I lived in Hawaii at the time so by the time my alarm went off, the events had pretty much transpired. I remember waking up to the radio announcers talking about some tragic events in NYC and DC. I immediately turn the TV on and they keep playing the fall of the towers over and over. I had a guest that had arrived the night before from Canada. I woke him up and we watched the newscasts. I wouldnt make it to work that day. I was in the military then and all the bases on the island had upped their defensive posture. That meant that nearly every single car got checked out before it was allowed on base. The back ups to the gate stretched for miles. When I did go to work the next day, it still took 1-2 hours to get through the gate. Our base shares the runway with HNL and I remember how strange it was not to see flights coming and going.

We were on a UA flight from SYD to LAX on Sept 11th. We landed in LAX about ten minutes after the first plane hit the WTC. Knew nothing. After exiting customs, we switched terminals, so we could catch our UA LAX - ORD flight. While in the main lobby, they came on the loudspeakers, and announced that the terminal was being evacuated, and had people hustling my family out to the curb. After calling my father, I learned about the WTC, and hearing that LAX was a rumored target, decided to get out of there. So we immediately jumped on a Hertz bus to get a car. I figured that they would run out of cars quickly. And they did, but we got a SUV. We stuck around for a few days in LA hoping that flights would start up again, but eventually Thurs morning drove towards Chicago. Straight thru for 20 hours, and got to Denver by Friday morning at 5 am. Got to the ticket lobby and saw chaos, and incredible lines of hundreds of people. But thankfully my PremExec status let me use the practically empty 1st class line. I got the three of us on the standby list for the first flight that left DEN-ORD, and amazingly, due to the lines in the lobby, we not only got on that flight, but it left half empty. Got home to a completely empty O'Hare, which was strange. I think we were one of the first 5 planes to get into O'Hare post-9/11.

That morning I was still in bed, trying to sleep as I had been up very late the night before. Groggily I hear the sound of an approaching, low-flying airplane. As the sound builds I realize it sounds like a large jet! The roaring, screaming engines pass overhead and then the Doppler Effect follows, with the roar subsiding until a few seconds later I hear a BOOM!!!
I'm located 1.25 miles north of the WTC. There goes any hope for further rest. My girlfriend calls to tell me she's watching the tower burn from her 32nd floor apartment near Gramercy Park. With clear skies, I'm convinced that this was no accident while the breaking news flashes are trying figure out what size plane was involved.
Late that morning I finally get the desire to go to the roof of our 12 story building near SoHo, just to observe the smoking carnage from a safe distance. When the wind momentarily shifts, the smell is disgusting, like burning plastic and rubber. Some ironworkers were building a bulkhead on our roof and they told me the plane flew directly overhead and was so low it shocked them. They had a clear, unimpeded view of its final seconds of flight.
I distinctly remember all the people marching north, away from the towers, as all public transportation had ceased. Many people were covered in white ash (probably gypsum dust from pulverized sheetrock) as was almost every vehicle in motion that I observed. Firemen were commandeering the Great Jones Lumber delivery trucks because their rigs were crushed in the collapse. My nearest firehouse, the Great Jones fire station, lost 10 of the 14 men who responded to the attacks. For hours there was a constant drone of emergency vehicles sirens racing past my windows on Broadway.
Neighbors set up tables outside with cups of ice water and other refreshments for those walking home to quench their thirst. For about two weeks we were in a locked zone where photo ID with proof of address was absolutely essential to gain admission. Phone and internet service was knocked out here; finally Verizon set up free temporary phone kiosks on the street. For about 10 days my out of state relatives and international friends couldn't reach me.
Some of the stories I heard first hand from friends; walking up the canyons of Wall Street and lower Broadway, seeing plane parts and miscellaneous body parts, smoldering on the steet. Someone escaping one of the towers because she was a single parent and wanted to get back to her young child. Disobeying the orders over the PA system and making it out alive, then having to walk over 120 blocks to her daughter's day care center.

I will NEVER forget....

I was landing in PHL from ATL at the time the first plane hit. I didn't know anything about it till I was about and hour out of PHL headed for York PA in a rental car. My wife called me to see if I was OK and told me to turn on the radio. We (a coworker was with me) did go on to York and do the work we had gone there to do. We were there for three days I think, watching the news coverage during lunch and in the evenings and mornings but we, and everybody around us, continued to do our jobs and go about our lives while watching and wondering. We drove our rental car home from York PA to ATL (kudos to Hertz, who had quickly announced that anybody that had a car was free to drive it home, wherever that might be, with no special dropoff or mileage charges) a few days later.

The air travel shut down was disruptive to our business, which is all over the country and the world. One project manager took Amtrack to Hattiesburg, MS a couple of times and I drove to several job sites in the southeast that I might have flown to if it had been possible but jobs that were more than days drive away got put on hold till the travel situation normalized.

I don't recall ever really thinking that anything else was coming after the first day. The attacks were possible because we were oblivious. That ended by noon on 9-11. Any further attempts would have been exponentially more difficult to carry out at that point.

Airport security at the time wasn't really that different from what it is today. There were metal detectors and x-ray machines for your carry on bags. What was different was the attitude of the screeners. Remember, all of the hijackers walked right through security with the weapons they needed either in their pockets or in their carry on bags. They just weren't seen as weapons.

They obviously COULD be weapons but prior to that, hijackings had almost all been done with guns and a destination. That's what they were watching for - some individual nutcase that wanted to go to Cuba. Those hijackings were so rare and, really, so benign, that they were seen more as an inconvenience than a threat. The planes landed, got refueled and came back to the US.

Terrorist hijackings were something that happened in the middle east with the hijackers trying to extort prisoner releases and the like. Nobody, at least nobody outside some small group in the intelligence community, ever thought that a US domestic flight would become a target for that. And we never did and never have. But we did learn that we can be targeted for random, cowardly attacks on innocent civilians mean to disrupt our lives and frighten us.

I remember being in my sixth grade classroom seeing a large airplane fly over low altitude over the building. I remember wondering why it was flying so low. An hour later, kids were being called down to the principal's office so they can be sent home. The teacher was emotional and no one told us what happened until a few hours later.

After school I remember running back home and trying to watch TV but nothing worked. I never felt so clueless and shocked in my life until this day when I was just ten years old. What made me really thankful that day was the fact that I was at the WTC two days before it happened with my family. I'm grateful that I am alive today with my family.

So, unfortunately, it�s a prize no one wants to win, but people like I, did. I grew up in Morris County, New Jersey, had finished my Ph.D. and ironically moved back to the area as an assistant professor, and 9-11 happened.
In my childhood small town, the police marked the tires on the cars in the train parking lot � over 200 cars were left abandoned (well, for some, their bereaved spouses claimed the cars). At Mass that weekend, the Monsignor spent 20 minutes reading the list of the dead. I�ll refrain from mentioning my personal death toll. It leaves me speechless.

Equally sadly, the university students today, some of whom were not yet born, do not understand why some of us were so sad this week. They say that they �get it,� but without true, deep comprehension, well... they did not want to take a moment of silence, so, I just kept teaching. Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

Let�s just say this. Pearl Harbor was decimated more than 30 years before was I born, and I have immense respect and complete reverence for that day, all involved, maimed, and killed. All humans should, as we should for all atrocities, anywhere, anytime.

Only God knows how this past August 2021 will be viewed, perpetrated unnecessarily by insanity. So very, very sad. At least in this case, we know who called for it, and he, with �much experience,� yet least in ability and leadership.... well, he will pay. The bereaved families have already begun exacting that toll.

No true leader would ever say his predecessors were also to blame. That�s just demented.

All prayers for salvation to everyone, especially quickly to those who die because of another�s illicit actions/decisions.

I was a Customer Service Supervisor with Continental Airlines in CLE. That day was my day off. The only TV on that morning had the History Channel on.
Our work group all had pagers.
One of my co-workers sent me a page that a plane had hit the WTC. He was a big kidder, so didn't believe him and sent him back a "snarky" reply. He sent me another one when the second plane hit. I replied with another "snark".
He then sent me a message to turn the news on. I was in total shock!
I got dressed and headed to the airport. Saw people walking along the roadway with roller bags in tow. It was so surreal.
It took several tries to get into an employee parking lot (they were on airport property back then). All of them were guarded by Police. Even with my CO ID and my SIDA badge had a hard time.
I had no idea what I could do, but had to do something.
The next several days have lots of "stories" as well, but don't want cause eyes to "glaze over".

NEVER FORGET