911--What's YOUR Story?

I was just about to go inside the Post Office as I did every workday morning. Just before I got out of the car, I heard Dan McClain on WDRM announce that something had struck the World Trade Center. My very first thought was Terrorist Attack... Osama Bin Laden did it. Up to this point, I was a casual News Junkie. But I had watched enough to know this name and that he was out for American Blood.

I called my husband at the time who was traveling. I wasn't sure if he was in a plane or in his car as he always left his car at the airport. He was in his car listening to a motivational speaker on cassette. He had know idea what was going on. He pulled over at the next exit in DALTON, Georgia to watch on a small TV with a roomfull of Interstate travelers.

I came to work and told everyone I saw. Not one of my co-workers had a clue anything was going on. We all gathered in our Conference Room to watch.

I was seven months pregnant and needless to say, a little hormonal. I sat in that conference room for the entire day. Our boss got mad and wanted us to go back to work. I cried more that day that I ever have. I mourned for the building occupants, the rescue personnel, the residents and workers... everyone involved really. I mourned for all of America. I stayed in mourning! I got pissed that everyone else just went back to life as usual. I just felt so helpless.

My baby was born 2 weeks early, and one good thing to come out of September 11, 2001 for me, was the name, Dalton, where my husband pulled over to watch the horror unfold. My Dalton is now 8yrs old!

Also... Researching 911 was what first brought me to this site... I was a long time lurker... and finally joined so I could make a comment. While I like to stay informed and ATS is my first click of every day, I have truly learned the meaning of IGNORANCE IS BLISS!!! Sometimes I wish I still lived in my world of Reality TV and believing everything I heard.

Wigit
Thanks for adding your story. It's interesting about the small planes
joy-riding above, while all this was going on in NYC. Eerie, in fact, particularly since it had never happened before. That would have made it worse just because of the oddness involved.

GoodOldDave
You began hearing planes overhead almost immediately, while I heard complete silence. I remember it was so quiet, with no planes whatsoever in the skies and it seemed like this went on for weeks. Now, after it was announced we were going into Afghanistan, things really changed.
Planes overhead day and night. Loud planes. That was weird, too.

I'm happy to hear you and your friends were able to help the guy who panicked, get control of his emotions. Whew! He really freaked out.
Glad you were able to diffuse that "bomb".

We were all significantly stunned. Some people were too quiet, and some actively angry, and sorrowful. Other than the one woman I spoke of in the OP, with the car in need of repair, I don't think I met anyone who wasn't deeply affected by it.

No, it wasn't a good day.

reply to post by pause4thought


When I read your post I thought:

I was asleep in bed in a motel near a huge oil refinery.

Me and several others worked all night to replace computer systems
in the refinery by dawn when the workers came in.

It was contract work, but it paid well and nothing else was to be
had after the DOT COM crash.

The phone rang, and the other guy in the other bed answered it
and he jumped out of bed and turned on the TV.

I just laid there and did not even look at the TV.

He yelled out loud what had happened, and then I turned and looked
and watched it.

Shortly after that the ppl from the refinery called and said the
refinery was on lockdown by national guard and we would not
be going to work for a few days at least and they decided to
cancel the rest of that week.

We listened to the radio all the way back and read about it online.

For the first several weeks I believed the official story, after
awhile alot of information started coming out.

Some of it seemed intentional idiotic I think as a smokescreen
for the good information.

They wanted to marginalize anyone that questioned the official story.

I did not get that at the time, I do now after a lot of reading about
prior disinfo operations.

The iron clad proof the government is at least lying is in the
video in my signature.

I think it is 100% a cover up as many ppl now do, and further based
on other evidence that is not iron clad it looks planned.

You of course are free to believe what you want, and I think
I get the same choice.

Good Luck to all the good ppl !

I was starting my first solo day as a master control operator for a FOX station that morning.

My supervisor who is also one of my best friends had a migraine and basically said you have this under control, I am going home.. call if you need anything.

About an hour later I noticed a building that was smoking on one of my live feed monitors. I called my chief engineer into the room to check it out. as soon as he saw it he knew it was one the world trade center buildings.

We were watching it for about 3 or 4 minutes when the second plane hit. It was a moment of shock and silence that I had never felt before. Being that we were getting several live feeds into the station I saw many angles at the time that not many people were seeing yet.

I think the hardest to watch was the people who were choosing to jump instead of burn to death... there was no way I was switching to those live images for on-air use.

I was glued to that chair, going from one breaking announcement to another, the phone ringing off the hook and a terrible urge to step away and just get a nicotine fix.

At one point I turned around and I swear the whole office was standing in my control room behind me just transfixed on all the feeds we had of the event.

I had not truly thought of the impact this was going to have on the nation, I was too busy trying not to screw up (this was my first solo day remember) to realize this was so huge. I looked at my CE and all he said was.. "You realize, we just went to war".

Roughly 8 hours later my shift ended, and I was at home trying to gain composure after all the images that I witnessed finally sank in once the adrenaline rush had gone.

I still have the Beta tapes from that day, we have to keep a video log of everything that went out over the air... I have never been able to sit and watch them again.

I was in an online chat room on paltalk three weeks before 911 and someone came in and started talking about how planes would be hitting buildings in three weeks.

I would tell more of the true story but each time I tell it, I get a huge yawn.

reply to post by TwiTcHomatic


Well then, you must have been one of those people who made it feel as though we were experiencing it. I can't even imagine how stressful that must have been for you.

I doubt if anyone would have objected if you caught that "nicotine fix". Some probably would have joined in. It was that kind of day.

My parents and I saw the "jumping" footage live, I guess it was, I assume so. They didn't show it again in any of the later footage. It was indeed, too painful to watch. It's still too painful to even think about.

reply to post by hardamber

I was in an online chat room on paltalk three weeks before 911 and someone came in and started talking about how planes would be hitting buildings in three weeks.

Welll...........who was it? Was there a connection?

Originally posted by GoodOlDave
In the meantime, all cast and crew who were members of the National Guard were authorized to leave and report to their bases.

****
I didn't know at the time that we were close to an air base, because that night there was a steady stream of C-130 planes flying overhead heading for somewhere.
****
By the time I got back home, the broadcasting companies had already put a moritorium on the footage of the plane collision and the collapse, so I didn't get to see what everyone else had seen for a good two years.

It was not a good day.

I wanted to address the above comments you made. I lived in the Washington DC area that day. I also know members of the military active duty that day.

1. I knew people in the military who were on leave during 911 and did not have to report back to their base immediately. In fact a few people could not even get home due to no flights. But I suppose it could have been a base by base issue. How did they even get home to their base?

2. I lived near Andrews AFB and I do not recall a steady stream of C130s. I would have seen and heard them for sure. So exactly where in VA were you? At night, how would you know they were C130s?

3. There was no moratorium on the footage. In fact, that seems to be all they played for 24/7 for days on end. Maybe months on end. How on this Earth could you not have seen footage for TWO YEARS???

Can you explain these comments you made?


[edit on 8/4/2010 by inked up]

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


Here is the story I posted on a forum four years ago. I did not get one response. I have posted it in a few other places, and same thing.

Three weeks before 9/11 I was in a chat room, the subject matter was ufo's. A new man came in and typed in a message that in three weeks something huge was going to happen in NYC involving airplanes hitting buildings. After about 5 minutes when nobody responded to him he said "fine, I guess noone cares about what I know, I will just leave." I typed in real fast out of curiosity and asked what was going to happen. He then took the mic and talked. The tone of his voice was raw pure fear. He said if the people involved knew what he was saying he would be dead. He went on with more details naming Bin Laden. According to this man, Bin Laden was hiding out in Sarajavo. He said he was leaving that night and hiding out in Canada. He didn't sound foreign in any way. He sounded totally American. By that time he had the whole room's attention. We asked him why didn't he contact our government and he freaked out and was more scared. He said "Mark my words, if you don't believe me now, you will remember every word I said in three weeks."

It took me about 2 or 3 hours after the planes hit to recall what he had said. I contacted the FBI and they went to the chat room site and got access to the other people who were in the chat room that night and they also had access to the typed conversation.

I find it peculiar as to why someone with that much information prior to 9/11 wouldn't trust the government. I actually thought that he should be held accountable for not coming forward beforehand. But after thinking about it for a few weeks, it settled into my brain....what if it was our government he was running from? What if this whole thing was a black-op project? Why did he pick a ufo chat room of all the rooms that were open that night?

I added his name to my buddy list on pal-talk and he never came online again after that night. Oddly enough, his screen name was skywatch.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


i was firefighter in the airforce and stationed at nellis air force base on the outskirts of north las vegas in nevada.

i was living on base in the barracks for the 99th civil engineering squadron to whom the the fire protection flight was assigned. i was getting up early that day as we had excersizes that week. it was my regular "kelly day" which is ... we were on duty and lived at the firestation 24 hour shifts, every other day (with military obligations usually scheduled on our days off) and our "kelly day" was the one day a week (mine was tuesdays) that we never worked, and were off for 3 days, every two weeks.

i had been stationed at nellis since january of 1999, with exception of a few deployments.

i remember starting my car and hearing the first tower had been struck by what reports were saying was a plane. but, i honestly didn't know how big the towers were, or much about them, or their schematics prior to that day. i got out of my car and told a fellow firefighter by the name of forester about a plane had hit one of the world trade center towers.

then i headed off to work. by the time i got to firestation 4, there were 11 firefighers and we were watching the news in the day room. we watched. we knew what we were looking at and what firefighters can and "can't" do.

we watched a plane hit the second tower.

excersize was cancelled.

base defenses were activated. if you were not mission essential, you were not getting on base. period.

within less than 15 minutes we had birds (planes) armed and ready.

i said it outloud, and there were those around who heard me. i said we are going to war with afghanistan, and i said it right after we saw the plane fly into the second tower.

we were already in a hightened alert. the pentagon got hit. a lot happenned on that base that day.

it was one of those times when the management has no choice but to put those who are most capable of performing at a position into that position.

we firefighters watched that days events unfold together.

i think i witnessed a new emotion be born that day.

no life is greater or lesser than any other, and what firefighters are willng and capable of doing at a moments notice for those whom they may have never met is no exception.

but who ever helps create a situation where firefighters by the hundreds become collateral damage in moments doing what it is they do...

evidently no one wanted us firefighters to fight, or this war would have been over awhile ago.

but no, there were no bid contracts to be handed out, profits to be made, and a military to make subservient to corporate entities and subsidiaries of other corporation(s?).

9 years into WWIII (global war on terror) and tptb are just putting obsticle after obsticle in the way... unless profit is acheivable.

who wages war on firefighters? who supported the building blocks up to such a situation? who gave that day it's foundations?

late that evening at firestation 4 i got a call from the assistant chief, requesting me to accept a different postion for awhile. i accepted.

that day, and the days since, sorta hurt us firefighters, too.

i got an ouchy.

firefighters cannot forget, & we shall always remember
what happened to us, in us, on the eleventh of september

[edit on 5-8-2010 by Esoteric Teacher]

I was in the 9th grade and I lived on Staten Island. My school was right located up the block from the S.I. ferry and that is directly across from lower Manhattan



and I was in school, I remember seeing someone upset and her saying a cell phone tower is down. I had no idea what that meant. Then came my lunch period (which was early at like 10:15) and I found out what she meant.

One kid said to me and my group that Manhattan was on fire and I looked out the window and the whole sky was black, one tower stood. The principal or something came in and tried to explain what he knew. Everyone was in shock, not really too sure what to do. Next time I looked out the window there where no more towers.
The school allowed everyone to leave if they wanted to so I did and when I was on the way to the bus stop (which was right out front of the terminal) there were people coming out from over there dusting and shaking white dust off. It made me very uneasy, I couldn't imagine how or why that happened. So it was packed on the bus and it took extremely long to get home but I got there and my parents weren't home
I waited and they did come home. They had gone to get me from school and I wasn't there. Scared the poop out of em! whooops!

But they snapped some pics I should dig out. That's one day I can never forget.

I remember it like yesterday, I was on my way to court (I am a Police Officer in Detroit), in the car I was listening to music. WHen I walked into the Police detail room to check in for court I saw everyone gathered around a little TV and someone said 2 planes just hit the WTC, and they were about to evacuate. Needless to say I jumped in my car called the wife and told her to meet me at the grocery store, we got supplies (preparing for the worst).
Then I was called into work, it was an election day in Detroit (mayoral). I was assigned to patrol a south end neighborhood which has a huge population of Iraqi, middle eastern groups, because tensions were very high. The rest is history.

reply to post by inked up


At the time (9/11/2001) I was in a linguistics class at Penn. My lab partner was a young lady that had just gotten out of the Army(?) about a year and half before. When she was in she was a Arab language expert, particularly Farsi. They told her that unless she was willing to make an occupation change then there really wasn't much of a future for her in the military and she should not bother re-upping. She didn't re-up and moved home, later her mother had gotten sick so she was taking care of her at the time.

Within two weeks of 9/11 she told she had gotten calls from every branch of the militray, the FBI, the CIA and some other groups she had never heard of.

She told them all to go pound sand.

I remember that day very clearly.

I entered my 10th grade algebra class. There was a TV mounted on the corner wall of the room. I saw the two towers smoking with the news headline on the bottom of the picture which read "AMERICA UNDER ATTACK".

I remember coming home from school and continuing to watch TV. Every single channel was showing the events taking place in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

At the time I was 16 years old. I bought the official story no questions asked. It was only five years later that I begun to question everything. Since then I have spent hours and hours on the net researching 9/11 related material.

Now I have moved on and I am not that interested/obsessed with 9/11 but whenever I think about topic, I think of how those three towers came down that day. That doesn't sit right with me at all and it shows that there is a high probability that the OS is a half truth.

I think the whole truth will come out one day

bump.


remember where we were 9 years ago?

Time Magazine's cover from September 10th, 2001.

Time wanted to know where Colin Powell was:



fire fighter's prayer:


firefighters cannot forget, we shall always remember
what occurred within us on the eleventh of September


[edit on 5-9-2010 by Esoteric Teacher]

Thank you ET, for the bump, and to everyone who has shared their stories with us.

I really like this thread, and some of the stories are quite moving. Even if you have shared your story on another thread, I thought you might enjoy reading the accounts of others, as they tell us how they experienced the events of that day, nine years ago.