9/11/01 - Official Remembrance Thread

Hoser

Member
Jun 25, 2010
3,704
Ohio
Driving to Dayton. I heard it on the car radio (FM) WBYR Ft. Wayne, thought at first it was a Sic Joke sorta like an Orson Well thing. Noticed the sky was full of planes circling toward Dayton. Called a friend and found out what had happened. As I got to Dayton the only thing in the Air was Fighter Jets Circling WPAFB. Sad Day in US history. Prayers to all the families.
 

mcpd2025

Member
May 20, 2010
1,557
Maryland, USA
I was in college at Univ of Maryland. My roommate came home from class and woke me up. We watched the 2nd plane hit live on tv. We went outside and saw smoke rising from the Pentagon. We heard the jets scramble over DC after all commercial planes were grounded. I was in the hiring process for my department and worked as a student police aide at my college.


Last night I had the honor of playing with ourn police bagpipe band on the Pentagon grounds. I got to see the Pentagon close up and see the rebuilt wall. I met a new friend at the Pentagon Police, who was working on 9/11. He told me he was sitting in the parking lot when the plane hit. It flew over his head, hit a light pole nearby him and then the building. I played with another drummer that worked as an officer in NJ the morning of 9/11 and saw the devastation across the Hudson.


I was in NYC last winter for the first time since 9/11. It is a changed city, but I believe it only helped to bring the country TOGETHER. It did not divide us, it did not destroy us, it did not paralyze us. It made us stronger in our resolve and helped to reshape our pride in ourselves and in our country. It is an honor to me to know that I work in a profession where my brothers and sisters from ALL of public safety will always do what is neccessary, regardless of the risk to themselves. 9/11 still tears at me deeply, it is painful to see those photos. I still, 10 years later, cannot watch the video footage of the plane striking the tower, or the towers collapsing. I can't watch the Pentagon burning. But I am proud that our country was strong enough to overcome. Despite all of our differences, we all have that in common.


God bless America.
 

Tom

Member
Dec 18, 2010
3,083
Taunton, MA
I was in school when I first heard about it. I heard the teachers talking about it but didn't quite understand the reality or magnitude of the situation. When I got home and watched the news later, then I understood what a tragedy it was.


RIP to all the victims of 9/11/01
 

amccullers

Member
May 22, 2010
575
Wetumpka, Alabama
I was in the back of an ambulance on a non-emergency transfer and heard it on John Boy and Billy. At first I thought it was like a small plane that had hit. I think we watched it on TV that day from the Dr's office. Many Jets were flying over Montgomery that day also since we have 2 AFB's and the airAir Guard jets are here also.


Gob Bless America
 

Donslock

Member
Dec 18, 2010
320
USA, South Dakota
I was in bed when my then 5 year old daughter came into the bedroom and said the tv wasn't working, all it showed was news. I went into the living room and saw it on tv. I then saw tower two fall and a short time later tower one. Ispent the morning watching the news in shock knowing and suspecting the call that never came. RECALL for military service. Don Myhre
 

Grotonems5

Member
Jun 1, 2010
933
Groton, Vermont
I was in 8th grade science class, one of the few rooms with a Television. The principal came in and turned it on and we all just sat there and watched, it was soon after the plane hit the first tower, the principal told us that a plane hit the World Trade Center and we thought it was just a small prop plane. We all just sat there and watched for the rest of the day, then I went home and watched it unfold on TV.
 

dustymedic

Member
May 21, 2010
633
Columbus,OH
I was working at an ambulance dispatch center. Everyone in the building was crowded around a small TV set in the corner of the room. Days later when the names and pictures of the fallen firefighters were broadcast, I realized that I had met several of them in the past at conferenences and such.......


NEVER FORGET!!!!!
 

tcfd823

Member
May 21, 2010
368
CENARK
amccullers said:
I was in the back of an ambulance on a non-emergency transfer and heard it on John Boy and Billy. At first I thought it was like a small plane that had hit. I think we watched it on TV that day from the Dr's office. Many Jets were flying over Montgomery that day also since we have 2 AFB's and the airAir Guard jets are here also.

Gob Bless America

I thought I was the only one on here that listens to The Big Show... cool.


I was in 8th grade, sitting in English class.. I didn't quite understand what was going on. I knew that lots of people were hurt but that was just the extent of that. It wasn't until I got home and talked to my parents about what had happened, that I was able to put 2 and 2 together.


So, when I turned 18, I went to the local fire department here and signed up on 9/11/2006.


Rest in peace 343, we will never forget.
 

lotsofbars

Member
Jul 20, 2010
1,999
NYC, New York
I was in second grade, doing whatever it was that second graders do, when the principal walked in and asked my teacher (quietly) if he should "tell us about the planes." After some discussion, they decided to and told us what had happened not only in NYC but at the Pentagon as well. It didn't phase me much and still doesn't with my "shit happens" attitude, but it stuck with me and made it a goal in my life to help people.
 

medic6414

Member
Oct 9, 2010
71
USA, MN
10yrs ago i was in class in high school watching it unfold on tv, since then i became and EMT to Paramedic and a Combat medic with the MN national guard. im spending this 10yr anniversary approx 7000 miles from my wife and family serving our great country.


PFC Christopher A. Schnabel


MN national guard 68W,Combat medic


Allina Medical Transportation, Paramedic


North Memorial Ambulance, Paramedic


all gave some. some gave all!
 
May 21, 2010
1,030
LKN, NC
10 years ago I was getting ready to head off to some community-college high school classes. I saw the breaking news on the today show. My friends came and picked me up. I saw the 2nd plane hit before my friends came and picked me up. When I left my mom was crying. On the way to school we heard the news caster on the radio say "oh my" and it was when the plane hit the Pentagon. We got to school and huddled around the TVs in the student union. We saw both towers collapse. We went to class in disbelief. Class never started. Our instructor got word from the chancellor of the school that all classes were canceled.
 

Ipuvaepe

Member
Jun 25, 2011
884
Southeast Pennsylvania
10 years ago, I was walking from my 3rd grade room down to the Library. We walked past the computer room (glass windows), and my friend John exclaimed "Hey look, a movie. The World Trade Centers are on fire". Teachers knew better but for obvious reasons didn't want to correct him. We walked in and watched the rest of it.


Watched until the Pentagon was hit, at which point my father shit a brick and came to get me. Then when he got there, 93 went down in Shanksville, and he shit another brick.
 

toon80

Member
May 24, 2010
2,487
Laval, Canada
I was sleeping at the academy and my alarm clock woke me up a bit before 9:00 am, set to radio. I heard the news talking about the WTC being hit by a plane. Hard to believe at first but as the news built up, I realized it truly happened. I didn't have a TV so I asked the student in the room next to mine to turn his on. 5 seconds later, we saw the second tower being hit.
 

paro22

Member
Jul 12, 2010
45
USA NY
I had just left NYC @ 7am that morning via Amtrak, & was sleeping when I was awoken by fellow passengers who had heard the news by radio - one person had a 'boombox' and we all crowded around listening to the news unfold. In our very train car was a FDNY Lt. - the news mentioned people jumping from the upper floors - and he kept saying that the WTC had double reinforced windows that could not be opened, how could people be jumping out...?!?? He kept repeating that over & over, as if mystified...It was hard to comprehend (especially without visual imagery) the magnitude of the situation. He was en route to a training seminar and had many of his SOP's and training manuals with him that he kept pouring over, hoping for some direction as to how FDNY would deal with this catastrophe.


Once we heard the towers fall, we all began crying. The Leiutenant knew he had lost men, and as the train rattled onward, we all said a prayer for those lost & injured.


Never forget that shocking, tragic day...God Bless
 

Bigassfireman

Member
May 23, 2010
823
U. S. of A. Ohio
I was in the truck bay washing our unit when I turned the radio on. Took a few minutes to realize what was happening and went back inside and watched on tv. I remember when the first tower fell, the tv folks were confused, wondering what happened. I remember thinking it was pretty obvious that the tower had fallen. We spent the rest of the day listening to coverage on the radio on the way to and from calls and on tv at the station.
 

gfpd26

Member
May 21, 2010
331
Greenville, IL
I was on an emergency run for an 82y/o Female having a CVA. (friend of the family) As we were transporting to the hospital 20 minutes away, the Basic driving mentioned a small plane had hit thw WTC. When we arrived at the hospital, the ED said something about a helicopter crashing or exploding at the Pentagon. After we left, headed back, we started realizing what was happening listening to traffic. I just left the station to drive the 2 blocks home when the 2nd tower got hit. Sat there with my ex the next couple hours and watch the towers fall and such.


About 3 hours later, we got called to assist Law Enforcement with traffic control because everyone was freaking out over fuel prices. There was traffic lined up for a mile both ways at the 2 local gas stations. People were coming off the interstate saying that fuel had jumped to $5 in Kansas. It was crazy for about 3 hours before it calmed down.
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
well i dont like having to retype my story every year but apparently every word dealing with 9/11 is too common for searches soo ill write it again.


Tuesday sept 11th 2010. after beeing tasked to a "soldier in our schools" program the day before i started out my day with Pt like we did every day in the Army. After PT i went back to my apartment with my at the time wife and changed into civilian clothes.


I was at the school and in a classroom of teenagers when the schools principal asked me to step outside the class. i asked her if she needed something from me and she asked me if i needed to report back to base. i asked her why? she asked me if i knew what was going on. After stating no we went to the schools library and started watching the tv (i wont go into the details because most of us saw the second plane hit, the rerun of the first plane, the people jumping out of windows etc etc etc.). i called my Sgt and asked him what my orders were. he stated to stay there until otherwise told to report back to the unit.


i stayed in the library watching all of it unfold until about lunch time. by now most of the kids knew what was going on. When i was in the cafeteria on "montior duties" i had several smaller kids ask me if we where going to war. I couldnt comment because i didnt know and if i did it wasnt going to be my place to tell them. (seeing how most of the kids there had 1 or both parents in the military) the one thing i wont forget about that day was a lil girl coming up to me (like 8 9 years old) and asking me if her daddy was going to go to war and die.


After lunch i was told to report back to Ft Hood. it took me 3 hours to go 2 miles after i changed back in uniform and started a quick packing of my nbc gear we were told to bring in. They had barricaded 2 of the main gates, had multiple mp's at each gate, were searching any and everything and they had somehow managed to consantina wire the hole base in a matter of hours. When i got to my office i was asked to turn off and and turn on my cellphone to make sure it wasnt going to explode, was giving another quick search over then reported to my A.O. we stood by till 8pm that night waiting to see if we were going to be getting marching orders to deploy somewhere.
 
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TCO

Member
May 21, 2010
808
Malvern,Pa
i was working in the county ema office taking my certification tests for the dispatch center,we did not know what was going on till the ema coordinator came in and put the tvs on as the 2nd plane hit.. from that point they activated the ema center and we where sent home to be with our family.
 
May 25, 2010
7,072
Tunkhannock, PA, USA
I was just waking up from my first night of training at the fire house... I had just bee voted in Monday the 10th... I woke up and turned on the TV to see Peter Jennings (which should have been my first clue that something was amiss). He was reporting on a fire in the WTC building. I though to myself: "Awesome, I get to see the best boys in the business do their thing..." Then I saw the second plane hit... I couldn't move... I just didn't know what to think or say... For a second I thought that this was a movie or some sort of CGI prank or something, but I quickly realized this was for real and I knew that nothing wsa going to be the same again...


"In the midts of chaos, we find our strength..." - Me
 
May 24, 2010
1,627
PG County, MD
At the time, I was working at Verizon in a Major Customer Care Center, we were responsible for anything from a plain phone line all the way up to a T3 for major customers (think top 100), Federal Government, state, county and local government for MD, DC, VA, and WV. We got the news of the first flight and, like everyone else, thought a small plane. Turned on a TV to see the 2nd plane hit the tower. Shortly thereafter, all hell broke lose for us when the 3rd plane hit the Pentagon, half a side away from our Central Office in the Pentagon. On the Maintenance side, my crew was responsible for .gov and .mil customer. I had two guys dedicated to working with the Pentagon central office to keep everything up, even while the guys at the pentagon kept sandbagging the door to keep the water out that started to flow in from the fire operations. The Central office never went down and was never overwhelmed by water (6 foot sandbag and trash wall helped), and the worst outage we had a fax line to the loading dock on the far side of the building. I had one of my testers go home do to not being able to contact a very close friend that worked at the Pentagon, it was later discovered that the plane had pretty much come through the window of her office and she never had a chance.


We were also tasked with supplying 96 phone line in less than 4 hours to a hotel conference center out by Dulles airport as an information hotline for American Airlines with regards to flight 77 out of Dulles.
 

jdh

Member
May 21, 2010
1,555
Geneva, FL
I was working at OIA (Orlando International Airport), on the construction crew (level of security clearance). The team that I was-working on were updating the life safety systems (fire alarm basically). I was in the boiler room running system diagnostics when every LEO and their brother came walking in and basically said all non-critical crews must vacate.


Did things ever change after that.
 

backdraft51

Member
Sep 29, 2010
411
Tennessee

Clarence H

Member
May 20, 2010
1,546
USA Twin Cities Minnesota
I was at our training center, we were getting ready for some joint training with the 55th Support Batalion, a army unit based out at Fort Snelling, that provides NBC & WMD support to local governments in case of a terrorist attack in our region, We had the tv on while we were setting up the classroom, when the first break ins started on the local news. We discussed with them how a plane had hit the Empire State Building in the 40's, and what would be our tactics for fighting the fire, if it happened here. Then the second plane hit, on live tv, a few seconds later, their pagers went off, and they were recalled back to their base, we looked at the television for the rest of the morning, as our EOC was activated, and extra security directives went out.


Clarence
 

AKRLTW

Member
Jan 21, 2012
257
AK/NV USA
RAP week of Ranger school.


Returned to my unit (3rd Bn, 75th Ranger Regiment) by my own choice and was handed a packing list then deployed shortly thereafter.
 

Magyar E.L.S

Member
May 26, 2010
181
West Mifflin, Pennsylvania
I was asleep and got a phone call, I got up and turned the tv on, I couldnt understand for the life of me what was going on, I wont lie i thought the world was coming to a end. I at the time was fire chief and went to the firehouse, Per Allegheny County EMA we were put on stand by and Possibly were gonna be called to assist Somerset (Shanksville) or whomever. as the day played out like most all we did was watch in DISBELIEF, We were told by the chief of Emergency services of Allegheny County to stay putt . As much as I wanted too and could take my guys and equipment to NYC , I felt it woulda been a 50/50 chance we woulda been either helping or sent back home.


I will ALWAYS remember the men and women lost that day over NOTHING!


God bless
 

7d9_z28

New Member
Mar 15, 2012
3,048
West Michigan
Local Public Safety dept. Put the ladder out over the main road downtown flying the flag to honor the fallen. Thought it was pretty cool.


I was in 5th grade when the attacks happened. Can't believe its been so long.


Image09112012152010.jpg
 

Phoenix_Rising

Lifetime VIP Donor
Feb 27, 2012
6,742
Berks County PA
I will Never Forget. I will Always Remember.


I don't have a long winded, drawn out thought on this. My thoughts and feelings on the topic are deep, personnal, extensive, and probably shouldn't be said in a public forum.


However, none of that changes the fact that I will never forget. And I will always remember.


Post your 9/11 tribure, pics, stories, and the like here.

betterangles_600w.jpg
 

dcarrfire45

Member
Feb 4, 2012
326
stafford ct
everyone please take a moment in your day to have a prayer if your religious or at least a though if your not, and remember everyone that we have lost from this event. not only our own from the emergency services, but their friends and families, and also the victims of that day and their friends and families. and also thank you to anyone who has served in the armed forces to help support bringing those responsible for this to justice.
 
Apr 28, 2013
337
New York/Mass
Wrote this tribute for my department..


Today, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the events of 9/11. We mourn for the fallen, the 343 FDNY firefighters who went in the towers.. and never came out. The port authority police, NYPD, and all the other rescuers who went in.. and not out. In the Pentagon, those brave enough to go in, search in the Pentagon for survivors.. and may have no come out. And those who went down as heroes, taking back United Airlines Flight 93.


We mourn for everyone killed by the attacks, and from the lingering affects afterwords. We remember those who abandoned their jobs for days, to go down to Ground Zero, to do everything they could to help. This includes several of our own members, who went down in the wake of the attack..


We remember.


9/11 showed us human cowardice, savagery in the attacks, but it also showed another side. It showed the world what a great nation America is. The never-ending bravery and sacrifices made by people after the attack, the resilience of the American people, to make it through.


Rest In Peace, to all those killed. We will never forget.
 

tsquale

Lifetime VIP Donor
Oct 12, 2010
10,511
Minnesota, USA
This is something we have done for two years now. We are right on I-94 at the MN/WI border. We along with several other agencies from the area briefly shut down all lanes and take a nice slow rolling convoy under an overpass about a mile from the on ramp. This overpass is where a local businessman started waving a flag on his own 11 years ago and has gathered more people each year. This year he has multiple people "scheduled" to be there for the full 24 hours of the day.





St. Croix Valley Area Emergency Responders Drive Under 9/11 Remembrance - Today in Hudson... - Hudson, WI Patch


https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=703008766379274
 

emtanderson51

Member
Apr 9, 2011
3,795
USA Massachusetts
I was at the Worcester station for AMR being disciplined over not filling out my ambulance checklist (per the usual). There was some chatter about a small plane hitting a tower in NY in the main crew room. The supervisor put the office TV on about 2 minutes before the second plane hit and we were immediately sent out to post in Kelley Square to await instructions.We listened to wild radio reports about terrorism, the Pentagon and a plane not responding in VA. The EMS radio traffic was haunting with alarm tones I had never heard before nor since (12 years there). I was also a firefighter. When the first building came down I remember thinking that I, and every other firefighter I knew, would have been there, on those stairs, climbing up to help whoever needed it. That never happened. They never had the chance. It was overwhelmingly sad then as it is today and will be every September 11 from that moment on. I pray for peace to the souls lost on that day. To everyone who "just went to work" wether it be an office worker, janitor, security guard, police officer, Firefighter, or EMT. Rest in peace and god bless. I would also like to thank the men and women serving home and abroad to defend us from such horrible acts. It takes a certain level of selflessness to put ones self in a position where they may have to give their life for yours. All therefore mentioned people in this post are treu "heroes" and the rest of us should strive to be and give just 10% (not easily done) of what those people are.
 

lotsofbars

Member
Jul 20, 2010
1,999
NYC, New York
Today, I went to work on the southern tip of Manhattan just blocks away from where the Twin Towers were. Ladders 10 & 15 and Engines 10 & 4 responded by my place of employment more than once. It was heart wrenching and I'm not an emotional person.
 

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