re: Where were you when 9/11/01 happened?

Driving to work. I was almost off the twin spans heading towards New Orleans. I remember WWL broke in on regular programming and said a plane (maybe said a small plane) had crashed into the WTC. I remember thinking it was probably a pilot showing off in a tiny plane and he had messed up and clipped the building. I was wrong

I was working at Stennis Space Center at the time and I was driving to another building to pick up breakfast a little before 8:00 AM CST. I was listening to Walton and Johnson on the radio and someone on the radio said they just got a report that a small plane had hit one of the World Trade Center buildings…..and then a light-hearted comment was made that it must be one of those Kennedy boys taking flying lessons or something to that effect. I picked up breakfast and went back to my office to eat. I tried getting online to check the news but all the news sights were very slow with all the online traffic. A coworker came into my office and said the first tower had just collapsed. We went to another building to a small conference room that had a TV and the room was packed with people watching. About 30 seconds after I entered the conference room the second tower collapsed. About that time it was announced that the Pentagon had also been attacked and people in the room were hysterical. We were sent home shortly after that when it was suspected to be a terrorist attack and Stennis Space Center could be a possible target.

I was stationed in the D.C. area on 9/11. For about 6 months, I intentionally drove out of my way on the way home to see the Pentagon.

Now, each year on the anniversary, I spend the entire day watching videos and reading as much as I can. I don't get much done at work, but I think the tradeoff is worth it.

I'm around a lot of younger people now, and they have no recollection of it, or it's impact was very limited due to their age at the time it happened.

Its truly up to those of us who experienced it to make sure America never forgets. If we do, another 9/11 is just around the corner.

5th grade.

Our teacher wasn't in the class when the bell rang which was really weird, but 15-20 minutes later she still wasn't in the class, everybody is looking around and confused, look out in the hallway and other kids from other classes are doing the same wondering where their teachers are. There was this one kid on our class who's mom was a teacher at the school so he would get there early and hangout in the teachers lounge til school started. So he was the only one who had seen a TV so he's telling us that America is under attack. This kid was known for being an annoying, smug, nerdy know-it-all type kid so nobody believed him and basically told him to stfu.

Teacher finally comes into class about 30 minutes late, grim look on her face, and says "Free Play (recess) has been cancelled today, there has been a terrorist attack on the United States"


I had recently seen Red Dawn for the first time, so I'm thinking if they cancelled Free Play and want is to stay inside and only in our classrooms all day, it made me feel like there must be a potential for danger for us if they want is inside. So in my little 10 yr old mind I'm imagining the opening scene of Red Dawn and soldiers parachuting down onto our playground.

It wasn't until I got home that I learned what actually happened

Pentagon BG720 in the old Army Operations Center...

Watching tv of the first plane when I got the call to come in on active duty to man the crisis action team...while,on the phone, the second plane hit and soon afterwards the sirens went off...

Went up to J-5 MEAF on the 2d floor, they were packing the safes to evacuate...left the building thru the emergency exit on the 9th corridor onto the parade,ground when my parents called my pager...moments later I got a,phone call from an army buddy of mine who I asked to call my parents and tell them I was ok...

Sophomore at LSU. Had a class that morning and woke up to the coverage. Went to my accounting class, and halfway through, the teacher, Mr. Anderson, threw down his marker and told us to get out.

Washington, DC, and it was a months long mind frick.

I was 14 years old. It was second period (I think) and we were in the gym, in P.E., playing dodgeball. A kid (destined to become my best friend) was telling a mutual acquaintance of ours that planes had hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When I heard him talking I didn't believe it at first. For a kid my age I had a pretty good understanding of geopolitics (I was a Rush baby!) and therefore knew what such an attack would mean and thus none of what he was saying could have possibly been true.

After P.E. was over I went into the coach's office to inquire about what was going on and sure enough everything he had said was true. That's all anyone talked about at school for the remainder of the afternoon. It wasn't until an hour or so later that the principal came on the intercom and told us what was going on in New York and Washington. All throughout the morning and into the afternoon kids were being checked out of school due to wild rumors of a plane heading for the nearby Army Depot.

I was in first hour during my Senior year of high school when we first heard about it. Iced to second hour and by that point they had put the TVs on for everyone to watch. There’s where we saw the towers collapse.