Its the 9/11/02 daily thread, one year later..MKF

[VampNo12]

Wow I can't believe it's been one year today. For me I was visiting my family (and happened to be sick that day with a 102 fever), when my mother woke me up screaming she heard about the the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. In a sense for me it seemed so surreal, and I remember being huddled by the tv trying to understand what was happening. It was strange because just a few days before I was in NY enjoying the US Open, and then all the sudden NY symbolized pain, terror, and etc. And then to find out there were more planes involved (more suffering) my heart just went out (and still goes out) to everyone this tragedy touched either directly or indirectly. I also remember the strange quiet in the skies (because planes had been grounded), and then freaking out when we heard a plane in the air thinking it was going to fall from the sky (turned out to be a govt. plane).

One of my good friends worked in the WTC, but luckily for her she had the week off. However, she lost some co-workers, and just to see the grief on her face, was just unbearable/to this day she still has nightmares.

I am proud to be an American, and I was moved (and continue to be moved) how everyone (regardless of race, nationality, and etc) has come together in this time of need/sorrow. Thanks to everyone who in some way helped whether being on the scene as an EMT, firefighter, cop, grief counselor, and etc, or just a stranger showing common decency by giving a helping hand.

[Ghostwriter]

A year later and I still can't get the pictures out of my mind. I was at work, I was supposed to be off that day but I changed with one of my co workers. I was walking to my desk and I saw a group looking up at a scene on the tv. Smoke was coming out of the first tower. We watched stunned as we tried to figure out what had happened. Was it a mistake by an air traffic controller we asked? Our questions were answered horrifically as we watched, live the second plane hit. My world stopped at that moment. I knew then that nothing would ever be the same. We went through the day dazed and confused, running to the television every few minutes to only to be greeted with a new horror. The plane hitting the Pentagon. Flight 93 crashing in Pennsylvania. My horror at the name of one of the flight attendants on that flight. She lived in the same city as my sister. We were on sensory overload as image after image was blasted over the television. Then that night when I was finally able to sleep I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of an airplane flying over head. My heart was pounding so hard I thought I was dying. Fear coursed through me. Then I was mad. Angry at those cowards that didn't like my country. They hated my country so much that they did this act of terrorism. Just as quickly as my anger appeared did it leave. I started to cry and my heart went out to all of those other countries that had to live with terrorism everyday. I prayed then. I asked that someday no one would have to fear an airplane or a bus or a car. That someday terrorism would stop. One year later I still say that prayer every night.

I too would also like to thank the police departments, fire departments, EMT's and all those others that put their lives on the line every day. You are all heroes.

[Kalita]

I was at work, business as usual really; just moving around helping users and chasing down network hiccups.

I can't remember which department I was in when I ended up in a conversation about something going on in New York; someone had a lot of details wrong, I know, but everyone was uneasy.

The atmosphere all around the office got unusually quiet through the morning; when I went for a bite in the lunchroom about 10:45, they had CNN on the big meeting TV there.

Lots of people were just standing and watching. It really hit me then.

I called my Mom to make sure she was OK; she'd been out back with the 2-year-old she was babysitting at the time, she hadn't heard anything up till then.

She told me later that soon after I called, the kid's mom called her to make sure they stayed home and didn't go anywhere. I just ended up going through the day in a bit of a daze, trying to figure out why the world had stopped making sense.

What did touch me was hearing about all the international flights forced to land in Canada; some passengers were stuck out east until the weekend, and in true Canadian fashion were welcomed and hosted like family.

The official Canadian observance today was at the airport in Gander, Newfoundland. The Prime Minister, the American ambassador, everybody. I though that was a great idea.

[friskylez]

I havent watched to much of the tributes or remembrances on TV...I was channel surfing though and ended up on ESPN classic sports and they were having a sort of retrospective on what it was like last yr when the ballgames resumed..

I remembered seeing the games right after the attack last yr and the ball parks filled with people, waving signs saying "I love New York", "we are all yankees", stadiums filled with people waving American flags, lighting candles.. Players wearing NYPD and NYFD hats..

Tears filled my eyes as i saw these scenes replayed over again..Those wonderful tributes in remembrance of their
fellow Americans in NY, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon and those on the ill fated flights..

It made me realize that this country can unite, can stand together, differences can be set aside...An American Flag and three simple words flashed across my screen during a commercial, "courage, compassion and caring"..Truer words were never spoken..

[lcmSilek]

It's nice reading the posts on this thread. Nice enough to make me break my lurking ways, at least for one post.

I work in a building in Times Square, NYC in an open cube area with windows facing the square itself, at around the 10th floor. The first I knew about anything going on was seeing people at the window staring at the big screen by where Good Morning America is. My co-worker and I got up and watched, seeing a live feed of the first tower hit. The day took on a sureal tone. I remember explaining to the people in the room how the WTC was built, since we had to study the basic construction in college. I remember saying that the building was rated for a big plane hit, but not a big modern plane, which this may have been, but since it stood the impact it should be ok.

My co-worker and I then jumped in an elevator to go to the 30th floor of the building, since you can see all the way downtown, and parts of the WTC is visable. We got to the 30th floor, and there are multiple big screen TVs, all had CNBC on. As we are watching, the second plane hits. We all ran to the side of the building (20 feet) to look down towards WTC, and we saw the flame from the impact.

My co-worker and I jumped in the elevator to go back to our floor and help the business continuity group, since we had people in the second tower.

Fast foward some time, sitting at my desk, handling calls, trying to get information together to help, and my boss taps me on the shoulder and tells me one tower fell. I looked around and everyone was in shock. I actually yelled at him (not normal for me to say the least) and said it was impossible. Once I saw it on the big screen in Times Square, I turned to my co-worker and asked her "I know they were evacuating from the towers, they got out, but did they get far enough away ?". We spent the next day figuring out that some people had not. One of them was someone I never met, but was supposed to meet with the next day.

I took the duty to call the hospitals looking for our two missing people. I met one of their families, and later got a Christmas card from them. Nice people. They didn't deserve it. Today was hard. Harder than I thought it would be.

Sorry for the overlong post.

[no birthday cake]

i don't post much, but this is an important post....
i'm a new yorker. a long islander to be exact. my dad rides the path train to work under the trade center every day. he was on vacation last year, in maine. if he wasn't, i don't want to think about what could happen. i wrote a poem about the day, and how i still feel:
[i:706a526a2a] staring
at the cover of this weeks time magazine
four stories under ground in new york city
waiting
for the other foot to drop

i want to put this magazine away
in a dark corner of some lost desk drawer
where it won't see light
where it will collect dust made of ash and fingernails
until i am ready to turn its pages

penn station train tunnel
the question of safety looms in my mind
like a fated oral report my children will deliver
every year in american history class
about where their mother was on that day

will they tell their teacher
she was safe in bed, sleeping,
until she woke up in a cold sweat
hearing her mother's frantic phone call?
will their classmates cry
when they recall and mourn the day
their grandparents were murdered?

will they tell their class
their mother still stares
upward
while walking downtown
looking for the two tallest buildings
she knew would fall on her
five year old head
if she let go of her father's hand?

four minutes and twenty-six seconds:
the time it takes for my train to enter
and leave the tunnel under the east river.

i still count the seconds
and hold
my breath [/i:706a526a2a]

and this (my doorstep), is for all of you, all you lost, all you remember:
[img:706a526a2a]http://east.elation.nu/candlelight.jpg[/img:706a526a2a]

[revisionJohanna]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I first heard someone behind say that two jetliners had slammed into the WTC, my first thought was "I wish I had come up with that."

I was standing on a parade ground, waiting for an incredibly boring ceremony to begin so it could waste all of my precious time and interfere with my school work. I was standing in formation, just waiting; people were chatting idly with their neighbors. A new batch of students lined up behind me, murmuring excitedly.

Last week, my class had just completed the unit on Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. Our final test was this: Given a map, we were to select at least 10 targets of civil-military importance, and describe how to destroy them, using minimum resources.

This was myscenario: I placed small bombs in an elementary school. I had snipers placed behind a small roadblock, to shoot at the rescue workers who would race to the school. These elements served as a distraction, because my main goal was the dispersion of chemical-biological agents at a stadium across town, which held ten's of thousands of civilians.

I got the highest score in my class. The teacher used my scenario as an example. We all agreed that it was the most enjoyable exercise yet. It was easy. It was quick. It was fun.

So, when I heard that terrorists had flown planes in buildings; my first reaction was pique. [i:193c87f628] I wish I'd known that was an option. I could have topped that. [/i:193c87f628] Then it slowly became clear that they were not describing a student exercise; it was real. Thousands were dead. The Pentagon was hit too.

The cermony took place anyway. The rehearsal had taken four hours. The ceremony took about a minute. One general pointed to another general and said "You're in charge." Then we all raced back to our base to find things completely changed.

The gates were manned by soldiers with rifles. Our bus was filled with soldiers in uniform. They checked our ID's anyway. We traveled a few hundred meters, and went through another checkpoint. They had their rifles, and they were loaded. This is not a drill.

When we got back to our barracks, I saw a group of our instructors yelling at our commander. They demanded to be released from teaching so they could go ... DO SOMETHING! The captain refused. He said "This is war. You'll do what your country needs you to do." He pointed at us, the students, and said "This is more important. They'll be needed soon."

The post was at the highest state of alert. I was at the Army Intelligence Center, and there was a moderate probability that we were a target. We students were put on guard duty, given the Rules Of Engagement. Challenge everyone, even those personally known to you. Warn first. Shoot to wound. Kill only in self defense.
That night, we had 50% guard duty, meaning that for every soldier asleep, another was watching.

---

I like to think that I do what is right. There is a lot of moral ambiguity inherent in being a member of the Armed Forces. However, there is an element that I have no hestitation about.
[b:193c87f628] There is honor in being the one who watches while another sleeps [/b:193c87f628]

So, Kitties, sleep well. I will keep watch in the night.

[friskylez]

RJ, I cannot tell you what your post means, reading the words "sleep well kitties, i will keep watch in the nite"..I was in the military myself, 6 yrs and i know exactly what you are talking about..

I think at times, during peace, the military is taken for granted.. i can tell you, that you dont want to mess with the armed forces and the the people we protect..I was proud to serve although it wasnt during a war, the closest i got was being on alert to go to Grenada..

I was in a tactical air traffic control unit and we were alerted that we might be needed to go there and set up a temporary airfield to get the students out..We didnt go, one of our other units from Washington had just come back from a field exercise and were already packed and ready to go..

I can tell you though, it is a scary feeling, being asleep in your barracks and all of a sudden you have your first sergeant calling the CQ to get everyone up..Get packed and get your shit together.When you get alerted, you cant call anyone, you cant do shit except pack, you dont know what its about, you just do what your told..

Then they take you to a huge place thats set up and you get yours shots if you need them, you prepare your will, you take care of your dependants, lots of other stuff..Then you go back to your unit and wait..

Still cant call anyone and i so wanted to call my parents that nite and tell them i loved em and i was going somewhere, didnt know where..

We were up most of the nite and learned in the morning another unit had been called to go..We were actually disappointed and relieved..I called my folks and told them what had almost happened..They were relieved to..

So no matter how one feels about the military, i can telll you that those in the Armed forces, do what they are supposed to do without question, without fear of what may happen to them, for their country, for their fellow americans and others around the world..

With those few words you said RJ, you brought it all back..Thanks for keeping watch...

[relativegirl]

I don't pray every day.
I don't cry every day.
I don't light a candle on my porch every day.

This was one long, hard day. And always will be.

[sparrow]

no matter how you look at it today was the remenider of one of the worst days ever in history and also a reminder that out of evil heroes truly are amongst us.

[alyamber4ever]

Ok, I'm sorta late posting this, but....better late than never, right?

I remember I was at home, sleeping. The phone rang and it was my sister. She said, "Are you watching the news". When I said No, she told me that a plane had just crashed into one of the towers of the WTC. So, I got out of bed and went out to turn on the tv. It wasn't long after that that the second plane hit. I was so paralyzed with fear, i couldn't move. I just couldn't believe that what I was seeing was real. Then when the buildings fell...i just ...wanted to cry. But, I couldn't even do that. It was still just so unbelievable. I just couldn't understand how human beings could do this to one another.
I just hope that nothing like this EVER happens again. People should seriously think about PEACE and LOVE. That's what we need.

[SJ]

I'm in England and was watching it on the TV with utter disbelief.

[magickalbear]

I want to thank you all for sharing your stories with us. It's helped me a lot to read these. I realized a few minutes ago that I still can't talk about September 11th in any context, except this one thing. I had just bought a new webcam on September 10th and got it working that afternoon. I remember fiddling with it and in a fit of new toy excitement I took a picture of myself, which is very unlike me (as I don't like the way pictures of me look.) I forgot about the picture for monthes in the ensuing commotion ( I live in Hampton VA, which is home to Langley AFB as well as Ft. Monroe, and had a person who used to be very dear to me - we had had a huge fight months prior- stationed at Ft. Belvoir, but worked in the Pentagon from time), but I found the pic again a few months ago when I was looking at some old files stored on my system. I know that this pic is the last picture of my innocence, the last day I could truly believe that bad things like that didn't happen, the last day that evil was an abstract concept. I was asleep when it happened as I was working night shift at an office supply store. My mother in law called me at 1:30 pm to tell me. I remember waking up and hearing the phone ringing and being angry because I didn't have to wake up for another three hours, as I didn't have to be at work until 6 pm. She told me that the WTC had been bombed and the first thing I said to her was that it was impossible, they had done that years ago and that the WTC was indestructable. Then she told me the tower had fallen.

I can't remember too much more of the day, except waking up my roommate to tell him, and his panic as he remembered that his brother was set to be sworn into the USAF that day, and flying out to basic in Texas, or something like that.


Thank you kittens. I never gave myself a chance to mourn what happened. This is the first time that I have cried about it. Thanks for letting me.


Mandy

[BBOvenGuy]

In case anyone's interested, I've made an .mp3 file of the news report our local radio station did on the Mozart Requiem performance. You can find it here:

www.eriscorp.com/canterbury/KPCC911.mp3

[kukalaka]

I'm a bit late, too, but here it is:

I was abroad. I was at work, and just wanted to check the news again before leaving. The headline was "2 planes crashed into WTC" or something like that and it took me about a quarter of an hour to finally get the report up (as the internet was totally breaking down at that time). All the while I kept thinking "Two?", but I didn't realize what that obviously had to mean.

After finally realizing what had happened I went to my place. My roommate burst in and said we had to turn on the TV, as the towers had crashed. I couldn't believe it. I sat there and watched, didn't understand a thing they said (Estonian is a rather strange language) and couldn't reach my parents as they were on vacation and their cell phone wasn't working.

I've never felt more alone in my whole life.

[lilac8wine]

Im soo late posting..
Im not american, i live in Sydney Australia.
I remember the day that i heard what happened perfectly.
I awoke for school (my final year) at around 8.00am and had a shower. After i came out and was dressed i went into the lounge room where my younger sisters were watching CNN on Foxtel. They told me what happened, and all of a sudden my stomach felt sick...I had to sit down...I watched fora few minutes, but then had to leave because i had an exam that day.
When i got to school everyone in my year was talking about it. I sat in my exam barely being able to concentrate. All i could think of was those poor people. I felt like somebody had ripped my heart out...i felt physically ill, and scared.
When i got out of my exam, our whole year were standing around. The majority of the guys and few of the girls were saying some terrible things about what had happened that i do not feel i should ever repeat. But hearing what these people were saying made me cry my heart out...so i left and ran up to the shops up the road. I bought the newspaper and ran home. By the time i got home my dad was there and i handed him the paper, and then we just sat and watched. I cried so much..
It was all over the news all night, by the end of the night, i couldnt bare to watch the television anymore, i went outside and just sat in the backyard staring at the sky, trying but failing to be able to comprehend what had happened.
Alot of people couldnt understand why i took it so hard, they thought i was being dramatic over something that didnt even happen in our country. I didnt feel the need to jutify myself to these people, but i believe that my reaction to it all was entirely normal. I didnt need to know the victims, to not feel for them and their families and friends.
I can only hope for a better day, and my prayers are with the victims, their families and friends...god bless the heros of this tragedy.

[urnofosiris]

I had to work last wednesday but I do want to post as well. 9/11/01 is one of those days that I will remember better than yesterday. It was about 3.30 pm when my mother woke me up (I had worked the night before) she told me 2 planes had hit the WTC in NY and that the Pentagon had been hit. When your brain just wakes up and you hear something like that it does not immediately register. This could not be. I got down and turned on my tv as quickly as I could. I had been watching for about 20 minutes, transfixed, listening, flabbergasted when I saw the second tower fall. Only then did I realize that the first one had already fallen. The angle and smoke had screened it from view. It was so shocking to sit there so far away knowing what just happened, willing it to unhappen and totally powerless. There was also the fear many felt of where this would lead to.

Next I rushed back upstairs to log onto the board. I may live far away but this board feels like my home and many of the people here are my friends and some from NY. I read their/your accounts, like I did now. Watching it on the same tv where I watch movies on made it seem surreal somehow but reading the accounts here drove home exactly how real this is. Not that I did not know that, but it is still different to hear/read it from the mouths of people who were there.

The next day I learned that one of the cardiologists I work with was there in NY, he saw the second tower fall like I did. Only he was really there, one of our ER nurses was in NY as well, on her way to the twin towers to visit them when the planes struck. The world is not such a big place after all. With over 5 thousand fatalities and many (near) victims and survivors there are thousands upon thousands who have been affected by this as well, the people who knew them, worked with them, loved them.

Amy your story is anything but boring, thank you for sharing it, thanks to everyone for sharing their memories and feelings, and for all those people who have been affected by this, who risked and lost their lives I feel the deepest admiration and respect. If not for them it might be tempting to lose faith in humankind.