What were you doing 17 yrs ago today?

[Davey Crockett]

Worked morning tour on a drilling rig and was driving back roads and scouting on the way home . For some odd reason I happened to turn the radio on and was shocked what I heard. I never have the radio on when scouting so it was a "meant to be" moment when I heard it for the first time. Headed for the hills in a hurry so I could watch it on tv.

 

[Duckslayer100]

Junior year of high school. English class. My teacher stepped out of the room for a bit, then came back. I'll never forget the look on his face. He wasn't a very happy person to begin with, but his features were absolutely ashen.

"Class, something has happened and we need to turn on the news."

He turned on CNN and I saw the first tower smoking. I can't remember if it was in his class or the next, but we watched the second hit.

It was a strange day. The bell would ring between class, and there was a hush. Quiet murmuring. More like a church than a high school. Very eerie. We'd get to the next class, sit down, and the TV would be on. And we'd watch.

- - - Updated - - -

And the people. Falling out of buildings. On live news. At first we had no idea what was going on. It looked like piece of glass or rubble. But then it was unmistakable. These were people hurling themselves out of a burning high-rise tower because they'd rather fall to their death than burn.

 

[Downrigger]

Freshman in high school at a meeting with a small group of students from other schools. We were there talking drug initiatives in other schools an ways we can work together to come up with a program that was more universal.

Heard that the 1st tower was hit on the radio. All we did the rest of the day was watch the TV as a group and listen to the radio on the way home.

 

[SLE]

I was out looking at a job site and doing some survey work with the owner of the company I was working for when he got a phone call about the first plane just hitting the tower. didn't really even register with me right away. Finished up and headed to my college PE elective class of Bowling (which might I ad was awesome) and was there when the towers came down. They had TV's all over at the bowling alley so caught some live coverage. The whole thing still seemed sureal at that point with so many unanswered questions and lots of assumptions by the news organizations. Absolutely crazy that it's been 17 years. remember being glued to the TV for days following.

 

[Achucker]

I was working a construction site at Jamestown college. Complete disbelief and anger!

 

[Nmariner]

Sitting in my 8th grade English class wondering where our teacher was. She is of Asian decent with a bit of an accent and came running into the room saying were being attacked. I thought there was an attack on our school. Then she started turning on the T.V. Same thing as everyone else went from class to class with little to no talking and watched the news all day. I doubt anyone will ever forget where the were.

 

[JayKay]

Sitting in a call center in Bismarck. Talked with people all over the US that day, all over. People were terrified. It was real. Between the first and second strike, I was talking to a provider in Austin TX, and she told me that Dallas just got hit. 10 minutes later was talking to a doctor's office in Denver, and they said Cheyenne Mountain just took a hit. Later I'd heard from someone in Los Angeles, that Sacramento was burning.

Thankfully, none of those things were true. The truth was terrible enough...

I spent some time talking with my daughters this morning, so they know that this really happened. The way history is re-written, I wanted them to know the truth...

Jaykay

 

[Rowdie]

I was in my 2nd year of teaching, and the shop teacher said he heard on the radio a plane in the WTC. I had students in my room still and we didn't have time to discuss it, but in my mind it was a small single or double engine plane with someone who just made a huge mistake. It wasn't until mid afternoon I heard that both towers were down. My now wife, called me from home scared.

 

[MSA]

Roofing the 91st space wing on Minot air Force Base. Armed guards came up and escorted us off the roof. What's strange is the night before they made us move all our equipment away from the building, and they were putting black garbage bags over the named parking spots, and lots of other prep and such. They knew something was going to happen.

 

[martinslanding]

Working in warehouse in Fargo, Always had Q98(it was rock back then) blasting through the radio…Scotch&Dewey morning show was on, they were always joking around…but when they started talking about it you could tell in their voices it was no joke …. glued to TV rest of the day, with many phone calls to loved ones

 

[FishSticks]

8th grade, heard about it at the locker bay then spent the whole day watching the news. I hope to not have another day like that in my lifetime.

 

[Brasmunky]

The garbage bags on signs and stuff are a normal preparation for an exercise which MAFB has almost non stop. That was just a coincidence.

I was actually packing my bags to leave for basic training. We got postponed a week or so for security reasons.

 

[Retired Educator]

Was in my office at school and the TV was on in the main office. TODAY show was on and it came on. Watched for awhile wondering how any pilot could make that mistake. Then the other plane hit along with the Pentagon and PA. plane. Became very obvious this was not a mistake. Spent the rest of the day watching and answering student questions along with making alternative plans for the evening school activities that were scheduled. Along with millions of other US citizens felt anger and wondered what the next step would be.

 

[BDub]

I was working in a call center with over a hundred people. After the first plane hit the calls quit coming in. Many went home early. All I could think of was we need to kill those responsible.

 

[Allen]

I was at a research conference being held at resort near Akeley Minnesota. I was the next speaker up when the first tower got hit. Delayed my having to give the talk for several hours until the organizer of the conference said something to the effect of "not sure who did that but if they think they're going to stop us, they're wrong". Then afterwards we all sat in the lounge with our faces glued to the TV through the evening.


That evening and for a long time afterwards, all I could think of were my buddies who had stayed in the Corps and were now going to get a chance for a little payback.

 

[Chas'n Tail]

At grandparent's place, parents were in whitefish montana. Came upstairs for breakfast before school and saw it on the tv. Went to ag class first period, and from there on just watched it all day.

 

[BRK]

10th grade of HS. My memory sucks, so I don't remember much of the afternoon, but i'll never forget seeing the second plane hit. Thankfully, I've had a few tries at going to kick the enemy's ass since then

 

[Big Tiller]

I was in the MSP Airport trying to get to Alaska for work. All the screens in the airport went blank followed shortly by a lot of armored and armed personnel swarming the place! Airport closed and had to find a way out of there since there was no air travel for a few days.

 

[Frosty....]

I was on day 7 of basic training...still seems surreal as they didn't let us watch the news or really tell us what was going on. We were pretty much on lock-down for the next few days. Mail started trickling in about week after with newspaper clippings and such.

 

[KDM]

Got a phone call from my Shop Chief at the Guard and spent the the next 12 hours watching events unfold while checking, rechecking, and getting mobility equipment, supplies, and deployment records prepared with the expectation of being sent to war.