Where were you? - September 11, 2001

#27
#27
DancingOutlaw said:
My mom demanded my sister and I leave campus and come home as people were saying Oak Ridge was next. I had no car and no one was moving away from the tv so that wasn’t happening. I went to my afternoon philosophy class, there was a Palestinian guy in there who said people had harassed him all the way in to class. I think a lot of people just didn’t want to sit in their dorms or apartments alone so they came to class. Several guys we were friends with went to the recruiting station in the following days.
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Always have admired the spirit of the boys that went over to avenge what happened. Unfortunately they got used for something entirely different. Lions lead by sheep. It’s hard to imagine the things that they had to see and do
 
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#28
#28
I was working like a government mule that day. I got home about 5 and my wife told me what had happened. We had supper, she went to church to pray with lots of others, I got on the tractor and worked in the yard. That year there were 730,322 abortions, which is 2,000 per day for 365 days. That day almost 3,000 people died. It's incredible that we kill that many unborn babies in the USA.
Go Vols.
 
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#29
#29
Was in the Army stationed in Hawaii. It was 3am when they hit so I was asleep. Woke up with pager and cell phone going nuts and went straight to post. Spent the rest of the day watching in disbelief and wondering how long it would be til deployment.
 
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#30
#30
I remember doing my walk around (preflight inspection) with a Starbucks in my hand that morning, in my second year with the company, thinking this was a beautiful day and looking forward to it - last day of the trip and looking forward to getting home to my wife and baby girl. Just getting ready to push back out of the gate at JFK to head down to Ft Lauderdale and ramp said all departures were stopped.

We sat at the gate for a while and flights started canceling. When we finally got word of what was going on, my Captain and I - who just now retired and is still a good friend of mine - looked at each other and both said, “this is no accident. Who the hell is on OUR jet?” It was a surreal feeling knowing this had just happened a few miles from where we were and had we pushed any sooner we would have been airborne when all this started happening.

I remember it was impossible to make a cell call that day. Couldn’t get through at all for a while. I finally got through to my wife and she was completely hysterical even though she knew by that time none of our planes were involved, but she knew I was in NYC. My daughter was a year and a half old and my wife was pregnant with our son. She said “WE have tried all day to call you!” Apparently, half the neighborhood had walked down to our house, I guess fearing the worst, and stayed with her till she heard from me. I remember I heard a loud cheer in the background when she answered the phone. Good neighbors!

I would be furloughed a year later for two years. I almost didn’t go back. But hell man, this place is a thrill a minute. Never know what’s gonna happen next. Financial crisis, Covid 19, hijackjngs. I figure I’ve got one more “Black Swan” event left before I retire. Guess I’m a glutton for punishment. After all, I keep coming back to the PF and reading K-Town King’s, EL’s, Mick’s and Luther’s musings.
 
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#31
#31
It was early for us but had left work to get a Mtn Dew from the 7-11 and heard it on the radio when I was driving back. Got to the office, turned on the tv and watched the 2nd plane.

A customer who was there suddenly ran out the door and no one could understand what was up. Later found out his wife had a meeting in the WTC that day but it wasn't until the afternoon (but he didn't know at the time)

At our office the yard had a view of the Phx airport. We usually tuned out the planes but it was eerie when they all stopped. Even more strange feelings when they started going again

Here's another thread on this if you need more

Where were you?
 
#32
#32
Sophomore year at Maryville High. I was in French class when the first plane hit. We learned about it in between classes so by the time the next period had started, all TVs in the school were tuned to the news. Was in TA when the first tower collapsed. Just so surreal and sad to see it happen live.
 
#33
#33
Sleeping from finishing an overnight shift, watched the 2nd plane hit after being woken up by work. Packed my bags and in 3 days was on a plane to Pakistan.
 
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#34
#34
Rasputin_Vol said:
Meanwhile, the conservatives of that time pizzed on what little bit of America that was represented by those flags with the Patriot Act, Homeland Security and all of their other actions that linger on to this day.

I still can't believe I fell for the men with box cutters, cellphone calls from 20000 ft, pristine hijacker passports being found on the scene and steel buildings falling all over NYC.
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#35
#35
In between classes in the 7th grade. Walking from one building to another. There was a teacher standing in the door yelling at us to get inside "we are under attack". I remember thinking why go inside if school is being attacked, I can run off and hide better. Flow of classmates got me moving.

Inside the classroom I am still thinking our school is under attack and everyone is looking at the TV. I see the first tower burning. After figuring out what was going on I saw the second.

We sat there for a while. They announced parents could pick us up. They lead a prayer over the intercom. And then the two priests and nuns, who didnt actually teach at our Catholic school, came around leading us in other prayers.

As parents came into the classroom to pick up kids (very unusual) I remember the priests saying "Go in peace". Which is how we close masses, and we had recently learned that stems from the times when Christian's were persecuted and leaving mass was a great way to get caught.

Mom refused to turn on the TV.

We went the next year to NYC as a class. Saw ground zero. They were still removing rubble. 50 some odd rambugicious teenagers enjoying the biggest city in america came to a dead quiet looking at that pit. We visited several of the "memorials" around. I dont remember a lot of that trip but anything that dealth with 9/11 comes across vivid.
 
#36
#36
I was at a port visit in Australia. My section was on duty and everyone else was out in town. I was woken up by the general quarters alarm going of and one the guys on watch running into berthing's waking people up, yelling "we're getting bombed, get up we are getting bombed".

Half in a daze from not much sleep already, got dressed and ran to the armory. None of us had heard any gunfire or bombs, which confused us, so we all got rifles and pistols as we didn't know where the threats were yet. No information had been given to anyone yet, this was really early - cant remember the time.

The first thing that happened was a complete security lockup. All comms shut down to all but 2 people until others started getting onboard.
No internet, t.v., phones except for the quaterdeck and bridge.

About 30 mins go by and we have swept the ship, swept the pier and finally were told that "The US is getting bombed".
I had one of the highest level clearances on the ship, literally had a combo to the crypto vault, and I was not allowed to go into the Combat Information Center or the Radio Shack to get some info.

We flew the Papa flag and ran duty vans to get everyone back to the ship.

We were back out in the water in about 6 hours after general quarters went off.....which is pretty impressive given that 250 some people were out in town and we had to find them all.

The only information we got was from the people out in town who saw things on t.v. so we were told all kinds of crazy stuff. Nobody knew what all happened, just bits and pieces of it so speculation was insane.
We heard planes were hitting skyscrapers in NY and other big cities, missiles hit the Pentagon and D.C. and wiped it out, the Eastern seaboard is under attack.....etc.

For some reason they kept my section on duty, with no sleep, carrying our loaded pistols while underway, the entire next 3 days before they relaxed the duty section.
Nobody could freely walk around the ship unless you were on duty or an Officer.

Ill never understand that one, I still have sleep issues due to that nonsense. At the end of day 3 some of our HF gear and a few pieces of crypto were down so I went to work on that. Somewhere there is a picture of me sitting in the Radio room on the floor indian style with a pistol on my hip and 4 empty cans of Mt. Dew sitting next to me and I'm asleep with my head against a transmitter rack.

The CO had my Chief cut the sailor phones, and any extra Sat phone lines (I had one in my rack, one in my shop and had one ran to my Chiefs rack...all were pulled out).
We went for a complete month with no information about what had happened, what all was hit or if it was still happening. Complete information shutdown for a month.
My CO's InMarSat phone line went down about a week into this and they asked me to fix it. The CO stood over me to make sure I didn't call anyone during troubleshooting.

At this point, after 30 days of being kept in the dark and all comms being kept out of our hands, we all just thought everyone we knew was likely dead. A bunch of us Tennesseans, Virginians and folks from NC figured Oak Ridge and Norfolk had to have been hit hard. We all thought our entire families were dead for a month.

Complete **** show from top to bottom on my ship.

You can imagine the hate we all had for the terrorists by the time we got the real information about the events that took place.
 
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#37
#37
volinsd said:
I was at a port visit in Australia. My section was on duty and everyone else was out in town. I was woken up by the general quarters alarm going of and one the guys on watch running into berthing's waking people up, yelling "we're getting bombed, get up we are getting bombed".

Half in a daze from not much sleep already, got dressed and ran to the armory. None of us had heard any gunfire or bombs, which confused us, so we all got rifles and pistols as we didn't know where the threats were yet. No information had been given to anyone yet, this was really early - cant remember the time.

The first thing that happened was a complete security lockup. All comms shut down to all but 2 people until others started getting onboard.
No internet, t.v., phones except for the quaterdeck and bridge.

About 30 mins go by and we have swept the ship, swept the pier and finally were told that "The US is getting bombed".
I had one of the highest level clearances on the ship, literally had a combo to the crypto vault, and I was not allowed to go into the Combat Information Center or the Radio Shack to get some info.

We flew the Papa flag and ran duty vans to get everyone back to the ship.

We were back out in the water in about 6 hours after general quarters went off.....which is pretty impressive given that 250 some people were out in town and we had to find them all.

The only information we got was from the people out in town who saw things on t.v. so we were told all kinds of crazy stuff. Nobody knew what all happened, just bits and pieces of it so speculation was insane.
We heard planes were hitting skyscrapers in NY and other big cities, missiles hit the Pentagon and D.C. and wiped it out, the Eastern seaboard is under attack.....etc.

For some reason they kept my section on duty, with no sleep, carrying our loaded pistols while underway, the entire next 3 days before they relaxed the duty section.
Nobody could freely walk around the ship unless you were on duty or an Officer.

Ill never understand that one, I still have sleep issues due to that nonsense. At the end of day 3 some of our HF gear and a few pieces of crypto were down so I went to work on that. Somewhere there is a picture of me sitting in the Radio room on the floor indian style with a pistol on my hip and 4 empty cans of Mt. Dew sitting next to me and I'm asleep with my head against a transmitter rack.

The CO had my Chief cut the sailor phones, and any extra Sat phone lines (I had one in my rack, one in my shop and had one ran to my Chiefs rack...all were pulled out).
We went for a complete month with no information about what had happened, what all was hit or if it was still happening. Complete information shutdown for a month.
My CO's InMarSat phone line went down about a week into this and they asked me to fix it. The CO stood over me to make sure I didn't call anyone during troubleshooting.

At this point, after 30 days of being kept in the dark and all comms being kept out of our hands, we all just thought everyone we knew was likely dead. A bunch of us Tennesseans, Virginians and folks from NC figured Oak Ridge and Norfolk had to have been hit hard. We all thought our entire families were dead for a month.

Complete **** show from top to bottom on my ship.

You can imagine the hate we all had for the terrorists by the time we got the real information about the events that took place.
Click to expand...


wow
 
#38
#38
volinsd said:
I was at a port visit in Australia. My section was on duty and everyone else was out in town. I was woken up by the general quarters alarm going of and one the guys on watch running into berthing's waking people up, yelling "we're getting bombed, get up we are getting bombed".

Half in a daze from not much sleep already, got dressed and ran to the armory. None of us had heard any gunfire or bombs, which confused us, so we all got rifles and pistols as we didn't know where the threats were yet. No information had been given to anyone yet, this was really early - cant remember the time.

The first thing that happened was a complete security lockup. All comms shut down to all but 2 people until others started getting onboard.
No internet, t.v., phones except for the quaterdeck and bridge.

About 30 mins go by and we have swept the ship, swept the pier and finally were told that "The US is getting bombed".
I had one of the highest level clearances on the ship, literally had a combo to the crypto vault, and I was not allowed to go into the Combat Information Center or the Radio Shack to get some info.

We flew the Papa flag and ran duty vans to get everyone back to the ship.

We were back out in the water in about 6 hours after general quarters went off.....which is pretty impressive given that 250 some people were out in town and we had to find them all.

The only information we got was from the people out in town who saw things on t.v. so we were told all kinds of crazy stuff. Nobody knew what all happened, just bits and pieces of it so speculation was insane.
We heard planes were hitting skyscrapers in NY and other big cities, missiles hit the Pentagon and D.C. and wiped it out, the Eastern seaboard is under attack.....etc.

For some reason they kept my section on duty, with no sleep, carrying our loaded pistols while underway, the entire next 3 days before they relaxed the duty section.
Nobody could freely walk around the ship unless you were on duty or an Officer.

Ill never understand that one, I still have sleep issues due to that nonsense. At the end of day 3 some of our HF gear and a few pieces of crypto were down so I went to work on that. Somewhere there is a picture of me sitting in the Radio room on the floor indian style with a pistol on my hip and 4 empty cans of Mt. Dew sitting next to me and I'm asleep with my head against a transmitter rack.

The CO had my Chief cut the sailor phones, and any extra Sat phone lines (I had one in my rack, one in my shop and had one ran to my Chiefs rack...all were pulled out).
We went for a complete month with no information about what had happened, what all was hit or if it was still happening. Complete information shutdown for a month.
My CO's InMarSat phone line went down about a week into this and they asked me to fix it. The CO stood over me to make sure I didn't call anyone during troubleshooting.

At this point, after 30 days of being kept in the dark and all comms being kept out of our hands, we all just thought everyone we knew was likely dead. A bunch of us Tennesseans, Virginians and folks from NC figured Oak Ridge and Norfolk had to have been hit hard. We all thought our entire families were dead for a month.

Complete **** show from top to bottom on my ship.

You can imagine the hate we all had for the terrorists by the time we got the real information about the events that took place.
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What ship were you on?

I was on the Carl Vinson in the mid-90s
 
#40
#40
I was at work watching the tragedy take place in the board room. I didn’t realize how serious it was until the plane crashed into the WTC.
 
#44
#44
Thanks, VN Friends! I may have to share some of these with my students on Friday. It’s crazy to think we can remember vivid details of a Tuesday in September.

I was in 5th grade and my class was coming back from gym. The other 5th grade teacher came into our room and told my teacher to turn on the news. We watched it the rest of the day because they would not allow us outside. We watched NBC the rest of the week from 8-3.
 
#45
#45
Doberman said:
My son is currently on the Ronald Reagan. CVN-76

IC …. sounds like you were a similar rate by your coms repair details.
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I was an ET (Electronic Technician). IC is (Interior Communications). My main NEC's were Satellite comms (Inmarsat) and crypto (KG and KY family), and one TACAN radar sys, but also helped on the HF/VHF/UHF stuff.

BTW, if you don't know what a Megger is, and your son asks if you want to learn how to use one......don't hold the leads for him - Its their oldest trick in the book....funny though :)
 
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#46
#46
volinsd said:
I was an ET (Electronic Technician). IC is (Interior Communications). My main NEC's were Satellite comms (Inmarsat) and crypto (KG and KY family), and one TACAN radar sys, but also helped on the HF/VHF/UHF stuff.

BTW, if you don't know what a Megger is, and your son asks if you want to learn how to use one......don't hold the leads for him - Its their oldest trick in the book....funny though :)
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tip! Sounds like something he'd like to pull on me.
 
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#48
#48
OldVolMan said:
Thanks for making me feel so old. My oldest granddaughter was around the first grade then....lol
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At least you are old enough to actually have seen Tennessee win big. I faintly recall how nuts my dad went when we won in the Swamp that year, and then how sad we were after LSU. I remember next to nothing about the actual playing of the games
 
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