On the other side of the world. It was about 9 in the evening at night when I first caught wind of something huge happening from some IRC chatters, but I didn't think it was anything significant until my Mom called me out to the TV. Thought I was watching some fake vid or movie, and it took an hour for it to really sink in that the world would never be the same again.
i was getting ready for school when the first plane hit i heard it on the radio ran into my parents room and told them what happened. I was a senior in high school. My parents didnt believe me at first till we turned on the tv i thought the end of the world was happening.
I was at work when i heard. I had no computer and the radio i did have the only station that was reporting it live was the one who reported that Mt. Trashmore in Va. Beach was going to explode. So I called home and was talking to my Dad for a few minutes and thats when the 2nd plane hit. Driving home that day was something else. It was like 4:30 on a Sunday morning only it was the beginning of the week at traffic hour. Thats one of the moments that I'll never forget. I knew it was bad but I knew it was really bad then.
I remember seeing live and looped coverage of people jumping out of the towers to their deaths to escape being burned/suffocated/crushed. And I remember wondering what TV stations were NOT showing us that was worse.
It was when I was in middle school. We shuffled into history class, and our teacher turned on the TV. What I saw shocked and angered me; to everyone else in the class, it seemed like a big f-ing joke. I felt like the only one in the class with a brain.
I was a sophomore in high school. I had just entered my third hour class, which was speech, and they had turned the TV on to the news. By that time, the North Tower was the only one standing... but then, it collapsed. Everyone in my class was completely and utterly silent, as the Tower fell and the news kept on replaying the image for a few minutes. I didn't realize that there had been terrorist attacks until they kept repeating the news of what had happened. All throughout the day, as far as I can remember, all we did was just watch the news and talked about what happened. I don't remember doing much classwork at all. Up until 9/11, I didn't pay much attention to what went on in the world. I just went through each day in life, thinking it's just another day in paradise. Then, came 9/11. I probably spent the next several days watching the news, gleaning every piece of information they had concerning what had just happened. I pretty much try to keep up-to-date as to what's going on in the world since then.
Little late, but whatever. I was sitting in a classroom in Fort Sam Houston, TX, learning anatomy & physiology for my medic training. The drill sergeant came in and kinda mentioned a plane crash, and that was it. Later on, they explained things at a little more length. We were put on communication lockdown, but one drill who knew my father from back in the day pulled me from class to call him. I stepped outside, dialed his cell on a payphone, and he answered w/ "I'm on TDY in Atlanta." I said, "That's what I needed to hear," and hung up. We found out later his office was gone, though. Took me a few weeks to realize that my service was gonna be a little different than I expected. Wish that day hadn't happened, but I'm happy with where it took me.
I was at work at the INS. We got sent home a couple hours later. The department of defense set up an office there for a few months after that and we were busy getting thousands of files on people for them. Even the head people of the company I worked for (a contractor) were out getting the files. When they asked for files, it was priority over everything.
