Three Years

[Arroe]

"Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the Twin Towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. Others went to Arlington, Virginia, to the Pentagon."

"At 8:46:40, American 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. All on board, along with an unknown number of people in the tower, were killed instantly."

"At 9:03:11, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center. All on board, along with an unknown number of people in the tower, were killed instantly."

"At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour. All on board, as well as many civilian and military personnel in the building, were killed."

"The passengers continued their assault and at 10:02:23, a hijacker said, "Pull it down! Pull it down!" The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them. The airplane headed down; the control wheel was turned hard to the right. The airplane rolled onto its back, and one of the hijackers began shouting "Allah is the greatest. Allah is the greatest." With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes' flying time from Washington, D.C."

Three years ago today American Flight 11, United Flight 175, American Flight 77, and United Flight 93 were hijacked by terrorists and flown into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon. A fourth was stopped enroute to Washington, D.C., on part of the heroics of the passengers on board.

I will never forget what happened on September 11th, 2001, for the rest of my life. I will never forget where I was at what exact time, I will never forget the feeling of absolute disbelief I felt, I will never forget just stopping and sitting down and talking with complete strangers about what happened, but most of all I will never forget about the 2,792 people, just like you and me, who died for nothing. They should not have died that day. September 11th was the worst day any of us have ever seen in our entire lives for humanity, and I doubt many can argue that. Post how you remember the day three years ago from today if you are willing to share, and let us all say a prayer for those who died.


Quotes from the 9/11 Commission Report.

[Rdr4evr]

I remember that I was sleeping when the actual attacks happened. I also had a job interview the very same day. When I woke up, as usual I turned on the TV and saw the attacks...oddly, the first time I saw it I did not think much of it, believing it was either fake or an accident. But after repeated instant replays and the reporter commentary explaining that "America is under attack", it kind of hit me a little harder. But in all honesty, even at that point, it wasn’t as surreal to me as most others. I went about my getting ready for the interview. Everything seemed normal, people going to work, people driving around, people having fun, the usual. It wasn’t till the next morning when it truly hit home. The reason it did not hit me as hard as others is because I wasn’t surprised, as an attack was bound to happen in the States sooner or later.

September 11th was the worst day any of us have ever seen in our entire lives for humanity.

To Americans it is the worst day they have witnessed because such things don’t happen on a regular basis. But at the same time, awful things are done to other countries by the US all the time. So although it may seem like the worst attack ever, it is not. Americans have just become so accustomed to safety while ignoring problems in other countries, that it took an event like this to open their eyes. But you mustn’t forget, this is not at all odd as it happens everyday. Maybe not in the manner of this or for that matter on the same scale, but it does happen. For example, there are reports ranging anywhere from 10,000-30,000 dead civilians in Iraq, more than twice to five times that of Sep 11.

Nobody should have to die in this manner, except the scum who commit these awful acts. I will pray for the innocent lives lost Sep 11 as well as the innocent lives lost all over the world everyday. May they rest in peace and may we never forget the reality that is death and live life to the fullest. Rather than letting such events cause racism and violence, I wish for it to cause unity and peace, otherwise it will end in more bloodshed, and that ultimately is what we need to avoid in order to have a more prosperous future.

[anleja]

In the year or so before the attacks, I would turn on CNN to "see if anything exploded," as I half-jokingly told my girlfriend. Since the fighting started in Israel in September 2000, I had an unesy feeling that we would soon be witness to some pretty bad happenings in the world. I'd always been a "worst-case scenerio" kind of guy... I was sure that the Elian Gonzales thing would be a trigger for some sort of big Cuba conflict, and the China spyplane incident scared the shit out of me. Both these just fizzled out into nothing, but I found it interesting that we got attacked a year to the month after the Israel fighting started.

So on 9/11 I felt as if my fears were coming true that the world was falling apart. Although I was stunned by the attack, I was not entirely surprised. Anyone who thinks they hate us for our "freedoms" should educate themselves a bit.

*edit* I want to clarify that I don't think that the 9/11 attacks were justified. Murder is murder.

[tropple]

I was at work, across the street in offices above the century 21 building.

[maleficent]

I was supposed to have been on United Airlines flight 93 on my way to Australia via San Fran, but due to a overly demanding customer, I was on that flight the previous day. (Corportate travel didn't realize I switched and had me dead)


I was in Australia at the time, working off jet lag unable to sleep, turned on the news and though I was watching some really bad disaster movie. Then I realized what was going on. I had a colleague who was supposed to have been on one of the flights leaving Boston, I couldn't get an international line, to call office to check in on everyone. Then people started popping up on IM.

Except the person I really wanted to hear from, who worked on the 82 floor of the World Trade Center, along with a plethora of former colleauges and people I considered friends. Never did hear from my best friend that day, his body was never found. But judging by the amount of flowers at his grave site this morning, he's not been forgotten by anyone.

In somewhat of a state of shock I arrived at the client's office the next day, on my way in to the office, i stopped for coffee, and the owner of the coffee shop heard my accent, and said, oooh you're American, I'm so sorry, I don't think i paid for coffee there the entire trip. When I arrived at the client, I went to my desk and flipped over to a news site for any kind of news, any hope that some people I knew and cared about might still be alive. Of the the senior VPs and another higher up, neither of whom met me, came over to my desk, and asked if there was anything I needed or wanted, and if I wanted to go home, they'd move heaven and earth to get me there. (As much as I wanted to go home, there was nothing I could do there, and I had a responsibility to fulfill)

[amonkie]

While I remember just about every waking moment of that day, the thing that still haunts me was the quiet in the air. Phoenix always has planes coming and going, and when I heard a helicopter when I got to work, I literally flipped out because there was supposed to be nothing in the air. I spent most of the day with my boyfriend and his family, since his aunt worked at the Pentagon, and we were trying to get ahold of her after we went down to the United Blood services to see what we could do to help.

[ShaniFaye]

September 11, 2001 is a day that affected us all. Whether we knew someone that died in any of the incidences or not we are still affected three years later.

I remember that day SO well, we had the radio on in the office and heard them announce that the first plane had hit...we were all kind of stunned but thinking it was just an unfortunate airline incident...then the 2nd plane and the pentagon plane and the PA plane went down...we were glued to the radio and our computers trying in vain to get some kind of news....the internet news sites were flooded and kept timing out. We finally went into the corporate conference room on another floor in our building and sat and watch the TV...horrified. I considered myself lucky that my the time we got to the TV they had stopped showing the pictures of the people jumping from the buildings, and until yesterday when I was watching a special on A & E I think I had avoided seeing them.

The sheer desperation of those people makes me numb and there are no words to express how I felt seeing them, I just hope I never do again.

So to anyone affected by that day, whether it was a friend or family member injured or killed, or a military person that has been injured or killed in the Middle East as a result of this...or if you just know someone in your life that was affcted...my thoughts are with you today and always.

I went to ground zero a year after it happend (not on the anniversary but a few weeks after) because I was in New York City and did not feel I could NOT be there and visit the site to pay my respects, and took this picture

[raeanna74]

I turned on the News that morning. I didn't usually turn it on. I was making pancakes and hubby was still in bed (he was still recovering from his injury) and my daughter was in the highchair getting somethin to eat. I saw the program on there and it sounded like there was a movie on. When I finally realized it was for real I called Joe out to see. He looked and first thing he said was "What movie is this?" Finally he realized too that it was reality not movie. Just about that time we watched as they broadcast live the plane striking the second tower. It made my heart sink. This wasn't by accident. Someone had purposed to harm our country and so many innocent people. I still cannot fathom what they really thought would happen. How could they expect that sort of thing to harm our country? They know what our country is willing to do to our enemies. We've shown that. If they know their history they know what our country is capable of withstanding. Yes it made us work harder, it caused grief to many but it hasn't stopped us.

Hubby has a cousin who he knows well stationed in Iraq. He was home for a month of leave but may not be back for his new baby to be born. I can't imagine the heartache that others have gone through.