September 11, 2001: Personal Stories 10-Years Later

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


That day ,I lived 45 minutes away from WTC. My 3 oldest children were in school. I was home with my 2 youngest children...I had just had baby # 5 a few months prior. My 3 year old was watching tv after getting the 3 older children on the bus. I was dealing with my baby who cried since birth.

The phone rang, I sat holding the baby and decided to let the machine pick up the call. I could hear my sisters voice come over the answering machine, telling me to turn on the tv, sh*t was happening in NYC. Well..I didn't pay attention, my sister tends to freak at a hang nail.

A few minutes later, my mom called me from Florida, I was still feeding the baby trying to get him to sleep...I heard her message come across the answering machine saying "turn on the news! The WTC has been hit!"....I thought WTF? So I told my 3 year old to bring me the remote...I turned on the local network...I saw the coverage and couldn't believe my eyes.

I put the baby down in his crib..I called my mom in Florida. I turned on Blue's Clue's for my daughter...went upstairs and turned on the t.v. in my bedroom...sitting talking to my mom, we both gasped at the 2nd tower being hit. We couldn't believe what we were seeing!

After that, I was a bit numb. I was hearing local news reporting that there were reports of more air craft still in the air. I told my mom I had to go to retrieve my children from school...I wanted them home with me.

As I was getting ready to leave to pick up my children from school, the phone rang. It was my older brother who was beside himself. He told me that he dropped off his wife at Logan that morning around 7:15, before work. She was heading to LA as usual. They had got into an argument on the way to the airport. He was angry at her for taking to long dropping their kids off at the sisters house. It was going to make him late for work now that he had to drop her off at the airport.

He (my brother) was stuck in traffic on his way to work and had heard some of the news on the radio.He wanted me to confirm if what he heard was correct...that flight 11 from Logan International Airport, had crashed. I had been trying to get ready to leave and pick up my children from school, I was watching the images across the screen, yet was numb and not hearing what they were saying. It was too close for comfort, too close to home.

I sat for a few minutes waiting to hear what information I could. At around 9 or so, I heard the flight announced that my brothers wife was on, had hit the towers. My heart sank...how do I tell him this? He knows he dropped her off for her LA flight....but I had to confirm (to my brother who is normally very calm, and isn't typically emotional) that his wife's flight went into the tower.

I told him what had been announced on the tv. He started to cry. He said he was getting off the next exit and turning around to go pick up the kids from the sitters. At that point he had to go. I'm sure he didn't want me to hear him cry.

I left to pick up my kids at school. I was numb. It was bad enough that this was happening so close to home...but now my sister-in-law was one of the passengers on that flight that hit the towers. I arrived at the kids school, and the staff was buzzing in the hallway. I asked to have my kids released for the day. I told a few of the teachers who asked what I had heard on the news...I told them about the air craft hitting the 2 towers, and how my sister-in-law was on one of the flights.

I got my children, hugged them and went home to continue watching the coverage. The kids wanted to know why I took them out of school. They didn't understand. They were too young at the time. They saw the images on the news. I had to explain to them that their Aunt M was on that flight that hit the towers. My parents and I were hurting for my brother and their children.

Eventually, later that afternoon, I got a call that my sister-in-law had missed the flight. from Logan to LA. By the time she got checked in, and to the gate, she was to late to board Flight 11. She was put on another flight. When she reached LA, she heard the news about the attacks. She called my brother to let him know that she had missed the original flight, and was placed on the next flight. What a relief that she was alright.

As I was walking up to the school building from my mom's car, my friend Esther rushed me, breathlessly. The first thing she said was, "Did you hear the news this morning? Somebody has crashed an airplane into the World Trade Center. They're saying it was some middle eastern guy."

"Saddam Hussein?" I asked. After all, wasn't Saddam the only middle eastern guy who mattered...?

"No," she said. "I don't remember the name, but it wasn't Saddam. I've never heard of him."

I mumbled something dismissive. In my mind at that point, it wasn't anything huge. In my mind, it must have been a very small plane, given the lack of notoriety of the perpetrator. In my mind, it was still a minor occurrence on the other side of the country. I had science to learn, after all. Visions of a small prop plane wielded by a crazed third world militant filled my head. At that point to me, it was nothing.

So I walked into my first period class, which, funnily enough, was biology. (How many Texas schoolkids had bio that first period on 9/11? And did all of us wind up ATS posters?) I was alone in the classroom, and the television was on. I ignored it for a few minutes as I dug in my bag for notebooks, binder, and pens. I looked up, and the news was on. WTC, with smoke pouring out of one of the buildings fairly high up. A mere few seconds later, there was a huge blast, and I realized...dear god, another plane has hit the other tower, and it wasn't a small one either. And at that moment, I knew that this wasn't some minor threat with a prop plane. I felt cold. My mind went blank.

First period was spent watching the news. Whatever the lesson plan for the day had been, it no longer mattered. The only thing that mattered was the events unfolding on television. Nobody was saying anything. Nobody was even crying. We just watched, struck dumb by what seemed impossible. The Pentagon had been hit. The f***ing Pentagon! And another had crashed in Pennsylvania.

First period ended, and we rushed quietly to our homerooms, in case something else happened. The announcements began, exclusively addressing the attacks. The principal urged the teachers to turn off the televisions, urged us to go about our day as normal. Yeah, right. That was the first time we made much noise that day. Of course, it was an order that was defied, blatantly. There was no way in hell we could act like this was a normal day.

It was in homeroom that the first tower fell. English, the same room as homeroom, the second came down. In that moment when the first tower collapsed, it was like my heart was abruptly yanked out. My stomach lurched. I was horrified. I did not know how many people had been evacuated from the tower, but I knew that there were still a whole lot left in there, far too many. The horror I felt at the sudden and terrible loss of so many lives haunts me to this day. People started bursting into tears, but all I felt was horror. All those people, gone, just like that. For what, for what?

The rest of the day passed watching news coverage of smoldering ruins. It was still a few hours after the collapse before anyone started talking. About what it meant for us, for America, for the world. No answers, no speculation, only the questioning.

I don't remember how I got home that day, but my mom had work. I was alone again, like that first period class, but emptier. By that time, I couldn't watch any more news coverage. It was all too much for me to take. I wandered around out in my back yard, petting my dogs. My head was full of horror. I couldn't shake the image of that first tower's fall, nor the sickness it left in me. I remember the skies were so clear, so blue, the dryness of the air, the bright rust color of fallen pine needles and their smell, all heavy and thick and realer than real, it felt at the time like the world and all its sensations were in technicolor. Everything seemed too vivid and intense. All while my head was filled with a thousand worries that no fourteen year old kid should have. Was this the end of everything I thought the world was? Would there be war? Would they reinstate the draft? Would there be more attacks? Was I going to die, too?

My reverie was abruptly penetrated by the sound of something once familiar and now terrible: that strange echoing rumble of jet engines. My heart started racing, hadn't all aircraft been grounded nationwide? I started searching the skies, and my eyes fell upon a tiny white jet traversing the sky. I was terrified. Would they really hit here? What's even here to hit? But it passed. I don't know who was on that plane, or why it was there, but it scared me badly.

I went back inside, more news, more horror. Another building had collapsed. WTC was a pile of smoking rubble, and in that destruction, the world I knew had died.

12 years old, I was already interested in politics. I had cut-outs from magazines and maps of different countries all over my wall, so this was a big deal!

I guess my story isn't that different from millions of Americans; it was just another day and another morning at first...my aunt was staying with us and she got sort of hysterical. My brother didn't have much to say but he was the one it would effect the most cause he would inlist later.

I remember watching this spider in the corner of the room and it just seemed so strange to me (even though I didn't have the words to say it) that we lived in a world where simple, everyday stuff like spiders and webs were going on, and at the same time this crazy surrreal terrorist stuff. I spent some time trying to jam the two realities together into my mind but it didn't compute. I was on a church youth committee and my response was to launch into activity and try to organize a prayer vigil, which I got together in 3 hours flat, not bad for a 12 year old girl and a telephone, dozens showed up and our town is not a big one.

I was sound asleep when the phone rang early in the morning of Sept.11th. The voice on the other end was the General Manager of the Company I was working for at that time.

"Turn on your TV" he growled out.
"What station"?, I asked.
"Won't matter", he said.

I went into the living room and switched on the last station I had on the night before, which just happen to be CNN. Half asleep and memorized by what I was watching, I kept trying to make sense of what it is I was viewing. I was utterly in a state of shock as every station I changed to had 'their' cameras focused on the towers.

Then it happened... The next plane flying into the other tower. I felt a chill travel up my body and I was thinking that this couldn't be happening... not here on American Soil. I remember I was grabbing clothes out of my bedroom and getting dressed in the living room as it had become my Command Central, I didn't want to miss anything.

I arrived at work and while walking down the hallways to my office, I could hear other managers muttering and secretaries crying. My own staff were glued to the TV in the conference room. Normally, we would already have had the phones ringing, projects would've been being discussed and getting green-lit, there would've been the rapid scurrying about of employees in every department. But not on this day, today, it was eerily and hauntingly quiet.

It is a day that continues to haunt me still.



Johnny

September 11, 2001

I had just returned from a long backpacking trip and was staying a night at my parents before going the rest of the way home. I was asleep, my dad woke me and said "get up, a plane just flew into the WTC." I didn't really understand what he meant, I said something like, "what? by mistake?" and he said he didn't know...

We were watching as the second plane hit and as the towers fell. By then of course, we all knew something was very wrong. The event and subsequent days seemed surreal and I was left feeling simultaneously distant to the situation (west coast) and feeling as though it hit very close to home.

My parents left town about a week later and headed to the mountains, my dad (firefighter) needed to get away from the public. See, people felt the need to do something, but were too far away to really do anything and so they focused their attention, their need, on those whom they could see and touch. The outpouring of support in the communities for both Fire and Police was welcome, yet unwanted. It eventually became too much, I think.

I was ultimately left with the very bad feeling that this attack would be used to stage something much bigger. I also remember sadness and anger...

I was out. Finished, done with the Air Force. My separation date was Aug 16, 2001. On the morning of the 11th, I was watching tv (NBC) and getting ready to start school. High school, teaching math. I watched the first plane hit and woke my wife. She was sick to her stomach. Holding her head as she threw up into a bowl, we watched the second plane hit. Soon afterwards, I received a call from my former first sargeant. Needless to say, my life changed a bit after that.

Never made it to class.

I wept.

I was 9 years old and I lived in San Jose, California. I remember on that day, my dad was walking me to the Bus to elementary School and the Bus driver told my dad to turn on the TV and he said something really big happening in New York City. My dad left me and and rushed into the TV. I boarded anyways but my dad show a terrible shock when he saw the Twin Towers burning in flames after he turned on the TV.

I think that's all i remember.

I remember being really happy that morning. It was such a beautiful day; the sky was that bright blue and the sun was shining and the air was crisp. I was holding my daughter who was one at the time and watching the news and cuddling with her on the couch, when I saw the first news report. It was Bryant Gumble and I'll never forget the look on his face as he was reporting the news of the first plane hitting, and then when the second one came in I knew I was witnessing something huge, history in the making.

I called my relatives in CT and asked, "What the H is going on out there?" Well, they didn't know anymore than I did at the time, either. As the day played out, I felt for the first time in my life a little bit scared. But mostly mad. And I just remember being so stinking happy with life in general before that day and somehow, though I hate to admit it, I think I lost a little bit of my happiness.

Originally posted by beezzer
She was sick to her stomach. Holding her head as she threw up into a bowl, we watched the second plane hit. Soon afterwards, I received a call from my former first sargeant. Needless to say, my life changed a bit after that.

Never made it to class.

Was she already sick?

Or did the news actually make her throw up!?

Anyway I live in London, so I just came home from school, switched on the tv and the first thing I saw was one of the towers full of smoke, and like what many others have mentioned "it felt like watching a movie"

When the second plane hit I knew something very strange was going on, when the towers fell I was seriously confused and shocked.

reply to post by _Phoenix_
The news. She was horrified.

I was 10 years old in class, looking at the girl I wanted to be with since I was done with my work early. All the teachers were called on the intercom.

My teacher came back in with great excitement, "All of you are going HOME!!"

I was silent and observed. The teacher turned on the news and said, "The Twin Towers were just hit by a plane!" She proceeded to explain the last failed attempt on the Twin Towers, saying that it HAD to be BIN LADEN, she was fixed on the idea. She said, "This is going down in history." and soon after we all went home.

I made it home. The news was on at the house, I went in the kitchen silently and looked into the pantry full of food. I looked at the TV while holding open the pantry door and said to myself, "Something is changing."

Ever since then, I've gradually seen changes in life. It doesn't even feel the same anymore. I always look back and say the old days were so much better...

September 11, 2001 marked the day of change in my now future.

As much as I have always wanted someone to ask for my 911 story, now that they have I am not sure where to start. Usually when I tell this story I am offering it unsolicited and I can't ever remember getting it out all at once. So here goes...

I really like UFOs, that's all. I never wanted any trouble. But when it dawned on me that I could use the internet to feed my need for UFO stuff I made the mistake (there was no way to know it was a mistake at the time) of beginning my search at Rense.com, then called Sightings.com.

Well, as you know, I found plenty of UFOs. I also found a little bit of some interesting writing and editorial that reminded me a little of some of the plots for Lovecraftian science fiction and cyberpunk novels that my friends and I would dream up as kids in high school; they often involved politicians. Anyway, so some of this stuff sounded just crazy and I found it really intriguing, I don't remember specific authors and I don't think it really matters but I do remember one story very well.

In 1999 I read this one story in particular by this guy that was saying that when Wednesday (election day) rolls around and it is all said and done that there would not be a president, but that there would be a problem with counting the votes and that it would go to the Supreme Court; and you know the rest of the tale.

Well I thought that this was the most out there stuff that I had ever heard (except for those sci fi novel plots) and it was Tuesday and I had just quit work and off I went to see my girlfriend. Later that night when I was leaving she asked me who I thought the next president would be. I realize how polite that was, the way she put that; old fashioned manners. Anywho, so I decided to be a pain in the ass and thought it would be fun to give her the crazy version of what I thought and just parroted the article I had read that day. She had never heard anything like that before. So low and behold, what happens if it doesn't turn out that way after all. I was completely blown away.

I had been in the military and had never given politics much thought, I think many soldiers are like that. You know, when you are in the military the picture in the frame with the label, 'Commander in Chief' just changes every four years. Nothing to worry about.

Boy did that change after the election. I went all out trying to figure out how that guy knew that stuff. It was a slow ten year slide into internet depravity, I am sure many of you can relate. Can I get a witness.
So there were plenty of people ready to tell me how that guy did that trick and more. And eventually I ran in to this quote...

Henry Kissinger: "Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will pledge with world leaders to deliver them from this evil.

The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenarios, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government."

-Henry Kissinger in an address to the Bilderberg organization meeting at Evian, France, May 21, 1991. Transcribed from a tape recording made by one of the Swiss delegates.

So.

On that Monday morning I woke up and realized that I could not leave the side of my Girlfriend, so I got up to call in and beg out sick. I knew it was a slow day at work and that I would not really be need so I was relaxed and I think I was making a funny exaggerated 'sick voice' when my workmate interrupted right away and said, "***, are you watching the news?" and I said "No", but was already reaching for the remote. The person on the other end was doing the "Oh my God, oh my God" thing and the T.V. came on and there it was. The plane crashing in to the building. I said something or other to my workmate and we hung up.

I am just standing there and my Girlfriend is coming in and we watch for a moment and then I said, "There it is, that's what we have been waiting for". I don't remember her saying anything, I think she was doing the "Oh my God" thing, too.

Ten years later I am not sure whether that was what we were waiting for or not. ATS has been the beginning of what will probably be a long debriefing.

I don't mean to be melodramatic but of late I think that it really does not matter. I have watched the whole thing go by like a sad parade, It makes me think of a quote from a Hunter Thompson book, "The day dragged by like dead animals", to me, when it comes to the whole 911 thing it is like a "decade that has dragged by like dead animals" Whoever "They" are I am afraid "they" have won; whatever it was they were trying to win.

Maybe what "They" won is the years I spent worrying about it? I am ready to be debriefed.

reply to post by hypoekj


During his interview with the 9/11 Commission, Clinton was accompanied by longtime aide and former White House counsel Bruce Lindsey, along with former national security advisor Sandy Berger, who insisted in sworn testimony before Congress in Sept. 2002 that there was never any offer from Sudanese officials to turn over bin Laden to the U.S.

But other evidence suggests the Clinton administration did not take advantage of offers to get bin Laden -- and that the Monica Lewinsky scandal was exploding during this time period.

At least two offers from the government of Sudan to arrest Osama bin Laden and turn him over to the U.S. were rebuffed by the Clinton administration in February and March of 1996, a period of time when the former president's attention was distracted by his intensifying relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

One of the offers took place during a secret meeting in Washington, the same day Clinton was meeting with Lewinsky in the White House just miles away.

On Feb. 6, 1996, then-U.S. Ambassador to the Sudan Tim Carney met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Osman Mohammed Taha at Taha's home in the capital city of Khartoum. The meeting took place just a half mile from bin Laden's residence at the time, according to Richard Miniter's book "Losing bin Laden."
archive.newsmax.com...
www.nytimes.com...
www.infowars.com...

See, as much as i like him though Clinton was not tough enough to prevent terrorism. The 1993 WTC bombing in New York(it failed to bring it down), the 1996 Khobar Tower bombing in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 US embassy bombing in Kenya and Tanzania, and 2000 USS Cole bombing in Yemem - all of them happened under Clinton's watch.

Even in late 1998, the CIA and U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan had Bin Laden in their rifles scopes but was called off by Bill Clinton due to fears of having an intentional backlash. Big mistake, Clinton ignored it as he felt if he stick his hands into the sands the problem would go away.

reply to post by Paulioetc15




Wrong thread but thanks for the Monica low down.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by Paulioetc15

 

Wrong thread but thanks for the Monica low down.

I was replying to the other guy about why didn't bill Clinton done enough to prevent terrorism so i responded to this answer kindly even though it's a bit off-topic.

I was only 9 years old. The memory is vaguely there; I can remember being in class while the teachers put the TVs on for us all to see, and many of us were scared.

I remember the fear that carried on throughout the rest of the week. Living in California, the fear that LA would be hit was a constant reminder of how scared we should be (however, I live 30 miles east of LA, it was a Nuke attack/fallout that was causing fear). Other than that, it seems just like a distant memory. I remember Bush addressing the nation, I remember the soldiers being called to war, I remember the feeling that something wasn't quite right.. something about it seemed too.. surreal..

One thing I was told by my parents, was that the night before, I came out of my bedroom, crying, saying, "The towers were hit and people died," and of course, my parents thinking it was just a bad dream, got me back to bed without a second thought.

The next day they asked me how I knew or what had happened, but I honestly don't know. I don't even believe it myself, really. Maybe premonition, maybe something else. Who knows, I don't swear by it nor do I tell everyone.. but that's my story.

10 years later, here I am, searching for truth.

I was in first hour History class with one of my favorite teachers. He was one of my favorites because he always had a witty comment or opinion on everything. Like most the day started out normal for me and I was in class early because I liked to get stuff ready and then read.

I guess since I was caught up in the book I didn't process what the kids were talking about at the time but when the five minute warning bell rang and Mr. Davidson walked in I knew something was wrong. Usually he wallked in everyday with a quote or something that he would yell at us. Not that day. He walked in and went straight for the TV and turned it on. I remember he said something along the lines of, "Watch and pay attention kids. This will change our future."

I remember seeing the plane crash and the strong urge to cry. I've always been emotional when it comes to people dying so this really upset me. I was also confused because I hadn't heard of half the people they were talking about. Thankfully my mom came and got me early that day (paranoid mom) and explained it to me. I pray with not much hope that my brother (who is 14 years younger than me) and future kids don't ever have to see
an event like this.


I also want to thank everyone that posted the stories. Some of them have teared me up. It's an event we all share and will never forget.

I was working as a customer service rep for a money-transfer company (I'm sure you can guess which one, it's been around a while) and as such is the business, we received calls from all around the country, all walks of life. I had a very interesting day on 9/11, as due to the fear and confusion, people were sending money around like crazy into the New York area.

A good majority of our calls that day and in the days following were concerning where to find an open business that had our service in the Manhattan area. The others were people waiting for money, or sending money to loved ones affected.

The actual day of 9/11 on the phones was hectic, stressful, confusing, angering...but the emotional toll had not yet seemed to take hold of the country, just shock.

The days after 9/11, however, was when the emotions starting rolling. There was one instance in particular, a feeble-sounding old lady in Florida who had sent money to her son on 9/11. I remember it vividly, I answered with the standard greeting, never expecting anything too odd, and on the other end was this poor little old lady sobbing ever so slightly, trying to hide her emotions and speak the best she could. After stumbling through her words, I finally get it out of her that she is wanting to know if her son had received the money she sent that day. I looked up the names, and the son had not picked up the transfer. That's when she began telling me about her son, a successful man living in Manhattan, who rarely visited her due to his work, but her love for him was undeniable. Then she told me he worked near the top of the twin towers.

This is when the reality of that day set in for me. Listening to this old lady who had nothing in the world but her son, describe in detail the conversation they had that morning of 9/11. She could barely keep it together, but she needed someone to talk to so badly that she poured out her heart and soul to me, a complete stranger who she would never know. See, she hadn't talked to her son since that morning. He hadn't picked up his money that she sent to him. He worked near the top floor of the towers, and in that phone call she had to accept his fate. In spite of all my efforts to theorize the reasons why he may not have called or picked up the money, she wouldn't listen.

She never did come right out and say it, but I could tell just by the sound in her voice that she had just realized what really happened. Her emotion in that call flowed right through the lines, and just as she realized her son had died, I realized the true impact of that event. That was the one moment in time that I will never forget, an emotional sucker-punch that I can still feel today. I checked that money transfer for months afterwards, it was still waiting to be picked up, and she never did call in again to check on it. I saw several years back the son's name on the victim list, and it is still heart-breaking to this day.

I was 20 years old at the time and had been recovering from a recent family tragedy. Already in dismay and sadness, as if life could not get any more depressing came a knock on my door and am being told" An airplane hit the twin towers, turn on the news!". I was on the Internet at the time, coping, getting ready for work etc., and had heard no word on the net where I was(odd enough). I turn on TV channels, checked the Internet and could not believe what I was seeing. I kept watching, seeing the second plane to hit. Flipping through news channels and pretty much gathering as much info as possible. Also, to check on my family and friends living in states where events were happening at the time, making sure they were alright.