9/11 memories and anniversary

[Firemanray]

With the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks coming this week end I would like to hear everyones memories of that event and what (or not) you're going to do on the anniversary.

Let'r rip.

[LizardRunner]

on 9/11/2001 I lost 4 friends that I had known since the early 70's two friends that were also people I had trusted with my life while uc in columbia southamerica and three child hood friends that were NYFD. I plan on doing as always and burning cedar and sage for their spirits and offering up prayers in smoke to the great one for their families. other than that I will continue to try and forget the huge sadness that grasped my heart at 8:50 am, again at 9:49 am and yet again at 10:59 am. Many showed great bravery that day and should be remembered as the heros they are. I carry their souls memories and strive to honor them the best that I can.

[BlueXJ]

I was off from work in 2001 to fly to a conference in Las Vegas. Obviously that never happened. I did not lose any friends or relatives, but can understand what the firefighters went through as I have been a volunteer firefighter since I was a teenager.
I will be attending a memorial service. My flag will be at halfmast to celebrate the lives that were lost in NYC, Virginia and Shanksville.

[JG-Man]

Unfortunately, I was at Ground Zero that morning ... I feel lucky to be around. I also then played a role in the aftermath while assigned to the NYC-OEM (my office was uninhabitable and was adjacent to WTC 5,6 & 7.) As always, I have a photo album to share with our site members in my profile.
Thank you for the thread.

[OhJeepers]

I was in 5th grade, coming back from lunch an my teacher informed all of us that there was a tragedy. He would not be specific till we got back to the classroom an the tv was on. Every one in my class was too young to completely understand what had truly taken place at first but we did comprehend it after some explaining. As I sit an watch the memorials an the tapes of first hand accounts on TV tonight it breaks my heart to know what those people went through. God bless all of those involved an all who lost loved ones. My condolences an prayers go out to the whole of the US tonight.

[prerunner1982]

I was actually in class when the first tower was struck, but as I returned from class I found my room mate glued to the TV. We both watched as the 2nd tower was struck and ultimately as the towers fell. He was a fire fighter and left the next day. I don't know how he got home as he did not have a far and with flying shut down, he must have taken a train. I imagine that was a long agonizing trip from OKC to NYC. I packed up his things and FedEx them to him. I never saw or heard from him again. He was attending Ok State for their School of Fire Protection. He was a fire fighter and some of his crew were lost when the towers fell. I wish I remembered his name, but I will certainly never forget him. Classes were cancelled for the remainder of the day.

[JG-Man]

[Carves]

Was having breakfast and just catching glimpses of the TV screen in the other room ....

.... and sitting there shaking my head wondering what, new, pathetic, doomsday, end of the world movie, Hollywood had released .....

Went in to turn off the idiot box .....

.... and realized it was live footage on the news ..


Helluva thing .... Condolences to anybody who suffered a loss ....

[Paddletrucker]

I was delivering packages, working for FedEx then. I remember hearing of the first plane on the way to my first delivery. While unloading there, I listened to the radio with the guys on the dock. I spent the rest of the day listening and watching the news, a few minutes at a time at each business I went into while making my deliveries. I was delivering to a shopping center and a mall almost all day then.

I remember having the radio in the truck blasting, playing the news. I was driving slowly along the street and stopping at every few businesses. THe radio was wired directly, so it stayed on when I turned the truck off. Folks were walking along slowly and listening to my radio. Some were stopping to listen every time I'd stop to make a delivery, so I turned the radio up real loud so they could hear over the truck when I'd fire it up to move a few doors down every few deliveries.

I was also in flight training then, working on my pilot's license. Needless to say, I didn't do any flying for a while. The day they opened the airspace back up, I was one of the first in the air that morning from our little airport. The sky was eerily empty for the first few hours of the day. Usually, there were lots of little planes flying around, but everybody didn't get cranked up good 'till later that day. I was monitoring the traffic over at the big airport while practicing landings. The air traffic controllers over at the international airport were really cool, welcoming everybody back to the sky as they'd take off.

Lots of good people lost on 9-11-01. Condolences to all who were affected.

[steph74]

I was working in Milan Italy, someone caught that on the net I guess and we all gathered in the conference room to watch it on TV....
The director of the institute sent us all home.

I have to admit, I had no idea what the WTC were at that time....

Now, I will be the first one to recognize that it is easy to say since I have not lost anybody in these events, but it is time to move on...
now this being said, on this 10th anniversary, I send prayers for the innocent lives that were taken and a big thank you to all the Law enforcement officers, military, firefighters, EMT's nurses, doctors, civilians that jumped into hell to help save lives or clean up.
This is what the people of the United States of America are known and respected for....

[Mudderoy]

I have a tendency to speak my mind and whenI complained about so many channels being taken over by the 9/11 shows, I complained that I was sick of all of this.

She didn't like that. I think the whole ordeal effected her more. I saw it for what it was. A few people with modest skills and the willingness to kill themselves, and others pushed a set of throttles forward and turned a steering wheel left right and up and down and hit a target the size of a building! Literally!

Effective, sure it did vast amounts of damage to the building, and out of 50k people in those buildings they killed 3k people.

I still believe that the people that initiated this attack really didn't think the U.S. would do much directly. You know politicians are slow to react to things that might not get them reelected.

To the contrary we, as a country (and with help from our allies) took this stupid act back to the people that started it. In fact we took it to people that probably didn't start THIS but needed an a kicking anyway.

I do care about the people that lost their lives in all of this, including the people that the U.S. killed in reaction. Innocents shouldn't have to die in any military action, or that crap thing that the idiots flying those planes did.

Have a little more balls and attack a military target. If not just hope that we continue to have high morals and we don't attack civilians.

I feel for the people that were in the towers when the airplanes struck, but I don't know that I would have had the courage to run into those buildings as police, fire fighter, or EMS!