9/11 Tomorrow

IT_Admin

It's the 7th anniversary of 9/11 tomorrow. Can't believe its been 7yrs already, seems that it happened not so long ago, how time flies I guess

R.I.P. 3,000 people lost on that fateful day

human151

7 years later...wow. Time flies.

I remember that day vivdly. I was working for Lucent and we were installing a 5E switch at an SBC colo. We all basically took the day off and watched the news with the SBC techs and management.

I remember one of my co workers listened to her walkman while we worked, we started at 6 am. She told me that a plane had hit the WTC, I was like meh, tragic but an accident. then she said the second one hit, everyone basically said OMG were under attack!

Here in Las Vegas there is a mini statue of liberty at the New York New York Hotel and that quickly became a makeshift memorial with flowers and thank you cards and such. Sad day indeed.

jryantech

I was in Middle School... All classes froze and all T.V.s were turned on.

Parents picked me up from school right away.

EJizzel

Being from NYC I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was on the bus heading towards the train and a very pretty lady was walking towards me and staring at me, I really thought it was my lucky day and she tells me "Did you hear what happened to the WTC" I had no idea what was going on... I guess it wasn't my lucky day or the 3000 + people that died.

Not to get political.. what I find just as sad as all those people dying is the bureaucracy that stops any thing from being built on that site, whatever your feelings are I think we should not have that area looking like a mass grave, also the way the volunteers were not taken care of. My sister in law volunteered with her job Nextel to provide phones for the workers and now she has sarcoidosis (inflammation of the lungs). I know she should have been more responsible and wore a mask but we were constantly told by officials that he air is OK and now a lot of people have paid for those lies.

My condolences go out to anyone that has lost a loved one on 9/11

Stotic

I was in high school in New York and no they didn't let us out early or anything. My father was a FDNY firefighter so it was sort of scary knowing that he was there, but it was a relief knowing that he was alright.

Talic

jryantech wrote:

I was in Middle School... All classes froze and all T.V.s were turned on.

Parents picked me up from school right away.

Your parents did that? They were overreacting for doing that if you ask me.

I saw it on the news when I got up in the morning getting ready to go to Highschool as a Freshmen. When we got to school our teachers mostly just sat us down and gave the class a lecture about who could of done it and what exactly happened.

Pash

Was flicking through news channels before i went to work and stopped on cnn. I first of all thought it was a preview for a new disaster movie flick or something (smoke billowing from the trade towers). It wasnt a movie and it wasnt special effects, very very sad day

I went to New York in 99 and was lucky enough to video the Manhattan skyline from a helicopter trip. Any new yorkers on these boards who reckon the city has changed much since then, in terms of character and liveliness? I loved my visit to the States, mainly because of the people and size of it all

Peace and thoughts to all those who lost that day.

EJizzel

Another chilling thing i remember is even though the streets were packed with pedestrians its was awkwardly quiet...at least were I was.

Ahriakin

I was in Australia for a friend's wedding, had just gotten back from dinner to the Hotel, just like Pash I though it was a preview for a movie at first (in fairness there had been a wee few Margharitas at dinner). I had 13 flights to go before getting home (including 7 inside the US for work after that holiday) and here they were telling people not to fly.
We drove through New York late last year and took a drive by the site and as someone else already mentioned it disgusts me that it has been left in the state it is in. We can invade 2 countries but we can't build one decent memorial to the victims.

binarysoul

There are so many theories about 9/11, so we may never know what happened that day and why.

The sad things is many innocents civilians died that day and many others still die around the world in retaliation of it.

Mrock4

There are a ton of theories..who knows. It was tragic regardless. That was the day that I decided to join the military.

snadam

I STILL get chills up my spine when I see footage of it. It was so unfathomable at the time, I think the world went into shock.

I actually was asleep when my friend (who's family is based in NY) called me and started yelling at me about it. I was surprised my mom didnt wake me up (I was still living at home then) for it. But when I watched it on TV, I just couldn't believe it. I went to my Jr College and class was canceled, and I ended up getting cut from the baseball team that day too. then I had to go into work (toys R Us), and NOBODY came in (big surprise, eh?). I remember watching the people jump from the top floors to avoid the smoldering heat, but plummeted to the ground instead. I just got an awful feeling in my stomach. I cant remember another time I felt like that before. It was a weird day for sure.

what a sad day in history...I hope the "we will never forget" slogan holds true.

God Bless America

Mrock4

snadam wrote:

...I hope the "we will never forget" slogan holds true.

Some people already have. Sad, but true. I guess time has that effect.

mrhaun03

Talic wrote:

jryantech wrote:

I was in Middle School... All classes froze and all T.V.s were turned on.

Parents picked me up from school right away.

Your parents did that? They were overreacting for doing that if you ask me.

I saw it on the news when I got up in the morning getting ready to go to Highschool as a Freshmen. When we got to school our teachers mostly just sat us down and gave the class a lecture about who could of done it and what exactly happened.

My parents came an picked me up too. I was in high school. Probably half the school's parents came and got them. The school was allowing every one to leave. It's not overreacting especially if some of those people had family/friends in New York.

jbrown414

It was my first day of college. One of the teachers told me about it. TVs came on in every room and everyone stopped and watched. I went home afterwards and just watched the news all day.

dynamik

It was my first week of college that year. I didn't hear about it until an hour or two after it happened. I was just walking around like an idiot or something and suddenly noticed that there was hardly anyone out and about. I finally found a group of people huddled around a public kiosk watching streaming news about the incident.

Has anyone else sort of been desensitized to the whole ordeal since it's basically become a political talking point? When I hear someone mention 9/11, my first thought is that it's an excuse to go to war, instead of thinking about the actual event and the lives that were lost.

undomiel

dynamik wrote:

Has anyone else sort of been desensitized to the whole ordeal since it's basically become a political talking point? When I hear someone mention 9/11, my first thought is that it's an excuse to go to war, instead of thinking about the actual event and the lives that were lost.

+1

Slowhand

dynamik wrote:

Has anyone else sort of been desensitized to the whole ordeal since it's basically become a political talking point? When I hear someone mention 9/11, my first thought is that it's an excuse to go to war, instead of thinking about the actual event and the lives that were lost.

That's the way it's gotten for me, unfortunately. Sometimes, I have to go back and look at the footage, look at the moment of impact of that second plane, and remind myself "those people were alive a second ago, and now they're not". On the day, I was asleep when my girlfriend came in and said "they're shooting in New York", thinking that it was some kind of missile attack or something. I responded "they're always shooting in New York", and rolled over to go back to sleep. She turned on the TV in the bedroom, and I sat up, beginning to register what had happened as I put on my glasses. The first thing I did was call Technomancer and tell him, (he was still asleep as well, we're both night-owls,) and told him to get his ass up and call his relatives in New York to see if they're alright.

I remember sitting and watching CNN for the rest of the day, not really thinking. At the end of the day, I was talking with my girlfriend, with my parents, and Technomancer, about what we'd seen. All day, I'd heard things like "today, we are all Americans", and "today, we stand united". I felt a chill down my spine, and I couldn't help saying what I said: "And tomorrow, we go to war. . ."


It was a horrific event, something that brought home the kinds of atrocities some places in the world see every day. I am ashamed, as a resident of the US, to know that the people who died that day were forgotten in the rush of politics and money that followed. What should have been a reminder to all of us that we share the same dangers and pain as the rest of the world, what should have brought countries from every corner of the globe together, became a launching point for something equally as vile. I hope to see the day when a state of fear is no longer our natural way of life, and hatred (on both sides of the equation) isn't business as usual. When that day comes, I'm going to take a trip to New York to stand at ground zero and say "Sorry it's taken so long, the ones you all left behind are slow learners. Now, you can rest."

learningtofly22

Rumors always fly around on Navy ships, especially the first day out at sea. I started one once that Angelina Jolie was in a car accident and was paralyzed, just sailors being bored at sea. We just happened to be pulling out to sea on that fateful day for pre-deployment exercises. Soon, we started hearing "rumors" about a plane hitting the WTC. We laughed it off until our Captain came onto the 1MC(ship's loudspeaker system) and broke the news to us, along with another one hitting the other tower and the Pentagon being hit too. Needless to say, our mission changed drastically.

I'll never forget going into Combat and looking at the radar along the east coast as we steamed north full speed ahead. 53 US Navy ships blanketed the entire east coast - every able ship was deployed immediately.

Sadly, it was no rumor.

One other memory I have is of the 1 time i was in NYC, attached to the same ship. It was 2003, and just a few blocks down from ground zero was a parking tower. One pearl white porsche stood out; it was covered in dust. Apparently its owner had prepaid parking at the tower, and had perished in the attack. Remembering that still sends a chill down my spine.

LarryDaMan

I was running errands and stopped at a gas station. This guy in line with me just casually mentioned that a plane hit a WTC tower. His cool demeanor and relaxed tone made me think that it was just one of those two-seater tourist sightseeing planes.

Got home in time to see the second plane hit. I was in the Army at the time. I was called in quickly and spent 3 days sleeping in a cot trapped at work with 30 other smelly dudes.

The funny thing is, we were not too far from the spot in PA where the 4th plane crashed in the field. The idiots in charge had us outside looking for the plane in the sky!

The line from Fantasy Island took on new meaning to me... "Boss, the plane...the plane"

snadam

Mrock4 wrote:

snadam wrote:

...I hope the "we will never forget" slogan holds true.

Some people already have. Sad, but true. I guess time has that effect.

9/11 has become more of a buzzword for the media rather than an actual tragic event...which makes it even more sad.

Slowhand

learningtofly22 wrote:

One other memory I have is of the 1 time i was in NYC, attached to the same ship. It was 2003, and just a few blocks down from ground zero was a parking tower. One pearl white porsche stood out; it was covered in dust. Apparently its owner had prepaid parking at the tower, and had perished in the attack. Remembering that still sends a chill down my spine.

Yup, it's the people we have to remember, not the event of the planes crashing of buildings falling. Those were living, breathing individuals, just like all of us. That Porsche-owner never came back to pick up his car, a lot of mothers and fathers never came home to see their children. Their memory is still alive with all of us, seven years later.

ULWiz

This is sad day for america.

The other things thats extremely sad is that its my Dad's Birthday tomorrow.

Feels like it has been forever tainted.

deadpool287

ULWiz wrote:

This is sad day for america.

The other things thats extremely sad is that its my Dad's Birthday tomorrow.

Feels like it has been forever tainted.

a guy at work also has his birthday tomorrow. he's celebrating it today or the the day after just so people aren't thinking about it so much about it.

royal

Ahriakin wrote:

We can invade 2 countries but we can't build one decent memorial to the victims.

http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage2

networker050184

Sad day indeed.

The truly sad part is how fast the patriotism faded there after.

royal

So that morning I was asleep as my mom called and woke me up. I'm like, "I was sleeping!" She told me to turn on the news as she heard something about some plane hitting the WTC. I turned it on and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I couldn't stop watching the news for weeks.

JDMurray

It reminded me of when JFK was shot. Back then, a presidential assassination was one of the likely signs of an imminent Russian attack. Any major attack on American soil is a likely signal of an imminent invasion. Gathering your family together after any such event seems very prudent. We'll probably never know what else was discovered and stopped on that day--or since.

I also had flashbacks to a TV documentary I saw years ago detailing the construction of the WTC towers. There was a lot of initial concern that aircraft could accidentally crash into the towers. Back when the towers were completed in 1973, the largest commercial aircraft was (I think) the Boeing 707. I remember a WTC architect in the program explaining how the structure of the exoskeleton of the towers would minimize the damage. He analogized an aircraft impact to a pencil punching a hole through a window screen. Apparently he didn't consider that the "pencil" would be filled with 20,000+ gallons of aviation fuel and ignite upon impact.

NetAdmin2436

I too remember it was the first or second week at a new college for me and we were learning about the history of computers. Some girl barged into our room talking about a plane hit the WTC and they were watching it on the TV in the electronics room. At first I was like 'yeah, whatever....who cares' thinking it was some small plane that crashed 10 miles away from the WTC. That is the usual media blowing it out of proportion. 10 minutes passed and some students finally convinced out teacher to let us go watch it on the TV. So we all piled into the electronics room to watch the buildings burn and collapse. I stood there in shock. Soon after, the events were announced over the loud speaker and that we were free to leave school for the day and go home and be with out loved ones. I still stood there in shock for another 15 minutes.

On the drive home I started to get mad because I knew what was going to happen next. Another war and more deaths....

It was remarkable to see all the people of NY, especially the firefighters, police and rescue workers unite during this time. All the lost lives, all the ruble, all the sweat, all the tears. That is something I will never forget.

Ahriakin

royal wrote:

Ahriakin wrote:

We can invade 2 countries but we can't build one decent memorial to the victims.

http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage2

Now all they have to do is get past mock up images and actually complete it (2011, it takes 10 years?). At least they have a nice website .

HeroPsycho

dynamik wrote:

Has anyone else sort of been desensitized to the whole ordeal since it's basically become a political talking point? When I hear someone mention 9/11, my first thought is that it's an excuse to go to war, instead of thinking about the actual event and the lives that were lost.

It's unfortunately been politicized and used so ridiculously much that it doesn't mean anything anymore in conversations about politics and social policies, etc. along with the word "terrorism", "The War on Terrorism", etc.

When you have candidates making concession speeches saying they're pulling out of the race to support another candidate in their own party because if the candidate from the other party wins, the terrorists will win, it's just proven how utterly ridiculous it's become.

9/11 absolutely should mean something, and that something shouldn't be partisan or ideologically convenient. It's been 7 years, and most Americans still don't seem to understand why these people did what they did to us, and how is the best way to combat them and prevent it in the future.

It's saddening that over 3,000 people died that day, and that should have been a wake up call to the US that we need to rethink our role in the world, how we've dealt with international relations, what needs to be changed, etc. in the post-Cold War era. I fear we didn't truly do that.