Where were you on 9/11?

[Dave McClung]

Tomorrow, I am going to hike a section of the Wonderland Trail that circles Mt. Rainier. That is were I was on 9/11.

On 9/10/01, I camped at Snow Lake. It was a beautiful camp site. Right at sun down, a herd of elk came to the lake to drink. I slept well.

On 9/11/01, I arose at sunrise, packed my tent and hit the trail. A couple of miles later, the trail crossed the road. As I crossed the road, a person in a parked car had their radio turned up loud. I heard enough to know that something had happened, but I didn't know what it was.

About noon, I reached Longmire, the hotel for Mt. Rainier. It is one of only two places along the trail where there is a pay phone. I called Linda, and she told me what was happening. At that point, the tv reporters we estimating that 20,000 people may have died.

I went ahead with my hike. The strangest part was no airplanes. I didn't realize how often airplanes fly over until suddenly there were none!! I hiked three more days with no updates. When I finally reached the end of my hike and turned on the radio, it was a great relief to learn that casualties were then estimated at less than 10% of the orginal estimate.

This is a picture I took that morning.

[Wes Smith]

An permanent memory. I was at our TUESDAY morning men's Bible Study for Arlington Ave. Nazarene (Riverside) at Denny's on Van Buren Blvd. The waitress came in to tell us that a plane had hit the 1st tower. A TV was set up at the cashier's counter. Everyone was speechless.

I watched a History Channel documentary on 9/11 this evening. Have wondered many times what President "W" Bush's terms would have been like if not impacted as they were by 9/11. (and soon after, Katrina)

Friend,

Wes

[Dana Grant]

I was getting my junior in high school son off to school, watching the morning news while he got his shower and got ready for school. It was about 6:30 a.m. when I turned on the news, and that's the first thing I saw. I sat there most of the day after getting him off to school. Evidently they watched TV in every class that day, as well. Lindsey was only 10, so she wasn't quite into watching the news all day at that point, but she watched a lot of it with me and asked many questions. We got very little schooling done at home that day......

[John Reilly]

On 9/11/01, I was at church preparing for the morning Bible Study and prayer meeting.
Today, on 9/11/12, I will be at church preparing for the morning Bible Study and prayer meeting.

[John Reilly]

September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday as it is today.

[Nelson Bradford]

Driving home after spending time with my godly earthly father, who was in a MI nursing home. We almost never listen to the radio...so were totally unaware until we stopped for brunch near Gary Indiana and were told about those awful events by our server.

We could hardly wait to finish, get back into the car and turn the radio on...and then the TV once we got home.

I'm a flag waver. I put the flag out every day the weather allows...as soon as it's daylight, bringing it in at dusk.

It's my plan to fly the flag all day and night...again today/tonight.

-neb

ps - Isn't God good?!

[Peggy Gray]

On a (then) annual getaway in North Conway, NH, with my friend. We were in a shoe store when an employee came to work crying, saying that two planes had hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon was on fire. We were sure she must have confused a couple of different news stories until we got to the car and turned on the radio.

No one knew what was really going on, of course. We didn't know whether to head home or stay put. Would roads be closed? Was this just the beginning of multiple attacks? We included in our prayers friends and family who lived in major cities, military bases, and so on.

We decided to cut our trip short, stay the night in our hotel, and head home in the morning. My friend watched TV for an hour or so then couldn't stand any more and went to sleep. I couldn't stop watching. I guess I felt that pretty soon there would be an "answer", and reassurance that it was over. It's still not over, is it?

[Karen Troxler]

We were living in North Huntingdon, PA at the time. Tim and Sarah were at high school, Dave and I were both at the church...Dave getting ready for his day, while I got ready for the Bible Study I was leading. Someone called the church and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We ran home to turn on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit the other tower. It took us a second to realize it was another plane and not just a recording of the first plane. I still had the Bible Study, but we spent the time in prayer. At one point, Flight 93 was flying over our area and ended up crashing in Shanksville, only an hour away from us. It still seems unreal.

[Cynthia Prentice]

I was homeschooling our daughter Bethany who was in 8th grade and our son Jonathan who was a Kindergartner. Paul was in Oklahoma for Pastor and Spouse retreat. When the Pentegon was hit I knew we were at war. I gathered my children in a circle and we prayed for wisdom for our leaders and then we spent time in prayer that if there were any other planes in the air that were going to be used in a suicide mission that God would strengthen the passengers and give them courage... enable them to take over the plane and prevent another catastrophic attack. When we heard that a plane had crashed in a field, I was able to share with my children that God had answered our prayer...and later, after looking at a recreated timeline, I realized that it was at the exact time we were in a circle, standing there in front of the TV praying, that the passengers of flight 93 were making their final plans and then launching an attack to take back the plane. The three of us will always feel connected to the people of that flight.

edited to add: In 2001, my husband's racquetball partner (then and now) was/is, a pilot for American Airlines..that made it feel even more personal and my step-brother, Matt, was in his office in New Jersey and watched out his office window, as the second plane hit the second tower.

edited to add: After we the Pentegon was hit and after our prayer, I went to the garage and found my American flag. I did not have a way to mount it so I grabbed a hammer and some nails and I hung it vertically off the eves of the house. I'll never forget the feel of the hammer in my hand and I hit the nail heads. My children asked why I was hanging the flag. I told them that during a time of attack, people feel alone...and when I hang this flag it shows that we all will stand together, supporting each other and together we will deal with this attack.

[Craig Laughlin]

I was in the shower listening to a news cast that was obviously prerecorded because they broke in mid sentence. (Very confusing at first) Finished up, went to the church and turned on a TV. Watched it in my office with others who showed up. We were all stunned.

[Jim Franklin]

Sitting in the same den in which I am now sitting watching the telecast on NBC as the Today anchors expressed their shock and dismay at what they were witnessing, It brought to mind the reaction my dad had on Sunday December 7, 1941 when I watched him pace back and forth across our living room floor in Carthage, SD praying for the families who lost loved ones in that attack, for President Roosevelt and for my five older half brothers all of military age, knowing that war would ensue. So I, too paced back and forth across my den praying for those who had lost loved ones in the tragic events of the day, President Bush, and the young people who would go off to fight the inevitable war that would ensue.

My flag is out in front and will stay out until sunset.

[Bill Morrison]

Shaving and getting ready for work.. My wife had the TV on and was leaving for work. She hollered that something had happened to the World Trade Center. I came in to watch and they were reporting that a "small plane" had hit the building, and I saw the tower burning. Then I saw the second plane come in live. Very strange: my thought in the first second was that it was one of those fire fighting planes like they use out west to dump water and battle forest fires, since it seemed to be lumbering in towards the burning tower. The next second I thought: no that can't be, they wouldn't have a plane like that sitting around NYC able to take off and fight a fire within minutes! The next second it hit the second tower and the TV folk and I knew it was terrorism.
I left for MNU. Our scheduled chapel was changed to a time for faculty and staff to be with students and deal with the shock we all felt. Later in the morning we had a TV running in the conference room of my building and were staring at the burning towers when the first one collapsed. That was a tremendous surprise to all of us to see the whole building just drop like in a demolition.
When I went home that afternoon, my neighbor lady ran out screaming at me and telling me she had just had a call from Oklahoma City and been told that gasoline was selling for an outrageous amount. I got back in my car and went to the nearest station and the line was already clear out into the street waiting to fill up. Everyone seemed to sense we were in big trouble.
The FAA building that controls air traffic in a 7 state area is in sight of my office window at MNU. As you may recall all air traffic was grounded for a few days until the government and military could figure out what all was happening. Some feared that building was a potential target too.

BILL

[Tinker Boyd]

My youngest daughter had just been born on the 6th so I was home. My husband heard about the first plane on the radio and called us. My mother-in-law was staying with me as I had had a C-section. She turned on the TV so we saw the second plane hit. Having just given birth to a new life, it was very emotional to know so many sons and daughters had just lost theirs.

[Michael Flowers]

I was a 14 year old freshman in high school at the time and we were supposed to be going hunting that morning (we were living in North Pole, Alaska, at the time). My brother came running into my room because the radio in his room had woken him up with the news of the first tower (I of course thought he was joking). We went into the living room and turned on the t.v. and discovered that it was no joke. We then went in and woke up our dad. We ended up watching the news for about three hours and then tried going hunting but gave up cause we were too distracted (I think many a moose was probably spared that day because hunters stayed home). I don't remember how much counseling my dad ended up doing after that for the members of our church (half were military), but I know that it was quite a bit.

Every time I see an image of the New York downtown, it looks strange to me. I still expect the towers to be there. My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all those who were/are affected.

[Gina Stevenson]

Had barely seen the note about it on NazNet (in AZ, so was not live as when it was about 9am in NYC it was only 6am in AZ & I was not up) when a friend called me, telling me to turn the TV on & why. They played that video over & over ... guess that sort of helped it sink in w/folks or something that "Yes, this really happened." Sad, sad day . . . .

[Lucas Finch]

I was at work in Denver for a Merrill Lynch office when the news hit. Here's what I wrote a year ago:

http://alucasfinch.net/2011/09/05/ten-years-later/

[Jean Johnson]

I was lying in bed only half awake, listening to the news. They said something about a plane hitting a tower. It didn't really sink in. Shortly, the newscaster shouted that another plane had hit a tower. That is when I jumped out of bed and went into the living room and turned on the TV. But I think I was in shock and certainly didn't understand the enormity of the attack. I went off to Azusa Pacific University where I was teaching ESL and remember making a rather casual and thoughtless remark to the administrative assistant, saying something like: "What a way to start a Tuesday morning." Then, of course, as the days passed, the seriousness of the event sunk in, including no planes flying overhead for some days.

[Susan Unger]

I was asleep in bed. Got up and saw that my tv stations were acting weird [I got a few from NYC]. Then got on the computer to see an email from a college friend asking us if we had heard about the towers.

[John Kennedy]

I had gone down to San Diego on Mon., the 10th, to have dinner with my son (a Pt. Loma student). As we were eating dinner we were talking about a Tom Clancy novel where one of the characters, a Japanese air force pilot who was angry with the US over several issues, had hijacked an airliner and flown it into the captiol building where a joint session of Congress was being addressed by the President (I forget the title).
The next morning (9/11) my son called and said, "We probably need to be careful about what we talk about at dinner." When I asked why, he said, "Turn on your TV." I did just shortly before the second plane hit.
My son and I had gone to the top of the WTC on a trip to New York a number of years before.

[Ken Tidwell]

I was taking my time getting to work that morning. Decided that nothing of importance required my presence so I took my daughter to McDonald's for breakfast before school. Took her to school and then made my way back to work...little did I know that in a few hours I would be on the flight-line as Air Force One landed at Offutt AFB.

[David Graham]

I was working a night shift when my planning co-ordinator came into the office after making a cup of tea and told me that he had seen on the television news that 2 planes had crashed in to the twin towers and that they were no longer standing. Since he was often a practical joker, I didn't believe him at first..... but I went and saw the news report for myself.

I couldn't believe that people would deliberately do such evil acts!

I guess I was angry, disappointed, saddened and confused all wrapped up in one. My first thoughts were for "vengence" but after contemplation realised that wasn't the way to combat such wicked fanaticism. However, the powers that "were", considered otherwise and we soon found ourselves at war alongside of the US..... and have been ever since, with no apparent end in sight.

My biggest disappointment is that up until now no-one has actually come to trial for this crime. I felt disappointed that the "Seals" killed Bin Laden in that raid; IMHO he should have faced the judge and be forced to contront the surviving victims of his actions and then to face the humiliating prospect of living the rest of his miserable life out in a maximum security prison.

[Dennis M. Scott]

This year (9/10/2012) Linda and I were on our way back to Boston from LA, and missed a connecting flight in Houston. That necessitated flying United Airlines the following day (9/11). At 8:20 AM, we were in the air somewhere between Washington, DC, and New York City. I was struggling with a kidney stone. Although nothing was said about it, the flight crew seemed a little subdued. Life goes on, but not without scars.