Every generation has an event so shocking and powerful, it stays with them for the rest of their lives. As we remember those we lost 5 years ago today, I’d like for everybody to just take some time and remember what they were doing when they heard the news about the towers.
I was still in junior high school at the time, and it started just like any other day. We were sitting in english class when Ms. Wainer got a phone call on the class phone. As she talked on the phone the class didn’t think anything of it and we just got back to talking and having fun. But i noticed a certain distress in her face, and as tears welled up in her eyes, she hung up the phone and told the class to settle down. Holding back tears, she told the class that the world trade center had just been bombed.
My very first thoughts were of my brother, who was in school at Stuyvesant high school just blocks away from the area. I was worried if he was alright, God forbid he was hurt in the attack. After a few minutes Ms. Wainer got another call on the classroom phone; the second tower had just been attacked. I couldn’t believe my ears; the Twin Towers, two of the world’s most distinguished landmarks had just been attacked by terrorists.
When news came that the towers had been attacked by hijacked planes, fear hit me, right in the pit of my heart. My father was in Korea on business, and was on a plane home that morning. I began to think what my life would be like without my father or my brother in the very tragic, but very possible event that I lost them both on the same day. I began to think about how I never showed them the love they deserved, and I lost it. I began to cry uncontrollably, and I just wanted to go home and be with my mother.
Although neither my father nor my brother was hurt in the attack, thousands of lives were lost that tragic day. The entire nation mourned their deaths as pictures from Ground Zero and “We Will Never Forget” images were everywhere. As we live our lives, we should all be thankful for everything weve been given, and never forget what happened that fateful day.
In honor of all those lost in the attack, We will never forget.
I was getting ready for work and flipped on CNN while getting dressed. I went to work in a fog and by the time I got to work, the 2nd building dropped. They sent us home 'cause we’re government workers and though we might be at risk or something. So I went to applebee’s with a girlfriend and watched the TV there all day. I remember the details of that day vividly.
I was working at SUNY ESC in Rochester, and a student came in and said he’d heard about the (first) plane on the radio. We dragged the TV into the lobby and put it on, and people just gathered to watch. I was wandering in and out, trying to do my job, and then the news came that the second plane hit. I remember turning to the Receptionist and saying “This isn’t an accident. We’re being attacked.”
343…the number of Firefighter lost in the attacks. I was at the fire station that day. We were locked down after the attacks - only allowed to leave the station for emergency calls. All phone and radio contact was to be kept brief and to the point. I work in the city where the FBI raided the “church” group thought to have been funding the terriorist…it is a small world.
It was a tough day - thoughts ranged from “them boys will be having fun today” to “oh shit – what the hell is going on?” I also became concerned when I could not reach home. My spouse is in the military – Fort Hood seems like another viable target being the largest military base in the Free World. It took me hours to make sure all was well on the home front. Scarry day for sure.
I was in class, in a computer lab in one of the engineering buildings. Some (most) of us were browsing the web. One of the other students in the class had gone to cnn.com, raised his hand, and told the professor that two planes had been flown into the WTC. The prof dismissed class. Fellow students were going nuts, crying and calling their relatives on their cell phones. We have a large population of new yorkers at UMCP, anyway.
I was walking to work, listening to the radio. That’s when I heard about the 1st plane having hit. I was still walking and listening to an eye-witness account as the 2nd plane hit. I stopped at the corner of 5th Ave and 42 St and watched the towers burn for about 5 minutes (along with dozens of others) before I headed up 5th to my office. I watched the rest of the events on the trading floor with the rest of my bank while intermittently going to my office to try to call family members (there was very limited telephone service at the time so it took about 10 tries for every call one wanted to make).
After the towers fell, I walked about 35 blocks north with a friend of mine to his apartment, where I spent the next several hours watching tv and waiting for the GW Bridge to be reopened so I could go home. It was a very surreal day, to say the least. Then I went home and cried with my wife.
I spent the next few days being evacuated from what seemed like every building I set foot in.
I was at work, where my lab is on the 8th floor of a building with a view of Long Island Sound. I was spacing out the window, enjoying the view on this beautiful, blue day. One of the grad students came running in, shouting that a passenger plane had run into one of the Twin towers. Looking out into the cloudless sky, my first thought was…that’s not an accident.
I was at the house, just about ready to walk out the door for work. I had the remote in my hand when Fox News cut to a shot of smoke billowing out of the first tower.
I remember the conversation being about it being a small plane, and I saw the second plane hit the second tower.
I called my wife when it was found out it was in fact a terrorist attack of some sort. She came home and we both watched the towers fall. To say we were in shock was an understatement.
Later that evening after they had grounded all air traffic I was out on the porch, and a military jet flew over head. We live in the middle of BFE - and the sight of that jet scared the hell out of me.
I went in to work as normal. The secretary told me that she heard something was going down. I wheeled a TV into my office and watched along with everyone else.
I lived across the river from Louisville, KY and a lot of planes flew near our home. I remember the striking silence when all air traffic halted.
i was in high school at the time, and i remember the principal calling names down to the main office. There were probably a dozen or so students in my school who lost a parent that day, and hearing the students being called down to the main office to be excused from school was really sobering. Also very tasteless in my opinion but thats another story.
I’d already been at work for a few hours. I had ‘The Tony Bruno’ (sports) Radio show on in the background and they said that a small plane had hit the tower. Over time it became clear it was something else. My wife and I were both consultants on a state government project, but we were in different buildings in different parts of town. They evacuated us both mid-morning.
My sister-in-law was staying with us and had flown in late the night before. I called the house to tell her that we were coming home, not knowing that she had no clue what I was talking about. She’d lived in New York for awhile. I told her the WTC was no longer there. She seemed not to believe me. We spent the rest of the day and most of the night watching TV. I remember it was a beautiful, beautiful day outside. No clouds. Bright sunshine. Fairly cool temps.
I also remember this weird ‘high’ about being at home with my wife and sister-in-law, talking to my parents and siblings on the phone. The ‘high’ seemed to come from knowing that everyone was home. Everyone was safe. But that feeling was muted many times over by the images on TV and uncertaintly of what was coming next.
I remember waking up every few hours that night, checking the TV, seeing if anything else had happened. I think I did that for a few days.
I walked into my husband’s building where the Egyptian security guard let me in. Everyone was in the breakroom looking at what I thought was footage of the first attempt at bombing it some years ago. Briefly, I wondered why they’d be going over that again, now. I very quickly realized it was not old footage. My husband sent me & our 17 mo old son home. I got home and turned on the TV and saw re-run footage of the 2nd tower go down. I put my hands to my 8 mos pregnant belly and thought, “I’m bringing a child into this world…”
My home at the time was in Battery Park City which is a nieghborhood in Lower Manahattan. My neighborhood was covered in the dust and remains from the trade centers.
To say everyone was in shock is a profound understatement. Many thought more planes were coming.
I remember seeing Combat Air Patrol over the city 24/7. Sometimes the planes would fly low enough to see the missles they carried. I remember the warships in the Harbor. I also remember the crowds of volunteers and ordinary New Yorkers who lined the streets and cheered the firemen and police as they drove to the site and then helped them when they left. They even cheered the armies of construction workers as they pulled up to the site while it was still smoldering. I remember seeing the poster boards of the missing people all over the city. It was hearbreaking. I’ll never forget Rudi and the empathy he had for those who perished.
It’s hard to find a tavern or bar in Lower Manhattan or Brooklyn and Queens that doesn’t have a makeshift memorial set up to remember the cops and fireman who were patrons that died in the attack. I’m not in the city tonight but a part of me will always remain.
I was never realy affected by it at a personal level, so i don’t know why people are still thinking it as a big thing. To me, it was just some buildings where people worked, they were bound to die some die soon or later. Infact, to me, this is nothing as bad as places such as the poorer countries experience everyday with aids and poverty ravaging their country. To me, thats a bigger ongoing problem than the influx of casualtys and fatalitys on that 1 day (and following days).
Although this is just my oppinion, and as i stated, it didn’t realy effect me so i don’t know how other people reacted and how it effected them.
[quote]Sean_H wrote:
I was never realy affected by it at a personal level, so i don’t know why people are still thinking it as a big thing. To me, it was just some buildings where people worked, they were bound to die some die soon or later. Infact, to me, this is nothing as bad as places such as the poorer countries experience everyday with aids and poverty ravaging their country. To me, thats a bigger ongoing problem than the influx of casualtys and fatalitys on that 1 day (and following days).
Although this is just my oppinion, and as i stated, it didn’t realy effect me so i don’t know how other people reacted and how it effected them.[/quote]
Go eat some French Cheese, and keep your “oppinion” to yourself. You are talking to people who were affected by this tremendously.
I was getting ready to go to work that morning; I was in the Marine Corps at the time. I turned on the TV to ESPN waiting to hear about Jordan’s press conference to announce his return to the NBA, but only saw coverage of the “plane accident” (I remember it being refered to that in its initial stages). I left for work and listened to the rest of the details. It was a weird feeling at work that day – a standby and be ready kind of feeling.
My then-girlfriend was on her way to work when she called me around 5:45AM PST, told me to turn the TV, and said she was going to call her brother in Virginia.
When I tuned in, only the North Tower was burning and newscasters hadn’t ruled out an accident.
God bless everyone who was touched by these events five years ago: We Shall Never Forget.
