15 years ago

[Ridge]

Gallery about the 4 flights that day
http://imgur.com/gallery/xxjZh

Gallery of images along with comments from the people who were on AF1 that day:
http://imgur.com/gallery/GtPez

This might be my favorite, and also the scariest one on here

Brian Montgomery, director of advance, White House: As soon as we landed, Mark Rosenker [director of the White House Military Office] and I went off the back stairs. There’s this guy who looks like General Buck Turgidson from Dr. Stranglove, big guy, all decked out in a bomber jacket. He was straight out of central casting. We said, “What do you need?” He said, “See those planes? Every one is loaded with nukes—tell me where you want ’em.” We look over and there are just rows of B-52s, wingtip to wingtip.

[Martinjmpr]

I'd just started my 2nd year of law school at UW in Laramie. When my radio turned on to wake me up, instead of music it was a news report about the plane hitting the WTC. I turned on the TV and watched for a few minutes before I headed to class.

As soon as I got there, people were in the hallways crying and wondering what the hell was going on. By the time class started it was pretty clear that it was a deliberate terrorist attack and people were seething mad. The Civil Procedure professor, Joel Selig (a New Yorker himself) wanted to continue with class since "the people who did this wanted to disrupt our lives" and he didn't want to let them do that. But he said he'd respect the classes wishes on whether to hold class and nobody was really in the mood. A short time later the dean cancelled all classes that day for the entire school.

When I got home there was a voice mail telling me to call into my National Guard unit to update the alert roster. Since I didn't have a cell I was asked to stay near a phone throughout the day. We actually didn't get mobilized until almost a year later but we knew that sooner or later we'd be going somewhere.

I spent most of the day on the computer. One of the message boards I was on (the now defunct Paratrooper.net) had people posting real-time updates about what was happening in NY and DC.

Hard to believe it's been 15 years.

[Dave]

Also remember what happened 4 years ago as well.

[TRnCO]

I watched several of the airings this weekend, recapping footage and actual phone calls of several of the victims and it was very powerful. One of the pieces that I watched this weekend was with one of the fire captains and his crew that were exiting the 2nd tower to fall and had come across and elderly black lady who had started to exit the building down the stairs but was exhausted when they found her. Even though she told them to leave her and get themselves out of the building, the firefighters stayed with her and were slowly getting her out as well, when on the 4th floor the building collapsed around them, and they some how all survived. Remarkable listening to them retell the story.
I remember exactly where I was that day as after the first plane hit, we were all glued to a small TV here at work watching as the 2nd plane hit.
Watching the footage again this weekend brought back all the same feelings of that day.

[hurley842002]

15 years "police action" Longer than WW2, Korea, and Vietnam, and what has been accomplished other than killing and maiming our young men?

Create a new thread!

[thedave1164]

I was working at a Pharma in Boulder that morning. we had offices in NYC and was worried some of our folks had been affected.

We went into the break room and saw the second plane hit, called the wife and told her to be sure the car was filled with gas before the gas lines started.

[Rucker61]

I was in India on a business trip, and the events of the day were in the evening there. I had just found out from my wife that morning that we were going to be parents and came back from the factory to find that our country was under attack. From top of the world to lowest of lows in 12 hours. Took me two days to get a plane out of India, ending up in London for another 5 days before I got home. A guy on the plane with me had a black passport, and he was a former Marine officer managing security for the State Department. He was only on the ground for a few hours in London before getting out.

[hurley842002]

I was sitting in a High school history class when the teacher's aid came and made our teacher aware. We stopped class immediately and turned on the news. I was sitting next to my best friend, both him and I had done the early enlistment program, shit got real for us that day. Unfortunately (kind of fortunately), MEPS caught a serious heart condition I had, and I wasn't able to ship. Never could get a waiver, despite having the issue fixed.

[ColoWyo]

I had a young flight attendant ask us how many crew members survived yesterday. We were stupefied. I just kept my mouth shut other than telling her that none of the crew members lived. My first officer and I just looked at each other in disbelief.

I'll alway remember where we were. We were camping near Westcreek, just upstream of Cheeseman Reservoir. My buddies who were ahead of me (one Delta and one United pilot) stopped his Jeep and walked back to my truck (I had two flight attendants in my truck) and said, "turn on your radio".

I will never forget.

[ClangClang]

I was 16 years old, living in Bergen County, NJ on 9/11. 8 miles from ground zero. My mom woke me up when the first plane hit and we watched the 2nd plane hit on TV. I went over to Jeff's house, who lived on a hill, with a perfect NYC skyline view. We saw the towers fall from across the Hudson River.

I was a young EMT at the time on my town's rescue squad. I was pissed off at the time that they wouldn't let me go in to the city (I was only 16) but in retrospect, with all the lung cancer problems, it was a blessing in disguise. I lived in HQ for the next 4 days, covering medical response for the town, so that the normal shifts could go in to do rescue and rehab.

Yesterday, to commemorate the day, I rucked 16 miles with a 50 lbs ruck and did 1,987 mountain climbers for the 1,987 stairs in the WTC that the firefighters climbed, knowing that they might never come back down.