Eight years ago today I was .......

In Whistler waking up getting coffee at Starbucks for my Gf and myself..watching the second plane ram into the second tower. I went back to the hotel and was glued to the TV for hours...we finally decided to go out mountain biking to clear our heads, sadness turned into anger, It was weird being in a foreign country during all of this.

The border was closed down so we were stuck there for an extra few days..was nice to get back on American soil. Where were you on 9-11-01 ?

I was at work, working on three or four computers/projects off in different buildings.

Around 10:30 am or so, someone finally asked me if I had heard about what had happened. What the guy said was SO overwhelming, that I told him he was full of [censored].

Yeah, right - both the twin towers came down, the Pentagon was hit, and another plane crashed in a field. Uh huh. Sure they did......

It was when he got pissed at me and hauled me over to his office where he had a little TV showing CNN and I got to see the days events.

Just about blew my mind. Got *real* angry after that.

I mean come on - I was really confused as to why our government would WANT to plant nano-thermite in the twin towers to bring them down.

(Sorry, that sentence was for H20.... )

Never forget. Never forgive. Chase them down until they are all dead.

That was the feeling I had that day, and that is the feeling I still have to this day. I got chills this morning driving to work listening to replays of that days events. Still makes me very sad, and very angry.

I was in a lab at UNC. Someone set up a TV in the foyer and a group of 30 or so people watched things unfold. I remember seeing the burning buildings and thinking that the number of deaths would be relatively small...and then the buildings crumbled...and then the events at the Pentagon were announced. I spent the rest of the day across the street at the hospital helping the staff prepare in case we started getting overflow from DC hospitals...never happened but it was surreal.

I got a call from my gf at the time and she told me to turn on the TV. I was in awe. I felt sick and sad. Sad for the people that lost their lives in the plane, sad for the people that lost their lives on the ground, sad for those with loved ones, sad for our country, and sad at the inevitability of people using the event to further their own agendas.

I remember going to fish the lower Hoh in the days after 9/11, in large part to just "get away". I remember being out there and hearing/seeing a jet fly over. Normally, that wouldn't even register but there had been no planes in the air for days and I just sat down and watched it until I could no longer see it.

I remember being disappointed as a wave of simplistic, blind anger began to replace the confusion and sadness we all felt. Chinese-made pro-America bumberstickers took over the cars and fear and paranoia lead to some horrible decisions.

Perhaps one of the few good things to come of those events is the Americans will NEVER allow planes to be hijacked like that again. Any one of us would be willing to rip the throat out of a terrorist attempting such a thing.

I have the deepest appreciation for our emergency service workers who stepped up to the call. That includes firefighters, police, and EMTs. Many of those people gave their lives trying to save would could have been any of us. And ones that didn't give their lives that day surely took years off their life due to the toxic conditions and emotional scars they certainly acquired.

I was on my way to work, listening to the Howard Stern show. I thought it was a hoax until I got to work and checked all the other TV stations. As stated above, made me feel uncontrollably angry and sick. To this day I still can't come up with a harsh enough punishment for those involved in the attacks. I can only hope there is a special place in eternal hell for the attackers. God Bless the victims and their families, all of the emergency personal, and everyone that was affected by the events on 9/11. I feel it is a huge scar for everybody to bear. One of the most inspirational stories of the day was that when searching for survivors, many of the bodies of rescue personal were still headed up the twin towers, flashlights lit up, there was nothing short of the buildings collapsing that was going to keep them from doing all they could to save lives. HEROES!!!

Another thought: I work in Puyallup and see lots of plane traffic between our little airport, Seatac, and McChord. It was a really eerie feeling to not see any planes flying for the 2-3 days after the attacks. Anyone else get that feeling?

Eating cereal, getting ready to go do a prescribed burn. Was trying to figure out why there were showing Independence Day, or Die Hard, or whatever, in the morning. Then I noticed the Today Show logo... things got wierd, I slapped a VHS tap ein, hit record, and went to work.

Was working for the govt., and once at work, we were allowed to stay in, and watch our crappy tv in the warehouse, instead of doing the burn...

Still have that tape, it starts right as the second plane comes in...

I was in a floating Logging Camp,getting ready to go to work in a 500.

Once the [censored] hit the fan,all Operations were grounded for 5 days and we Casted & Blasted like noone has ever seen(or will). Pard poked his out that day and it took a call to Jesus Christ himself,to get clearance to MediVac him out.

I voted in a nano second to turn things to glass and curiously enough,haven't thought differently since.

In a Congressional office in the Cannon House Office building, Washington, D.C. I interrupted a constituent meeting the congressman was in and told him we were under attack. The office building was evacuated. After seeing the staff was out and OK, I went back in and spent several hours on the phone with Montana press that was wanting D.C. updates. Never forget.

Watched the events unfold as I packed for the high hunt. I cried and prayed for those poor souls and could not fathom the terror and pain some endured nor the loss their families were faced with. To say I was pissed is an understatement...I still am.

The next day Sept 12th I was in the middle of nowhere in the high country, no planes or the sounds of anything manmade except our lantern hissing....

There should be a thread here in the archives from 9/11/01.

I was working at my home office and got a call from a friend (he was pretty damn frantic) and he told me to get my TV turned on. He didn't say why, but that I needed to be watching CNN.

My Dad and I sat there for a couple hours watching the carnage.

And now, today, our armed forces are still hunting that putz who is living in some hole somewhere in Pakistan...

The entire region should be renamed: Turnedtoglassistan

JMHO.

Mike

+1, thats a good one

I was at work and got the news from a buddy that was in the breakroom. At first I thought he was talking about a Cessna or something. Walked back to the breakroom just about the time the second plane hit.

My wife had just gone back to work from maternity leave. She was about a block from the Pentagon when it got hit. Naturally she was in full panic mode when she called. With all the planes grounded,she couldn't get home. Couldn't get a rental car or on a train either.

My truck was packed and I was about 15 minutes from heading back east to ger her the [censored] outta there when she called and said she was finally able to get a flight home.

Sitting down eating breakfast and reading the paper. Had just finished discussing anniversary dinner plans for that night with my now ex wife.
A buddy called and told me to turn on the TV. Canceled the dinner plans and stayed home from work. Very sad day and one I'll never forget.

Was getting ready for work, when the news flash came on. I saw the first tower smoking and saw the plane impact the second.
I will never forget the horrifying images of people leaping to their deaths.

It was the biggest loss of life on US soil in US history. Why more Americans aren't still outraged is beyond me.

NEVER FORGET!!!

My wife & I both had the day off and were sleeping in with out 3 month old baby when we got the call to turn on the TV. Turned it on just in time to see #2 slam in.
I full expected & hoped for Kabul to be nuked.
I also worried for my new baby wondering what kind of world was about to come.

We lived under the airport flight approach and the 3 days of silence was eerie.

Driving to work hearing about an airplane crash in NYC, spending half of the day sick to my stomach with co-workers hundle around a TV. Completely pissed at the images of some Middle East bastards dance in the streets. Going home and giving my kids and wife a hug, thinking our world has forever changed.I remember the eerie silence of no airplane traffic also Irie. My father was stuck on the tarmac at Sea-Tac for 4hrs trying to get to Vegas. **Never Forget**

Getting ready to go to work in the morning, turned on the news just in time to see the second plane hit live...gives me chills still, these years later.

Took the first half of the day off and watched it all unfold, went out in the afternoon and the only things flying were fighter jets...which is a surely strange thing to see in Seattle.

The stuff that hit me the most in the aftermath was the sympathy coming from most of the world...we were always the ones to commiserate with those in the world who were being hammered by something or other, and we were forcibly admitted into the rest of the world, who at one time or another has worn a target.

What should have been a time to get together and get the bastards who were responsible for it has turned into the biggest clusterfukk in the modern history of our nation, we'll be feeling the effects of it forever.

Fish on...

Todd

i was getting ready for work...worked at fedex still at the time...called my sister when they were showing the footage of the first plane hitting the tower...watched the second hit live...couldnt belive what i was seeing...i still get chills..and to this day the flag has put on a whole new meaning to me...

it was difficult to head to work...we ship almost 95 percent of our freight on planes...that day we had already got our freight, but we were grounded for several days...we didnt know what our jobs were going to turn into...it was so erie to not see planes in the air...i belive we fly around 586 planes a day to get freight everywhere....

we all stood (250 of us that day) in a huge circle and gave a very long moment of silence...it is the only time i have ever heard a "prayer" in the workplace....i have a hard time to this day talking about it...there were some people at my work that were directly effected by death of family members...it was really hard on them not knowing if they were alive or in some cases not....

hope something like that never happens again.....words cant decribe it for me....c

That day was also a decisive turning point in my career choices...non-combat military hiring ended that day for a long time, and I was within weeks of shipping out...

Fish on...

Todd

I was on my last six month stint in the Marine Corps, stationed in Japan. Just finished working a 12 hour shift. Was sitting in the Barracks un-winding, playing video games. I flipped the TV over and saw the second plane hit. I couldnt understand what was happening, tv station was japanese, but I knew the [censored] done hittith the fan. I immediatley rousted up my junior NCO's and told them to get ready to draw heavy weapons from the armory. Life sucked for months after that........Semper Fi.......

I was out camping/fly fishing on the Stehekin when my cousin showed up with newspapers of what happened. Had no idea until two days after it happened and all I could think was how terrible it was and why was I so fortunate. What really freaked me out though was the fact that I was oblivious and enjoying myself during the mess and how could this be? How could life take such a devistating turn for so many innocent people just a few thousand miles away while where I was the sky was blue and the surroundings were so serene. It was simply not fair and I couldn't shake it!!

I was on I-5 heading north to a Skagit fisheries meeting when the music on the radio was interrupted by the first report. The bio riding with me and I, like some others mentioned, thought that some poor soul had accidentally crashed his light plane, like a Cessna or something, into the tower. While sympathizing about this imagined loss, the two radio guys announced the second, and our impressions instantly changed - it was an act of terrorism, and the US was under attack. We drove on, and attended our meeting, but it all seemed rather unimportant under the circumstances. My oldest daughter was riding her bike to work, crossing the - I forget the name bridge - when the 3rd airliner hit the Pentagon. She too thought it was a horrendous accident until she got to her office and learned it was an attack.

America changed all right. At first it seemed like it was going to be for the good as people pulled together and a strong sense of nationalism emerged. But it soon went south, as Americans opted to give up some liberty in exchange for a sense - false tho it be - of greater security. Homeland Security - making sure small private boats don't drive too close to a ferry but allowing over 99% of all containers imported into the country to go uninspected, TSA - biggest joke ever perpetrated on the Land of the Free - no American will ever again be compliant with a hijacking attempt, Patriot Act, more Customs agents clogging up border crossings catching a few drug runners but no terrorists, and fear - a major tool used by the Administration to propel its political agenda. America could have done it so well, and instead, except for the first responders to the attacks, I feel like we botched it. The terrorists won. Our economy took a hit. Transportation took a hit. And most significantly, American freedom took a hit. They won because Americans changed how we live and behave. We line up like animals at the airport in the futile belief that our journey is going to be safer by giving up freedom. (Like terrorists would try the same technique again.) It's the antithesis of individual freedom that America stood for. I don't like it because every time I do it, it reinforces my belief that the terrorist bastards won. And after not finding, killing, or verifying killing bin Laden, GB said he didn't think about bin Laden any more. When leadership is idiotic, it's hard to bring out the best in a country, but I didn't mean to get political.

Sg

One thing we haven't botched is another attack Salmo g. Let's hope we can be as fortunate in the future.

So far Sol Duc. However, I don't think our good fortune in that regard is in any way attributable to Homeland Security or TSA or the loss of Habeas Corpus.

Sg

I'm feelin' ya, Salmo. Well said.

I was packing away my clothes from an aborted sailing trip to Barkley Sound. We would have been at anchor in Barkley when the planes hit if we had not had engine trouble and didn't want to risk going between the islands with a iffy power plant.
+1 for what Salmo posted. The international goodwill that was frittered away by GB jr. is a sad legacy of his time in office.

I was working and we had just returned to the station after an early morning run. 2 of the crew went back to bed and myself and our Lt. stayed up to read the paper and have coffee. Had the news on in the background, video was of the fire in the first building that got hit. We were commenting that FDNY had a helluva fire going. We were watching live when the second plane hit. Shortly after that we got an all call thoughout the bureau that no one was allowed to go home untill further notice. I was working OT at a differnt station that day so I went and took a shower to get ready to go there. While getting dressed one of the guys coming on duty came in the locker room and said that they had just hit the pentagon. I went to the station I was working at that day and when I walked in one of the guys had an AR15 laying on the kitchen table. Was a wierd day to be working, we had to always leave one guy with the rig, no one other than Fire Bureau people were allowed in teh station's. We spent the shift watching the news in between calls. Was sureal.