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20th floor outside window office in the north tower of Pennzoil Place in Downtown Houston. Right after the first plane hit WTC, we all gathered in the "point" conference room with a TV. Saw the footage and then the second plane hit the second tower. At the time and for several days after, I felt terribly exposed looking out toward IAH with planes taking off and landing.

SCHEDULED to be at 60 Hudson St, just a few blocks north, and had cleared with corporate travel to stay at the WTC Marriott for that week, working 10pm to 6am and sleeping days. If all had gone as planned, I would have either been having breakfast at Windows on the World (with some friends and former co-workers from Verizon, who worked at 140 West St.), or would just have returned to my room to go to sleep.

As it was the customer canceled the planned equipment and software expansion that I would have been there supporting, so since I was not planning to be in the office that week, I was working from home.

My stepson came in to my office to tell me that a plane had crashed into the WTC, so I went out to check on it. Having had breakfast, and indeed other meals, at Windows on the World many times in the past (once my reporting location was 140 West St., although I worked upstate) and having watched small planes and helicopters fly up and down the Hudson below us, I assumed that it was a Cessna or something and that someone had gotten distracted sightseeing and gotten caught in the complex winds there, or something like that.

Once I saw the damage, knowing the scale of the buildings, I knew it was no small plane, and I began calling friends in WTC and Verizon to see what they knew. That didn't last long as circuits tied up real fast, and then the second plane hit, at which point I called my wife, then my office (and they were unaware as yet) to let them know we were probably at war.

I took several trouble calls that day, but since we were unable to dispatch more than locally to our techs all across the nation, any problems that required a hands on presence just got put off until later.

I was at home in bed. I was working 3rd shift then, and got off at 8:00AM. I had just gotten into that good, deep sleep when my oldest daughter called from college (WTAMU in Canyon) and woke me up.

At first, I couldn't figure out what she was talking about. I knew something must be terribly wrong because the kids knew the consequences of waking me up during the daytime for something other than a life threatening emergency.

The second plane had already hit, so it was obvious by this time that this was no accident. She was crying so much that all I could make out was "turn on the TV!" I stumbled into the living room and turned it on just in time to see the towers fall.

Obviously, I didn't sleep at all that day. And not much for several days after.

It was also our youngest daughter's 18th birthday. So, always a bittersweet day at our house. Happy 30th birthday today to my baby girl, Sarah!

On the way to an early morning meeting in the car, the radio announcer said a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I though "oh Fog again". I expected the result to be the same as the aircraft hit at the Empire State building.

It was a really important stupid meeting. As each late arrival came in they added to the information. Then one person came in and said "a second plane hit the other tower".

By the end of the important meeting that was so stupid, people came in and said that one of the buildings had collapsed into the ground.

I had difficulty believing that the World Trade Center building would do that.

Then I realized all the brave first responders were gone.

That was hard.

RIP

I was working as a pre-school teacher at a school less than 2 miles from oceans naval base. My boss came out to tell me something terrible had happened and we stayed outside and watched as jets took off (very common sight there) with a complement of missles (not a common sight). The parents came And picked up their kids early. I went on back to college. Most of my professors cancelled class that day, but one jack wagon decided that was the appropriate time to lecture us on how we were really the bad guys round the world.....not a nice thing to say to people some of whom still did not know if their friends and relatives were alive or not.

I was in London with my wife and youngest daughter. I had just returned to the hotel and we were having a late lunch when the barman let us know that something terrible had happened. Being so far away was hard, though folks at the hotel were very kind.
The next day, on a recommendation from the concierge, we walked from Mayfair to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. We wound up standing at the Victoria amongst a big crowd. As the Guards Regiments paraded in, the bands were playing American marches! The culmination was the playing of the Star Spangled Banner.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=xwrX-LN9-L0[/youtube]
Unheard in the news video was the crowd singing.

This video shows the Regimental parade in and the marches being played and at the 3 minute mark the crowd singing.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=tV_2P7Z7mOw[/youtube]
We had planned on leaving on the 14th, but actually left on the 17th, due to the air travel shutdown. Though the hotel was full and our time for departure arrived, management had us stay on as their guests until we were able to fly home.

My wife and I were in Las Vegas with another couple. We were supposed to fly home that morning. We didn't get back to Texas until 11:45pm on 9/14. Very tough week, but we were blessed with good company and did the best we could to find some diversions. I'll never forget the sport book at MGM. The giant wall of TV's had all the news stations showing the reports nonstop. I had to walk away several times.

I was at home, getting ready for work (about 10 miles away). We had the news on but were not really paying attention. I, too, heard the report about "a small plane has hit the WTC." By that time, they had enough coverage and we saw the live feed of the second plane. The whole pit of my stomach dropped out. They were reporting other missing aircraft but noone knew exactly how many so while it was clear that it was a terrorist attack, the possible extent of it was gut wrenching.

Several years later, I had a chance to sit beside the man who had been chief flight operations officer for American Airllines that day. It was on a 4 hour return flight from Seattle to Dallas. He was retired by then but I'll never forget the perspective that he shared with me.

We had friends who had flown to Yellowstone from NJ to spend a week hiking and were stuck there with no way to get home. They got one of the last cars available in the area and drove it back to their home.

chasfm11 wrote:I had a chance to sit beside the man who had been chief flight operations officer for American Airllines that day. It was on a 4 hour return flight from Seattle to Dallas. He was retired by then but I'll never forget the perspective that he shared with me.

Yeah, I'll bet. If it's not too much, what'd he have to say?

We still lived in California, and right at 7:00 a.m. local, I left the house to drive to work. I automatically turned my radio on to the Hugh Hewitt program, and he was covering it live. He was announcing, with obvious distress and tears that the South Tower had just then collapsed (9:59 a.m. New York Time). Honestly, at first I thought he was doing a "War of the Worlds" type of thing, and it took a few minutes for me to register that this was the real deal. As soon as I got to work, we flipped on a TV and pretty much all work stopped. I had, at the time, been working on the layout for a commemorative "yearbook" for my 30th high school reunion party, which the organizer had brought to the printing company I worked for. My customer dropped out of sight for a while, and when we finally reconnected a few weeks later, it turned out that her sister-in-law was part the the flight crew on AA Flight 77 which went into the Pentagon, and her family was just devastated.

A few days after the towers were hit, I got a copy of a letter written by a friend named Bob Evendon from my adult Sunday school class who had moved back east. It has been published by World Net Daily, and it is riveting reading: http://www.wnd.com/2001/09/10872/#a5kpJfd4qYC5v3SC.01. He was RIGHT THERE when it happened. It is still to date the best first hand account I've read, because it is so thorough. Bob's immediate neighborhood was very hard hit. He lives in a well-to-do neighborhood in which a number of people worked in or near the WTC. Perhaps 8 or 10 families in their immediate neighborhood lost loved ones in the towers. The woman "Sherri" that he mentions ended up gratefully accepting shelter in Bob's home for some extended period. Bob and his wife Nancy are very strong believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, and their ministry to Sherri gave her a different look at people of faith than she had previously held.

The company I worked for at the time was located right off the end of the east/west runway at Burbank Airport. We were used to jets constantly landing and taking off almost overhead, all the time. So when all flights were grounded, it was eery how quiet it got. Later that day, part of a squadron of F18s flew in and set up temporary shop at Burbank, flying CAP out of that airport. So we heard regular jets again, but instead of 737s and MD80s, it was (much louder) F18s coming and going at all hours for a while. Later, they were joined by (or relieved by, I don't remember which) a flight of several F16s.

I was standing at work watching events unfold on the TV in the break-room, not realizing that I would be recalled to Active Duty and end up in Afghanistan 5 years later...

At work in Carrollton. We had a TV in the breakroom and someone was in there when the news came on. She yelled and we all watched for the next several hours.

I was checking electrical switchgear at a customer's carbon black plant near Big Spring. We started hearing reports over radios at the plant. After leaving, I pulled over just outside the plant (and within sight of the refinery) to rearrange some gear in the plain white panel van before starting the drive home. That's when I got to meet the Sheriff's deputy.

I fully understood that stop.

I was at school. Technical training for Mercedes-Benz. The location is right near Bush Intercontinental.

We were on break and someone who had been listening to the radio in his car came rushing in saying that a plane had just crashed into one of the WTC towers. One of the instructors put on the TV and we started watching the coverage.

As we were watching, I remember seeing the second plane curve around and fly straight into the second tower. As soon as it came into view, I exclaimed "Holy [censored]! This is on purpose!"


I can still see in my eyes, plain as if i was watching it right now, a man and woman holding hands as they jumped to their deaths from one of the burning buildings. The woman was using her other hand to keep her skirt held down to preserve her dignity.

I have to go now....