9/11 Memories… I will NEVER Forget, nor will I Forgive…

We are coming up on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks on the United States by four sets of al-Queda hijackers…


These images were burned into our consciousness that day…



American Airlines Flight 11, and United Flight 175 hit the two towers at the WTC.



American Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.


And United Flight 93 (destined for Washington, DC) crashed in Shanksville, PA after fighting between the hijackers and the passengers.


I hear the term “defining moment” thrown around a lot, especially in the last month or so…


Being a ‘bit older, I also remember a few others, President Kennedy being shot in Dallas, Martin Luther King being shot in Memphis, Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon…


On 9/11, I was in my office at the University when I got a call from one of the University pilots who is a retired Marine; he told me to “get to a TV, somebody just hit New York with an airplane!”


I finally found one in a conference room upstairs and turned it on, as it happened it was on CNN…


Others started to wonder in to see why I was ‘violating’ University policy, and the pilot called me back, about that time.  I do remember something to the effect of “a terrible accident has occured” being said on TV about the time the pilot saying this wasn’t an accident, it was an airliner and something bad was going down.  


As we talked, the second airplane hit the second tower, and we agreed about the fact that America was under attack, but at that point we had no idea who had done it…  Anger was the prevalent feeling, and frustration, since there wasn’t anything we could directly do for those folks…


About a half an hour later, I was called into a meeting with law enforcement about securing/protecting facilities and infrastructure; we were interrupted by the announcement that the Pentagon had been hit, and the tone of the meeting changed from what if, to we need to prepare NOW!  I also remember driving back to my office and hearing about Shanksville and UA 93 during that time. We set our emergency response plan into effect, sending folks home and going into a 24 hour response cycle.


I stayed at work, coordinating with various folks, but I noticed a lot of my co-workers were in shock that anyone would attack America, much less why attack us…  I wasn’t shocked, I was PISSED…  


The few of us that were ex-military tended to not say anything after the first couple of arguments, since we had a significantly different perspective. We knew the military had been placed on elevated alert, and folks were either airborne or sitting in cockpits on strip alert…


In the days that followed, I didn’t get a lot of sleep; watched a lot of coverage.  When the list of casualties came out, I found out I’d lost three good friends in the Pentagon, and I wrote to Navy Personnel volunteering for recall to active duty.  Sadly, I wasn’t recalled…


Why did I post these pictures?  Because they are REALITY… Not sugarcoated, apologized for, sanitized talking points, or spun by whomever.  We, the USA were attacked on our home soil by terrorists who are STILL determined to bring America to her knees, since we are the “Great Satan”…  10 years later, the terrorists are still after us…


Where were you, and what was your response???

Comments

9/11 Memories… I will NEVER Forget, nor will I Forgive… — 40 Comments

  1. I was driving to work – I ran a multi-government agency task force at the time on the West Coast. My daughter called and said that an aircraft hit the WTC. I said that it was designed to take a 747 impact and not to worry. When I arrived at the office it looked bad and I watched the second airliner hit the WTC.

    Friends of mine had an office in the WTC. Everyone was killed.

    To me it looked like war.

    Today fundamentalist Islam is still at war with us globally.

    I will not forget. I will not forgive – either.

  2. I was at home, getting ready to go to work. After the WTC was hit, I went to the basement and began cleaning guns. Then my neighbor came over, crying. The Pentagon had just been hit, and she couldn’t make contact with her husband (who worked near the Pentagon impact site). We eventually connected with him. He had been one corridor North of the impact and had spent the day doing SAR in the burning section of the building before being sent home. He and I spent the evening quietly with a bottle of Jack Daniels, while he worked through what he had seen. One man to another, sharing the pain.

    I will never forget. I will not forgive. There is not enough oil in the Middle East to justify appeasing those lying bastards. The proper response would have been to turn Riyadh into a smoking sheet of glass…it still is.

  3. I was at work at a financial firm when a crawler across the top of the screen: “Stock Market closed due to explosion on Wall Street”. I walked over to the TV where several others were already gathered, just minutes before the 2nd plane struck. First reaction was disbelief, because it looked like a scene from “Die Hard”. By the time the 2nd plane came into view, I was just as pissed.

    It was a declaration of war, plain and simple. And yeah, they’re still at war with us – and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

  4. I was a hunting guide at the time and was working on the main lodge on our ranch. One of the guides rolled up and told me about the first plane hitting. We went inside and watched the rest. The calls started rolling in from friends and clients saying they would be headed to us if things kept going south. I think forgiveness only comes to those who seek it. I will not forgive someone if their intent is still to destroy me.

  5. I was putting a new fan belt on an old Dodge van I owned at the time. Continued to finish the job. What was I, a car salesman in Colorado, going to do?

    Aftermath? Raised and contributed money to help the survivors and the families of the dead.

    Forget and forgive? Hell no!

  6. Should add that also applies to the appeaser in chief occupying the White House and his fellow sycophants. Not that they give a hoot in hell what I think.

  7. I was finishing up a session at the gym when I heard about the first plane hitting the WTC being an accident. The “accident” part didn’t make sense. By the time I got to work, the second plane had hit and everybody was standing around a large plasma screen just outside our NOC. Everybody knew this was not an accident.

    Most everyone was already in shock when the news about the Pentagon being hit filtered in. That created a panic. That’s when I told everybody to go home. There was no sense being at work if no work was to get done. I had to reassure some people that they wouldn’t be fired, that this was an extreme, extenuating circumstance.

    That day, my wife was in downtown DC and it took me until 3pm to reach her. With everything brought to a halt including the trains, she brought home a colleague from Philly who was now stranded in DC. Not a day I will forget.

  8. I was working at home, and had to reboot my computer, which caused a news crawler to pop up. It said something about a plane having hit one of the WTC buildings. I clicked the news link but that was all that was posted at that moment so I knew it was something that was evolving. I assumed it was a small plane and an accident, but I switched on the TV anyway. And, of course, that was the end of constructive work for the day. Of course they evacuated our buildings and sent people home and that was a mess – a mess that we have proved in a bad snow storm and earthquake that will be repeated.

    As it unfolded, I was shocked and horrified. Then I was ferociously angry. My support for military action wasn’t from the anger, though, but from the belief that we couldn’t allow such an attack to go unanswered because that would leave us vulnerable to a repeat. We did, after all, first just ask that the perps be turned over to us. And “Oh, well then, OK.” was not an option we had when the Taliban thumbed their noses at us.

    Now I’m tired and angry that once again the politicians seem to be running the show rather than those who are tasked to fight war. It’s putting our soldiers in danger leaving us open to more attacks.

    Unfortunately, so many people are so accustomed to a multi-cultural society that they believe that their “live and let live” philosophy is shared by militant Islam. Not happening.

  9. I was at home, my son on leave from Navy in Hawaii, he called me to the television before the second aircraft struck.

    I was sure this was a crime, and upset that London was attacked nightly, and continued to function in WWII and the US just locked itself up and quivered like prey.

    I also know that there could have been more resistance on all the aircraft, if the government had allowed continued carrying of personal weapons and didn’t have an SOP that said the crew was to cooperate until the aircraft was on the ground for rescue by professionals.

    If you want to destroy terrorist training camps you attack them and destroy them, where ever you find them. We aren’t at war, but we still pretend we can change Arabs and Afghans into modern society. That is so Leftist thinking.

  10. Everything we ever needed to know about Muslims we learned on 9/11.

    There is no such thing as a good Muslim.

    You can’t coexist with them

    You cant make them feel good about themselves (NASA)

    You can only defeat them by taking the fight to them.

    The only thing they understand is force.

    Never turn your back on one.

    The only thing that will make them happy is your death.

  11. I was working Second Shift at a local electronics company, plus I was supposed to have a class at the local Community College from 1-2:30, so I was sleeping in when the Fiance (now Wife) called. She said turn on the TV, then hung up. I was watching when the Second plane hit. I was shocked for a few seconds, then I called Carol back, and said, “Did you see the Second Plane Hit?” She said yeah, but everyone in the office didn’t know what to do. I said “You tell everyone there that your Fiance is Former Navy, this is what the Japs did at Pearl Harbor, and we are at WAR.” I heard her lower the phone and repeat what I said. Then she asked what to do next. I said “Everyone drop their stuff, get in their cars, and go home NOW, and that means you too.” She hung up the Phone, I grabbed my Colt Cobra, shoved it into my pocket, and went outside. A few minutes later, I heard loud Jet Engine Noises (WAY too loud for what normally flies over my House), and I saw a Passenger jet make a Big U-Turn over Lake Erie, then saw it was headed AWAY from the normal Flight Path to land at Hopkins, and was heading East. I think it was United 93, but I’d have to get it’s minute-by-minute GPS records to be sure.

    Carol came home a few minutes later, I decided to skip class, so we watched the rest of that horror on the news, but I did go to work. When I got there, I realized that I had put the Colt into my Cargo Pocket, and my Supervisor saw me. He walked up and said, “Les, you know that Guns aren’t allowed here.” I said “Jim, I was on AutoPilot, I’ll put it back in my car.” He said, “No, don’t do that, because us Military Vets may have to take charge and keep these Civies safe, so just button the Flap.” Jim was former Army. Then HE tapped HIS Cargo Pocket. The Boss came out at Shift Change, and had a little meeting. He asked if anyone had friends or relatives in DC or New York that might have been hit. No one raised their hand that night. He told us that there was a change in the Work Schedule, that ALL the Military Electronics work we were doing was now #1 Priority, and to build the Stuff to the Best of our Ability, but he wanted it out the door as soon as we could make it. So that’s what happened at work for the next few days.

    But the next day, I found out one of my wife’s cousins was supposed to have a Business meeting at the North Tower at 10:00 am, but he was running a little late getting there from Jersey, and had just got out of his Cab when the first plane struck.

    Of course, this screwed up my Wedding Plans, but Carol and I eventually flew to Vegas like we planned, and got Married on Sept 21st, 2011. Too bad My side of the Family couldn’t get their Flights, and I met my Best Man for the first time the day before the Wedding, but compared to all the Innocents who died during the Sneak Attack, my hassles were minor.

    But I don’t hate Muslims just because they are Muslims. But for all those people who “Aided and Abetted” the 9/11 group and any other Islamo-Fascist Terrorist Gang, no matter whether they are in our Government, a Foreign Government, NGO or whatever, don’t cross my path and let me know you helped them. Ever.

  12. We were living in Monterrey, NL, Mexico, due to the Spousal Unit’s company’s NAFTA obligation. For whatever reason {premonition, perhaps?}, I’d been unable to sleep the night before, so was asleep when the Progeny answered the door to an American acquaintance, Danny {former USMC}, who told her what was happening and came in to see what, if anything, was coming through on the news {we had American satellite TV (illegally)}. The Progeny woke me, with “They attacked New York” – I got up, headed down to our TV, to CNN’s coverage.

    It was chaos – the 3 of us were in shock, jaws hanging open, when the FodGuy came home. He & Danny polished off almost a full bottle of Johnny Walker Black, watching the horror. Of course, none of us could make contact back home, so Danny, being from Chicago, was almost in a panic over his family. We couldn’t contact our family in central Pennsylvania. It seemed like some horrible dream.

    We all were ready to take off to the U.S., to help however we could, but even with our AMERICAN passports, the border was closed until Friday, 14 Sept.

    The days immediately following 9/11 are kind of hazy, except for 2 things – the day after, at the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, they played OUR National Anthem – THAT was the first time I cried about 9/11 {I’m still tearing up at the memory}. The second thing to come to memory was when a Mexican acquaintance told me that it WAS KNOWN BY MEXICAN AUTHORITIES that MORE terrorists were preparing to cross the border, many staging in Monterrey. They were going to try to pass themselves off as ‘illegal Mexicans’ & get lost in the immigration morass. {I notified the FBI via eMail}.

    On 14 Sept., the FodGuy & I headed up to the border; we checked into a motel, and he was just going to relax in the room a bit. I headed out, found the nearest USMC recruiting office – walked in & said, I’m ready to go back! I’ll even go through boot camp again! The recruiters on duty said Ma’am, if we COULD take you back, we WOULD.

    A dear friend closes his eMails with “To err is human, to forgive, divine – neither of which is Marine Corps’ policy” – couldn’t say it better myself.

    Semper Fi’
    DM

  13. You know, NFO, this is such an amazing group of stories. Thanks for thinking of this. It really does make you realize how incredibly different everyone’s story is even though we were all affected in the same way.

  14. I was in the kitchen having breakfast with my son who was eighteen months old at the time. I got a call from a friend who worked for the newspaper where I freelanced. He told me to turn on the TV, the WTC had been accidentally hit by a plane. I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit – it was no accident.

    My husband was working second shift at the time, he had worked overtime the night before and was still asleep. I sat in front of the TV with my son, until the Pentagon was hit. Living in a major east coast city, and witnessing New York and Washington being attacked had me wondering if we were next – I woke my husband up. Then it was announced that United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville.

    The rest of the day I spent glued to the TV as the horror unfolded – the jumpers, the WTC collapsing, families desperately searching for their loved ones. It seemed like too much to process at the time – gradually the shock wore off, replaced by the disbelief that a human being could deliberately fly a plane into a building killing thousands of people.

    May those bastards burn in Hell.

  15. I was home, playing with the daughter who was only 4 when the husband called. I thought he was BSing at first and when I turned on the television, I was shocked, then so overwhelmingly sad when I watched the towers fall and thought of all the families affected. Shocked, sad, sickened, then mad. Those emotions remain whenever I think about it now.

  16. I was at home working in the shop when I heard the news flash on the radio. Ran up too the house and got the tv on just in time to see the second one hit the tower. At first I was in shock and didn’t believe what I was seeing. Then as the realization worked its way into the brain, I became outraged at whoever it was, then it progressed to murderous intent if a muslim of any stripe was to cross my path! I was so pissed for weeks afterward trying to figure out how I could become one of the guys who would go wherever to avenge those poor people. People who had done absolutely NOTHING to incur the ‘jihad’ of these friggin piss poor excuses for human beings. We now know they aren’t humans but the most base of animals And that comparison degrades the animal kingdom.

    I was also Navy but have always loved the Corps. Semper Fi AND Go Navy!!!

  17. I was in Ontario, reading the paper on a gloriously clear morning in my college campus quad, when somebody shouted something about ‘somebody just bombed New York’. I watched the towers come down on a tiny TV in someone’s room. And I watched how, for a time, the standard anti-American baiting that is typical throughout the world was silenced.
    What did I do? Went on trying to prove to every person I met that Americans could be polite, smart, and proud of their country while not being arrogant twits. I succeeded too, one of my friends when I left that college was someone who had called me a ‘damn Yankee’ when he first met me. He apologized, publicly, and said I had changed his opinion of Americans.
    I lived outside the US for ten years, I came back knowing exactly why I didn’t want to live anywhere else. But I also came back knowing friends who live on every continent (except Antartica). And though I won’t presume to believe that my worldview is the only right one, I won’t forgive nor forget those complicit in, and unrepentant of, murder be they religious fundamentalists or atheists, communists or capitalists.
    If that makes me a multicultural pansy, so be it.
    nunc cognosco ex parte

  18. I was on my way to teach class when the first plane hit. Just caught a brief news blurb about a plane hitting one of the WTC towers.

    When I came out of class the full extent of the attack was much clearer. It was a bit surreal, to go directly from what I thought was a tragic accident to finding out that it was a horrific terrorist attack.

    I knew a few people – acquaintances, not close friends – who were in the towers. One got out. Two didn’t.

    Immediate response was to stand in line for a couple of hours with my wife to donate blood.

    I’ll side with Bubblehead Les. I don’t hate all Muslims because they’re Muslims, but I do despise anyone who supported, approved of, or doesn’t condemn those cowardly acts. No forgetfulness or forgiveness here.

  19. Wow… Thank you all for the responses… as .45 said, very different responses but a common thread.

    DM- I didn’t know the Mexican border was actually close to ALL, I thought it was open to US citizens!

  20. We were in Dallas, Texas at the time and were getting ready to leave for work when we heard WBAP announce that an airplane had “crashed” into the World Trade Center.

    Being a pilot myself, I knew planes don’t just “crash” into buildings. I assumed it was a small private plane and had run out of fuel and hit somewhere near the base.

    We flip on the big-screen tv and see the smoke billowing and I got real nervous. Then I, like millions of others, watched the second plane fly into the second tower and I knew we were under attack.

    I guessed ragheads because they’re the only animals in the entire universe chickenshit enough to take as many innocent lives with them as they can.

    At the time, I was COO/CCO of a $1.8 billion company with 1600 employees. I called my admin and ordered her to start calling all department heads and get the word out to everyone in all offices across the country to stay home–we’re closed until further notice.

    I then went to the gun safe and pulled out my 1911, my AR15 and my old police shotgun from the fed days and headed to downtown Dallas to get my offices closed and get my people the hell out of there.

    Lot of scared people on the Texas highways, but there were even more pissed off people–present company at the head of the damned line.

    We emptied all 35 floors of our building and I instructed our security guards to lock it up–anyone not a managing director or higher in the company was not allowed back in until we said so.

    On the way home, I heard on the radio that some stinking ragheads in a convenience store in Las Colinas (business division of Irving/Dallas) were celebrating and hooting it up when a couple of Southwest Airlines mechanics came in. The SWA guys looked at the tv and figured out real quick what was happening.

    Both of those ragheads got carried away to Parkland Memorial Hospital, so bad was the beating those Southwest Airlines guys put on them.

    Police were called, mechanics arrested, and a whole string of cars followed them to the jail to help pay their bail. Bond was something like $5 each I heard later.

    My wife closed her department up at her business in Legacy Park (Plano) and we met at Lake Lewisville and took our boat out.

    The lake was eerily calm. Not so much as even a ripple on the water. I’ve never seen it like that before and never seen it since. Even more eery was that the lake is on the direct final approach corridor for DFW (airport), and by mid-afternoon, the skies were silent.

    One of the top-five busiest airports in North America was shut down.

    Like NFO, I was pissed, and like NFO, I called up the Air Force and volunteered for recall to active duty. I got a polite “thanks, but no thanks” response.

    I haven’t seen a Muslim yet to this day that I didn’t want to kill on the spot.

    Religion of peace my ass.

    I drew a line in the sand that day, well before W Bush gave his “you’re either with us or against us” stance in a speech to come later.

    When Obama was elected, I poured (expletive deleted) concrete in that line.

    Translation? If you don’t share my same values of patriotism, honor, duty, reverence for the Bill of Rights and this nation, you better not piss me off.

    –AOA

  21. My eldest daughter was born at 10.30pm on Sept 10 2001, so I was in hospital at the time. Hubby had just gone home, I had just returned to my room after putting her in the nursery.

    The nurses in the nursery were surrounding the tv when I went in there but they didn’t say anything. I thought it was odd, but being tired I just accepted it and went back to my room.

    There I switched on the TV (without sound) and saw a picture of a plane hitting the tower.

    I was dumbfounded and couldn’t figure out what I was watching until a) I turned the sound on and b) one of our news reporters appeared on the screen sans makeup. I then realised that this wasn’t a movie / documentary or whatever it was real.

    Then the second plane hit ….

    I rang hubby, he had also turned the tv on and was watching it. It seemed too surreal to have a conversation about so we hung up.

    I spent the rest of the night watching the news broadcasts.

    I guess I never felt the anger – probably because I’m not American – but definitely unbelief, bewilderment, concern and fear for the future.

  22. Wow, something is in my eyes as I type this. I remember my wife calling and asking if my TV was on. Nope, why? Turn it on, she said, I asked what channel, and she said “all of them!” I turned it on and immediately saw the second airliner hit the 2nd tower. I told her this was no accident and to go get the kids from school and be back home when I get there. She was not the first mom at school even though it was only 1 mile away.
    20 minutes later the schools went on lock down, but we had ours, in my home, where I could protect them.

    Initially, I checked on our supplies, we were pretty well stocked by the uneventful passing of the Y2K scare. Gun safe was unlocked and magazines were checked. All ammo was accounted for.

    Then I watched TV for 3 straight days. No sleep, just info overload.

    What I felt for the first time was fear. I never felt it in all the years in the military, because it was just me then, but now I was responsible for the safety of 5 other people, all of whom were looking to me.

  23. Yeah, “ordinary expatriate” Americans {those of us down there due to NAFTA/joint venture deals} were NOT able to return to the U.S. until that Friday – I don’t know about consular folks/military who may have been on leave/etc. It was pretty ………………… concerning, because, ON 9/11, we didn’t know WHEN we would be able to return to our country …………………..

    Semper Fi’
    DM

  24. The day before I got a call from Atlantic County EMU that they were having some problems with some instrumentation I had trained them on. I went to work and picked up some things I might need when the first jet hit the WTC. By the time I was finished loading the car the second tower was hit.

    I drove down I-295 and the Atlantic City Expressway listening to the radio and the jumble of confused stories. There were very few vehicles on the road with me and all the troopers were going full out to NYC. It took me a couple of minutes to fix the problem in Northfield as they geared up to lend assistance if needed.

    When I got back to the office, everyone had gone home. I went to job two at a local firearms store and the place was somber. We had a pretty steady flow of folks buying ammo; the rush for firearms didn’t start for a couple of days.

    I got home and was stunned by the complete lack of air traffic. I lived on the approach to Willow Grove NAS and there was always an A-10, C-130 or P-3 up there somewhere. I found that unnerving.

    Gerry

  25. I was preparing to smack around some members of a secret society when I saw the news report on my hotel room TV set.

    I just figured “More of their bedevilment” (the secret society guys)and said some Hail Marys for those in harms way and the souls of those killed.

    I think we should make certain our government agents and representatives are on our side.

    Seems like nowadays we are the bad-guys and foreigners rule in America.

    Our well armed military is getting its ass kicked by a fathom fighting force.

    What gives?

    For your consideration:

    We need to exchange our sons and daughters for a fleet of B-52s loaded with nukes.

    A few mushroom clouds over Mecca will silence the “Death to America!” chants.

    Like the Japanese that bombed us at Pearl Harbor, they will beg for our generosity.

    *

  26. All, once again the differences are stark… Julie, thanks for chiming in… AOA/Danny, your reactions were basically the same as mine… I don’t know too many military or ex-military that didn’t immediately arm themselves, look out after family, and prep to do what ever was next. DM, that was a piece that I didn’t know had actually gone on!

  27. I was subbing in a 5th grade classroom. The kids were in P.E, so I went to the teachers’ lounge. My son’s 4th grade teacher pulled me into the cafeteria where he had hooked up a TV, and his students were watching. I got there just before the second plane hit, then the principal insisted that the TV be turned off. That class was directed not to discuss it with others during the day. At dismissal the principal made a rather vague announcement, telling the students to go home and talk to their parents.

    I watched a lot of news; the initial shock was bad enough, but the most vivid thing I remember was the slowly dawning horror as the hours ticked by and the emergency rooms did not fill with survivors. I’ve always had a “See the positive side and act on it – move forward – what next” mentality. It simply blew me away that there was nothing left to fix, nobody left to rescue.

    Thank you for asking. All these years, I’ve forgotten those feelings, and only remembered the initial shock. I told my husband the event brought to mind “really good cinematic special effects, specifically the Vegas crash landing scene in ‘Con Air.'”

  28. I was working at one of the DirecTV uplinks. We not only saw what the general public saw, but we found some ‘wild feeds’ that showed things that were NOT fit for public consumption.
    I’ll always remember the day Kennedy was shot, the day we landed on the Moon, the day my son was born, and 9/11.

  29. I was in a staff meeting.
    A production team leader interrupted the meeting to say that a plane had hit the WTC.
    We didn’t think much of it. I mentioned the bomber that had hit the Empire State Building and private planes that had hit commercial buildings.
    We continued talking and someone brought up a situation and asked how it should be dealt with.
    I said that the odds of that happening again were the same as a second plane hitting the WTC.
    That’s when she came back in and told us.

  30. I was stationed in England.

    The first plane hit while I was getting my uniform on for the hour-long drive to work.

    The second plane hit while I was going through a full-on frisk and car search at the base gate while under the steady gaze of two jeep mounted 50’s with nervous 18-year olds on the paddles. (TSA ain’t nothing compared to us, baby.)

    By Oct 11, 2001 I was deployed.

    …to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies…

  31. My wife and I had returned home around 6AM after driving all night. We’d been to my Mother-in-law’s funeral the previous day a state away. We were eating b’fast and had turned on the ‘tube just in time to see the 2nd airliner hit the other Tower. I went into the office just in time to work reviewing/securing our telecommunications network. My employer provided a significant part of the DoD secure communications network. It certainly woke folks up to come to work and see armed guards all around our facilities—some were NG.

    That woke up a bunch of folks.

  32. Suz- That principal did (to me) the wrong thing… I remember Kennedy being shot, and the teacher brought a transistor radio into class and us listening to the reports in each class the rest of the day and discussing it… ironically, I believe I was actually in Civics class when he was shot.

    drjim/Crucis- Yep, protecting infrastructure suddenly became hi pri, and there WERE some strange feeds hitting the uplinks.

    Msgt- Tell me about it 🙂 There were a few bases where I wondered if I’d SURVIVE going through the gates!

  33. LOL
    Hard to tell who was more nervous about those 50’s, me or the SrA frisking me.
    He leaned in close to my ear and said “Just be cool man, you get stupid and we ALL die.”
    I wouldn’t trade for his job for anything.

  34. Msgt- Yeah, heard that 🙂 I think the kids were MORE worried about the gunner than they were about me…

  35. I drove in to work with the radio off that morning, for some reason. Walked in to the break room, and saw the image of the first tower on fire. Commentator mentioned “possible terrorist attack”, right about the time the second plane hit. I had to punch in…a co-worker asked me what I thought about it all, and my first words of the day were “nuke the b@$tards.” Then reports of the Pentagon and the plane in Pennsylvania. Of course, corporate office decreed that only the store closest to Ground Zero be closed that day, so we basically hung around the store and did busy-work all day long, losing more money to payroll and utilities (before lunch) than we made all day. I quit watching the boob-tube after the first hour, because after that (as in any “breaking news” disaster coverage) it was all just talking heads conjecturing on what may/may not have happened, rehashing the same opening reports (but re-arranging the words so it sounds “fresh”, “new”, and “insightful”). But I was still pissed.

  36. Old NFO, I was in first grade, Charlotte, TX, when Kennedy was shot – the school turned off the lights {preclude our being a target for Russian bombers “on the way”}, and we sat in the dimness, our teacher going back & forth to the principal’s office, giving us news when she had it – I remember 2 other girls & myself making a cross out of Play Doh & praying that President Kennedy would be OK {believe it or not, this was in a PUBLIC school} – in the simplistic mind of a 6 year old, I thought of President Kennedy as the “Daddy” of the nation – my own Dad was on a WestPac at the time, so there was some anxiety over HIS safety.

    Semper Fi’
    DM

  37. I was asleep. had just gotten off the night shift and my flight landed at around 0230 local. I woke up at 0700 local to turn off my pager and was sound asleep when the phone rang. It was my brother, calling to tell me to turn on my radio (no TV). “Turn on the radio Sis. Your world just changed.” He was right – it did. I got confused, then mad. Went to the airport to finish paperwork and saw an Air Canada tail sticking up over the terminal building – they’d had to use a hook and ladder truck to get the passengers off. Good news was the old WWII base still had enough runway for the 737, 757 and an Airbus to get back out a few days later.

    So I’ve spent the past 10 years learning a hell of a lot more than I ever planned about jihad, sharia, and how to get jihadi propaganda and teaching materials taken off the ‘Net. My friend who used to work in lower Manhattan never wears high heels to work anymore, in case she ever has to walk 8 miles home again.

    LittleRed1

  38. I was settling in as a newly wed.My wife called from the road and told me what was going on.I had not had the tv or radio on at the time.I was shocked and mad.

  39. I was working at a school on Camp Geiger. We were on an off-week with no students, so we got to watch the news for that morning before being ordered back to Camp Lejeune to pick up all our gear and then return back to Camp Geiger. It took hours to get on and off the bases; there were FAST teams with dogs and stuff pulling everybody out of cars. Pretty intense.

    I didn’t get deployed right away, but some friends of mine were the first USMC boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Looking back now I kinda wished I was with them. Our curriculum picked up pace reaaaaaaly fast after that, as every unit out there wanted to get trained.

  40. All, thanks for your responses… DM, yeah, back in those days, prayer WAS acceptable… CT, thanks for your service!