Northern Virginia Roll Call

Truck is here, pick it up on Wednesday!! Pretty excited after waiting for 9 months.

 

I was…..uh….in the third grade. I still remember that day though, very confused because I was on the west coast and by the time I got into class and heard about it, it had been hours.

 

Thanks for making us feel old, Randy.

 

I was less than 2 years old, so I've got randy beat there

 

Edit: my oldest (now a Marine too) was in Kindergarten, and my youngest had just been born less than two weeks before...

 

Randy. i forget we are the same age.

I was in the third grade too. Teachers running around on their cellphones calling their parents and making sure everyone was okay and then we were sent home early. Seeing the towers hit over and over again on tv.

 

I'll be 30 in just a few weeks.

 

Dirty Thirty Party? Trip?

 

I didn’t realize we were the same age either…I was also in 3rd grade. I went to school on fort bliss in Texas, it took like 2 hours to get on post. I remember helicopters flying over all day. Like half the class didn’t go in that day.

i also turn 30 in a few weeks haha

 

Third gradeI had already been working for 20 years. You kids
I was on my way to work listening to Howard Stern on the radio and thinking he was just doing a bit. Then got to work, found out it was all real, and they closed the shop and sent us all home.

 

I was in my junior year of high school - west coast- taking an AP practice test. Then found out what was going on because my woodshop teacher some how got the TV to get an outside station. (Mr. Grove was the man.)

 

I'm not really doing much of anything, I never really do for my birthdays. I prefer it that way.

 

I have a picture somewhere of my wife and my 2 boys (oldest was 2 years old and youngest 2 months old) in front of the hole in the Pentagon a week after the attack. Pretty crazy time back then. I still get goose bumps and feel the raw emotion of that day when I see the footage of the planes hitting the towers.

 

Going to my locker between classes my junior year of high school...my next class teacher's father normally worked at the Pentagon, but fortunately was at Langley that day.

 

I was headed to Pax River MD for a pop up meeting… my meeting in the Pentagon was cancelled the night before… yes, on that side of the building. I was very fortunate. S/f

 

Yeah, I saw two middle schoolers coming out of the library, one was pretending to be a plane, the other a building, which I thought was odd...then a few teachers came rushing downstairs and into the library, so I followed and sure enough they had two tvs on those fun carts with casters. I was speechless...then we all gasped as we saw the jet collide into the south tower, minutes later the bell rang for the end of morning break.

We didn't get released, but did have an all hands meeting where they did their best to recap all that happened in the morning hours, as best they could at 12pm or whenever it.

Never Forget

 

I was coming back from a job interview in DC. Saw the plane come down over the Pentagon in my rear view mirror.

On the way in I was listening to the radio and thought it was a joke. The misinformation was bad initially.

 

We had a part time instructor join my masters program at University of Detroit. He at the time was an Army Reserve 3 star general and upper level management in Detroit PD during the reform process from the federal oversight. He was in the building away from the impact. My advisor was formerly DPD as well, and he was in charge of the day shift on 9/11. He helped provide units to CBP when they shut down Detroit's crossings. He was also at the table with the Big 3 auto makers and DPD when the Big 3 needed to get the bridge open for trucks. All three automakers "wrote checks" to cover the OT to support the border crossings. It was a pretty insightful time working on the degree to see how close they came before and after that day to more successful attacks.

If you haven't seen this, he predicted the 9/11 tactic after the first attempt (by the same group) to bring down the towers. There is also a documentary called the "The Man Who Predicted 9/11." He was killed in the south tower making sure his people were out.

https://americamatters.com/rick-rescorla-saved-2687-lives-on-september-11/

 

My oldest is also a Marine, currently stationed in Cali.

 

Mine too! He is a Cpl (2841) with 1st CEB at Camp Pendleton.