I remember.... 9/11

[frank10]

... I was sitting in my office at IBM Talking on the phone to an other scouter as things got crazy. Ran out to my motorcycle to grab a 2 inch LED TV (prize from selling popcorn). the whole team crowded around that thing and watched while we waited for a co-worker to call in and let us know he was ok.

 

Turned out he was late for work that day and was just exiting the subway when the first plane hit.

 

But what I remember most was for the next few weeks any time you walked into a meeting the uneasy looking around the room waiting until some one worked up the nerve to ask "every one here ok?" Only then could you do any work.

 

We purchased our first home the next morning. Didn''t dare celebrate. Even the "congrats" balloon on our mailbox by my mother seemed wrong. By the time I arrived home from work the next day my wife had placed lit candle in each of the 14 street side windows.

 

I remember advising my international co-workers to go home and stay inside. They seemed confused, they didn''t understand that this was new to us.

 

I remember spending the night with our troop serving coffee and donuts to the folks at the all night prayer vigil. They held doors and walked the elderly to their cars. We weren''t really needed but it gave the boys a way to fight back.

 

I remember I cried that night too.

 

We''ll never be the same again.

[Gunny2862]

I remember getting ready for work, eating breakfast watching the coverage about the first plane and trying to think through what horrible coincidence could have intersected a large plane with the first tower - and then the other plane struck.

I called my reserve unit and and told the duty to put me on the short call list - rechecked my GO bag - saw the look on my wifes face and we both went on to our jobs.

I remember being at School dealing with students who were wondering if there would be more attacks, if the draft was starting tomorrow and whether this would have a personal impact on them.

I never went to any part of the actions that have followed those attacks but have trained and certified many reservists who went off to deal with those who attacked us that day. My prayers go to them, those who are still there, and the families who are left behind supporting them. May we finish well...

[emb021]

I don''t turn on my tv in the morning. My car radio has mysterious died on me the weekend before, so I really had no idea what was going on until I go to work.

 

Were I work, we have several tv setup in the corridors, usually with various company announcements and the like. All had CNN running on them, but I really wasn''t paying attention. When I got to my desk, I found out what was going on. My company let people go home early if they wanted to.

 

My fraternity was holding its Rush that week, and 9/11 kind of messed things up. We coped as best we could, but it was hard.

 

[Eamonn]

We had borrowed from a local theme park (Idlewild) a Garfield the cat outfit.

Over the weekend I had talked OJ into wearing it and we visited every Elementary School in the District taking his photo as an ad for School Sign-up For Scouting night.

This was in the days before I had a digital camera. So I had taken the film to a one hour possessing drug store.

On Monday I had gone to the offices of the local newspaper to get the pictures in that weeks paper.

I had no idea that anything had happened.

I was talking with the girl in the newspaper office and she said that a light plane had crashed into the Trade center.

Next to the newspaper office is the offices of my insurance agent.

A real nice fellow, who is a Mennonite and as a rule is not very excitable. He rushed in ranting and raving about "Rag-heads" and this being war!!

I went home and was home just in time to catch the second plane crash.

The plane that went down in Pa went down about 40 miles from where I live.

My friends and relations back home were worried it might have been closer, but couldn''t get through on the phone.

I went to work. TV''s were on all day, but I had the radio on. I really wanted to turn it off but was scared to do so.

The early estimates of how many had been killed were really high.

Someone estimated how many kids had lost a parent.

I cried.

The very thought of them children returning from school to an empty house was more than I could manage.

A good friend of mine who was having marital problems said that his wife and kids had moved back to his in-laws home close to where flight 93 went down. His daughter then about seven years old asked "Daddy is the ground going to shake again tomorrow?"

After the 2001 Jamboree we had managed to get a VIP tour of the Pentagon, we found out later that two of the young men who had been our guides had been killed.

OJ came home and said "Dad we were there not long ago."

I lived through the IRA terror campaign and the bombings in London. We should have been in Harrods the day it was hit.

But I was never so scared as I was on 9/11.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families that were harmed.

I do try to be a forgiving soul, but somehow I just can''t find it in me to forgive the people who did this.

I know that God has the final word about what will happen to them. My great hope is that we do all we can to speed up the process.

Rightly or wrongly my view is that I hope they are damned to hell.

Eamonn.

[scoutldr]

THey will have 72 Virginians waiting for them in Paradise. I hope to be one of them...

[gwd-scouter]

I was at work. Heard about the first plane to hit the towers. Didn''t think much of it at first. Sporadic news at work - internet news feeds mostly.

 

Then, heard about the plane hitting the Pentagon. Oldest brother works there. Serious concern at that point. So many conflicting stories coming in through the gossip mongers at work I just had to go home and listen to the TV news myself. Worried about my brother.

 

I knew where my brother worked at the Pentagon and the news reports suggested the building was hit in the area where my brother would be.

 

Husband came home that evening after playing golf. Didn''t turn on his car radio so had no idea what was going on. He came into the house and saw his wife (me) glued to the TV with a look he says "I never want to see again."

 

Still worried about my brother at the Pentagon. You see, I knew he worked in the area of the building that was hit. No word from him, no word from his family. We all waited....

 

Next day, some time in the afternoon I heard from his wife that he was OK, but couldn''t come home - injured a bit - and working the damaged area in the Pentagon - he was pulling out bodies - his friends - people he worked with.

 

Horrible Day and days after. Brother suffers still, so much death and destruction, friends lost.

 

 

[evmori]

I was at work talking to my ASM on the phone when he told me a plane just crashed into the WTC. Later that day after I got home, I received a call from my wife''s pen pal of 30 years who lives in South Africa. She heard about this on the news and also heard about Flight 93 crashing near Pittsburgh & wanted to make sure we were OK. My daughter then walked in from high school then it really set in.