9/11, Where were you, what were you thinking?

With all of this happening, and all of the crap being flug out of the white house, i was just wondering what people thought of when it was happening.

Personaly i was in school, 2nd period, a girl came in late saying that a plane had hit the twin towers. My teacher did not think that this was important enough to stop lewarning CHem. so we learned how to balence equations. In my head i was thinking about when the WTC was first hit with a airplane back in the early 90's. I was wondering weather it was an accident or what. After my 2nd block class i went to acting, they had the TV on and there were the twin towers buring, and if you watched the spanish channel they would show you pictures of jumpers going al the way to the ground. The pics of the pentagon is what realy surprised me, there was very little dammage, it looked still in very good shape. When WTC7 went down, right away i couldnt belive it. 1&2 i could see going down, but 7 realy confused me, no airplane hit it, not major fires in it, i never realy thought much more about WTC7 untill reacetly. My school made no anouncements or any thing.

Finnal reaction, i thought its was Saddam, bad i know but i thought is was.
10th grade Martin County High School, Stuart, Florida

I thought it was a car bomb in the early 90's, I was in bed when it happened woke up had breakfast turned on the TV and there it all was.

There was a car bomb in the underground basement if i remember right, but what were you thinking when you saw the footage, did yyou think that anything like this would happen, did you like it was osama or bush?

When the 2nd plane hit I thought it was terrorists, I didn't think that the people on the planes would be so gutless to not try and stop the muslims with box cutters so yes I was extremely suprised that not one but three planes could be hijacked and used as missile's.

I just rolled out of my bed in my fraternity house. I walked out in the common room with just boxers on and I saw the planes hit the towers on MTV. I thought it was the end/beginning of some Music video. So I walked into the kitchen and I saw that everyone was glued to the TV. My friend Tyler grey told me that planes hit the first tower. Shortly after he finished his sentence, the 2nd plane hit the other tower. I just sat down and watched TV for the entire day wondering if the entire country was under attack. I didnt go to the rest of my classes for the entire week.

I was at work, to be honest i was too numb to think anything. Stunned disbelief would probably sum it up.
I went through a period of denial, i couldnt believe something that huge was perpetrated by a dozen or so people, i thought it had to be a government job. Then after reading the evidence here and elswhere i came to the conclusion it really was a bunch of suicidal lunatics.

I am a nurse on the west coast. On the day of 9/11, I had just came out of report onto a busy nursing floor about 6:20 am PST to work a 12 hour shift. Suddenly, one of my co-worker's frantically grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into one of her patient's (pt's) rooms. The TV was on and both pts and an aide was glued to it. I looked up just in time to see the second plane hit the other tower.

You could hear the horrified moans and cries of patients and staff, alike, up and down the halls. The phones began ringing off the hook as family members called to tell us. It was extremely difficult to focus and to continue to care for the patients, many of whom were elderly with memories of other wars.

Within a few hours, the hospital had distributed information to us on signs and symptoms to watch for that could indicate exposure to biological agents. Also was included information and directions of the procedure to follow for "shelter in place". We were conducting excerises on this within days or weeks.

At the time of the attack I had been a nurse for 18 years. I will remember the day of 9/11, not only for the horrorof the whole thing, but as one of the most stressful and difficult shifts that I had ever worked.

As clearly as I can recall that day, I can not at all remember the day before that!!!

I was in school, civics class. An announcment came over the PA stating the WTC may have been hit by an airplane. Shortly after it was confirmed and a television was brought into our room. I asked the teacher if the WTC might collapse because of this, and the student next to me asked if we were going to get a "half-day" because of the event.

I sat in disbelief the entire time, throughout the entire day. Nobody seemed upset, infact, people seemed happier than they normally are. Kind of made me think it was a dream.

In fact, i recall writting in my notebook that I thought that either the Russians were begining an attack, this was to soften us up and confuse us and my classmates are just jerks...or I was dreaming.

Suprisingly, only the men "trained to kill," the soldiers which were at the HS seemed upset. I suppose we all deal with emotional distress in our own way...

I was working for a large company at the time. Everyone was running upstairs to the staff meeting room where the tvs were. I went to see what the fuss was about. At first I didn't know what was happening but I knew what I was watching wasn't a piece of brilliant special effect - that it was real and it was horrifying. We all watched it completely stunned, shocked - some of us were in tears. We watched the news for a couple of hours - none of us could work. We all just sat there in disbelief with very heavy hearts. Someone said "thats the start of WW3".

I was at work and was able to spend the afternoon (being in the UK) watching the whole thing live on TV.
My initial thoughts, like Janus, were that this was a government job, or rather that the illuminati had started their final move.
Later that day I posted a comment to Indymedia that the events were an 'American Reichstag'
Hundreds of articles, books and viewings of clips and photos later, I remain convinced I was right
The only lunatics involved were those in charge of this asylum

i was sitting in my mom's car, getting ready to take my drivers lisence test.. i had the radio on, heard the news, and since i wasn't really listening, i don't think i really grasp was the pres. was saying, but i told mom the pres. was speaking, and she was like.."whoo hooo...i'm reading." so i take my test, fail, then go to my grandmas and as soon as i get there mom calls me from work.. "Turn the tv on!! the twin towers have been hit!!" and i was like..yeah, i know.. i tried to tell you in the car.. but after i turned the tv on, it was then i realized the enormity of the situation.. i saw the second plane hit shortly after.. i stayed glued there until my friends got out of school..
i remember standing with them at minit mart talking about how a draft would be coming and all of this other #..

I was doing my Lit essay in my room when my mum yelled at me to come to the living room.I was shocked and speechless when I saw the first plane hit.first reaction was an accident, but when I saw the second plane hit, I knew it was deliberate.My local Channel NewsAsia had a live FOX feed tuned in.After that, I turned on the radio to BBC World Service and was equally horrified to learn that the Pentagon was hit too.Felt quite sick in the gut.

I was working in midtown manhattan, just a couple of miles away...

I work about 30 miles from where I live; I'm an instructor. Classes start at 0900. I got a late start from home that day, and for probably the first and only time in my life, didn't have the radio on in the car. Got to work, and found out about the first plane. Thought, "An accident". By the time the fourth plane went down in PA, I was numb because I could not process what was happening.

I was at work. I was actually supposed to be flying to New York that day, but the trip got post-poned a couple weeks (then eventually a month).

A co-worker had heard on the radio (he always has the news on) about the first crash (second one hadn't happened yet). I jerry-rigged the tv we use for training videos, and got the news on it, just in time to see the second crash happen live.

At first, we thought it was a replay, but then soon learned it was a second impact.

At first, I thought the first crash was a horrible accident. Upon the second, I turned to a coworker and said, "Wow....we are witnessing the spark event of World War III".

I was at the hospital at 5 am waiting for a ct scan in the waiting room and saw it on tv. My first thought was how the hell could that happen? then the 2nd plane hit and headlines began screaming "America under attack"
real end of the world stuff.
I thought perhaps a war had started excepting they were commercial planes. I was waiting for America to launch nukes, honestly, I expected it from the sheer outrage expressed. Kudos for that much restraint atleast.
Frankly im waiting for the next installment, next time might be a different story.

My company was rolling out a new replenishment system. We rented a movie theatre and had about 300 people in attendance. I was one of a small group coordinating things. The Theatre had monitors in the lobby they dialed in to local TV stations, no cable just antennas. I could ay that there were about three of us of all in attendance to find out first.

One of the buyers in the audience came out visibly shaken as his wife called him on the cell phone to fill him in. He was the very first to know, then that�s when we turned the TV�s on. I snuck a message to a Sr Vice President who was about to get up and speak. (At this time, only one plane had hit) He, a former Admiral in the Navy, got up and said our country in under attack and everybody should go home to their loved ones. He mentioned the details as he knew them (we were his news source).

As everybody left the theatre into the lobby all 300 people were glued to the TV�s. We all stayed long enough to see the second plane hit. We all went home after that.

I actually had a job interview later that day and the company wouldn�t cancel it!!!! Turned out to be a horrible company, should have taken the hint that fateful day.

Anyways, I was in shock for days. I remember going outside and just looking up into the sky. I never really noticed that the LACK of planes in the sky was so noticeable.

Man the times we live in�

I was home initially (5-10 minute drive from the WTC). I heard a transmission of "Debris falling from the Trade Center and a fire up top" come over one of our emergency frequencies. I ran down to Madison Street which offered a fairly unobstructed view of the towers to assess what was going on. As I was standing on Madison checking it out a loud boom sounded and the biggest fireball i've ever seen erupted from the building that wasn't hit. Of course this was the second plane but that wasn't visible from my perspective. After proceeding downtown, moving in, moving out, running like hell, jumping for safety, moving back in, etc and assisting as many people as possible, I somehow fell in with a group of volunteer firemen from Brooklyn at NYU Downtown hospital who were involved in handling patient receiving (mostly firemen with debris in their eyes). After that we handed out some City government stocked Y2K meals (self heating TV dinners essentially, initially bought in anticipation of y2k's armaggedon and kept for emergencies) to cops and firemen.
The next three days were pretty much ferrying medical personnel into the scene, and helping out with the searching and other after effects. Myself and my vehicle were able to get in and out of the scene (which was locked down to civilian cars) so I did my best to be around for anything.
I'll never forget going up to the Armory on Lexington Ave and getting approached by people holding pictures asking i I'd seen those people.

So that pretty much answers the "Where were you" aspect. As for "what were you thinking", I wish I could tell you. I remember nothing of my detailed thought processes that day except seeing things, reacting to them, and continuing. There were small fleeting thoughts in my head like "There must have been 50,000 people in there", "What the hell happens now", "Two parts of my neighborhood will never be there again", "What's that loud roaring I hear overhead". But to be honest, I didn't have time to deal with those things. You can't. You can't think about things like that and then continue what you were doing.

I didn't really see any coverage of it on TV. I have to think that anyone watching it on TV must have thought it was a movie when looking at the scenes.

The first chance I had to look up at the sky and unfocus for a minute was around sunset while giving out the y2k meals right next to city hall park across from 1 Centre St. The particles and smoke and debris (and god only knows what else) in the air were playing tricks with the sunset and the entire sky appeared blood red around us and I froze up until a thank you slap from a cop who I had just handed a dinner to woke me up.

I was in Cape Cod at the pharmacy in Hyannis counting pills when a customer came in and told us of the first plane that hit.

A few minutes later another customer told us of the second plane. Right there and then we "knew" we were under some sort of attack. I immediately had the conspiracy and did not for one minute ever think this had to do with an "Osama".

Havent changed my mind since- I'm a smart cookie.

By the way, the pharmacists i worked with thought i might have something there.

Little did i know that years later i would be proven correct.

THE BIGGEST LIE EVER TOLD

I flew over New York city literally about 10 hours before the attacks. I had to go to England for my company to support a military exercise which included the brits. By the time I actually got to England, it had already happened, but the news hadn't spread over there yet. On the train ride up to Lincoln from London, I heard the ticket man, and his relief talking about a plane hitting a building and what-not. I thought they were talking about a movie or something. Later on in the train ride, I asked the lady what they were talking about, just to make conversation. She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "you're from america?" I said, "Yes."

"You haven't heard?"
"heard what?"
"2 planes flew into the world trade center, and 1 into the pentagon"

I have a brother who lives in Washington D.C., and the company he works for used to do computer work for some of the government buildings in D.C., like the state department building. I had no idea if he worked at the pentagon or not ever. I was on a train in England, no way to call anyone (even when I could call later on, I couldn't get through). Anyway, the exercise I was there for got cancelled, and I couldn't fly home (obviously), so I pretty much had a paid, 1 week vacation to England.

Once planes were allowed to fly back into the states, I got the first ticket back home I could get. The tension on the plane was so thick you could cut it with a knife. You could literally see people eyeballing each other, trying to figure out who they're going to have to take out, if need be. It was eerily quiet for a Jet of that size. Luckily, I made it home safely, and my brother was OK, but looking back on it now, it's amazing how close I was to actually being in one of those planes...