Lest We Forget 9/11

[pb4uski]

Our office was a couple miles north of WTC and some of the corner offices looked straight dow Avenue of the Americas with a view of the towers. I walked into one of those corner office a couple seconds after the second tower collapsed.

Family from home were concerned not understanding how far away I was and I had a hard time contacting them to let them know that I was ok.

I was in NYC for a practice meeting the next morning. I recall walking through Times Square for a practice meeting the next morning and there were at most a dozen people in all of Times Square... eerie.

After the meeting I'm at my desk and my boss shows up and says "Don't you have someplace better to be?".... IOW, get your butt home. Since Manhattan was all but locked down I ended up taking a train to Hartford and then drove a rental car home.

Definitely will never forget 9/11.... horrible day. So sad that the comaderie inspired by that tragedy dissipated so quickly.

 

[jazz4cash]

My vivid recollection is smoke rising from the Pentagon. An attack on the military HQ of the most powerful nation on the planet. I was calling on a client in DC that morning. We were all watching the TV coverage of the towers in NYC when the report came of a plane crash into the Pentagon. I went to the summit of Ft Lincoln in Northeast DC and could see clear across the Potomac to the Pentagon. My colleague turned to me and asked “Where are the fighter jets”? Good question.

 

[MRG]

I was home, sick with a cold and had taken nyquil in the middle of the night. DW got a call from her girlfriend telling her what happened and to turn on TV. I couldn't comprehend what was going on then (or now).

I was summoned to come in and help figure out what was going to happen when systems didn't run every day. All financial systems were shut down including trading of most types. It had never been done before, we had no legitimate way to fully test all scenarios and said sure we would make it work. Turns out that crap ran!@! It also produced correct results!

 

[MarieIG]

Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday. This is my story of that day (posted ten years ago today): https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/9-11-01-a-52050-2.html#post977126

My DH watched the towers go down from the roof of the Citigroup building. He took pictures, which I threw away.

DH's employer told their workers to get out of their (respective buildings). He found his friend/ co-worker and they walked over the Brooklyn Bridge together. His friend had been in one of the towers. Hubby had a Nextel walk-talkie which is how he found his friend Tommy. He couldn't reach me by phone for a number of hours.

A few of my co-workers also had to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to get home.

I was a frequent flyer at 60 Centre St., but that day my assignment was in Suffolk County. I heard about it on the car radio, but was going on didn't sink in. I was imagining a tiny plane accidently hitting the tower. I met my adversary by the jury selection rooms; but the jurors weren't being taken in. There were TVs in jurors waiting room and I realized what happened when I saw the television. My adversary told me he didn't think he could pick a jury, he was too upset. I remembered saying I couldn't care about my client today; and he said he couldn't care about his client either. (As it turned out all the jurors were sent home.)

Our office manager's sister was in one of the towers. I went to that funeral. My chiropractor's sister was a Court officer who went over to help. She didn't come back. My sons' school lost a number of parents. Our church was busy with funerals - our neighborhood had a lot of NYC firefighters. Because of the proximity, it seemed that everyone knew someone; lost someone, or knew someone who knew someone. It was a surreal haze of grief.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

My colleague turned to me and asked “Where are the fighter jets”? Good question.

19 years later, this story still makes me teary: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KY1-qhmQ1wMJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/f-16-pilot-was-ready-to-give-her-life-on-sept-11/2015/09/06/7c8cddbc-d8ce-11e0-9dca-a4d231dfde50_story.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

 

[Lewis Clark]

19 years later, this story still makes me teary: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KY1-qhmQ1wMJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/f-16-pilot-was-ready-to-give-her-life-on-sept-11/2015/09/06/7c8cddbc-d8ce-11e0-9dca-a4d231dfde50_story.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

+ 1

 

[Nick12]

For the next few months after 9/11, my family kept getting a lot of phone calls from media asking for comments due to losing a family member. Our last name was some of the 9/11 victims.

 

[jazz4cash]

19 years later, this story still makes me teary: https://webcache.googleusercontent.....html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

I could not get the link to open but I used google. To be clear i believe the story is about Heather Penney and United Airlines 93, not the flight that hit the Pentagon AA 77. It corroborates the info I learned following the attacks. There were no armed fighters “at the ready” in the DC area in those days. They were at Langley AFB back then.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I could not get the link to open but I used google. To be clear i believe the story is about Heather Penney and United Airlines 93, not the flight that hit the Pentagon AA 77. It corroborates the info I learned following the attacks. There were no armed fighters “at the ready” in the DC area in those days. They were at Langley AFB back then.

Yes, you are correct, it was about Heather Penney. I tried to give a link that would get "behind the paywall," but it appears I failed.

Yes, I know it was about UA 93, but I posted it for the reason you inferred: no "at the ready" fighters.