Where were you on 9/11?

[Cruise]

On a side note Jim..........I used to love Star Blazers! Coming home from school to catch the latest drama w/ the Yamato, etc...

[CapnJim]

Originally Posted by Cruise

Then don't bother to respond!?!

That's not my point, although I respect yours.

[MusketeerMan]

Working at Apple Computer and talking to customers in NY when the customer said she had to go...said to turn the TV on.

I switched over to CNN on the computer and sat amazed for the entire day...

[MusketeerMan]

Originally Posted by CapnJim

None of your business what I was doing.

Huh?

[Cruise]

Originally Posted by CapnJim

That's not my point, although I respect yours.

I'm not trying to start something w/ you Jim......just confused me why you would respond like that. I totally respect your point of view as well......was just shocked to see that statement, and was curious why it was so harsh.

[mhcasey]

Jim, what's the deal dude?

I was getting out of band class in my sophomore year of high school. My director went into his office briefly, then came out and made the announcement. I headed straight to my next class (debate), where I found my teacher glued to the t.v. crying. By this time both towers were down. We either watched t.v. or listened to the radio in the rest of my classes. My Dad was/is a 75/76 captain for AA who had been making a lot of trips to NYC around that time. Fortunately, I was about 99 percent sure he wasn't flying that day, but the 1 percent of doubt made for a long day.

[IndianaPilot]

I overslept on the 11th and was running late for work. On the way rushing out the door my dad told me quickly that a plane hit the world trade center. My first thought was that it was prolly a small plane, total accident. Then on the way to work I was listening to the radio and they were saying that it had been a large commercial plane. When I got to the firehouse everybody was glued to the TV, and the second plane had just hit. We watched it all the way through the collapses, and I remember thinking that most likely there was nobody inside and that they had evacuated the buildings a long time ago. All this plus hearing about the pentagon, and pennsylvania, kinda made it hard to believe. It wasnt until later on that things kinda sunk in what happened, and then the news reports made everybody realize that during the collapse the buildings were still occupied by escaping civilians, firefighters and medics, and police officers....which just made it even more un-believable. It's still good to see every year all the memorial services and ceremonies, knowing that it's not forgotten. This year was really good as far as that, being the 5th anniversary. There were TONS of services, silent parades, memorials, all over. Sure hope it continues throughout the years and the event is never forgotten.

[N422NM]

In a Cessna 206 between KFMN and KABQ with a body in the back. Was about 20 nm out when ATC passed word.

[CapnJim]

Dern!


Sorry, Steve, I'll be good!

[ShoreFly]

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

[Maximillian_Jenius]

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.

[TexasFlyer]

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.

[C650CPT]

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.

[B767Driver]

Getting an ACARS message through Cleveland Center saying to land ASAP.

[desertdog71]

Petro truckstop in Medford, Oregon.

[Doug Taylor]

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.

[slushie]

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.

[TFaudree_ERAU]

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.

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Originally Posted by desertdog71

Petro truckstop in Medford, Oregon.

And what were you doing at the truckstop....

[holy_skylarker]

Originally Posted by ShoreFly

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

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.

[HH-60CC]

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.

[ShoreFly]

Originally Posted by holy_skylarker

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.

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.

[Brent.Inc]

I was in my english class in sophmore year and our teacher told us about what happened and turned a radio on.

[holy_skylarker]

Originally Posted by ShoreFly

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.

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.

[tonyw]

Originally Posted by holy_skylarker

What the terrorists did was horrific, but we are doing no better.

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.