OT: 9/11 Memorial

... a terrible day in our nation's history.  I know I will never forget every detail of that day.

The vigil we had on campus that night was one of the most moving experiences I've ever been a part of. The diag was stuffed as far as the eye can see, something like 15,000 people, they said it was the largest non-sports gathering on campus that had ever happened, bigger than even the hash bashes or anything else.  That day on campus is one of the clearest memories I have of my college career. 

Two of my roommates that year were from New York and the day was very rough on them as they were trying to get in touch with their families.  One of my early rising roomies (8 of us in a 6 bedroom apt) woke us all up when the TV cut away from Sportscenter to live coverage after the first plane hit, so we all saw the 2nd plane hit on live TV. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to all members of the Michigan family that were impacted on that fateful day or lost someone close to them.

I had just graduated college that year and I was preparing for U. S. Army flight school to start in January 2002.  I was still in Michigan at the time working and waiting for my active duty orders.  I remember going to work that day at a restaurant and I could count the number of people who came in on my hands.

9 years old yet I remember everything from the school day to how my house was set up at the time of the attacks so vividly. Never forget and condolences to all who lost a loved one directly or indirectly from 9/11

In the early morning hours, there are always planes lined up to land. As chilling as the events of 9-11 were, I will never forget standing in the parking lot at dawn on 9-12 and not seeing anything in the air except a solitary F-16.

I was at SU and fell asleep with the TV on ESPN and woke up and it was coverage of the WTC on fire.  About 5 minutes later the second plane hit.

I pulled up some videos on Youtube of the coverage.  It's 11 years ago now, but it still seems fresh in my memory.

I was in 7th grade. Band class at like 9:00. We went into lockdown, and the principal came on the pa and explained what had happened. In computers I watched coverage, then the rest of the day we watched it on tv or listened to it via the radio.



Never again, never forget. God Bless the people who have fought for our freedom and those who gave their lives trying to save the others.

I had actually just arrived at work that morning around the time that the first plane struck, and I still remember seeing no one at their desk, making my way up and down aisles of cubicles thinking I had missed something. I found everyone huddled in a conference room, just in time for the second plane. The whole office watched the television in silent horror with the odd muffled conversation for much of the day. It was nearly impossible to work that day.

Almost as strange was the next afternoon - I was sitting out in our courtyard area and a small Cessna actually was flying over Ann Arbor. That isn't so odd typically except for the F-16s that came from Selfridge to intercept it right over us and lead to Ann Arbor Municipal, where it set down without incident. For 15-30 minutes, that was a surreal scene over south campus (where much of it took place).

I was in 9th grade, we were just getting ready for symphonic band. The principal went over the loudspeaker and told us what happened. We sat in silence. The other band conductor came out into the aud and basically said "everything is going to change". He brought up what JFK's assination was like for him as a child.  And he talked about how we would never forgot what we were doing or where we were. I remember at lunch time, I sat with a girl who was frantic because she knew people that worked in the WTCs. And all I could tell her was "Don't worry, it's going to be ok." Even though I knew I could have been lying.

Your Canadian neighbors stand fast with heavy hearts.

I was in 7th grade. For some reason my middle school decided that the students were not to be told or shown anything.  The rumors flying around school that day were outrageous.  I remember us pestering our teachers to turn on the tv without success.  I don't think any of the teachers got 5 minutes of material in that day without us arguing with them that something historical was going on and we needed to see it. I didn't find out as to what really happend until 3:30 PM after I got off the bus.  I'm still upset about how the school handled it.

I'm sure we all remember what we were doing on that day.. Horrible, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, very sad..It's also my sisters birthday, so kinda shitty day to celebrate..

...at the Pentagon and those on Flight 93 that crashed in Somerset, PA. I was in my office one mile distant from the Pentagon that day and could just have easily been conducting Navy Reserve business in the Pentagon since that's where my unit was assigned. My civilian boss (also, a Navy Reservist) was there because he was the CO of the Navy Command Center reserve unit and he had headed there immediately after the Twin Towers were first hit. When the Pentagon was hit and the Navy Command Center was taken out, he was minutes from reaching it. He lost three unit members who were on watch there. He authored a great account of his experience that day in USNI Proceedings, but unfortunately, it's paywalled.

Here are links to the reflections of a colleague of mine who's a retired Navy Captain and was in the Pentagon on 9/11. Part 1 and Part 2.

Preparing for a company wide meeting when it came up on the net, and we tuned in a tv and watched the slow early net feeds.  So not that remarkable.

But my related to Michigan annual story is that year at the MSU game, Clockgate, at one point in the game, sitting in the upper deck, a plane started flying directly towards the stadium, really low, and didn't veer off till it was the closest I've ever seen a major airline plane fly near a stadium. Seemed almost eye level in that high upper deck. Needless to say there were a lot of nervous people in the Stadium at that time.  Not sure if we ever got an explanation for that, even though it was mentioned in the papers the next day (though it was a little buried by other "events" at the game that day).

I had flown into NYC on the red eye from SF that morning and my travel department wasn't sure which flight I was on...that was an awkward call, after bitching about waking me up with only 2 hours sleep, they told me to turn on the TV.

I understood right away...tried to reach my friends who worked at Cantor and didn't get through. Then the towers collapsed and so did I.

Miss you Laurence and Marc! Always remembered...never forgotten.

I was walking down the hall on my way to AP Physics when someone came running down the hall screaming about what happened. Spent the next 4 hours of classes just watching tv coverage. I don't think there is another day where I can remember every minute of what I did or saw.

Aon Corporation, used to have offices on the 98th to 105th floors of the South tower.  When the North tower was struck, they began evacuating the 1100 employees from their tower.  176 did not make it out before the South tower was struck.  One of them was one of our VPs, and he was on the phone with 911 at the time of the South tower collapse, and the recording of this call that ends with the building collapse was one of the pieces of evidence used in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.

I visited NYC for my birthday on September 9th,2001. I was in 1st grade at the time and the only vivid memories i have of visiting are looking up at those towering buildings.  Two days later i walk home from my first day of school to find my parents watching the replays of the collapse and just being in utter shock that those same buildings that had grabbed my attention were crashing to the ground on television.  I thank god that i was not exposed to that horrific tragedy.  God bless every family affected by the attacks.

The weather today is just like it was on that day . . . totally clear and sunny.  I can't believe that was 11 years ago already.  My thoughts and prayers go out to all who lost someone dear to them.

I was on my way out the door for work when I saw on the TV that a plane had crashed into the WTC.  It reminded me of newspaper clippings I had seen about an Army Air Force plane that had crashed into the Empire State Building during WW II.  It was  a strange thing for a plane to hit a skyscraper, but apparently not unprecedented.

I stayed to watch the evolving story on TV.  After a time I saw the image of a large aircraft out of the corner of my eye on TV heading toward the WTC.  I thought to myself "That's a good idea, a tanker plane like they use for forest fires to try to put out the fire".  When it hit the other tower of the WTC, I realized it was no tanker.  We were under attack.

My wife worked on Capitol Hill in DC.  I called her and told her to leave immediately, the USA was under attack and she was at a prime target.  As I was talking to her, there were reports of an explosion in DC which people at the time thought was at the State Department.  All her normal routes home were blocked.  I stayed with her on her cell and got out a street map and navigated her through the back streets of DC until she worked her way home.  It took hours.

Two days later we visited the site of the Pentagon attack, and a month later we visited Ground Zero.  In both cases what I remember most was the smell.  I used to make coffee by boiling water in a metal pot on the stove.  One time I left it on the stove too long and all the water boiled away and the metal pot started to melt.  That was the smell.