Remembering 9/11

Reading this thread brings me both tears of sadness and of comfort. Thank you guys for sharing. Although it is a dark age in US history the first hand stories provide a wide range of unknown but accepted perspective.

I was serving in Iceland on the NATO base up there. We all couldn't believe it, went from saying "how does a pilot not see the twin towers?" to instant action when the second plane slammed in, right in front of our eyes. We knew it at that point and things were never the same.

History Channel ran an absolutely brillant documentary-like show: 102 Minutes Which Change America over the weekend. It was released in 2008 and is presented with only amature footage and some local news coverage that occurs during the entire event on the streets on Manhatten. Narration is only by the people shooting from there phone or cameras along with emergency calls on 911 or emergency services radio. It was the first time I saw it and it was simply amazing. It should be a requirement in all modern american history class across the country.

I was in my first year of law school in san diego. had a small apartment downtown on top of a hill. the airport in san diego is right next to downtown so my apartment was literally right next to/under the flight path for planes landing.

when the planes flew by I could see the bolts, whether there was a blond or brunnette sitting in the window, the planes shook my apartment everytime a plane flew by, you had to put calls on hold b/c you couldnt talk on the phone fromt he noise.

a plane passed my apartment probabaly once every 3-7 mins. domestic planes flew regularly from aoubt 5 am to 10 pm. after that only international planes.

on 9/11 around 6ish am i am dead asleep. my phone is ringing, i dont answer it. phone rings again, i dont answer it. thrid time i pick up the phone and scream a profanity laced tirade. it was my brother from the DC area. he said some things aobut a plane and towers, i cursed some more, he said just turn on the tv.

im lying in bed, trying to go to sleep, trying to decipher what he was saying in my morning daze. i then dont hear any planes go by. this was strange.

turn on the tv, the rest is history. went to my morning class, we had a discussion session, school was closed for the rest of the day.

went to a dive bar, got drunk, talked with a guy on a business trip from NYC, saw all the cops on every street corner.

History Channel ran an absolutely brillant documentary-like show: 102 Minutes Which Change America over the weekend. It was released in 2008 and is presented with only amature footage and some local news coverage that occurs during the entire event on the streets on Manhatten. Narration is only by the people shooting from there phone or cameras along with emergency calls on 911 or emergency services radio. It was the first time I saw it and it was simply amazing. It should be a requirement in all modern american history class across the country.

i dont know if i saw that particular documentary/video compilation. i saw one which was shot from personal video by firefighters in the tower after the first plane hit. it was heart wrenching and not at all for the faint of heart.

at one point (before the 2nd plane hit or towers collapsed), fiefighters where in like this first floor area kinda basement area, there was this constant but not rythmic thud sound happening. one guy asked what that sound was, another said that was bodies of people jumping. i couldnt watch much more after that.

History Channel ran an absolutely brillant documentary-like show: 102 Minutes Which Change America over the weekend. It was released in 2008 and is presented with only amature footage and some local news coverage that occurs during the entire event on the streets on Manhatten. Narration is only by the people shooting from there phone or cameras along with emergency calls on 911 or emergency services radio. It was the first time I saw it and it was simply amazing. It should be a requirement in all modern american history class across the country.

Saw some of it, very good but had to turn it off when they were playing the 911 calls. Those calls were just too tough to listen to.

It's weird how much I remember about that whole day and now it totally makes sense when I hear people say they remember every detail of the day Kennedy/MLK/etc was shot or Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was so surreal watching everything unfold on CNN and I still get teary eyed thinking about it all. (sorry for the impending mega-post)

I was a sophomore in college and my professor showed up a few minutes late to a 9am criminology class. He apologized and said he had been glued to the computer reading about a plane flying into the WTC. He didn't have many details and I kind of assumed it was a Cessna or something that got out of control and had an accident. It wasn't til I got back to my dorm that and turned on the TV that I saw what was really going on. I couldn't believe my eyes, especially when I saw the clip of the second plane hitting. It looked like something out of a movie.
A little later I went to a 10:30 class but was only there for a few minutes before someone stopped in and said the school was closing for the day. That professor later apologized to us for even beginning his lecture that morning but I didn't blame him since it was all so crazy.

Later that night there was an impromptu candle light vigil in one of the campus squares, and I can't even write about that now without getting big tears in my eyes. Throughout the day I was happy to hear that my loved ones in the military (including a cousin who had just started working at the Pentagon a few weeks prior) were okay but I knew others weren't so lucky.

I had to fly to Denver around Sept 20th, right after flights resumed, and that was pretty interesting. I wasn't that scared for myself but I was really nervous that my mom, sister, and grandmother were all on an earlier flight that day, so I worried about them. I sat next to my dad and he refused to buckle his seat belt as he gave the evil eye to anyone who got up.

I wouldn't say things are completely normal now but it's strange to think what we've all gotten used to. Now I get annoyed if I go to a baseball game and I feel like they're not doing a good job of checking people when they enter, and I'm always on the look-out for suspicious stuff when I'm on Metro. Next year with the 10th anniversary it's going to be even more intense.

i dont know if i saw that particular documentary/video compilation. i saw one which was shot from personal video by firefighters in the tower after the first plane hit. it was heart wrenching and not at all for the faint of heart.

at one point (before the 2nd plane hit or towers collapsed), fiefighters where in like this first floor area kinda basement area, there was this constant but not rythmic thud sound happening. one guy asked what that sound was, another said that was bodies of people jumping. i couldnt watch much more after that.

The thing that always sticks in my mind about the jumpers is this. You go to work on a beautiful morning, just another day at the office, and a few hours later you are leaning out a window thinking that jumping 80 stories to your death is a better alternative than burning to death. And then actually doing it. Wow.

that was what stuck in my mind too. that regular people just like me or you typing away on my computer were later faced with this decision no person could be prepared to answer.

man that video/documentary was so vicious, so real, you heard it in firefighters voices, i think they kept rolling as the tower collapsed on them.

last 9/11 I was heading to the DC area, theres a bridge (same one that i posted about the "skins country" sign actually) that always has an american flag hung on it. i was leaving early that morning, standing on the bridge was the most badass dude i have ever seen, had to be ex military, with black special ops type uniform on, built like a pro wrestler, standing frozen in a position holding a huge american flag up.
made this man cry.

Saw some of it, very good but had to turn it off when they were playing the 911 calls. Those calls were just too tough to listen to.

Those were very tough...I thought the video of the fireman and listening to the radio recordings were extremely hard to watch. Those guys were super brave, I mean, they must have known looking up that 1st tower wasnt gonna be up much longer and yet they suited and climbed 70+ floors to do what they could. Its just amazes to me. Justin Tuck running out of the tunnel with the NY firemen hat on the other day was f*ing awesome.