Getting close to the anniversary - where were you on 9/11?

[Parabola]

This was when my oldest was not quite one. At the time I didn't have a washer and dryer, so I went over to my mom's once a week to do laundry.

 

I always had the stereo on in my son's room, and that morning I woke up and went to get him out of his crib and on the stereo they were talking about a plane crashing into a buiding. For some reason, I pictured a light aircraft going into the Sears tower.

 

We get in the car and head on over to my mom's and for some reason I didn't turn the radio on. This is pretty much of unheard of for me, to be in the car without music. I think that possibly I managed to glean some more info from the radio news then I was aware of, and just wasn't ready to deal with it. Maybe.

 

So we get to my mom's, the door's open and no one is there but the tv is on CNN. And there I get the full-force effect.

 

My first thought was something along the lines of Who in the WORLD had the balls to bomb us?? Seriously, that was my first thought. Sorry if it offended anyone. And it was like a bombing, it took me awhile to stop calling it that.

 

I had another thought, followed a bit later, that I bet Al Gore was thanking his lucky stars he hadn't gotten that election afterall. At least for one passing moment.

 

So I sat there and watched the rest of the day. Actually for days, weeks afterwards CNN was on constantly. Some of the things that I heard about, the ones that actually turned out to be true, were truly awful. Can you imagine being near the top floors of these towers, with the inferno burning behind you, and only an open window ahead of you? What would you do?? I can't fathom that, I can't wrap my head around the choice that would have to be made.

 

It's a life-defining moment. Every knows where they were when it happened. Just like, in the past, everyone knew where they were when Kennedy got shot, or other historical moments.

But eventually 9-11 will be forgotten, it will pass into history and the people who experienced it - in any degree - will be gone, and there will be another life defining moment for the next generation.

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

I had just moved to Louisiana and was doing school with my oldest who was only in 1st grade then. We were doing her Saxon math and called my dad to ask a question concerning a poll or something for that. He told me something along the lines about watching the world come to an end (though he didn't mean that) and told me about a plane hitting the Twin Tower. I got off the phone and finished school!!!! When I finally turned on the TV, I was shocked by the magnitude of what had happened! I had no idea it was that catastrophic!

[Frelle]

My husband was in England, working for BT for the summer. He was flying back to the US on 9/11 to attend his 10 yr HS reunion, through Dulles, and on to Atlanta. I had sold our house and put everything into storage and was staying with my MIL. After the reunion, we had tickets to fly back to the UK and live there that fall.

 

My MIL came to get me out of the bedroom where I was playing with Grace, who was about 20 months old. She put on Nickelodeon on the bedroom TV for her, and told me to come into the living room. I saw repeated coverage about the first tower hit, and saw the second tower get hit live.

 

I immediately wanted to reach Rob, but he was already in the air over the Atlantic. I called my mom and dad, and anyone else I could think of, and watched a LOT of TV that day. I'd never been so thankful for the fact that my young child was interested in TV, because I didn't want her seeing any of the images there.

 

I finally got a call late that night from a friend of Rob's in England. He wanted to let me know that the plane had headed back to Heatherow and that Rob was charging his cell phone and would call me the next morning.

 

Our life changed, but not as drastically as some. I will always remember the hours between the towers being hit and hearing that Rob was ok were some of the longest of my life.

[swellmomma]

I had just dropped the kids off at daycare and was on my way into my college and heard the news on the radio. I was studying early childhood development, but that day classes were virtually at a standstill, with most students watching tvs(that were wheeled into hallways, or in the college pub) for the live coverage. I remember being worried sick about my kids. Even though I knew they were okay I still just wanted to hold them close, but I had an exam in my last class of the day and couldn't leave. There was alot of talk that day around the campus, about whether or not this would be a war on U.S. soil and what impact that would have on Canada.

[Cathy in IL]

I had just settled my dd in her three year old classroom and was heading for the infant room where I taught. I stopped to greet a parent at the door, and she asked if we were still open. I looked at her in confusion and she said, "A plane has hit the WTC." I turned on the radio in the nursery and heard more about it. I called my co-workers into the room and we listened together as the story unfolded. Most of the children didn't get dropped off that day. Witthin an hour or so, almost all the children who had been dropped off were picked up and I was sent home.

 

I tried to limit my dd's exposure to the media coverage, but it was everywhere. She still remembers it. When they first let the planes fly again afterwards, we were downtown Chicago. My dd raised her fist in the air and called out, "Why, why? Why would they let them up there again!"

[E_Edgerton]

My boyfriend (now my Dh) and I were asleep...we didn't have class for a couple of hours still. I just remember my Grandmother calling me and screaming that something awful happened...then we got cut off. No more phone service the rest of the day. We had no cable or internet in our apt. at the time so I saw no images, I still haven't actually. I know the day happened, but I feel really sheltered from it. A blur really. I know it still makes me sad and I have an unease around this time of year.

[Soph the vet]

I was driving myself and two oldest dc (0 and 2 at the time) to Mother's Fellowship where I had to be early to help set up and man the registration table. The first plane had already hit according to the radio guy and I pictured a small plane in my mind. At the first major intersection from our house the 2nd plane hit and the radio announcer immediately said "we are under attack". All morning as women came to the church I would get more updates on the situation but no visual images (no TV) and our meeting became an all-out prayer meeting. As I was at the welcome table someone came in and said the first WTC tower had collapsed. That was when I lost it and started crying. I grew up an hour from NYC and it was a real treat to go up in to the WTC. Now one was gone. The church janitor had a TV in his office and a couple of us finally saw what everyone had tried to describe. It was surreal.

I watched the news for days on end. I know I must've known someone who died, there were so many I went to college with who ended up on Wall Street.

The other thing I remember was that evening going to the gas station and the prices were high and the lines were incredible.

My friend's dh was in WTC 1 on September 10th for business. He ended up driving back to MN a few days later. I also remember the F-16s flying overhead but nothing else.

[Kris]

Sweetie and I were driving truck, and I was on the "night shift." So when I woke up around noon, he told me about it and I remember telling him he must have been mistaken -- that had to be some kind of "War of the Worlds" thing. Our son wasn't with us, and we were two days drive from home. Aside from the obvious, I wasn't worried about him, so much, since he was out in the middle of nowhere -- I was worried about being cut off and not being able to get home.

[Jennefer@SSA]

My best friend called to tell me that planes were crashing into buildings and that one might be headed for the White House. My bil worked in the White House at that time so we spent the rest of the day glued to the TV waiting for word that he was okay. They had all been evacuated to below-ground bunkers and couldn't call until much, much later that night. The cell towers were jammed and no one could get calls out or in. When we finally got word he was okay we were so relieved although by then the towers had fallen and reports from the Pentagon were coming in. Just typing it brings back all the horrific feelings. I hope our country never sees anything like that again.

[cin]

I was sitting at my computer (about 6 ft from where I am sitting now) when DH called me and told me to turn on the TV. His boss (who was a little strange) had told him someone flew into one of the towers. I turned on the TV and called DH back and told him the 2nd tower was just hit. We realized that his boss wasn't wacky this time. He came home early that day, working in a building next to the federal bldg in our town.

 

On a side note, I have a friend who was suppose to be coming home from her honeymoon that week. Oh darn, stuck an extra week in Hawaii. :glare: But we were almost stuck in Canada. we came home the Sunday before.

 

I was glued to the TV that week. DH finally MADE me turn the TV off 2 days later. And later that month I started having anxiety attacks. A combination of 9/11 and the fact that we had just submitted our paperwork to Vietnam and OMG, there's a 'baby on the way'.

[Miss Sherry]

Yes, I remember also.

I was home with our 3 children and it was my youngest daughters birthday. It was the day of her 6th birthday and we were going to have her party that day.

My husband called and told me about the first building being ran into with a plane. I turned on the TV and soon after saw the second tower hit with the other plane. It was horrifying.

My two oldest children also saw it.

 

We postponed the birthday party for a couple of weeks.

 

My daugther and I baked cookies for the teenage neighor kids that would be coming home after school that day. We wanted to provide a nurturing enviroment for them and our own children on that disturbing day. They usually stopped by our house after school.

We all hung out in our backyard and the kids played some basketball and rode their skate boards on the large cement patio and ate the cookies and other things we had for them.

 

I remember the skys being so quiet - no plane traffic we were used to normally having - except there were some fighter jets that we were so thankful and happy for.

That day was especailly traumatic on my teens and the neighbor teens. I remember one of my daugthers friends saying at Halloween that year that she did not want to go to the Mall to shop for a Halloween costume because she was afraid it could be a terrorist target.

[cin]

My girlfriend's sister had post traumatic stress over seeing people and parts of people falling from the towers. The whole thing was beyond anything I have ever experienced and I hope to never go through anything like that again. I tell you the truth I am so glad I have moved from Long Island I think I had some hidden anxiety about living there since 9/11. KWIM?

 

My cousin is a nurse and was at the Oklahoma City Bombing. She was deeply affected by things you don't see on the news. One of which was the body parts. She was a nurse for one of the Denney children.

 

I tried to find her info on the web, but her name is very similar to the that of Princess Di (she got married at the same time and had a heckuva time getting people to NOT hang up on her when she was trying to get things done).

[Mom2boys]

I was holding my 10 day old infant, and recovering from a c-section. Dh was still home on paternity leave when his staff called (he is a newspaper editor) and told him to turn on the TV. We parked our 4 year old in front of Blues Clues in the other room and turned on the Today Show. When we saw the second plane hit the towers, he said "I have to go", and I said "I know". We didn't see dh for three days. Thankfully my mom and dad moved into my house and took care of the boys and I. For a week I watched TV and cried.

[RoughCollie]

I didn't find out about 9/11 until 4 p.m. that day, when my mom called me. I did not believe her at first, and I was completely horrified by it. In fact, it still horrifies me.

 

I couldn't turn on the t.v. because the boys were 7 and DD was nearly 6, and I did not want them to find out about it. I read the news online instead. My mom agreed with this because she did not want the kids to be traumatized by it. We are probably especially careful of this in our family because my mom was a child during WWII in East Germany and we are very cognizant of how violence effects children even if they are only seeing it happen before their eyes on t.v.

 

DD had just started first grade at PS and I kept her out of school for the next 2 days to make sure she did not hear about it there. When she returned to school, the little kids had moved on to discussing something else.

 

We went to Wal-Mart a couple of days afterward, and a friend of mine stayed with the kids in the car because I was afraid Wal-Mart would have the news blaring on their intercom, and sure enough, they did.

 

My focus was entirely on making sure my kids did not find out about this. I did not want to rock their worlds with terror at their tender ages. I did not allow anyone to discuss it unless the kids were all asleep.

 

I told them about it a couple of years later.

 

RC

[anissarobert]

I was at the first meeting of our classical support group. A friend and I were both trying to follow TWTM and thought it would be neat to start a group. We had our first meeting at the park, and we just sort of sat there and looked at each other while the kids played.

[WTMindy]

Sheesh!! Just reading this thread has me bawling!

[gardenschooler]

We were home, having school (mine were 9, 7, & 2), and the only tv we'd turned on so far that day was PBS. I decided it was such a beautiful day, I was going to call my friend and invite to go to the Botanic Gardens with us. She tried to tell me what was happening but I just couldn't comprehend what she was saying - How could this be? I turned the tv on in time to see the 2nd plane hit.

 

It's still surreal to me. I was born and grew up in my early years in NYC.

[AndyJoy]

It was my sophomore year of college, and I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when a freshman girl came in crying, saying "We've been bombed! They're bombing all over the U.S.!" What I couldn't believe was that two girls who were blow drying their hair heard this passionate exclamation but immediately went back to doing their hair! I quickly ran to my room and turned on my radio and computer (we didn't have TVs) to figure out what she was talking about. Though classes were not officially canceled by the school, none of the professors taught their normal course content that day.

[Queen of Sheba]

Maui. On my honeymoon. We were supposed to go home that day and we were lazily getting packed up when the hotel rang our room and asked what our plans were. I politely told them that we had had a great time, but that we were, indeed leaving that day. They told me that the airports were all closed and that I needed to turn on the tv. Anybody else in Hawaii on 9/11 will tell you that we were all like zombies walking around in paradise. I remember at the time being really thankful that I'd scheduled the wedding BEFORE that date, and I felt sorry for all of the brides getting married in the coming weeks.

[katalaska]

We were in the middle of a move. As we got ready to leave our motel, we tried to turn on some cartoons for the kids to keep them distracted while we packed. There were very grainy pictures. I recognized one of them as the Pentagon--I used to drive past it every day on my way to work. There was a big hole in it and it seemed to be burning. I was confused when I changed channels and saw smoke billowing out of a skyscraper. We couldn't find anything for the kids to watch.

 

As we went through the lobby, we saw more strange scenes on the televisions and overheard a man talking on the pay phone about how he didn't think he'd be able to fly out that day. Something about planes being grounded.

 

Then we got to the border. Armed BATF personnel were everywhere. WE realized that whatever this was, it was HUGE. We were surprised they just asked for our passports, asked us a few questions, and let us go. They were escorting people from other vehicles inside the buildings at the border.

 

We had NO idea what was going on. Dh and I were in two different cars. We had walkie-talkie type radios with us. I was able to get some reception on the car stereo and radioed it to him. Something about planes crashing into buildings, the President leaving Florida and flying someplace secret, etc. It was confusing and scary.

 

We were in the middle of closing on the sale of our home. The buyers were in one state and the house was in another. The documents had to go by FedEx and the planes weren't flying. The person at the title company handling our paperwork had a brother in one of the Twin Towers and had to leave our documents with someone else.

[GSMP]

Our church has ladies bible study and visitation on Tuesday mornings. I had dropped the kids off at the school (located in the church) and kept the nursery for the other moms to go out.

 

From the room I was sitting at I could see there was a lot of activity at the front desk. More than usual. I wandered over to see what was going on and that was when one of the moms had come back to the church.

 

The towers had been hit as had the Pentagon. My husband was in D.C. where he worked on 25th and M street near Dupont Circle. I ran to one of the phones and called him. I managed to get through before the phone lines were shut down. He described the smoke billowing in the air from the Pentagon. He said I95 had all ready become a parking lot. He was going to try to take the train home but there was no use in him leaving now. He doubted he would be able to get through since one of his metro stops is at the Pentagon. He finally made it home around 10pm.

 

Our church has quite a large military contingent that attend. Many of the men and women in our church work at the Pentagon. We waited to hear from all of the families to make sure everyone was okay. There were stories and testimonies of men and women who for some reason or another didn't make it into work that morning or were running late.

 

My BIL was an EMT at the time. They were on their way back from Walter Reed, dropping a patient off. As they were driving over that section of I95, my BIL turned to his driver and said that plane was flying awfully low. As he turned his head to follow the plane he saw it impact the Pentagon.

 

They pulled over immediately and got off 95 straight for the Pentagon. They pulled up right as the Pentagons fire and rescue team pulled into the area where the plane hit. My sister was also an EMT at the time and was doing dispatch. My BIL called the Ambulance Company they worked for and Life Care sent every ambulance they had.

 

My BIL describes the horror of what they found when they were going into the building and trying to pull people out. They stayed there for two days trying to help the Pentagon and Fairfax Fire and Rescue. They stayed until they were sent home.

 

He said the horror of it was so overwhelming and the smell of the burning flesh and the jet fuel. He quit not long after that. He couldn't go back to being an EMT. It was too much for him.

 

He won't talk about it. We drove over to the Pentagon and got as close as we could. Many of the folks around here were doing that and laying flowers everywhere.

 

That day changed my husbands attitude. He said when you consider that we live and work at ground zero for the whole world, nothing else matters. There are those who would love to see Washington D.C. taken out. It is unlike any other capital in the world.

 

The United States is unlike any other country. We bitterly argue over our politics and our beliefs and love a good fight. Our history has shown when you kick us we come up fighting. We pull together and unite, filled with the love we have for our country and our families.

 

We are willing to lay aside our differences for the greater good and rally behind those who need us.

 

There were many in our church who had to be counseled due to the guilt they felt in not being at their desks that morning. We watched as the bodies were removed. We cried when a person was found alive and we cried when they brought another out who didn't make it.

 

One of the local volunteer rescue members at the station I volunteer at was in New York doing Rescue training. His wife later found out that as soon as the call went out he ran to the Trade Towers. When she didn't hear from him by the next day, she knew he was one of the many rescue members who lost their lives. She had just given birth to twin boys. She has since remarried and been able to put her life back together. We will be having a memorial on the 11th for all of those who lost their lives but especially for one of our own.

 

I think we came to finally realize how reviled and hated we Americans are by other countries. My brother was over seas at the time. He was appalled at the comments he was hearing. The upstart, arrogant Americans finally got what has been coming to them.

 

Makes me ill...............

[melissel]

This thread is making me cry too. I'm fine every year until the weather turns crisp. Then I get very anxious and depressed and it takes me a few days to figure out why. Every year. You'd think I'd remember by now.

 

DH and I drove through the Holland Tunnel into lower Manhattan at around the same time the first plane hit, but didn't hear or see anything. All I could think about later was that I was putting on eyeliner while people were dying less than a mile away. It wasn't until I got to work on Astor Place and walked into Starbucks that I heard people talking about the first plane. I actually chuckled a little, because I wondered what kind of dolt would make that mistake. I thought it was a small plane, and that it couldn't really be quite true. By the time I got back to my office, I overheard two people in the elevator talking about the second plane, and thought, "Sheesh! How quickly rumors get started!"

 

When I got upstairs, I couldn't get on CNN, but a few minutes later my phone rang, and it was my mother, who almost wept with relief when she heard my voice. That was when I realized how bad it really was. I often took the train into the World Trade Center station if I had errands to run before work, and my whole family knew that. My mom hadn't heard the news until she'd gotten a desperate call from my aunt trying to find me.

 

Then we were all stuck in the office for hours, terrified to leave. From the roof, I watched the smoke and chaos and walked away just before the first tower fell. When I went heard, I went right back up, and there was so much smoke it looked exactly like the tower was still there, but obscured. I thought it couldn't be true. Then I went back down to my desk and cried.

 

Finally we all started to trickle out of the office. Very limited subway service had started again, but no traffic was allowed below 45th Street, so I had to make my way up to meet DH, who had the car because he'd gone out to Queens for work. It was totally bizarre--midtown Manhattan with no traffic, hardly any people, no subways, all stores and restaurants closed. It was just like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. We made our way slowly up to his mom's house, and stayed there until evening, when we headed back to Jersey City. We could smell the smoke for weeks, and then for months afterward whenever it was damp or rainy, the smell would come back. We used to be able to see the towers from our front step, and Liberty State Park, where the rescue services were coordinated, was a quarter mile from our apartment. It was jarring to walk our door everyday and not see those towers. I "worked from home" for months afterward because I couldn't gather the courage to get on the PATH train (underground train between NY and NJ) to go into the city.

 

We decided to have our first baby not long after that, and she was so overdue, we thought we might have a 9/11 baby. Unfortunately, I was induced on 9/6, so she was born on 9/7. Three years later, at her birthday party, I went into labor with her sister, who was born naturally at 10:01 p.m. on...9/11. We think it's a fitting finger in the face of those who want to wipe us off the map :D It also takes some of the sting out of the memories for us.

 

I also have the honor of being able to say I was trapped in Manhattan during the blackout of 2003, trying to get home to my nursling in NJ. That was a fun day. Using a manual breast pump in a car full of strangers is not amusing :001_rolleyes:

[Closeacademy]

We were watching Barney when my dh called and told me to turn on the news because there something on the radio about it. I turned it on just as our tenants pulled up to pay us and we watched for a little bit. When I tuned in the towers were both still up and I thought that it was cessnas that had crashed into them.

 

I remember watching the towers fall. I remember the walls of pictures for the missing. It was all very overwhelming.

 

A friend of mine had her baby that day but I didn't meet her until a few weeks after this event.:001_smile:

[Karenciavo]

I was in Walt Disney World, scheduled to fly home that day. We kept our rental car and drove home, I'm glad we had one because there were none to be found by mid-day.

[MeanestMomInMidwest]

Sheesh!! Just reading this thread has me bawling!

:iagree:

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I was at home getting ready to school my dc when a friend called and told me to turn on the tv. We didn't have one! So I ran over to another friend's house and told her to turn on the news something is happening in NY. We sat there in unbelief for an hour before I realized my dh didn't know what was going on because he was at home with our dc. I went home and then we went to my parent's house to watch what was happening. We couldn't believe it!

 

I've lived in NYC and have friends who worked in the WTC. My church there had a lot of people who worked in the WTC. It was so personal to me. I wanted to make sure they were okay. It was an unbelieveable day. I remember at one point thinking that this must be the end of the world.

[kristavws]

I was freaking out in my living room, watching it all on TV. My mother, who has seldom left our home state, was in NYC on September 11 for work-related training. Neither my brother, nor I, were able to get in touch with her for several hours after the second tower came down.

 

Krista

[Mom to Aly]

I was at home, didn't have the tv or radio on, had no idea what happened. XH (at the time dh) had just come back early that morn from a business trip to Canada, and was sleeping, and I had turned off the upstairs phone. I went downstairs, and there was a message from my BIL and sister in NY, saying they were OK, not to worry. I had no idea what was happening. Then my brother called, hysterical, and I couldn't understand what was going on. He told me to go away from my dd, who was playing in her room, so I went in my bedroom and turned on the tv. I was just in time to see the second plane hit. I just sat, with tears rolling down my face--at the time, they said it was the beginning of World War III.

 

We had to pick up one of our cars from the mechanic later that day, and I guess I was in shock, didn't get it--we went out, took our dd to the park--we are in Richmond, VA--the streets were completely deserted--nobody anywhere!

 

I lost so many friends there, but I do have two miracle stories I have to list here--I had two friends who were married who worked in the first building. They were not there that day, because she went into premature labor; their first baby was born that afternoon :). Another friend of mine was assumed dead, because he worked in the first building as well, and no one could contact him; turned out he had gone home the day before, had the flu, slept through it all, got up 9 days later, didn't know what happened. Two happy stories :).

[Storm Bay]

At home. First heard about it from my landlady (dh was starting his business & we were in a 3 family). Didn't really hit me until I saw the flag at halfmast later that day because it seemed so unreal on TV, but when I saw that flag half way down it became real and I cried.

[Sahamamama]

On my way to meet with a client (re: social work), when my sister called and told us to turn on the TV (had one back then). I left to meet the client and by the time I got there, she was in tears and the second tower and Pentagon had been hit. We sat and watched it all fall down.

[caitlinsmom]

I was getting ready for a job interview. I was antsy because it was a ritzy job for me. My brother and sister lived with us at the time so we were all going about our morning rituals. I had to call the woman who was doing my interview to confirm and she told me we would be cancelling and asked if I was watching yet. I had no idea what she was talking about.

We flipped on the tv and proceded to sit there and watch. My sis came home early from school that day and work was cancelled (I worked at a bank). My husband lost his job offer that we relocated for because of the attacks.

We lived near the Portland Or airport and it was so quiet. The whole city was weird to drive around. It seemed like everyone I passed was just as shell shocked as we were. Later when the airport was open again, i remember driving down I-84 and watching for miles the airplanes just hovering in the air waiting to land. It was so unreal.

[Willow]

I was up in the mountains on a camp with dd. We got back 2 days later laughing and joking about how the world could have ended and we would have known nothing about it..............

[akmommy]

I woke up and turned the radio on as usual. They were talking in detail about what Bush was doing, I thought to myself that this was odd. Then they started talking about airplanes falling from the sky and the last plane that could not be contacted. I went down and woke up DH with the news about the planes and we got back to the living room just in time to hear that the fourth plane had crashed. At that point we turned on the TV news and he called my mom. She was up but hadn't turned on the radio or TV yet.

 

I spent the rest of that day in shock.

[TravelingChris]

My husband had started a four month class on 9/10 that was in Ft. Belvoir, VA. We had all traveled with him from New Mexico as an extended field trip and the kids and I were going to spend three weeks in the DC area visiting historic sites and museums and then we were going to fly back home while he continued his class. On 9/11, we had dropped off dh in the base at around 7;30 and we started our journey to DC to go to the musuems. At around 7:50 or so, I turned off the tape we had been listening to and wanted to get traffic reports. We were in the HOV lanes on I-95. They were talking about a plane crashing into the WTC and how the weatehr was clear up there. I immediately recognized that there was an attack on us and started trying to move over to get into a position to get into a normal lane and get back to the base. Then the second plane crashed. I was really scared at this point. I knew we had to get into the base before the gates were closed. I didn't know when that would happen. THe morning rush hour was as usual awful and there was construction so it was hard to manuever. Wehn we were getting to the horrible Springfield interchange, we saw all of a sudden, a big billowing cloud of black smoke. I started crying. WE saw it before they announced it on the radio and we couldn't tell waht was attacked but we knew it was something in the Potomac River area like the Capital, White House or Pentagon. A few minutes or maybe even less than a minute later, the announcer said that it was the Pentagon. I managed to get on to the Beltway and then through back roads into Fort Belvoir. It had been an open base so it took them some time to get it closed and barricades put up. We went to dh's class building and they were all out of class and in the lounge looking at the tv. We saw the Towers fall. One of my husband's clasmates lost his wife who was also military and working at the Pentagon. We didn't know when it was ending. There were reports about bombs at the Stae Department and the USA Today building. Since we were sstaying in a hotel, we had to still go out to eat. Our cell phone coverage was out and even local phone lines were overloaded. I went to the library and notified friends back in NM that we were okay. Dh did the same with his bosses but they didn't look at their email so they called up frantically late at night when the phones finally were clear.

 

Then came anthrax scares (dh's class was visiting Congressional offices when one of those happened and had to be evacuated). We were at a museum and got evacuated because of a suspicious package. The following year, the Beltway Sniper was active and my dh kept having to go on trips to DC area and gas up his rental cars (including a white van once). Then we got a nutcase who decided to put pipe bombs around the West to make a smiley face. (I-40 was the smile and we lived less than a mile from it with the kind of mailbox he liked). Then we moved to Belgium and Madrid bombing happened a month before our planned trip there. A year later, we were going on a weekend trip to London and the day before we were supposed to go, the London bombings happened.

 

My kids haven't been shielded from any of this because they couldn't be. They saw the black smoke from the Pentagon as well as I did. My yongest was almost five at the time and my oldest was 14. Both younger children are considering careers in the military. And I know that the girls are worried about their Dad possibley getting a job at the Pentagon.

[JFSinIL]

So today is 9/11, dd and I have watched some of the replay on CNN. SO - bump to this thread.

[Guest]

I remember the alarm going off and my dh was in the shower already. The alarm was set to radio and even though I was incoherent, I heard something about a plane crashing into the WTC. I remember jumping out of bed, running into the living room, jumping OVER the couch and turning the TV on. I remained glued to the TV for a few hours, went into work late and was glued to the radio and internet all day.

 

It is such a horrific memory. I am sombered when I read all of your posts and don't have much more to add. Today is a day to remember those whose lives were lost so tragically. May God be glorified through the lives and stories that continue to emerge from September 11, 2001. We don't understand this, but in the event that people may be drawn to Him because of it, then I praise Him for that.