re: Where were you- 9/11 25 years ago

My 7th grade classroom at my elementary school.

Driving to a morning class at LSU. I was annoyed because the sports radio station I always listened to seem to have unexpectedly changed to a news format overnight. Before I got out of my truck to walk to class I heard a report about a plane hitting the WTC, but the discussion made it seem like an accident. Not something intentional.

After I got out of class I overheard some discussions amongst other students in the quad about the WTC crash, but didn’t know the full extent. It was only when I turned on the radio again in my truck that the on air discussion had changed tone, talking about a second plane hitting the second tower and this being intentional, and a potential terror attack with a crash at the Pentagon. There was a lot of unknown among everyone at that point.

I drove to work and everyone was glued to the TV. There were no smartphones and the internet was still somewhat early in true widespread use.

I remember very well that the news was on every channel.

ESPN, MTV, VH1, TBS … you name it. All simulcasting the news from their parent companies.

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That days events made me change to a regional driver instead of cross country in order to be closer to home.

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You let the terrorists win.

At work in ATL.

Building management called and told us to go home. (I didn't work for building management.)

Called my mom and dad and told them to turn on the TV.

At home watching with my stepdad, who was always on Fox News at that time, after the first plane hit. Watched the 2nd hit and much of the coverage until I went to work at 4 pm at Wal Mart. Strange day.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was on a Southwest Airlines flight from Houston en route to Oklahoma City for a business trip. I recall dozing off and suddenly waking when the plane dipped noticeably. I could tell that we had begun our descent, but it seemed too soon based on the scheduled arrival time. Needless to say, as soon as we landed, there was talk in the terminal of "a small plane hitting a building" in NYC. I had an eerie feeling as my taxi passed by the Murrah Federal Building Memorial on the way to the meeting location. My meeting began, and shortly thereafter, someone said to quickly turn on a TV in the conference room. Needless to say, the meeting ended. Everyone in attendance watched with horror as the Twin Towers burned, and we came to realize the extent of the terrorist attacks that had occurred.

Just knowing that I was on a plane that morning at the same time that those 4 involved planes were hijacked will be something forever etched into my memory.

I remember it well.
I was on I-10 driving to a deposition in the Lakeway Center on Causeway Boulevard and heard about a plane crash on the radio. It was on the Walton and Johnson Show. They started with a joke about JFK Jr. It took them a few minutes to realize how serious it was.

I was in the lobby of the law office when someone ran in and said that the first tower had completely collapsed. Then we went in and watched the horrific scene on a box television with a grainy screen.

Needless to say the mood was very tense.

A while later we were startled as the fire alarm in the building went off.
Everyone quickly evacuated.

When I walked out of the 11th floor office, there were about 30 people waiting for the elevators.
I said to them “Y’all can wait for these elevators if you want to but I am walking down 11 flights of stairs”. When I looked back everyone was following me.

It was a surreal scene.

My naval aviator BIL had been in operational billets for most of the nineties. A few weeks before 9/11 he changed assignments and spent most of the GWOT in instructor and administrative roles. He deployed one time as it was winding down and never made it further than Bahrain. I think he feels cheated.

On my way to class at UNO

First class was cancelled, but we could stay to talk about what happened - so I did because I really didn’t know what was going on.

Kids in my next class asked the professor if class would be cancelled, and he said ‘no, that’s how they win.’