know what the next target was going to be, or if there was going to be another target.
Getting out of downtown took an hour - everyone was trying to leave, and the police had shut down many of the streets around the government buildings (federal building, city hall, state capitol). The whole time I'm sitting in traffic, I keep thinking to myself "I can't believe this is real".
The rest of the day I was glued to CNN, numb for the most part. We should have seen it coming, and we didn't. Even now, I can still remember how numb I was that day.
The only other time I can remember being that numb was when the OKC federal building was bombed.
My first thought was: "How the hell did someone manage that?"
I remember feeling guilty because i didn't feel any emotions over the events, just couldn't belive that it happened i guess.
my first thought was that another contry was attacking, once I found out that it was terroists, I stoped careing.
quote:
Check out the big brain on Fennar!
My mom woke me up, told me what happend.my first thought was that another contry was attacking, once I found out that it was terroists, I stoped careing.
Yeah, who cares about a bunch of people dying in New York, right? 
quote:
G.S. Waisztarroz probably says this to all the girls:
Yeah, who cares about a bunch of people dying in New York, right?
not really that many if you look at local populations.
NY has something like 2M people, right? and something like 10K died?
thats something like half a percent population drop.
When I heard that 2 planes had crashed into the WTC and yelled out "Holy Shit!" in the classroom. I told them what happened and the teacher nodded and said that the school had let all the teachers know but told them not to alert the student population and to go on with the school day.
I thought it was a really jackass thing to do.
quote:
So quoth Fennar:
not really that many if you look at local populations.NY has something like 2M people, right? and something like 10K died?
thats something like half a percent population drop.
You're saying the loss of 10,000 people is nothing? They were 10,000 people who lived fine on September 10th.
The US is such a small percentage of the population of the entire Earth, it wouldn't really matter if we all died off suddenly one day, would it? [ 08-18-2002: Message edited by: G.S. Waisztarroz ]
My grandpa came in my room and told me to wake up, while he turned on my TV.
Later in the morning it was announced to be a terrorist attack. School went nuts. People started turning on each other and becoming panicky.
I went home early.
quote:
G.S. Waisztarroz had this to say about Duck Tales:
You're saying the loss of 10,000 people is nothing? They were 10,000 people who lived fine on September 10th.The US is such a small percentage of the population of the entire Earth, it wouldn't really matter if we all died off suddenly one day, would it?
Everyone dies, It's just that some get to choose when and where, and some dont.
the people in the WTC dident, so what?
and yes, assumeing that people dident freakout, a number of people equal the pop of the US dieing wouldent really matter.
quote:
Fennar was listening to Cher while typing:
not really that many if you look at local populations.NY has something like 2M people, right? and something like 10K died?
thats something like half a percent population drop.
your a coward.
I had friends that died there. Geuss its okay cause it wasnt you (what a pity)
quote:
Fennar was naked while typing this:
Everyone dies, It's just that some get to choose when and where, and some dont.the people in the WTC dident, so what?
and yes, assumeing that people dident freakout, a number of people equal the pop of the US dieing wouldent really matter.
So, in your eyes, the United States being wiped off the face of the Earth would not matter?
Even if no one knew or cared about anyone in those two towers, it still had an enormous impact on our economy among other things.
You sicken me. Get out of the US. Now.
quote:
Fennar was listening to Cher while typing:
and yes, assumeing that people dident freakout, a number of people equal the pop of the US dieing wouldent really matter.
no, not "a number of people equal the pop of the US", the US, the entire united states, and every single man, woman and child living in it.
and saying that a death doesn't matter if you dont know the person who died is just plain sick [ 08-18-2002: Message edited by: Rera ]
So I keep listening and they finally found its a plane that hit the tower not missles. I just pulled into my school parking lot, sat for like another mintue and walked inside..
No one in the building had heard, and I told our principal, she looked at me like I was insane. Though our school does have cable in every class room, so I had her go in one and turn on the TV to CNN. That freaked the whole classroom out and my principal ran to go make an announcment on the intercom about what had happened.
I never did get to sign in that day, so I was counted absent.. I left like 20 mins after it happened because they canceled school.
