Where were you 5 years ago tommorrow

[Byebyemermaid]

I was at bldg 250 at JFK airport which is the US postal service international mail facility.They are 1 of my larger accounts.I got there about 8 o'clock and was in there registry department when i heard on the radio that a small plane had hit the world trade center.As i went upstairs to see my contact who was the safety manager for the facility he says to me lets go up on the roof which has a clear view of lower Manhattan.We see the smoke and then this huge red fireball (but the plane came in where we couldn't see) without missing a beat he tells me Mark let's go back down.We learn of the 2nd plane and right away he goes into action and informs me to leave the building.My wife gets hold of me and tells me to go to an ATM and take out cash and i tell her i'm on my way to pick up our son at day care.i'm listening to Imus in the morning and he has Warner Wolf who had been doing sports on his show and who lived very close to the trade centers and was giving blow by blow description.i stayed off the highways which were becoming real bad and to the side roads to get our son.By the way my wife works in Manhattan and at the time was about 3 miles from ground zero.i got our son and cash but was not able to get through to my wife anymore since cell phones were so busy at that time.I finally got through to her and she told me her and some coworkers were figuring how to get out of the city and where to pick her up.Needless to say everything worked out and we were all together in front of the TV as well as i'm sure most of you were.

[2Hot4TV]

I was on my way to work and didn't turn on the radio that morning so it was a complete shock when I got to work. Remember it like yesterday. I will never forgive the backwards thinking that kills in the name of God.

[ddthetide]

i'm a serviceman for the local electric company. we had a slow day and i had forgotten something and was on my way home to get it. i had Imus in the morning on the radio, they were reporting that a plane had hit the WTC. sports-reporter warner wolf, who worked part-time for Imus, had called in to report that his wife had heard and saw the first plane fly by their apartment!
by the time i got home and got msnbc on tv, i watched the second plane hit!
all I could think was "HOLY S*** !! DID I JUST SEE THAT!!????"

the lady i was dating at that time is now my wife, works 35 miles away. i called to see if they had the radio on. when she said no i told them to get to a tv. they had NO idea what was happening!! they spent the rest of the morning at the tavern next door to their office. they closed at lunch time.
the one attorney in their office at that time was a retired Navy Seal. by the next day he had "most " of the scoop but was limited to what he could say.

we live 15 miles from camp david, so we have F-18's buzzing by from time-to-time or Blackhawk helicopters patrolling the mountain as reminders.

[1st_Saturday_in_May]

I was a freshman in high school. I'll never forget that the first person to break the news of the attack was my 75 year old lesbian gym teacher. Me and my buddies just camped out in front of a TV and watched it all unfold for most of the morning and when we found out the terrorists were from Afghanistan I'll always remember one friend asking 'Afghanistan? Who the **** are they?' One or two teachers (Mr. Shriver especially) continued along with their lesson plan and lectured that day, but most just let us watch the TV in their room. Was one of the saddest (but luckiest) days of my life because my aunt was supposed to be in the Pentagon that morning but her meeting got postponed and she wasnt there at the time of the attack which may or may not have affected her (she's really not sure). RIP to all of the innocent that died that day and God Bless the USA!

[Sightseek]

I had just woken up and turned on the radio. Howard Stern was on and he said how a plane had hit the towers and my first thought was that was the worst thing he could joke about...then they kept talking about it and I turned on the TV just after the last plane hit.

What a horrible day.

[kentuckyrosesinmay]

One of my best friends had just died in a car wreck and I was at home sick with depression and strep throat (not a good combo). I was laying in bed watching the news when I saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. I couldn't believe my eyes at first. Then, all I could do was cry because I realized what was happening. Very, very sad day.

[Seattleallstar]

I was doing situps watching CNN, when Aaron Brown said there was only a fire at the WTC

Originally Posted by 1st_Saturday_in_May

I was a freshman in high school. I'll never forget that the first person to break the news of the attack was my 75 year old lesbian gym teacher. Me and my buddies just camped out in front of a TV and watched it all unfold for most of the morning and when we found out the terrorists were from Afghanistan I'll always remember one friend asking 'Afghanistan? Who the **** are they?' One or two teachers (Mr. Shriver especially) continued along with their lesson plan and lectured that day, but most just let us watch the TV in their room.

I would be Mr. Shriver. We were told to keep on going with our regular plans at school and to let the parents talk to the kids when they get home. Its a big deal in Texas not to interfere with the parents right to inform. A few teachers did not tow the line and got calls from parents saying how dare you let my kids watch that without me present to explain...

I have to tell you I was completely dumbfounded how the towers actually crumbled. Some of the teachers were watching it and told me one of the towers collapsed and I said NO Way... How does that happen? And then I said I just cant see the other one collapsing and then it goes and I am completely at a loss. So much for my engineering ideas. I just could not believe they came down. Odd I know, but that was my first thought, as I was not able to follow it closely thru the day while teaching.

[Scav]

I was in college down in Carbondale. I missed class becuase of a late night playing cards and my friend came downstairs and knocked on my door and said "Yo, get ready to get drafted"

Went upstairs before the 2nd plane hit the building and missed class for the next 3 days because I was glued to CNN/Fox News/MSNBC...First time in my history that I didn't have some sort of sport on the remote go back.

Originally Posted by Sightseek

I had just woken up and turned on the radio. Howard Stern was on and he said how a plane had hit the towers and my first thought was that was the worst thing he could joke about...then they kept talking about it and I turned on the TV just after the last plane hit.

What a horrible day.

The same thing happened to me. I was listening to Stern and I thought he was joking. Then I turned on the TV and saw right after the second plane. I was in my room at college.

[Crown@club]

In my office, fielding phone calls by drivers worried about not finding fuel on the road, and Corporate too worried about losing business

[somerfrost]

I was at work in the juvenile institution...we all crowded around a small TV with a screen about the size of my computer monitor and watched events unfold. That day and the day Kennedy was shot (I was in high school Spanish class) will remain with me forever. I remember all the rumors that were flying about and the fear in the kid's voices (many had relatives who worked in DC at or close to the Pentagon or the Capital)...rough day!

[skippy3481]

I have a pretty unique story. Most of you dont know but i went to flight school in florida. 5 years ago i was sitting on the runway cleared to take off, pushed the power foward, was about halfway to roation and i heard the controller frantically screaming abort takeoff. Slam on my breaks thinking wtf, there is nothing on the runway must be some type of emergency in the air nearby. I asked the tower controller what was up, but he only replied the faa had grounded all flights and wouldn't say anymore.
As i was taxing back to our ramp, i heard them launch our alert fighters(we were only 20 miles from kennedy space center)

Got back in to our dispatch area and they had cnn and found out what was going on. Hit me very hard that not only would people kill innocent people, but that they would use something i love(airplanes) to do it. Spent the next two days in a stupor waiting to see what would happen. Still does not seem real when i think about it.

[pmayjr]

I was a Ju-co student at the time, and I had been sleeping because I didn't have classes til later in the morning. My mom comes in to my bedroom when the first plane hit the tower, to tell me that... I was thinking "oh damn, that sucks, but I'll see it on the news later" and went back to sleep. But then 10-15 minutes later my mom wakes me up again and says a 2nd plane just hit the WTC. I was kinda half asleep, and half-joking, but I asked my mom "is school cancelled?". It sounded dumb and a lil insensitive, but when she said the 2nd plane hit, I knew there was some serious **** going on.

Me and my friends are pretty much all night owls. We had been up really late the night before, and so I called my friend to tell him to turn on a TV. He was really pissed because he hates waking up, and he just started yelling at me "WHAT ABOUT THE PENTAGON!? WHAT ABOUT THE PENTAGON!?" And that's how I found out about the Pentagon crash. I explained to him what happened, and he calmed down. I went to my one class that day, and spent the rest of the day in front of the TV, because I didn't have to work.

One extra side note- My favorite band back then, and still now, is the group Jamiroquai. They were in NYC that day, to play a gig at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Well of course the show got cancelled, along with the rest of the tour, appearances on Letterman and Leno, and they weren't allowed to leave the U.S. for 2 weeks because of all the flights being grounded. They came back to tour for the first time last fall, and it was extra special to go see them in NYC, and tour Ground Zero and all of that stuff.

Here we go.

I was on a US Naval ship that had been deployed for 4 months. We had been doing OPS in the Persian Gulf. Mostly intercept OPS with any vessels trying to leave IRAQ. We would intercept them and take those ships back to an anchorage location in the Northern Gulf area.

We had been relieved and were on our way back to the Red Sea to transit through the Suez Canal back into the Med. The plan was some liberty in Turkey, Italy, and Siciliy before returing to the US.

I'll never forget that afternoon our time. I had just knocked off my division and noticed that one of the taskings I had assigned wasn't completed. I had gone down to the berthing to chew some butt of my Petty Officer in charge. When I got there I noticed the lounge in the berthing was full of people watching TV. I thought they were watching a porn flick which is normally the only time the lounge is that full of sailors. As the senior guy of 70+ people in the berthing, when I arrived they looked at me and said "Boats, look at NYC."
We had live satelite feed.

Between the time I left the berthing and entered the senior enlisted lounge the second building was hit. Remember at this time we are off Yemen headed to the Red Sea doing about 30 knots. I turned to my fellow senior enlisted and said we are going to turn around. They didn't believe me but within 30 minutes we did.

On October 7th, 2001 I was on the flight deck at 8:00pm in the Indian Ocean. It was a glorius night, no clouds, all stars. We were about 2 miles from the USS John Paul Jones when the first tomahawks were fired into Afganistan. I turned to someone as the Tomahawk went over the horizen and said alot of people will die shortly. There was utter silence.

just a normal day...drove my kids to school, was only working part time at the time....got home, had laundry to do, turned on the t.v. to the news--just in time to see plane #2 fly into the tower. so much for a normal day. had one sister working in d.c. at the time, my brother is a d.c. fireman, and of course nothing from either as lines were down.

i hope we never see the likes of that day again.

and how i wished i could have gone to lebanon that day and punched that effing woman in the face, give her something to celebrate.

[paisjpq]

I was in the barn, running late to leave for my genetics class @ nine, listening to Howard Stern on the radio...I was turning horses out and didn't hear all of what was said so I thought it was some kind of joke. The farm is directly behind the airport where the Air Guard is stationed (since we are 600 miles from NYC and the coast etc they were called up). I am so used to hearing commercial planes take off and land all day that it was surprising how much the absence of flights over the next few days really made for an eeiry silence; Broken every 45 minutes or so by the take off and landing of the fully loaded f-16's (they shake the ground when they take off with live weapons, I guess because of the added weight they use more power taking off).
Instead of class I drove to my parents house where my brother was sitting dumbfounded in front of the television...pretty much spent the next three days glued to the screen.

[Byebyemermaid]

I got this about 2 weeks after September 11th and it's called on Monday.on mondaythere were people fighting against praying in school.ON TUESDAY YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN HARD PRESSED TO FIND A SCHOOL WHERE SOMEONE WAS NOT PRAYING.on monday there were people trying to separate each other by race,sex and creed.ON TUESDAY THEY WERE ALL HOLDING HANDS.on monday we were talking about heroes as being athletes.ON TUESDAY WE RELEARNED WHAT HERO MEANT.on monday people went to work at the world trade center.ON TUESDAY THEY DIED.on monday we were flying the 10 commandments on government property.ON TUESDAY THE SAME PEOPLE ALL SAID "G-D HELP US ALL" WHILE THINKING "THOU SHALL NOT KILL"on monday people argued with their kids about picking up their room.ON TUESDAY THE SAME PEOPLE COULDN'T GET HOME FAST ENOUGH TO HUG THEIR KIDS.on monday people picked up Mcdonalds.ON TUESDAY THEY STAYED HOME.on monday people were upset that their dry cleaning was not ready on time.ON TUESDAY THEY WERE LINING UP TO GIVE BLOOD FOR THE DYING.on monday politicians about budget surpluses.ON TUESDAY GRIEF STRICKEN THEY SANG G-D BLESS AMERICA.on monday we worried about the traffic and getting to work late.ON TUESDAY WE WORRIED ABOUT A PLANE CRASHING INTO OUR HOMES OR PLACE OF BUSINESS.on monday we were irritated that our rebate checks hadn't arrived on time.ON TUESDAY WE SAW PEOPLE CELEBRATING PEOPLE DYING IN THE USA.on monday we e-mailed jokes.ON TUESDAY WE DID NOT.TAKE CARE AND HAVE A GOOD DAY EVERYONE.MARK.