15 years already. Yet the memory of that day still is as fresh as that day. I can never forget it. I grew up in NYC have friends who were at the area around WTC, family in the city, and my fraternity big brother was supposed to have been on UA93 that day, but decided at the last minute not to go on his trip. I was working in the Pentagon and had a TV that showed me what was happening in NYC from the first inkling of something being amiss. Needless to say it was complete chaos for the next few hours. Yet I was lucky to have made it home a little after 10 am to watch it on the news with my wife and kids. She was at first hysterical not knowing my status after the first report of the attack on the Pentagon. Cell phones were useless, so I just decided to drive home while standing in the Pentagon parking lot.
I avoidedg going to Ground Zero for years and only two years ago I decided to visit the 9/11 museum. I was very surprised at the emotions that overcame me when I went down there and saw all the pictures of the victims. All those tears came flowing out and I couldn’t stop it. Thinking about it now, I still cry about all those lives that were forever changed that day.
I remember watching, at home with my 11 month old. Good Morning America was supposed to be ending and then it didn’t. My older son was at school. My H was at work in DC at a hospital. When the plane hit the Pentagon, they went into disaster mode and had the ORs ready to accept any and all patients.
My dad worked for the government at the time and some days worked at the Pentagon. All my mom knew was that he had indeed headed into the city that morning but she wasn’t sure which office he had gone to. The phones were terrible. I had better luck reaching my MIL in CT than reaching my H 40 minutes away. My MIL was in fact able to talk to my H before I was and she called me and told me what was going on with him.
After a few long long hours we finally tracked down my Dad (not at the Pentagon after all) and I heard from my H. My son was sent home from school early. One of H’s old friends from residency was in town for a conference and couldn’t get home to FL. He moved in for the next 4 days waiting to get on a plane or a train or even get a rental car.
We found out later one of H’s great friends from childhood worked in one of the towers and didn’t make it out. It is very surreal to think it has been 15 years.
It feels like it was just yesterday. We visited DC the following summer and remember seeing huge tarps covering the gaping hole in the Pentagon. It took us a minute to realize that was where the plane had crashed into the building. It was surreal.
Amazing that it is 15 years. I haven’t been to the memorial yet, not sure how I will react if I go there. I remember when they had the temporary memorial wall kind of thing, and I kind of stopped reading when it got to about 25 names of people I either knew or knew of (two close coworkers were killed at Windows on the World, attending a financial breakfast). I think the things I remember most about that day were just how beautiful a day it was (when someone said a plane hit the WTC, I said it couldn’t have been an accident), and then later on it was observing how people dealt with it, the panic I saw in many people, but those who handled it with resolve and calm. Afterwards it was just so weird not to have airplanes flying overhead, where i live you see a lot of high flying planes,small planes and so forth.
True. And then, just as startling to see a plane fly overhead before commercial flights had resumed. I guess it was a military plane, but I remember being at D’s soccer practice, and that plane scared the crap out of several of us as it flew overhead.
Hard to believe it was long ago. I am about 6 miles from DC. I can’t forget that day. In our office we have pantries for coffee and soda for all employees. There is also a screen broadcasting all the latest news. I remember coworkers standing in the pantry and the crowd getting larger in the room as we all stared at the tv screen as the first plane hit the WTC. We were dismissed from work later that morning and the roads were jammed. I drove to my dd’s kindergarten class to pick her up. What was a 10 minute commute took an hour. Everything including the malls were closing in the area. One of our coworkers went to the WTC for a meeting that day. His son was in my kids kindergarten class. The community tried our best to help that mother and child who were in total shock. We were shocked and speechless and when there was an attack at the Pentagon it really hit close to home since so many government employees lived in the surrounding area. I worked as a contractor at one of the buildings that had a piece of the remaining structure in the main lobby as we entered the building. It was a daily reminder of what had happened. That haunting feeling never goes away. It is something you can’t forget.
I was in Baltimore two years ago on 9/11 and a bunch of those military jets flew overhead. Scared me too! Turns out it was the 100th anniversary of the the Battle of Baltimore where the Star Spangled Banner was written but please - move the jets forward or back a day for those of us who remember.