Where were you on September 11, 2001?

canuck_pa

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Just waking up to get ready for work. Clock radio came on and the reports were talking about a plane hitting the world trade centre. I thought it had to be a very bad joke.

I will never forget that morning or the days following.

Just like I'll never forget where I was when I heard JFK had been shot. Grade 7, waking home for lunch. A friend ran out of his house as we passed to tell us. I ran home and found my mother crying.
 

jason_els

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When the USA dropped a bomb on Hiroshima and Nagisaki, did any of the jubilant victors think of the victims or was there main thought the war is over at last.

Of course we were thinking of victims! The victims of Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Pelelieu, Bataan, Okinawa, Nanking, Manchuria, Korea, and countless other small battles. The general population weren't thinking of the allied soldiers in Manchuria who were stipped naked, nearly froze to death in sub-zero cold, gassed, and then dissected alive with no anesthesia because our government thought it might make us really hate the Japanese.

You're welcome to venture that far back in history however if you're going to use it as a guideline for American character as it exists today, I certainly can't hesitate to point out that without Americans, Netherlanders would all be singing Deutschland Uber Alles about now.

Truman agonized for quite a while about whether to use nuclear weapons on Japan because of the innocent lives that would be lost. In the end he decided that his oath of office held him responsible for saving the estimated half million Americans who would likely die invading the Japanese mainland.
 

burns1de

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You're welcome to venture that far back in history however if you're going to use it as a guideline for American character as it exists today, I certainly can't hesitate to point out that without Americans, Netherlanders would all be singing Deutschland Uber Alles about now.

Sigh... actually, we Canadians did most of the job in the Netherlands, thank you very much. That being said, victory in Holland and the rest of Europe was an ALLIED one- any missing parts, whether it would have been American forces, British SASes, Canadian infantry, Polish resistance fighters or whatever could have probably turned the tide of the war in favour of the Third Reich.
 

jason_els

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Sigh... actually, we Canadians did most of the job in the Netherlands, thank you very much. That being said, victory in Holland and the rest of Europe was an ALLIED one- any missing parts, whether it would have been American forces, British SASes, Canadian infantry, Polish resistance fighters or whatever could have probably turned the tide of the war in favour of the Third Reich.

Well, we tried :biggrin1:. If the Brits had bothered to show-up on time we may have held on. Still, with no offense meant, it was American manufacturing, materiel, and support that allowed any Allied action at all. I truly believe, however, that we were just lucky. Had it not been for the USSR's effective defense and counter offensive against Germany, the western allies would not have had the time they so desperately needed to consolidate and mount Overlord. Dear God did the USSR ever pay for it too.
 

SpeedoGuy

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I gotta say it because its bothering me although I'm concerned that what I have to say won't be well received:

I'm wondering if the USA isn't going overboard with the annual 9/11 anniversary flashbacks and memorials.

Don't get me wrong. 9/11 was a shocking tragedy that no American should forget. But I'm beginning to think we'd be better served as a nation by reserved, stoic remembrances of the fallen rather than the annual flag-waving-yellow-ribbon-twin-towers-t-shirt-bomb-the-shit-out-of-bin-Laden-bombast-pep-rallies we seem to be subject to every September. I fear that 9/11 is being trivialized into just another meaningless, commercialized annual ritual as many national holidays have become.

Other nations have endured worse atrocities and memorialized them with reserved dignity and respect. I'm puzzled why we Americans seem to want to annually re-immerse ourselves in the awful chaos of that day.
 

burns1de

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I'm puzzled why we Americans seem to want to annually re-immerse ourselves in the awful chaos of that day.

I would say it's because remembrance of such a dramatic event, coupled with heavy government propaganda, keeps your fear levels high. A society in a perpetual state of anxiety is a society that is easy to control. Dissent becomes treason, truth becomes propaganda.

Wake up, people.
 

jason_els

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:bling1: "burns1de speaks the truth." - orbital

I agree completely.

The other component is that we don't have closure. bin Laden and al Zawahiri are still at large much to the fury of Americans. Yet another reason to despise that hewkd awn fawniks president of ours.
 

Elmer Gantry

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I would say it's because remembrance of such a dramatic event, coupled with heavy government propaganda, keeps your fear levels high. A society in a perpetual state of anxiety is a society that is easy to control. Dissent becomes treason, truth becomes propaganda.

Wake up, people.

Testify, brother!!
 

ClaireTalon

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9/11/01 started like most of my other duty days. Got up at 0530, the usual morning exercises, off to our crew room at 0700 for some of the morning business and killing time with my crew. I had no flight scheduled until the afternoon. However, we were put on alert shortly after the first crash, just before 0900, due to an hijack warning from Boston ATC (referring to AA-11), which had taken its time up and down the command line. While still in the pre-flight briefing, the message of Flight 11 having hit one of the WTC towers arrived through the news. The news of the second crash (UA-175) came in while we were lining up for take-off, and while the first crash report was still believed to be related to the hijack, but not an deliberate act, the second made it clear. Our task would be providing aerial refuelling to the F-15 and F-16 which had been scrambled in over the NYC airspace by then, the high-speed approaches would have used up a lot of their (increased) fuel reserve, but later were re-routed to take position to cover both areas, NYC and Washington.

I remember that beside that, a lot of things went haywire for the next four hours. We had been updated on the hijack reports, and in addition to the planes which had really been hijacked, I counted about 20 erroneous additional hijack reports. The crashes at the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania in the end, seemed to be like postludes, ludicrous in a macaber way, like when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse.

We did not return to our base until the late night for a crew change, and after landing, I remember giving every radio or TV a wide berth (which was hard). I returned to my BOQ room and slept fitfully for 10 hours, longer than usual after every other flight I had piloted before. Until then, I found it hard to believe what is being said about stressful situations, that you don't notice how much they affect you, but I guess that day had taken it's toll on me (too). As for me, it was probably the worst day of my career, which had included turns to Libya, Iraq (Pt. I & II), Afghanistan and Bosnia (the 99 tour). None of these had been as exciting, but ultimately emotionally draining as 9/11/01. It still makes my hands go cold as I type this, and sends the shivers up and down my spine.
 

earllogjam

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I gotta say it because its bothering me although I'm concerned that what I have to say won't be well received:

I'm wondering if the USA isn't going overboard with the annual 9/11 anniversary flashbacks and memorials.

SpeedoGuy, viewing the news on TV I agree with you that this event seems to get too much attention than it really needs. The reporting of the memorials and vigils are good but seeing rerun after rerun of the plane crashes is pure sensationalism and serves no useful purpose other than getting ratings. It would be interesting to see the media response to the Madrid and London bombing anniversaries in their respective countries.

I have a feeling that it will just be a matter of time before the 9/11 attacks become something akin to the Pearl Harbor bombings to us. In three or four years it will become a less and less important in our collective memory and become just a date that something bad happened, often mentioned only in passing. Contrary to what a few have said here, I do not think that the overblown anniversary rememberance of the event is some government conspiracy to keep the event alive for political or pubic opinion reasons regarding the war or for getting more recruits for the Army - it is just good for ratings especially on a slow news month. This anniversary stuff will get old - people, especially in this country, have a very short memory, and even shorter attention span.
 

Aitch

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Sat at work here in the UK, alongside my colleague whose son worked in a building over the road from the World Trade Centre. Everyone was just riveted to the internet (till it went down) and we all felt awful for our colleague. Luckily, her son was okay but it was a fraught time...
 

Dave NoCal

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I was getting ready to teach a graduate level class. At first, I thought it was an accident and went on to class and got there a bit early. As students arrived, they had news of the second airplane and that settled the possibility that it was an accident. We tried to have class but couldn't and I let the students go.
I went home to my house in the flight path of a major airport and it was strange to have it all be silent. My partner was also sent home early. At the time it was speculated that as many as 30,000 people had died and the enormity of that just blew me away.
 

Andro Man

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You're welcome to venture that far back in history however if you're going to use it as a guideline for American character as it exists today, I certainly can't hesitate to point out that without Americans, Netherlanders would all be singing Deutschland Uber Alles about now..

There's nothing wrong with the national anthem, in fact I prefer it to the Dutch one. Haydn had some fine music.

Anyways....you should turn it around. If it wasn't for Germany the USA wouldn't be the superpower it is today. Maybe that's why the likes of Prescott Bush supported him to power, paid for his SA and stuff and provided general financial aid to Hitler.

Thanks to the third Reich, grandson Bush is in power of the fourth Reich. And US products are everywhere and US main rival UK has turned into a US puppet state from a worldpower with an empire that encompassed a large part of the world
 

Jeffin90620

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The Friday before, I finished a design project that had consumed my life for the previous 10 months (10-16 hours per day, 6-7 days a week)and had just started a 3 month sabbatical (fortunate timing, as there was a massive layoff at work while I was gone), so I was sleeping in every day.


I awoke and turned on the TV to my favorite morning show to see the aftermath of the first plane hit. I looked and there were several messages on my answering machine (I turn the ringer off while I sleep), two of which were from a friend who worked at LAX who wanted to know what I was seeing on the news and if there was any truth to the rumor that a plane was below the radar and flying towards DC.

I saw the second plane hit as it happened. Spent the rest of the day watching TV.
 

Whopper-lee

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I pretty sure that everyone remembers where they were when this happened.
********************************************************
....as much as I hate to remember the day.... if my memory serves me right it was on a Tues during the AM to noon hr of that day.
I was at work when one of the guys at work came in and said... Have you heard, NY has just been bombed...I think we're in war!
Everybody just stopped and looked at him like he was crazy...but really in shock.:eek:
Our boss confirmed it, and told all of us to make our home. He was closing down the business for the day or until further notice!
It was a shock & disbelief about the bombings and the aftermats that has followed.
And exactly six yrs on this very day of Tues. "Partriot Day" in the US, it's still hard to believe and accept...and it's disruption(s) still aint over!
Gives the USA something to think about our real safety as a country.