I recently watched the movies World Trade Center and United 93 last night in honor of the anniversary. If you can watch either movie and not have your eyes well up then you don't have a soul. Six years ago on this day I was in class in my senior year of high school. Once word that one tower was hit it was like constant bad news from that point on. From the second tower getting hit to the towers collapsing to the Pentagon getting hit to Flight 93. It just kept getting worse and worse. It's still hard to accept that this really happened -- and on American soil.
At work, checking my yahoo....first newsflash, second newsflash.....walking around the office where there was lots of TVs on and tuned to the news. Then remember going home and a friend coming over....drinking while watching the Congress sing "God Bless America". I remember how after the air travel ban was lifted I would go onto my back patio to watch a jetliner. I remember asking my Dad which was worse...9/11 or Pearl Harbor, and him responding "9/11. Those who died were civilians. There is no comparison".
For some reason I remember th blue skies and cool day also. I first heard the news while listening to the Pruitt and the Boner show. Arrived at work and watched the whole ordeal on TV. I kept waiting to hear an explosion since I work near the ship channel and figured one of the plants might get hit. I think I threw up atleast 3-4 times that day. The stress and sadness ripped m stomach apart.
I had just moved to DC in July of 01. Working in Old Town Alexandria, we felt the reverberation of the Pentgon attack and could see a pillar of smoke on the horizon for hours. A week later 2 coworkers and I got security clearance to do damage assesment in the wedge that was adjacent to the one that was hit. Record timing, BTW, due to the critical nature of the event. The FBI just needed time to collect all of the classified documents before we could enter. We had to wear haz-mat suits b/c the building is sooooo old and there's asbestos particles everywhere. The interior of the adjacent wedge was FUBARed. We could barely walk on the lover levels.
I was 21, I was on the tollway headed to class listening to a CD. I had no idea what was going on. Suddenly, the CD player in my car starts screwing up making it unlistenable. I switch from the CD to the radio and BAM, reality check. A minute later, my phone starts ringing with calls asking me if I knew what was going on.
I understood this kinda thing on the 5 year anniversary, and I guess I understand this thread due to Sept. 11. But I also know I've already written my experience here a couple times. This almost seems like a rehash thread. And I worked in WTC 2.
Senior year in UT staying at my friend's apartment. My brother calls waking me up telling me something happened to the World Trade Center and to turn on the TV. Half daze, turn it on, and see the second plane live hit and watched the replays just going I can't believe this is real.
I will post this, though. Rescue Me did something about it in their first season showing how firefighters ran through the gamut of emotions over 9/11. In the last scene, it shows all the ghosts Tommy knew following behind him. Great show. I highly recommend people watch it, even though Season 4 has been lackluster. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hzg8xfgV17o"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hzg8xfgV17o" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
Really. Amazing so many people have gone through the formative years of HS and college with 911 and the aftermath as a backdrop to their lives.
Sophmore year of high school. 2nd period. Chemistry Class. I'm sitting next to my usual lab partner, Pierce Bush. Pierce Bush, if you don't know, is the grandson of George Senior, nephew of the legendary George W. Bush. Pierce and I loved to be lab partners, mainly because we both liked to debate Isreali-American politics and screw around with all the lab ****. We're sitting there bored as hell trying to tune out all the ionic bond crap being spewed at us when two men in black suits bust through the door. They turn look right at us. Having some non-school friendly materials in my backpack, I'm scared as **** as they march up to our table. Without hesitation, they grab Pierce by both arms and nearly drag him out of his seat, leaving his books and doodle-filled, ill-taken notes behind as they vanish behind the door they so quickly came in. Outraged at the disturbance made in his class, Mr. Northcutt (our Chem teacher) lets the beginnings of a furious rant show in his face when the fateful announcement through the PA cuts it short. The rest is history. God Bless the USA, bring 'em home.
I got the news from the Greggo, Pruitt, and the Boner show, too. God I hated that show. Strange that to this day I can't think of 9/11 without hearing the voice of Eddie "The Boner" Sanchez. It must have been around 9 a.m. or so when my alarm went off and the shlock jocks were talking about a plane hitting the WTC. I figured some suicidal idiot or new pilot had ****ed up pretty bad and crashed his small plane. I smacked the snooze bar. When the alarm came back on 10 min. later or whatever, a second plane is hit. I remember bolting awake and thinking, "It was that Osama bin Laden ****er!" I got up and turned on the TV and banged on my roommate's door until he came out. That was some of the weirdest **** I've seen on television. It was EXACTLY, I mean EXACTLY like a Michael Bay movie. It really did feel like we were watching "Independence Day" or something. I know a lot of people felt that way. Later I went to my journalism class at UH... it was all business. My professors were very intent on using the experience as a lesson on how to react as journalists when crazy **** happens. We spent the day monitoring AP reports and stuff. We were all pretty screwed up, but if you're a reporter and **** hits the fan then it's showtime. The lesson served me well when I had to cover the BP plant blowing up in Texas City.
If I had listened to my alarm clock radio when it went off, I would have known, but I didn't. I got on the subway and headed to class, a couple of women were talking on the train about a plane hitting the WTC. I figured it was a small Cessna passenger plane or something. The train stopped at 79th st and stayed there forever. I'm late for class. The announcer says over the PA "due to a disaster at the World Trade Center, this train is being held by the dispatcher." Pissed, I decide to walk the rest of the way. I get above ground and I'm finally getting the idea that something is really really wrong. It's sunny and beautiful. Everybody in sight is looking at their cellphones, wondering why they don't work, or lining up at a public phone. Some guy is yelling at a stopped MTA bus, screaming at the driver "this is a national emergency!" I start walking towards school, feeling a little stunned. I run into a couple of friends who came from a rehearsal at Lincoln Center which was cancelled. They told me that one of the twin towers was gone, completely gone. "What?" I said. "That's one of the largest man-made structures on the face of the earth, it can't just be gone."
To this day, I still can't understand what would make people do this. Reading into political and philosophical motivations doesn't help make some sense into this tragedy. I'm kind of mad how easily this day turned into a political tool for both parties. It's not as simple as "they hate our freedoms". It's just something one can't understand but has to accept.
Freshman in college. Came home from an early class looking to watch Sportscenter only to see coverage of the towers on EVERY channel. Couldn't get through to NY for weeks trying to call my Grandma.
