OT: 25 Years Ago.

September 11 2001 was a spectacularly beautiful fall day in Washington. I was in the office a little earlier than most as usual. At some point our legislative affairs person - the only one in the office with a tiny little tv to monitor cspan - poked her head in and told me a plane had hit the wtc. I poked my head in to see the fire burning and left shortly thereafter, assuming it was an errant single engine. But soon enough the news caught up and the second tower was hit, which made it clear this was no accident.

At some point there was a rumor that a plane had hit the White House. I went to the conference room window to look. It was only a few blocks away. The smoke was so thick from what was actually the pentagon I thought it actually was the White House.

People in our Pgh office were convinced flight 93 was actually coming for them and it reminded me of an old Don rickles joke where the punch line was “Paris, Rome, and Cincinnati”.

Saw the second tower come down and felt like I was going to be sick at so much instant death. People started going home but I figured it would be a mess and decided to just hang around til later in the day. Internet bandwidth was pretty taxed.

Called my mom who was vacationing at the Jersey shore to tell her I was ok. She had no idea what was going on and said “that’s great”. I told her to turn on the tv. Drove up that weekend. Flags on every bridge overpass.

At lunch I went out to grab a bite and it was the quietest traffic jam I’ve ever seen. But I still remember the car radio playing Bob Marley’s One Love: Is there a place for the hopeless sinners/who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?

life changed. Patriot batteries on my morning bike rides past the pentagon. My office was above a firehouse and those poor guys were run ragged over the next week every time someone put their briefcase down. I made them a dozen Stromboli.

A lot of overlap with @Aardvark86

Still surreal. Pentagon was halfway between my condo in South Arlington and work at HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center across the river. I transferred bus to Metro at Pentagon about 50 minutes before it was hit. Recall, no smart phones back then so when I arrived at work I first heard about first plane. Like many others I assumed it was a small one. About 5 minutes into work the second plane hit WTC, and we got what was going on. Then the White House rumors started. In a few minutes somebody in the south-facing end of our suite screamed “they hit the Pentagon.” I thought it was a sick joke until I walked to that end and looked out. I still remember the unique smoke smell when I got off Metro at Pentagon City (one stop past Pentagon) that afternoon and walked home. Totally eerie that only choppers in the sky, and emergency vehicles on the road.

On Sept 10th, I was at Dulles about 7 pm, attempting to board a jet back to State College. I was told I'd have to wait until tomorrow; I had a boarding pass but no seat assignment. oh crap the person behind me spoke up and showed something in his wallet and spoke. I'm sure you can find him a seat. I was given a seat and boarded, never to see this guy again. Made it back and at work the next morning watched it go down in disbelief. And thanking whomever got me the seat on the plane.

Ordinarily, I would have been working in lower Manhattan that day. My office was on the East River side rather than the Hudson side where the towers were. My co-workers watched them fall.

I happened to be in Miami on vacation at the time. The people in my apartment building knew I worked downtown but did not know I was on vacation. Everybody thought they had seen a ghost when I came back a few days later.

Lost coworkers and friends. The anger and pain has never left me. I pray this next generation coming up never forgets that day but I don't have a good feeling about that as many seem totally disinterested. #neverforget.

I had just teed off at Quail Ridge in Boynton, and they called us in. Drove home to Juno and watched the news. I had a friend Monique that I knew worked in the tower. It took me a few hours to find out she was safe.

Doesn't seem like we've learned a whole hell of a lot in 25 years.

I was driving from Tampa to Orlando to go to a convention. Wife, 2 yr old twins, mom, nanny, and my sister in tow. First plane hit, and early report was that it was a private jet that struck. So we get to the Hyatt, and by now the scale of the attack was overwhelming and somber. Disney closed. Kind of stuck at the hotel with two little ones and not much to do. Then the next day or so, a hurricane hits, and rain forecasted for days.
So decided to go to the airport and get a rental car. Security checking under the cab with long mirrors. Once in the terminal it was a total ghost town. Eerie quiet and emptiness. Apocalyptic.
Drove all the way back to VA in the rain. Next day back to PA, The sun was shining and drove past the soccer fields full of youth teams. Totally weird transition from the FL scene. It was like did this really happen.
Had a friend who worked in the towers killed by the assailants. Sad stuff.

I was at a jobsite in the Souderton, Pa area. A contractor had a radio playing while he was working on a roof of a gas station. He said a plane hit the Twin Towers and like so many other people I assumed it a was single engine General Aviation aircraft. When I got back to my office in Bensalem later that day, my colleague was listening to the radio/internet and told me the other tower went down and it was two jets that took them down. Then we heard about the Pentagon and Schwenksville and It was at that point that it started dawning on myself and him that this was no accident. We called our boss, the owner of the company, and told him what was going on (he was in a different location). We shut down the office and all went home.

Lost a guy that I went to branch campus with. A woman I was casually dating ended up being told to leave her office in the second tower, and she put on her headphones and got on the train home to North Jersey. She did not listen to the radio in her car (playing CD), but when she got home, she turned on the TV and saw what happened. She lost a lot of friends and colleagues that day.

My late uncle worked for MTA in their Manhattan Head Quarters. There was no cell service and his wife (my aunt) was distraught. He walked home, 10 miles - took him about 5 hours, with all the human traffic.

Coincidentally, a couple of years ago, I did a night flight in a single engine GA aircraft, right up the Hudson. I was roughly 1,000 feet from the new Freedom Tower and the events of 9/11 popped into my mind.

There are a number of corporate offices near me. At one of them, they left in place the car of a guy who caught a bus to NYC that day, and never came back. It sits there every single day and night, rain or shine.

I was in a physics lab at University Park, completely oblivious to the outside world. Didn't start to realize what happened until I arrived at the West Halls commons for lunch and saw a large number of students gathered around a big TV that hadn't been there only a few hours before.

This morning, I tried to explain to my students how nearly 3,000 Americans of all ethnicities lost their lives that day—that even if you didn't know anyone who died, you felt personally attacked because you lost so many of your fellow Americans. I tried to encourage them that, despite our flaws, we live in the best country, and that some people will hate us, but it's our responsibility to love and serve the people around us.

In my office/den, just beginning to write for the day. My wife had left early for her store at Exton Mall, when she called and said turn on the TV. Saw the second plane hit and could not believe it - had been up to viewing area in that tower with daughter's years before. Neighbors gathered outside speaking of how quiet everything was - we were on the glide path for PHL for planes from West. It was unbelievably very quiet.

Ever since, may I offer for a friend who made it through -
Today, we pause to remember September 11, 2001, and the lives forever changed by that heartbreaking day.
May we never forget their sacrifice and courage, and the enduring spirit of resilience, strength and compassion that brought our nation together.
Former NCIS and then that three letter company -upper left now back from many years of special service.

25 years ago, I was working at the Department of Labor in DC. It is the closest federal building to the capitol. I was in a training class when the first report came in. Then the second. Then the Pentagon just across the river. I went to the roof and saw the smoke rising. I got to my car and drove home to Pittsburgh, taking my usual route along US 30. I was diverted from the road as I neared Shanksville. Who knows, those passengers may have saved my life. It was kinda funny that I took the DC Metro to get to my car, past the Pentagon, but Pittsburgh had closed their three stop subway.

I spent the night at home, comforting my my three young ones. The next day I drove back to DC because there was work to do and I wasn't going to let the bastards shut down this government employee.

The airspace over the U.S. was closed. Planes coming from Europe were diverted to Canada and they took in over 30,000 passengers without hesitation, as good neighbors do. Gander, Newfoundland took in 7,000 to double their population. They were housed and fed without expectation of reimbursement. People opened their homes. A local bus strike was suspend in order to transport people. Pharmacists refilled prescriptions without scripts

This went on for four days before U.S. airspace was reopened and the planes could complete their journeys.

retsio said:

In my office/den, just beginning to write for the day. My wife had left early for her store at Exton Mall, when she called and said turn on the TV. Saw the second plane hit and could not believe it - had been up to viewing area in that tower with daughter's years before. Neighbors gathered outside speaking of how quiet everything was - we were on the glide path for PHL for planes from West. It was unbelievably very quiet.

Ever since, may I offer for a friend who made it through -
Today, we pause to remember September 11, 2001, and the lives forever changed by that heartbreaking day.
May we never forget their sacrifice and courage, and the enduring spirit of resilience, strength and compassion that brought our nation together.
Former NCIS and then that three letter company -upper left now back from many years of special service.
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You bring up an interesting point. At that time, I lived about 5 miles from where I live now and was directly under the approach to PHL from the east. It got eerily quiet with no planes overhead.

Just showed up at the DRPA(Delaware Port Authority) building in Camden and walked up to front desk and security guard had a little TV and said a plane just hit the twin towers. First thought it was a single engine small plane or something like that because the week before a small single person plane/glider hit the Statue of Liberty. Then he showed us the TV but it still didn't sink it. We made it into the conference room and the project meeting just started and everyone's pagers started going off and they ran out then ran back in talking about other planes hitting places(don't recall the order or events). DRPA had offices in the twin towers so all their networking hardware was going down and people were running in and out of the meeting and then when Flight 93 went down meeting was canceled(it became unimportant) and we left and listened on the radio on the drive back to the office in Bucks County. The walk back to the car from the DRPA building was surreal because we kept hearing loud bangs over towards the Ben Franklin bridge and were wondering if we should make our way back up thru NJ or go over BF to 95. Eventually, made it back to the office and watched a little bit on TV and then just went home to be with my family. There was someone from my high school who died that day and I remember people sending emails around asking if anyone was able to make contact with them in the days after. The company I eventually ended up working for a few years later was located in the South Tower and someone made the right call to evacuate everyone after the North Tower was hit. Colleagues from that company have shared stories about the evacuation because the South Tower was hit while the last few of them were still in the stairwell but close to the bottom. Some pretty tough stories. Fortunately because of one persons decision to evacuate, everyone in the company made it out and survived.

25 years ago today my first wife (native of Rockaway Queens) and I were awoken by my mother-in-law. She lived on 12th floor of apartment in Rockaway and had perfect view of lower Manhattan. Remember, that day was crystal clear. Wife and I then spent morning watching the attack unfold. There were 80+ firefighters, LEOs, and civilians killed from Rockaway... many of them childhood friends of my first wife. In fact, the firefighter on the left (George Johnson) was at our wedding in 1998.

I was prepping to go to a Substantial Completion inspection of a project that was wrapping up near Lewistown. My wife called and said a plane flew into the World Trade Center. Information was pretty thin at the time. In my office we had a small TV that we watch CCTV Inspection of sewer lines. My got it tuned in with the antenna and about 2 minutes later the second tower was hit. Vert surreal to watch.

I was in 7th grade English class at Middletown. A majority of my classmates including my teacher thought it was a bomb. I immediately said "it was a large plane. Not a bomb" and I knew right away it was no accident. They thought I was crazy, until #2 hit the south tower. We live in the greatest country in the world and its not even close (change my mind). I am damn proud to be an American and I will never apologize for it! Let ole glory fly high. Not just today, but every day!

Chumboshifko1 said:

Where were you? What were you doing?

I was at Disney World with family. It was impressive how the parks were emptied within 20 minutes.

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I was at a corporate meeting in Boston. I was lucky that a coworker drove to Boston so I could get a ride home. We had employees visiting customers in California who had to rent a car and drive across country to get back home.

I was the captain on a B727-200 freighter heading to Portland, OR somewhere over the mountain west at 32,000 ft. We were talking to Denver center when we got the first indications that something was not normal. A little while later, we were handed off to Salt Lake center. They announced “All traffic still on frequency, be advised that a bomb has gone off at the World Trade Cennter and someone has blown up the White House”. Because of our location, and our lack of landing performance data for the airports in our area, we were allowed to continue to our destination. For the next hour an a half or so, we were the only aircraft on each frequency.

One of our navigation systems (ADF) used AM radio so we were able to monitor an AM news station and get some information. We also used our HF com radio to talk with a trucker on the ground. He actually provided the most correct information.

when we were on approach to Portland, the controller said we were one of the last aircraft still in the air. Once on the ground, there were dozens of heavy jets parked on every ramp and taxiway. These were jets coming from Asia that had to land short of their intended destinations.

I was at a very early committee meeting in San Francisco before the main medical meeting started as everyone on the committee was from EST locations. Someone mentioned that it had just been reported that a plane had hit the WTC. I was figuring it was probably just a small single prop private plane. The meeting ended very quickly as we didn’t have much to discuss so I headed back upstairs to turn on the news, just in time to see the second plane hit live on camera. It was surreal.

Chumboshifko1 said:

Where were you? What were you doing?

I was at Disney World with family. It was impressive how the parks were emptied within 20 minutes.

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Started day in my office on Emory campus. Was on original Blue and White and someone posted that a small pland had hit WTC. there was some discussion that it was likely an off course private plane. (Something about the perspective made full on air liner look small) My recollection is someone posted they actually saw it. People started posting info on BW. I then left office and drove down to Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. Was listening to radio on way down and no one seemed to know what was going on. I get to Grady, our unit was on 13 floor. Walk in to waiting room area and TV is on and tower 1 had already collapsed. I was standing next to nurse manager watching and not really understanding what was happening, neither did the TV announcers really know what was going on. And right then live second tower imploded and collapsed live real time. Again we were all "was that a reply of the first tower?!?!?" But no it was second tower collapsing. I became aware of someone standing next to me watching the TV and he was a well know patient, semi homeless guy with schizophrenia, who always wore a jacket and tie he must have got from Goodwill and turn and look at him and he says "don't want to mess with them Muslims" turns and walks away!! There was a fair degree of confusion and fear and people/ staff were leaving hospital , Grady a big building and obvious target if more planes were coming, but my unit all stayed and did our jobs. But there was all kind of mass casualty messaging and preparation going on that ultimately was not needed.

I was living in New Britain, CT and had the day off from ESPN. Had a mid-morning tee time east of Hartford. Woke up to the local FM radio morning show talking about how some dummy steered their plane into the WTC. After getting out of bed and turning on morning news, saw the 2nd plane hit, and then got picked up to go to the course. On the ride there, heard about the Pentagon getting hit. It was weird hearing nothing in the skies because we were somewhat close to Bradley Airport so planes landing or on approach would be the norm. We might have heard a cropduster plane the entire time which also raised some red flags because of the nationwide ground stop. By the time we hit the turn, both towers had come down and there was word of another plane out there. At this time, cellphones weren't really a thing. I rarely used mine for anything so I didn't even take it with me. I had a friend who worked for a senator in DC and at that point, I wanted to try to call her but of course, didn't have my phone on me. So I spent the rest of the round in dread wondering what might be next. When I got home, I found out about that 4th plane and was eventually able to get in touch with my friend who was in a hellacious traffic jam driving back to Baltimore.

The next week at work was certainly surreal because there were no sports going on. Normally, there was a full slate of MLB looking ahead to a weekend of college football and Week 2 of the NFL. Nothing happened for the next 5 days and led to a lot of sitting around and early leave days.

Roar More said:

25 years ago, I was working at the Department of Labor in DC. It is the closest federal building to the capitol. I was in a training class when the first report came in. Then the second. Then the Pentagon just across the river. I went to the roof and saw the smoke rising. I got to my car and drove home to Pittsburgh, taking my usual route along US 30. I was diverted from the road as I neared Shanksville. Who knows, those passengers may have saved my life. It was kinda funny that I took the DC Metro to get to my car, past the Pentagon, but Pittsburgh had closed their three stop subway.

I spent the night at home, comforting my my three young ones. The next day I drove back to DC because there was work to do and I wasn't going to let the bastards shut down this government employee.

The airspace over the U.S. was closed. Planes coming from Europe were diverted to Canada and they took in over 30,000 passengers without hesitation, as good neighbors do. Gander, Newfoundland took in 7,000 to double their population. They were housed and fed without expectation of reimbursement. People opened their homes. A local bus strike was suspend in order to transport people. Pharmacists refilled prescriptions without scripts

This went on for four days before U.S. airspace was reopened and the planes could complete their journeys.

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my work colleagues in our pittsburgh offices genuinely believed that flight 93 was coming for the mellon bank building dahntahn when it was still in the air.

Perhaps the ultimate of the many examples i've collected of that unique genetic hyperparochialism that pennsylvanians seem to have. (and I say that as a native pennsylvania)

May we all never forget 9/11.

That days events changed me. I was 38 at the time. Until that time, I would have had zero interest in military service.

Had I been younger and without wife and kids, i very well may have marched to the nearest office and signed up the very next day. It opened my eyes that i was damn proud to be an American and how much our military does to secure our nation.

I obsess over watching 9/11 documentaries every year at this time of year. I still get wet eyes every single time. I’m sure i always will.

They thought they could break US. They were wrong. Very wrong.

I worked at Pittsburgh Airport at the time for USAirways. My GF (now wife) worked at PSU and I used my flight privileges to fly to visit her. I was to fly back on Wednesday. I had made plans to have lunch with some friends at the old sports bar on College Ave. I woke up around 8:30 and turned on CNBC before 9am and they were covering the first attack. My work at USAirways was in engineering and was manned 24/7. We had a contraband TV to watch Steeler games on Sunday. Right before the second plane hit I called the office and told them to get the TV out to see what was going on. Everyone was afraid they would get in trouble for having it... then a few minutes later I saw the second plane live on TV. Mark Haines was the host and he immediately said this was an attack (I wish I could find this footage). I watched the towers collapse there. I called my GF and told her what was going on. Then my parents. I did have a Nokia cell phone and used it a lot (I could play snake while waiting for a flight ). My dad was a firefighter on duty that day in Richmond VA and they were starting to get reports to be prepared if something happened closer to them. Around 11am I started to walk to campus to meet my friends for lunch. I remember so many people who you could tell by the look on their face that they either knew what happened or not. The sports bar was a lucky choice because of all the TVs. People would walk in and see the debris from the collapsed towers and ask "what is that?" and then shock as they found out.

We all think back about how much we did that was not "necessary". Like evacuating buildings in Pittsburgh or shutting roads/bridges down. But at the time we did not know if other forms of attack would take place (car bombs, anthrax, etc) or if there were 4 planes or 400. The next 3 days at the airline every plane cabin had to be inspected for contraband (box cutters, etc.) before it was allowed back in service.

My future MIL drove me home the next day as I could not fly back for work on Thursday. The airport was quiet for the next few days without flights and passengers.
I started working on a project to fortify the cockpit doors.

I always try to think of three days.
9/10 when we all had a bit more innocence and felt more secure.
9/11 the day all that changed and we will never forget the heroism and sacrifices of others.
9/12 when it seemed like everyone would help their neighbor or even a stranger (unless that stranger fit a certain description, unfortunately) that seemed like they needed it. USA was united.