September 11, 2001: Personal Stories 10-Years Later

There are to many questions for me to take what happened seriously without a grain of salt. I was 11 at the time. it felt absolutely useless and un-logical to me why they would hit those buildings, not a military building, why stop with one day if you had the ability why not more in varying places? i hadn't been introduced to the word "terrorist" yet until the events. And then the world watched as we redefined the word terrorist and distributed the ideology like a plague through out the media planet. Creating the Ultimate faceless scapegoat for conflict that time will ever see. The forever changing terrorist with forever changing goals and without one face, the power of intention is no longer a persons conviction, but a variable label for the probability that a person could be a threat.

I was at home, sleeping, day off of work. The door to my room was open, A part of me was hearing the TV, I knew somehow something was going on, but couldn't wake myself up, my mother came in eventually and told me that I had better get up as something bad was happening. I spent the rest of the day with my mom trying to get in touch with my brother who we knew was in the NYC area on leave from the Navy. We weren't sure of the dates, was it this week or next, or the week before. In between we called the rest of our family, just trying to make contact, just in case worse was to come...We lived very near to Tampa International Airport and were used to jets flying over constantly, the silence of the next few days was eerie.

Later that night, my brother called, the NYC trip had ended the the day before and he was back on base but they were locked down, he said things were" scary" but for us not to worry.

10 years later I am where I am because of the events of that day. I knew in my heart even that day that my life was going to change, all the talk of immigrants and illegals and visas...here I was, living the American dream, but secretly doing it illegally, but by then it was too late to go back and fix things. I felt guilty for worrying about myself, when so many others were dying or dealing with their loved ones horrible deaths.


I was afraid on 9/11, afraid for my life ( the hectic hours after, anything could have happened), afraid for my family, afraid for humanity..and selfishly afraid for my future.

It turns out that the future I feared on 9/11/01 was not so bad, ten years later and I am in a good happier place, but..I will never forget that day,

Originally posted in another thread...

Well, I'll tell you my story of that day....

I'm from England and I was 13 at the time. I wasn't at school that day, because it was closed for teacher training.

I had arranged to go hang out with my friend at his house as he only lived a few doors down. I got to his house and went in and whilst going through the door I looked at the television and watched the second plane slam into the tower as it happened live.

I was quite stunned. I'd heard of the World Trade Centre, but I wouldn't have recognised them if I'd seen them, but the name was familiar. Still the image on the screen was startling. Although I was only 13 I always watched the news and I can remember many things I've seen on the news when I was younger, even though I might not have fully understood them.

My friend meanwhile was sat in the same room playing Diablo 2 (a computer game). He was totally engrossed and seemed more interested in that to be honest. My immediate thought upon seeing the second plane hit, and I think I actually voiced this aloud, was that maybe it was Russia that did it. This is probably because, even though I was only 13, I still had an image of Russia as the "boogeyman." Little did I realise what they were about to role out to frighten us with. To me terrorists were something from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie or a Tom Clancy computer game. They existed, but they were little heard of and wern't all pervasive as we were later led to believe.

I sat glued to the televison and watched the towers collapse live. It was like watching a disaster movie, but what made it all the more shocking was this was actually real and it was happening right now. When I heard the report on the television about a plane hitting the Pentagon I realised the significance.....America was being attacked.....woe betied whoever was responsible for it.

I had to go back home for something (I can't remember what) but at home I was replaying everything in my head and realising that this was as serious as it gets. My sister was at my next door neighbours house looking after their dog, as they were away on holiday. She was in their yard with the dog and as I was going back to my friends I told her what had happened and said a plane had also hit the Pentagon. She seemed quite unfazed and I don't think she even understood what the Pentagon was, let alone the dire gravity of the situation.

I got back to my friend's house (he was still sat at the computer) and I just sat and watched the tv.

The next day at school I remember practically my entire class discussing the event. Our discussion revovled around the fact that we believed that every single country in the world would now ally with America and destroy whoever was responsible. We didn't understand that everything wasn't as simple or as black and white as we imagined it to be.

Everything seemed to go downhill from then on.....and the days where "Terrorists" were something confined to fiction or remote countries was long forgotten and terroism became a rampant, all encompasing behemoth which was out to destroy us....or so they claimed (and still claim).

On Friday September 7th 2001 me and my co-worker Walt was driving from Trenton NJ on Rt. 1 north heading to Newark to work in one of our buildings.
There is a part on Rt. 1 when you get close to Newark you can see the World Trade Center towers, Big, Beautiful and Awesome! I remember saying to Walt: "just think, somebody tried to blow up those towers" !! Who would think in just a few days they'll be gone !
It's worth noting that on that friday, Rt 1 was partially shut down, North and South bound lanes just before you get to the last turn off that takes you either to Newark or New York.. In all my thirty years of traveling on Rt 1, I never experience such a shut down !!!!

I was still in high school at that time...I had left my television on before i went to sleep, i woke up to those horrifying images..it was terrible..it was disgusting..it was real. RIP to all of those who perished & blessings to those that suffer from it.

As for me,

It started off as a regular school day. I was in 7th Grade at the time.

Around 6:45 AM I was being woken up by my Dad to get ready for school. My Mom was just getting home from work at the time aswell.

Around 7:00 AM I was ready, and continued with my daily routine. Ate some breakfast, sat down in the living room with my dad, and watched Starship Troopers.

Closing to 7:30 AM, my mom got the remote, and changed it to KTLA News, not knowing what we'd be seeing.

The scene on the television is one i'd never forget. Smoke and flames coming from the Towers prior to the airplane attacks.

My mom and dad were in shock, and could not believe what was going on.

I was also trying to comprehend what was happening.
Finally when I understood the magnitude of the situation, I felt myself become, in a way, more mature.

Prior to the attacks, I always saw us, the United States of America, a place were nothing wrong could happen. A place where we were always safe.

I stayed home that day, watching the news with my parents.

Watching the towers being attacked, and collapsing was a very unreal, and hard to take moment in my life.

Viewing an event happen, in a place where I thought wasn't possible, or even thought of happening really opened my eyes.

I'll never forget.

I was in college, busting my hump working 2 jobs. That particular day, I slept until 11 am, because I was off from one job, no classes that day, and I didn't have to work my waiter job until 4pm, and I was exhausted from working both jobs and attending 2 classes the day before.

When I woke up, I showered and made a phone call to a prospective employer...now...I live in Las Vegas. When this went down, and they suspended air traffic, the lead story on the news was obviously what was going on in NY, but the follow-up story was on what exactly this meant for Las Vegas tourism.

Anyway...I showered, maybe grabbed a drink, and dialed up this guy at the Monte Carlo, a Las Vegas Strip property. I had yet to get online or turn on a TV or Radio. Anyway, I was given this guy's number by a friend, who was great friends with this possible employer, and everything had been set up, I was basically calling to get information on when to go in to get my drug-test information, ...I kinda had been hired on reputation/friendship alone...it's how Vegas works sometimes.

When I got him on the line, he said something along the lines of "Look, I know you've been told you can start whenever you want, and Edna really has put in a great word about you, but management sent out an email this morning to freeze all hiring until the dust settles about this World Trade Center thing. We'll call you first thing if it changes, but we really don't know how this will affect tourism."

I thought it was kinda odd, and still, I had no idea about what happened. Then I got online, and it all made sense.

Funny thing: I played Counter-Strike often back then, I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, the first site I logged onto was a gaming site, and the first thread I clicked on (because of the WTC reference by the guy at Monte Carlo) was titles "World Trade Center - Terrorists Win". The title alone enraged hundred of members on the boards, and I can distinctly remember conspiracy theories being born that very afternoon.

September 11 2001 ATLANTA,

I was asleep.....fast asleep and i heard my phone ringing off the hook in my apartment me and my future wife shared....she....gone to work....me.....sleeping as i worked 2nd shift as a techy and schooled in the mornings..no class that day, i get to sleep in..my damned phone would not stop ringing!

I slide out of my bed ready to curse someone out every way from sunday, with terms only a 23yo fmr sailor can spit and when i picked up my phone i heard my moms scream "SON!!! TURN ON YOUR TV NOW!!!!" i groggily start to say "mom...i havent been sleep long i'm....." to which she screamed "BOY TURN IT ON NOW!" so i straighten up and turn on the tube....that's when i see the 1 tower smouldering up high and my immediate response was "Well ma, i see it....when's this movie comin out.....i'm goin back to bed ma" to which she barked "WAKE UP! this just happened! its REAL!!!" then my cellphone starts ringing and i was snatched out of my drowsy state when i seen who was calling...my dad, army vet/former cop/dhs officer. i hung up from moms and dad told me "boy, i told you this was gonna happen...and it has...we gotta get ready...." i show up at the parents home after 11am and when i get there, dads friends from all over were calling in, and from the tone of his voice i could see it was very serious...america was PISSED.

for the next 2 weeks, i seen people dragging thru life...my buddies still in the service were tight lipped and heated and the arab community (which i lived near) were afraid and funny enough....one brotha i knew proclaimed to an eastern store owner i frequented "Now you see how it feels to be looked at like us black men do...not fun is it?!"

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
All I could do was sit and watch. I recall watching as the death toll rose and rose. Still ultimately unsure of what to think of everything that had unfolded before me.I guess you could say, I was in shock. Shock that this could even happen. Shock that so many had died. Shock... that our country was bleeding.

I never hear much about this, but I remember when the no fly order was placed across the nation. The only aircraft allowed in the air, were military and government aircraft. Now, living just a few miles away from a private airport, things seemed especially quiet.

The lack of aircraft noise, just made the events, that much spookier... It was as if the US had had the wind knocked out of it, so it could not make a noise.... I will never forget that eerie quiet. Never.

Living in Las Vegas, where a plane lands or takes off every 180 seconds...trust me, I hear you.

It's been awesome reading everyone's stories. That day was terrible, but it is my opinion that it's IMPORTANT to have the ability to remember the emotions we all had that day. None of the "NEVAR FORGET" nonsense, because I think it's also important to move on, but the USA had a huge paradigm shift that day.

September 11, 2011 was roughly a week after I started my first year of high school. I was just another "minor niner", as far as most were concerned - no friends, kept to myself and didn't do much of anything. My thing to do during lunch was walk the halls to kill time until class started.

The first plane would have hit just as the school day was starting, but I didn't hear about anything happening until lunch hour, when I was walking by the school chaplin's office and saw a small crowd of students stuffed inside this small room, listening to the radio. I could hear the world "airplanes" mentioned a few times. Thought it was odd seeing so many people in the chaplin's office at once, but brushed it off and walked off.

Didn't fully get the news until my final class of the day, Geography, where all the students were talking about it. The teacher walked in and told us about what happened, before the principal addressed the school over the PA system. Then, I understood what had happened.

As for how I felt about it going on - mostly surprised and confused, because this sort of thing "only happens in the movies". Heck, a TV show I watched had an episode where high tech terrorists were hacking flight control systems and crashing planes. Plus, not understanding how someone could be so evil as to do something like this and kill thousands of people in the blink of an eye, the only reason for doing so being that "they're different than I am".

I was a 22 year old, married, mother of two very small children, working at a sportswear sewing factory. The morning of the 11th I was sitting at my sewing machine with my headphones on listening to a tape. I decided to switch to the radio to catch up on the morning news. The hosts were talking about the WTC, for a minute I thought maybe it was the anniversary of the bomb... I then realized what had happened. The first plane had hit only a couple of minutes before I turned on the broadcast. I started paying closer attention, though at that point I thought maybe it could have been an accident (but who could "accidentally" fly into one of those buildings?). Then, the 2nd plane hit... I was stunned. OMG, what's happening! You see, I am all the way in Georgia, about an hour from Atlanta, but I have family in NY state. I began to fear for my family near the city, as well as all of us here. If we were being attacked, they could come to Atlanta as well. Just how far could this go? I kept my ears glued to the broadcast all the way through both towers falling. The more I heard about other planes and the speculations being thrown around, the more I felt I needed to be with my children. Many of us left the factory early,not knowing what the next step would be. I went home to my family, and turned on the tv. The severity of what was going on did not truly sink in until I saw the footage. I spent the rest of the day crying and holding my children close, my husband and I talking about plans for if/when they came this way (we are very near an air-force base, thoughts were it could be on "the list"). My father-in-law was on his was to the VA hospital in Atlanta at the time of the attacks. He did not know anything about it. The digital traffic signs over the highway flashed "National Emergency All Airports Closed". People were pulled off the sides of the roads standing outside their cars crying. He said it was horrifying.
Luckily for all of us, no one in my family was directly effected. But, we will never forget that day, and the eerie silence that followed for many days after.
No matter who/what the reason was for 9/11 my thoughts and prayers will be forever with the families who were torn apart by this terrible tragedy.

I was driving in my car, my husband called me and said he heard there was some sort of attack on New York. He didn't really believe it, neither did I. I figured it was a false or exaggerrated rumor. I went home and my son and I turned on the tv and watched it happen, speechless.

We saw one plane in one building, then saw another flying by in the background, and we made the very tacky joke "Now THAT one is going to fly into the other! " snark, snark.......OMG! It did.

I was in shock, as was everyone else, even though I am in France. I had people from our village coming to see me, crying, and saying they are so sorry to see what happened in my country!

I called my dad. He was just as freaked I guess. He said, "We americans appreciate your concern."

I was stunned into silence. I started to have tears run down my face. I realized at that moment that I was now kicked out of my country, my family- I was no longer considered one of them.

Up to that point, I had refused to take the french nationality, was terribly loyal to my american values and culture and was sure I would be going back.
After that day, I applied for french nationality, and began making effort to learn the french culture and language and integrate.
My country had closed up upon itself and I was locked out.

It was a pivotal moment for me on many levels.

I was 13 at the time and in school. i remeber it being on the t.v. screens, reports of attacks on our soil and the buildings in flames and smoke. i couldn't hepl but feel sorry for those who would soon die and those who will suffer because of this. at 13 i hardly knew this world but could already feel it changing. As the towers fell inside i was bawling and crying out in rage...why would someone allow this? why would god want this to happen? it was only in the recent years i understood why it happened. god didnt allow it. this was a beggining for a new change. a new decade...a new world order. i was raised babtist and knew that this group was bad news. chnge is happening now. i can only hope it gets better andwe learn from our mistakes.

-Nate

I was an 11 years old boy living in Italy...It was the perfect sunny day and I spent the whole summer playing football with my father and friends, a very happy and active summer.
I was about to start the first year of middle school...

It is the only day of my infancy in which I remember every single word I said and other said to me...

Me and my brother, age 8, were watching television, most Italians that day were watching the children's program called Melevisione...It was the last day I ever watched it.
My father was working in the garden to wash and set up some plant...My mother was working in a school.

Suddenly every single tv program indicates something happening in New York. I am alarmed by the sudden interruption of the program.
I can see the twin towers full of smoke.
When I was little my father went in the twin towers.

I called my father telling him that a plane crashed into one of the towers. He was schocked to the core...
He was asking himself how that was possible.
I remember telling him " Dad, isn't something like this happened before? ". I received no answer.

He stopped working into the garden to watch television.
Soon after, we watched live the second plane crashing into the other tower. My father than said " Terror attack ".

We watched the whole thing in different rooms, the kitchen and the living room. We had many tvs at the time and we were watching BBC and Italian tv in different rooms.

My father told me to call my mother. I did and I explained what was happening.
She said " What? Really? ".

She later told me that she annonced this at the job and nobody believed her, though she said that I was not the person who makes this jokes.

Soon after, another worker interrupted the reunion with the same news and everybody came home...

We spent an amount of 3-4 hours watching television. My mother came home and we 4 were in front of the tower when they crashed down and my parents were talking about the " start of world war 3 ".

In the evening, my father visited a friend that has a bike shop, because we were supposed to send my bike to be repaired. I came with him and they were discussing the whole thing.

I remember the day before we were watching the final of Miss Italia, a beauty contest, where a 17 years old girl won the crown.
I remember the day after I became interested in newspapers for the only period of my life...Now I prefer watching internet news.
I remember Italian newspapers were giving news as " 20.000 dead in Manhattan ".

I called my best friend just in time for him to see the towers crashing down.
I remember that a few days after or maybe the same day we discussed for the FIRST EVER time politics and a world event together at the phone.
It was the very first time I was interested into world events.

My infancy was over this way.

I was at my desk west of Boston when I got the call from my mom that a plane had hit the north tower about ten minutes earlier and she told me to find some news, fast. CNN, Fox News and boston.com were all inundated with requests, so coworkers shared what they were able to learn. Radios were turned on all over my department. A guy in the next aisle, Tony, was frantically trying to get word from American Airlines as to his wife's whereabouts -- she was a flight attendant and didn't know where she was heading off to that morning.

If you remember, the news that morning came out fast and unvetted: reports of a car bomb at the State Department, fire on the National Mall, all of it made the events seem all the more frantic. I met with my Manager around 9:30 and was off to the other side of the building at 10:00. On the way back to my desk I swung through the cafeteria to see what I could on TV. I knew the towers had been hit, the Pentagon too and there was at least one presumed hijacked plane out there, but on seeing the long-shot from New Jersey of the brown debris cloud I was taken aback. I asked the guy next to me "what is that?"

"Lower Manhattan." It looked like it had been nuked.

I left work early. I wanted to be with my wife who was seven months pregnant with our oldest. I wanted to think about how good 9/10 was, and what it was going to be like to raise a child in this new world that was born that day.

When we heard that Cantor Fitzgerald was essentially wiped out, we figured my wife's friend Steve Ward who had moved to the city the previous year was gone. Nice guy. Had some drinks with him, but I can't say we were friends. Probably would have been Facebook friends if it had been around back then.

What I wasn't ready for came on Thursday the 13th at about 9:45. A friend of mine called to tell me that a friend of ours from college, and former coworker at my company at the time, Amy Toyen was on the 106th floor of the north tower for a trade show, and nobody had heard from her since. Worst possible place at the worst possible time. As I hung up the receiver, whatever tenuous faith I had left in me was gone. I clearly and distinctly said "there is no God." Then I set about breaking the news to Amy's old coworkers on my floor.

FOOTNOTE: My oldest is nine now, and is very curious about 9/11. She asks a lot of questions and has a thirst for knowledge. She took a book out of her school library the other day -- a great Life Magazine book on 9/11 -- the events, the cast of characters, the rescue and recovery. Amazing book. I picked it up last night and looked at the stamped Date Due column -- the last time a child seemingly checked out the book from the library was six years ago.

I've posted my story, here's my wife's, she isn't a member, but I'm sure you'll like it.

She was in Washington D.C. on business. I didn't know her at the time, I didn't meet her until 5 years later. She actually was on a tour of the White House when the first plane hit. As soon as it did, she said they knew about it. There are plenty of monitors and TVs on in the White House at all times, obviously. They were just learning the news when she said out of nowhere, like literally coming out of every door, secret service agents surrounded the group, and escorted them all the way out to the sidewalk, outside of the gates of the White House. Tour Over. She lost her pass, but a coworker who'd been on the tour before was kind enough to give my wife her pass.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9e194ca1c3b1.jpg[/atsimg]

I was 28, working for a big blue chip Company in the UK on an open plan floor.

I'd never fully understood the sentiment of 'we stand with you' or words to that effect for another Country until that day. Disasters have happened, wars have been fought in Countries but this was so very different as it was terrorism on an unprecidented scale, I mean who'd dare attack America for a start, then go for the Pentagon.

It started off as a terrible accident, then the second plane hit. Terrorism was being shouted out. Most, including myself were in disbelief and shock.
We had a tv in the smoking room which we took turns in going in to see the events unfold, more of a need to verify it with your own eyes.
What stuck with me was how horrific it felt with every bit of breaking news that came into the floor we were on. It just got worse. When the Pentagon got hit, we thought, that's it, do we go home now? We knew it was the start of something terrible beyond what was still to happen on that day that will affect us all.
One woman had a panic attack and kept mentioning it's the start of WW3, one Asian guy (Pakistani I believe) on the floor below, told people America deserved it and was told to leave immediately and subsequently lost his job. I only heard about that incident the following day, he nearly got lynched.

It's the genuine sadness of people so far away, across the pond that's stayed with me. It was like London had just been hit in a way. If video comes on the tv showing the towers collapsing, it still sends shivers down my spine.

A very sad day.
Rest in peace, those that perished.

I was in my second year of college on September, 11 2001. I had just met the man I would end up marrying 8 years later. He worked on Fort McPherson and I had a 30 minute commute into Atlanta every day for class. That day started out as any other except, about the time I got near the old Ford plant on I-75 I felt something was off. That's when I saw one of the giant billboards that normally tell you about accidents and travel times. It said, "National Emergency. All Air Traffic Grounded". That's when I realized why things felt weird. I hadn't seen any planes in the sky so near the airport.

I turned on the radio to find out what was going on. I had only just figured out that a plane had hit the first tower when the announcer started freaking out talking about a second plane hitting the second tower. My blood ran cold. This was no accident.

As I have always been a bit paranoid and in a constant survivalist state I began thinking that the last place I needed to be was in the city. The CDC would make a great target. So would Fort McPherson given its reputation as the little pentagon. I couldn't get my future husband on the phone. I was close enough to class that I parked anyway to meet my friends. We were all huddled in the courtyard near our favorite smoking spot talking about the school being shut down and what could possibly be going on when he finally called me.

It was a quick phone call. They had the base on lock down and they had him out cutting tree limbs to create a clear line of site for the base security. They also had him moving jersey barriers into roadways and around sensitive buildings. He had no idea when he would be home. He left the phone conversation with, "get out of the city. Go to your mother's".

I told my friends what he said and we all quickly dispersed. I stopped at our apartment on the way to the country to grab some things and my cats and I drove another hour south to my mother's farm. I had no idea how long I would be there and I had no idea when I would see my boyfriend again.

I was too shocked that day to think of conspiracies or world politics. It was just too surreal. I sat on my mother's couch for the next few days huddling with my cats and watching the news. All the while waiting for a time when the threat against my city was over and I didn't have to hide in the country anymore.

It changed so much and really defined my outlook on life during my 20's just as it has defined an entire generation.

Regardless of the conspiracies surrounding that day it was a tragic event. RIP all those who lost their lives on that day and every day that followed.

I was in my office with my partner in the basement. Was working at the oil refinery in Linden NJ across the river
from NYC. Our boss came in little after 9 AM and said two planes had flown in the WTC and the buildings were
on fire. My buddy and myself told him that was pretty sick joke. Said it was true - had watched the planes fly
into the towers with other people on the upper floors . Ran upstairs to the top floor and warched as the towers
burned - stood there for almost hour until first tower collapsed and the smoke and dust made it impossible
to see. Everyone was sent home just after lunch - at this time were preparing for Iwo Jima, cranes were
putting huge concrete blocks into the driveways to block any vehicles from ramming through gates. All the
off duty cops/ correction officers were on the gates heavily armed to prevent any attacks on the refinery

Went top my firehouse - we had been put on alert in case needed. Were covering for neighboring city which
had sent entire day shift into NYC. They were operating on West Street putting out fires at World Financial
Cnter across from WTC 7

Listening to radio transmissions from the scene heard the orders being passed down to clear area around WTC
7 in anticipation of it collapsing. . This was after 3PM. Remember watching TV - kept replaying plane
hitting South Tower and the collapse of the towers.

Disbelief
If there was one word to capture the day, that was it. I saw it unfold from the start as I was watching GMA that morning. The only thing that made sense was one plane crashing in to the WTC, everything after that only added to the unreality of it all. More plane crashes, both towers collapsing in to a pile of rubble. None of it made sense, I was a 41 year old at the time and well-educated on what the capabilities of our air defenses were both in terms of flight intercepts by fighters and surface to air missiles. How could any plane fly in to the Pentagon, the world's most restricted airspace? How could a big white jet fly lazily over the White House and NOBODY knew who it was? How do steel frame skyscrapers collapse into a cloud of dust? Everything about the day screamed "impossible" and is the reason I found ATS in the first place while looking for answers.

That's why 9/11 changed nothing for me - I was detached emotionally from it because until my rational mind could make sense of it, I wasn't going to allow it to affect my emotional state. Watching everyone else seemingly lose it only added to my determination to cling to a logical state of mind.

Though this precedes the story I should add that on the day before 9/11 I took a nap in the afternoon and had the worst nightmare of my entire life. Parts of the dream I saw happening live the next day. I can't express how profound the feelings are when you see your nightmares turn in to reality on live television. I have always put great faith in dreams and perhaps is the biggest reason I have had a personal resolve to learn what actually happened on that day.

ETA - the other big thing I remember is asking myself "where the hell is the President and why isn't he addressing the Nation?"