13 years ago tomorrow

[theGinsue]

My daughter & SIL are flying tomorrow - to Seattle.
I'm restless over this. No specific threats, but plenty of generalized threats.


September 11, 2001, approx. 0710 MDT
Colorado Springs, CO
I was an USAF Active Duty TSgt driving to my duty station/position at Peterson AFB listening to a local morning radio team. This radio team was known for their stupid jokes so I remember waiting for the punchline when they first announced a plane had just flown into one of the Twin Towers. The punchline never came. I was sitting at a red light at the intersection of Powers Blvd. & Platte Avenue when it hit me that THIS IS REAL.

I made it onto the base about 1/2 hour before the Base got locked down. In the office I soon discovered that no actual work was going to get done that day. Everyone was trying to call family or friends or trying to bring up ANY news source online. One guy had a portable radio at his desk and that seemed to be the only news source we'd get for some time. By 10:30 we were told to go home IMMEDIATELY and not to report back for duty until we were recalled. I got home & watched over and over again the images of the planes flying into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.....then watching them collapse. It didn't take a genius to realize that our world had just changed forever.

[Mick-Boy]

Never Forget. Never Forgive.

[Great-Kazoo]

We never forget : Attachment 49385

Nice i was given 1 of 2 when they were made. The other one hangs at greeley H-D.
As others mentioned This is a War. Unfortunately This administration, or i doubt any other has the stomach to do what is needed to resolve the Islamist threat. We have oil & NG, right here as anyone who lives along hwy 85 can see.

IMO After 9/11 we should have sent small teams in to Saudi Arabia, paid visits to the well to do while they slept. Explaining to them in the morning they would give up those they gave money & support to, or never see another sunset.

[Gman]

My late wife and I were getting ready for work with the local news on the TV. They cut into national news after the first plane hit the first tower. The talking heads were hypothesizing about how it could have happened on a clear morning. Problems with the autopilot, etc. Then I saw the second plane fly into the second tower. I knew we were at war. All transcontinental flights with large fuel loads. This was no accident.

I dropped the wife off at work and drove over to Microsoft's office in the Tech Center for a class. Saw the first tower fall at the first break. No air traffic to be seen in the sky.

Some of us know what must be done to crush this threat...but this country was too concerned about American Idol and just wanting it to go away. Let's move on and pretend it didn't happen. This is a war of a harsh ideology that follows the guidance to force non-believers to convert or die. This won't just go away.

[Joe_K]

12 years old, doing school work. My Dad called because someone at the airport he worked at had been monitoring the flight path of the first plane that hit and saw it disapear on his screen. I remarked later that day to my older sister that this was essentially a modern day Pearl Harbor, that there would be a war, and that I would fight in it. Check, check, and check. RIP to the victims. I shall probably eat some bacon, shoot Bin Laden in effigy, say a prayer, watch World Trade Center, and Zero Dark Thirty, and think of my Brothers in Arms whose souls left us in the god forsaken Helmand River valley.

[68Charger]

I was working on a network that served 1/3 of the financial community at the time, we had MANY customers with network connections in the twin towers... One in particular that I am connected with is Cantor Fitzgerald. Their offices were on the 105th floor of the 1st tower hit... most of their employees were trapped, but the CEO survived because he was seeing his son off for his first day of Kindergarten... because he was late to the office, he lived. His brother (with whom I share the same first and middle name) died, trapped on the 105th floor when the 1st plane impacted between the 92nd and 98th floors.

In the chaos that followed, we had 24hr conference "bridges" setup, we would call in and do what we could to help.. I happened (among many other activities) to turn up the 1st T1 to Cantor Fitzgerald in their CT sales office (all their operations were in the WTC) on, IIRC the Thursday after 9/11... and I then turned up the 2nd T1 (for redundancy) on Sunday evening- just in time for the 1st market open after 9/11 (the following Monday morning).

There are people on our sales team that I know were scheduled to be in the 1st building hit for a meeting, but something prevented them from being there.

I remember wanting to go there personally to do what I could, but with planes grounded I was reserved to doing what I could over the phone... that week was a blur, any spare time I had was spent on the conference call doing whatever I could from a long list of tasks to get customers connected to the network once again. (The network was very resilient and the backbone remained functional)

The network was so resilient, I remember seeing a log where you could watch the remaining customer equipment (which were on UPS) go down as each tower fell- the routes would go unreachable from top to bottom, as you sorted them by address (with the floor being the difference).

Never forget

[Hound]

I was buried in a thick walled building supporting our response trying to figure out what was going on. It was chaos, we did not know when it would end.

[Ronin13]

13 years already? Wow... considering I can remember Tuesday, September 11, 2001 like it was yesterday. I was 16 at the time, in High School, awoke to my radio alarm and the news talking about a plane that had hit one of the towers. I figured it was a small Cessna or Beechcraft. While drinking a glass of OJ in the kitchen, I saw, live, the second plane hit and immediately knew we were under attack. We didn't do anything in classes that day except watch the news. Watched the towers fall and started to cry as my father was a fire fighter and I immediately knew both towers were packed full of FDNY and NYPD (FD is really one massive family, including wives and children). One girl asked why I was so upset and my friend intervened and said that my dad was a firefighter, when one is lost the entire family grieves, and 343 lost is the worst day in the fire service. About 8 months later I met 4 FDNY firefighters who were among 6 surviving members of their station. They'll never admit it, but they are all the true heroes. I know I'll never forget.

5 years later I joined the Army and was fortunate enough to help in Operation Enduring Freedom. As has been said before, this war is far from over.

[OneGuy67]

I was heading to the DMV office off of Colfax for a DUI revocation hearing and the morning show DJ's were discussing the first strike. When the second plane hit, it was real to me and to everyone else around me.

It affected me deeply and caused me to make big decisions in my life. I had been out of the military and I reenlisted. I went to Iraq for a year and am about to deploy again overseas for another year.

[rockhound]

I was in my financial planner's office stroking a big check for my retirement plan, turned 15K into $2300 over night. woo hoo. watched the second plane take out the towers, too late to get the order cancelled, and at the time i don't think it even crossed my mind what it would mean to the financial world, too busy thinking about those that were being harmed

I remember the day and the people that were lost, i remember the people who did this and harbor a deep hatred that i am sure many of you can fathom. call it racism, call me intolerant i do not care. am not racist, I do not think i ever have been, but i cannot bring myself to believe even for a minute that islam is anything but a poison to the world and everything that is humane. They do not intend anything, but harm, anyone in this country that tells me to be tolerant of those that would destroy us can shove it

we are being destroyed from within, political correctness over the treatment of muslims, and the scum that we allow to pour over our southern border will be the death of this great country...

if you have a coexist sticker on your car you are the problem, they have no intention of doing anything but destroying you, you cannot coexist with evil

I have not forgotten, I will never forgive.....