We will never forget! Remembering 9/11

[Homerboy]

First off -- most of you were grade school!? Cripes I'm old.

I was just pulling into work when the 1st plane hit. Heard it on the radio. Thought "Wow, that's a hell of an accident by the pilot"

Got upstairs into our offices and the 2nd plane hit. We were all online watching the new on-fold (mostly BBC.com as most US sites like CNN etc were unusable as they were overloaded). We had a TV on in the conference room, but most chose to listen/watch online. I have to say watching it from afar, it was all very surreal -- it really felt like a movie that just couldn't possibly be happening and unfolding in reality.

I had a client (New York Internet) in NYC , not far from the WTC. We were IM'img the whole time through the ordeal as they had backup power to stay online. It was crazy having him tell me about the people outside. How dark it was. How he could feel the ground move etc.

My son, he was 1 at the time, now 14, had an homework assignment last night to interview somebody about 9/11 so he was asking me lots of basic questions. It was really the 1st time since the events that I had a frank discussion about that day and the days following it. I was never DIRECTLY affected by the events, but it was interesting to see how things did in fact change and how attitudes changed. One interesting question was "what from that day/those days made you proudest to be an American" -- and I couldn't really put my finger on anything of that day specifically. But I explained that as the stories unfolded -- the passengers on the plane in PA, the 1st responders all the people that sacrificed themselves -- those are the stories that made me proud and tearful.

The other question was what was the worst part that you remember - and after talking it through with my son, it ended up with the same answer as the proudest question. All those brave people that sacrificed so much, because of such a horrible act. Those people that stood up in the darkest moments, those that made me the most proud, also made me the most sad.

 

[ultimatebob]

In my office in midtown, right over Grand Central station.
When the towers fell and out systems went kaput (because we had a datacenter in one of the towers) half the crew was focused on heading off to a contingency site to get our stuff back on line (coworker had to lug a big ole proliant server onto metro north).
I eventually left with a co-worker and we headed downtown to see if there was anything we could do to help such as donate blood. As we passed Penn Station, noticed that they started operating again and then just headed home.

Yeah, one of my customers had their servers hosted in World Trade 7. I ended up having the spend the next week or two rebuilding the infrastructure on my tiny little development data center.

 

[z1ggy]

you should do a search on this topic.

My dad came into my room and told me to turn on my tv. First tower already on fire. I went into work at 10am-ish and sat in the NOC with other people watching it all unfold on the big screens. My manager's husband was on a high-floor and we didn't know if he made it out for the longest time - but thankfully he did. Other friends also made it out. Someone I went to HS with died that day though.

My now-wife walked home from Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge along with many many others.

Did he evacuate before the plane hit?

According to wiki, people were told to stay in place in the south tower, and that only 14 people got out above the impact zone once the 2nd plane hit.

 

[local]

I was not working at the time so I slept through most of it. My girlfriend finally came over and work up with with crazy stories about planes flying into buildings and the first tower falling. So I finally got up and turned on the TV about 30 seconds before the second tower fell. After watching everything for about 5 minutes I said a lot of people are going to die because of this then turned off the TV and went to the zoo.

My biggest memory of that day will not be the event itself but the change in our society that it signaled. It seems like every day since that morning we have been scared of the boogeymen that are about to kill us all any minute. I feel sorry for the kids that have grown up since then knowing nothing else.

 

[drquest]

I heard the about the first plane on the radio as I was pulling up to my office. As soon as I came in I told everyone(they didn't know about it) and at that time everyone(including myself) thought it was an accident.

I had a TV in my office so everyone crowded in there and we all watched in horror when the second plane hit and we all knew it wasn't an accident....

 

[NutBucket]

I am struck by how young most of you are! I had an 8th grader that year & will ask him tonight what he remembers.

First off -- most of you were grade school!? Cripes I'm old.

I was just pulling into work when the 1st plane hit. Heard it on the radio. Thought "Wow, that's a hell of an accident by the pilot"

I heard the about the first plane on the radio as I was pulling up to my office. As soon as I came in I told everyone(they didn't know about it) and at that time everyone(including myself) thought it was an accident.

First, agreed on the old comment even though I was only 19 in 2001. Anyway, I too was on my way to the office. Strangely enough I was driving past LAX (Los Angeles Airport for the non-locals) and listening to Howard Stern. It was surreal until I got to the office and we turned on the TV. We were sent home that day due to security concerns. I think the general atmosphere was shock and disbelief.

 

[spacejamz]

I was working in Renaissance Tower in downtown Dallas (the building with X's on it)...pretty much all of the sky scrapers were 'evacuated' by 9:30ish local time...I got home and turned on the TV to watch the first tower fall

 

[AdamK47]

Thread from that day.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=611382

Getting to any US based news site was very difficult at the time. These forums and the BBC News site were my sources of information for that day. I worked one of my first jobs out of college doing tech support for a major website. I received only one call that day and the person seemed oblivious as to what was going on.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Thread from that day.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=611382

Wow, just reading that and seeing it escalate so quickly is a bit eerie.

:rose;

 

[SlitheryDee]

I'm sad to say that the first thing I thought when I saw this thread was "Oh shit that's today!"

I really don't think about it much anymore, despite it being a real historical turning point of sorts for our country. So much has happened because of that one day over a decade ago. I should try harder to keep that in mind.

 

[z1ggy]

Wow, just reading that and seeing it escalate so quickly is a bit eerie.

:rose;

Somebody in there goes, "Any civilians hurt?"

0_o uhhhh

 

[CraKaJaX]

Somebody in there goes, "Any civilians hurt?"

0_o uhhhh

Or this one...

These buildings are so trashed, they wont be usable for quite a while!

 

[sdifox]

Was at work in a government building. There were talk of evacuating our building but that was just self agrandizing.

My buddy's dad was at wtc, literally walked out 20min before the first collapse.

Then get hounded by FBI for a long time because his passport was in the tower and he's a muslim.

 

[dainthomas]

First off -- most of you were grade school!? Cripes I'm old.

Good, it's not just me.

My daughter is just getting old enough to talk about everything that happened. Got an email from her third grade teacher yesterday that she's doing a little presentation on it today, which I think is great.

One of the things I remember (other than the attack itself) was how eerie it was having no planes flying for days after (forget how many exactly).

 

[JM Aggie08]

Anyone have a link to the AT thread that were covering the events as they transpired? I recall reading through it last year.

 

[BoomerD]

Sheesh...I'm surrounded by a bunch of kids! (9/11/2001 was about 2 weeks before my oldest grandson's 2nd birthday) :|

I was driving to work when the reports of the first plane came on the radio news. At first, I thought it was some idiot in a private plane...then they said it was a jetliner...then the second one hit. :hmm:

I had just finished reading Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor where a jetliner is crashed into the US Capitol building. I thought, "Someone has been reading Clancy."
The construction job I was on had no television or radios...so all any of us knew was bits and pieces from occasional phone calls from off-site. It wasn't until I got home more than 12 hours after the first plane hit that I saw the pictures and recordings of it.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

I was 48, and living on the west coast at the time. Had the tv on in the bedroom as we usually do early in the morning to hear the news as we get ready for work. Saw the second plane hit live, and remember saying to the wife, honey, we are under attack. The next 2 planes confirmed my fears. Had no idea how many other planes might be used in the same manner, or other methods or where, or when it would stop.
Those were my thoughts at the time.

 

[AdamK47]

Anyone have a link to the AT thread that were covering the events as they transpired? I recall reading through it last year.

Post #33

 

[mikeford]

I had the news on the TV and saw all of the coverage. It still feels raw, from the attack, the courage of flight 93, and the needless loss of life due to issues like radios etc.

I remember thinking how could Bin Laden be so stupid, or was this a ploy to draw the US into a war. Still annoys me that we got TSA to protect us from something that will almost certainly never happen again.

 

[boomerang]

My wife and I were on vacation. First week on Molokai and the second was to be on Kauai. I never and I mean never watch TV in the morning but while waiting for my wife to get ready before we headed out for breakfast I turned on the TV. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on coming into the middle of live coverage but it quickly became apparent. We were so far away and it seemed so far away. It appeared we would spend both weeks on Molokai because the airports were closed down, etc. but they reopened the day before we were to head out.

My recollection was that the second tower had not yet come down but I just checked the times and based on the time difference my recollection is wrong. Both had to have been hit and fallen by the time I tuned in. It was pretty surreal.

 

[Homerboy]

The original 9/11 thread is an interesting read. Eli nailed it on the head with the last post too:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30439267&postcount=1257

 

[John Connor]

Lots of young folks. I was 20. My mom woke me up and I seen this gaping hole in the side of the tower and then I saw the second plane hit and the rest. I knew then the ramifications this all had and my heart weeped for all those people. Then I was yelling at the TV. WEAR A MASK!!!! I knew that crap would be cancerous and here the EPA had monitors stuck to light poles saying the air was fine. Just a few weeks ago I think the "dust woman" died from cancer. A damn shame. You don't even die from the direct result of the attacks but the dust kills you.

I have a briefcase full of Time magazines from 2001 and VHS tapes from that day. I have the newspaper still and I have a DVD someone on my other forum over at radioreference.com made. It has CNN news coverage of the day and three audio sources. The first audio source is CNN, the second is scanner traffic from EMS and the third audio source is fire. The audio was taken from the 9/11 archive on the Internet. It is choreographed to the events as they happen on 9/11.

For the last fourteen years I have shed a tear on this day. Never fails. Those events were the most horrific I have ever seen.

Today we remember the bravery and character of those first responders. We remember those who died in the planes and buildings and those who payed the ultimate sacrifice to defend this country in Afghanistan.

As I write this I am watching Rob O'Neil on the show Outnumbered on FoxNews.

Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

 

[azazyel]

Thread from that day.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=611382

Getting to any US based news site was very difficult at the time. These forums and the BBC News site were my sources of information for that day. I worked one of my first jobs out of college doing tech support for a major website. I received only one call that day and the person seemed oblivious as to what was going on.

It was this place and Fark.com http://www.fark.com/comments/45086 that kept me informed.

I had just come to work when a guy I worked with told me we were under attack. I thought he meant our website. I kept up as best I could but eventually we were told to go home.

 

[John Connor]

The original 9/11 thread is an interesting read. Eli nailed it on the head with the last post too:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30439267&postcount=1257

It's amazing. I never had the Internet until 2003. Although I was on it at the library, school and a friends house. I bet a majority of all those posts were made with dial-up. Aww, the wonderful sound of QAM in the morning.

 

[silicon]

I was at work and was doing some maintenance when a co-worker informed me that a plane had hit the WTC. This was the first plane to hit. I assumed, incorrectly, that it was a small plane like a cessna. Don't know how i came to that idea! :hmm: