Where were you on 9/11?

Tucson AZ.-I was living at home attending the U of A and had my alarm set for 5:30am. I worked at the airport and didn't have to be at work until 8:00am. But because my mom is a teacher and had to be at work at 7am and I had no car I left with her which is why I was up so early.

I turned on the t.v. because I typically enjoyed watching the early show. That morning a plane (American #91) had hit the first tower. It was being reported that it was either a Cessna or a 727. I thought to myself how could they hit that tall freaking tower.

I turned the t.v. off because it was 6:15am and my mom was yelling for me to come to the car already. We listened to the radio in the car as she drove me to work. When I got to work no one was working and just staring at the t.v.'s.

We had to still take calls. I worked at the American Airlines reservation call center in TUS which is located near KTUS. Most of the calls were from normal people calling to tell us planes had crashed. Other calls were from friends and loved ones wondering what were the flight numbers of the hijacked planes. We couldn't release any info. That was a very stressful day.

I left when my shift ended at 2pm but instead of going to class I took the bus home to be glued to the television for hours on end.
 
BOSTON, MA
Driving to work listening to Howard Stern on the way into downtown Boston on the pike. I thought Howard was playing a terrible joke as he sounded a little nervous about what he was seeing in NYC. Upon arrivign downtown Boston and going up to my office (I always was the last to arrive since I go in late but leave later than everyone else most times), for the first time ever no one was there. I thought I must be missing a meeting, but then I heard panic from the conference room. I ran in there just after teh second plane hit. Shortly after that Boston was evacuated and that was the beginning of how my flight school plans became delayed 3 years as that event crushed an already declining Boston economy and job market. Most people I worked with lost friends that day and some of our client companies list executives that day... a sad day for all and the beginning of a new time.
 
I know I'm late ... but ...
I had just landed in Cincinnati (flying a C-550), and walking our passengers in noticed a lot of commotion ... got the pax on thier way and went over to the TV to see what was up ... and well we know the story. Right after the second hit I went to the CSR and got a rental car and two hotel rooms for a week, when I told my copilot that he questioned why, as it was suppose to be only a day trip ... within 30 mins. there were no rental cars or hotel rooms available ... in hind site a great decision on my part as we spent the next few days in Cinciannati.
 
This is going to be very disjointed and rambling but here goes.

Now I wish I had saved all of the newsletters I was cranking out the week I was stuck in BOS.

There were about 20 or 30 pilots that were stuck in BOS and a lot of them didn't have cellphones. A lot of their wives signed up for the old "JC Newsletter" so I'd do a nightly update on our condition and such.

I also had one of the few cellphones that worked for some reason so I was the DFW-based pilots in Boston's point-of-contact so I was always the bearer of bad news when we met at 1600 with "Sorry folks, Donckers (the chief pilot in DFW at the time) says no flights tomorrow either and he wishes us a good happy hour".

It was weird. Six days of Vietnamese food for lunch, McCormick & Schmick $2 happy hour menu for dinner, "The Rattlesnake" for late night cocktails, hit the Irish pub next door to the hotel and then late night eats in Chinatown.

Come back to the hotel, write a newsletter. Wait for email replies from wives, jot down some notes and put them on sheets for their intended recipients.

Rinse...

Repeat (5 or 4x - I can't remember)

I didn't really have a grasp of the gravity of the situation until I got home to PHX because happy hour plus the ability for pilots to emotionally "compartmentalize" gave it almost a fraternity environment.

That might be a reason why a lot of pilots got into trouble after 9/11 because when you went out for drinks with the boys, it took the edge off of the new world we were now living in as pilots. We spent a lot of nights, for lack of a more politically correct description, blitzed.

When we'd all meet, we never talked shop or "9/11" at all. Usually we'd talk about everything else but flying or what was on the news that afternoon. Invariably, someone would bring up the situation and the room would get deadly silent. Like you could almost drop a pen in the bar and the sound would reverberate across the Boston Commons.

Someone would crack a joke to break the silence and then the cacophony would start up again.

I guess we were kind of our own family. If someone didn't show up at McCormick's by 0415, we'd send someone up to their room to see if everything was alright, but usually they'd just be running a little late. It reminded me a lot of the move "The Day After" because we banded together like a tribe.


Anyway, once we were finally able to get out of BOS, a group of about eight of us were on the van to the airport and the weirdest thing happened. We were all walking through the terminal and people would stop and begin to applaud.

Weird. Especially in a city as large as BOS.

I finally got back to DFW, didn't feel like being on another airplane so I drove my airport car from DFW to PHX.

The drive was actually therapuetic -- no airplanes, no airports, no uniform, no crew hotels, little cellphone coverage and finally had a chance to think.

9/10/2001 was one of the best evenings of my life. Moving up the seniority list, pilots junior to me flying 737 captain, big bright future ahead of me with big jets and a growing company, barely 30 years old, getting married in less than a year and just closed on our first home...

Between terrorists, companies using bankruptcy laws as a business plan, politicians campaigning on fear, the bumbling idiots that are the TSA and airline management's machiavellian tactics (and the dumbass wannabe "experts" that encourage it) jade me.

But I think we'll be back one day, but pilots will have to stop selling ourselves out as "Flying Uncle Toms" first.

Thanks for letting me vent, folks.
 
Driving to school (early-bird Aero 2 class) listening to Spoken's Echoes of the Spirit Still Dwell. We were going to start flight training within a week.
 
I was in my first semester at ERAU in Daytona. I had just finished up my 8 AM class and was walking back to my dorm room and as I passed through the student center, I noticed a skyscraper on fire on the TV. At first, there were only 10 or 12 people standing there watching, but as the news spread around the building, it soon grew to 40 or 50. I saw the 2nd plane hit live, and then went back to my room to continue to watch. I had another class between the time the planes hit and the time of the collapse, but instead of holding class, we went into the auditorium to watch CNN on the big screen. I think it was there, with a couple hundred other aviation students watching with me, that the towers collapsed. Absolute silence, and the occasional whisper of "oh my God" was all that was heard.

When I first got to campus, I'd turn around and look at every airplane that was flying over. I was just getting good at knowing what was what by sound alone, and could continue walking with my back towards the airplane and still know what it was. For the next week, it was eerily silent around campus with the absence of Skyhawks, Seminoles and the Delta Mad Dogs coming and going. When the airspace was finally reopened, I again caught myself turning around to look, but this time not to try to identify, but just to make sure I was really hearing an airplane fly over again. The only other time the airport goes silent is before a shuttle launch, which is a celebratory occasion. I hope its only under those circumstances that the air is silent again.
 
ShoreFly said:
In the Squadron building on McGuire AFB, the doors were locked just before the second plane hit. On the morning of Sept 13th, I was on a non-stop to the Middle East, and didn't return for months.

I, along with other close friends from New Jersey, lost way too much that day.
With that, I just have one thing to say...
NEVER FORGET
NEVER EVER FORGIVE
Click to expand...


I'm sorry, but this is exactly the mentality that perpetuates war and hatred in the world. But I did react the same exact way, initially.
 
Nellis AFB, NV

We were in the middle of an chem warefare exercise, I was sleeping when the planes hit, woke up shortly after. I got to work after the pentagon was hit when we went to Delta (Basically, the base is shutdown, nobody in or out, DFP (Defensive Fight Positions) were created and manned, a .50 cal pointing towards the outside of every gate). We had our helicopters folded up (to be transported by aircraft) for the exercise. When we got the word, we had to unfold each helo, arm them, and get ready for basically...anything. What should have been a routine 8 hour day turned into about 18 hours. A week later, we folded the aircraft back up and our unit deployed to the sandbox. It goes to show that anyone in the US Military has to be ready at a moments notice, many were on their way within 48 hours.
 
holy_skylarker said:
I'm sorry, but this is exactly the mentality that perpetuates war and hatred in the world. But I did react the same exact way, initially.
Click to expand...
Before you attack one's mentality towards the terrorsists of 9-11, you'd be good to remember that some of us lost close friends in those towers. Some of us wear an American flag on our arm and dedicate our lives to eradicating terrorists.

We must never forgive the ideology and its followers that are behind the terror unleashed upon our fellow Americans on that unforgetable day, and we must never forget to remember the signal sent by 9/11.

And if that's the mentality that it takes to perpetuate THIS war, then so be it. And louder I will say:
Never forget those who perished, never forgive those who are responsible.
 
ShoreFly said:
Before you attack one's mentality towards the terrorsists of 9-11, you'd be good to remember that some of us lost close friends in those towers. Some of us wear an American flag on our arm and dedicate our lives to eradicating terrorists.

We must never forgive the ideology and its followers that are behind the terror unleashed upon our fellow Americans on that unforgetable day, and we must never forget to remember the signal sent by 9/11.

And if that's the mentality that it takes to perpetuate THIS war, then so be it. And louder I will say:
Never forget those who perished, never forgive those who are responsible.
Click to expand...


I also will not forget the 100,000+ Iraqi citizens that perished without having anything to do with the death of 3000+ American citizens. Please, don't misconstrue my words. I am not attacking you, I am bringing another perspective to the table. What the terrorists did was horrific, but we are doing no better.
 
holy_skylarker said:
What the terrorists did was horrific, but we are doing no better.
Click to expand...

The difference is that for the most part, the people who we kill are not targeted. We try to avoid killing civilians for the most part, and those who are caught doing it face severe punishment.

On the other hand, terrorists don't give a rats ass who they kill.

Now, you can say that we should do better, and that a high tech military should be better able to distinguish who they hit, but that's a different discussion.
 
tonyw said:
The difference is that for the most part, the people who we kill are not targeted. We try to avoid killing civilians for the most part, and those who are caught doing it face severe punishment.

On the other hand, terrorists don't give a rats ass who they kill.

Now, you can say that we should do better, and that a high tech military should be better able to distinguish who they hit, but that's a different discussion.
Click to expand...

TonyW just totally defended the Iraq war :)
 
I was standing in the FBO at UES, waiting for the FAA Inspector to arrive so we could begin my CFI Initial. I was a year out of the AF and had just quit my job fueling airliners to fly full-time as a flight instructor. I had been in the Air National Guard for a year and was loving it. Little did I know that days later I would be spending my B-day in Spain, celebrating with my supervisor at the time's same B-day.

The 11th changed my life in a way I'd never imagined. When I got out of the AF, I joined the Guard just to coast the next 16 years, one weekend a month until retirement. I hadn't envisioned devoting 5 years of my life traveling from country to country as a Tanker crew chief. Despite all that has happened, I definitely don't regret my post-active duty plans getting cancelled. I only feel more patriotic and feel more responsible to serve, these days.
 
HH-60CC said:
Nellis AFB, NV...
Click to expand...
HH-60CC, your experience sounds almost like mine, except from the Navy side.

I was waist deep in water in a "wet trainer" on the pier next to my ship in Norfolk, VA. A "wet trainer" is basically a simulated ship space on the back of a flatbed truck that can be filled with water to train sailors how to repair battle damage while being blasted with water. The Chief who took pleasure in training the fire hose at us, as we were trying to fix pipes and repair holes, told us when we got out that a plane had just hit one of the WTC towers. I, like a lot of people, assumed that it was a general aviation plane that had a bad accident. As we were getting ready to go through the "wash" for another go-round, one of the other Chiefs said that another plane had hit the towers. That was when we knew something was wrong. The wet trainer Chiefs were called back to their command and everyone on the piers was being called back to their ships.

Once I got on board, it was like you see in the movies. People were running around the ship, the fork lifts got into high gear loading supplies, and divisions were forming up in the hangar to get the word from their "khakis" on what the plan of action was. The CO got on the 1MC (PA) and told us that all the ships on the piers and the base itself was on lockdown. No one was being allowed to leave and only Navy personnel were being allowed on the base. Incoming crew told us that the cars lined up to get in were backed up for miles due to the increased security and scrutiny. Just like with HH-60CC at Nellis, .50cal positions were set up at our base entrances as well. Every ship was readying to sortie out to sea to prevent us from being sitting ducks and have another terrorist attack take out a majority of the Atlantic fleet in one fell swoop.

As the FAA hadn't grounded all air traffic yet, our Divo and Chiefs called us together and since we were the weapons division, the plan was to load up at least one of our forward missile launchers, one of our aft ones, and both CWIS gun mounts. Something that is never done in port for safety reasons. It was surreal, especially being in port, looking across the piers and seeing ALL the other ships' weapons techs making preparations for loading their weapons as well.

We had been ramping up for a regular deployment later that month and half the ship's company was on leave for the POM period. So, just as we were formulating a plan to upload our missiles and set a watch schedule under reduced manning conditions, word came down that all air traffic was being grounded. We stood down our weapons preparations and we were finally able to take a little break, catch the cable coverage, and digest what had happened.

Over the next few days plans and orders changed hourly it seemed. We got underway that night with whatever crew we had with plans to pick up our MEU in NC and bring them to NY to provide security and assistance wherever needed as well as provide a "big-ship" presence and additional medical facilities. That changed the next day as were told to come back in, speed up our pre-deployment preparations, and get ready for what was now a wartime deployment. Over the next five days or so, each crewmember had about a day and half to finalize personal matters, and then we were haze gray and underway to deliver some of the first Marines in the form of the 26 MEU and their associated Air Combat Element to the war in Afghanistan.
 
I was in the kitchen cooking food because I was catering at the time. We would usually listen to Howard Stern in the morning, but that morning we decided on a little wake up music - Metallica. My boss walked in about 5 minutes after the first tower was hit and said "You guys listening to Stern? A plane just flew into one of the World Trade Center towers!" We turned on Stern and the T.V. in the bar and watched it all unfold in disbelief.

It's unbelievable to me that we have done nothing with Ground Zero in 5 years. A glaring example of this Administration's incompetence. It's just appalling how this country has been managed since 9/11.
 
I was on my last shift of work at the main gate to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. It was about 5 pm in the evening there when we heard. I had been there for about 5 months, already delayed to go home once for manning issues when the planes hit. After that we went into threatcon Delta and we didnt let any TCN's (third country nationals) to come on the base to work. Needless to say it pissed off a lot of the troops because there was no one to cook the food in the chow hall and we had to eat MREs for a couple days. Which was fine because they are better than the food anyway.
I got back to my room after the shift and found out that we werent going home for a while. It was pretty funny seeing all of these AF guys running around trying to act like we were in the Army or something screaming we are going to war and spreading rumors that we are going to be redeployed to afganistan or Iraq, (acting like idiots basically). You should have seen there faces when we actually got deployment orders a year and a half later! Priceless!

Good times!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top