So where were you

[LesBaker]

I was in the airport in CLE on the way to Atlantic City for a few days of fun and debauchery for my 40th birthday.

I was shaken out of bed to "wake up we've got to go".

It was a surprise gift. On the way to the airport I was thinking about how fun it would be!!!

So I put myself together and we got to the airport. She had already packed stuff for the trip and finished while I was getting ready. Which means brushing my teeth and taking a dump. It was a rushed morning because it was all planned ahead of time.

So we get to the airport.........

And while sitting at the gate this guy comes down to where we where and says exactly this "get everyone off the plane now and close the gate two planes have hit the WTC". There was a plane that was being boarded and we were sitting right next to that gate. He ran from one to another.

So we left and went to an airport bar and there they were on TV's, both towers smoldering.

It was obviously not an accident. So we got out as fast as we could. People were coming in as were were getting OUT.

I called a friend of mine who was and still is a pilot, and at he time was working for Continental (since bought) and had flown out of Newark that morning very early. He was freaking out.

We were flying on Buddy Passes that he provided to my lady and I at the time and while I was talking to him as we left CLE he said "holy shit one of the buildings just collapsed".

And it got worse from there. The plane that went into the ground in PA airspace went into CLE airspace. We left before they locked down the airport.

Where were you?

 

[1maGoh]

I was in bed or getting ready for high school when it happened. On the way to school, I walked, another kid started talking about it. Basically said the whole thing was a coincidence and really weird. Also he didn't explain that it was a big ass passenger plane that hit the buildings. He made it sound like a Cessna type baby plane.

I didn't understand the big deal until after school hanging out at the bar and grill my mom worked at when I could watch the footage myself.

 

[Angry Ram]

7th grade...heading toward the shower in the morning when the first plane hit. Didn't know anything until 3rd hour math class when a kid told me about it. Watched the news in band, and that's pretty much it.

I was actually in NYC exactly 2 months before in July visiting the Statue of Liberty and was lucky enough to see them one last time.

 

[JonRam99]

I was on my way to work at the office, listening to car radio, I think it was NPR, and they said a plane had crashed into one of the WTC towers. I thought, gosh what a horrible accident. But just as I was pulling up to the office, they said a second plane crashed into the other tower -- and I was like, "that was no accident...."
I got into the office, and told my coworkers & boss about it, and we started watching the breaking news on a neighbor office's TV, as the horror unfolded... I could barely get anything done that day. I will never forget it.

 

[Akrasian]

I was visiting my parents when they shook me awake. Dad was almost catatonic, since he knew a lot of people in the WTC. I was initially upset after the initial shock that every cable channel was interrupting their coverage, even the garden network - but as it hit me I stayed up all night looking up people and emailing the ones I could find whom I had lost contact with that I cared about - old GFs, friends, etc until late in the night.

 

[Memento]

Was in fifth grade, and I watched the second plane hit on live television with my mom (my dad was at work, I think). School was basically watching the aftermath, the towers collapsing.

I'll never forget it.

 

[Corbin]

 

[coconut]

View attachment 30183

On that day at that camp. So apropos.

 

[oldnotdead]

I was in the shower after a passionate morning. My now ex-wife yelled at me to get out and see what was on TV. I was scheduled to visit my biggest client Maersk Line which is the primary military shipping contractor then located in Long Beach.

Driving up from Carlsbad all I could think about was how glad I wasn't going to be in this war. I knew it was going to be long and ugly as most are. I figured the US would find a patsy to vent it's anger. I knew it was Pearl Harbor all over again.

The military and FBI were swarming all over the ports. The terrorist love symbolic targets not real ones. People simply don't know that literally 60% of all imports and exports for the entire US, comes through the combined ports of LA/Long Beach. Shut those ports down and the economy collapses. The other ports simply won't be able to pick up the slack. The reason being most simply can't handle the size of the ships and don't have the infrastructure, particularly rail to move the cargo out. By the time it's sorted out the economy will be in the tank.

I was of course turned away, but I met with my clients at a local restaurant so they knew I still came and met my contract requirements.

 

[Ramlock]

I was packing up for a business trip to OK.

I was driving, so no travel issues until I had to stop for gas... it had tripled in price, that day, as a reaction to the attacks.

My father in law is a private pilot and was in the air, flying to look at a business opportunity in Mississippi.
Air traffic control forced him down, clearing airspace.

He was allowed to fly home, in his own plane, two days later.

A strange and sad day.

 

[Raptorman]

I was at home having my new couch and recliners delivered. My sister in law called from NJ and told us to turn on the TV. We were watching when the second plane hit. Told my wife that was no accident. My wife is an airline pilot so this hit us pretty hard. I made two phone calls that day. The first to my mother in WI to let her know that my sister who lived and worked in NYC had no reason to be at the WTC. A lie. I know for a fact she went there on occasion. Her office was actually about a mile away. The second to my National Guard Unit. DC Air National Guard out of Andrews AFB to see if they needed me to make the trip from FL up. They said they would let me know. Never went right after but the following 4 years I spent 2.5 of them on active duty of some type. A little tidbit for you. 89% of all Guard members from my wing called in that day before noon to see if they were needed.

Our mission was never about protecting the DC area. That changed on that day. From that day until today our wing has had at least 3 aircraft fully armed on standby with pilots ready to go. That day we only had training missions scheduled. A flight had just returned. Being a slow day at the end of the fiscal year not a lot of flying was scheduled. When they got the call that another plane was heading towards DC, Flight 93, they sent up two fighters. Heather Penny and Marc Sasseville. They had no live ammo or missiles but they were determined to make sure the plane did not make it to DC. Only one way to do that. Ram it.

While they were doing this, fortunately, they didn't have to, the passengers took care of it., our commanding general put out orders to arm the rest of the planes with live ammo and missiles. He did this with no direct orders from anyone. ( They did eventually come down about 2 hours later) By 12 noon, they had 13 fighters, locked and loaded with pilots in the cockpit waiting for orders that never came.

One of our crew chiefs lost her father in the Pentagon that day. I spent October of that year in a hotel in the DC area supporting the mission. Came home for Nov. then went back on Dec 19 for 6 months of active duty.

 

[Raptorman]

Found a story on Penny.

But the surprise was complete. In the monumental confusion of those first hours, it was impossible to get clear orders. Nothing was ready. The jets were still equipped with dummy bullets from the training mission.
As remarkable as it seems now, there were no armed aircraft standing by and no system in place to scramble them over Washington. Before that morning, all eyes were looking outward, still scanning the old Cold War threat paths for planes and missiles coming over the polar ice cap.
“There was no perceived threat at the time, especially one coming from the homeland like that,” says Col. George Degnon, vice Commode of the 113th Wing at Andrews. “It was a little bit of a helpless feeling, but we did everything humanly possible to get the aircraft armed and in the air. It was amazing to see people react.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/f-16-pilot-was-ready-to-give-her-life-on-sept-11/2015/09/06/7c8cddbc-d8ce-11e0-9dca-a4d231dfde50_story.html?noredirect=on

 

[Mackeyser]

I was working for Roadrunner Shuttle, van service between LAX and Ventura County. I was on the "late morning crew" meaning I was in around 5:30am. Was going to take a van out around 6am to do my pickups and then take them to the airport.

Of course, everything was cancelled. We sat and watched and waited until we got the word to pick up people at the airport.

Going into the airport on 9/11 was unreal.

I knew I got calm in very intense situations, but I didn't realize HOW calm until a locked, loaded and unsafetied M16 was pointed at my face with a finger on the trigger. Some drivers actually wet themselves and anyone looking remotely Middle Eastern was cautioned to not go to the airport, even as a bonded driver. There was a Latinx dude who looked Middle Eastern and they just sent him home. No one knew anything and many of the folks who were rapidly deployed to checkpoints were at DefCon Zero...

I spent a very long three days driving people out of the airport. No one going in.

 

[Loyal]