[juddfl]

Originally Posted by LuvNH

Never forget. Do you remember where you were?

We had lived in New Jersey and had a view of The Twin Towers. I was at work and had planned to retire in about a year or two. My husband had retired in July and had been in that building every day for 30 years. My husband called me at work and said that he wanted me to retire immediately. I had 31 years and could get my pension. The first attack, my husband had taken the ferry over instead of the train. When he got there, the garage of The World Trade center had been bombed. When I got home, we dicussed it and decided for me to retire earlier than what we had planned. I was only 51 years old. We closed on our home in The Villages on October 10. When we drove away, I can still remember the buildings were still smoking. I will never forget!!!

[MSGirl]

Originally Posted by LuvNH

Never forget. Do you remember where you were?

At a real estate convention in Fairhope, AL, getting ready for the day to shop at the outlets in Foley, Had the tv on NBC, Today show and saw 9-11 unfold. So surreal and a day I will never forget.

[jjombrello]

Driving over the Mackinac Bridge, heading south.

[darkim]

I was an aircraft mechanic for United Airlines. At the announcement of grounding aircraft, we began prepping to park 100 aircraft in any space we could find. Sadly Flt 93 was our aircraft inline for a maintenance visit in a few months … and when it didn’t show up as scheduled we had an empty bay as a remembrance for about 30-days

[jmsturm]

On vacation in Fenwick Island, Delaware. Going back home to PA that day we passed Dover AFB. Saw a line of cars at main gate, armed guards lining the fence line and many planes on the tarmac looking like they were being loaded!! Will NEVER forget!

[dougawhite]

I was head of engineering for NEXTEL in the NYC area, the phone that had the push-to-talk button kind of like a walkie-talkie. The NYFD loved our phones because they were super-rugged and they often worked in buildings where their own radios didn't. My dad passed away in CT on Sept 9, so I was scheduled to work in our White Plains office on the 11th for just a few hours before traveling to CT. Well that changed as we were monitoring after the first plane hit, since our telephone/dispatch systems could get overloaded pretty quickly. After the 2nd plane hit it was all hands on deck! We setup a command post on the 15th floor of our office and could even see the smoke trailing off the towers from there. We attempted to setup filters to limit radio traffic to just those radios/phones owned by first responders but our technology at the time didn't easily allow for that (this feature was added in subsequent system upgrades). After the towers collapsed, the NYFD wanted us to setup a radio transceiver site right down at ground zero because they were hoping to be able to hear NEXTEL radio calls from trapped firefighters under the rubble. We made that happen after a lot of very quick planning and running around with spare equipment. By the late afternoon I had to drive to CT for the next day's funeral. I spent most of the night on the phone with our engineers coordinating recovery of telephone systems that interconnect all of our lower Manhattan cell sites. These telephone systems originated from the AT&T central office building which was immediately adjacent to the north tower. It turns out that steel girders from the collapse had pierced the underground cable vaults going into that central office and all the water being sprayed from firefighting equipment was infiltrating the cable vaults causing everything to short circuit, knocking out our downtown cell sites one by one. We had to setup microwave hops from each cell site around the towers and connect to locations across the Hudson to get the sites back up and running over the next few days. On a related note, because I'm a radio geek, I had taken a tour of the channel 7 TV station transmitter and the 350 foot tall rooftop antenna, and the hundreds of other radio antennas, on the north tower a few years prior to the tragedy. The TV transmitter was on the top floor and even included a 20KW diesel generator and the fuel necessary to run it for a day, all up there on the top floor. If you've never seen a 20KW diesel generator, it's about the size of an SUV. It's hard to imagine all of that falling straight down during the collapse!
http://www.thevillagesoldtimeradio.c...sTVAntenna.jpg

[maistocars]

On 40th St. & 6th Ave In NYC- 36th Floor in conference overlooking WTC. Saw both planes hit. 2nd plane flew right by us. Very scary. NYC had burning smell for weeks.

[DONNIEBRONX]

I could see the buildings burning from.my office in NY and I was lucky to get a taxi to take me to my car in a white plains nt parking lot

[Marmaduke]

Originally Posted by Jerry F2

Traveling back from Pottsville, PA in car with my dad after visiting his brother. We pulled in an interstate rest stop (just outside of Shanksville, PA) the TV was showing the towers burning.
I asked someone "what is happening?" He said, "we are being attacked". My dad was an Army Veteran of WW2. At that time, I was an Army Veteran of Desert Storm, Somalia and Bosnia. Both of us had seen lots of combat. As we got back into the car my dad turned to me and said, "Keep the radio off, we will not talk about this until we get back to Cincinnati, which was 5 hours away." I said to dad "You know that I am going back and volunteer for active duty." About a year later, at 50 years old, I was in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. Actions speak louder than words.

This is the most incredible post that I have EVER read anywhere.

God Bless you and your and my late WW II Dads.

A Pittsburgher.

[badkarma318]

What happened in Gander, Newfoundland due to 9/11 is one of the most inspiring stories of all time. Tom Brokaw covered the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rteLASCbUrM


Also, the book "The Day the World Came to Town" is outstanding.

The Day the World Came to Town - Wikipedia

[Salty Dog]

Was in the Coast Guard and was just waking up to go to the office in Sitka Alaska. Was scheduled to fly to Florida the following day for retirement seminar. Was able to reschedule my flight for the 1st flight out several days later. Went to Patrick AFB in Florida to attend the seminar that had been cancelled, but they had forgotten to contact me. I retired 6 months later after over 31 years on active duty.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog

Was in the Coast Guard and was just waking up to go to the office in Sitka Alaska. Was scheduled to fly to Florida the following day for retirement seminar. Was able to reschedule my flight for the 1st flight out several days later. Went to Patrick AFB in Florida to attend the seminar that had been cancelled, but they had forgotten to contact me. I retired 6 months later after over 31 years on active duty.

Thank you and all the other veterans for your service