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Where were you 20 years ago this morning?

I was in Springfield, MA about halfway between NYC and Boston, working on a consulting gig for the company I’ve worked for the last 22 years. Springfield was about 90 miles from my home when I lived in MA.

I’m a native New Yorker, but my wife is a native New Englander, and we lived outside Boston in the 1990s and 2000s. My wife grew up in CT and knew multiple people who died on 9/11 at the WTC. It hit us both very hard.

I’m sure every American no matter where you lived felt the horror and the anger that day, but having been raised in that city and living where two of the planes took off from made it all the more close to home.

I remember watching the 2nd plane hit live on a TV in the cafeteria where I was working. I left to drive home, and Mass State troopers were on the bridges and overpasses of the Turnpike with long rifles. I remember asking myself if this was how my dad must have felt on 12/7/1941. Scary day.
 
I was teaching at a public alternative school. I was in a meeting when an aide came in and told us that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I went back to my classroom and turned on the TV just in time to watch the second plane strike the second tower. The events of that day, and the sacrifice of the NYPD and NYFD, encouraged me to leave teaching and enter law enforcement.
 
I was working for a mom n pop truck repair and maintenance facility just south of Chicago's stockyards. I was delivering a truck to a customer in the yards. The garage was empty. Not a soul. I went up to the front office, everyone was glued to a 13" black and white TV. The first plane had hit moments before I showed up. We talked briefly and wrote it off as a freak accident. I grabbed the next truck, tuned the radio to 890 and returned to the shop. I got back and my co-workers were all huddled around our 13" black and white. My boss looked at me and asked did you here? I explained how the truck barn folks had shared what they heard. Then I found out about the second plane. I too thought about what it must've felt like for Americans to find out about Pearl harbor. I tried calling my wife, phone lines were overwhelmed. When I finally got in touch, she was home, the kids were sent home early. She was afraid for me, since i was in Chicago. The what-if thought process was in high gear.
I look back and remember the surge in patriotism, the ugly head of mob mentality and thinking to myself, will this awaken America's war machine?
 
I had been with the police department for about 4 years and was, at that time, a 911 Police/Fire dispatcher. I had worked a 12-hour shift 2pm-2am. I had stayed up for a couple of hours after I got home, that job always keyed you up and it was hard to just go to bed, so I stayed up until my ex-wife, wife at the time, got up around 5am to get ready for work. I made coffee and we talked for a few minutes. Back then we worked completely opposite shifts and rarely saw one another awake. I went to bed around 5:30am with the intention of sleeping until about 11am then getting ready for another shift. Right after the first plane hit, my wife called me on our home phone, sounds strange now having a home phone..., but she called me and told me to turn on the TV, she was quite upset. I turned on the TV and was watching when the 2nd plane hit. I told her I had to get a shower because I would be getting a phone call any minute. Sure enough, I had just gotten out of the shower when the PD called and announced it was all hands on deck for all divisions, all shifts, and we were to report to work immediately. I got ready very quickly, I remember listening to the radio I kept in the bathroom as I was shaving and just being completely blown away by the developing story. I got to work around 10am and the activity at the PD was like nothing I'd ever seen. SWAT team members were loading rifles, getting ready to go out with the patrol guys and girls, our admin people were all walking around with TAC radios. I walked into dispatch and it was complete chaos. All the 911 phone lines were lit up and as soon as one line went dark, it lit up again. There were already about eight dispatchers working and not enough stations for us all to take calls so the dispatch supervisor had plugged in all the emergency old style phones and she threw one of those at me and told me to start taking calls and writing them down.
People were fighting at gas stations, they were fighting at the grocery stores, they were fighting about anything. Things started to calm down around 3pm but then the air force sent up a 2-plane CAP around our area and as soon as people saw the F-16 Falcons flying around the city, here came hundreds of 911 calls with everyone thinking the fighters were going to crash into buildings. All in all, we all worked from around 10am until almost 3am the next morning, our dispatch supervisor never took a break and started letting us go home in shifts around 10pm that night. I don't think the dispatch manager went home for almost 48 hours straight. She kept everything organized and did an amazing job coordinating about a million different things. I don't think I had been or have ever since been that tired when I got home around 3:30am that next morning. Other than talking about the events with my fellow dispatchers when time permitted all the previous day, it still hadn't really sunk in until I got home that morning. I just sat and tried not to think for a couple of hours, the police and fire radio traffic still ringing in my head and ears along with the shrill rings of the 911 phones. I remember thinking about a good friend of mine in high school who had gone on to fly AH-64 Apache attack choppers. I wondered if he would be going to war, because that's something we all knew was coming. One of my other friends enlisted in the army immediately after 9/11 and he was active duty for the next 10 years. He has stories that are absolutely chilling.
It was definitely the start of a new dawn in the country and things would never be the same at our police department or in our community. I mostly remember how surreal the planes looked and still look when I see footage, flying into the WTC. It never ceases to give me a bad case of the chills.
 
I had been with the police department for about 4 years and was, at that time, a 911 Police/Fire dispatcher. I had worked a 12-hour shift 2pm-2am. I had stayed up for a couple of hours after I got home, that job always keyed you up and it was hard to just go to bed, so I stayed up until my ex-wife, wife at the time, got up around 5am to get ready for work. I made coffee and we talked for a few minutes. Back then we worked completely opposite shifts and rarely saw one another awake. I went to bed around 5:30am with the intention of sleeping until about 11am then getting ready for another shift. Right after the first plane hit, my wife called me on our home phone, sounds strange now having a home phone..., but she called me and told me to turn on the TV, she was quite upset. I turned on the TV and was watching when the 2nd plane hit. I told her I had to get a shower because I would be getting a phone call any minute. Sure enough, I had just gotten out of the shower when the PD called and announced it was all hands on deck for all divisions, all shifts, and we were to report to work immediately. I got ready very quickly, I remember listening to the radio I kept in the bathroom as I was shaving and just being completely blown away by the developing story. I got to work around 10am and the activity at the PD was like nothing I'd ever seen. SWAT team members were loading rifles, getting ready to go out with the patrol guys and girls, our admin people were all walking around with TAC radios. I walked into dispatch and it was complete chaos. All the 911 phone lines were lit up and as soon as one line went dark, it lit up again. There were already about eight dispatchers working and not enough stations for us all to take calls so the dispatch supervisor had plugged in all the emergency old style phones and she threw one of those at me and told me to start taking calls and writing them down.
People were fighting at gas stations, they were fighting at the grocery stores, they were fighting about anything. Things started to calm down around 3pm but then the air force sent up a 2-plane CAP around our area and as soon as people saw the F-16 Falcons flying around the city, here came hundreds of 911 calls with everyone thinking the fighters were going to crash into buildings. All in all, we all worked from around 10am until almost 3am the next morning, our dispatch supervisor never took a break and started letting us go home in shifts around 10pm that night. I don't think the dispatch manager went home for almost 48 hours straight. She kept everything organized and did an amazing job coordinating about a million different things. I don't think I had been or have ever since been that tired when I got home around 3:30am that next morning. Other than talking about the events with my fellow dispatchers when time permitted all the previous day, it still hadn't really sunk in until I got home that morning. I just sat and tried not to think for a couple of hours, the police and fire radio traffic still ringing in my head and ears along with the shrill rings of the 911 phones. I remember thinking about a good friend of mine in high school who had gone on to fly AH-64 Apache attack choppers. I wondered if he would be going to war, because that's something we all knew was coming. One of my other friends enlisted in the army immediately after 9/11 and he was active duty for the next 10 years. He has stories that are absolutely chilling.
It was definitely the start of a new dawn in the country and things would never be the same at our police department or in our community. I mostly remember how surreal the planes looked and still look when I see footage, flying into the WTC. It never ceases to give me a bad case of the chills.
I replied earlier that I was waiting for the same sort of a phone call to report for work and cancel my vacation. When I did get to work, there was a 4-star, 3-star, and 2-star general officer in the operations center asking for a briefing on our efforts. It was very hectic few weeks as we prepared for a possible attack in Europe.
 
I replied earlier that I was waiting for the same sort of a phone call to report for work and cancel my vacation. When I did get to work, there was a 4-star, 3-star, and 2-star general officer in the operations center asking for a briefing on our efforts. It was very hectic few weeks as we prepared for a possible attack in Europe.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be in the military when that event occurred. Was it chaotic overall or was there a plan in place for something like that as far as the posture of the personnel and contingency plans. I know the military usually has a plan for everything on some level. .
 
Airborne on Southwest Airlines from Dallas to Houston for a biz trip.

10 min into the flight the pilot said over the intercom to take seats and stow tray tables. Beverages and snack service suspended. Flight attendants literally ran down the aisles snatching drinks from hands. They quickly sat down and strapped in. Attendant picked up phone and told them we we all set to the pilot I guess. Engines instantly went to full power and it felt like we were in an F15 Fighter. Made Houston (45 min trip via Southwest usually) in 20+ minutes airtime.
coming in to land the pilot treated it like a carrier landing . Snap 90 degree turns on final approach. Wing pointed straight down at the terrain. Snap roll to level out. Super fast approach. Wheels down came as we about landed, not way back in approach like normal in order to maintain speed. Surreal .

as a pilot, knew something was up. Really knew something was wrong when on final approaxh, jets were stacked like cordwood on approaxh to the airport.. counted 14 jets on approach to 2 runways and more circling in view. Counted 26 jets total just on my side view out the plane.

landed and literally got shoved off the plane . Pilot Asked for speedy but steady exit from plane. Polite way to tell us get the F off this plane .

in lobby of the airport where we saw and heard the news just as the 2nd jet hit the towers.

co worker drove me back to Dallas 4 days later due to grounded airlines.

that co worker has since died from brain cancer. Sept 11 reminds me of how great a friend he was
 
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be in the military when that event occurred. Was it chaotic overall or was there a plan in place for something like that as far as the posture of the personnel and contingency plans. I know the military usually has a plan for everything on some level. .
When I arrived at reserve command HQ I sat in a staff meeting with the folks who were responsible for mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists. Generating aircraft and crews and getting them to the fight was not a problem as the warfighters knew just what to do. It was a massive logistics exercise. It was organized chaos in the first week but when all the key people were in place it flowed. It was impressive witnessing massive mobilization, especially since so many reservists wanted to get into the fight. The biggest issue I saw was getting reservists paid. We had reserve pilots flying combat missions and special warfare guys fighting in the mountains for many weeks without getting paid because the finance system was crushed by the weight. One of my most vivid memories was of 5 GO's in a staff meeting pouring over an E4's travel voucher weeks into it asking why we couldn't get the man paid for expenses incurred traveling to the war. A lot of changes occurred in the finance system after that.
 
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be in the military when that event occurred. Was it chaotic overall or was there a plan in place for something like that as far as the posture of the personnel and contingency plans. I know the military usually has a plan for everything on some level. .
Indeed. The immediate plan was to lock down US interests and provide increased security. Soldiers in "full-battle-rattle" near schools and housing areas too.
 
Indeed. The immediate plan was to lock down US interests and provide increased security. Soldiers in "full-battle-rattle" near schools and housing areas too.
We had several police officers who were in the National Guard or the Reserves. The Reserves officers were deployed first and it was probably less than six months after the event we had over 12 vacancies at the PD from officers being deployed. We didn't see some of them again for almost two and half years.
 
We had several police officers who were in the National Guard or the Reserves. The Reserves officers were deployed first and it was probably less than six months after the event we had over 12 vacancies at the PD from officers being deployed. We didn't see some of them again for almost two and half years.
I had the task of calling up IRR listing of
reservists for immediate deployment to assist the headquarters staff. Most were excited at the opportunity, while some were not for various reasons.
 
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