Where was I on the morning of September 11, 2001?

[Navidad]

Where was I?  Well, you might guess it. I was in the Sarasota, FL LDS Family History Center on S. Beneva, doing research on some long-forgotten aspect of LDS history. I was sitting, working on the computers, when the ladies turned on the televisions in the center. You may not remember that on the same morning, President Bush was also in Sarasota, reading to the children at Emma Booker Elementary. My wife was teaching her gifted kids at a different school in town. I remember well how they shut down almost all of northern Sarasota to get the president safely to his plane at the airport. It was a chilling morning; I shared with new LDS friends, putting aside our mutual interest in LDS history and focusing on the history that was unfolding in front of us. The impact on Sarasota was significant. It was one of a thousand mornings I have probably spent in LDS history centers, but it most likely was the most memorable one for me. best, Navidad. 

Edited Saturday at 10:16 AM by Navidad

[Calm]

Quote

September 11, 1901?

I wasn’t even a twinkle in my grandfather’s eye, I am guessing.  😛 

[Pyreaux]

September 11, 2001, my sister barges in my room to exclaim "A plane just hit the world trade center!", but its nearly the tone where she's known to keep me from sleeping in by falsely exclaiming in a non-serious tone, "Wake up, the house is on fire!". So, all I thought was, "That's a random thing to say". I go down stairs, the news people are still assuming it was some accident, so they were filming it live, so we saw the second plane hit. And that is when the news people 180° and were fairly certain it wasn't an accident. It's about time I started watching news, then realizing CNN was only 2 hours of news on loop... It made it really easy to remember my sister's birthday

Edited Saturday at 04:27 AM by Pyreaux

[InCognitus]

It was a Tuesday morning and I was with a co-worker in a car travelling from Phoenix to a client's office in California (near the Arizona / California border).  I don't recall if we first heard the news on the car radio or if someone called us on a cell phone, but it was fortunate that we were travelling by car and not by plane that day.  It was hard to work with the client that day because everyone was distracted by the news, and it was eerie to see no air traffic in the sky on the drive back home.

Edited Saturday at 04:44 AM by InCognitus

[Navidad]

9 hours ago, Calm said:

I wasn’t even a twinkle in my grandfather’s eye, I am guessing.  😛 

OOOPS! I fixed it. 

[Tony uk]

I was in work getting ready for a shift change over. Being in the UK, made it after midday when it was happening. Myself and colleagues turned on a small TV as the news was coming through.

[supersc]

I was 1600 miles away from home, working in Chantilly, VA, 20 miles from the Pentagon. The government agency I was right next to and supporting, the National Reconnaissance Office, had planned an emergency exercise for the day of a plane crashing into their headquarters building compound. Needless to say, I shut down the R&D lab I was managing, and the week was eerie... no planes in the sky for days.

My family, attending and teaching seminary out west was apprehensive of my status until my son and I had phone contact. That son went on to later become an Army Ranger (after a mission), deploying to Iraq, then A-Stan 3 times.

My brother who lived in Northern Virginia was scheduled to attend a meeting at the Pentagon that morning, but it was cancelled.

I left Dulles Airport on Friday on the first United flight to depart from there since 9-11.  We all cheered raucously as we took off and there wasn't a dry eye on the passengers.

[Tacenda]

As a stay at home parent, I was usually home watching the news when these horrific episodes happened in real time and they felt so surreal.  First was the Space Shuttle Challenger and then 9/11. So sad and devastating.

[Stargazer]

I was at home in Washington state, asleep. The rest of the household was awake and the kids were getting ready for school, etc. Suddenly one of kids comes waking me up, telling me that one of the twin towers has collapsed. I quickly pulled on some clothes and headed downstairs to the TV room. I'm standing in front of the TV watching live coverage when suddenly the second tower comes tumbling down. What a wakeup.

I head to work at the usual time, and arrive to find that all the televisions in the building have been pulled out of storage rooms and all are tuned into live streams of the whole thing. Very little work is getting done, because most of us are watching the coverage. I noticed that my coworker that I consult with on a particular software system is sitting in her cubicle staring at her monitor, but not doing anything in particular. I go to ask her if she's OK, and she is definitely not. 

Turns out that her brother, who worked for an investment firm in San Diego, CA, just happened to be in meetings in NYC that day at their company headquarters, located in one of the towers. Oh, crap! Not feeling particularly useful at helping her deal with this, I go to see our division chief and tell him about it. He does seem to know how to handle it, and he goes to speak with her. I find out later that this was the correct thing to do, because he is able to reassure her of his support and concern over the situation.

As for the brother, he later turns out to be among the survivors. What happened was that although his meetings were occurring above where the airplane struck the building he was in, he had volunteered to go down to the floor where all the refreshments were being sold, in order to get donuts and such for the meeting. That's where he was when the airliner hit, and he was able to evacuate downstairs. To my coworker's huge relief.

When the news was released as to who had been responsible for the attack, the hotheaded one of my sons became very irate, and was talking about going down to the recruiters to join the US Marine Corps. But I reminded him that he didn't have a high school diploma or a GED, so the Marines likely wouldn't take him. I told him he'd have to schedule taking a GED, and this cooled his ardor considerably. Apparently he was more scared of taking a test than of Marine drill instructors or being in a war! Well, he could have passed no problem. We had home-schooled him because he was causing trouble in his school, which is the reason for no HS diploma, but he took on being home-schooled with great enthusiasm. Sharp as a tack; just too much of a "good ole boy."