9/11
- Thread starter melloelky
- Start date
I work by YYZ airport and in transport. I left work when 2nd plane hit and went home to be with my young family. Driving past YYZ airport there were already planes all lined up on the runway as they cleared all airspace. Fighter jets were guiding in the last few planes I saw. Nobody was allowed off the planes so it was literally a parking lot. Spoke to Maspeth NY office and they let everyone go home from there. Very eeire feeling that I will not forget.
I'm not a religious man. I can only deeply respect what everyone did in trying to help. Running into a burning building while everyone else is running out.....it takes a certain mindset. L&R to all.
I'm not a religious man. I can only deeply respect what everyone did in trying to help. Running into a burning building while everyone else is running out.....it takes a certain mindset. L&R to all.
Looking back 20 yrs ago. It was a surreal day in history. I was at work in a phone closet doing some cross connecting (wiring) when I had gotten a call from my wife. It was shortly after the first plane hit tower 1. During our brief conversation, the second plane hit tower 2. At first I thought it was an accident, but when the second tower was struck, I knew we were under attack.
We also knew one of the fire fighters who lost his life that day. He lived next door to my parents and grew up in our old neighborhood. Nice guy with three young children. I saw him the month before when I visited my parents.
Nevertheless, It was a sad day in the history of this country. I remember how unified people were after this event.
Back in the day, I worked in the towers and around the downtown area. Just the thought of them no longer standing there is hard to fathom.
We also knew one of the fire fighters who lost his life that day. He lived next door to my parents and grew up in our old neighborhood. Nice guy with three young children. I saw him the month before when I visited my parents.
Nevertheless, It was a sad day in the history of this country. I remember how unified people were after this event.
Back in the day, I worked in the towers and around the downtown area. Just the thought of them no longer standing there is hard to fathom.
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In short, I had gotten to school early that day, and I was surfing the Internet in the computer lab and replying to emails from the G-body/Monte Carlo mailing lists when I got to one email that said something about a plane hitting the WTC. In that moment tried accessing every news outlet I could think of - nothing worked - bandwidth exceeded. I found a short blurb on a search engine.
I got up and left the lab to see if anyone else in the building had an idea of what was going on. One of my classmates had a combo radio/TV thingy - and on that little grainy black and white screen we watched the second plane hit the tower - live.
Words cannot describe the emotions felt. The disbelief. The shock. The fear.
School got shut down and everyone sent home. I had to wait around until my next train home which was around 1300hrs. I remember how downtown Toronto was desolate. Down. Town. Toronto.
On my walk down to the train station I was handed a newspaper with what little information was known at that point. I still have it. A sobering reminder of how fleeting and fragile life really is.
The heroics of many people that day are stories that need to be told. Indefinitely. It gives hope in today's World that there might still be a thread of decency holding us together.
Never forget.
I got up and left the lab to see if anyone else in the building had an idea of what was going on. One of my classmates had a combo radio/TV thingy - and on that little grainy black and white screen we watched the second plane hit the tower - live.
Words cannot describe the emotions felt. The disbelief. The shock. The fear.
School got shut down and everyone sent home. I had to wait around until my next train home which was around 1300hrs. I remember how downtown Toronto was desolate. Down. Town. Toronto.
On my walk down to the train station I was handed a newspaper with what little information was known at that point. I still have it. A sobering reminder of how fleeting and fragile life really is.
The heroics of many people that day are stories that need to be told. Indefinitely. It gives hope in today's World that there might still be a thread of decency holding us together.
Never forget.
I worked at a DOE site on Long Island. Some of the guys I worked with were watching the news on TV in the break room when the second plane hit. Less than 20 minutes later the head of my division called all of us in for an emergency meeting and told us the site was shutting down for the day. On the way out the gate there were county cops and our own security guys blocking the incoming lane with trucks and PD cars. Everyone was armed to the teeth. Our guys had body armor and MP-5s. Never saw the place shut down like that.
My division heads secretary lost her husband. Derrick Washington. Two other people on site lost family members. One woman lost her son. He was in the FDNY.
MANY people on Long Island lost family and friends. I know more than a dozen FDNY members right in my own town. All of them lost close friends that day. One friend of mine was off. His son was also off on 9/11. Every guy in his firehouse that was on that day died. The woman that took care of my kids back then was married to a firefighter. He was on the scene. He saw one of his friends killed by a jumper. The poor guy was running into the building. Never knew what hit him. One day he started to tell me what it was like. A few minutes into the conversation he broke down.
The stories can go on. Im one of those people that will never forget that day. I didnt have to be there. I just really hope something like that never happens again. I cant say much more without getting into my political views and you know that wont end well. I dont want this thread to get locked. RIP to all that perished.
My division heads secretary lost her husband. Derrick Washington. Two other people on site lost family members. One woman lost her son. He was in the FDNY.
MANY people on Long Island lost family and friends. I know more than a dozen FDNY members right in my own town. All of them lost close friends that day. One friend of mine was off. His son was also off on 9/11. Every guy in his firehouse that was on that day died. The woman that took care of my kids back then was married to a firefighter. He was on the scene. He saw one of his friends killed by a jumper. The poor guy was running into the building. Never knew what hit him. One day he started to tell me what it was like. A few minutes into the conversation he broke down.
The stories can go on. Im one of those people that will never forget that day. I didnt have to be there. I just really hope something like that never happens again. I cant say much more without getting into my political views and you know that wont end well. I dont want this thread to get locked. RIP to all that perished.
I was driving to the beach that morning to go surfing, radio on, when the first plane hit... like everybody else I figured it was an accident, like when a B-25 crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. The water was really rough and sloppy, so I got tired quickly and went to go drink a breakfast beer on the boardwalk... that's when I found out about the other planes, and that it was an attack. I was between jobs - when I finally found one it was in Cincinnati Ohio in November. Spent a lot of time watching 24 hour news channels. What a mess. Then ole Dub went off half-cocked, and now we got a bunch of vets without legs and worse.
pic 9/11 19:57
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To me, all I can say is it was one of those things. If you were too young when it happened you are never going to have the appreciation for how things changed that day.
Me, that was back in another career, another lifetime ago. I was in Northern RI driving to Woonsocket to a location to deal with mgmt trainees. In those days I covered the New England zone. The local shock jocks started talking about the first plane hitting and lots of in the moment news. I switched to all the other radio stations and it was all music, not a peep or anything awry. I chalked it up to a bad impersonation of war of the worlds but switched back to see where it would go.
Shortly after it became apparent it was a real thing. Everywhere was covering it. Saw the second plane hit. Schools closed, malls and places with large gatherings closed. Gas stations went absurd with gouging in assorted areas. For days most strip malls closed. Businesses all over closed. Then you saw people reluctant to go out or go shopping for a bit. Airports where I was had militarized style roadblocks even weeks or months later. They opened trunks, looked inside cars while you waited on the curb.
Things that happened in israel/Gaza, northern Ireland, etc had seemingly come home to a place that has never seen the like. Then in the aftermath you saw a world of changes to identity check points, no more meeting people as they exited the plane doors at the gate. All sorts of ID requirements and tracking of banking transactions in a heavy way that wasn't there before.
But then you also saw a brief, fleeting, and now largely gone (especially from on side of the belief spectrum) patriotic movement. Anything with the US flag was hot and in demand. Artists ranging from vocalists to graphics were churning out patriotic material and the public was snapping it up like crazy, couldn't get enough. The little team flags on cars were swapped out for american ones all over.
Then, quietly, it was forgotten, and that pride and optimism about the greatness of the country was replaced with the movements you see today which, if I go further about how I feel about those we go into the prohibited speech.
But its a shame that the togetherness and optimism that grew from the tragedy has become wasted and destroyed by a couple groups. At least there's many that do remember and always will.
Me, that was back in another career, another lifetime ago. I was in Northern RI driving to Woonsocket to a location to deal with mgmt trainees. In those days I covered the New England zone. The local shock jocks started talking about the first plane hitting and lots of in the moment news. I switched to all the other radio stations and it was all music, not a peep or anything awry. I chalked it up to a bad impersonation of war of the worlds but switched back to see where it would go.
Shortly after it became apparent it was a real thing. Everywhere was covering it. Saw the second plane hit. Schools closed, malls and places with large gatherings closed. Gas stations went absurd with gouging in assorted areas. For days most strip malls closed. Businesses all over closed. Then you saw people reluctant to go out or go shopping for a bit. Airports where I was had militarized style roadblocks even weeks or months later. They opened trunks, looked inside cars while you waited on the curb.
Things that happened in israel/Gaza, northern Ireland, etc had seemingly come home to a place that has never seen the like. Then in the aftermath you saw a world of changes to identity check points, no more meeting people as they exited the plane doors at the gate. All sorts of ID requirements and tracking of banking transactions in a heavy way that wasn't there before.
But then you also saw a brief, fleeting, and now largely gone (especially from on side of the belief spectrum) patriotic movement. Anything with the US flag was hot and in demand. Artists ranging from vocalists to graphics were churning out patriotic material and the public was snapping it up like crazy, couldn't get enough. The little team flags on cars were swapped out for american ones all over.
Then, quietly, it was forgotten, and that pride and optimism about the greatness of the country was replaced with the movements you see today which, if I go further about how I feel about those we go into the prohibited speech.
But its a shame that the togetherness and optimism that grew from the tragedy has become wasted and destroyed by a couple groups. At least there's many that do remember and always will.
Also every veteran from every country should be reminded that there service was not in vain!
