September 11, 2001: Personal Stories 10-Years Later

I was in London and was working on street level installing glass windows for a shop, I walked to the truck to go get more glass and saw a whole group of people in the pub on the corner all staring at the screen. I then walked past and thought it was very early for the people to be boozing even though they are British. I popped my head in and looked at the big screen TV on the wall and saw the peoples faces in horror. The next minute my boss called me and told me all the buses and tubes had been stopped in London as the states were under attack. I stayed in the bar until the next plane hit and everyone was in tears for some reason thinking London would be next. I decided it wasn't safe and got my gear and made it home , which was about an hour walk. I watched the telly the whole night wondering what the f$%k had happened.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I remember hearing that a plane had hit the WTC as I sat at my desk beginning my workday when our department's secretary began yelling what had happened as she spoke on the phone to someone in our NY office. I sat in Philadelphia wondering if it was a mistake. It had to be. Then the second plane hit. I called my now ex-husband in a panic telling him to get out of downtown Philly. He worked across the street from City Hall.

But what really sticks out in my mind, and what I mentally replay to this day is standing in my company's gym. We were huddled around the televisions as events unfolded. The camera panned to street-level where we saw the arrival of emergency crews. They were just standing there, looking up. It seemed like minutes went by as we stared, right along with EMS, when a woman next to me said "Why are they just standing there?" Having seen entirely too many Clint Eastwood films growing up, I said "They're waiting to see if any explosives go off - they're set sometimes to kill arriving emergency workers " without a thought. I really thought there might be a bomb on each plane.

i was in grade 6, just getting ready for school, eating breakfast in the kitchen, my mom calls me and says to come into the tv room, the first tower was on fire. she was clearly paniced, she worked for the RCMP at the time, and her dad, my grandpa was a SGT.Maj in ww2 and korea, so i'm sure she knew what was eventually going to happen from this.

we watched the second tower hit live. I recall at the time noticing that a building like that wouldn't fall straight down at the base if the planes hit at the top. yes I was in grade 6.

so I go to school and they are announcing on the speakers that a terrorist attack happened in america, the teachers have this look of dread and despair, they knew war was being declared. but me, I didn't care at all, it was weird.
I knew something huge was happening, but it didn't affect me like anyone else. probably because I was so far away on the planet from anything being able to happen, I suppose.

What was I doing.

I heard about it on the way to work, and then went into hyper focus mode for the whole day at work. I really didn't work that much that day. You know, at my actual job.

Between my father and myself we'd already worked out most of this scenario, and seeing it happening in real life by the people I'd said were going to do it, during the time frame in the time frame I'd used, using the method my father had called as being the most likely way to make a statement put me into hyperdrive.

What did I do. Nothing but watch and follow ever available feed in English or French I could find.

Not too exciting.

I was 10 years old at the time, about to have english class. We were just starting to begin our exercises when our principal came on the comm and said to stop what we were doing and have a moment of silence and pray for those who were involved in some type of crash at the world trade center. I honestly didn't know what the WTC was at the time, but I didn't think too much of it.

When I got home, my parents were glued to the TV. We were watching the rescue efforts unfold and the ominous cloud of smoke floating over the city. I was frightened, yet didn't think too much of it all. I at first thought someone accidentally flew into it or something.

I can still remember my father saying, "Remember this day, never forget it." And indeed I have never forgotten it. I also remember having to bring in food incase we got bombed and practicing bomb safety maneuvers. Scared me to the core, honestly.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


This is late in the game and I'm somewhat hoping no one reads this...on threads like this that is sometimes the case, eh?

I have never written about my experiences but have talked quite a bit about them. If I think too hard, this could go forever - I am just going with a streamof conciousness and will miss some details.

It was an amazing day in Manhattan, as the world knows. I walked from my apt on 83rd and First down to my job on the 24th floor of the Chrysler Building on Lex and 42nd. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

My wife (at the time) called me to say they were reporting a small plane or helicopter hit the WTC. No one in my office had heard anything yet. I told my boss and we went to the 23rd floor boardroom, where you can see the towers unobstructed. There was a meeting going on but we went in and sure enough massive smoke coming from the building. As we watched and wondered aloud what was going on, I saw a massive fireball explode out of the second tower and panic immediately ensued.

Before they began evacuation of all the towers in NY, my boss grabbed my arm and said, "let's go". He had been in the '93 WTC bombing and had helped people that day - we were going to go down and see what we could do to help.

There was an unnerving panic on the streets of manhattan. We somehow managed a cab down to Union Square (14th street) before we had to get out and hoof it. We made it about 10 blocks away before the first building fell. I remember clearly NYC looked like a GOdzilla movie...cars with their doors open strewn in the streets, the radios on in some of them with the announcers saying as we walked past, "Attack on the Pentagon, White house in Danger" I thought it was WWIII - in many was, I guess it was the beginning.

A photographer from Esquire took several pics of me and my boss that day and I was able to meet him - he gave me his pictures - the originals - of me that day - I have looked at them once since that day. I screamed in terror when the buildings fell and I held a young somali woman as she cried. We both cried. That's all I want to say.

CJ

i was at home, and since i was in shock i can't remember anything about that terrible day but this (i saw it on tv later): "I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.' And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse.". this is my personal
story and if you mods try removing it... shame on you.

I had the day off from work.I'm self employed and only very rarely take a calculated "day off". But, for some reason, the day before I'd decided to do just that. My morning started out peacefully- it was a sunny day and I was looking forward to working in the garden, taking a walk on the beach and things like that. Suddenly my husband came tearing back into the house (he'd just left for a morning business meeting) and told me a plane had hit a building in New York, and then another!

We didn't have television (a matter of lifestyle choice there- we found the tv really annoying so we killed it) so we hopped in the car and drove to my parents' house, not far away, so we could watch the news coverage.

I remember when the towers collapsed - it instantly reminded me of the films of controlled demolitions but I thought "this can't be.." The day felt very surreal by then. I wasn't thinking "conspiracy" at first- for quite awhile I was just in vague disbelief about the event itself, the "news" we were getting, and the weird zombie-like reaction of many people I saw. I truly didn't know what to think, except that I was feeling very creeped-out. Most people didn't seem to be thinking at all- just zombie action and zombie words... Over the following days I was very disturbed at how the mysterious evil Arab terrorist mythology gripped so many otherwise reasonable people. It felt like "mob psychology" was poised to erupt into total madness, and I began to wonder if perhaps that was the intent was...

I was on an aircraft carrier doing work-ups off the coast of Southern California. We were scheduled to pull in that day as well. The morning started off like any other, with the normal routine of going to quarters to start the day. We assembled on the forward mess decks, and muster was just wrapping up with people getting their work assignments for the day. In the space next to ours there were television sets where the crew could watch the news and what not while eating.

There were numerous TVs fixated along the walls. So, things were all wrapped and we all walked through the space to go about our business to grab a quick smoke on the weather deck or a cup of coffee as part of our normal routine. So walking through the adjacent mess decks, my buddies and I saw one of the planes crash into the buildings, and the usual chatter among the crew was dead silent as everyone peered at the screens in shock. For me personally, there was a shiver down my spine. I did not know what was going on? Some of us just played it off like it was pilot error and that was all. So, we went about our business. However, we would learn quite shortly that it was not pilot error, because not one, but two jets struck the buildings. So we where quite shocked like the rest of the US, and on pins and needles. Throughout the morning we learned of the other attacks, and the eventual collapse of the towers which fed our shock and intrigue.

As things progressed throughout the day, there was rumors and gossip about what was going on, but nothing of any real substance. People flooded the pay phones to call home, and many stepped aside for people who were from New York, around New York, or Washington DC. Our ship was well stocked and could deploy anywhere. So, needless to say, many of us thought we would go on deployment as early as possible instead of after the new year. To where, we did not know? About five o'clock the whistle sounded and the Commanding Officer made an announcement. He essentially rehashed what was already known by the media at the time, and told us we would be flying sorties over Southern California in the event there were other attacks. We still did not know when we would pull in, and the CO did not know either. He just said we would remain at sea until further notice. In addition to his other remarks, he reminded us to maintain operational security (OP SEC) when talking to friends and loved ones. Further notice would mean three or four weeks if I recall?

Fast forward months later, we deployed earlier than scheduled and remained at sea longer than usual with the bulk of it taking place in the Indian Ocean supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. In a strange coincidence, my brother's aircraft carrier was the first there, and we relieved them. I got to see his ship depart in the distance during the change over. It was a crazy day for me as it was for everyone else. I will never forget it.


Translations for the Navy jargon used in this:

messdecks: dining area

quarters: assembly

muster: another term for assembly

It's funny how the human mind always remembers things like that so clearly.

I was sitting in a Swedish taxi with the other apprentice, we had had some time off, when the towers were hit. The taxi driver was listening to the news when he suddenly exclaimed something, i don't speak Swedish, and then started to explain us what had happened. When we arrived on the ship the loading had halted and everyone was watching it on TV and I can still remember everyone's astonishing look.

I wasn't into politics or conspiracy theories at all at that point but, as many, Loose Change changed all that. I know that some of the stuff mentioned in it has been debunked by now but I'll never look the same at the world again.

I was in sixth grade at the time. I don't remember much at all, it's all a blur in my mind now.

The school day was just beginning and I entered my first class of the day. The TV was on in the back showing a building on fire. At this time in my life I knew nothing about the WTC so I did not recognize the building.

This is were it gets foggy in my memory. I can't remember people's reactions although all the teachers seemed more somber. I don't remember the teacher's making a big deal over it. The school day proceeded more or less normally. We were far from New York or any place terrorist would want to attack so there was no fear of attack.

When I got home I asked my parents about it and we watched it on the news. I was too young at the time to really understand what was going on. Over the years it became more real as I saw the consequences of that fateful day.

I know we're only supposed to be sharing stories, but I wanted to make an observation about the stories I've read, really briefly:

It's incredibly interesting to read the stories by those who were young kids and pre-teens at the time. The older high school crowd at the time had experienced the 90s a lot like I did, even though I was already a few years into college by then, the age difference was not so great. We grew up in the 80s and 90s with these heroic blockbuster movies about bad terrorists and the good ol' American (super)hero who would save the day every time. i think for that age group, the actual occurrence of a terrorist attack was not possible, merely a Hollywood fantasy.

However, for those who were in elementary school and middle school (9 to 14) their entrance into the adult world was different. Their maturing consciousness was ushered in through a different worldview than my generation. Technology aside, I wonder what changed for them. I wonder what going with a group of friends to the mall was like. Or, what they talked about during the in-between times in school. Or how they viewed the news or if they discussed it and what role war played in their minds or in their conversations.

I remember being 9 or 10 and watching Operation Desert Storm on TV and how my young mind processed the events: Saddam bad. But that war was not drawn out and did not provoke any change that I could feel. I remember watching some stupid spoof movie, maybe Hot Shots Part Deux, when Leslie Nielson has some slapstick scene with a Saddam impersonator. That was it for my generation, just something silly, not too important, that movies either glamorized on the one hand or threw a cream pie in the face of it on the other.

I was at work chatting with a friend on MSN messenger. The friend lived about 5 blocks from the towers...

He typed: "wow, a small plane or something just hit one of the towers..." -- he had seen it, as we were chatting.

For what ever reason, he thought it was a small cesna. And that is what I thought for the first few minutes of that day until I gathered everyone up at the company into the conference room to watch it unfold live on TV.

I was so distressed that I left work, and went home to watch the events privately, as it was too much for me to do so in front of my employees.

That is when I saw the first tower fall.

A close friend of mine who was an executive at US Airways, called to tell me what was going on. His son and mine went to the same elementary school and he advised me that I needed to get my son out immediately, and that US Airways had a NUMBER of planes currently that were unaccounted for. He feared the worse. So I had my wife pick up my son and get him home where I knew he would be safe.

I returned to work at noon, and all of the employees gathered outside in the parking lot. One of them was a pastor, and we all held hands in a huge circle and gave a moment of silence and prayer. We all wept.

I will never forget this day, for as long as I live.

Let me add that I have been to WTC, and I have been at the top of the towers. What a sensation that was to be so high up, looking over the edge. I remember the coldness of being that high up in the middle of June. It was cold, it was windy. It was truly a spiritual event of my life, less than 2 years prior to the towers falling.

I was joyous.

My daughter woke me after the first tower was struck. We watched the second get hit and the Pentagon get slammed. We waited to watch the White House get hit.

She asked me who did I think did it. I told her it didn't matter who did it but who would take advantage of it.
Then so easily and quickly, the Muslim related things were found in the cars at the airport. How obliging of them.

Not joyous. Exhilarated.
I had been waiting for this event for several years. Many of us had seen it coming. Maybe not specifically the towers but something. We had been in limbo for to long. To long with the foggy liberalism and conservatism drumming us into complacency. We needed to be shaken up so that those who like to control could galvanize us into walking resolutely into our prisons. Even a cursory study of American history made it clear that something was going to happen. The Lusitania. Pearl Harbor. The Maine. The solder in a bar in Mexico.

Bush no longer had to pretend to be compassionate. Cheney no longer had to hide the scorch marks that came from the fire belching from his nose.

That day at work, I watched so many people that had been apolitical all of a sudden become experts on foreign relations. They listened raptly to the news and commentary calling for resolve on the part of American patriots. When they asked me who did I think did it I would reply" it doesn't matter WHO did it but who will take advantage of it' I could see that this was not what they wanted to hear. They wanted to focus on the past. Who hurt us, not who will offer us the salve.

I knew the salve was poison.

I wasn't a bit surprised when 911 happened. As a matter of fact, I was waiting for it to happen. I had been warning people for weeks. How did I know? I was raised in the organization that is responsible for it....and NO...it wasn't Muslims that are responsible. It is a product of the Luciferian globalists. Better take a good hard look at who benefited and who is still benefiting from 911.

We, my Friends and i was Celebrating after the 2'th Plane hit the Towers of Corruption!

I am a little bit sentimental and thought about the People but i was very happy at that Moment.
Later when i saw the other "Attacks" i started to feel very sad for the US because it was clearly
visible that this was an False Flag Attack!

PS: Please do not start to attack me, that will be Offtopic!
It is my personal Opinion that the US done and still do
many terrible Things in the so called "Free World"!

I thought in the first Moments that some "Freedom-Fighters" brought the War
into the Country which is Responsible for the Suffering, Pain and Death of Millions of People!

I was on top of the Birmingham Tower in Pittsburgh installing cameras and microwave links.
We were ordered off the roof to the ground.
Watched some of it in the lobby, some of it in the security office, and we were ALL surprised by the complete collapse.
None of what happened that day made sense then nor does it make sense now,
especially when you understand not only structure design, but logistics in the plan and the failure of response.

I remember everyone back at ' the office' just staring and watching it repeat over and over and over and one lady just sobbing and shaking.

On the building top for the next several days the absence of air traffic was very unreal.
Very numbing, with giant question marks all around.

On 9/11 I was going through the worst time of my life , as I was suffering from something that I don't even know has a name. I was going through a period that was basically a 3 month panic attack that was non-stop and the only time I fell asleep was due to absolute exhaustion and the only time I felt some relief was the first few minutes after I awoke.

THREE MONTHS!!! I damn near ended my life because I did not think it would end ..... but it did eventually... After begging and crying for my life and finding some way to help myself (NO help from doctors).
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On the morning of September 11, 2001 I was awakened from yet another bad night's sleep by a family member, after passing out from exhaustion, on the couch in the living room.

I was told that I HAD to get up and "see this". And there I awoke to see one of the twin towers burning. I COULD NOT believe my eyes! I had just awoke but could not fathom what I was looking at. I was filled with a sense of disbelief.

I have followed many conspiracies before-hand but could not help but feel the shock as I watched the first WTC burn following an impact from an impact from an airliner!

At first I thought "damn! I can't believe an airliner hit the WTC!".

Then the channel I was watching (CNN) panned to another plane. I immediately thought "NO WAY". Then it happened ...... another plane struck the other tower!

I was in such dis-belief as to what I had just witnessed. I just watched two airliners just hit the twin towers. The funny thing is is that even though I had been a long time follower of conspiracies, I did not, at the moment, expect foul play.

I sat there on the couch and watched the events unfold, NEVER EVER thinking that the towers would fall.... and then they did. WHAT A SHOCK!

I spent the next three days watching the news and seeing the aftermath and hearing testimony from survivors. I never thought that what I saw was a conspiracy until the U.S. invaded Iraq.

The first time I ever saw an invasion (live) was during the the Kuwait war.

During the time of that war I remember seeing a local soldier spitting in the face of an American solder (who kept his cool) and was trying to provoke an incident. Shortly after that point, I remember seeing (in night-vision) cruise missiles being launched from U.S. ships.

I honestly never thought I would see that again. That was until 9/11 2001. As soon as I saw that first tower go down I knew that we were at war. It wasn't until later that I realized that the whole thing was set up.

Shortly after it was announced that we were at war I discovered the PNAC (Project for a New American Century). I was into a lot of conspiracies but NEVER thought that my neighbor to the south would have such "world" visions. Yet... here we are.

It's been a long trek.....I knew that the world was in for big changes since I was young kid back in the early 90's but I never would have thought that this would be in the direction towards the "Armageddon" that many of us have feared over the years .... Yet here it is.

I feel for humanity and yearn for peace. I think we deserve peace, under a truthful and benign government.

A fourth generation Canadian,

-AS-
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PS Oh damn .... this is a thread for people who were actually there! Damn, sorry.

Two weeks before 9/11 happened I joined the military. The morning it happened was a complete surprise. I was over at my cousins house helping her kids get ready for school and the news just happened to be on. They were reporting on the first plane. My cousin thought it was a movie and went about her business. I continued watching and in the background i see another plane. I call her into the room and she said it was probably one of those planes that puts fires out. I noticed this plane before the news people did. She sat down and watched with me and we saw the second plane hit on the television. For some odd reason it took the news people a few minutes to figure out what just happened when i clearly saw it on their video. The rest of the day i'm not sure about but i do remember my cousin crying when there were reports of the pentagon being hit. I also remember my grandmother watching the black debris falling and kept asking what is all that black stuff falling? When she found out it was people she said it reminded her of the window jumpers during the great depression. I was scheduled to go to basic the next week and I was cut off from newspapers and television so I never really got to see how America reacted. I also never have seen a clip of what i saw and the clips they kept replaying never showed them standing by talking while a plane was flying straight toward a tower in the background. My family was scared for me being a female and didn't want me to leave. I wasn't scared. I left anyway. When I got to basic they asked us why we joined the army and almost all of the people there said it was because of 9/11. The number of people joining the military skyrocketed. It was amazing to see how many people were willing to stand up for their country.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Oh man, that brought a fire to my heart and a sting to my face, was so good to hear how it ended for at least your receptionist. Blessings to you.

Now on to the rest of this wonderfully considerate thread.

*Hope I can make through*