Where were you on 9/11 and is your unit doing anything today for it?

[OwntheNight]

As we come up on the anniversary of 9/11, where were you that day and is your unit doing anything special for the anniversary?

 

I was at our shop just outside of the DFW airport for our normal Tuesday functions (replenishing parts on the truck, turning paperwork in, etc..) We always had a TV on while we waited to get our calls for the day. we should have been gone by 7:30 am, but because of employee reviews that day, we didn't leave until later.

I was in my boss's office chatting with him when another Tech came in an said a plane had crashed into the WTC. I thought it was a single engine Cessna or whatever. We went to the conference room with the TV in it and I saw the devastation for the first time. We then saw another plane in the corner of the TV heading toward the other tower and immediately saw the explosion .

At that point I knew in my heart this was not an accident, but rather an attack on the American people. We all were glued to the TV for what seemed like eternity trying to make sense of all the reports that were coming in from around the country between the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

I became pretty scared by then, we were just miles from a centrally located Airport that acts as a major hub to the rest of the country and a major metropolitan area. Was Dallas on the list of targets? They finally announced that all flights were being ordered to the ground.

I remember walking out on our dock and seeing planes lined up as far North as possible in the air waiting to land.Still to this day, one of the most eerie feelings and sights I have ever had.

I spent the rest of the day running from the house to service calls watching the news as much as possible. It wasn't until my wife picked our son up from school, that I could process everything that happened. I started to cry when I saw them walk in the door.

 

A footnote:

I now work for a defense contractor that supplies our Warfighters the tools they need to get the job done. I am one of the last people in our plant that touches the equipment before it is sent to the branch of military that will use it. It is my honor and privilege to provide them with a product that will and has saved a soldier's life.

 

Our pack will be at a memorial service at the Main Fire Station in our city for a flag and ring out memorial. While our Cub's aren't old enough to remember what happened that day, Us parents and leaders are.

I will remember that day forever and I will never forget.

 

God Bless America and the men and women who protect her!

[Eagle92]

I was in my living room watching TV and getting ready for work. Drove the 45 minutes glued to the radio, and the scout shop was very quiet that day. Visited my mom at lunch to find out that my sister was working in NYC on an assignment,and she was worried b/c she wasn't able to get in touch with her. A few days later I found out that my sister was one of the folks doing triage on the ferry dock directly across the river. She heard and felt the first plane from her hotel, and saw the second plane crash. Casulties started coming across, and she went to the docks to help.

 

All the leaders in the troop I had just left the month before were either active duty or contractors at the local space center, and the center went on lockdown. The troop met on Tuesdays, but not that one.

 

That Saturday was a powwow that several OA members went to. We remembered those that died, and danced that weekend for them. It was the first time I saw unsheathed weapons in the dance circle, and we had many angry dancers in reference to the attacks.

 

In reference to what my pack is doing, nothing as we are still in the restarting stages of the new school year. The troop and crew are doign a memorial service in the local mall.

[packsaddle]

No special plans because it is a regular service-project weekend. We'd be doing this project regardless. It just happened to fall on this date.

 

I was on my way to a meeting at a Federal building. My wife called to tell me about the first tower. I got to the meeting just in time to see the second one hit. The entire room just sat there stunned, unable to get on with business and then the towers collapsed.

I was eventually able to get word that my relatives luckily had not been in the building that day so I called my children at school to let them know their uncles and aunts were OK, not killed in the collapse.

My brother-in-law was an elementary school teacher in the city when it happened. They kept the school open through the night...for children who had no one to pick them up. My feelings today are not much different from what they were when I saw the second plane hit. Time has not tempered anything for me.

[shortridge]

At college, in my morning biology class waiting for the professor to arrive. A few of the students were talking about a plane that had hit the WTC, but we all thought it was just a small plane. After a few minutes, the department secretary came in and told us what had happened and that classes were canceled for the day. I went back to the student union where folks were huddled around large TVs. After a collegewide meeting in the chapel and an address from the president and several counselors, I met with my coworkers on the college newspaper staff and we planned out the week's issue.

 

One of our concerns was a possible anti-Islamic backlash. We had no students from Afghanistan that year, but the college has a substantial number of students from India and Pakistan, with quite a few Muslims among them. Thankfully, nothing like that occurred.

 

Today I'm with my daughter, who was born three years after the attacks. We haven't discussed 9/11 yet, and I'm not even sure how to broach the subject. We're planning a simple day of swimming and picnicking.

[CA_Scouter]

In San Francisco, on the 32nd floor of my office building. We saw most of the action in a conference room that had a tv. Sister called and was very concerned and urged me to leave the building. A lot of people did not come into work that day.

 

My company has a large office in New York but uptown from Ground Zero. That office later put together a collection for the fire fighters and many thousands of dollars were donated to the cause.

 

My father was a career SF Firefighter, so this hit particularly close to home for myself and my family.

 

[Nike]

We had no idea what was going on back east, living in Monetery, CA at the time, until SIL called us in a panic that she couldn't get in touch with her parents who worked in DC. We turned on NBC at about 7:30 am Pacific. My husband went to work, #1 son went to school, and I drove over to the Prediso about 10:30 am to find the snowbirds (students signed in several days or weeks early for an Army training school) pulling gate guard duty.

 

It was a throughly strange and surrealistic day.

 

 

[Gary_Miller]

I was driving through the front gate at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho. I remember commenting to the the Security Guard on duty about a plane crashing into the first tower. At that time I thought it was just a Plane crash. When I got into work we was watching it on TV when the second plane hit and the plane at the pentagon.

 

Shortly afte we received orders to bring up our unit control center which I was responsible for manning. We was placed on full alert with 24 round the clock shift.

 

Three weeks later we where in Qatar building a 5000 man tent city and sending fighters to Afghanistan, was gone 5 1/2 months.

 

 

[Scoutfish]

On my way to Ft Bragg Army Base in Fayettville, NC to install some garage doors. Me and the fella working with me had been talking and decided to turn on the radio. The dial was too the usual morning show which really does push it when it comes to humor.

 

WE pretty much though the hosts had gone too far until we got closer to Fayetteville. people ( mostly servicemen by the stickers on their cars) were pulled over all over the place and traffic into Bragg was crazy. We asked somebody what was going on and when we found out, turned around for the 2 hour drive back to our shop in total shock.

 

When we got back to the shop, my boss wanted to know why I was there. I told him we weren't getting into Bragg that day.

 

He hadn't been listening to the radio or heard anything about it either.

[Eagle92]

'Fish

I remember security being tight for several weeks afterwards. I went to an officer recruiter about 2-4 weeks later, and the base had the barricades in a zigzag pattern, armed guards patrolling the perimeter and the entrance, etc.

[Scoutfish]

I spent alot of time at Pope the next month or so too.

 

A few weeks before, I just had finished having all the background checks performed to do some work on a parachute packing facility and another sensitive area.

 

After 9-11, I was the ONLY garage door technition in the system. At the time, there were about 15 other guys at my company who had previously een on Bragg and Pope, but I was the only one who was able to get in after 9-11 until about 3 months later when a few others were able to have their checks done.

Funny part wa s Bragg. Hwy 210 goes right through the middle of it..unchecked, no security or anything. But every right or left turn had an armoured HummVee sitting sideways in the road.

 

I did jobs on Freedom Parkway, Gruber rd, F street, J street, 49 doors at the motorcade and the new dental clinic .