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Thread: OT: Remembering 9/11

  1. #1
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    OT: Remembering 9/11

    I had just arrived at work. It was a Tuesday. I didn't have the radio on and hadn't turned the TV on that morning. The night before was the first Monday night football game of the season. Eddie McCaffery of the Denver Broncos broke his leg in the game.

    As I was walking through the parking lot I said to one of my co-workers. "Did you see that game last night? Bummer about McCaffery's leg.". She says, "Do you realize that we're under attack?". I go into work to find that the whole internet has come to a screaching hault and we all just watched TV for the rest of the day.
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  2. #2
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    I was in college in NJ and learned that a very large portion of the student body had parents that worked in or around the WTC many of whom did not make it out. My wife (she was my girlfriend at the time)'s brother worked right across the street and saw a few of his friends die. My friend's dad worked for some Japanese company that had its office in the towers his dad got out but the dad's bosses all stayed behind to call back to japan and make sure they knew what was happening. They all died. It was a crazy day. i remember when all the planes were grounded how scared people would get when a plane would go over head. They were all military planes patrolling but still that look of terror would just sweep across people's faces. It was a crazy day.

  3. #3
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    I had just finished work.

    Went to a net cafe as usual with that gf (never really spoke much). Bout 930 pm maybe, my mate from the UK mails me with the legend 'Someone's really p!ssed the f***wits off this time,' and the link to the live BBC website images of the smoke pouring out of the first tower.

    We watched. And read. The netcafe was quiet like a library. People were sitting round reading manga, drinking free coffee, looking at porn, smooching.

    Things were different.

    First was cold, and thinking, 'The b@stards'!

    We went home, me giving the gf a potted history of what had possibly just happened (she didn't know anything about the Middle East at all). Got home and the Brazilians (there were eleven Brazilian models sharing our house) were crowded around the TV. A couple of the chicks were crying and they were saying something in Portuguese. A couple of them turned to us and said, 'You seen?' 'Somebody's got the US,'... and by then we noticed the second tower and then they'd both gone.

    My first rational thought after the cold vengeful anger was wondering who that ****er Bush would bomb, and if all the crazy fundies who support him had finally got their wish for Armageddon.

    Wore my NY Yankees cap all the next week. People were nice to me on the train. Of course I'm not American but I wanted to show my solidarity and the Japanese were the warmest they'd ever been. The world was with you.

    RIP.

    Peace.
    its safe to say that I train some martial arts. Im not that good really, but most people really suck, so I feel ok about that - Sunfist

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  4. #4
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    I remember after that day going for a run through my neigborhood. On a 3 mile or so run I counted all of the American flags that I saw out in front of people's houses. I saw 72 american flags. It brought tears to my eyes that day and still gets me choked up thinking about it now.
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  5. #5
    I was practicing some warming up exercises with Tai Chi and Tong Bei in the park. My neighbor told me that the world trade center was attacked by a civil airplane. It is on CNN live.

    ----

    Last edited by SPJ; 09-11-2006 at 09:47 AM.

  6. #6
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    :(

    I got up at 6:00 mst and checked the spawn.com forums to read that we were under attack... So I went and checked the news to see the first tower on fire, I saw the second plan hit live... I couldn't believe it. I then turned on stern because I knew he was in NY, he stayed on the air through out the whole ordeal and I respect him for that. We ended up setting up the tv's at work so that the people at work could keep updated on what was happening. There are a lot of people from back east that work at my company. Sad day...

    You know on this day I mourn the loss of those who lost their lives on that day. I also mourn the loss of democracy and liberty because of this current regime in office now. This country was united on all political lines, class lines, etc behind our president because he promised to bring those responsible to justice. The world was behind the US against terrorism and 5 years later NOTHING has happened to bring those responsible to justice. The middle class is almost extinct, this country is divided on all lines and the world hates the US. Bush used this as a chance to attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 just to put money in his friends and families pockets. I ****ing hate G W Bush and those who support him.

    sad times
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  7. #7
    I was at work, having just returned from a family vacation at Disney. My wife called me minutes after it happened, I think they were tele-conferencing with someone in the South tower when it happened.
    One of the guys that I was working with had been with the 160th SOAR and without even seeing the TV called it as intentional, and when the second plane hit we knew it was AQ. After touching base with some friends in DC and NC we just watched and waited for the next plane to hit somewhere. It really wasn't much of a surprise that it happened as AQ was gunning for us for some time.
    I quit after getting my first black belt because the school I was a part of was in the process of lowering their standards A painfully honest KC Elbows

    The crap that many schools do is not the crap I was taught or train in or teach.

    Dam nit... it made sense when it was running through my head.

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  8. #8
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    I was driving from San Antonio to San Marcos (Texas) to pick up my friend so we could go back down to San Antonio for his appointment with Bosley Medical- a company specialising in hair transplants. I stopped into a macdonald's on the way coz I was hungry, i had to pee, and it was a long drive. Everyone was staring at the TV, i think it was the first tower when I got there, and the second tower shortly thereafter. I remember that the first thought that popped in my mind (however inappropriate it may be) was "didn't those idiots learn the last time?" (referring to the 1993 parking garage bombing).

    I picked up my friend and we just kinda talked about it for a while. I don't think it really sunk in for either of us. It wasn't till the 24/7 news coverage for the next week that it really hit me what happened.

    I'd graduated from college a month earlier and didn't have a job yet- my processing for my government job was taking FOREVER. I really felt isolated and helpless, but at least somewhat comforted by the shelter of living with my folks out in the middle of nowhere.
    Last edited by Pork Chop; 09-11-2006 at 10:03 AM.
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  9. #9

  10. #10
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    On the morning of 9/11 I remember I was driving in to work and heard on the radio that a plane had hit one of the towers. I remember thinking "terrorism" but then I caught myself and thought, "don't be such an alarmist". But by the time I got in to the office it was clear. I remember cnn.com was overloaded and I couldn't get to it for a while. I managed to get to DrudgeReport and got news from the radio and also emails from other people who were sharing what they were able to learn. One of the engineers I worked with lived around the corner from the office; he ran home and brought in a little TV that we set up in an empty cube and watched all day. I remember there were unconfirmed reports and rumors all over the place, things like more planes are coming in, etc. Things were very uncertain, and it was a very very sad day.

  11. #11
    I was driving to work. The place I work is called the world tech center, or WTC for short. I heard on the radio that the WTC "Had been bombed or something," so my first thought was that somebody bombed my workplace. It made a certain amount of sense, as this city is a major transportation hub and could easily be a terrorist target. It was then clarified that a plane flew into the WTC, and that is was the world trade center. I was shocked. When I got to work, all of the TVs were on and it was all over the internet.
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  12. #12
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    When the first tower got hit, I argued wiht the shop forman. He said we were under attack, I was like "No way, it was a freak accident"....then the second plane hit, and my heart just sank......
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  13. #13
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    http://brokensaints.com/blog/

    scroll down, have a listen to Olbermann.
    Kung Fu is good for you.

  14. #14
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    Nyc!!

    First, I want to thank Chief Fox for starting this thread. Today is the first time since last week that I've been able to logon, and this was a welcome surprise.

    I'll never forget. I had the day off for once, and was living at Christopher St and the West Side Highway, which is (depending on who you talk to) about 12-14 blocks directly north of the WTC. Was trying really hard to sleep in, but for some reason, the sirens and horns, which are normal for NY, were uncharacteristically invasive to my sleep time. So, I decided to get up and turn on CNN to see if there was anything of note to be concerned with. It was around 8:30am.

    Eventually saw the first report of a "small Cessna or helicopter" hitting the north tower of the WTC. That was something of note, but of course, it didn't seem such an emergency for me, although that wasn't the usual Tuesday morning. So after watching the news for awhile, I decided to go outside. Made a left out the apt door, walked one block east to Washington St, and from previous experience (walking home from work, last block before home, look left, see the WTC), I knew I could see with my own eyes what was going on. When I got to the corner, there were about 20-30 people standing there, talking about it. An unfortunately classic NY moment.

    Then, the unthinkable happened. Another explosion. We didn't see the plane, but we did see the huge fireball erupt out of the south tower. It was at this point that we all realized that this "might not be an accident". Tried to call family and friends to no avail, so a couple of us decided that maybe we should make our way downtown to help or what, we didn't know. All we did know was that there was a need for some form of evacuation for those that were left in the buildings and we wanted to help in some way. I would think those reading this account can imagine we had no idea what we were doing, but somehow, for some reason, we were drawn toward the damage.

    As we were walking (I didn't know what time it was and wasn't paying attention), we saw the south tower come down.

    Another thing I'll never forget is hearing Aaron Brown from CNN on the radio saying there was another explosion and it seemed as if the tower was enveloped in a cloud of dust. Well, from our vantage point, we knew that it had fallen and some serious sh!t was happening. Everyone knows what occurred thereafter.

    Fast forward a day - some friends and I decided that since we were so close to the ingress/egress point of emergency service, we were going to stand on the median on the highway and show our support. I had several 3'x5' American flags from a previous job, so I went through my stash and handed them out (as many as I could, save one for myself) to those who didn't have one.

    At the time, I worked for a foreign based organization (French), so incidentally, all of them were grounded for about 6 weeks, and consequently, I didn't have any work, so all I did, day after day, was stand on the median waving the flag and showing my solidarity.

    Yet another thing I'll never forget - on one side of the highway were the fresh workers going to the site to recover whatever possible, and on the other side, beaten, downtrodden workers coming away from the site after spending countless hours trying to do what they could.

    Thinking about the open windows of the buses with hands outstretched to simply touch the flag I was holding, time after time after time, will always be with me. It's one of the seminal times of my life, and it always wrecks me whenever I close my eyes.

    Lastly, there was a large plot of dirt waiting to be seeded as part of the project to plant trees and such for the revamping of the WSH that was going on at the time. My friend J and I saw that although there were signs galore showing support of the EMTs, Police, Firefighters, Red Cross and myriad other emergency service being sent to the site, there were no candles for the departed. So, we went to Duane Reade and gathered as many tapers as possible. Dug holes, planted the candles, lit them and prayed. This is always what gets me - the very next morning when we got up and made our way over to the median, we saw that what we had done had prompted others to add to the memorial and also that it had blown into something we had never dreamed of. There were so many candles that there was practically nowhere to stand. It still breaks my heart.

    Sorry to be so winded, and there is still so much more to relate, but this is the first time I've ever really been able to tell this story, and I thank you.

    Just one more thing - I want to thank Mr. Punch for this, and thank you so much for being with us...




    "Wore my NY Yankees cap all the next week. People were nice to me on the train. Of course I'm not American but I wanted to show my solidarity and the Japanese were the warmest they'd ever been. The world was with you."

    TuG.
    Embrace your enemy, for he is not - he is just confused.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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  15. #15
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    Bush was reading along with a class in florida, a buisness man was being served his latte at starbucks, maybe some couples were having morning sex to start the day. a mother was waking up her newly born child to nurse, and several hundred people were being incinerated by the impact of the first plane on the tower.


    i was in Taos New Mexico at the time working at a cafe making migas when the music on the radio was halted and the news of the first plane hitting the tower came through. All of us at the cafe including the patrons couldnt believe it. so we turned on the TV and watched. A series of " holy sh!T"s rang out when we all witnessed the 2nd plane hitting the tower. Buisness stopped that day in Taos. The next day it was eerie. no air traffic at all, a calm and quiet over everything. it felt weird but at the same time good, it made me think of a simpler time when there was no air traffic and what you looked in to the sky to see was the sky and not the trails of plane fuel.

    Now look where we are. still looking over our shoulders, still worrying, still in fear, and pretty much all of us wondering.


    Peace,TWS
    It makes me mad when people say I turned and ran like a scared rabbit. Maybe it was like an angry rabbit, who was going to fight in another fight, away from the first fight.

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