Remembering 9/11

[Lhorn 4885]

1 hour ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

All of the Flight 93 stuff still makes me super proud.  They found out about WTC and said there was no way they'd be a weapon used against anyone else, live or die.  

Driving to Home Depot yesterday in Pleasanton California I drove past Abbott labs and saw what looked like a couple hundred American flags on sticks stuck in the lawn of this building. There was a picture and small memorial to Todd Burnett one of the flight 93 passengers. Living in the Bay Area I kind of almost thought such a blatant display honoring a hero of 9/11 might be considered taboo in this area.  Glad to see someone remembers this man and others who died on that day.

It would be an understatement to say that I believe many have forgotten the significance of that day. Fuck those people. 

 

From wiki:

On September 11, 2001, while on board United Airlines Flight 93, Burnett sat next to passenger Mark Bingham. Burnett called his wife, Deena, after hijackers took control of the plane. He made several phone calls to her beginning at 09:30:32 from rows 24 and 25, though he was assigned a seat in row four.^[11][12] Burnett explained that the plane had been hijacked by men claiming to have a bomb. He also said that a passenger had been stabbed with a knife and that he believed the bomb threat was a ruse to control the passengers.^[12] During his second call to her, she relayed to him that of the attacks on the World Trade Center and he replied that the hijackers were "talking about crashing this plane. ... Oh my God. It's a suicide mission."^[13]He began pumping her for information about the attacks, interrupting her from time to time to tell the others nearby what she was saying. Then he hung up.^[14] Upon learning of the situation, Deena, a former flight attendant, recalled her training and urged Burnett to sit quietly and not draw attention to himself. However, Burnett instead informed her that he and three other passengers, Mark Bingham, Todd Beamer and Jeremy Glick, were forming a plan to take the plane back from the hijackers, and leading other passengers in this effort.^[5][6][15] He ended his last call by saying, "Don't worry, we're going to do something."^[14][16][10] Burnett and several other passengers stormed the cockpit, foiling the hijackers' plan to crash the plane into the White House or Capitol Building.^[5][17] The cockpit voice recorder captured Burnett yelling, "Roll it!",^[18] possibly referring to using the food cart.^[19] To prevent the passengers from regaining control of the plane, the hijackers crashed it in a Pennsylvania field, killing all 44 people on board.^[5][6]

Edited September 11, 2018 by Lhorn

[GopherRock 1765]

10 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

I too went to the 9/11 Memorial 2 years ago, and it was pretty powerful.  I encourage everyone to go.

This. I went this past spring, and it is very powerful. A must visit when in New York.

 

I hope that if I'm ever in a position that those on Flight 93 were in, I've got a shred of their courage. To know that you're going to die soon and to take up the fight anyway. 

 

I always post these two videos on 9/11. Ordinary people are capable of doing truly extraordinary things. On 9/11, we saw it from all quarters.
 

 

 

[Surly Bevo 24692]

We have family friends who were coming back from Africa and ended up in Gander.  The scholarship thing they still do up there is cool payback as those people were great. 

[fattyflattie 4636]

The memorial was one of, if not the most moving thing I’ve experienced.  So many people and you can hear a pin drop. A truely painful yet amazing experience.  I instantly remembered which broadcast I had watched all morning.   

[Post Oak 20182]

Good luck watching this.  Guy needed a statue and a school named after him years ago.

 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

watched that red bandanna clip earlier. I dont cry often but that one had me shed a tear. wow

[closetojumping 62141]

I was 25 in Houston. I went out the night before with my roommate and we got shredded. The morning of, he’s beating on my door, I wake up, and he yells “turn on your tv, some idiot has crashed into the World Trade Center”. I go back to sleep and imagine someone on top of the WTC with a giant magnet, drawing a plane in. That jumps me awake, I turn my tv on, and I see the second plane crash with the news team like 20 seconds later. The adrenaline removed my fog and hits me immediately that we’re under attack, but what can I do? I worked at a start-up that was booming and we were working insane hours. I went to work, I got out of the car as they announced the second tower was falling. We worked all day, as we did. Like nothing happened.

I went home at like 9pm and watched the news. At some point, sitting there by myself and contemplating things, it hits me that my 7 year old daughter is not going to grow up in anything resembling the world I grew up in. I haven’t cried much in my life, but I cried well that night. 

We live thousands of days on this planet and everything mostly looks the same. We have good days and bad days, we forget perspective, we forget to laugh or give a shit, we sometimes give way too much of a shit. But the truth is, our lives are defined by very small moments in time, and those moments change everything. Sometimes, these are personal moments, and sometimes a group of wrongheaded shitbags fly planes into buildings, or a space shuttle explodes, or a president is shot in the back of a convertible. They are all black swans and not all of them are bad. I tell that to younger folks when explaining the nonlinear nature of how things unfold, and they usually then get it. You knew watching things that day that the door had closed forever on anything looking like it did before. 

I had a friend that was in Bosnia during our intervention there for the army, working as a translator for a general. He left the military and got a degree and went to work in Houston. I met him along that way and we became buddies. He couldn’t shake 9/11. I don’t think people who were adults that day ever forget, but for some folks, they’re haunted. It eventually became too much. He rejoined and ended up with the rangers in Afghanistan and all over Iraq. He was gone more than he was here for 6-7 years. He now works for the WhiteHouse and did so under Obama. We only get to hang out a couple of times a year because of his on-time with POTUS. I’m glad guys like that are on our side, because he is a pretty bad motherfucker. Without 9/11, I often wonder what he could have done with his brains and fearlessness, but I know we’ll simply never know. A lot of wasted human capital has followed the tumble down after 9/11. I get it, but it still often makes me think. 

[MAROON 445]

 

This is the documentary by the French brothers.  It is outstanding.  They were shooting a documentary about the life of a firehouse "probie" and just happened to be doing it at the closest firehouse to the WTC.  So their crew was the first on the scene at Tower 1.  Do yourself a favor and set aside two hours and watch it.

Edited September 12, 2018 by MAROON

[ConferenceRoom 6123]

 

[Red Five 40627]

I was 25 in Houston. I went out the night before with my roommate and we got shredded. The morning of, he’s beating on my door, I wake up, and he yells “turn on your tv, some idiot has crashed into the World Trade Center”. I go back to sleep and imagine someone on top of the WTC with a giant magnet, drawing a plane in. That jumps me awake, I turn my tv on, and I see the second plane crash with the news team like 20 seconds later. The adrenaline removed my fog and hits me immediately that we’re under attack, but what can I do? I worked at a start-up that was booming and we were working insane hours. I went to work, I got out of the car as they announced the second tower was falling. We worked all day, as we did. Like nothing happened.
I went home at like 9pm and watched the news. At some point, sitting there by myself and contemplating things, it hits me that my 7 year old daughter is not going to grow up in anything resembling the world I grew up in. I haven’t cried much in my life, but I cried well that night. 
We live thousands of days on this planet and everything mostly looks the same. We have good days and bad days, we forget perspective, we forget to laugh or give a shit, we sometimes give way too much of a shit. But the truth is, our lives are defined by very small moments in time, and those moments change everything. Sometimes, these are personal moments, and sometimes a group of wrongheaded shitbags fly planes into buildings, or a space shuttle explodes, or a president is shot in the back of a convertible. They are all black swans and not all of them are bad. I tell that to younger folks when explaining the nonlinear nature of how things unfold, and they usually then get it. You knew watching things that day that the door had closed forever on anything looking like it did before. 
I had a friend that was in Bosnia during our intervention there for the army, working as a translator for a general. He left the military and got a degree and went to work in Houston. I met him along that way and we became buddies. He couldn’t shake 9/11. I don’t think people who were adults that day ever forget, but for some folks, they’re haunted. It eventually became too much. He rejoined and ended up with the rangers in Afghanistan and all over Iraq. He was gone more than he was here for 6-7 years. He now works for the WhiteHouse and did so under Obama. We only get to hang out a couple of times a year because of his on-time with POTUS. I’m glad guys like that are on our side, because he is a pretty bad motherfucker. Without 9/11, I often wonder what he could have done with his brains and fearlessness, but I know we’ll simply never know. A lot of wasted human capital has followed the tumble down after 9/11. I get it, but it still often makes me think. 

I’m not going to say it. I want to, but I won’t.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

Still feels so surreal. Absolutely crazy how we all know what we did that entire day

[Buffsoldier 1895]

2 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Absolutely crazy how we all know what we did that entire day

I can never forget it.  Even if I tried.  After the first tower fell I rushed into my reserve center and spent the rest of the day in a flak vest with live rounds in my rifle. In my own country.  We had no way of knowing whether it was an isolated event or the beginning of an all out assault from within.  I know it sounds silly now, but at the time we just had no way of knowing.  I remember it clearly as being the first time that I could NOT say to anyone, with ANY certainty at all, that I would be alive when the sun came up the next day.  I remember making all the calls to coordinate with the local police and sheriff departments and other reserve/guard units in my area regarding area security.  I remember pausing for a few moments afterwards and calling my mom afterwards to let her know I was all right.  I remember clearly telling her I loved her and my voice shaking just a little bit as I hung up, and hoping she didn't notice it.  And I remember crying after I hung up, because I knew at the time that there was something greater than a zero percent chance that I would never be able to speak to her again.

I remember September 11th as the first day of no longer being a child.

I miss September 10th.

[Helobious 9480]

I was a kid in 2nd grade when it happened. Didn’t hear about it till I got home from school. I remember our teacher briefly talking to us about it the following day but that was it. I knew it was bad but it didn’t really register with me much since I was so young. I’ve never really known a world where terrorist attacks & mass shootings were odd events. 

[TexArcher 37506]

6 minutes ago, Buffsoldier said:

I can never forget it.  Even if I tried.  After the first tower fell I rushed into my reserve center and spent the rest of the day in a flak vest with live rounds in my rifle. In my own country.  We had no way of knowing whether it was an isolated event or the beginning of an all out assault from within.  I know it sounds silly now, but at the time we just had no way of knowing.  I remember it clearly as being the first time that I could NOT say to anyone, with ANY certainty at all, that I would be alive when the sun came up the next day.  I remember making all the calls to coordinate with the local police and sheriff departments and other reserve/guard units in my area regarding area security.  I remember pausing for a few moments afterwards and calling my mom afterwards to let her know I was all right.  I remember clearly telling her I loved her and my voice shaking just a little bit as I hung up, and hoping she didn't notice it.  And I remember crying after I hung up, because I knew at the time that there was something greater than a zero percent chance that I would never be able to speak to her again.

I remember September 11th as the first day of no longer being a child.

I miss September 10th.

Thank you for being there that day.

[Buffsoldier 1895]

16 minutes ago, TexArcher said:

Thank you for being there that day.

I appreciate it.  And thank you for the thoughts.  I've gotten similar sentiments from many others over the years. 

The funny thing (to me) is: I literally did nothing interesting, and absolutely nothing heroic that day.  I, a young and stupid First Lieutenant, in the RESERVES of all damn things, sat on my ass or wandered around my little corner of the planet, fighting as hard as I could to stay alert and stave off the numbness and surrealness of the situation and to keep from pissing myself with fear about what I never knew was coming (and what ultimately never came). I did nothing that day.  I was prepared, or trying to be prepared, to do whatever I had to do.  But really, I did nothing.

[Bama Chick 28596]

I just watched a trailer for a new HBO documentary on the story of a high school right next to the WTC.

It looks really good and not a story I’ve seen/heard before.

[Beau Vine 53978]

On 9/11/2018 at 9:53 AM, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

I actually went to class that morning after it had happened.  I was such a robot..  I saw it on the news, woke up my roommates, but still thought the most important thing was to do some K matrices.

For some reason, I didn't turn on the TV that morning.  I kind of heard about it driving to work.  I didn't cancel class that day.  When I got out of class and saw TV coverage, I thought, "Holy shit, why did you insist on having class, you fucking moron?"

[Beau Vine 53978]

On 9/11/2018 at 2:02 PM, TornACL said:

After basically three whole days of doing nothing, a buddy and I decided to go shoot pool on Thursday night 9/13.  I will never forget that, walking into this place. It was packed.... way more people than should have been in this shitty strip mall pool hall on an early Thursday evening. But what I remember most was the sound in there. For as many people were in the place, how quiet it was. It hit me right away how unusual the vibe was in there.

It's like everyone just finally decided "fuck it, I have to get out of the house" but certainly no one was ready to be partying yet.

I've told this before, but well...

All of the NFL and college games were canceled that next weekend.  TxHS Football was not.  We went down to New Braunfels and saw them play Seguin.  They handed out American flags printed on newpapers when everyone came in.  At halftime, both bands just walked out on the field and started playing SSB and America the Beautiful and songs like that together.  Everyone stood and sang along and held up the flags.  My daughter was 2, so I was holding her.  

"Daddy, why is everyone singing?"

"Because these are special songs."

<long pause>

"Are they for the buildings that fell down?"

"Yes."

I tried not to cry, but then looked around and everyone was crying.  

[InkaUtexas 25486]

First hit I was on the field coaching soccer. My goalie came up and told me there was some big news. I reminded her that a B-17 hit a the Empire State Building in WW2. 

Walked into my class and saw the second hit. Got in trouble for showing live TV. Quit teaching and in 2002 I was in Helmand. Spent the better part of 8 years in and out of Afghanistan. 

This is our Pearl Harbor, but there is not simple way out. 

God Bless those we lost that day and those who fought. Both American and our Afghan Allies. 

 

Edited September 11, 2019 by InkaUtexas
fucked up... English nazis scare me

[justhookit 4174]

I was 30 and living in McKinney at the time. My ex wife’s kids were in grade school and we went and picked them up from school not too long after the 2nd tower fell. The ride home - not far- was difficult. That was definitely a conversation that none of us were prepared for and it was certainly hard to decide how much to say. Spent the rest of the afternoon out by the pool to keep the kids away from the tv.  We were used to seeing and hearing a lot of commercial air traffic out there so the lack of it was disconcerting except for the few military planes we saw over the next few days. I still tear up during flyovers at our football games and I know that day is the reason why.

[InkaUtexas 25486]

The reason why should be not the day, but know they are willing to go bust ass. Man, best thing I ever saw was a low level strike with B-1B's followed by some A-10's. Yeah, the Brits needed the support and it was gorgeous. 

[Rougarou 594]

I'm trying not to be self conscious about flying in a plane today to the middle east (Dubai).

[workswithseed 2033]

2 hours ago, Helobious said:

I was a kid in 2nd grade when it happened. Didn’t hear about it till I got home from school. I remember our teacher briefly talking to us about it the following day but that was it. I knew it was bad but it didn’t really register with me much since I was so young. I’ve never really known a world where terrorist attacks & mass shootings were odd events. 

I was in third grade. We watched it in our classroom's TVs that we had in the corner. A lot of teachers just watching the screen. I really didn't pay attention since I really didn't understand what was going on.

[Buffsoldier 1895]

8 minutes ago, Rougarou said:

I'm trying not to be self conscious about flying in a plane today to the middle east (Dubai).

I was in Frankfurt last week. Taxiing up to our gate, I saw an El Al plane parked at its gate. The plane itself was marked off with tape and had a heavy police presence surrounding it. But there was nothing wrong with the plane itself. The police weren't investigating anything, they were simply guarding the plane. I found that rather striking.

[justhookit 4174]

1 hour ago, InkaUtexas said:

The reason why should be not the day, but know they are willing to go bust ass. Man, best thing I ever saw was a low level strike with B-1B's followed by some A-10's. Yeah, the Brits needed the support and it was gorgeous. 

Agreed and that’s not really what I meant though. My grandfather landed on the beach d-day and made it to Germany and the concentration camps and right before he passed my family finally got a lot of his stories out of him. He was also at Battle of the Bulge and by the time the war was over was secretary to Patton, I believe. My stepfather who is also military has done a bunch of research at the War College on my grandfather and was able to obtain a bunch of his hand-written notes. Really cool stuff.

Point is, his ass got saved many times by our Air Force and since neither my father (worked for TI during Vietnam) nor I were military, 9/11 was really my only connection to our country uniting like that. I’ve got a pilot friend who was ROTC at UT and has done the flyover.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

I was in Frankfurt last week. Taxiing up to our gate, I saw an El Al plane parked at its gate. The plane itself was marked off with tape and had a heavy police presence surrounding it. But there was nothing wrong with the plane itself. The police weren't investigating anything, they were simply guarding the plane. I found that rather striking.

Geez.

[DaysOff 7843]

I was in Frankfurt last week. Taxiing up to our gate, I saw an El Al plane parked at its gate. The plane itself was marked off with tape and had a heavy police presence surrounding it. But there was nothing wrong with the plane itself. The police weren't investigating anything, they were simply guarding the plane. I found that rather striking.

That's always been the case. They do that it in Newark everyday as soon as their inbound deplanes. If we took security seriously we'd follow their lead. Our transportation system would also grind to a halt.

Still amazed how lucky those pieces of shit were. I flew through EWR 2 days prior and the weather was hazy and low overcast. They had unlimited visibility or they'd never have found their way back to the city.

[Bozo_Casanova 26271]

In 2001 I worked on the 9th floor of 301 Congress, 6 floors above the Bush 2000 campaign HQ, and they were still very much in operation, winding down from the campaign in September. So we were conscious that our building was a potential target. It closed around lunchtime on 9/11 and I seem to recall that it was closed for a couple days, but it may be that I just chose to work from home. At any rate, eventually we came back and things quickly returned to something like normal.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of September 20th the fire alarms in the building went off, and people egressed to the stairs. I was in a boot for a stress fracture at the time and moving slow, and was amazed that not only were people not rushing or pressing in the stairwells, but there were people stopped in nearly every landing keeping order and assisting in an orderly exit. And as I went down, at least 20 people offered to carry all 250 pounds of me down the stairs. I’ll never forget it.

I read this every year on 9/11. You should too.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/02/11/the-real-heroes-are-dead

[Homercles 10205]

Everyone has their stories and I wasn’t directly involved so it’s not important anyways...but a few anecdotes:

Before leaving my apartment in Stillwater for an 8am class, I recall the news talking about an airliner hitting the WTC...as an aviation nerd it piqued my interest for later reading but I didn’t think much else.  In class before the prof arrived everyone was talking about a second plane and wondering if we were under attack...once he walked in and we informed him what was going on, he turned white as a ghost and ran out of the room...his brother worked in WTC 2, ended up being home sick that day.  

Will never forget on 13 Sept, standing outside and realizing I hadn’t heard an airplane, seen a contrail or any other sign of aviation for two days...

My mother had told me about where she was when she heard JFK had been assassinated, idly wondering what my generations ‘binding moment’ would be.  Now with two kids I wonder what their cross-generational moment will be and hope it isn’t as impactful to so many lives as 9/11 was for us.  

[HouTex 1850]

7 hours ago, workswithseed said:

I was in third grade. We watched it in our classroom's TVs that we had in the corner. A lot of teachers just watching the screen. I really didn't pay attention since I really didn't understand what was going on.

My oldest child was in the third grade too.  She didn't understand it either.  Her first reaction to the planes hitting the towers was like it was a really cool special effect.  Even after I sat her down and explained what really happened she did not really comprehend it.

[South Austin 52105]

I was 26 and working at a large law firm in downtown Dallas.  The managing partner of the office ultimately sent everyone home before lunch.  I remember the eerie silence as the volume of cars were all making their exodus from downtown.  No honking of horns, no discernable panic, just a weird quiet over the city. 

On a personal level, about a week before I had broken up with a woman with whom I had been briefly engaged, and she called me up that evening to ask if I was okay, not knowing if I was traveling that day.  We both cried, with a mixture of emotion from the events of the world as well as our own breakup.  It was sort of bittersweet.  Then I watched CNN the rest of the night and got shitfaced.

One of my law partners was stranded in Kansas City.  Obviously there were no flights back to Dallas, and all the rental car places were out of vehicles, so he had to rent a U-Haul truck to get back to Dallas. 

No event in my lifetime has changed the fabric of America like 9/11.  I know post-9/11 life has been normalized so many years later, but sometimes were forget just how different the country, and the world, was before that day. 

[usmc0331horn 934]

Just finished listening to this on Audible. It's truly an amazing book and a stunning tribute to all involved.

[usmc0331horn 934]

I was in the Marine Corps eating breakfast around 6 am PST in Twentynine Palms. That entire week was insane to say the least.

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

I was talking to my step mother last night. She was in Manhattan on 9/11.

She was in a business meeting a few blocks from ground zero. They interrupted her meeting when the first plane hit. They went into a lockdown. They had windows that faced the opposite direction from the towers. When the first one collapsed, the dust completely blocked the sunlight, and it looked like it was night time outside. At that point, they started letting people come into her building off the street. They were completely covered in white ash.

After about three or four hours, they let everyone leave the building, and she had to walk to the ferry. A co-worker, who she had never met before that day (she worked out of Dallas, he worked in Manhattan), knew a family that lived in New Jersey, so they took the ferry over to New Jersey and she stayed with them for a week until the airports reopened and she could fly home.

Her hotel was on the same block as the Trade Center, which was destroyed when the towers came down. She had to buy clothes, toothbrush, contact lens cleaner, etc.

While she was talking to me, her voice started getting shaky when she started talking about all the people covered in ash. 18 years later, and she still gets emotional when she talks about it.

My daughter (4th grade) is going to interview her today via skype for a presentation in her social studies class about 9/11.

[Trey3216 15325]

18 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

I was talking to my step mother last night. She was in Manhattan on 9/11.

She was in a business meeting a few blocks from ground zero. They interrupted her meeting when the first plane hit. They went into a lockdown. They had windows that faced the opposite direction from the towers. When the first one collapsed, the dust completely blocked the sunlight, and it looked like it was night time outside. At that point, they started letting people come into her building off the street. They were completely covered in white ash.

After about three or four hours, they let everyone leave the building, and she had to walk to the ferry. A co-worker, who she had never met before that day (she worked out of Dallas, he worked in Manhattan), knew a family that lived in New Jersey, so they took the ferry over to New Jersey and she stayed with them for a week until the airports reopened and she could fly home.

Her hotel was on the same block as the Trade Center, which was destroyed when the towers came down. She had to buy clothes, toothbrush, contact lens cleaner, etc.

While she was talking to me, her voice started getting shaky when she started talking about all the people covered in ash. 18 years later, and she still gets emotional when she talks about it.

My daughter (4th grade) is going to interview her today via skype for a presentation in her social studies class about 9/11.

Things they both will never forget.  Thanks for the story man

[Cheeseweasel 26437]

My older brother was inflight from Boston when the towers were hit. First reports were sketchy and didn't give flight numbers--just "the planes departed from Boston". It was a scary time waiting to hear from him. 

[Red Five 40627]

Still feels so surreal. Absolutely crazy how we all know what we did that entire day

I was young and hung over and slept in until about 10. Pre smart phones. I had no idea anything had happened until I got in my car around probably 11. That was a bit jarring.

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

1 hour ago, HouTex said:

Her first reaction to the planes hitting the towers was like it was a really cool special effect.

i was 21 and watched them collapse on tv with my roommates.  i remember looking at one and saying "we just saw a bunch a people die."  i think i said that out loud to remind myself that it was real and not some action film.  

[ajax 2586]

In a way I lost my uncle to 9/11. He made it out of the tower but he was never the same. He suffered PTSD for the rest of his life and died several years ago a broken man.

One of my best friends was in the tower also and was IM'ing me while the plane hit. And then I couldn't get in contact with him for several days. Turns out he made it out too but I was going out of my mind with worry.

[alincoln 2364]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

No event in my lifetime has changed the fabric of America like 9/11.  I know post-9/11 life has been normalized so many years later, but sometimes were forget just how different the country, and the world, was before that day. 

People born after the 1980s don't even remember a pre-9/11 world.  

[Johnny Sack 8397]

A friend of mine who is a UT alum and now a very successful investment banker worked in the Whitehouse at the time.  He is the one who sent a page to Ari Fleischer about the attack.  Fleischer then told W while he was reading to those kids.

[Sbbruin 21704]

1 hour ago, usmc0331horn said:

I was in the Marine Corps eating breakfast around 6 am PST in Twentynine Palms. That entire week was insane to say the least.

Thank you for protecting the freedoms we all take for granted.

[Sbbruin 21704]

This is the type of image that still haunt me

Spoiler

 

[atomheartbevo 89396]

I was working at a large tech company here in Austin, and my first memory was the internet just ground to a halt.   Very fucking odd, given that we probably had the best internet infrastructure in Austin at the time.  All the major websites were not showing up, and I think Drudge or somebody else switched completely to a few lines of text in order to try and stay up, and they had a blurb about an airplane crashing into the WTC.  

I called my then-girlfriend, thankfully she didn’t have to be on campus until noon, and she flipped on the TV and then kinda freaked when she realized what happened.  She held the phone up to the TV, and we were listening, and all of the sudden the TV in the building lobby started blaring, somebody had cranked it up and and the site folks had switched from normal programming  (today’s calendar, and such-and-such VIP is visiting, and today’s weather, etc,) to CNN.  We saw the second plane crash just as we walked into the lobby.  Hundreds of people were jamming all of the building lobbies across campus, and the cafeteria was full.  

Nobody was saying a single word, and we had a lot of clients in the WTC, and a lot of my co-workers had known some of those people for years, so there was some crying, but mostly just silence for a while. Eventually, after the an hour or so after the towers fell, the VPs started asking everybody to either leave and go home if they needed the day off (and plenty did)  or to head back into the offices, server farms, and labs and start prepping for any help our clients were going to need. Sounds cold-blooded, but it was a good call as some of our clients did need our help, but it also got people away from the TVs.   

[atomheartbevo 89396]

NYC mayor during 9/11 has a message I guess. 

 

[atomheartbevo 89396]

43 minutes ago, alincoln said:

People born after the 1980s don't even remember a pre-9/11 world.  

In theory, we could have soldiers in Afghanistan, who were born after 9/11 (or at least born in 2001).

It’s one of two events I remember with such clarity (the other being the Challenger)  

Now I know how Armybrat feels when he talks about the Spanish-American War.  

Edited September 11, 2019 by atomheartbevo

[HouTex 1850]

34 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

A friend of mine who is a UT alum and now a very successful investment banker worked in the Whitehouse at the time.  He is the one who sent a page to Ari Fleischer about the attack.  Fleischer then told W while he was reading to those kids.

I think it was Andrew Card who told Bush while he was in the classroom.

[Johnny Sack 8397]

Just now, HouTex said:

I think it was Andrew Card who told Bush while he was in the classroom.

That's probably right.  Fleischer told Card.  Any way, it was weird seeing Fleischer do his live tweet on 9-11 and my friend's name being mentioned as the person who informed him.  Fleischer was in Florida with POTUS.

[Beau Vine 53978]

12 hours ago, thestud said:

Last known photo of Gary Box, 37; of the historic Squad 1. Getting stuck in traffic in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Gary and his crew abandoned their rig and proceeded to the towers on foot.

My daughter brought her college boyfriend back to Texas for the first time last Christmas.  He's from NYC.  She took him down to the Alamo.  Afterwards, I asked him about it and he seemed relatively unimpressed.  

Me: "You know those NYC firefighters on 9/11?"

Him: "Of course."

Me: "That statue in front of the Alamo is our state's version of those guys."

His eyes got big and he nodded his head.  "OK, I get it."

[Sandman 3402]

I was driving to work in the north OKC suburbs. Heard them talking about it on the radio but they thought it was a small plane, like a trainer or something. Then we started watching the news at work. My co-worker was Air national guard, he was openly wondering if he'd have to report (he didn't). The owners of the company were on their family vacation in California and their return flight was cancelled, so they had to rent cars and drive back. They said it was a nightmare trying to get out of the airport and the highways were swamped. 

My then-wife was pregnant with twins, they were born in December. I remember thinking, what kind of world will they grow up in? It was unsettling.