I debated about putting this thread up. But in the end figured it would be a good thing.

Today is September 11. No matter where you stand on your political views, I think we can all agree that on this day, nine years ago the world was changed.

I wanted to take this opportunity and ask that all of us take a moment of pause and remember our fallen brothers. Whether that be a member of our armed services, police or fireman or the innocent people of that tragic day.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and memories of that day.

Thank you.

It's very sad the huge loss of life every day due to mankinds lack of tolerance towards different races & religions. 9 years on I'm not sure if things have changed for the better

(bows head in silence)

Darthberizing wrote:

(bows head in silence)

Right with you.

I can't believe how long ago it was now as it still seems like yesterday. I had just started classes in college and they cancelled our classes that day. The day is a bit more personal to me as well as my grandmother passed away the night before. I think itnwas a good thing in that she would have been devasted to have seen those events transpire.

I wish all the families well of those who gave their lives during this tragic event.

May the victims of that terrible waste of life rest in peace, truly a terrible time in modern history.

We had probably most surreal thing happen to us yesterday. And it was really the catalyst that made me want to start this thread. Aimee and I were just cleaning house and getting ready for my parents to come over for dinner. Early in the afternoon, there was a knock on the door. When I went to answer, I found an elderly man standing on our deck looking up at my flag (which was at half staff). I asked him if I could help him, he turned to me with tears in his eyes and told me "thank you. I just wanted to thank you for flying your flag, because so many people forget". Then he shook my hand and walked away.

I was taken aback and totally awe struck. And I just wanted to share it with you all.

Wow Chris, really must have hit home, I still remember that day completely when I found out. I actually sat watching the tv with my friend with an open mouth and ran late for work, he was really worried with his dad working in London that there might be some global attack and when no-one could get hold of him he panicked, when I eventually left for work and got there my boss said "whats that got to do with you being late" I wanted to say - jesus christ are you for real?

What a story though Chris, very nice of him to approach you guys and say thanks.

I remember coming home from work and seeing the 2nd plane hit and thinking have just seen a replay of the firstor has another one hit, i sat there open mouthed in disbeleif.

This is one of them moment that should never be forgotten!

RebelChris wrote:

We had probably most surreal thing happen to us yesterday. And it was really the catalyst that made me want to start this thread. Aimee and I were just cleaning house and getting ready for my parents to come over for dinner. Early in the afternoon, there was a knock on the door. When I went to answer, I found an elderly man standing on our deck looking up at my flag (which was at half staff). I asked him if I could help him, he turned to me with tears in his eyes and told me "thank you. I just wanted to thank you for flying your flag, because so many people forget". Then he shook my hand and walked away.

I was taken aback and totally awe struck. And I just wanted to share it with you all.

Moving story Chris,

I remember that day like if it was yesterday. I remember my sister coming running into my room and shouting "they are bombing America" and both of us being glued to the TV News watching the event unfold. I remember thinking at one stage, after the Pentagon was hit and reports of another plane coming down, what was going to be next?

What really hit home with me at the time and still now was that I visited NY during the 1999 midterm break and we went to the top of the WTC to the observation deck. Before going up, I remember looking at the shear height of the buildings from the court yard below and having to get in and out of lifts to get to the top. It took ages to get upto the top. At the time of watching the news with all the people trapped high above I knew how long it would take to get back down or for crews to climb up reach them.

I still take an interest in what happened and have been watching the documentaries on SKY marking the anniversary. I was quite sickened by the WTC Liar documentary- the women who lied about losing her partner in the devastation but she survived. Why do that to people who lost and sacrificed so much.

My thoughts are with anyone who has suffered or lost a loved one on that tragic day.

No matter how many times you recal the incident it shocks and stuns you everytime. When I first saw the planes go into the buidings I thought it was CGI. Unbelievable, just thinking about it now just amazes me as to how the human brain can be distorted to the extent that makes people take innocent lives to the scale of 9/11.

My thoughts are not only with the families of the lost ones but to those who had to see at first hand the horrific scenes on that day.

I still struggle to comprehend 9/11 yes im not an American but i see British and American as natural kinsmen.

My thoughts go out to all effected by this terrible crime and i honor the service men who died trying to save others.

Jay

Chris - That's outstanding. Good for you and good for him!

Joe_O wrote:

when I eventually left for work and got there my boss said "whats that got to do with you being late"

Joe - My office was about 20 miles from the WTC and it's only a quick trip. Anyway we all were all taken back as there is almost nobody who doesnt know someone in the city. Well during all this I had a few instances of people just not having a clue about the severity of this. Two quick examples:

1) A manager told everyone in the office to keep working because "a building falling in the city isnt our problem" (He was an assclown and was fired soon after but not becuase of that comment)

2) After it was established that this was a terrorist attack I had a client call me to complain about their bill. I was volunteering to head into the city to deliver communications equipment to the Fire Department and , even after explaining that, the client still wanted to talk about the bill. I finally told them thier bill ranked a "distant second" to what I was doing and told them I couldnt talk.

As a NY'er I can tell you it was a very surreal day. If anyone is interested, here is a little summary of my day.

I showed up for work at 8:30am and almost immediately got a phone call from my brother. He said a plane hit the WTC but early reports made it sound like a small plane. About 30 min later my brother calls again and says that another plane hit. I logged onto the website and found that most of them were crashing. After 15 minutes I got onto www.msnbc.com and finally saw what was going on.

My whole office stopped working and we all just gathered around my laptop and whoever else could get on and watched. After the aforementioned managers comments we were all told to go home or stay and help if we wanted. I worked for Nextel (US Mobile Phone and 2 Way radio) and we got flooded with calls from Police, Fire, EMT, Secret Service and anyone else. The Tower collapse destroyed communications in the city because the tower had infrastructure in it for all carriers, except Nextel.

We had 1000s of phone that were all activated on the spot and programmed. I was handed a cardboard box with about 100 phones in it and was told to go a Fire Department in the Bronx that was a control center. I didnt want to drive alone so I called my brother to go with me (he's a former collegiate football player so he's a big dude in case people were unhinged). We jumped in the car and headed into the Bronx.

Now everyone was heading out of the city but I was heading into it. The road was almost completely empty. You could see the smoke from miles away coming out of the city. It was a really eeie feel. We were 15 miles away and could see the smoldering. We got off the highway and headed towards the fire station. When we got about 10 blocks away I was speeding through because there was nobody around. My brother and I turned the corner and we literally met by two National Guardsman with Machine Guns drawn. He yelled at me to stop and asked what I was doing. I nervously explained that I had phones and that I needed to open my trunk to show them. I very slowly got out of the car, showed them the phones, and showed them the address I had written down. They called into the station and confirmed we were coming. Once they did they instructed to me to head striaght to the station and not stop. As I got closer every street was blocked but the soliders moved all the barriers so I just flew down to the Fire Station.

When I got there it was very somber. There was mass transit buses parked all over and the station had the engines out of the garage and instead were rows of cafeteria tables. The place was packed with firefighters just sitting in row after row of tables. Very little conversation and everyone had a look of bewilderment. They were all just waiting to get instructions and such. I'm sure knowing that hundreds of firefighters had just been lost was on their minds. Everybody was on call so they were going on buses to get to the city. I walked in with my box of phones and met up with the captain, explained what everything was and got them started. He was very thankful but I could see that there was so much going on. I wrote down my home number and mobile and told him to call me if he needed anything.

9-11 is our generations "Pres. Kennedy Assassination".... everyone remembers what they were doing that day.

I also have a story to add to this great thread, I will try to keep it brief......

It was my senior year in college, going to a school in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. A large group of the senior athletes were all living in apartments near the campus. I had a early morning rock climbing class that day (yes I said Rock Climbing class!!!). I jumped in my car and turned on Man Cow in the Morning Radio Show and sped off to class as I was already running late. About halfway to class reports came in on the radio about the first plan crashing into the WTC.

I arrived super late to class. The instructor asked me why I was so late, I told him and the class that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Everyone kinda laughed and chuckled thinking I was full of crap. A couple minutes later a faculty member rushed into class telling everyone that classes were canceled for the rest of the day.... and that a second plane had crashed into WTC.

I rushed backed to my apartment to try to get in touch with my dad. My dad at the time was chief of security for a large office building in downtown Chicago located at 77th W Wacker Drive, he is also on the city of Chicago Emergency Team.. comprised of the mayor of Chicago, heads of fire, police, national guard, and others. Misinformation had been coming in that other big cities were next... Chicago, LA, Houston etc.

I was extremly worried about my dad!!! The downtown area of Chicago was on lockdown (no one in/no one out) and I couldn't get a hold of my dad. My mom made matters worse as she could not get a hold of him either and became histerical and was calling me threatening to drive into the city to look for him.

The area around my apartment quickly turned into a militarized zone. A block or so down the street was a FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) building and air traffic control tower. By the end of the day it was surrounded with concrete barriers, barbed wire, National Guards men, and 24 hour a day security towers and spot lights. Driving anywhere around the area was impossible.

Classes didn't resume until Monday. I didn't hear back from my dad until late Wednesday night/Thursday morning. He pretty much lived at work the whole rest of the week.

I remember the first college baseball game we played a couple days after the attacks on 9/11. The crowd was larger than usual, as people wanted something to do, to keep there mind off the recent events. When that national anthem played... EVERYONE was very emotional.

Anyway... just a quick little glimpse into my life that day.

Darthberizing wrote:

Chris - That's outstanding. Good for you and good for him!

Joe_O wrote:

when I eventually left for work and got there my boss said "whats that got to do with you being late"

Joe - My office was about 20 miles from the WTC and it's only a quick trip. Anyway we all were all taken back as there is almost nobody who doesnt know someone in the city. Well during all this I had a few instances of people just not having a clue about the severity of this. Two quick examples:

1) A manager told everyone in the office to keep working because "a building falling in the city isnt our problem" (He was an assclown and was fired soon after but not becuase of that comment)

2) After it was established that this was a terrorist attack I had a client call me to complain about their bill. I was volunteering to head into the city to deliver communications equipment to the Fire Department and , even after explaining that, the client still wanted to talk about the bill. I finally told them thier bill ranked a "distant second" to what I was doing and told them I couldnt talk.

As a NY'er I can tell you it was a very surreal day. If anyone is interested, here is a little summary of my day.

I showed up for work at 8:30am and almost immediately got a phone call from my brother. He said a plane hit the WTC but early reports made it sound like a small plane. About 30 min later my brother calls again and says that another plane hit. I logged onto the website and found that most of them were crashing. After 15 minutes I got onto www.msnbc.com and finally saw what was going on.

My whole office stopped working and we all just gathered around my laptop and whoever else could get on and watched. After the aforementioned managers comments we were all told to go home or stay and help if we wanted. I worked for Nextel (US Mobile Phone and 2 Way radio) and we got flooded with calls from Police, Fire, EMT, Secret Service and anyone else. The Tower collapse destroyed communications in the city because the tower had infrastructure in it for all carriers, except Nextel.

We had 1000s of phone that were all activated on the spot and programmed. I was handed a cardboard box with about 100 phones in it and was told to go a Fire Department in the Bronx that was a control center. I didnt want to drive alone so I called my brother to go with me (he's a former collegiate football player so he's a big dude in case people were unhinged). We jumped in the car and headed into the Bronx.

Now everyone was heading out of the city but I was heading into it. The road was almost completely empty. You could see the smoke from miles away coming out of the city. It was a really eeie feel. We were 15 miles away and could see the smoldering. We got off the highway and headed towards the fire station. When we got about 10 blocks away I was speeding through because there was nobody around. My brother and I turned the corner and we literally met by two National Guardsman with Machine Guns drawn. He yelled at me to stop and asked what I was doing. I nervously explained that I had phones and that I needed to open my trunk to show them. I very slowly got out of the car, showed them the phones, and showed them the address I had written down. They called into the station and confirmed we were coming. Once they did they instructed to me to head striaght to the station and not stop. As I got closer every street was blocked but the soliders moved all the barriers so I just flew down to the Fire Station.

When I got there it was very somber. There was mass transit buses parked all over and the station had the engines out of the garage and instead were rows of cafeteria tables. The place was packed with firefighters just sitting in row after row of tables. Very little conversation and everyone had a look of bewilderment. They were all just waiting to get instructions and such. I'm sure knowing that hundreds of firefighters had just been lost was on their minds. Everybody was on call so they were going on buses to get to the city. I walked in with my box of phones and met up with the captain, explained what everything was and got them started. He was very thankful but I could see that there was so much going on. I wrote down my home number and mobile and told him to call me if he needed anything.

Wow John! That was quite the story and it literally brought on goosebumps.

I'm pretty speechless after reading that.

Thank you for posting your story.

Godspeed to all the victim's of this.
Dan.

Wow John thanks for sharing your story powerful stuff to read a first hand account like that.


Jay