9-11....so, what were you doing that day?

[WoodyXP]

This is my "canned" story that I post whenever a thread like this pops up, so some of you guys may have read this before. I stationed at Andersen AFB, Guam when the attacks happened.

tl;dr - I was on Guam, secured military base.


It was about 0430 in the morning and I was working out at the gym. I was doing some cardio and staring off into space when I noticed a looping image of a plane hitting a building on the TV. There was no audio so I figured it was just more crap programming that plays at that time of morning, didn't think much of it. After working out I went back to the barracks and when I entered my room I noticed my answering machine got blown up with messages. All the messages were asking me to report to Security Forces. So I showered up, got dressed and before I left I connected to the internet and checked CNN. I saw an image of the towers blowing up, then the site crashed. After doing a refresh I got a message saying something to the effect that the website was overloaded and couldn't display the page. I thought to myself "Damn, never seen CNN go down before." I disconnected my internet and headed out.

When I made it to Security Forces I was issued an M-16 and a pile of ammo. From there I did a full day of training and posted on the flight line to do security. Did about 12 hours of security detail, then went home and crashed. By that time I think I was awake for a couple days straight. Ended up doing security for another three months, 15 hour shifts, 6 days a week. All the while it was pretty damn exciting & surreal, since Guam was pretty slow prior to the attacks. The base went from being a ghost town to being packed to the gills with Marines, Bombers, etc. Some nights the base was so packed that planes had to circle for hours while waiting for an opening to land. The Base served as a hotel/gas station for troops who were on their way to kick some ass, so it stayed busy for the next couple years I was there.

 

[neo_mao]

So I was going to college in NY at the time. For those that know the area, I lived across from the Seaport in downtown manhattan at the intersection of Fulton and Water Streets - which was just a few blocks away from the WTC.

I was also doing an internship at the WTC - that year it was at the US Department of Commerce in one of the Smaller WTC buildings, but the year prior it was at Morgan Stanley which was around the 70th floor of one of the towers. It just so happened that my internship was on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9/11 was on a Tuesday, so i was not there

At the time when the planes hit I was on a bus going from my dorm to class in mid-town manhattan. I had my headphones on and I remember everyone turning and pointing and all I could see was the smoke and coming from the tower. No one knew what happened at the time. I still remember I had 3 CDs with me - Pearl Jam's Yield and the 2 Jane's Addiction CDs (I ended listening to those over and over for the next couple of months (more on that later)...

By the time we got to campus, there were police there telling everyone to remain calm and to just go to class. I had Economic Development that morning and it was a three hour class. By the time I got out of class, everything had happened - both towers fell.

At that point police were outside of the school and were telling us to go to the gymnasium?o we did. They had a bunch of cots set up there so I spent the night. My dorm was so close to the WTCs that no one was allowed to go back to get anything. The next night I stayed with a friend whose dorm was closer to campus in mid town.

I stayed there for a few days until a few friends and I decided to go to Long Island and stay with another friend's family. I believe classes were cancelled for a week, but the school gave everyone $500 stipends to buy clothes (since were still not allowed to go back to the dorm) and replaced all our text books.

When classes did start up again, the school arranged for us to stay in hotels in the area. We ended up stay in those hotels for about 2 or 3 months I think. It took a long time for us to be able to go back to the dorm because they were afraid there was structural damage to the apartments. Also, I (like many other kids that day) left our windows open?o all our possessions were covered in dust. The school had everything professionally cleaned and when I returned to my dorm I found everything is sealed plastic bags. It must have taken forever to do that since the dorm was 32 stories high?nd housed a ton of undergrad and grad students.

Crazy stuff. I still remember the day when we were leaving my friends dorm to go to Long Island and while walking to the train a whole convey of massive dump trucks drove by us filled to the brim - the smell was unlike anything I ever experienced.

Terrible times and terrible experience. Shakes me up every time I think about it.

 

[Steve]

Was barely 2 weeks into my brand new college experience... having a blast "being on my own"... and then BLAM, 9/11 happened. It was a crazy time. I turned on the TV and thought it was an action movie playing, but then I saw the news logo at the bottom.

My college cancelled classes at noon that day, and people were freaking out. It was an uncertain time, and still one of the most haunting and vivid memories I have from the 2000s. An event that's sure to be taught in history classes long after all of us pass on.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Hahahaha, I was such a lazy asshole that day and slept through a huge piece of history in the making.

On 9-11 I had the day off of work so I slept in. Got a phone call from my mom sometime around 7:00 AM (PST) when shit started to go down over there, but I was half asleep and ignored her when she told me to turn on the news. So when I finally woke up around 9 I was like "oh, shit!".

 

[Castor Troy]

I was working overnight as a security guard at the front gate of this closed community.
I was listening to Howard Stern.
When my shift ended, I quickly drove home and missed the second tower collapsing by a few minutes.

 

[Dr Shroom]

I was fourteen years old.
It was afternoon.
So I was probably jacking off and didn't realize what happend until hours later.

 

[lithy]

Well shit, I'm older than Shroom.

 

[Teddy KGB]

Was stuck in Maui an extra week with a buddy at this chick's house we knew. Trip was a college grad present of sorts, albeit a year after we graduated. Not the worst place to be stuck with with the airport shut down.

I do remember the girl waking us up at the ass crack of dawn with "ack we're being attacked"... 6 hour time difference. Kind of a boring story. Koll.

 

[norton9478]

I was looking out the window of the Texas School Book Depository.

 

[RabbitTroop]

It's funny, because that day started with a link back to here, for me. I will never forget that morning. I was lying in bed, and I heard the phone ring. Ignored it. It was early, and I was on the west coast. Rang again, and this time I heard Bobak on the answering machine... We still had answering machines back then... Funny to think about, but yeah it was Bobak saying something about how he knew I had family in NY and if I wasn't watching TV I should turn it on.

I woke up, blurry-eyed, and flipped on my TV and it took a good fifteen minutes to figure out what was going on. All I saw was a plume of smoke on the screen, and just information overload. Fire, planes crashed, World Trade Center, Pentagon, missing planes... Took about fifteen minutes to hear the words attack and process what was going on.

I had family and friends in NYC, one friend worked at the World Trade Center. He was late to work that day, missed his train, and saw the whole thing from the street below... Ran from the rubble as the building fell... I only learned that a few days later, though, getting in touch with people was hard.

My mom worked right next to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, that is number two in command if Washington falls, so there was worry that they could be hit next. I was also in L.A. where many people thought an attack was planned. It was pandemonium.

I don't know if I'll ever forget that day, or the main feeling of dread that followed for months after. The daily-morning mirror-sweeps under my car as I drove into work. The chats with friends over lunch about what we'd do if shit went down. I'll also never forget how this country dropped everything and came together for a short amount of time to revel in the fact that no matter how many differences we have, if shit goes down, we're going to be there for one another.

Yeah, but it all goes back to Bobak, waking me up, and telling me to get my ass out of bed to see what the hell is going on...

 

[LoneSage]

Well shit, I'm older than Shroom.

Well shit, I'm the same age as Shroom.