12 years now, the 9/11 thread

[San Juan Sun]

At about this time 12 years ago, I was studying for an anatomy test in the Benson building. I was purposefully in some corner where I wouldn't be bothered by anything. By the time my wife found me, both towers were down.

We made our way to the bookstore and watched the coverage with hundreds of people on the TVs there. Nobody was really buying anything.

Outside the bookstore there were people taking donations for aid for New Yorkers, there were other people encouraging us to donate blood.

We made it to the MC for the devotional, which was short. If I recall, it was mainly just a prayer. I spent some time watching the various news feeds in one of the media booths there.

Walking home to Wymount I remember being really mad. I got home and started watching TV, and I distinctly recall the amount of rumors that floated around: bomb on the National Mall, multiple airliners missing, suspects apprehended leaving the country.

I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said before. What a terrible and seminal day.

[dabrockster]

I was working for the Ohio Department of Development in the Technologies Division as an Intern. We were located on the 25th floor of our building. The Governor's Office was located just above us on the 30th floor. I watched the 1st tower fall from a small TV one of the receptionists had under her desk. All of us were huddled watching in horror. I then watched the rest on the internet from my desk. The guy across from my desk was a Pakistani native. He and I were both numb and shocked as we watched and talked as it unfolded..

We were finally told to leave around 1 PM. Downtown C-Bus was a ghost town at this point. The street's were empty. Buses were not even around at all. There were many people waiting to get picked up by their bus to give up and just start walking. I usually rode a bus to my car. This time I walked. The silence was nothing I can ever remember.. Just pure silence in downtown C-Bus. It was scary-strange. We all walked alone but there were manyof us walking. no one spoke. Everyone looked stunned and scared. As most of us finally made it to our cars we just got in and drove home. The roads were also very empty at that time (I think we were some of the last office people still in downtown at the time). I actually went to gas my car up because it was empty to find a massive line at the gas station. Again, it was pure silence. No talking just gas and go..

A day I will never forget..

9/11....

[The_Douger]

I was living in Provo and commuting to Salt Lake. I'd graduated the previous April from BYU. I was working as an endoscopy technician, assisting the physician's who were performing colonoscopies and upper endoscopies. Before I left my apartment, the first plane had hit the one tower, and they were confused and it seemed strange. I got in the car and drove to the freeway, and another plane hit. I got to work and started working. By about noon, I looked over at one of the doctors, and he says "I'm sitting here talking to people about their gas and farts, and putting tubes up their asses, and there's probably 5000 people dead in New York from this terrorist attack. I just want to go home to my family." I worked a 12 hour shift that day.

I remember sitting in the bathroom very upset, by myself. I couldn't believe someone had done this to our country. That will always be one of those things where you remember a lot of the details about the day, a "where were you" moment.

[thesaint258]

I was on my mission in Austria. We were at a member family's home that afternoon, and I was helping one of the kids fix a problem with the computer. I saw on the homepage that a plane hit the WTC, but I didn't really pay any attention to it. I thought some idiot had flown a Cessna into the building. Later that night, one of our investigators called and asked if we heard about the plane that hit the WTC. I said yes and that I wasn't sure how a pilot could miss a big building right in front of him. She didn't give me any details and just thought I was being cold. Right after she hung up, some other elders in my district called and asked if we heard what happened. I said, "Yeah, some moron flew a Cessna into the WTC." The other elder's response was, "Uh, that's not what happened." He and his companion had been at an investigator's house and saw it all on TV. He told me about the planes hitting the buildings, people jumping, and the towers coming down. I was shocked. I never imagined that something like that would happen. I grabbed my companion so that he could hear what happened. The next day, we went to an investigator's house (the one who thought I was cold) and watched CNN for a really long time. I specifically didn't watch anything showing people jumping (and I haven't seen it to this day). It was surreal. Whenever we were out on the street, people would stop us and tell us how sorry they were for what happened. About a month later, I was on a plane coming home to a very different country.

[dabrockster]

2 million bikers ride into DC to counter a Muslim Rally taking place today in DC put on by the American Muslim Political Action Committee’s Million American March Against Fear.

Here is a video:
http://therightscoop.com/here-they-c...eir-way-to-dc/

The Article:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...protest-musli/

[Eddie]

I had my radio tuned to a music station when I got in the car to drive to work. They said something about a plane hitting the first tower, so I switched to KSL. There was a lot of confusion about what had happened, initially it was unknown if it was a private plane or an airline.

My in-laws are pilots, so I knew it would interest my wife. I called home as I was driving and told her to flip on the TV and see if she could see anything about it. In all honesty, initially I expected she might catch a quick 2 minute story and might have to watch for a few minutes to even see it. Little did I know that there would be nothing else on TV - any station really - for the next 2 days.

The first tower had come down and the second plane had hit before I got to work. We hooked up a TV with a poor antennae and saw a less than clear version of everything going on and the reports. Everyone was glued to the news. I work in an environment that much of what we were doing was driven by clients - no one was calling us and we weren't interested in calling anyone else. I think it was right around lunch time - maybe right after - that my boss finally told us to go home if we wanted. I don't think anyone stayed.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Tweet from David Burge:

Today, kick a Truther in the nuts.

[Surfah]

I was late a chemistry recitation. For some reason I turned on the TV to check the weather before heading out the door. The first attack had just happened. Then I saw the second one. I pretty much ran to class. My section was all in there unaware and I interrupted our TA and said that we're being attacked. I then left and went across the hall where a TV was available in an empty classroom and watched the towers fall live and saw that the Pentagon was attacked. A few members of the class had left and joined me and we told the rest of the class that the WTC had just collapsed. After this interruption the TA let everyone go and nobody knew what to do. After the Pentagon attack I tried calling my family in Virginia but couldn't get through on my cell. People were blowing up my phone though asking out my dad and my family.

It was so surreal and nuts. I remember walking to the MC for the devotional and President Bateman telling us this was the safest place we could be or something like that and we all recited the Pledge of Allegiance. That was a really powerful patriotic experience for me. I was moved to tears by what seemed like the entire student body united as Americans and I wanted to go Wolverines on our foes. In the MC I got a hold of my mom who told me that my dad left early that morning and didn't know where he was or when he'd be back. She said it was pretty intense as choppers and jets were flying overhead all morning. 2 months later I flew into Regan for Thanksgiving and it was sobering to drive past the Pentagon that still had the large American flag hanging next to the damaged wall.

[Pelado]

I was on my way to class in the Tanner Building that morning when I heard about it on a sports radio station. We watched the live feed on the televisions on the first floor until the somber class began. I had a getting-to-know-you interview scheduled with the professor shortly after the class, and we were both still in a state of shock. I went to work, but we mostly just watched the coverage until my shift was over. Eerie day.

[hostile]

I was in OR #12 at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We were about 3 hours into a scoliosis surgery on a young girl when the charge nurse came in said that a plane had flown into the towers. The hospital was cancelling all remaining elective surgeries that day in the event that blood supplies would need to be diverted or if mass casualties were transferred. We finished the surgery and I spent the rest of the day on call at the hospital trying to figure everything out by watching CNN and talking with my wife. One of the residents had vacation that week and he hopped into his car and drove up to New York to volunteer at an aid station.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

I was in a little trailer out at Lake Mead getting ready for another week of field work. I was startled awake by the screams of F-16s flying pretty low. There's a ton of military air traffic over the Lake but the fighter jets always go up north, so this was really unusual. While eating breakfast I got a call from one of the coworkers that I was supposed to pick up from the airport later that morning, telling me to turn on the tv.

I spent most of the rest of that day, and the next, and the next, sitting alone in that trailer out in the desert, watching news coverage. Not very healthy. I think the weirdest moment in those following days was driving into Vegas one evening and driving down the Strip, which was basically abandoned. Few tourists on the sidewalks. And every giant casino billboard had some sort of "God help us" message on it. It all seemed as post apocalyptic as anything I've experienced.

[byu71]

Driving to work when it came on the radio. I remeber I was a block away from Walkers on Bountiful Boulevard.

Watching some of the coverage has angered me all over again. I would make a terrible President. I want to go blow something up right now.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I had returned from an early jog and opened Cougarboard (my go to site at the time for news!). I turned on CNN and remained transfixed for the rest of the day, blowing off work as most did, I'd guess. When our youngest (then 9) returned home from school, i showed him the video stream of the second airliner crashing into the WTC. "COOL!!!!", he exclaimed, as if he were simply watching another video game or action movie. I didn't overreact, but explained that this was real life, that he had just seen thousands of mothers and fathers being killed, and that lots of families weren't going to see one of their parents ever again. That sobered him very quickly.

That day remains even more memorable and certainly more life-altering than JFK's assassination or Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon.

[sparky]

It was my last semester at BYU, living at Wymount with Mrs sparky and my firstborn toddler. Since my first class didn't start until 9am on Tuesday, I usually took the opportunity to sleep in a bit, but that day she woke me early and told me I need to watch the news, something about a plane had hit the WTC and it was on fire. As I was getting out of bed the 2nd plane hit, then came heavy speculation that we were under attack. By the time I had to leave for class, we had seen the horror of people jumping from the upper floors, the sudden death of thousands as both towers collapsed, and reports of planes still crashing. I think like everyone else I was quite frightened at the prospects of what might happen next. I was reluctant to leave my little family and go to class, but Mrs sparky was being comforted by her mom over the phone, so she urged me to go.

This EE class usually started out with a graded quiz that covered material from the previous week, and was usually very difficult. I thought how could anyone possibly be in the mindset to do anything but watch the news and gather loved ones close. At the same time I doubted that Dr. S was the kind to ever diverge from the syllabus even given the circumstances. But Dr. S called for an opening prayer for the first time that semester, opened his scriptures, and spent the hour leading a very needed cathartic discussion on the morning's events. By fall 2001 I was more than ready to be done with BYU, but very glad to be there that particular morning.

[venkman]

We were living in Dublin, CA. I had just gotten up and taken a shower and came into the kitchen for breakfast when my FIL had called. He's annoying so I let it go to voicemail and then I retrieved his message saying a plane had hit the WTC. I turned on the TV just after the second plane had hit. I think I watched the first tower come down and then went to work in a daze. At work I remember my boss saying this probably means war. I was damn upset and a little scared. I remember thinking this is how my grandparents must have felt when they heard the news of Pearl Harbor. Hard to believe it's been twelve years, yet at the same time it seems so long ago.