So where were you 7 years ago?

I was just pulling into work in Dayton and listening to 700 WLW out of Cincinnati. They broke in with reports of a plane hitting one of the towers. My initial thought was one of those small airplanes they use to report traffic conditions and that the pilot must have had a heart attack or something. So I went inside and turned on the TV just in time to see the 2nd plane hit. Chaos ensued.

I was working from home, it was crisp sunny morning. The folks I work with are all in New Jersey, in an office where you can see the city. I remember telling someone, hey, did you know a plane just hit the world trade center? the only response was "I know..." The office shut down for the rest of the day, I spent the day watching the news. Remember how eerily quiet it was later in the afternoon when there were no planes in the air, and the events were heavy on everyone's mind.

Several people from the Fort Wayne office of my firm came over to my house to watch news. A group of 3-4 people got here just in time to see the first tower fall down.

when I watched the new batman movie and he blew up the hospital, the scene was striking as it reminded me too much of 9/11.

Just gettting my day started at a previous firm, I heard the report on the radio. News quickly traveled around the office quickly and it just so happened one employee had a small 6" tv in his office. The entire morning was pretty much spent glued to that 6" screen in the lobby. Most of the office left at lunch and that probably was the day I became a news junkie.

I was working for Evan's Toyota and had the morning of.. so I was sleeping in somewhat. Woke up, jumped online and got an instant message from a friend saying "WE'VE BEEN ATTACKED!!!!!" I thought it was a joke, turned on my TV and saw the second plane hit.

Went into Evan's that afternoon, Rick is too much a stupid/greedy bastard to close the place, didn't have a single customer on the lot that day, any only maybe 5/day the rest of the week.

I was at work. I had 3 business associate who just flew in from PA that morning, I was touring them through production and saw a PC screen of a burning building, so I asked what it was, the response was, "a plane just flew into the tower" I excused myself from the associates and fled to the one and only TV at work b/c the instant that I heard those words, I knew that it was not an accident, (call it gut feeling, call it soldier gut feeling) as the second plan hit, my soldierness kicked, I was ready to fight. All the training etc started flying through my head, within just a few shorts minutes I had hit every emotion possible, then "unbecoming a soldier", I cried. I desperately wanted to leave and go get my children but knew that was not possible with scheduled out of town guests. So my soldierness kicked in again and I did what I had been trained to do, "pull up my boot straps and move forward" "deal with the issue at hand and the rest later"...
I got home that night, snuggled with my girls, fed them, bathed them, read to them, loved them, hurt for them (what was happening to their world) watched them fall asleep and then turned on the TV and sat there until I could take no more... I was devastated, I could not stop crying, I ached for "them, their families and the ones who (fireman, etc) just had to suck it up and do their job (however that was possible)"
To this day I cannot listen to the Alan Jackson song without bawling... and I will admit that as I write this and revisit this day in life, I have tears rolling down my face.
I saw a darkness about life, about people that day that will never leave me but I pray will, one day, not haunt me at the thought of it.

I am soooooo thankful that my girls at the time were too little (4yo and 1yo) to understand what was happening, therefore no need to explain to them that the world can be a bad place sometimes, they know all about it now but they are old enough to understand most of it.

NEVER FORGET!!!

@ work in the greatest city of all (Columbus Ohio) and FeatherHead called me to tell me we had been attacked. I had coworkers in the Twin Towers that day so we were told to all go home. Not all of the Verizon employees got out, but all that I personally knew got out. Kind of a shitty day that day ...

I remember September 10th's sky was just a bit brighter than it has been since.

The first report I heard was that a small commuter plan has struck one of the towers, I think the TV got pulled out of the closet and everyone just stopped working and huddled around. I remember the faces... just totally shocked. I remember thinking "how could this be possible"? It seemed like a dream. Around lunchtime and thereafter it seemed some people wanted to work on stuff to get their mind on something mundane.

I think that's roughly the time where I began to become aware of the psychological aspect of the physical buildings falling... that inside "me", two towers were forever gone and the world as I had known it, my perception of safety was fractured.

I guess ... then I became more fond of reality, and less fond of pulling the wool over my own eyes.

just got to lincoln to work as the news came on of the first hit. we were all watching the tv monitors when the second hit. i kept waiting for more after that second plane hit..i thought they--whoever they were-- would also hit other cities. a close friend had been in that very area the day before regarding some lincoln business and i was really worried about whether she had stayed over or left the area. also have another friend who had moved to ny the year before and worked within walking distance of the towers..and was worried about him. neither of my friends were at the location it turned out.

i remember how pissed i got at gw shortly afterward for saying over and over...go shopping. after having voted for him, that was the beginning of the end of my confidence in him.

i called my mom and several relatives just to tell them i loved them. my kids were teens, had plenty of questions i couldnt answer. several of their friends, and a neighbor family, came over to watch the news at our house. i made a huge batch of spagetti and some garlic bread and we all sat around in the living room staring at the tv and talking about americas lousy security and, shocking and horrific as this was, how could we have not expected such a thing before this ever happened.

I was on my way to class and I heard Bob & Tom talking about it on the radio. For a few minutes I thought it was part of a joke that they were making.

I worked 2nd shift...didn't crash out until about 4am that morning. My roommate's girlfriend woke me up shortly after they confirmed that the 1st plane to hit was a passenger plane. She said something along the lines of, "You may want to see this." and I snapped at her saying, "No, I may want to sleep. Shut my door."

I couldn't fall back to sleep and eventually got up to see what was actually going on. I sat down to watch TV just before the 2nd plane hit. And I watched CNN for the next 2 weeks non-stop.

I was on my way to my child's school to help in class and heard it on the radio. Got in the school before everything locked down. Told the teacher, she immediately locked the classroom doors and called the office. All NACS was locked down for some time.
At least I was with one child, but wanted so desperately to get to the other, but could not.
When I could I left the school and went to the church where I was working at the time and a member. Open the doors and put a sign to stop and pray for our country.

Pray & Remember

I was at work, at a school. A bunch of teachers were in a software training session while I was watching the news, and keeping an eye on the lab and trainer.

Stationed in Boston onboard the CGC ESCANABA, saw the TV report when the first plane hit. Called my wife told her to go home (she worked in the Prudential bldg, one of the larger skyscrapers in Boston). Told her to go home get my extra clothes and things I would need for sea. I wouldn't be coming home for a while.

I completely forgot about this, mostly because nothing bad happened, but my Brother-in-law was a pilot back them for US Air, and was flying on the east coast that day, Luckily we knew he was flying out of Pittsburgh that day. A few weeks later he lost his job and now is a banker.. ended up being one of the best things that could have happened to him in terms of a career. So something positive came from it on his end.