Where were you, or have you forgotten?

[highway]

On this, the 10th aniversary of the attack on this country, I ask that you remember the families of the victims of the attacks and the brave men and women who responded as just a part of their jobs, the firefighters, EMTs, and law enforcement. I also ask that you remember the brave men and women of the armed forces that continue the fight for our freedom and those that have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

Also, feel free to share where you were on that fateful day 10 years ago, I was driving a heavy wrecker on my way to a tow call when the planes hit the towers, and the first tower fell just after I had hooked the school bus I was towing to the back of the wrecker.

http://youtu.be/AW8puRqE4Sc

Or have you forgotten? I haven't!

http://youtu.be/VpoudLoc8sY

[timc]

I was in bed asleep after workin all night when the phone rang.It was our reserve unit tech seargant putting everyone on emergency standby,and telling us to report to the reserve center a.s.a.p. It was on helluva wake up call that no one in the armed services wants to get, but you never forget it when it happened.

Yes, I AM A VETERAN and DAMNED PROUD OF IT. 88mike20 was my M.O.S. (truck driver-motor-T) Give us a call if you got somethin' to haul,if we can't truck it - well you can geuss the rest.

I remember... Do you... Retired SGT. Timothy L. Cassady

[RodneyBad]

I just got to work and was watching the news.

Thinking the first one was a Terrible accident and then the second one hit.

Carried on with my job and listen to the news all day.

After hearing the rest and finding out what and who did it,

Well, My thought is as Far to the right as Right can get on this instance!!!!

And I'm not a Far Right thinker but this case, It IS and still IS!!!

That is my 2 cents...

My Thoughts and Prayers are out there for the ones that have died and OUR Service men and women..

Never forget Never surrender. till OUR Enemys are Long and Gone!!!!

Edited September 11, 2011 by RodneyBad

[Tom Setzer]

I was at home watching the News when it Happened! My first thoughts were we have to punish the ones that did this! My next thought was this is going to probably take a Military Response To get them, which I knew we would have to do! Then I started seeing the Faces of the kids I lost on a hill in 68, and I prayed that the Country would not Treat the Young Men that would have to Deploy to get These Guys The way They Treated Us when We Return Home! Today is bringing it all Back and I am reliving it all over again! I see our Young men going through the same things we did.

We as a Country Have to get behind our troops and make sure the Politicians do the same. We have to make sure that the things our Troops have acomplished are not thrown away and made Meaningless we Owe That To everyone who Lost their lives and to the ones who have lost their loved ones on 911, and to the Men and women who have lost their lives and been disabled by their service to our country and to the cause of FREEDOM. We MUST SAY TO OUR ENEMIES NEVER AGAIN!

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND THOSE WHO PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE EVERYDAY SO THAT WE CAN LIVE FREE!

Tom

Edited September 11, 2011 by Tom Setzer

[whale392]

I was at work, just finishing up some welding on one of our catering trucks. We had the TV in the shop on, more or less for background noise/fill. When the first airplane hit, we were under the impression it was a movie/spoof, as the volume was low. We stopped, turned the volume up, and sat watching, still not in complete belief. Then the second airplane hit.......so did reality! We were stunned and continued to watch. All activities at Orlando International Airport came to a standstill.

Looking back, I still cannot publicly voice my opinions on what was/could still be and how to remedy the situation. As a former member of our Navy, I have a direct mindset when it comes to dealing with situations like this. Politics gets in the way. I lose brothers and sisters daily in the 'Fight Against Terror' we claim to be waging. It took us less than 4 years to drive back the forces of Nazi Germany AND Imperial Japan, yet we cannot do the same to ONE foe today?

Let us NOT forget 9-11, nor believe the junk our own media/national leaders feed us. We owe it to our dead and current uniformed Service Members/Police/Fire/EMS to NEVER forget, and to seek the justice due. GOD BLESS OUR COUNTRYMEN, AND ALL THOSE OPPOSED TO THE EVIL THAT HAS COME/HAS YET TO COME.

[SuperStockAndy]

RIP to all killed that day.

I don't really remember it, I was only 3 at the time. A reason I'll never step foot in an airplane.

Edited September 11, 2011 by Android

[Jeff Johnston]

I have to ask the philosophical question...politically incorrect as it will be..... Who on earth coined the phrase "never forget". It makes no sense...

Who on the planet could ever forget that day and what it meant ? Its like saying never forget to breathe. OK thanks, I'll be sure to remember to breathe.

I'm not saying this to anyone in particular...for years I just understood saying "never forget" where just about everyone without Alzheimers can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing..including my son who was in 1st grade at the time..

What we should never forget is that there are still people out there who hate us, who would like nothing more but to attack us again, and that we need to be prepared and aware.

I remember where I was, what I did, who I called, and all that. My story isn't particularly interesting so I won't share it.

My kids and I have been watching all the shows this week and some of the stories are incredible, and very touching.

Edited September 11, 2011 by Jeff Johnston

[Danny Lectro]

How could I forget?

At that time, I was working a weekend shift at a company in Midtown Manhattan. That day, I was scheduled to go in for some training in the late morning. I was taking a shower, when my wife burst into the bathroom with our baby boy in her arms, and said a plane had hit one of the towers. I thought she meant a small private plane, but she said, no, it was an airliner. The import of what she said didn't really sink in, so I continued my shower. A few minutes later, she came back in and told me another plane had hit the second tower. We knew then it couldn't have been an accident.

A short time later, I received a call from the administrator of the training group, saying that the training session had been cancelled for obvious reasons.

I felt really numb for a while. I went with my wife and son to a local diner, which was absolutely packed. I think people were grasping for a sense of normality amidst the shock of the attack.

[Danny Lectro]

Who on the planet could ever forget that day and what it meant ? Its like saying never forget to breathe. OK thanks, I'll be sure to remember to breathe.

"Never Forget - unless we want you to buy a new TV, or some other junk you don't need."

These days, It seems to me like Americans are expected to completely forget about what happened on that day, until election time rolls around again. We should have a better perspective on what is really important in life, but most people are still just focused on having more stuff than their neighbors.

[whale392]

To me, until the last breath of my enemy leaves its' body, I will NEVER forget. This current bull**** about 'tolerance' and 'forgiving' that our public officials and talking heads spew is garbage. I will tolerate no more of my dead brothers and sisters, unless it is in the act of ridding filth who commit these sins from the earth (if I offend with these views, too Godd*** bad). Godspeed to our forces and God bring Damnation to our foes.

My question is; when will America, as a whole, shed the blinders of propaganda and see what is REALLY going on? How many more must die to 'tolerate' the infestation that is coming?

[58 Impala]

I'm watching the memorial services. Every time I see those horrific images, I get the same terrible pit in my stomach. I'll never forget that day or all the people who lost their lives.

[imatt88]

I remember and I will never forget

I was at work when the shop foreman came out of the front office and told us that a plane hit the WTC in New York, but had no details, so we flipped on the radio to see what was up, and thats when we found out...

I'm a veteran, and ###### proud of it. I went to Afghanistan to do my part, and I salute everyone still fighting the fight.

RIP to everyone who has paid the ultimate price, at Ground Zero and overseas.....

Make no mistake...they are still watching........

Ian Matthews, SGT, US Army, Ret

OEF 6

Edited September 11, 2011 by imatt88

[niteowl7710]

It's Never Forget, because plenty of people would prefer to just the opposite. Go out and read the comment sections to any news story surrounding the anniversary and you're going to see plenty of wing-nuts out there complaining about everyone making a big deal out of the anniversary, and saying things like "Why can't people just let it go". That doesn't even go into the people who think September 11th was an inside job. I believe Never Forgot was also modified from the Law Enforcement/Fire Fighter Memorial mantra of "Gone, but not forgotten". Which I suppose is appropriate considering how many members of FDNY, NYPD, and PAPD made the ultimate sacrifice that day and are still losing a handful of members each year as the after effects of working in that toxic environment at the Trade Center Site continue to be seen.

Andy are you really saying you wouldn't fly because of what happened on 9/11? If you don't like/want to fly in general, then fine I can respect that opinion, a lot of people, my wife included don't like the idea of flying. However if it's REALLY all about 9/11, you might as well outfit your parent's basement for the long haul then because these people have blown up trains, subways, buses, cars, trucks, and of course that always popular dude walking on the street with a bomb strapped to him.

[h3ae86]

well I definitely can't forget. I guess I was to young to really understand what was going on, and I have to laugh at myself when I think back to that day. My fourth grade year had just started and I had had surgery a few weeks before. I was out of school for a check up to see if everything was healing correctly. We were at the hospital waiting room when all of a sudden everyone was staring at the tv gasping and a few screaming. I didn't understand what was going on so after a while I started getting bored and maybe a little angry. After it all happened they finally called me in and the check up literally took less than five minutes. It was annoying as heck. But today I look back and wonder how I would react if that had happened today. To all those who lost there lives RIP.

[Guest Johnny]

Was outside working on my ElCamino when the wife called from work and said they heard a plane had crashed into one of the Towers. So I went in and turned on the news where they were saying it looked like some kind of an accident but just then the second tower got hit!

A terrible day in our History I will never forget!

Godspeed to all that lost their lives on that day.

[Danny Lectro]

I just saw this video this morning. It's a very personal and moving tribute to those who gave up their lives to save others on that terrible day.

So many people, innocent and heroic, lost their lives on that day. So many families are still dealing with the loss. This is why I can't forget.

http://youtu.be/yfWa9gI-Bks

[Draggon]

I was home, shortly to leave to see the doc. To say this was shocking is an understatement of great magnitude. I found it hard to keep my thoughts focused on my medical issues. When I got to my doc's office, she had the TV on and was not very composed.

I am proudly displaying my flag in front of my house! Unfortunately I am the only one in my neighborhood that does this.

[Darin Bastedo]

I had just gotten off of third shift at Kinkos, and headed over to a small diner across the street for breakfast. As usual they had CNN on the TV with the sound turned down low. All of a sudden I saw the image of the WTC on fire. Knowing people in that building I asked the waitress to turn it up. They were saying a "small plane" had hit the world trade center, but having been in the building many times I knew the sheer size of the building and could tell from the size of the hole it wasn't a smal plane. I told the guy sitting next to me that it had to have been a Jumbo Jet, to which he responded, "How could a Jumbo Jet hit the WTC on a clear day and so far outside their flight path?" I said I didn't know but I knew the hole in the tower was way bigger than a small craft could make.

We sat and watched and it wasn't long before the second plane hit, and we knew it was no accident. I finished my meal and went back to work to let my co-workers know what was happening, and then went home to watch the events unfold. I never expected the towers to collapse or to see the people jumping to their deaths. I lost several close friends that day, while others were spared. The following days were filled with a combination of horror, dread and relief as it was sorted out who survived and who didn't My 16 year old daughter doesn't fully comprehend the events of that day, and in a way I'm glad. My hope is that she never has to feel that way ever.

Never Forget? I would like to be able to, but I never will. I wish that even ten years later, those same feeling didn't come back just as vividly as they did that morning. I had hoped that the killing of Osama Bin Ladin would have eased the pain and given some closure, but he was just a man. The ideologies and climate, that allowed someone to believe that an act like this is justified are still out there. I pray that someday we, The human race, can rise above the use of violence and avoid incidents like 9/11 in the future. will it happen? no probably not. but Hope is what keeps us going in times like this.

[BKcustoms]

I was only 4 at the time, but i still remember trying to figure out what exactly had happened and why someone would do such a terrible thing . God Bless all who were lost and their families.

[Wayne Buck]

I'll never EVER forget that horrible day. I was 19 years old at the time.

I was at work (Marty Sussman BMW in Pleasantville, NJ) and was on my way up front to speak with my service writer. On the way there, I was passing the customer lounge and happened to notice the first tower on TV with smoke pouring out of the side. I stopped to check it out (It was probably a minute or so after the first plane had hit) and they were saying it was a small personal aircraft or something. I thought to myself "Wow, how the h*ll did that happen??" and continued back to work.

About 10-20 minutes later, I noticed just about everyone at the dealership was crowded around the television up front. I then learned what really happened and my heart sunk lower than I've ever experienced in my life. It bothered me so much thinking about all of the innocent people, that I couldn't catch even one minute of sleep that night. I had to call out the next day because I was too tired to go in (and still really shook up).

My most sincere prayers and condolences go out to all who were involved, both directly and indirectly.

[Ben]

I had stayed home from work that day as I was not feeling well. At the time, I didn't have a regular computer, I had WebTV. It was similar to a computer but utilized my TV as the monitor. I was chatting with a girl on the WebTV and all of a sudden she said "OMG are you seeing what is happening in New York???" I clicked from computer mode to TV mode and saw what was happening right before the second plane hit the towers. It didn't seem real. It's still so hard to comprehend!

[DanielG]

I was still dozing in bed when my wife came in and said that 'Someone has just declared war on the United States!' As a Canadian I don't think that I have the right to make further comment except to say that over sixty cars were never picked up at Uncle Norm's offices in Newark.

[Mr. Moparman]

Never Forget 9/11/01

[Art Anderson]

I remember.....

Waking up to bright sunlight streaming in my front window, clear blue Indiana sky outside.......fixing a Diet Coke (my principal source of caffiene).....logging the puter on to AOL (Dialup days still)......seeing the news flash about "a commuter plane" crashing into one of the WTC towers....nothing more......took a shower......walked down the street to get a haircut........barber had the TV on--CNN showing first tower burning..........news flash about an explosion being reported at the Pentagon......news anchors still trying to sort things out, trying to make some sense of what was happening before our very eyes.....paid the barber....walked across the street to the liquor store for a pack of smokes....got in car, radio on, news all over the place, but still not sorted it all out yet.....wrestled with my 1/5 mile commute across downtown Lafayette (why can't they get the olf RR crossings pulled up when I don't have to be held up with all the traffic jam!......becoming aware, as I drove the Levee Area in West Lafayette, waiting interminably at the stoplight there.....wondering WHY I was seeing a solid stream of airplanes coming into Purdue University Airport....WAIT, Notre Dame football game isn't till Saturday, this is only Tuesday!......shocked at seeing a Boeing 747 coming in off to my left, gear down--yeah, Purdue does have a runway big enough....mixed with everything from Cessna's, biz jets--plane after plane after plane.....walking into Purdue Memorial Union Building, my mind on the day ahead--did our food and bread deliveries come, were my openers ready to do battle with the day?.......standing back in the loading dock, when someone came rushing in from the TV lounge crying that one of the Towers had collapsed....I'm saying "What? the top few floors?......."No, the whole tower is gone, all the way to the ground!"........walking up to the lounge, just in time to see the video of the second plane hitting the second tower (Wait a minute? Since when did Irwin Allen make another "Towering Inferno/Airport" disaster film--so surreal........Becoming aware that I was surrounded by almost a hundred international students (the University had nearly 5000 students from countries all over the world......seeing the absolute horror, the real terror in their eyes--they were in my country, this is the USA, where things are safe! Right?........somehow navigating through the lunch hour, not many were interested in getting much to eat.......around 3pm, seeing a US Army Reserve fuel tanker going by on the street out front, with police escort--what was going on? (later finding that it was jet fuel, trucked in from Grissom Reserve AFB, up at Peru IN.......consoling a pair of international student employees at Pappy's Sweet Shop there, brother and sister, really cool kids, from Jordan, she in tears, of fear, sorrow, terror.......stopping each and every one of my international student employees coming in to work, urging them to call their families back home as soon as possible, let them know they were safe here.......assuring a muslim student that I held no grudge against him or any others of his faith.....by then hearing that Al Queda was responsible for all this tragic day.......finally, about 7pm, walking out into the clear air, sun lower in the west....suddenly realizing that this was a classroom day--where were all the student pilots (Purdue is where the Hero of the Hudson, Chesley Sullenberger, learned to fly) doing their afternoon "touch & go's"?....oh that's right, the FAA and Military closed all US Airspace to anything other than military flights..........and almost at that realization, the thunder of a pair of F-15's over my head, landing at Purdue to refuel, perhaps grab a quick sandwich or something....then about 40 minutes later, the roar of their afterburners as they took off once more, back to patrolling the skies over NW Indiana.........watching, barely tasting a sandwich, watching the news, as stories flooded in, not only from New York City, Washington, and rural Pennsylvania AND from the capitals of countries all around the World....still trying to make some sense of it all, the how, the why of it all.

The rest of that week is simply a blur.....until Friday, September 14, when at 10am, President Jischke stood up in front of nearly 6000 in Elliott Hall of Music (I was watching, with a couple thousand more, there in the Union Building, closed circuit TV tuned in ALL OVER CAMPUS--it seemed as though every one of the nearly 40,000 students, their professors, teaching assistants, professional/clerical/service staff); the entire campus fell silent as we watched a moving, emotional memorial service for all those whom we knew by then would never again walk through their front doors to spouse and family again.......being moved to uncontrollable tears hearing the University orchestra and all the vocal groups at Purdue, lead the entire campus in a heartfelt, very emotional Star Spangled Banner.......and wondering, as I excused myself to go out into the courtyard to pull my thoughts back together again, if the World I had come to know would EVER recover, yet knowing that it would, but it would never again be the same.

As a child in the 50's, I grew used to adults relating where they were, what they were doing, on the afternoon of Sunday December 7, 1941 as the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor flooded all over them.....and somewhere that weekend, it dawned on me, this was my generation's (and all those old enough to be aware) "Pearl Harbor", a week that forever will mark all of us who lived through that, regardless of our being 989 miles WSW of the Island of Manhattan, in that place called New York City. In many ways, I think we all became "citizens of New York City' on 9/11/01, but what a sad honor that was then, and still is.

New York City, Pentagon, Flight 93, you will never be forgotten! But in the end, it became clear to me that all would be well, God was still in heaven. That weekend, young country music sensation Billy Gilman appeared (as previously scheduled) on Larry King Live--his song that night? "God is alive and well".

Thinking of all my friends in New York and the Pentagon who lived through that day, and thinking of all who perished, and of course, all those left behind.......

Arthur Anderson

[kitbash1]

I was at work and had just got back to my cubical from a production meeting and was looking forward to getting out of work at noon as my wife and I were going out that night for our 20th wedding anniversary. I had Howard Stern on my radio, and was listening to his commentary on what was going on. We all went down to the board room to watch the events on TV, and could not belive it when the towers fell. The trip back home on the GO train was surreal, we pulled into Union Station, and watched as heavely armed police and troops patroled the platforms. Needless to say, we didn't go out that night and we realy don't mark our anniversary much any more.