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Where were you on September 11, 2001...

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ephemery1

ephemery1

Brilliant_Rock
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... when you first heard the news that our country was under attack?

Storm created his beautiful tribute post, but I thought it might be nice to have a place to share our personal experiences as well... where we were and what we were doing when the news first broke.

I had just graduated college and was home for a year doing some volunteering and odd jobs. I was working in the church nursery that morning, when my mom came running in, eyes wide, and said "we're under attack... the country's under attack" It was very surreal... as she explained (one of the women in her prayer group that morning had a husband in the FBI who called her immediately with what he knew), I stood there looking down at the baby in my arms and a few more playing around me, so young and innocent and uncomprehending. My first instinct was to somehow protect them... but I suddenly realized I felt just as naive and unable to understand how such a thing could possibly be happening...
 
I was at work in the operating room- we were delivering a baby by c-section. We routinely listen to the radio in the OR, and all of a sudden, the music was cut off, and we got a briefing of what was going on...at that point, the first plane hit, and there was just mass chaos- nobody was really sure what was happenning.

When we came out of the OR, all of the doctors and nurses crowded into one of the patient rooms and turned the TV on to see what was going on. I just remember everyone being in shock. Nobody could believe what was happenning. To this day, I think about that baby we were delivering- born on 9/11/01, at exactly the same time we were under attack. Horrible.
 
My husband was overseas for a year. The kids and I had settled into our house and I had just taken them to school. I was on my way home when I heard it on the radio and thought it was someones idea of a sick joke. I got home and turned on the tv to find it was not a joke. I also called the school and was told the school was locked down and no one could enter or exit. I did not get to pick up my kids until almost 5pm that night. I couldn''t call my hubby and he could not call me because of the security and all the lines were tied up. His friend was set to come home that afternoon from being overseas a year, his plane had to turn around and stay put for several days. His wife was a wreck. I never felt so vulnerable and scared and alone. It was one of the worst days of my life and I will never forget it! Mokey
 
I was a bookkeeper, doing the normal routine. Our manager came into the office and told us that a plane hit one of the twin towers. We all went into her office and watched for a few minutes, then went back to work. A few minutes later, she comes back out and tells us about the second plane hitting the other tower. We spent most of the rest of the day watching everything going on, and praying for the people trapped and their loved ones.
 
I had a dentist appointment that day and slept in.
I woke up shortly after the first plane hit and saw the second live on TV.
Later that day I had a root canal packed and filled.
Everyone in the dentist office was in the waiting room glued to a small TV.
At that time the towers were down and there was still being a plane reported missing out of Chicago and I knew someone who was flying that day.
They were at O'Hare airport when the attack occurred and the flight was canceled.
 
i was getting ready for school- college. i was actually at my BF''s house and him and his cousin were getting ready. they never had the tv on- but for some reason his cousin did that morning. he said outloud that a plane crashed into the tower. i turned on another tv to watch as the second plane live before our eyes struck the tower. and charlie gibson said we were under attack.

that morning i listened to the radio all the way to school. in my first class we all hovered around the little classroom radio stunned. second class we weren''t allowed to listen or watch or know anything. he wanted us to work. so we did, though it was difficult to concentrate.
 
Was working for the property mgmt company of a 57 story high rise - just a few blocks from Sears Tower - Chicago. Everyone was fleeing the city but because of my job I had to stay and quickly strategize our security procedures. Our team of seven discussed everything from a conference room watching the television. At the time, we didn't know if Chicago was a target that hadn't been hit YET. It was mixed emotions of sadness and fear - I just wanted to go home and be with my loved ones.
 
I was living in New York getting ready to go the airport and fly to Washington Dulles for my Aunt's funeral (she died on 9/9/01. My grandma called me and said I could not come. I had NO idea what she was talking about and she told me turn on my TV. I will never forget the shock.

When I turned on the TV, the planes had both hit but the towers had not fallen yet. I had the TV on when they fell. I remember just going numb.

My neighbor who had 4 kids lost her husband that day. My sister in laws saw it happen as they were walking to work. Living right outside NYC at the time (Long Island), everyone knew somebody who died. It was so surreal.

I remember laying in bed at night not being able to sleep for the days after listening to the fighter jets that flew overhead protecting the city.

Needless to say, I never made it to my Aunts funeral. Driving was not an option, because getting off Long Island was impossible. They had the bridges so heavily guarded that you could not make it past Brooklyn. We were pretty much trapped that week.

I remember walking on my treadmill watching TV and crying.
 
I was working for a major financial institution on the 51st Floor of the Sears Tower. We had big screen TVs all over the floor so that we could get news and watching trading during the day. Right when I came in CNN had just started showing coverage of the smoke coming out of the first tower and all that the news said was that a plane had hit. We of course thought it was some small plane and a horrible mishap by the pilot. Then, we all sat there and watched the second plane hit on the 60" big screen. Our security evacuated us immediately at that point and we ran down 51 flights of stairs. Fortunately I lived only about 14 blocks from the Sears Tower then so I could easily walk home, but there was so much confusion in the loop and the train stations. When I was walking home my husband called frantically (he was in Minneapolis on business) and said that the radio station in his rental car had broadcast that the Sears Tower had been hit too, and when he called my number there was no answer. Plus the cells were overloaded so it took him a long time to reach me on my cell phone--total panic.

A few minutes later I was on my cell phone with a close friend and he told me that the towers had fell. I couldn't even comprehend what he meant until I got home and saw the footage.

I spent the next few days alternately watching TV and looking out my living room window to see if the Sears Tower was still there.

The following Tuesday we were all back at work and were evacuated again. Some idiot had started a rumor that a hijacked plane was coming from the Milwaukee airport and was due to hit the Sears Tower in 12 minutes (and we knew from the pervious week that it took a helluva lot longer than 12 minutes to get down from the 51st Floor). That was much scarier to me than 9/11 because on 9/11 we had no idea what was going on but on this day we knew what could happen.
 
I had a late class that day so I was sleeping in. My boyfriend (now fiance) called, woke me up, and told me to turn on the TV. I sat glued to my television in awe. I didn''t realize the level of seriousness until I watched the second plane hit.

Then, panic...I realized that my boyfriend was at work only about 20 blocks from the Trade Center. I couldn''t reach him, I couldn''t reach my parents and I couldn''t reach anyone else by phone. I lived 5 blocks from the Empire State Building, and had no idea if that could be next. After telling my best friend over IM that she needed to evacuate her dorm (literally 3 blocks from the trade center), I RAN from midtown to the dorms near NYU. All I remember that morning was seeing people covered in dust and soot, trying to make their way uptown as I was frantically running back down towards the site. I made it down to the dorms and into the arms friends. I didn''t get in touch with my boyfriend until HOURS later when he finally made his way to the dorms as all the phone lines in the city were completely down. Yet, with all the panic and chaos, I have never felt more closeness between strangers than on that day. We took in people that day that had no where to go, and gave hugs to people we''d never see again.

New York City was not the same for a few days. It was like a ghost town. The most eerie thing about the days after was walking down the MIDDLE of Broadway in the middle of the day, and aside from the occasional siren, it being so silent you could hear a pin drop. Then looking up and seeing smoke rising from the horizon.

We will always remember. New York City will always remember but we are back, alive and thriving.
 
I was in college at Columbia in Manhattan about 100 blocks away. I was supposed to start a new work-study job at nine so I was just checking my friends'' away messages on IM when I saw one person''s was "Holy f***, a plane just hit the World Trade Center." I couldn''t figure out if it was some warped joke or what? I checked the news online and couldn''t find anything for a few minutes then the sites started updating and I realized it had really happened, but no one knew why. It was my first day at this job though, and since we had no idea why it had happened, I just walked on over to my new job really flustered and confused. I got there and they were listening to the radio. They set me up with a few tasks but after a few minutes everyone was just listening and stopped working. Shortly after the plane hit the Pentagon, the university president sent out a notice that the university was closing so my boss sent me home. As I walked back into my building, a friend of mine told me she was going to go see the towers from the top floor of my dorm. We went up and were looking at the smoke and I was just really confused because I was so sure I remembered them being taller than they could have been behind the smoke and it took me a while to realize that they had fallen. It must have just happened because there wasn''t any notice of that on the radio when I had left my job. I think the part that most shook me after that was when all lanes of Broadway, even way uptown where I was, were heading north. There were long lines at all the pay phones and no one''s cell phones would work. Everyone was lined up in all the stores buying water and canned food. Even seeing the smoke it still seemed pretty far away, but with all the chaos around me, I realized how close it really was. My brother''s now-wife was working only about a block away and no one could get in touch with her for hours as she walked back to Brooklyn so we were all pretty panicked about her. A good friend of mine''s sister worked in the WTC on an upper floor but she had a hair appointment that morning, so she wasn''t there just by pure chance.
 
I was at work- I get in mostly at 8:30 and was doing the usual getting settled thing while listening to Howard Stern. Someone else made mention of this in Storm''s tribute post: someone came rushing in to Stern''s studio, saying that a plane had hit one the towers. At first they though it was a joke, then though it was just a horrible accident. Once they saw people streaming out of lower Manhattan, walking or running, they realized that it was more than that. They had cameras that they turned on just in time to see the second plane, just like everyone else. Meanwhile, I sat in my cube and said out loud "something is going on in New York." Slowly but surely everyone in the office was becoming aware. My co-worker at the time''s now husband works in the John Hancock building here in Boston and they got evacuated due to the believed threat to all high-rises. They would go on to be evacuted 3 more times. My co-coworker was a mess. None of us could get anything done that day. We got out of work real early and it was so weirdly quiet outside. Ayone who knows Boston knows that the Fenway area is usually pretty crazy, even when it''s not a game day.

My fiance''s sister''s now-husband had to go on a business trip that day. He was going to Chicago. They had been dating almost a year by this time. Once she heard that both planes were out of Boston, she had a panick attack at work. She had last talked to him about an hour before his flight took off at 8:15. She didn''t hear from him until about 4 in the afternoon. While his flight was in the air, passengers had no idea what was going on. They continued on to Chicago and he found out when he landed. Since cell and landline phone communication was all jammed, he couldn''t call her. He went to the office where he was supposed to go and the conference had been canceled since it was close by to the Sears Tower. He finally was able to email her from his laptop in his hotel room after the web wasn''t quite so slow.

Four days prior, on the 7th, My dad and I were driving on our way back from our family reunion in Louisiana and came through NYC. I remember looking at the skyline and telling my father about one of the many times I went up to the observation deck in both buildings and how I wanted to go back because the view was so amazing. I loved going up there. The first time I went to NYC at 15-16, I stood in the plaza by the Sphere looking up, getting that dizzy feeling becuase they were so high.
 
Date: 9/11/2006 11:00:56 AM
Author: Dee*Jay

The following Tuesday we were all back at work and were evacuated again. Some idiot had started a rumor that a hijacked plane was coming from the Milwaukee airport
Click to expand...
I remember that! I had totally forgotten about that in five years. Now there''s concrete baracades and visitor passes.............
 
I was at home. My husband had taken the kids to school that morning and I slept in. My friend called to see what we should do about the kids. I turned on the TV just as the plane was hitting the first trade tower. We decided to go together to both schools and pick up our kids. Our Son''s school did not want the boys to leave, they were handeling it very well, and felt it best not to create a panic situation, so we left them there. Now the girl''s school was very happy for us to take our daughter''s home. My husband came home from work, a wreck, they evacuated his building in Philly as they thought it might get attacked as well. I got my son home later that day, and tried my best to make my kids feel safe. What a horrible and tragic day.
 
Being on the West coast, it was early still, and I was still at home getting ready for work. We always have the morning news on, to see the weather that day. I had just come out of my room to get my stuff together when the first plane hit. Like most people, I couldn't understand what I was seeing, because it was so surreal. Most of my friends and family weren't awake yet, so I left for the bus stop right after the second plane hit, and rode with people who had no idea what was going on, because most of them had been on that bus since before the first plane hit. When I got to work, I turned the TV on, and just sat there, watching what was going on, disbelieving. My boss came in and told me that there's no way we're getting any work done that day, and to just go home. My friends called as I was on the bus back home, and everyone was so confused. When I got back home, I sat with my mom and dad and just watched the TV waiting to hear any good news at all. My dad was supposed to fly out on business that day, too. As I watched the insanity unfold throughout the day, I realized that this is a moment I will never, ever forget. Almost like the JFK assination in my Dad's time- this was our defining moment. Knowing that, it made me sick to my stomach, things like this just aren't supposed to happen. My then boyfriend was a Marine, and shipped out within days. Even though I was on this coast, my life changed forever that day.
 
I was in NYC working on a political campaign. It was primary election day. My family didn''t know where I was going to be -- I was either going to be up in Harlem or down by the World Trade Center. I didn''t find out until 6 AM on Septmeber 11th that I was going to be in Harlem, the other end of Manhattan. My family and friends started calling me frantically before the cell phones went out. I went back to the campaign office and we all watched the towers come down. I walked home across the park that day. People were just sitting in Central Park listening to the radio, completely stunned.

One of my friends who was a campaign worker was also a police officer. He was handing in his resignation that day when he heard the reports of the plane crashing. He rushed to the Towers and inside to help. He never came out.
 
I had just started an internship with a firm at One World Financial (attached by a bridge to the World Trade Center). I had to go to class in the morning due to the fact that the school changed around the class schedule so I was supposed to be at work at 9:30. I was coming out of the subway and saw the first plane flying overhead. Me and a bunch of people on the street watched as it flew south and really low and then hit the Tower. It was so surreal, you just couldn''t believe it was happening. A lady on the street said oh my god, what a terrible accident, and someone next to her said there was no way it was an accident, he definitely had control of the plane. I saw too ambulance workers getting coffee who saw it happen as well - they jumped into their vehicle and raced down there. I always wonder if they were okay.

I then walked north and went to a friends apt. on 11th & 5th ave. We watched in horror as we saw people jumping from the Towers and later as the Towers fell. After that, and seeing the national guard with machine guns and the F-16''s flying overhead every day, it was very hard to stay in NYC. The smell of burnt rubber and some other noxious odor pervaded the city for months as a reminder of what happened. I will never forget that day although luckly everyone I worked with and knew made it out alive.
 
I was a freshman at Penn State at the time. My first class didn''t start until one, so I was sleeping. The phone rang and woke me up. It was a man whose voice I didn''t recognize and he kept cutting out. The only thing he said that I could understand was my roommate''s name. We got disconnected, I hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

A while later my roommate, who''d been at class, came running into our room, turned on the tv and woke me up. She was hysterical. She told me what happened and said that her dad was working in the building accross the street. She said that no one could get in contact with him and they didn''t know if he was ok.

I just sat there staring at disbelief at the tv. It took me a while to connect the phone call and what was going on, but I did eventually and we realized that it was her dad who had called and that he''d been calling to tell her he was ok. I felt so awful that I hadn''t understood what was going on and told her immediately.

That night the school held a candlelight vigil. It was so surreal. I''ve never seen so many people crying and praying together.

I still get really choked up to this day thinking about everything that happened.
 
We had just moved into our new home. I was unpacking while an AC/Heating tech was working on our ac unit. My plan was to unpack boxes and put things in order. I sat on the sofa in the den and turned on the t.v. while this stranger was working in my basement. The pics of Tower 1 were on and I called the man in the basement to come up to see the news. We were in shock and then to our dismay, the live shot of plane number 2 was under way. We sat there and had a short conversation. My husband who began a new position in Bioterrorism at the CDC called to tell me to pick up our two children. I immediately drove to get my 2 little boys. I was so afraid, alone, and horrified. I then went to the grocery store to pick up supplies of bottled water and non-perishables. We prepared for the worst. I saw my husband for a brief time that day as he came home to pack a suitcase for the long hours ahead of him. I called my family and friends back home in Tx. to find comfort. To this day when I see the footage, I get that bone chilling feeling up my spine and feel anger towards those who have no respect for this great nation. Our lives forever changed that day. My heart feels heavy for those who lost their loved ones.
I see the technician twice a year when he inspects our units. We always talk about that morning.
 
I was on my way to a meeting and heard about the first plane hitting. The report at first made it sound like a small commuter plane had hit, and I was upset but did not think terrorism immediately. My husband was on his way to New York for a meeting in mid town, and I called him on his cell on the train to tell him. Until the second plane hit, he just though it was a terrible accident and it would be okay to go into the city. I was telling him to get off the train in Newark, that no matter where it was the city was going to be a mess that day. He did not get off, and then the second plane hit. He was in New York, spent the day wandering around, seeing all the people covered in debris. He has a friend in the hotel business and managed to get a room while waiting to get a train back to Philly. I was at the meeting basically, so I got out of the car and went in and we watched it on the television the whole time. We could not really even speak, just sat there in horror. I kept trying to reach my husband, and his mom was frantically calling me too, but I just had a hard time getting through. He finally got home at 11:00 pm. His cousin, who lived in Boston, was killed on the first plane that hit the tower. I found this out while I was waiting to hear from my husband that he was coming home and I did not want to tell him over the phone. I did not believe it til I saw his name on the CNN crawl a few days later. They finally, years later, gave his wife some remains to bury. It was awful. They think he was killed before the crash by one of the highjackers, based on the calls from the cabin to the call center, and I only hope his at least then was spared knowing what was happening. I was 8 months pregnant and my older kids school did not tell the kids much, since they were pretty young and the school felt the parents should tell them. I picked them up early and got them home, and tried to watch the news away from them. They did not know their dad was in NY and they did not know what terrorism was, but they sure know now. My oldest had nightmares about being in large places and terrorists coming down from the ceiling wearing bombs, like ninjas. He did not tell us this for a long time and would panic when we went to the mall or to a sporting event. I think the world is changed forever and no one will forget this. It still haunts us and always will, and I hate that so many people hate Americans and our way of life and are willing to die trying to hurt us...
 
It was a gorgeous day in Washington, perfect and crisp and clear. I lived in Arlington, VA at the time and I took the metro from the Pentagon to my office in downtown DC. I'd worn new shoes which rubbed a blister on my heel before I made it into work. I was just 6 weeks into my new job on Pennsylvania Ave in DC. 6 blocks from the White House and directly across from the FBI bldg. I remember walking through the lobby and catching it out of the corner of my eye on one of the 4 tvs. I stood there mesmerized with the receptionist, and then more and more people started trickling in. We all stayed and we all watched. Somebody came running out of the conference room. They'd been on a call with someone from a company in the 2nd tower that had watched the 1st plane. We all debated whether it was terrorism or an accident. Was it a big plane or a little plane? How on earth were they ever going to fix that building? Then the second plane hit and our mouths dropped open.

The phones started ringing off the hook. We couldn't get the volume turned high enough on the tvs. But we still thought it was "just a NY thing". Then we saw the Pentagon. Our office shut down immediately and without announcement. The day was just over. We flooded into the streets and the cars outside our office were in serious gridlock. A motorcade attempted to make its way down Pennsylania Ave. to the Capitol but it wasn't getting through. Everyone told us that the metro was shut down. There was a rumor flying around that the national mall was on fire, somebody told me the capitol had been hit. I lived about 2 miles from my office, but with the metro supposedly closed and the mall on fire, I couldn't figure out how to get over to the river and walk home. And certainly not with the blister.

My cell phone battery was dead so I knew I had to get to a phone. I walked away from the Federal area and into a department store thinking that maybe they would have tvs and I could watch more footage in a little safer area. There were no tvs but there were people buying shoes and that really bothered me. How could anybody shop at a time like this? Later I realized they probably didn't know what was happening. I walked across the street to a hotel and into a lobby full of stranded businessmen that were supposed to be flying out. We gathered around the tvs and formed lines for the pay phones. My then boyfriend was in Boston but I couldn't reach him. I called my mom in Texas and after about 15 tries I got through. She was so relieved to hear my voice and said that he had called her because he couldn't reach me. She said she would call him and let him know I was ok. I stayed in the hotel lobby for about 2 hours, trying to figure out what to do. I couldn't reach any of my friends and I felt so alone. A little before noon I walked over to the front desk and asked for a room. They charged me $500 and I paid it. I didn't have the money but I needed some security. I needed a tv and a phone and some quiet. It was the best thing I could have done.

I didn't make it home until the next afternoon. They finally rerouted the buses through Pentagon City. I took the metro across the river and could see the smoke still rising from the Pentagon. When I walked off the train in the tunnel I could smell the smoke. It was a horrible smell.

Life in DC has never been the same, of course. My office later moved to Capitol Hill and that was even more terrifying for us. We did evacuation drills and shelter in place drills, all while looking directly at the dome. I knew my chances of survival were nil were something to happen there. Eventually I moved to a different company a little further away from the Federal Area, but only two blocks from the World Bank, just in time for that security threat. My mom is still very nervous. We are required to have "emergency backpacks" under our desk at all times for shelter-in-place requirements and the office has a large stockpile of food and water. I don't live in the DC metro area anymore... I'm up in Baltimore now, but I take the commuter train every morning and worry about that. I worry about the tunnels under the harbor in Baltimore and I worry about being away from my FI when something happens.

I do think of it as "when" because I feel it's only a matter of time until the next attack. I know there isn't a lot I can personally do but we have plans and we say I love you every morning and that's all we can do. It's a scary world, but we have to keep living.

I must say I was relieved when I realized it was raining this morning. Another clear day and I don't think I would have been ok.

ETA: A few days later, my then-boyfriend and I participated in a candlelight vigil on the corner of my street. CNN showed up. There were only about 15 of us there so I'm still amazed that CNN caught the moment, but more importantly, my mom happened to be watching CNN at the time and she saw me and she saw that I was indeed ok and she cried for hours. I was so relieved that CNN helped us have that moment, thousands of miles apart.
 
I was in law school. It was pretty early in the morning and my roommate's tv had pretty bad reception so I was pretty groggy as I was trying to process what was going on. I drove to school and right outside the parking lot and already there were firefighters collecting donations. I donated what I had on me cuz I was awake enough to know that something really bad happened if there were firefighters out collecting for it already.

Somehow, I ended up in the neighboring city with my g/f (now wife) buying a cell phone for her and they had a tv in the store. We ended up just sitting in the store for like 2 hours just watching the TV and learning about what was happening. I think people in my region didn't really learn how big a deal this was until about noon our time cuz the news reports were coming in so scattered with new events happening all the time that it was causing the networks some problems in getting the info out in a clear manner.
 
It was 2 weeks before my wedding. DH and I were asleep when the ringing phone woke us up very early (don''t remember exactly what time). It was my maid of honor, who was sobbing hysterically. She told me to go turn on the TV. We couldn''t believe our eyes, but one of the towers was pouring smoke and the reporter said something about a plane crashing into the tower. We watched in horror and shock as a second plane hit. All I remember was feeling numbness, fear, and total disbelief. There were a lot of tears that day and in the weeks/months that followed.
 
It was my freshman year of college & I was getting ready for my freshman writing class that everyone hated. I turned on the t.v. expecting to catch a little bit of Regis & Kelly (don''t laugh) & I saw the first tower in smoke & listened to them talk about the plane hitting it. I called my then-bf (now fiance) because he is fancinated by planes and at this point everyone thought it was still just an accident. He had just gotten out of class with his roommate & I talked to them as I walked to my class.

Once I got to class, some other kids had gotten more information & people were getting upset/scared. The teacher (a grad. student) said to us, "There''s nothing we can do, so we may as well have class. Nobody is leaving" Nice, right? So we had class & I had no clue things had gotten so bad. I met my friend after class and we went to the dining hall for some breakfast. While we were there, we heard the radio & realized how serious the whole situation was.

Once we left the dining hall, I had about 5 voicemails on my phone (no service in there). It was my parents & fi over and over again thinking something had happened.

We spent the rest of the day watching the news in my dorm room, walking around trying to find a place to donate blood (every where was turning people away) & watching the cloud of smoke grow bigger & darker in the distance (we were about 40 miles away). I had dinner with my mom that night & stayed with fi for the rest of the week. We saw about 6 F-16''s fly by.

It was a scary day (for everyone really), but I couldn''t imagine being in NYC that day or knowing anybody who was.
 
I was in my office on the 11th floor of a building 5 blocks north of the World Trade Center. We watched the horrors out of our windows. It was simply unbelievable and surreal--like a train wreck, you don''t want to watch but you can''t tear your eyes away. No phones, no way to contact friends and family. It was like being in a daze or a dream. Walking home to my apartment was unlike anything else. Just seeing people''s faces. The dust, the smell. Everyone was in shock. It''s still hard to talk about it although I was fortunate to not lose anybody. Our city has bounced back but there will always be something missing. My heart goes out to everyone who lost a friend or a loved one on this tragic day.
 
I was still in college working a PT job at the mall. I got to work and thought that it had been an accident, and then they made us evacuate the mall and go home. I turned on the TV and remembered knowing that my Uncle had worked in New York City and was wondering if he was okay. My mom called me shortly after and said that he worked in the second tower and that no one had heard from him, no cell phones were working.

I was so in shock and began crying not knowing what to do. My Uncle never was found, and we now have heard from others who had seen him last, that he had tried everything he could to get his department out first and stayed back to assist others in evacuating. The first tower had already fallen. There was word that he had gotten into the elevators of his building- The elevator doors shut and then rubble fell and that was the last that we had heard.

There is comfort in knowing that he was a true hero that day.

Bless all those other families who lost family and friends
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My bf and I had just flown back to Chicago the night before from San Francisco after a nice weekend in Napa. We almost got lost on the way to the airport and barely made it in time for the last plane back.

I lived alone in a highrise in downtown Chicago. I was getting ready for work. I turned on the tv after the first plane had hit and was still watching out of the corner of my eye when the second plane hit. I walked the five blocks to work on a beautiful morning. When I got there, I saw a woman that I worked with walking towards me with a horrible look on her face that I will never forget. I wondered if I had forgotten to wear pants or something...

She was headed towards the kitchen and I followed her in. Many of my coworkers were gathered around the tv, hearing the news of the Pentagon attack. I think shortly thereafter, the news of the crash in Pennsylvania came on and everyone wondered if it was related or not.

We were VERY busy at work and very stressed about deadlines. It was about 9 or 9:30 that my boss announced that the building was closing. I worked in the John Hancock building at the time, which was the second tallest building in Chicago. I walked home and on the way, called my sister on my cell phone. She informed me that the towers were collapsing. I sat home the rest of the day watching the coverage on tv, waiting to see what else would happen. I never felt comfortable again working in downtown Chicago. They implemented several security measures in my building but the one that stuck in my mind the most was when they put cement barricades around the building so no car could get close to the building.
 
All these stories...it''s like it happened yesterday.

I was packing for my flight back to Boston where I was going to school. My sister ran in the room and told me to turn on the tv. Who can forget that moment, staring at the screen, slowly registering that all that was real?

For the next few weeks I was stranded, spending time with my childhood friends, many of them getting ready to return to Boston and New York, calling everyone and sharing the feeling of dread when we couldn''t reach someone. Needless to say, it wasn''t until I was able to get back to Boston that I understood the full scope of our losses.
 
I also remember where I was the first time I heard commercial planes overhead. Chicago has two airports (well three including Meigs which was still operating) and it seemed they were always taking off and landing, taking off and landing - a sound you just learn to drown out like taxi horns in NYC. Except for the couple of fighter jets leaving the Great Lakes Naval Base - it was silence in the skies for so long and I never knew how much the absence of that sound made the next few days/weeks a constant reminder of what had just transpired. Then one day, that first sound of a plane in the skies was almost petrifying - so eery, so loud.
 
I was at the US Dept of Labor, which is right off the Mall near the Capitol. We were crowded into our director''s office and watched one of the towers come down. Sometime after that, all federal buildings were evacuated, and as we were leaving, we heard false reports of bomb threats, etc. I had only been at DOL for a month and luckily my sister worked in the same office as I did, so she was able to lead me home. Otherwise I never would''ve known where I was going.

I went to Arlington Cemetery today to visit the grave of a friend killed in Iraq. I consider him to be a casualty of 9/11.
 
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