I was driving to work listening to Howard Stern on the radio when the news broke. There was confusion at first, of course, as to whether it was an accident or intentional. It became more apparent after the 2ND tower was hit. I pulled into the parking lot at work around 930 that morning and one of my coworkers jumped out of his car and asked if I had heard about what was going on. I'll never forget the look on his face...and he wasn't the type to get worked up easily. We spent the most of the day taking things in and watching the news reports...was pretty surreal. It's definitely one of those events I'll always remember as if it were yesterday. Nothing has been quite the same since. I recall my Mom telling me it was like the shock she felt when JFK was assassinated.

 

I don't think I ever posted these, but when I was in they gave us these coins soon after 9/11.



It's the 4 coins on the second row. We also received a unit citation award too.

 

There's a Netflix documentary I'm watching right now of 9/11. One part of it was a montage showing clips of people reacting as the second plane hit the second tower.

There was one of a person recording from a nearby building as it happened. Her scream was horrifying I still get shivers thinking of it now.

I wish it was just something from a movie. The fact it's not - that the horror she felt was real and that so many people died horrific deaths that day because of that attack - is absolutely heartbreaking to me.

This day was one of the greatest acts of evil ever engineered. We must do all we can to make sure no other devil in human flesh can do anything worse.

 

I was in High School when this happened. I can still remember getting into the class room and the tv being on showing where the first tower had been hit...then right there on tv the second crash happened. It was like the death of innocence in a way. It was like something we'd studied in history happening right there, like suddenly these things could actually happen. Some of the girls in class screamed and I stopped breathing. I don't think I'll ever forget that. It was such a dark and terrible thing to see.

 

I'm nearing retirement age from the military and it still makes me sad that this was the event that made me join up. I was just a college student in Brooklyn at the time and I still remember the smell of burning jet fuel and smoke filling the air. This is what stuck with me the most and it's not something I'll ever forget for the rest of my life.

Luckily my mother and brother were able to get out of Manhattan safely even though it took them hours to get back home due to the entire island being under security lockdown. My father and I were worried sick at the house and we were fortunate not to have personally lost anyone in the attacks but I've known people who have, sadly.

The last time I was home In New York, I visited the WTC Memorial with my cousin (he's an Auxiliary NYPD officer) and it's a very somber experience.

 

My mom was teaching that day and she's always described it as a truly horrifying experience.

 

Was at home that morning, when it happened. My mom ran into my room waking me up, saying we where under attack. I got up from bed and saw the first tower on fire. Then seen the second plane hit the second tower.

Being young I didn't understand what was going on. Scared me yes, but didn't understand what happened from a child's point of view.

 

I was 13 years old (I'm 33 now) and attending junior high. My mom waked me in the morning to tell me about the attacks. I immediately went to my parents' bedroom to see the news playing. I was in disbelief as I watched footage of the WTC burning and then crumbling.

School went on as usual, but everyone around me talked about it throughout the day. Even when I came home, I found that the news channels were still going nonstop.

I was astounded by the events unfolding but remained stoic. I had seen and lived through previous tragedies like the Oklahoma Building Bombing in 95, my grandmother's suicide in 97, and the Columbine Shooting in 99.

So I had been numbed by these previous hardships. As the story developed, however, I began to realize that the attacks were unlike anything else. Slowly did I comprehend the full gravity of that fateful day.

To this day, I look back with both solemnness and somberness. I even consider 9/11/2001 to be the MOST important date in American history. More important than 7/4/1776, 9/17/1787, 12/7/1941, or 11/22/1963.

Sometimes I wish I could pretend that 9/11 never happened and that it was only a nightmare. But I would be lying to myself and dishonoring those who perished that day.  

 

Could have sworn I posted in this thread before, oh well here it goes. I was off that day, so I was watching a movie on tv, Real Genius. After it was over I got ready to go to Mom's work to pick her up because we usually went out for lunch on my day off during the week. When I called her she asked me if I knew about the Twin Towers. I said no, what happened. She said they're gone. I was just speechless. She said two planes crashed into them. We still went out for lunch, it was at Chi-Chi's, they hadn't gone out of business yet. It was there that I finally saw the devastation. The rest of a day is kind of a blur, but I'll always remember that day. Mom always remembered being in a classroom and a crying teacher walking in saying JFK had been assassinated back in 63.

 

Twenty years of an event that shook the world down to its foundations.

The quakes still go on, but perhaps mercifully, they are becoming softer over time.

 

I lived in NYC from 2000 to 2003. By chance I was home in Southern MI visiting my parents. we were watching Fox News having Breakfast. staring at the TV in disbelieve. I left at noon going back I remember there was no traffic on the turnpike. All the bridges and tunnels were closed. so I had to park in New Jersey and walk to my apt at 86th and York. i changed clothes and hiked the next 80 some blocks to assist the folks down there. for the first couple days anyone who was there was able to help. I believe it was Thursday if you wasn't a fireman or with FEMA or something of the like you were no longer allowed to do anything other than pass out water. but thats what I did.

 

I was in the computer lab at the college I attended.

 

I was getting ready to go to a college class when my dad called me into his room screaming "some drunk asshole flew into the world trade center" Next thing we see is the second plane and we knew we were under attack. We drove five minutes to the town of Keyport and watched everything unfold from the beach as we have a crystal clear view of NYC. I'll never ever forget it. We lost many friends that day.

 

So I was in college working in the computer lab (which was my job) and I was on AIM and my friend told me it happened. I freaked out because I legit had a dream that it happened the night before

 

I find just 1 plane crashing in the middle of NY suspicious much less 2 , had it been me i wouldve immediately evacuated 2nd tower even if it meant being fired , would not take that chance

I too thought it was a scene from a movie......im disturbed seeing WTC in Home Alone 2 or Kong '76 , im immediately reminded of the evil of that day when i see them and i kinda wish they would cut that scene from HA 2 , its a xmas movie which just makes it all the more sinister to see

 

I remember it well. I was in my second week of Freshman year of high school. I’m from Long Island and my high school is situated on the water. On a clear day you can see straight across the land to the New York City skyline from the north side of the school. There I was getting out of second period headed to Social Studies when off in the distance we saw smoke rising from NYC. We had no idea what was happening.
I traveled one floor down to my next class. My Social Studies class room was equipped with two televisions which were constantly tuned to CNN or MSNBC because the teacher who frequently used that room taught current events and politics. On the TV we learned the true horror of what we saw happening outside our school. It was earth shattering to say the least.

 

I didn't exist yet.

 

It was eerie seeing the footage on all major news stations.

 

Junior year of high school. I was on my classroom waiting for the school bell to start when another teacher walked in and said “Mark, turn on the tv, a plane crashed into the tower.”

I was thinking it was one of those small planes crashed in downtown OKC by accident but as the tv came and saw the second plane crash into the second tower in New York, we all came to the conclusion that this was not an accident.

We spent all day just watching the news as our minds couldn’t focus on school work. When I made it home my dad thought it was important to record it from the news on our vcr. He said that it reminded him of the bombing of the Murrah building in OKC in 1995.

seeing people jump to their death was lack for a better word tragic. When the towers fell it was like watching two mighty giants being knocked down.

I’ll never forget anything about it.

 

I was 21 when all this happened. Actually it was on Tuesday which was a college day off for me, I woke up with the North Tower on flames and everybody saying it was some sort of Helicopter or even a little plane that crashed against the tower, however minutes later I watched live, how the other plane crashed with the South Tower. I think I dropped my toothbrush when that happened. After that, we all knew about the pentagon airplane and some how (I see it today in a ridiculous way of thinking I had at the time, I mean I was 21 after all) I started to think that planes where falling from the skies.......

Most impacting thing for me was seeing people jumping......I mean, they were actually choosing how they were going to die, so surreal. I even saw this man trying to climb down the tower in desperation I think, because the winds at the 90 or more floors had to be very strong to allow an office dressed person to perform such task.

So sad.