Where Were You On 9/11/01?

[Anthony W.]

Originally Posted by Platapus

That Tuesday, I was a contractor at a TLA facility. I was supporting the wargaming and simulation division. Tuesday mornings I was on my way to the team staff meeting. I passed one of the monitors in the hallway and saw one of the towers on fire.

"Man, that must suck, I hope they can get the fire out" I thought to myself as I hurried to my meeting.

Shortly after the meeting started, we heard the "rumour" that an airplane had crashed in the first tower. Shortly after that, we got word that a second had crashed so this was no accident.

Now the weirdness started.

On 11 Sep 2001, the TLA facility was having an exercise. During such exercises, selected people are given scripts to use. For example at 10:05, a participant needs to call into the exercise desk that they "smell smoke in stairwell 14". That type of stuff. It helps the people running and evaluating the exercise.

It is only natural to involve the people who work exercises such as the exercise and simulations division. One such person was in our staff meeting. After the second plane hit he got real quiet. In his hand was an index card with his script. At 0945 he was supposed to report "seeing an airplane crash into one of the towers" of the TLA facility.

Needless to say, the staff meeting and the exercise was canceled.

Creepy to say the least. I think he still keeps that index card script.

Very creepy.

But there had been a private WTC security study (non official) done that demonstrated a suicide plane attack - and they had been planning and doing drills for them. They knew it could happen.

Still - extremely creepy.

Guys, do you all mind if I write an article for the school/local paper about your accounts? I never intended to write an article on this, but, your stuff is inspiring

Apart from the whole sight being, well, what it was, the most odd thing about all of it was some footage from inside one of the shops/cafe places on one of the streets leading away from the buildings - the camera showed people running in the street outside, driven before a huge cloud of dust, blown on the wind of the collapse, like the people outside were actually a part of the advancing cloud, like some human vanguard of the ruin... and the view through the window swiftly fading out to opaque darkness, with the occasional half realised object suspended in the dust rushing past the glass accompanied by the dumbfounded noises of those taking shelter behind the counter at the back of the shop over the grinding of concrete and steel.

I'll certainly remember it for that.

I don't feel any deeper connection with any of the people there that day - I guess I did not know any of them, and for that I'm kind of glad... who would not be glad, after all, to escape such a trial of loss?

I suppose it is difficult enough to fathom the intent behind such a thing from half a world away, let alone have to feel the events of that day on a more intimate and far reaching level.
I could say more, but I don' think it necessary.

I'll drink to that. After my twin died when I was 13, all I said for 3 years was, "well this kinda sucks."

As we say in Indiana - or at least my corner of it - amen.

[Ria]

I was at a school field trip (6th grade) at the wildlife reservation, but due to the events it was canceled and headed home.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by jumpy

Quite so.
Maybe I was a little terse before; sharpness of tongue has always gone hand in hand with lack of sleep, but there you go.

Apart from the whole sight being, well, what it was, the most odd thing about all of it was some footage from inside one of the shops/cafe places on one of the streets leading away from the buildings - the camera showed people running in the street outside, driven before a huge cloud of dust, blown on the wind of the collapse, like the people outside were actually a part of the advancing cloud, like some human vanguard of the ruin... and the view through the window swiftly fading out to opaque darkness, with the occasional half realised object suspended in the dust rushing past the glass accompanied by the dumbfounded noises of those taking shelter behind the counter at the back of the shop over the grinding of concrete and steel.

I'll certainly remember it for that.

I don't feel any deeper connection with any of the people there that day - I guess I did not know any of them, and for that I'm kind of glad... who would not be glad, after all, to escape such a trial of loss?

I suppose it is difficult enough to fathom the intent behind such a thing from half a world away, let alone have to feel the events of that day on a more intimate and far reaching level.
I could say more, but I don' think it necessary.

That response Jumpy shows me a man made of good Fabric as we say over here. I . You.

[Highbury]

I was at work. I heard that a plane had hit one of the towers but I barely gave it a second thought. I actually just pictured a small plane in my mind and thought some dummy ran into a building flying where he shouldn't have been.

Couple hours later I was outside driving forklift, and it was right under one of the flight paths to Vancouver Intl. Airport. I saw a Southwest Airlines plane coming in and thought "that's odd.. never seen one fly here." It quickly became obvious that the airport was way busier then normal, and alot of unusual airlines were flying in. Obviously this was from all the planes in US airspace having to land in Canada.

After that I went to my car to listen to the radio for a bit, then went and told my boss I would like to head home and sit in front of the TV, which I did for many hours.

[Lord_magerius]

I was at school at the time, one of my friends told me and I just thought it was the start of one of his random jokes. Didn't believe it until I got home and saw on the news.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

@Anthony W. I don't mind. You can use that small piece of text under condition that you post your article here in General Topics so we can read it.

[mookiemookie]

It was my senior year of college in Connecticut. I had just woken up in my apartment. It was a Tuesday morning, I know that because I had my English class at 10 that day. I put a pan on the stove to cook up some eggs, and I flip on the news to hear the latest on Gary Condit, that scumbag who I was sure killed Chandra Levy. Only this morning the morning news shows weren't talking about Chandra Levy. A plane had crashed into one of the WTC buildings. I thought to myself, "gee that sucks, what kind of idiot pilot can't see a friggin huge building in front of him?"

Then I realize "ohhhh (excrement), my parents are supposed to be there today." My parents were in NYC and one of my mom's friends, a chef, had told her to go see his friend at the Windows on the World restaurant at the top floor of the North Tower. So as all this is going through my head, I watch the second plane hit the other building live on TV. I realized that this wasn't an accident. Someone was deliberately flying planes into buildings. I say to myself that I'm skipping class. No way am I going outside if someone's attacking the northeastern U.S. The rest of that morning is kind of a blur. I remember frantically trying to get through to my parents' mobile phones, just to make sure they weren't anywhere near the buildings. When the buildings fell, I went into a total panic. Around noon, I get a call from my aunt who lives in Colorado. Apparently my parents had gotten through to her and told her that they were ok, they had been on their way into the city when they got to a bridge and had been turned around by the police who had shut down every road into the city.

Absolutely frightening day.

[August]

Originally Posted by Oberon

One has to remember I was younger then, and more under the sway of the fuss that the left kicked up around the time. I was also more left-wing back then than I am now so I was inclined to believe what people around me said about Bush (or Dubya as we all called him back then) and the trouble that he was going to cause for the world and (more importantly for me) to the environment in terms of wild animal protection.
Of course, two thirds of what was predicted about Bush never happened and the rest was spin, and looking back on it now I realise just how much hyperbole there is about US presidents both left and right. Up until the 2000 era though, I had no internet and thus the emotion behind US presidential choices didn't really effect me because I had no real connection to the States.

The benefit of hindsight, eh?

Dig it!

[jumpy]

Originally Posted by Anthony W.

Guys, do you all mind if I write an article for the school/local paper about your accounts? I never intended to write an article on this, but, your stuff is inspiring

Knock yourself out - I have no objection.

Originally Posted by kraznyi_oktjabr

@Anthony W. I don't mind. You can use that small piece of text under condition that you post your article here in General Topics so we can read it.

Ditto.

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

That response Jumpy shows me a man made of good Fabric as we say over here. I . You.

aww stop it already