Do You Remember? I Do

I will never, ever forget that day and its horror. I remember instant-messaging on the computer with my then-husband, who was in DC in his office. He said he could see the Pentagon burning. Then he said someone came running through the hallways shouting "Get out! Go home!"

The landline phones were out. The cell service was out. We had just moved into our house a couple of days before, and our cable was being installed that morning, so no TV. I couldn't get the Internet to load after that last message he sent. The radio station DJs were just rambling because nobody knew what was really going on.

He got home later that day safely, thank God. So many others did not. :cry:
 
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9325_1223902443621_1410783162_30671126_5606261_n.jpgI was sitting on the patio reading the morning paper with my coffee. The phone rings. It's my son who asks me what I think of this? What this say I? Dawns on him, I haven't the TV news on, as per usual. Quick, get it on, he orders mom, so in I dash to the den and turn it on to CNN. Well, my first thought is the pilot must have bee a dolt. It was a perfectly clear day, yet, he slams into the Port Authority building? My son was on his way to work just across the river from ground zero as it became to be known. He told me he thought the plane was going to take the roof of his car off.

I told my son to get into his office immediately as we were under attack. For all I knew, an armada was headed across the Atlantic at that point. Well, we soon found out there were others and the Pentagon was hit. Shanksville, PA caught the one headed for the Capitol, thanks to the selfless heroism of some passengers aboard that plane. A sad day indeed and we were irate over it all. Rightfully so.
 
KSav said:
I will never, ever forget that day and its horror. I remember instant-messaging on the computer with my then-husband, who was in DC in his office. He said he could see the Pentagon burning. Then he said someone came running through the hallways shouting "Get out! Go home!"

The phones were out. The cell service was out. We had just moved into our house a couple of days before, and our cable was being installed that morning, so no TV. I couldn't get the Internet to load after that last message he sent. The radio station DJs were just rambling because nobody knew what was really going on.

He got home later that day safely, thank God. So many others did not. :cry:
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We were in DC then too. HB out of town, me at post office in line. The silence was deafening so I asked and they told. I ran out of there and picked my little one (Jeremy) up at pre school and got home jusnt in time to see the second plane.....unbelievable.
 
I was across the pond in Germany and saw the pictures and thought, Oh no, this will be the Pearl Harbour of our day. Fortunately, it didn't quite have the repercussions I feared, but it was a tragic loss of life and led to more loss of life. It is also traumatic for the people of New York, who experienced the first attack of this scale on their own territory, and it will remain etched into their memories.

The tragedy of the moment tends to veil the perspective from outside the US, where people perceived an attack on the symbol of global dominance and resistance to American hegemony. Destruction of this kind is, of course, commonplace outside most Western countries.
 
I will remember forever... who could forget? :cry: When it became clear that it wasn't just a random plane crash, everything changed. So I watched... I saw both towers fall. I saw the people running like I'd seen in horror movies over the years, only this one was real.

I went outside to listen for planes. It was eerily silent, but that was a good thing on that particular morning because Shanksville was a little too close for comfort considering how fast planes travel.

And then the personal worst for me... my dearest friend was a doctor at Walter Reed AMC. He had an 10 a.m. appointment at the Pentagon that morning and planned to be there at 9:30. The plane hit at 9:37. I will forever be grateful that he called right away and said the gridlock prevented him from getting to the meeting and would be heading out of DC asap.

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When I heard about it at work in a nursing home, I was stunned. When I got home, I called a friend who worked there. He survived. He told me all about what happened.

He said they heard a loud sound like an explosion (around 8:45 am). He was in the North Tower. He told me that everyone thought it was a bomb at first. Then later (around 9:03 am), people looking out their windows saw that the top of the South Tower was on fire. I guess then everyone was in self preservation mode because they all got up and left. Well most of them. The elevators were packed with people. Eventually they stopped working. Most in the North Tower headed for the stairs. He said that it was slow going since there was so many people on the stairs.

As he was going down the stairs, he said that there was an announcement not to go outside because you might get hit by falling debris. Some people stopped, turned around and went back up the stairs. They were doomed. They could have survived also. I always wondered if that person realized that he was literally telling people to stay in the building and die?

My friend told me that when he got outside, he ran like hell for a couple of blocks before he stopped running. Good thing he did. When the North Tower collapsed, steel and cement was flying like missiles. I heard some people outside standing around watching, or ones that made it out, were killed.

The worse part was that there were floors above the areas where the planes crashed in the towers. Those poor souls, never had a chance. They came down with the buildings. :cry:
 
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This section of twisted and rusted steelwork was lifted from the ruins of the World Trade Center and is now on display at IWM London. The piece comprises beams from the external walls of the building, and was originally located somewhere around one of the two impact zones. IWM is the Imperial War Museum.

9/11 was a direct attack on the very heart of the US mainland, an event never experienced as directly by Americans before. But it also had catastrophic long-term consequences across the globe. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks including 67 individuals from the UK. It was a historic day that changed the world and its legacy continues to be complex and ongoing.
 
My cousin lives just down a few blocks from the towers. In a corner apt, on [I think] the fifth floor. After the second plane hit, she said she just stood at the window and cried.
 
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