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Author Topic: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001  (Read 3769 times)

RandallS

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ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« on: September 11, 2011, 08:57:37 am »
I remember the morning of September 11, 2001 all too well. Reports that a plane had crashed into the World trade Center (but not having any idea it was a large passenger jet). Watching the fire and then a second jet slam into the second tower 20 minutes later -- which was when I looked at my mother and said, "This isn't an accident, it's a terrorist attack."  Sadly, it got worse from there with another jet slamming into the Pentagon and a fourth hijacked jet forced to crash by its passengers when they tried to retake the plane from its hijackers before it too could be used in an attack.

Those of you were were members of TC on that day probably remember how we all came together online on the board (then on Delphiforums) to discuss the awful events as they happened.

Ten years have passed, but we shall never forget that day nor the 3000+ people killed and the thousands more who lost a member of their family in this cowardly attacks. Nor shall we forget the heroes of that day, the first responders in New York and in Washington DC -- and the passengers who attacked the hijackers on UA Flight 93, preventing another attack on Washington at the cost of their own lives.

Never forget.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2011, 08:59:10 am by RandallS »
Randall
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KittyVel

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2011, 10:33:29 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;19061
Never forget.

 
At the beginning of the month I posted a prayer and energy thread.

I was only 9 when it all happened, so I didn't understand what was going on, but being empathic and watching all of the news casts and memorials and things has made me understand how those who were affected felt and are still feeling.  I sent out my prayers earlier today.
<3 Rest in peace, Christiana. I love you so much, and I miss you like crazy already. At least you\'re not hurting anymore...May you ascend. <3

RandallS

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2011, 10:37:17 pm »
Quote from: KittyVel;19179
I was only 9 when it all happened, so I didn't understand what was going on, but being empathic and watching all of the news casts and memorials and things has made me understand how those who were affected felt and are still feeling.  I sent out my prayers earlier today.

My cousin was a pilot for United at the time and we did not hear for hours that he was safe. He was fortunately flying out of the west coast that week.  We were lucky. A lot of people weren't.
Randall
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KittyVel

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2011, 11:21:25 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;19182
My cousin was a pilot for United at the time and we did not hear for hours that he was safe. He was fortunately flying out of the west coast that week.  We were lucky. A lot of people weren't.

 
Wow, that's very lucky.  I'm glad that your cousin is ok.
<3 Rest in peace, Christiana. I love you so much, and I miss you like crazy already. At least you\'re not hurting anymore...May you ascend. <3

Aster Breo

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2011, 03:48:37 am »
Quote from: RandallS;19061

Never forget.

 
I don't think I could ever forget that day.

I was working in DC at the time.  I remember walking from my car to the Metro platform, thinking what an incredibly beautiful day it was.  

My office was on K Street, NW, just about two blocks from the White House.  I'd gotten to work around 8:30.  My boss and I were the only ones in yet, when a colleague called from her car and told us to turn on the TV.  We sat in the conference room together, watching in horror as the first tower burned and the second plane hit the second tower.  As our staff came in, we just all gathered around the TV.

When the news came that the Pentagon had been hit, my boss and I looked at each other and said in unison, "The White House will be next."  That's when she told us all to go home and not to worry about work until we knew it would be safe in the city.

None of us wanted to ride the Metro, fearing that it might be a target.  So I walked across the city to where my husband was working.  It was so eerie -- very quiet, with people grouped around parked cars on every block, listening to the radio.  Whenever a new person came along, someone would update him/her on the latest news.  Everyone was just terrified, but there was a palpable sense of...togetherness.

My husband and I stayed at his work for a while listening to the radio and watching TV.  I remember all the rumors about other alleged targets around the city -- that there had been a bomb at the State Department building, that planes were aiming at the White House and the Capitol.  As soon as we could, we borrowed a van from his work and drove home.  It took forever to get home.

A friend had already picked our girls up from school.  They were about 9 and 10 at the time.  Our older daughter had actually seen the early coverage because her teacher had turned the TV on for some educational program, and caught the news instead, since it was on every channel.  But she didn't really understand what was happening until someone said the Pentagon had been hit.  Then she freaked out because she knew I worked really close to the White House.  I had called them and reassured them, but they were still pretty worried until we got home.

That evening and during the next day, we checked in with our friends who lived or worked in DC.  One friend was actually sitting in his car in the Pentagon parking lot when the plane flew right over him and into the building.  Another friend was stranded in Nova Scotia because he'd been on his way home from Europe and his plane was diverted.  Another, who worked at the Department of Education, told us about sitting in her office watching the smoke rise from the Pentagon. Another friend had been driving home from New York and happened to be in Pennsylvania just at the right place to see that plane go down.

For the next couple of weeks, DC was so subdued and kind of creepy.  There were soldiers with assault rifles and armored vehicles posted at the intersections near government buildings and military jets flying regular patrols over us, with the windows shaking every time.  

Some of my colleagues and I felt compelled to walk over to the White House at lunch for several days -- just to see it for ourselves and know for sure that it was still there.  We weren't alone.  It seemed like half the city wanted to be in Lafayette Park for lunch.

We also went as a group to special mid-day masses at St. Patrick's.  Those services were so crowded that the police closed the street and the church set up a sound system for people who gathered outside when the church was completely filled.  It didn't matter that most of us weren't Catholic.  It was about being together as Americans and expressing our sorrow for those who were lost and support for the families left behind.  I remember lighting a candle in the church and trying to pray, but I couldn't think of any words that didn't seem too small for the circumstances.

About two weeks later, a freak tornado hit the area, moving directly through my little town as an F-3.  It passed just about half a block from my house.

Between the military jets and the tornado, every child we knew was afraid to go outside.  When the commercial planes started flying again, we'd all jump when we saw or heard one.

I also remember how everyone wanted to DO something the help.  It felt like we all wanted to be part of the community and part of the recovery.  Our Girl Scout troop and our daughter's gymnastic team did a bunch of fundraisers to donate money to the Red Cross.  I remember standing on a corner with a "car wash" sign -- people would stop beside me and just hand me $20 bills!

In mid-October, I had to go to Chicago for work.  That was so nerve-wracking, and very surreal and stressful to see soldiers with assault rifles patrolling the airports.  Honestly, it took everything I had just to get on that plane.

It was a hard couple of weeks.  And a year later, when things had finally gotten back to sort-of-normal (yes, it did take that long!), we had to deal with the Beltway Sniper.

What a year!

In 2007, I started working for an organization that was headquartered in New York City, so I had to take the train up there every couple of weeks.  The first time, I was in a cab on the way from Penn Station to the organization's office not far from Battery Park.  I had my eyes closed in the car because a gigantic headache had hit as soon as I got into the city.  Suddenly and out of the blue, I had an incredibly powerful feeling of terror, panic, anger, and sorrow.  All I could see was red.  It was just horrible and really shook me up.  When I was finally able to open my eyes, I realized we'd just passed Ground Zero.  (I don't know NYC geography very well.  :p )  After that, I made sure to ask the cab drivers to take a different route.

Like Randall said, never forget.
"The status is not quo."  ~ Dr. Horrible

RandallS

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2011, 07:59:46 am »
Quote from: Aster Breo;19235
Between the military jets and the tornado, every child we knew was afraid to go outside.  When the commercial planes started flying again, we'd all jump when we saw or heard one.

My house in San Antonio was right under the path planes landing (or taking off, depending on the time of year) at San Antonio International used. We were all so used to planes constantly passing more or less directly overhead that if we were outside we'd just pause our conversations automatically for 10-20 seconds as they passed and then resume them. When the planes stopped flying, the "silence" was eerie. In fact that what I remember most about the days right after 9/11 -- the silence in the sky. San Antonio is a military city so there were still military aircraft flying around, but they generally flew much higher and were not as noticeable.

When the planes started flying again, it was a relief. Even though there were obviously fewer flights for many weeks, just the return of the planes meant the country was moving again.  That al-Qaeda had not succeeded. They had caused a lot of damage and killed far too many of us, but they had not killed the American spirit.
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Fier

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2011, 08:03:10 am »
Quote from: RandallS;19061
I remember the morning of September 11, 2001 all too well.


I was in college at the time, it was my sophomore year. I was getting ready for class when I heard knocking out in the hallway of my dorm. Looking through the peephole, I could see a floor-mate knocking on his girlfriend's door who lived across the hall. When I opened the door to say hello, he told me to turn on the TV.

I watched in horror and called my mom, I believe we were on the phone together when the 2nd plane struck. I had never been to NYC before (still haven't actually), and I didn't really know what the World Trade Center was. Eventually I had to go to chemistry class, I vividly remember taking notes and writing the date in purple ink.

At lunch the news was on in the dorm cafeteria. I was eating french fries. Until they starting showing footage of people jumping from the buildings. I lost my appetite.

Since then, I've not had any desire to look at photos or video from that day. The first time I tried was last week, and when I got to picture 4, of someone diving headfirst through the sky, I shut the browser. I've avoided the TV and newspapers this weekend. I don't need the images to remind me. It's burned into my memory forever.

Juni

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2011, 10:29:33 am »
Quote from: FierFlye;19250
I've avoided the TV and newspapers this weekend. I don't need the images to remind me. It's burned into my memory forever.

 
Same here.

I was a sophomore in high school; I was in gym class when the first plane struck, and during the bell between classes I heard from a classmate that "World War 3 just started." My next class was French, and Mme. was sitting on her desk with the news on the tv. I remember when the second plane hit, there were screams all through the school. We watched the coverage in every class, except science- my teacher adamantly refused to put it on, and gave every student who complained detention. (He was not well liked before then, but the student body turned on him afterwards, and he resigned the following year.)

The main thing I remember is the quiet, and the way the cries carried through the halls when the second plane hit, and the towers fell.
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sailor

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2011, 10:32:00 am »
Quote from: RandallS;19061

Never forget.

 
I was at sea when the FLASH Navy Blue message came in. Didn't get back from workups until 3 days later.  

One cousin owned a restaurant at the top of one of the towers. Luckily she wasn't in that morning, but I couldn't find out for those 3 days.

monsnoleedra

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2011, 10:50:04 am »
Quote from: RandallS;19061
.. Never forget.

 
Truthfully all is does is remind me that we (I enlisted in the Navy in 1978) had been speaking about such an event in the 80's and that our predictions had come to pass.  Especially after the failed truck bomb in 1993 at the World Trade Center.   The fact I had retired just a few months earlier made me wonder if I would be recalled to active duty but that didn't happen.

But all in all for me it was just one more terrorist incident in a long string of them that had unfolded during my military career.

Starglade

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Re: ADMIN: Ten Years Ago Today: 9/11/2001
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2011, 11:24:39 am »
Quote from: monsnoleedra;19268



I was at work, and as a factory drone I had no access to any kind of information at all. I had to go into the managers' office for something, and one of them mentioned it while I was there. The first words out of my mouth were "Oh, no--bin Laden again." They just stared at me.

My daughter was in daycare. I made a phone call to the administrator there to find out how they were dealing with the situation, because Kelley's father AND her older half-sister both were in Manhattan at work that morning (NOT at the WTC!). I was assured they were not telling the children anything, and they didn't. Kelley didn't know anything until I chose to tell her later that night, after I'd gotten information about her father and sister. They were both safe, and had actually gone to the roof of their business's building to watch the second tower fall. Everyone there went home early that day unless they chose to stay and help in some manner; the business shut down.

Kelley was four. She asked me "What's a splosion?" That's the only thing she'd overheard at her daycare, and she thought it was something like fireworks.
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