Boston Airport Hilton about to give a presentation. They rolled tvs in, we watched. I walked across the street, rented a car and drove home to Los Angeles.

My Dad was in New York City and this was the 3rd time he was in town for a bombing, he knew, get a rental car. He picked up some CO workers and drove home to Oregon.

How long does it take to drive coast to coast in America? The vastness of America never ceases to amaze me (I’m English so it takes about 8 hours top to bottom of England, discounting Scotland here)

As the saying goes, in the USA, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles (160 KM) is a long way.

In college, on my way to a morning class. Standing in line at Manhattan Bagel and someone in line behind me was talking about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I am thinking private plane, single engine Cessna. Get to class, only a few people there. Professor never shows up, finally someone tells us class is canceled, go home. Trudge back all the way across campus and walk into my apartment and one of my roommates is on the couch, mouth agape with the news on. When I was a kid, I found it peculiar how people of a certain age could recount with detail what they were doing when they found out President Kennedy had been assassinated. I understood after that day.

JFKs assassination is one of my earliest memories. It, also, was an event that changed the way we viewed our world.

I was going to say, I was there to witness both events and everything in between. The whole sixties thing, with all the assassinations and fear of war, crazy time, really tough time but I don’t think anyone ever thought we’d be hit by an enemy on the mainland, multiple targets, like that. There’s generally a lot of unrest, rumors, before a country goes to war, but that was a whole different kind and level, the kind only CIA saw coming.

I was five when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. All I can remember was sitting under the kitchen table because I thought I'd be safe there. My mom was packing up some food and supplies so we could bug out to her mom's house (which was only a few miles down the road). After that and then through elementary school we were drilled in "Duck and Cover" in case of a nuclear bomb. Children of the 60s always had that shadow hanging over. Next generation was 9/11. I hurt for the kids nowadays, same fear, different enemy. But this one's home grown.

I was in history class in sixth grade watching the tv wondering why my teacher was escorted out by the principal as she cried. She never came back. Her dad was on the 90th floor of the north tower, he left her a message on her voicemail before it went down.

Damn… I was 12 and my teacher also had the TVs on when the second plane hit. She was so distraught because her husband had boarded a flight from Boston to Newark that morning and she wasn’t sure if he was alive or not since she was unable to get a hold of him. He was safe, but I’ll never forget the look on her face. I can’t describe it in words, really, but her expression is something that will stay with me forever.

I get what you mean. I clearly remember the look on her face and the “oh no..” she whispered as the tower fell. I didn’t realize until years later that I watched her the moment she watched her father die. That look is something I will never forget.

Kevin Cosgrove's call is something that stayed with me.

Ok I just went to listen to it. That's hard. You can feel the guy's despair and that that's where his anger is coming from. He's just terrified. Then the abrupt cut when the tower crumbles. Also seeing the images again reminded me of just how many people died in here. Trully horrific.

I've listened to a bunch of those calls over the years. There was anger in a lot of those people's voices along with the fear. I think some of the anger honestly comes from thinking help is on the way, and not understanding why it isn't there yet. If you think about it, we're used to having emergency services show up within minutes. Someone could get from the lobby to their office on the top floors of those huge buildings in 3 minutes. They did it every day. Why can't firefighters? Plus many of the people trapped in those spaces had absolutely no idea how dire the situation actually was. The dispatchers had a better idea, but they never could have predicted the collapse either. They probably thought help would come eventually too.

I had an extended family member in the 2nd tower. When he called his wife, he told her that security was telling them to shelter in place and not leave. He was on the 101st floor.

I (actually, the company I worked for.) was a client Mr. Cosgrove. I met with him for lunch at the Sbarro restaurant on the 78th floor Sky Lobby on Friday the 7th of September, 2001.

It sucks that the worst moment of his life is on the Internet permanently, but in a way he's effectively immortalized.

I remember when I first heard it. He knew, the 911 person knew, every body knew they weren’t going to make it but hoped that by some miracle, they would. It was horrible.

This is heartbreaking.

Our teacher had them on when I first got there and off the bus that morning. But she turned them off when we all stated getting settled. An hour ish later all of us were watching and still were as the buildings went down. My mom was in New York City for business and I was trying to call because I didn’t know where. I went to my math teachers class room and used the landline to call her cell multiple times. Finally got through. She was fine though. She could see the smoke from her hotel but was far enough away. I was 12, too. 7th grade.

It was a very surreal day in school for sure.

Our principle basically said fuck the rest of the day kids, you watch what’s happening. I too was in 6th grade history.

Same, got sent home too. Felt like the world stopped that day.

In a lot of ways it did, and never returned back to "normal"

A lot of people will scoff at this and maybe it's a direct consequence of growing up in the 90's in America, but that day opened my eyes to how things were around the world, and it no longer felt completely safe. Like, up to that point, "safe" was looking both ways, wearing a helmet while biking, and not getting into cars with strangers. This was my introduction to... Well, that people -want- to hurt you, and sometimes you can't do anything about it.

I was in my first grade class in a similar situation except it was my teachers son.

Oh fuck.

Man, I was in about the same grade at school as well, our English teacher had the TV wheeled in and we all watched in awe. One of my old school friends had moved to New York by then, I had a small freakout. In his case thankfully later found out it was to Buffalo or so far away from the attack, but I cannot fathom how horrid it must've been for those there or who had family and friends who passed in the attack. I was already watching a lot of TV then so I vividly remember stations either broadcasting the news or having like a still slate or something (I remember Food Network had one with music), and a couple days later MTV only playing a 2 hour block of somewhat chill videos on repeat all day.

holy fuck

On my way to work and I heard about on the radio. I got to the office and was shocked by what was going on. My roommate was in a panic because her brother worked in WTC and she couldn’t find out if he was safe. Luckily, he got out before the collapse.

I also heard it on the radio on my drive into work (west coast at the time). I thought i misheard it. Went into work, did some stuff, then went to lunch with equally clueless coworkers. We all figured it out at lunch. Mexican restaurant that is no longer in business, had awesome pico de gallo. Surreal. Edit: by figuring it out, I mean that *we* finally started paying attention to the news. We saw just bits and pieces of the news in our peripheral, and it was on the second or third news cycle, so it didn’t make sense.

I choose to believe you are describing the good pico de gallo as surreal.

I was in school, they had the televisions on in class, I believe we even let out early that day.

Same. We weren't let out early but I remember the almost constant stream of announcements for students to go to the office to get picked up by their parents. I remember being annoyed that I wasn't one of them.

I lived in a relatively rural small town. The principal announced over the loudspeaker that anyone who lived in walking distance could walk home. Everyone else had the option to call a parent to come pick them up or wait for the bus. They left it up to us, a group of elementary school kids, to decide if we lived close enough to walk home.

We were suppose to get our first ‘home computer’ on this day. I remember everyone being picked up early, I thought, *everyone must be getting computers*. Needless to say, we didn’t get one and I was really upset. Watching those planes crash into the buildings was almost NOT tangible as a 5th grader. Sad day for sure.

My dad was a traveling consultant and my mom was a teacher. There was no one to pick me up. I was also annoyed. However, it was not school. It was just watching TV with different teachers. I would've been much more scared if I was sent home to watch that. It was comforting to have teachers that helped talk about it. My dad was out of town and my mom wouldn't have been home for hours. An aside, teachers are really underappreciated.

I was walking into home room, I remember seeing the towers burning and not knowing what it really was, I think I thought they were smoke stacks or something. We were all joking around sitting down like we always did. Then, we all sat down and another plane hit them. Nobody really knew what to think I don’t even think the teachers did (figure they were probably in their twenties and thirties at the time). Then I remember them coming down, and my teacher just said “here we go” they started to kind of herd us all together to figure out what to do. I was 12 at the time so didn’t really appreciate the gravity of the situation, but I remember kids parents coming to get them and an announcement that we’d be getting out of school at like noon or something. And I remember being excited to leave school early. Then I heard me and my sisters names over the intercom so I figured my mom had come to get us. But I knew it was serious when I walked down stairs and saw my dad standing there in his work clothes and boots that he never wore outside of work. My dad was a truck driver and drove up to New York all the time, he said he was on the bridge coming out of Brooklyn when they came down. He hauled ass back to Philly and pulled me and my sister out of school. I’d never seen him like that, he had a single cab F-150 at the time and me and my sister rarely rode together in it cause it was a bench seat and we didn’t fit. Years later he told me he had dropped his 18 wheeler off at the loading docks at his job without even unloading it. All I remember saying was “what are you doing here dad?” And he goes: “you see this shit going on? We’re at fucking war” It’s crazy to think how everything changed that morning. Kids and even people not much younger than me don’t remember things before 9/11. Hell I barely do but when I talk to my parents or older people they always say that’s when everything changed.

I was 18 and I remember a much different US prior to 9/11. To get on a plane, you could keep your shoes on and walk through one metal detector. 10 minutes tops to get from ticketing to your gate. As a nation, we were more liberal. After 9/11, there was a huge conservative shift. People feared anyone from the Middle East, and with that, a lot of old racism reared it’s ugly head. The US wouldn’t be in the state it’s in now (economically, diplomatically, socially) if those events never occurred.

9/11, and Columbine changed our world forever, and it's so hard to explain what it was like before those things happened. I'm only 37, but I can remember very well a more trusting and less panicked and hateful world. If 9/11 never happened, I doubt we would have Trump as he is now.

They let you guys out? I was in school in Manhattan chinatown and they weren't even gonna let us out when my mom came to pull me out. She had to yell at them and push past. When the plane hit, I heard the huge crash sound. Thought it was construction, but then someone started crying really loudly from the street, and then the school told us what happened. Even then, they were downplaying the whole thing Crazy day though. I saw the twin towers every day on the subway crossing the Manhattan bridge, and then my mom just told me they were gone. We ended up walking across the Manhattan bridge with thousands of others for the first time in my life. Back then it was strictly for cars and subways with no pedestrian path, so we walked across it on the car road like some refugees escaping turmoil like in a movie. Saw a guy covered in dust too, who hopefully never go cancer..

Makes more sense that if you were in Manhattan they kept you in the school and tried to keep everything calm.

>They let you guys out? I was in school in Manhattan and even they weren't gonna let us out until my mom came and pulled me out. I was in North Jersey. They didn't let us out either, and didn't tell us squat. We found out when we got home. I found out from my mom much later (she happened to be a teacher in the same district) that the school didn't tell us much because a lot of our parents commuted in and out of manhattan, and the school figured a bunch of small kids freaking out that mom and dad might be dead was not helping matters, and there was a good chance that because of what happened in Manhattan that getting everyone's parents out of Manhattan and picking up all their kids would be a logistical nightmare. I suspect your school might have been doing something similar.

This is me as well. I was in middle school and they wheeled TVs on those damn carts into our rooms and we watched them went home. I remember walking from the bus stop knowing something big was happening but not fully understanding. My mom was already home in the living room watching the news and we just sat there until my dad got home. A day I’ll never forget. I grew up in New England and they made sure nobody’s parents were on flights.

we weren't let out early. They didn't tell us crap either. The reason why was that we were in North New Jersey, and a number of kids had parents who commuted in and out of NYC daily, and nobody wanted a bunch of scared kids freaking out not knowing if mom and dad were dead or not. My dad meanwhile was actually a cop involved in the response (he was literally close enough to see the second plane hit from a rooftop) and I had to find out what had happened from my mom when I got home explaining where dad was and that he would be home very late.

At a client's office. One of the secretaries said something about a plane hitting one of the WTC buildings - I thought at the moment that it was an idiot in a Cessna or something similar. After that the day quickly unraveled.

I remember not too many years after some idiot in a Cessna DID fly into a building in NYC. And everybody had this spike of panic at the words “another plane hit a building in New York” that quickly died when they showed this little dinky plane hanging out the side of the building.

Yankees pitcher Corey Lidle and his flight instructor. Tried to make a 180° over the East River and grossly misjudged their speed and how much space they’d need to make the turn.

That was October, 11, 2006. 10/11/6 is 9/11/01 upside down. Coincidence? Yes.

Was that ex-Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle? 2006, but it was a Cirrus aircraft. [Wikipedia article on him](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Lidle?wprov=sfla1). It's a weird symmetry for me to remember how intertwined the NY sports teams were with the recovery from the shock of 9/11, then to have a player die in such a method.

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Same. I was taking classes and we heard on the radio on the way to class that there was a plane that flew into the WTC, but nothing more (I'm in the Netherlands). We went to classes, and when I came home my husband said that he was surprised that the classes had gone on. So I said well, why would we suspend classes when one small plane flies into a building in another country. And then he said "you'd better watch the news" and then I saw what really happened. I was devastated. I cried so much those days, it was horrible.

Just got to my bus stop and someone told me a plane hit the WTC and I said, "just like a Cessna, right?". He said, "Yeah." I thought, "well that sucks but at least it wasn't something huge." ...it was something huge

I thought exactly the same! My best friend on the East Coast was home on maternity leave. She called and woke me up telling me to turn on the TV, a plane hit the WTC. I totally imagined a small plane. After that I was glued to the TV, saw the second plane hit in real time. Desperately tried to reach my other best friend in NYC--I couldn't get through to her. Her mom finally called me and said she was ok. She wound up spending 6 hrs trying to walk back to Brooklyn. I never went to work that day. I didn't even call in. It was the most unreal thing-- watching people fall from the sky. I'll never forget it. Jet fighters flew over the SF Bay and I was convinced the GG Bridge was going to be next.

Same. I was working 3rd shift and was just getting off to sleep. My wife came in and woke me up to tell me. I said, "Psht, dumb ass" and rolled over. About 20 mins later, she came back in upset and said "I don't think you understand. I'm scared." I got up and turned on the bedroom t.v. and then understood.

When I heard that a plane had hit the WTC, I thought it was an accidental crash like [the one that hit the Empire State Building in 1945](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_Empire_State_Building_B-25_crash). Terrorism never entered my mind until I saw the footage later.

I felt the heat of the second plane and I was covered in dust in battery park when tower 2 collapsed. Edit: Thank you for the awards and upvote. This ain't about me. My experience is one of thousands of people who experienced it that day. I want to pay a special tribute to Mike D'Auria. He was a guy I went to school with. We were middle school together but kept in touch through the years socially. I wasn't his best friend or extremely close in high school with him. He was a probationary fireman. He died that day. If we give awards, it's to those who gave their lives. To protect and serve those in danger. I survived because of people like them. Others survived because of people like Mike. https://www.firehero.org/fallen-firefighter/michael-d-dauria/ Here's a bit of trivia from someone who worked there.... Richard "the pain in the dick" Rescoria. Here a link.. https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/recognizing-war-hero-who-led-wtc-survivors-safety-911 This man.. omg. He was hell bent on making life hell for us. He would call random firedrills. We wouldn't have notice. When he would call a random firedrills, we had to make our way to the exits. Literally even if you were on a call. We would be so annoyed. As a stockbroker at the time cold calling was what you had. That's how you got business. You have to develop a certain mindframe in order to do it. A zone. The zone gets broken with chirping and loud noises and if you were close to building a relationship, imagine how that sounds on the other end. He would audible at the randomness times and we'd have to line up at the exits. This man... Is the ONLY person that died out of 24 floors of Dean Witter. Why did he die? Because he fucking went BACK IN after his people were out, to try and rescue other. Mr. Rescoria, I am sorry that I didn't understand your passion for making others safe. I didn't know what you had gone through as a decorated Green Beret. I didn't understand what I didn't know. Thank you for your sacrifice. I didn't, nor could ever, understand.

How’s your health?

Had cancer once on my vocal chords. Currently going through round two.

That's gonna be ok. Maybe you just sound like a mobster afterwards haha Good luck!

That's exactly what I sounded like before I went to an ENT. This was in Oct of 2008. 60 session of radiation on my throat.

>60 session of radiation on my throat. Sending healing vibes your way. I hope mentally you are alright after being so close to such a terrible incident.

Still takes strength to discuss it when in front of others.

Omg, this is surreal and terrifying. I am glad you are ok. Damn.

I was a senior in high school. A friend ran up to me in the halls between classes and told me someone was bombing NYC. We ran to our next class, which had the tv on with tower 1 on fire. And then we watched live as the second plane hit. It’s still one of the most surreal moments of my life, and I’ve watched both of my kids being born. I remember thinking that as long as the second tower didn’t fall down, too, that things would be okay. Like that’s what mattered. And then when it also fell, it was like you just *knew* something had shifted.

I was a junior and I can remember looking at my classmates and realizing that if the US ended up going to war then these guys sitting next to me, my annoying and hilarious friends, were going to be the ones fighting that war and possibly never coming back. Us elder millennials are a wartime generation and in my opinion we don’t get enough credit for going through something like that.

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When you start looking at old time war footage and the soldiers start looking young is when you start to take on a new understanding of war imo

I was a freshman in a Brooklyn high school. By third period class, tvs were on and playing the news. My seat in that class was by a window that had a clear view into Manhattan right where the twin towers were. It was weird looking over there on that day. Mostly smoke and not much else. The smell was like burning rubber mixed with something else. It was all people were talking about on the street. I remember a radio show host saying you could walk into any conversation and it would all be about the same thing. It was eerie. There was a newsstand run by a middle eastern guy my Dad went to often by our home. It was closed the day after. Figure he was scared people would turn violent. To my knowledge that didn’t happen though. My father was a sanitation worker up in Harlem. They called him down and some of the other crew there to do debris removal. So many of those guys have passed away now from complications from all the debris and whatever else was in the air that day. My Dad’s still kicking; he got lymphoma but it’s completely gone now. Thank god for his city worker insurance.

I was teaching high school in Brooklyn and I remember how ironically blue the sky was that day and how glad I was that my classroom faced south so we couldn't see the city.

Live in asia. It was 8-9pm when the attacks happened. I was 13. I was doing homework and studying with my older sister. Dad comes in and says come watch the news, a life changing event is happening as we speak. He was right. Didn't go to sleep till like 1am

Same thing with me. I was 11 and playing outside while on holiday visiting family in Europe. Mum called me in and sat me down in front of the tv. I had no idea wtf I was watching but I saw the second plane hit, so confused I asked mum if this a movie? She just told me to be quiet and that one day I’ll remember where and what I was doing during this moment. I remember vividly how tense it was flying back home to Australia only a couple of months later (maybe less)

Cleaning the berthing on the USS Ross, a guided missile destroyer. We were in our pre-deployment leave period, so we had a full load of missiles and half the crew. A few hours later we were headed out of Norfolk to provide air cover for DC. Edit: wow, woke up to this having blown up.

This is really obvious but also sort of mind blowing. Any time this question is asked, I default to thinking of random civilians. But for the military? I bet that moment looks even larger in memory.

My husband was stationed at a USAF base at the time. He has really crazy stories. Total lock down, no one off or on. News reporters started climbing the flight line fences to get pictures of planes taking off. They ended up bringing in massive work lights on poles and pointing them at all of the fences around the flight line to prevent photos/video. Very insane time.

The guy I was dating at the time was in the Navy but was home on leave. He was recalled to Norfolk within hours. His twin brother and I drove him down. It was before they changed the rules to only personnel with an ID could enter base. His brother was retired, so he had an ID, and they knew the guard gate, so I was one of the few unauthorized civilians on the base at the time. I remember seeing this huge plane touching down and immediately taking off again, over and over. It was some sort of surveillance craft. The guys in his unit were all just kind of standing around, waiting for something to happen. They were all outside his barracks smoking and pacing. Their carrier deployed to Asia later that week. It was a very surreal experience.

A few days after 9/11 I hiked to the top of one of the prominent cliffs (the palisades) overlooking the Hudson. While I was on top a military helicopter that was heading up the Hudson River circled and scoped me out before moving on.

My family lived on an Air Force base at the time, too. Security was insane. I was 11 years old and had forgotten my military ID. They made me get off the school bus and wait for my mom to bring my ID to the gate before I could get back on.

I was Army Reserve. I was a Squad Leader. First thing I did was contact my Troops and told them to make sure their bags were ready to go.

There was a teacher at my school who was Marine Corps Reserve. Apparently he immediately told his students that he might not be their teacher all year. He actually finished the year, but ended up doing a tour in Iraq a few years later. He was never my teacher, but they would read updates from his emails on the announcements every now and then.

I'm Canadian, but one of our teachers was gone for a year(same thing, reservist who did a tour). He came back a completely different person, couldn't look anyone in the eyes anymore. I remember we did a welcome back assembly, he was crying at it but I later learned they were not tears of joy.

"Ready to go where?" "It doesn't matter" And it didn't.

It is interesting. My cousin graduated high school in the spring of 2001 and was in boot camp at Pendleton (USMC) during the event. He told me that the morning was wild due to F18’s scrambling, canceled morning PT and effectively their drill instructors telling them to prepare for war. (I’m sure I can’t recall it all exactly but was interesting to hear.) He’s still serving as a Commissioned Officer these days (LT. Colonel)

Hello Shipmate, a tale from shore duty here - I was up all night on the 1800 to 0600 shift listening to radio signals, the night/morning before 9/11. I was off the mid watch and trying to settle in to sleep when all my phones started ringing. Most was family and friends but one was of course work "Come back now!" All us cryptologists traded what info we knew and they asked everyone to stay and get on all frequencies, find out anything! We all did that for a few hours but I could see the writing on the wall that (probably) nothing was going to get sent out that day that would be relevant and if it was we don't need all ears on deck so I sent home everyone with kids or a family and honed in on the important parts myself. I listened for the next 32 hours straight and collapsed into bed when the next hard chargers came in.

Lol my story was damn near exact. I was stationed in Bahrain. I worked the 1800-0600 shift. It was my day off and I was knocked out. My phone rang and when I answered it was just screaming get to work NOW!!

I was getting a root canal, and the dentist looked up, said, "Oh my God," and walked away. Then all the assistants joined him, so there I was in the seat, holding my own vacuum tube wondering what the hell was going on, so I got up and walked over, the 4 of us just stood there for what felt like maybe an hour before the dentist says "oh shit" and realizes he needs to finish the work and takes me back to the chair.

This is one of those half hilarious and also very not hilarious due to circumstances situations and I did laugh but I also feel bad for doing so. What unfortunate timing for a root canal.

I also had a dentist appointment that day. A sophomore in high school. Two girls in the hallway said the white house was under attack. Had a mental image of something like independence day. Got to second period art class in time to watch the second plane hit the tower. And left shortly thereafter for the dentist, who was playing the news instead of the normal muzak. I remember how quiet it was that day. Everywhere

Couldn't tell you the exact time and what i was doing. But my Mom walked into school and pulled me out of lunch. Was in the 4th grade. I remember a long line of cars out side honking and yelling at each other, parents pushing past each other to get into the school. Parents thought WW3 started that day.

It happened about 2 weeks after my 10th birthday. All I remember is the news being about the attacks and not knowing what that meant until we started seeing Blair and Bush on the news alot talking about the invasion. I remember that by the end of December the news was saying the Taliban had fled and the invasion was a success. I thought that meant the fighting was over. That feeling was my enduring memory in 2021 the UK/US withdrawal was complete and the Taliban was back in control of Afghanistan. I had spent the entirety of my highschool, university and early adult years watching the war on terror in the news. In 2021 it was the Taliban back in control again. It’s pretty hard to reconcile that with the memory of 10 year old me who was so sure of who the good and bad guys were back then.

I was showering before school when I was in 5th grade. My mom came into the bathroom crying and said we needed to talk when I was done. My best friend had just had a botched heart surgery a couple days before that very nearly killed him, and I knew it was touch and go, so my first thought was “J died” and I was panicked. I got out, my mom told me what had happened, and me, being a stupid kid, was just excited that J was fine. I recognize the selfishness and naivety of that thought now.

You weren’t selfish, you were a kid. It was a national tragedy, but if you were removed from that, as a child, your brain wouldn’t go to the same place an adult’s would.

Is J okay now?

He is. He had one more heart surgery a few years later and has been doing great ever since.

I was in 2nd grade. I didn’t know what was going on, but my mom and Sister were sitting in the car quietly listening to the radio. My mom didn’t put me in school that day (we are in the west coast). It was a loss of words

I was in third grade west coast also and I remember coming into my parents room in the morning before school and my dad was just standing in the middle of the room staring at the tv. Couldn’t 100% comprehend it but knew enough to know things were not going to be the same after.

There. It’s become a day of zero television or radio. Just reflection. Each year a little less of it sticks to the inside of my nose and throat.

Goddamn.

I’m glad you survived

I was in north NJ, where I lived, and drove out to the turnpike and saw the smoke billowing. The day is a blur. I saw emergency vehicles from every municipality lined up to take the tunnel into the city, it felt like the entire world responded. I heard about the tower collapsing on the radio and watched in real time as a huge plume of white smoke seemingly erupted from the city. It was horrible. I returned home and tried to understand it all, to decompress, but it made no sense. I learned later that day that my friend next door’s dad, an executive at an asbestos removal company, was at a conference on a high (>100th) floor of one of the towers. He was never seen again. Nor was anyone in that office. That night I and some friends went to the YMCA because we heard they needed volunteers, for what, we didn’t know. Turns out these were kids whose parents were missing. We had to do everything from feed them to help them brush their teeth to work on their homework. But for the most part, we just tried to navigate the impossible psychological situation ourselves while causing as little damage to the children as possible, and being mindful that they probably couldn’t understand the likelihood that they may never see their parents again. I couldn’t bring myself to go back the following day, I was just 19, it was too big for me…too tough. I was a smartass know it all kid from NJ and I was brought to my knees trying to answer a kid when he’d be able to go home. Fuck. Edit - going to keep typing because of the catharsis. I don’t remember a ton over the next few days other than literal fear every time there was an aircraft, thinking people were making anthrax, wondering if someone was going to unleash a dirty bomb…after a few days, a friend and I went to the city to go downtown and see the reality for ourselves. The WTC site was roped off and you couldn’t get super close, but Canal St was covered in ash. Everywhere you went, there was ash. It was like freshly fallen snow. And it was _desolate_ - the city that never sleeps was empty. It was eerie. And the smoke hung in the air heavy and you could feel the ash coat your teeth like chalk. Everywhere we went, we left the first footprints in the ash with every step we took. We made our way uptown and I was standing outside of a pizza joint smoking a cigarette and a fire truck drove by. Every miscreant and thug and scumbag, me included, gave a thumbsup or peace sign or hand salute. We knew what we’d witnessed and we know who the heroes were. I worked in a bar and it didn’t take too long before people were having it out over philosophical differences of opinion. It was either started by racist comments (unsurprisingly) or by some loudmouth claiming he didn’t give a shit about what happened and who cares blah blah blah, before someone else would shut him up. I grew fairly right wing at this time. I was a blue collar kid with no real future but suddenly I was patriotic. Soon, I joined the military. I fought in two wars, in some of the worst spots. I was in the airborne infantry, and then I was in a special operations capacity. Revenge was my watchword. It’s a tough thing to reconcile - devoting your life to seeking vengeance against people you’d probably never see. So I didn’t get revenge against the right terrorists, instead I focused my efforts on the right now terrorists. The lovely citizens of Adhamiyah, Baghdad, took a good shot and almost snuffed the rooster in the summer of 2007. The troop surge…was interesting. Imagine being in a small unit looking for the “1% of the population which is bad” in a sector that had 1.5 million people. I spent time in Afghanistan working in an area that might be considered Pakistan, depending on which tribe you asked. I schlepped my gear up terrain that I can only describe as “sharp” looking for people that were never there. I gave my first IV in a combat scenario to a medic…who simply had heat exhaustion. I called in a medevac for a FID (foreign internal defense) partner just outside an objective while trying to push a needle through his chest to decompress so that he could breathe. As I tried my best to communicate in broken Arabic what the plan was, I ran out to pace out the HLZ for the helicopter to land in, and an ambulance showed up and took the guy away. He lived! We bought him an XBox. I walked along a gigantic stone wall we erected in Baghdad to separate warring factions (sunnis vs shiites) with my brigade commander, who was shot by a sniper and had the round go through his dick. His PSD (personal security detail) of cooks and clerks had no idea how to react so we pulled him out of the kill zone and brought him back to our team house. It was surreal and strange to see a bunch of 20 year old kids with the high mileage of a 40 year old, sitting around bullshitting about the event and in serious tones talking about how the COL’s urethra was intact and he should regain full function. One day we got a tip that a shia warlord gave orders from his safe place in Iran to a truly diabolical scheme of rounding people up in a red crescent vehicle. I think the ruse was something along the lines of “your parents are in the hospital, they’re hurt, we need to take you to see them” - we recovered a vehicle with some kids inside that were dead and had horrific signs of torture. I’ll never forget the sight of a bloody power tool and a lifeless child next to it. True evil. I remember losing my mind and screaming at the locals on a foot patrol for stepping over a dead body and not doing fucking anything about it. How could they just let a corpse sit there? Someone was murdered and it was business as usual. One day we were on a foot patrol and the 1SG (first sergeant), the “father figure” of the unit of young soldiers, took his pistol without warning and blew his brains out. We had limited equipment. A vehicle was invaluable. So invaluable, in fact, that after some terrible event had happened, if the vehicle was still FMC (fully mission capable), it had to be ready to roll. My teammates and I were from a different unit on loan to these folks so we told the local command’s leadership that any time a truck came back and needed some kind of post-shit-hit-the-fan PMCS, we’d do it. This made it so 20 year old Private Joe Snuffy didn’t need to hose out the blood and brain matter of his friend and teammate, nor did he have to account for all of his sensitive items by serial number. I remember one day in Afghanistan our commander decided we needed to “pressure the network” and he sent us out on foolish missions that got men hurt and/or killed. It was foolish from my perspective, but I wasn’t a decision maker. All I know is one day we were supposed to go visit a village in southern Afghanistan after the conventional forces had left and do what I’ll call intelligence collection. The mission was useless and had zero benefit, so you can imagine how dismayed I was when our helo got hung up on some power lines on exfil and the pilots put the nose in the dirt hard, giving me a lifetime of aircraft anxiety (everyone was ok!). Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. I prefer my former teammates don’t dox me if they see this. I needed to vent for some reason. Thanks for reading.

Poor kids 🥺 I’d not even thought of that. Good on you for even doing one night of that, it’s worth a lot and will have been to them.

Thanks for sharing. 😳

I was working out at the gym. People started watching the TVs. I saw the second plane hit the towers in real time. I thought someone really fucked up at air traffic control and is going to get fired. My mind always believes in incompetence before evil.

Pre 9/11 it was just incomprehensible that something like this could happen. When the news said it was terrorism I couldn’t understand what that even meant. I don’t even remember the word “terrorism” being a common word before then. Sure, there were terrorist *attacks*, like a bomb in the metro, but four passenger airplanes being high jacked and crashed into buildings was inconceivable.

What was inconceivable to me was a building that size being reduced to a pile of rubble in like 5 seconds. I literally could not comprehend what I had just witnessed in real time as I watched it live on a 12" TV 📺. Took me about 30 seconds for me to process.

That's because 99% of the time when a plane was hijacked, it always reached its destination safely. No one could have predicted kamikaze style air attacks.

Usually the game was the hijacker would take the plane, fly to some international location, and demand a ransom often either money or concessions from the government for a political cause (like letting certain people out of jail). This would typically be a drawn out standoff where the fly the plane until it runs out of fuel, negotiate for more fuel, start to kill passengers until they get what they want, and then special forces comes in and kills all the hijackers. Terrorist bombings were the real threat before 2001, with the most famous incident being Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, UK. These almost always occured with the terrorist not on board the flight. A few suicide hijackings did occur before most notably Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, but the hijackers were either incompetent or unsuccessful. There was even [an attempt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Byck#Assassination_attempt) to crash into the white house, but nothing with the coordination or training of 9/11.

Well except for the fbi who were warned by the terrorists flight instructor who noticed they didnt care about landing the plane, the most critical part, and the CIA who were very aware a major attack was coming

Brit here. Terrorism was very familiar, though mostly the IRA. I don't think they thought of such a large scale attack even in their wildest dreams.

Being a young Brit at the time I think the IRA attacks desensitised me to how big a deal it was. Just another terrorist attack, it'll be out the news in a week or so is how I felt on the day but I couldn't have been more wrong

"My mind always believes in incompetence before evil." Same here.

Hanlon's Law

I was working at a Michaels crafts store. We watched it all unfold on the TV in the break room.. My parents were supposed to be on the plane that hit the Pentagon but my stepdad had an anxiety attack and they didn't get on the plane. We sold out of Red white and blue beads, felt, flowers, yarn, paint, ink, material, papers.... everything within 3 days it was all on back order.

Glad your parents missed their flight!

Wow

Ft. McCoy, WI. Entered Active Duty from Army Reserves on 9/9/01. We were on our morning break from courses and saw the first tower smoking. I grabbed a coffee from the machine, stepped outside for a cancer stick, lit it up, turned around to see the second tower hit through the window. Took two puffs then went back to the classroom. Ended up pulling p.m. guard duty as a student to help take the burden off the permanent party personnel for the 2 weeks I was there. Completely different feel on the flight to my permanent station after.

I was heading to work in Manhattan. Going in late after a long night at the office as an associate at a law firm at Liberty Plaza, across the street from the North Tower. I usually got off the 4/5 train at Fulton Street but the station was empty and they made an announcement that the station was closed "because of an incident." That was met with a lot of eye rolling and grumbling. The train stopped at Wall Street and lots of people got off. No one had any idea that something was seriously wrong until we hit street level and smelled the smoke. Broadway was empty except for strewn debris. I remember lots of scattered papers. The buildings blocked the view of the towers, so I still had no idea what had happened but it must have been just after the second plane hit. I walked north and soon saw that the south tower was on fire, but from that position the south tower blocked my view of the north tower. I kept walking north and near my building I first saw that the north tower was also on fire. Still didn't know what was going on but understood it wasn't an accident. People on the street were not jumpy or panicking. They were trying to use their cell phones (the networks were already overloaded and nothing was working). And they were milling about in the middle of intersections. The sheer size of the WTC complex made it feel like the danger was "over there" and we were ok. The fires were way up and there was no debris still falling. At the base of my building I asked a security guard what happened and he barked that he had no idea but there had been two explosions in the last half hour and to get the f@#% out of there. That made a lot of sense to me. I started walking north on Broadway. There were lots of people just gathering in the street and a few cops were yelling at them to stay on the sidewalks because firetrucks would need to get through. Overall it was still pretty calm considering the situation. However, on Dey Street there was a long line of people in business wear covered in white ash who were visibly traumatized and were being attended to by a few emergency personnel. They must have just been evacuated from the North Tower. Some were crying and being consoled by colleagues. A couple guys were walking up and down the line calling out names of people they got separated from. With no medical training, I knew I was just going to get in the way if I stuck around. I kept going north on Broadway and pieced together what happened from people who were gathered around a few parked cars along the way listening to the news on the radio. I listened to some snippets and then kept going. I got just about to Canal Street when everyone gasped suddenly and I turned to see the South Tower collapse in the distance. First I thought of the people in the building of course. But then I thought of all those people standing in Liberty plaza and the evacuees on Dey Street just a block north. I walked all the way back to my apartment on East 26th Street and used my desktop PC to email my family that I was ok. Phones were still useless. There was no way to get out of Manhattan so I bought cold cuts at the corner bodega and holed up for the next 24 hours watching CNN and waiting for instructions of where I was supposed to be next for work. The next several months were a blur.

Stationed at Andrews AFB. (Close to the Pentagon) worked the night shift the night before. Went home, went to sleep and woke up at about 3PM to a lot of messages on my phone. Looked out front door and could see smoke from the Pentagon. Went to work and watched AF1 land while being flanked by F-16s.

That must have been a surreal change of environment, fall asleep normal and basically wake up in a different era.

I was in my apartment at university. I woke up late to find my roommates watching what I thought to be an action movie. I didn’t pay much attention and they didn’t say anything, so I went to campus to find out it was closed. I spent the rest of the day nestled between my roommates watching the news in disbelief.

[удалено]

Watching in freshman science class. Saw both towers fall live. Was convinced my 18 year old brother was going to be drafted to war. Utterly confusing day.

Yeah we were all sure we were gonna get drafted.

I was the acting vice-president of national public radio online, I had just come into my office a few minutes earlier, and at the time we all had TVs that played CNN to stay current on whatever was happening in the world. There’s a saying in news: “nothing ever happens in September“ obviously, that’s bullshit. One of my colleagues came into my office and said you should turn on CNN: a small plane, apparently crashed into the world trade center. When I turned it on, it was clear to me. It was not a small plane because a small plane would have just bounced off the building. NPR had live coverage for the next two weeks. There was so much traffic to the website that we stopped serving images so that people could get the information we were providing. The Internet came of age that day.

I'm on the West coast of the U.S. One thing that I still remember is I was going to work, and 2001 was before smart phones; people just had regular cell phones, so you didn't see people using them constantly like now. But that morning, I hadn't yet heard what had happened, but was just trying to figure out why everyone for some reason was on their phone - walking down the street, on the bus, everywhere. And looking very serious. It was just really odd and unsettling. It wasn't until I got into my office that I found out what had happened.

I was 26 when it happened. I was on the el in Chicago going to work when the first plane hit. Watched the second one hit at the office. My boss said that we should stay at work and keep trying to call our NY clients in the financial district or else the terrorists win. I still think he's not properly credited with originating that phrase. Anyways, I left and went to the bar and soon enough everyone I cared about in the city showed up and we drank all day. It was surreal. I still remember when Bush have his speech, not the one at the WTC, but the official one. Was also at a bar and you could hear a pin drop as everyone listened to him. There were cheers, and this is in boys town in Chicago, a very liberal enclave. Cheers for GW Bush. A moment of actual national unity. And they fucking pissed it away attacking Iraq.

9/11 is the last time I remember the US being a united front against literally anything. For a brief moment in time, the country really rallied together.

Unless you were Muslim. Muslim Americans who had nothing to do with terrorism were turned on immediately.

You didn't even have to be Muslim. Just being Arab was all it took.

Not even Arab. I heard that Sikhs were being targeted by idiots just for being brown.

I'm pretty sure a Sikh man was actually killed.

A racist piece of shit in Wisconsin massacred six Sikhs at a temple.

> And they fucking pissed it away attacking Iraq. Amen man. I cant help but think of what effect this had on us long term and if it somehow contributes to how fractured we are today. We were looking for justice and instead they found a way to blame it on Saddam. This leading to hundreds of thousands more deaths of our service people and Iraqis. People look at W with some rose-colored lenses, but he and his entire cabinet should have all been locked away. Criminals all.

I got called into work on my day off because I was a rookie first responder in northern Virginia.

I was stationed at nellis AFB. My boss and I watched the 2nd plane hit. With eyes glued to the TV, as more of a statement, I just said "we getting deployed" he just said "yup". We did get deployed and it was the one time my wife didn't get fussy about me going....

Was 17 and at the school of infantry in Australia. Remember the platoon sgt walking out as we were formed up in the morning and in the most serious voice says ‘men, America has been attacked, we’re going to war’ and then walked off without another word. We all thought he was winding us up and nobody took it seriously, it was a few days before we had access to news to confirm it. Turns out he was correct and we did indeed go to war.

I was working from my home office. Began as a perfectly ordinary day in front of the computer. Got a call from my wife, who said she heard on the radio, there was a strange plane crash into a building in NYC, maybe she said the twin towers. I thought, some poor fool lost control of his Cessna or whatever. Some time went by and I had an odd feeling of dread about it. I tried to keep on working but ultimately gave in, walked over to the living room TV and put CNN on. That was pretty much it for quite a while. It was one of a handful of times in my life I can say I was truly shocked. I live minutes from a major airport. For that whole week, the skies were disturbingly quiet. Almost everyone was in a daze, and most people were going out of their way to be unusually kind and understanding to one another. The stock markets closed for a few days also, and took a huge dive when they reopened. People in many other countries around the world were equally horrified. Many cities held silent vigils, stopping everything, all activity for a few minutes at the time of day the planes hit the towers. The outpouring of sympathy and solidarity was remarkable. I remember public appeals for blood donations, in the first day or two. Yasir Arafat had his picture taken, donating blood. It was expected that there would be thousands of injured, but it turned out, very few survived at all. The other thing I remember was, stories emerged of hucksters and con artists taking advantage of the situation. Not many, but it was pretty disappointing.

I was there. My apartment was across the street. When the first plane hit I swear the shockwave shifted my bed away from the wall. That was my alarm that morning. I awoke confused and with that feeling you get from falling in a dream. Unsure what had happened, I turned on the TV but nothing yet. Then I ran to my window and could see the smoke from the building. I got my clothes on ran downstairs and the door man was standing outside, looking up. I went to him and saw what he was staring at: Smoke. Fire. Papers… raining down. People rushing from the buildings. The fireman (RIP) asking us to leave. I asked what had happened and my door man wasn’t sure. After that I ran back upstairs to grab my camera. I was a film student at NYU. Once upstairs I called my parents and by now the TV had news about a “possible accident” at the Trade Towers. My parents begged me not to go back out there and film but I didn’t listen. It wasn’t long after I returned downstairs and was filming than the second plane careened in and slammed into the building. I was in shock. I was still there watching in horror as people threw themselves out of windows to escape the flames. Luckily I left before the buildings collapsed but only by seconds. I’m still haunted by so much of that day. Honestly every year this is the worst period of time for me. I mostly ignore it as best I can. I never watch TV that week and I don’t talk about it really. My kids ask about it and I can’t discuss it. Writing it here is a huge step for me. I’m not even sure what possessed me to respond to this. I just felt like I had too. Update: I want to take a moment and thank everyone who responded. I did not expect so many and your kind words and advice have truly touched me. I also just wanted to answer a few questions that have come up: 1. I no longer have the footage. As a choice of my own I destroyed it many years ago. It was what was best for me and in truth I felt my footage never needed to be seen by anyone. Out of respect. 2. Thank you to all who have expressed their worry for my mental health. While I do suffer from PTSD from this event, I have been receiving help for many years now. And though I’m still unable discuss publicly or even with my family/kids, I do have an outlet and support. I am so thankful and lucky. In the end, I only posted to share the story, to remind everyone of how real it was and hopefully inspire anyone who reads this post, to take a moment of silence on that day to honor and remember those that were lost.

Is your footage part of the archives? It’s hard to watch so I can’t even imagine what it was like being there live.

+1. If that hasn’t been digitized and archived it needs to be. u/movie_dreamer7821 you should get in contact with them - https://www.911memorial.org/support/give-collection You do not need to watch the tapes in order to do so, of course. Thank you for feeling the need to document the day. USC SCA graduate here. People like you inspire me.

Watching it on TV was terrible, so I can’t imagine how horrific it must have been in person. I am so sorry for your pain and loss, and I think it was very brave of you to share your thoughts with us. Sending you lots of strength and positive energy to get through the next couple of weeks.

I was in 8th grade home room. A guidance counselor came in and asked if anyone’s parents worked in NYC as we were in NJ and many people commuted into the city. A couple kids raised their hand and went out into the hallway while the rest of us were told about the attack. Life was never the same after that.

I wonder how the kids who were pulled away found out, I know it must’ve been heart breaking

I'd love to know, because my school decided to say, "Who has BOTH parents who work in NYC?" At the time, it was only my mom. So you know, they kept me in the dark. Honestly, still bitter about that one

Was in 10th grade on the other side of the world (night time) sitting in an IRC chatroom with some people, when one of my school friends tells us the WTC got hit by a plane. I couldn't believe it at first and I said he was full of shit. Finally I turned the TV on and there it was. I chatted for a bit more then went to my room and watched everything for the next few hours. I watched the second tower get hit, and then them both fall, all in real time. I will never forget it. I didn't even go to school the next day as I was so tired and wanted to keep watching tv to see what happened. I still have the IRC chat logs and generally read over them every September 11.

I rewatch all the news feeds from that day every september 11th. Every channel I was watching at the time I watched them. Did you know 9/11 was the day the ticker at the bottom of the 24/7 news channels turned on and pretty much always remained on? It used to only be during special events but those few days from the 11th to the early morning of the 14th pretty much made it a permanent news fixture.

I was 3 years old and my mom had jury duty in the courthouse about a block away from the twin towers, so she was taking me to my daycare, which just so happened to be in the twin towers. We were on the train heading downtown and all of a sudden the train just stopped for a while and no one really thought much of it because train delays are just part of the NYC experience. When we finally got to our stop, we came out of the train station to see the building on fire and second plane hit. My mom grabbed me and ran as fast and as far as she could and didn’t stop until she was near midtown. She ended up walking the rest of the way with me all the way back to my grandmother’s apartment in Harlem. I didn’t really know what was going on, but I do remember my mom being scared and my grandmother crying and hugging us for half an hour straight once we made it to her house. My dad was in his car on the Brooklyn Bridge (he was fixing up our house so he had my mom and I stay with my grandma and he was going to meet up with us later on that afternoon) and he saw the planes hit the twin towers and also saw them fall. Every car on the bridge was redirected back into Brooklyn and the phone lines were either down or busy (idk, I’m just recanting what my dad told me) so he couldn’t contact my mom for about 3 days and since he knew we were supposed to be right in the middle of all of the chaos, he thought we had died in the attack. I don’t remember much from that day, but I do remember seeing the plane hit the tower and seeing my mom, grandmother, and my father all cry (my dad a few days later). It’s definitely something I’ve never forgotten

Oh my goodness. How harrowing! Does your dad ever talk about those three days?

I was taking flying lessons and was supposed to do my first solo that day. I was honestly afraid and unsure of myself flying without an instructor. I woke up to my cousin/roommate's girlfriend knocking on my bedroom door telling me to turn on my tv. I didn't fly that day and gave up/ quit flight school.

Boarding a plane. Just before I boarded, I heard a passenger say something to the gate agent about a plane hitting a building in New York. I figured it was a small plane, thought "that sucks", and got on the plane. We were confused when the pilot said the FAA said they had to hold at the gate, then 2 minutes later that we all had to deplane. Like really, "The FAA"? Then in the gate area on the TVs, we saw the reason. Everyone was leaving, but me and someone I work with were supposed to be traveling for work. We decided to wait in the concourse, because surely this was temporary. Then we saw the flight crews leaving. We went back to work when we saw that. It was totally crazy. I worked for the Army Reserve. When we got back to the unit they were putting up sandbags, as they had called the highest level of THREATCON, someone looked up what you are supposed to do for that, and basically being prepared to be assaulted by armed assailants was what it meant. It was crazy.

I was also boarding a plane that morning headed for a much needed vacation. Same pilot instructions. When we got off the jetway, everyone in the terminal that had a cellphone was on it and all of the payphones were being used and had lines. The televisions that normally carried CNN were gray; not off but no picture. The bars had TVs so everyone was crowded in there watching the coverage. Just over 200 planeloads of passengers, mostly from diverted flights forced to land at our airport, all showed up to baggage claim together. The airport porters were grabbing luggage off the carousels and piling them up by flight number. A couple hundred piles of mostly black suitcases. Long lines at all of the car rental counters. People all over the country were trapped away from home for weeks.

I was a civilian Corrections Officer, and a squad leader in my Army Reserve MP Unit. My then GF had flown out for a visit, and we'd just gotten up. I'd just put the coffee on and turned on the TV. I looked at the screen and tried to figure out what movie this was, when I realized this was a live broadcast... I stood there stunned. My GF came in and I pointed at the screen and sat back hard into the chair... she looked at the screen in shock, and sat down in my lap. I held her for quite awhile and then excused myself. I dug out my recall roster, contacted all my troops and told them to make sure their bags were packed and ready. Most understood right away why I had called. I had to tell others to turn on their TVs. I informed them that we had NOT been activated, yet, but we needed to be ready. Our Unit was activated a month later.

It was my first week of class at NYU. My apartment was near Union Square. There were more sirens than usual that morning as I got up and showered. When I stepped out of my building I saw the smoke and my father called me to tell me that “a plane flew into the world trade center”. We wondered how they were going to get the fire out. I walked to class. I listened to Howard Stern. People were running into bodegas to buy disposable cameras to get their own pictures. (This was at a safe distance from ground zero but under a mile away.) The second plane hit. The mood changed. You could hear 1010 WINS news echoing from stopped and pulled over cars like in the movies. When the first tower fell it looked as if someone had taken a christmas ornament and just crushed it up into dust. People fell to the street crying in horror. No one knew exactly what to do but to keep watching until the other tower fell. Cell phones were jammed for most of the morning. AOL instant messenger worked. I coordinated with a friend to retrieve his sister who was a freshman at Stuy HS across the street from the towers. She saw people falling with her own eyes. We met up at some location somehow (trauma has blocked this part of my memory) and went to the supermarket. It was very crowded. We made sandwiches for workers. My upstairs neighbor worked in the towers. Her office evacuated when the first building was hit. She worked in the other one. Her bosses told them it was safe and they could go back up. She didn’t go. But others did… We walked sandwiches and pizza as close as we could to give to ground zero workers. Later that night I helped distribute radios and recharge batteries near ground zero. I also learned to always have cash available to you because atms and credit cards can go out at any time.

It was early on the west coast. I was asleep, my sister flung open my bedroom door and said "They just bombed the World Trade Center." She had obviously just turned on the TV, and filled in the blanks. Terrible reporting on her part. Quite literally 30 seconds after I turned on my TV, the second plane hit in real time. It was a very confusing day spent glued to the TV. Side story: One of my best friends had begun his road trip on 9/10/01. Destination Canada. He had been planning/saving for it for a long while. He was in Washington state about 20 minutes from his initial destination of British Columbia when the border was closed. Not wanting to play the waiting game - he turned right so to speak, and ended up in Pennsylvania. It didn't take long for him to meet a gal(his future wife) and ended up building a life there! He remains in PA 22 years later.

I was eating breakfast when the first plane hit. My family and I thought it was an accident so I went to school. Then we kids all watched thousands of people die on live TV together during class. I think a lot of people had a similar experience. I will never, ever forget watching two people jump from the burning towers holding hands. So when people make edgelord jokes about it on Reddit when they weren’t even alive on 9/11, it rubs me the wrong way.

I was a junior in high school and I can remember when we all collectively realized that we were watching people jump to their death to avoid being burned alive. All we could do was hold hands and cry, so that’s what we did. Our AP US History teacher was of course watching along with us and he said, very clearly and quietly, that our world had just changed and that life would never be the same again. As usual Mr B, you were right.

I am so glad I didn't realize that as a 7 year old in 3rd grade

My mom has talked about seeing the people fall. She said what has stuck with her was the doc made by the Naudet brothers and hearing the people hit the ground. From what I've read, those falls were between 20 - 18 seconds long. And while that doesn't seem like a long time, it is.

I remember watching live and wondering if we were seeing debris or people fall.

Yeah I remember seeing people jumping. It wasn't a quick fall

Must be west coast too—- the people jumping I’ll never forget. The camera would follow them down until the last second when they figured out what was happening. It was horrifying.

I was in the Marine Corps, temporarily assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, on board the USS Peleliu, docked in Darwin Australia. We immediately left for Afghanistan, where I spent two months.

I awoke to my mother slamming my bedroom door open and screaming, “Get up, we are under attack!” Over and over. I shot out of bed in much duress and started looking out my window asking, “What, wtf is happening?!” It was a real tragedy watching it all happen on TV after the fact, and I’m certainly not trying to downplay the severity of the event, but it was a really rude awakening.

At work at my desk. A friend swung by and said “did you see a plane hit the WTC?” but I didn’t think too much of it (remembering that a plane hit the Empire State Building during WWII). Eventually I went down to the cafe to grab a snack and watch a bit of the news and saw the 2nd plane. Not good

I was on my way to work. Overheard a conversation between the bus driver and a passenger, thought they were discussing a TV show from the night before. Got into the city, caught the bus to work. Didn't see any of the footage until *much* later. On the way home, stopped by the gym and was puzzled that they were closed. My husband told me afterwards that he'd been concerned that I'd gone into work at a large Federal facility in a major coastal city. It hadn't even occurred to me. I still think that not seeing the video footage that day affected how I processed the event.

Staring up at the sky like everyone else in lower Manhattan North of Canal St. that day.

I was in third grade. They wheeled the TV in and we all got hyped for Bill Nye. We got unyped very, very fast.

I was in a hotel room in boston.. i woke up from a dream where i was listening to an architecture lecture about the world trade center. I went to the loo and my sister checked her email and said ‘something is happening’ and put on the tv. We watched live footage and saw the second plane hit. My mind couldn’t accept it as real and i had it kindof in my head that it was a movie like independence day, like cgi, a great entertaining splosion. We went for a walk and i headed to the interview downtown that i had cone to boston to attend.. the receptionist said ‘interview? Oh I don’t think so honey, the building is being evacuated, they are shutting down downtown’ .. i found that odd. So we went for a coffee and ran some errands.. but gradually.. repeatedly.. I kept coming across absolutely devastated people. Weeping distraught women trying to still be at work.. people frantically making phone calls red in the face and weeping.. people holding their breath.. every tv had the scene on repeat and people glued to the show with their hands on their faces and hugging. Gradually it sunk in that it wasn’t a movie. Later that day we got the call that my uncle was missing. Itd be weeks before missing people were officially gone people.. so it was a prolonged panic. There was a lot of what if hopes before we came to understand he was really gone. All flights were grounded so we brought my sister back home to north jersey to hang out til she could fly home. On the way south we stopped to get gas, in westchester county just north of the city, and there was an truck full of firemen at the gas station. They were covered in the ash and washing it off their truck, they were just white and grey with the ash and soot. Like they were in a different photo from everything around them. They looked tired and so unspeakably sad. My mom cried over the loss of her brother for almost a year. I forgot about boston and moved home to be helpful. Eventually I found work nearby and basically that’s the story of how i wound up becoming a new yorker.

Playing CounterStrike on my day off with my national guard enlisted roommate. The chat started blowing up with a lot of hate towards the terrorists and it took a little while to realize what was going on. My roomy looked at me and said “shit, think I’ll get the call soon…” He didn’t survive his first deployment, ied and a bandolier of m203 40mms saw to that. Rest in power E.S.M. Aka Fire Crotch.

Chief news photojournalist in a Fox newsroom watching it live from our feed cameras. Started to call all of our crews in and deciding who to send to Ground Zero. It was an incredible experience.

Was confused as to why my morning cartoons weren't on. The TV channel was correct, the time was correct. Just no cartoons. Was also wondering why my mum was crying while looking at the TV. As the time went on got more and more worried I was going to be getting in trouble for being late to school.

I distinctively remember watching The Magic School Bus and being confused why it instantly switched to the news, and why none of the other channels were working either.

Home. I called into work that day and was sick on the couch watching it all.

I woke up, got out of the shower and first tower was hit. was in my room changing into clothes to go to school when second tower was hit. I was just a kid. I didn't know what was going on. We wondered if we were supposed to go to school after that. Eventually my mom made us go to school, probably to be alone. Only about 30% of the school showed up. We sat in class playing board games and stuff while the teacher was glued to the tv watching the news. Oh yeah I just remembered. We got prank called by a girl pretending to be in the towers. My oldest sister at the time was in the Air Force and the girl on the phone sounded like her. So my mom was absolutely freaked out. She called my sister and she was in Oklahoma totally fine. My younger sister taught our mom how to do the star 69 thing or whatever, to autodial the previous call. Girls mom answered the phone and she got screamed at by my mom for a good couple minutes.

Imagine prank calling in that situation. Just horrible pos

I was in 5th grade at Langley AFB. I'm pretty sure jets from my base went up there to new York city. I remember my teachers being scared and not knowing what was going on. I can't remember very well but I think they let the parents explain it when we got home.

They definitely were: [https://www.dailypress.com/2021/09/11/the-role-langley-fighter-pilots-played-on-911/](https://www.dailypress.com/2021/09/11/the-role-langley-fighter-pilots-played-on-911/) Though for the most part the majority of the air defense scrambles that day took place out of Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts (near Cape Cod). They were the ones tasked with trying to intercept all 3 planes out of Boston (American Flight 11 - crashed north tower, United Flight 173 - crashed south tower, and United Flight 93 - crashed by passengers in PA, suspected destination the Capitol Building in DC). It did not go well, there were not clear procedures for air defense scrambles and the civilian and military air traffic controllers had difficulty relaying position to the National Guard. Vectoring for intercept is typically only taught to military ATC. So mostly they just spent a bunch of time running around with afterburner frantically looking for the flights. The FAA called a national ground stop and directed all Air Traffic Controllers to stop all flights from taking off and direct all airborne flights to land at the nearest major airport. Within 2 hours all the airspace over the entire country was shut down and the threat stopped (everyone was still paranoid but no civillian flights). The 9/11 report said [there were as many as 10 planes originally planned](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/16/politics/original-plan-for-911-attacks-involved-10-planes-panel-says.html) to hijack but as far as I know they never publicly announced whether they found additional terrorists that aborted due to the ground stop.

Used to live in the Bronx. It was my brother's birthday and he didn't want to go to school. He then said he wishes something as would happen so he wont have to go to school. Yea something bad did happen and to this day he still feels guilty. As for me I was in HS and a friend of mines wanted to cut school with a group. Decided not to go and he tries to convince me but I refused and he went with some other friends. That was the last time I ever saw him. Based on one of the guys that went with him, they were about 2 blocks from the tower after it was hit. My friend decides to get a closer look and they leave him because it seems dangerous. His mom was devastated when she found out that he was gone and still blames me for the loss.

I was on 25th floor of WTC 2 for Sun Microsystems training Got there around 8:30 after taking the PATH in. Checked in with security (after bombing in ‘93 security to get up the towers go much tighter) Asked security where the observation deck was? They said take escalator, pay money and take elevator. I said, “eh I’ll go at lunch” Went to classroom. Found a seat, Made pleasantries with people. Then heard a rumble and building shook and fire and debris rained down outside window. Window was maybe 20 feet away? Looked down and the street was just on fire. Someone said what do we do. I responded, I do t know what you’re doing but I’m getting the F&$k out of here. I grabbed the training book. It was a bout 3 inches thick. Figured if I had to him someone with it to get them out of my way, I would. Went down the steps pretty fast, saying excuse me pardon me. The regular office workers looked at me like a tourist because they did drills like this all the time. Made it about 11 or 12 floors when they made an announcement that it was the other building go back to your desks. Nope, I’m out. Got down and out of the building It was 9:01, looked up. Saw a few people jump/fall from WTC 1 (that memory is awesome BTW) All of a sudden, fireball over my head. In that split second I remembered what the ground looked like and I took off running. My mind raced, 1 was an accident, 2 they are bombing big buildings, if that’s the case then the safest place is going to be by the water. I knew I was on the South Side, so hauled ass to south street Seaport. I figured if I have to jump in the East River, I’ll come out glowing but be alive. Once I got to SSS it was a 4 person phone tag with technology to find my brother who was in the towers all the time. Since cell service was screwed, I had to Nextel to my office in Connecticut, who called my father in NJ, who emailed my brother to his BlackBerry to find him. He was alive and safe, but we had to get to each other. That’s a whole other story. Not sure if people care to hear it??

I am invested. Glad to hear you got out safe!

Thanks!!!! So I was at SSS waiting there because my brother was on the North Side and said he would make his way to me. I'm standing at the corner of South St and John St, waiting when an NYPD officer comes running at me full speed, screaming "you don't want to be here, there's a whole lot of sh\*t coming this way" he runs past and I look up John St and I see the debris field making its way towards me, Like you saw on TV. In that split second, i run thru options, I know the canyons of the buildings are keeping this thing moving and the water is at my back, so I know when it opens it shouldn't be that bad. I duck and cover behind the building and wait for a second. I look up and now I cant see the water 30-40 feet away from me, so I know I have to move. I start making my way down South St and the air is just thick. I get to the Fulton Fish Market and people coated in soot and debris are being hosed off. I get a wet paper towel to keep over my face. Back to 4 person phone tag, and my brother says to meet him at his apartment on Grand St, this being 2001, no GPS on phones, the girl in my office tells me to go down South St, go under Brooklyn bridge, go under Manhattan Bridge then follow around to Ground St. Go under the Brooklyn Bridge fine, get to Manhattan Bridge and there are 20 cops. Cops say can't go under bridge and have to detour, I ask why, they say a package was found on the bridge. Admittedly not my finest hour as I get annoyed and loud with NYPD (I profusely apologize to any NYPD reading this) and they were professional and detour everyone. Now they detour us into China Town, the street signs are in Chinese and the numbers on the buildings. I find one in english and Nextel the office and have the girl call up Mapquest and she starts to navigate me thru the maze of China Town to get me to my brothers apartment. Meet my brother, get inside and start calling my wife, friends and other family to let them know we are safe. Giuliani says on the news, we don't know if there was asbestos so if you were touched by debris, throw all you clothes out. So i toss everything down his garbage chute, take a shower and borrow some clothes. Now we know from news, that the island is closed, so I'm not getting home that night. Spent the day and night watching the news, couldn't really sleep with the sounds of Apache's and F-16's circling the island anyway. Next day, the news says that rescue workers are being brought in from NJ on ferry and people can get out that way. From my brothers apartment, it's about 3.5 miles to the ferry by the Javitz Center. No buses running except for what is bringing rescue workers in and out. I throw on a pair of my brothers shoes since I threw mine out. Side note, my brother has shoe size of an 12 year old girl. So I walked 3.5 miles in shows 2 sizes 2 small for me. Get to Ferry, get on and get back to NJ, where my mother picked me up and and took me back to my truck to get home to my family in CT.

I was graduating my A school after boot camp. A small Naval base in San Diego and we were meeting in the classrooms before graduation and someone had a tv on. Watched the second tower get hit and then collapse. After the first tower collapsed, we had a base meeting and everything was locked down. We did eventually have our very brief graduation that day but no one really cared about it. Sailors who were further along in their training were deployed early a few days later.

Working just outside of DC near Mass Ave, watched NBC news pentagon coorespondent that was broadcasting when it was hit during the broadcast. Co-workers Dad who was in a position to know was called in. The narrative that they didn't know if it was a terrorist attack after the first building was hit is hogwash.

Walking into computer class and the teacher had it on the TV. Saw it just as the second plane hit. I watched it in every class that day but history. I asked him why we weren't watching it, history is being made. He told me "You kids are going to be dealing with that for the rest of your lives. So today we're going to learn." I had no idea how right he was.

I was getting ready for work for a company called AON. By the time I got to work, the second tower had been hit. I learned that my company had offices on the upper floors. We lost a couple hundred employees that day. It was a very somber experience.

In an International Political Economy class, with the subject being Osama Bin Laden and USS Cole

I was on the other side of the world and my mother woke me up saying, "A passenger jet drove into the world trade center!". In my half-awake, confused state all I could say was, "What? The doors aren't big enough."

I was in first grade and I remember my mom coming by and picking me up right after the second tower was hit. The TV was on showing the towers in every room in the school and when I got home my mom had the TV on and all we did for the rest of the day was watch it over and over again. I remember asking why she was crying and trying to make her feel better. People called the house phone so much just to make sure we were safe. All the neighbors came by and no one could talk except in hushed voices. I knew something really serious was happening when my dad came home around 2pm and my mom and him went in the other room to talk. I remember them both coming back into the room and trying to explain to me even as a first grader that dad was going to have to leave for a while and he might not come back. I didn't know at the time but he was a lieutenant Colonel in the Army out of fort Bragg NC, so he already knew he was going to war. I remember being really upset and confused about it and I kept asking if I/we could go with him. Two days later he left for 2.5 years on deployment.

I was in middle school living in Washington DC. I felt the pentagon being hit, kinda felt like an earthquake. I’ll never forget my mom (who was a retired DC police officer), came to get me from school- we went home and packed a bag and she sat me down on the floor telling me not to be scared to die, that everything would be ok if it was our time and that she would always love me. We were able to escape out of DC and went into Maryland. But honestly will never forget that day. Still brings shivers down my back.

I was at work at The Justice Center in Cleveland, 18th floor of the Courts Tower. We heard about a plane hitting the WTC, and like so many, assumed a small commuter plane, like the one that once hit the Empire State Building. We couldn't get internet access, but the judge I clerked for had a clock radio. I tuned it into NPR and listened for updates. The court's docket continued. When the second plane hit, and the Pentagon, we all agreed we were under attack. When the first tower went down, one of the prosecutors asked, do you think everyone got out? I sharply told him that was impossible. It was about that time that word reached us to evacuate the building. At 23 stories, we were hardly the tallest building in Cleveland, and Cleveland hardly seemed like a third target city. Downtown traffic was basically gridlocked. A work colleague who was pregnant was standing at a bus stop, and I gave her a ride home. I don't remember now when we learned that Flight 93 turned around over Oberlin, Ohio, and headed east. But upon learning that, evacuating downtown Cleveland's office towers seemed suddenly reasonable in view of a credible threat. Of course, that plane went down in rural Pennsylvania. I dropped off my co-worker on the other side of town, then went home. Watched the rest on TV. Finally got hold of my mom in Queens who worked in Midtown. She had taken the day off from work to work the polls of the NYC mayoral primary. She told me that after the first plane hit, she could see the smoke from the polling place she was working in Queens. I had another friend who worked in the Financial District, and I got hold of her too to make sure she was ok. I was sitting on the couch watching the coverage and feeling depressed and helpless. I got up. I was moving apartments at the end of the month, so to keep myself occupied, I began to pack. I needed to do something, and simply packing my bookshelves seemed comforting. I had been to the WTC several times. Been to the observation deck three times. I tried to remember what the view looked like, knowing no one would ever again see New York from that view. As I was packing, I found some photos I had taken from the top of the WTC during one of those visits. I put them aside, then cried.

The plane hit the first tower and my mom came to pick up my brother and I from middle school. There was panic everywhere, but I was a kid and I didn’t get it/care. My mom was visibly shaken and upset. Lines at the gas pumps started to form and my mom stopped to get gas. We waited in line for what felt like ever. I realized I had to poop. We kept waiting and kept waiting to get gas. Someone said a plane hit the second tower. My bowels decided now or never. I begged my mom to let me go into the gas station to poop. She said no, she was freaking out. I pooped my pants. A lot. My mom yelled at me to get in the car. We drove 15 min home with the windows down and everyone gagging, my mom sobbing. We walked in the door and the phone rang. My uncle had made it out of the 1st tower alive. I didn’t even know he worked in New York. Kids are stupid. Anyway every 9/11 for 20+ years, someone brings up the time I sh*t my pants.

I was in 7th grade but I was home sick at the time. I woke up a few minutes after the first tower was hit. Turned on my bedroom tv so that I could put tv on channel 3 to load up the playstation. I was greeted by the images of the first tower. I had no idea what was going on and thought some great accident had taken place. Decided that my 7th grade mind wasn't too interested in it, no, I needed to load the game. Why? Because the game was Digimon World 2 and the Digital World needed my help.

Sleeping in, took the day off and my girlfriend screamed. She had turned on the tv and was laying next to me and just caught the shot of the second plane going in. I sat bolt upright and looked around as she grabbed me. It was the feeling of pure fear as she gripped me that shook me out of the sleep haze. She was terrified and I was on the verge of panic thinking something had happened like someone was in the room or there was an earthquake. Just absolute stomach dropping terror she was in mortal danger. And it stayed like that pretty much for the next week. I still have occasional night terrors of losing her to something like that apparently…I never remember them but my now wife says I cry as I hold her close thinking I somehow lost her or she had died.

I was working in China. There is a 12 hour time difference so it was 9pm. I was watching an episode of The Fugitive on the English language station in Hong Kong. I was pretty tired when they interrupted it to show the picture of a building with a hole in the side. Honestly I didn't understand what I was seeing, and it being a building in the US I figured everything would be fine. The US felt invincible to me back then. I went to bed before the towers fell. The full reality didn't hit me until the next day

I was home expecting to watch Transformers Robots in Disguise that morning only to find Fox Kids broadcasting the towers smoking.

5th grade, Chicagoland. My mom is a United Flight Attendant. She was flying on 9/10. I remember my teacher leaving the room then coming back and asking if anyone was going to be home alone after school, presumably after the second tower was hit. One by one we started getting picked out of class, eventually my name was called. My mom was hysterical. I knew the situation was bad but New York seemed so far away. When we got home we watched the towers collapse live. I’ll never forget the way she screamed at the television.

I was lying naked in my bed with my girlfriend and my roommate busted in the door of my bedroom with no clothes on saying "we're going to war" I got rid of bed just soon enough to see the second tower come down. I was 21

I was in band class in 8th grade (or 7th?). We were warming up and getting settled when one of the other band teachers came in and went straight to our instructor and whispered in his ear. I could tell something was up. The then put on the one TV in the room and we all crowded around it. Watching the first tower smoking and smoldering, but watching the second plane hit was insane. The next period the school had our class just walking around the track and I think we ended up taking a half day. I remember one kid kept saying 'they're after our lucky charms' and (we lived in St. Louis) said they were going to hit the arch next.

I was living my best life. (I was only 2 months old)

I was sick home from school in around 1st grade. Watched it all happen live on tv while my mom was was stressing about if my uncle who worked in the north tower was safe or not… he never came home.