GOD BLESS On This Somber Day!

[HARRY THE MOLE]

I was talking on my radio to a fellow radio-amateur in New York as the events unfolded. I have never forgotton his cry as he saw the first plane hit the tower. then the second plane hit, and he urged me to go and put my tv on as he thought New York was under attack.

My cousin was there on holliday as well, and she witnessed it all. A truly tragic event which is STILL claiming even more victims - and will do for many years to come.

[GIZMO8Z]

I was sitting in my 9th grade Spanish class as it happened. The school principal made an announcement over the P.A. and we were all allowed to go into the auditorium to watch the events unfold live. We saw the second plane hit live... I cannot describe the horror I felt... My father was in NYC at the time at a meeting with his business partner who owned a building across from where the U.S.S. Intrepid Air and Space Museum is... That building was far enough from the WTC, but I knew that my father and his business partner would often go towards the Financial District for meetings and to do lunch, etc. It was hell trying and failing to get in touch with him while phone lines were jammed...

I remember sitting in the auditorium in shock... some of my schoolmates were crying out in anger... I am sure that if possible, dozens of them would have signed up for military service right then and there. Since then, a lot of my friends have joined the U.S. armed forces because of the attacks on 9/11... This event really was the Pearl Harbor of my generation...

My science teacher was out doing a field study on the Hudson River and he saw the two planes pass low over head... The terrorists used the river as a point of reference to guide them all the way to their targets.

I get choked up thinking about the innocent people who died that day... Especially the people who were forced to make the unthinkable decision of whether to die a painful death via fire and smoke inhalation or to jump from the upper stories of the towers.

I get choked up thinking about the brave firefighters, policemen, and EMTs/ first responders who entered the buildings to help rescue people but then died when the buildings came crashing down.

September 11, 2001 is a date that will live with me until the day I die.

[MD Helmets]

I was sleeping before my morning classes, as any good college student does. My mom was ringing the phone off the hook. She worked at a social security office and was on lock down. I think she over reacted and said we were being invaded, so I went and grabbed my dads 45 Kimber and waited for the invaders. Needless to say that wasn't the case. Later that night my dads friends in Berlin called almost in tears. I'm hoping to make it up there maybe this winter. The memorial looks fantastic and can't wait to see it in person.

[HPL2008]

It was afternoon here and I was alone in my office at work - soon to leave for a scheduled dental appointment - when I got two telephone calls in short succession notifying me about these events; one was from a relative, the other one from a friend who was also serving in the same Red Cross unit at the time.

When they talked about several coordinated terrorist attacks in the U.S. with airplanes flown into buildings, the mental image I had in my mind was of something like, say, Cessnas, Pipers, or some other small single- or twin prop jobs crashed into some random government installations. Somehow the thought of hijacked passenger airliners piloted into the WTC or the Pentagon didn't even occur to me.

Trying to check up on those events online, I found that it wasn't possible to open any news sites at the time, certainly due to complete overload.

When I was walking down the hallway to leave, I stopped at an open office door where a mixed group of several co-workers - including our deputy director - had gathered around a radio, all visibly shaken, and all intently listening to a news report that suddenly put me in the picture: The first WTC tower had already collapsed. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Still, I decided to keep my appointment; however, when I got to the dentist's, the first thing I asked was whether the TV in their waiting room could be tuned to the news. I was clearly not the first to ask; but it couldn't - it was only hooked up to a DVD player.

After treatment, I rushed home as quickly as I could and turned on the TV at home. Needless to say, one didn't have to search for coverage on the attacks, they were on literally every channel with the shocking footage endlessly repeated and an endless succession of reporters and (real and so-called) experts trying to find out just what the hell was going on. One of the talking heads still stands out in my mind, someone talking about the possibility of it being some sort of computer glitch in air traffic control that caused the planes to go off-course. Even then, when very little was yet known, this statement was so utterly absurd that it almost made me laugh. Almost. Truth be told, he looked as spooked as everybody else and didn't appear to really believe his own words.

A while later, my then-girlfriend came home. Somehow she hadn't heard any of it yet and was completely dumbstruck by what was on the screen. Unlike me, she had actually been to New York some years back and had visited the WTC. This made the building's annihilation even more real, no, on the contrary, more unreal to her: She simply couldn't grasp the thought, the very concept that this monumental complex had just been wiped out.

Don't know how long I watched the news before I went to bed and sank into a restless sleep, awaking the next day with the feeling that the world had just changed.

[Poromies]

Cant believe its already 11 years, I can still remember the day pretty clearly. I came home from school, I was six at the time so it was my first year. My whole family was gathered around the television starting at the news, I did not really understand it at the time, but the video showing the first tower collapse is burned to my mind clearly.

On that day, not only America, but the whole world was shocked by these horrible attacks on innocent people. The effects of these events can still be seen today. It is good to see that the new tower is climbing fast towards the clouds.