9/11

[Solora Goldsun]

Early on the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers took control of four commercial airliners en route to San Francisco and Los Angeles after takeoff from Boston, Newark, and Washington, D.C.

At 8:46 a.m., five hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center's North Tower and at 9:03 a.m., another five hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175. The North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. after burning for 102 minutes.

Five hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.

A fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, under the control of four hijackers, eventually crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. after the passengers fought the hijackers. Flight 93's ultimate target is believed to have been either the Capitol or the White House.

Flight 93's cockpit voice recorder revealed crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. Once it became evident to the hijackers that the passengers might regain control of the plane, one hijacker ordered another to roll the plane and intentionally crash it. Soon afterward, Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville.


This is a total fail typing this on 9/12. But I just realized that there wasn't already a thread for this.

Not sure what to say here... I was in second grade when the planes hit the World Trade Center. I honestly had no clue what the heck was going on. All I remember is that I was let out of school early and didn't have to go to PSR. I was happy about that. I didn't understand why my normal TV channels weren't playing my favorite shows and kept showing the same image over and over again: a glint in the sky smashing into a building.

A few years later, I finally was able to grasp the significance of it. Part of me wishes I had been old enough to understand it at the time. The other half is glad that I was spared from the intense fear that the rest of the country felt.

My prayers go out to everyone who was affected by the 9/11 tragedy. God Bless America!

[Little]

I was a sophmore in HS when this happened. It felt completely unreal. All of our teachers had it playing in their rooms and we watched as the towers fell- you could see people jumping from the buildings before they fell. We cannot forget the lives lost and those that are forever changed (being most of us I believe) by these events. We should also remember that in our darkest hour as a nation our patriotism burned the brightest and for a small while we were united as a country again. We should never let a tragedy like this be what unites us, but it did happen and the American's love for other American's strengthened that day.

For those that lost their lives, we miss you.
For those that lost their love ones, we love you.
For those everyday heros that were only doing their job to pull people from the rubble, we honor you.
And for those in the different branches of the service, we thank you.

[Agent Awesome]

I was just 3 when this happened, and though I am not an American, I feel your pain. We watched a video of this stuff last year in Grade 6, and my jaw dropped when I saw the planes crash into the building, risking countless and innocent lives.

We need to realize there are better ways to get messages through then terrorism. But until then, I give honor to thee, brave and noble ones...

[crazyraven]

my mum got freaked by this and thought WW3 was about to happen but personally i don't remember this as i was like six (so 10 years ago-ish)
and i do hope that even though it was a big loss that people are coping fine.

[Solora Goldsun]

We watched a video on what happened... It turns out that a camera man was doing a report on the daily life of an NYC firefighter and ended up going with them to the tower. You could see the firefighters entering, the people running. He was inside the first tower when it collapsed, so you could see the building falling down and the whole screen going dark. Later on, he films the firefighters pulling one of their senior officers from the rubble.

His brother, meanwhile, took his camera down the street to the Trade Center. He filmed thousands of people all staring at the towers, pointing, calling people on phones, and gasping in horror. When the second tower fell, he falls to the ground and, for awhile, you see nothing but a whirlwind of dust and debris.

The brothers later talked about what they had filmed (both survived, thankfully). The one in the building said that he had seen two people on fire near the entrance, but didn't film it. He felt that no one should ever have to see something like that. The other brother said that, as he was walking down the street, everyone was saying the same thing: "This is not happening! This can't be happening!"

It was a really powerful film...

[cybra]

I was a sophomore in high school. I remember walking into homeroom following my first class and seeing the TV on with smoke billowing out the side of one of the Towers.

I remember calling my mom during my second block Chorus class to check up on my uncle who had worked in the Towers up until a few months before. I remember feeling relieved he was all right and then guilty that I found some happiness in the midst of so much tragedy.

I remember teachers ignoring students calling families to check in on loved ones, not bothering to enforce the "no cell phones" rule.

I remember the dead silence in the classrooms, the lunchroom, and the gym as we went from class to class, each with a TV and the news on.

I remember seeing the second plane crashing and the news anchors' horror that the first crash had been intentional.

I remember watching the Towers fall and realizing that not everyone had gotten out.

Of course, it didn't stop on September 12th. My dad was recalled to active duty maybe a week or two later, assigned to the Pentagon to help manage medical supplies and hospitals for our troops. I remember the first anniversary of 9/11 when my dad was ordered not to contact us since the Pentagon workers were being relocated to the backup facility ("Site R") due to a threat of a repeat performance on the Pentagon. I remember being so relieved when Dad finally called us the next day to let us know he was okay.

Aside from a one-year break, my dad's still in DC doing that job for the Army. We visit him and visa versa when we can, and we know we're lucky he's still in the States and relatively safe. (I sat "relatively" because there was an anthrax scare in the building he was moved to a few years ago.)

My prayers went out to the victims' families yesterday and today and tomorrow. I pray for the troops at home and abroad who're fighting to make sure we don't have another 9/11/2001.

[Aenrhien]

I was 10. My mom was a teacher at my elementary school, so I was there when the first plane hit. I was sitting in the teachers lounge with mom and a couple other teachers, reading a book and having an apple juice while they had their coffee, listened to the news and finished lesson plans. It got really quiet when they cut to the report about it, and they ran me off so I didn't have to see it. When I got to class, my teacher had the news on, and that's what we did that day.

We watched the second plane hit, we watched the Pentagon get hit, we watched the plane go down in Shanksville... I remember my mom running down the hall from her class to mine after that. She pulled me out into the hallway and explained that she was going to get my brother from school, since he was a freshman in high school at the time, and that if anything happened I needed to stay with my teacher. We watched the towers fall. I remember the way there was some idle chatter at first, and by the time the first tower fell, the entire room full of 9-10 year old kids was completely silent. That was when it started hitting us that we were watching thousands of lives end for real, it wasn't a movie or a joke.

The teacher asked us to talk about it after that. Everyone stayed quiet first, then someone started talking and it just opened the flood gates. After more info started coming out about what happened, we talked about it again because someone in the class called one of the other kids a terrorist because she was a Muslim.

Two of the people who were close enough to me to be family decided right then they would enlist the second they turned 18. One joined the Army, he's since done two tours in Afghanistan. The other, who I've since lost any interest in talking to for personal reasons, joined the Marine Corps and did a few in Iraq. Another guy I know joined the Marine Corps more recently, I dunno if they intend to deploy him or not.

I may not agree with some of the decisions the leaders of my country have made, I may not like some of the people that call this country home, but I've never been prouder to be an American than I was when I watched the entire country set aside their differences and comes together like they did.

[datdude]

I had worked late the night before and wok up jsut in time to watch tower 2 get hit. Man 10 years since the world changed. . . .

[Purple-Cat-Princess]

I was five. I was home sick from school sitting in my mom's room, watching TV because she left me home alone. Her work was only like ten minutes away and I knew how to call. I was watching game shows when it changed to breaking news and I was upset I couldn't watch TV, I had no idea what was going on.

[Purple-Cat-Princess]

My friend's dad had been relativity good friends with four of the men who staged the revolt on the last plane.

[Violette]

I do not really remember that day very well, only that I went to school and all of the sudden they were turning on the T.V and telling us to watch.
My school had a moment of silence today as well.

[hoa]

I was in 9th grade.... strangely I don't remember all that much beyond art class. The teacher had us draw whatever we were feeling at the time. I wasn't great with feelings and I suck at symbolism, so my piece wasn't very good.

I don't know. I'm not sure why was detached from it all years ago. I think I was emotionless (for me) those years ago.

I'm not so detached from it now, since last year was the first time I watched some documentaries - 102 Minutes That Changed America; there was one about how they had to scramble to keep the airlines from going out (State of Emergency or something?). There was one about conspiracy theories, which made me quite angry.

I've never talked about 9/11 before. For some reason it hasn't really affected me in the long run, though over the years I've learned to respect the military and firefighters more. My brother has learned a lot over the past couple years due to taking some classes related to firefighting. He told me about how firefighters carry something that would beep in the headquarters (I think?) if something happens, and in the part where the tower collapses in the 102 documentary, there is a recording where you hear many beeps going on at once. Those are the beeps of the firefighters' equipment going off, and my brother said that it was scary to hear that recording in class.