Where were you on 9/11

I was sitting in a conference room at corporate HQ near Detroit MI, with a group of us from across the country. Most of us drove in, except for the guys from California and Massachusetts. All of a sudden, an engineer comes running in, and turns on the projection TV, just in time for us to see the 2nd plane hit. The guy from CA stayed in town until flights resumed, the guy from MA found a rental car and drove home.

I remember gas jumping $$/gallon, I didn’t care, I filled-up so I could make it home. Felt terrible to be away from the family while this was going on.

HRG

I didn’t know anyone personally involved.
With all the negative that happened that day, I pray every year for more positives to come as a result of remembering how everyone came together. Nobody hated the police at that time. Everyone found a reason to pray and be good to their neighbors. Where is that now?

Pailofperch wrote:

I didn’t know anyone personally involved.
With all the negative that happened that day, I pray every year for more positives to come as a result of remembering how everyone came together. Nobody hated the police at that time. Everyone found a reason to pray and be good to their neighbors. Where is that now?

Isn’t that the truth! This country bonded together following that horrific event and now every turn its about creating division.

I was in the northern Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming doing a population survey of a popular trout stream.

That evening we watched the days events on the motel TV.

Buffalo Fishhead

I was in Canada and trying to get on flight for a fishing trip. Even the float planes were grounded that day. Eventually they flew us in but it was weird being in remote Canada not really sure what was going on and if there were other horrific plans planned for other parts of the country. Spent the day and part of the next glued to the one TV in the resort owners cabin trying to piece it all together. Remember going out to fish and it is always quiet but remember nobody in our group of six really said anything for almost the whole day. Cut the trip short as everyone wanted to just get home. First and only time I did not want to fish in my life and almost felt a weird guilt for doing so.
I will never forget.

I still don’t like talking about it or watching things about it on TV, but now that I have kids old enough to understand the magnitude of the event we talk about it often.

I had just started my professional career after college, working in the Marketing Dept at Fastenal in Winona MN. A guy who sat next to me said “have you heard what’s going on??? The Internet was slower back then and everyone trying to get on the news sites made everything very slow. I think I tried several major news sites and MSNBC finally popped up with just one image and it was of both towers burning – they had not yet collapsed. Someone had a radio at their desk so we listened to a broadcast to get all the details that were known. Meanwhile many colleagues were getting calls from spouses, etc talking about what they were hearing. There was still rumors of other planes heading for other places, etc. I was house-sitting with a couple of friends of my future wife and I called home and told her friend to turn the TV on. As soon as she did the first tower collapsed and she described it to me over the phone. I then left and raced home to watch on TV. On the way I couldn’t help but realize it was so nice out but there wasn’t anyone walking around Lake Winona and the streets were empty. I spent the rest of the day watching the aftermath on TV and went through every emotion. I walked to Garvin Heights Park and overlooked the city that evening trying to sort it all out in my head. Most of all I remember being angry.

I do miss the national unity in the days following, even though it was relatively short-lived and led to wat ended up being really bad policy decisions. Glad we never gave up and eventually got that SOB Bin Laden and while Iraq was a big mistake in hindsight, I’m glad we took care of some unfinished business there as well. God bless all the familied that lost loved ones that day.

I was in my shop. Didn’t have the radio on. The Snap On guy came in and told me what happened. I closed up, went home and watched tv for 3 or 4 days.

Guiding 3 future Freshwater Hall of Fame fishermen on Chequamegon bay. I actually don’t remember how we were informed of what was going on. The fishing day ended and as others couldn’t stop watching the news trying to figure out what was going on. I went to the 9/11 site in New York in 2010. What an emotional venture…..

I was in reading class 6th grade. I couldn’t tell you much else about what I learned or what happened that day.

I was building Homes in Rosemount for Centex.
I went home to watch it unfold on TV. I remember watching the towers burn thinking to myself- How are they going to make the repairs on those buildings.
Then they fell.
Very sad day.

I was pouring a concrete driveway when the electrician showed up and said planes have attacked us. I said there is no way a plane from another country could fly into our air space and attack us. Later we heard what actually happened. Needless to say we could not quit our job and go home.

Basement of Hodson Hall, U of Mn St. Paul campus. Was in my senior year of college working for one of fishery labs. Like many listening to KQ. What sticks out in the memory is Terry Trane’s “Oh my God, they’re suiciding”, and watching the color drain from one of the grad students in another lab, who was from New York, who had been wrapped up in whatever he was doing, when I explained what was going on. He said “Wait, so they hit the WTC, AND the Pentagon, in DC??” I said yes, and he literally took off at full sprint up the rickety stairs that led down to the basement to find a phone to call home. I can still see the look of terror in his eyes. Remember how quiet it was on the walk home, after they cancelled class, with no planes in the sky.

I was at work looking forward to a business trip to Milan Italy on the 14th to look at printing presses, obviously that never happened.
9/12 was 23 years since I’d been discharged from the service and would’ve gladly gone back in any capacity. The anger I felt was borderline obsessive, just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Seeing the apocalyptic like images was absolutely surreal.

Those planes looked tiny hitting those towers.

I was driving to the airport to put my daughter on a plane to New York.

I was in the Marine Corp. This day changed so many lives in such a short time. For me, I will always remember the guys I served with and what was to come following that morning of September 11, 2001. Semper Fi and God Bless America

Freshman photography class. Soccer practice was canceled that day.

4 years old. I don’t remember a ton from my childhood, but I remember that day. I remember being at daycare and then seeing the news and my daycare lady crying and making lots of phone calls.

I have found myself very fascinated by the documentaries of the events that day. There are some very interesting shows that contain first hand interviews on the History and National Geographic channel. The intelligence that occurred afterwards to bring terrorism to justice is also quite interesting.

Where was I? In my office but the beat way to describe where is LOST.

Been back and forth with reading this post, start typing, delete, and venture away from it. Still very angry, and has increased since.

We finished a project in Ohio and the data crew went on to New York and I went back to WI. 8 of the 11 on that team was in the towers and killed.

Rep firm I had worked with was located in the towers. I never been there and never met them in person, but countless hours on the phone. All lost.

That night was surreal. Crystal clear sky, not a single jet, and very vivid colors of northern lights. Didn’t realize at the time, but I had sat at a job site that night until the sun started to rise.

We got a glimpse of patriotism, unity, and pure brotherhood. In the weeks and months following, we once again became the Americans I believe in. Social status, race, gender, and so on meant nothing. We came together- all of us. Saw acts of kindness in small ways everywhere. People were jolted into caring about one another. Just sickening to see that fade and the division’s we have today. It took that level of of horror since WWII to unite us. Why?? Why have we let that unity slip away again??

I work in Eagan right by the airport and I have a front-row window seat to watch planes coming and going every day. I thankfully have never seen so many planes land in such a short amount of time like that day. I have many clients and friends in NY and I and know people who ran for their lives when the towers came down with that giant dust cloud coming right at them.

A sad day for our county, no question about it. Many lives lost, many lives changed, many heroes to remember.

While not easy to take in, visiting the Memorial is something I feel every American should see.

Paulski

I miss the unity of our country after that. We’re in a bad place now

Anonymous wrote:

I miss the unity of our country after that. We’re in a bad place now

9-11 the terrorist put us where we were, today we put ourselves where we are.

I was wade-fishing the Mississippi River in St Cloud for crappies in backwaters near the country club. I had had phenomenal luck on plastics just days prior and was spending long hours trying to replicate it.

I never carried my phone while wading for risk of getting it wet. That time of year, I typically wet-waded with a fanny pack.

I didn’t find out about 9-11 until I got home about 5pm. I saw all the events of the day from start to finish in just a couple minutes. Absolutely will remember that moment forever. I was one month past my 19th birthday.

I was on a houseboat in the middle of the Amazon on a week-long Peacock Bass fishing trip. No communication to the outside world, which was probably good as it would have wrecked the trip. When we got back to a small fishing village on Friday morning, we found out about it. Was able to take a small plane back to the city of Manuas, Brazil where we were scheduled to stay one night before flying back to Miami. We ended up being there for 3 nights before we could get a flight back.
Our families were beside themselves that they couldn’t get in touch with us, but our outfitter insisted that we couldn’t be in a safer place, and it would have been next to impossible to find us. He was probably right.
Certainly an unforgettable experience to be sitting in a resort hotel in Brazil watching it all on TV.