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

Found out when I was getting ready to walk into my first period class in middle school.

I was a student at Auburn. Didn't have class until after lunch on Tuesdays/Thursdays, but my normal routine was get up, shower, get on the computer for a while.

Got out of the shower and turned the computer on, dialed in to my local ISP number (56k modem was something those days) and was checking email.

A message from a friend popped up on ICQ (a messaging app that didn't require both people to be online at the same time) that said "Turn on CNN. A plane hit one of the Twin Towers in NY." I turned the TV on about 5 minutes before the second plane hit.

I sat on my bed just watching in shock, and then they started talking about the Pentagon. I called my mom in Atlanta because I was starting to think that any major metro area could be a target, and while we are on the phone the first tower fell.

My wife was in college at a small school in western Virginia, and she says she remembers different people being pulled out of class because they were from NoVa and had family members that worked at the Pentagon or other potential DC targets.

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As a kid, pretty much the only channel you could turn on to escape the news for the next week was Cartoon Network. Every other channel was covering the 9/11 attacks.

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I remember MTV, CMT, Discovery, etc. just had black screens with white text that said something about suspending programming due to the tragedy in New York and DC, and to please turn to your local news or cable news station for information.

Living at Tiger village (I think it was called). It was literally the ONLY day that year that my roommate woke up before me. He woke me up after the second plane hit.

10th grade Geometry class

I had just turned 20, stationed at McConnell AFB. I was in a CFC meeting with my phone turned off. Came back on base in a GOV with the gate guards in blues with Kevlar over the top. They had dogs go through the truck and sent me on my way. I got back to the clinic in time to see the first tower fall.

I was in a meeting in Lake Dallas building their new athletic facility. Got in my truck to head back to the office in Addison and turned on the radio. I was confused cause every station was playing the exact same thing and I recall Peter Jennings saying that they are gone. I was confused until a recap was said. I immediately got on my phone to call my wife who worked in a tower in downtown Dallas. Calls wouldn’t go through. I got back to the office and everyone is around a tv. That was the first time I saw the images and I was stunned. I finally got a hold of my wife, she had been evacuated and got home.
The days that followed were surreal. The only sounds in the sky were jet fighters patrolling. The tv just had ground zero smoldering on it 24 hrs a day. Horrible feeling. Brings up emotions just typing this up. Ugh.

Probably the most difficult story I've heard from someone I personally know:

A former neighbor and good friend of my mom worked in the Dallas office of Cantor Fitzgerald and told my mom this.

Cantor was holding a company wide conference call that morning before the market opened. The impact of the plane only took out phone and power in the immediate impact zone, so everyone in the non WTC offices could hear the impact and the panic in the immediate aftermath of the tower being struck.

I was installing doors on NAS. There is one thing that has always stuck with me on that crazy day though. My grandfather lived a few houses down from me and was a WW2 vet. I walked up to his house and he was on the porch smoking a cigarette. First thing he said to me "Well I guess the Braves ain't gonna be playing tonight." He had livedd Pearl Harbor and now 9/11 and all he wanted to do was watch the Braves on TBS. RIP Pop.

Damn. They are opening a new Fire Station by my house this morning. They are ringing the bell and playing bagpipes and I can hear it in my kitchen. That hits hard.