Remembering September 11th

The 7th anniversary of September 11th is this Thursday. I would like to pay my respects to all those who lost their lives, and those who lost someone that day. I would also like to thank the men and women who worked tirelessly in the days and weeks afterwards.

I would like everyone who posts here to tell what they were doing that day and how it affected them.

 

I was working at the Pentagon for a mechanical contractor. We had been at the Pentagon since 1999, renovating Wedge 1. The week of the attack Friday would've been our last day on the job.

Starting the day after the attack I worked nights, from 10pm to 7am. Alot of the time we would go in to shut off services that had been damaged. Sometimes we would go in at the same time task force personnel would be searching the area. Most of the body removal was done at night. Two days later, I starting working from 3pm to 7 am for the next two weeks.

After the decision was made to rebuild the Pentagon, we worked anywhere from 7-12s to 6-10s and everything in between. When all was said and done we managed to rebuild the damaged part of the Pentagon in a little over 9 months, which was far shorter than what we had been told it would take.

I would like to thank the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Southern Baptist Ministry and everyone else who donated to relief efforts and made our lives easier while we were there.

 

This is a great story. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,334332,00.html You knock down our buildings... we will build a ship out of it and come kill you!

 

My wife and I were just dicussing this the other day after catching a special on the attacks. We see the good instead of dwelling on the bad. At the time we were living together taking care of her father. He was in particular good spirits that day and feeling well. He passed away that Christmas morning. When I think about what happened that day, my thoughts always turn to that memory of his good day.

I feel for the families of those lost.

 

in memory of 9-11

i was at work when they said on the radio that a plane crashed into the wtc, and we were like.....damn, thats a bad accident. then they said another one hit the wtc, and were all standing there in shock. then we hear about the pentagon.......we were all standing there in shock and disbelief while we were watching the little 13inch black and white tv about all that was happening. we barely got any work done that day or a couple of days afterward. it was really somber where i was at.

 

I was down at Homestead Air Reserve Base for a 2 day TDY. What was supposed to be 2 days of a little work and the rest partying. I woke up that morning and turned on the TV. It was right when they broke in to start covering the situation. I called my buddy and woke him up. Then I watched in horror as the second plane hit. Later that morning we were at the Alert detachment. Jacksonville was sending down more people to sit at the Alert facility. At Alert there is always three jets loaded and cocked. We stayed at Homestead for a week. While we were down there, Jacksonville closed runway 13/31 and every flyable jet was loaded sitting on the runway. We flew back to jacksonville on a C-26. I can't describe the eeriness of knowing that you are the only aircraft flying. We landed at Jacksonville and as we taxied back to the FANG we went right by all of our loaded jets. It put a chill in my back. I'll have to find some pictures of that.
I felt such a deep depression knowing that I witnessed the worst attack this nation has ever seen. My heart goes out to all who lost someone that terrible day.

 

I was feeding my second daughter who was an infant at the time.My oldest who was 2 wanted to watch a movie so I turned on the TV.....At this point,one Tower was on fire and they were reporting some kind of plane crash.My thought from a Firefighters perspective was that the FDNY guys had their work cut out for them,and wondered what conditions were like above the fire floors for civilians.When the second plane struck I was dumbfounded.When the reports came in about the Pentagon and other targets I became really frightened and wished my wife would come home.I felt this need to have my whole family under one roof so we could be together.I'm still not sure what the emotion was but I just had this need to protect them.

That night,myself and a number of others from work packed bags and waited for direction from the IAFF with regards to going to NY to provide relief work.On the 12th,Kevin Gallagher,the president of the FDNY firefighters union,requested that Firefighters from abroad stop arriving as the management of the influx was getting difficult to handle.

In February,two of my buddies and I went down to pay our respects.We stayed at E280,L132 "The Eye Of The Storm" in Brooklyn and rode with those guys for a few days....L132 lost 6 that day.

September 11th has been designated by the IAFF as an international day of mourning and tomorrow 60 of us from my job are travelling to the City of Moncton to take part in a memorial ceremony.

I'll never,ever,ever forget....God bless those lost that day,and also those left behind with broken hearts.

 

I was at work, I heard somebody say that a plane crashed into the WTC. I was like OK, some pilot f**ked up and ran into a building. Then I heard a second plane crashed. And I was like WTF?!?! As soon as it happened, I immediately thought bin laden was involved. Then we let the f**ker get away and lose all of our focus on "getting him dead or alive" We let the guy responsible for all of these deaths off the hook, WTF?

 

I was working for IBM at the time and I was just leaving for work when the first plane hit. My wife has two cousins that work in NYC, one is NYPD (he lost his partner in tower one) her other cousin is FDNY (he lost six brothers from his fire house).

 

I was working in a maximum security prison here in PA. The administration was debating about whether or not to lock down the facility since we have so many Muslim inmates and they were afraid a riot might start. In the end they decided not to lock it down, but it was defintely tense in there. I think most of the inmates watched the goings on on TV and were as stunned as everyone else.

 

I was at work on post that day for a meeting. When reports of the first plane hitting, I thought it was an accident. After the second, I knew it was no accident. Emergency Ops went into effect immediately.

My sincerest condolences & respect for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice that day, my sincerest appreciation for those who gave unselfishly of themselves in support of 9/11, and my sincerest prayers to those who still mourn, may you find a moment of comfort.

Here is a shot that ran in our local paper & was given to us by our PAO. It is the 158th FW VTANG aka as the Green Mountain Boys flying security over ground zero 9/11/2001.

 

As a whole 2001 was not a good year for me. My ex-wife told me she wanted a divorce on Feb. 18th, the same day Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona. The following spring and summer was spent working at the Pentagon and arguing with her on a daily basis. On Sept. 8th my uncle died of brain cancer, he was buried at Quantico on Sept. 10th. Going to work the following day, it was hot and humid and I was still down from the day before.

I was working at the South Terrace, trying to finish up a punchlist. At 9:00 my boss walked by and asked me if I had taken break yet. I said no and we walked up to the 2nd floor mechanical room in E-ring, where our makeshift office was. At 9:30 he asked me to walk out to the guardshack and ask the guard if he wouldn't mind signing for our checks when they arrived at the job.(Our checks are delivered every Tuesday to all of our jobs)

I went down, spoke with the guard and saw the insulator foreman, from whom I needed to get a roll of tape to repair the insulation I had had to cut off while I was working on the punchlist. We walked over to his c-container, which was to the left of the entrance to Corridor 4. He handed me what I needed and we stood there for a moment, bullshitting. I pulled out my pack of cigarettes, took one and then offered him one.

"You know I quit smoking." He said. "Lock the door when you get done." And with that he left, heading down Corridor 4. Not wanting to stay there by myself, I grabbed my tape, locked the door and walked down to the door at the corner of E-ring. I walked thru the doorway, the door closed behind me, I took four steps and that is when the plane hit. I was knocked down by the ensuing blast that traveled down the hallway of E-ring. All of the lights and ceiling tiles were blown down as well as the partition walls that formed the hallways. Two layers of 5/8" drywall.

I heard a woman screaming down the corridor to my right, I got up and went that way. I couldn't see anything, there was too much dust in the air. The woman screaming was one of the cleaning people that were getting the rooms ready for their new occupants. We made it to the South Terrace and walked out on the loading dock. Cars were screaming away from the dock, there were parking places along wall for private vehicles. A guy in a blue work uniform was running by and I asked him what had happened. "A plane hit the building, get the fuck out."

I ran down the service road alongside the Pentagon and looked back at the laydown area. Everything was on fire and the sky was filled with oily black smoke. The first firetrucks were just arriving and the Pentagon Police were arriving as well, the south parking lot was filling up with people from the Pentagon and the police were making go to the very back of the lot. There were thousands of people in that lot and I was trying to find someone from my company. There were 7 of us there that day, supposed to have been 8, but 1 guy was sick that day. I finally managed to find everyone but 1 guy, who did eventually show up. He had been trapped in a telephone closet on the 2nd floor when the fireball went down Corridor 4.

There were about 5 or 6 helicopters flying around and then several of the police car starting driving towards the people standing in the parking lot, "Get back! Get back, there's another plane inbound!" Everyone started toward Pentagon City Mall, where I managed to find my boss in all of the confusion. We walked down towards the Citgo gas station down from the Navy Annex and stood there watching the building burn. He had parked in the south lot that day, I had parked on the hill next to the Annex. I gave him a ride to another one of our jobs in Rosslyn where he could catch a ride home and I left and went home myself. I remember driving down I-66 towards Manassas and I was the only car on the road.

When I got home, my answering machine was full of messages, many from whom I hadn't spoken to for some time. The next day I went to that job in Rosslyn and at 2:30, I was so looking forward to going home when my boss called me and told me to be at the Pentagon at 5:00. I went home and changed and went back to the Pentagon.

 

I was at work, Systems Manager for a community based mental health organization. A guy working for me came in and said "hey man a plane just hit the world trade center". Like klown, I thought it was an accident, and I said "someone is gonna lose their flying license".

The pres of the company considered closing the place so employees could go home, but the decision was made to stay open for the expected crowd of people freaked out and nowhere else to go. It was a good decision, we were swamped for weeks after 9/11.

Prayers to those who suffered, thanks to the police, firemen and other heroes who gave some or gave all that day.

Now let's put someone in office that's serious about finding that godless bastard!

 

I was a junior in high school that day actually skipping gym class while the first plane hit. I live about 10 miles from NYC so a lot of people in my school had parents that work down there so after announcing what happened over the loudspeaker almost all the students and teachers just left school. I had a sick feeling in my stomach all day and I had been thinking of joining the military and that made it definite.

My father was a firefighter in the city where I live so he went down the day after with his guys to help with the cleanup, I begged him to give me an extra set of bunker gear and let me go but he wouldnt. I went down a year or so later after the cleanup was done and it was a horrible seen, its just an empty hole. I am glad that when i was younger my dad brought me and my sisters up to the top of the south tower one day. I hope nobody ever forgets 9/11, i know i wont.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share that story with us joedirt.

 

i remember seeing F-16s overhead that morning, I wonder if it was that squadron

 

I wish this will not happen again. God Bless Americian

 

God bless, Joe Dirt

 

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