# 8 Years ago today



## CharlieCooper (Sep 11, 2009)

I thought it would be nice if we had a place to remember all those that were victims of the terrible attacks that happened exactly 8 years ago today. I don't mean to offend anybody by starting this thread, it is certainly not a place for debate, but just somewhere we can share our thoughts and memories.

I was still at school when we found out what had happened and we were sent home early I seem to recall. I watched the TV with my mum who barely believed me when I said what was happening (she was unaware until this point). I think that was the first time I actually truly felt the pain of death and understood the situation. Before then for some reason it hadn't hit me quite as hard. The following day we returned to school as normal and there were several others who had lost somebody they knew. One girl who I was reasonably close to at the time lost her father in one of the towers although at this point wasn't certain exactly what had happened to him.

Every year I remember this day vividly, and I can only imagine what it must have been like for those directly involved. My thoughts are with anybody who will find today particularly difficult.


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## Novriil (Sep 11, 2009)

I was so young that all I remember is seeing a newspaper later where the picture was in the frontpage and all the background was black.


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## IamWEB (Sep 11, 2009)

I was in the 2nd grade, and of course it was pretty early in the day. The principal made an announcement for all teachers to turn to a certain channel, and the school was broadcasting live footage.
All I remember is seeing smoke coming out of one tower, and wondering 'what is this?.' We were quickly informed that those were the towers being attacked.
I still remember watching one of the planes fly into the building, after all of these years and being so young...

We were not released from school early, but I think a few more announcements were made throughout the day and regular activities may have change, I don't remember that as much.

When we (sibling and myself) got home we just watched coverage all evening long, several phone calls etc.

I didn't lose anyone as far as I know, but it was tragic enough.


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## stevethecuber (Sep 11, 2009)

rip


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## Hakan (Sep 11, 2009)

I also remember the day it happened. I was 11 years old at the time and I was playing a board game with a buddy at his house. As we played, his parents turned on the TV and we all saw the horrible act that no one will forget. A couple days passed and people knew more about it. As an 11-year-old, I didn't quite understand why it had happened. I just knew someone did something terribly wrong and, a lot of people had died because of it. I was confused.

Now that I have a greater insight in the whole situation, I understand that it's one of the saddest moments in history, leaving a never healing scar on people who've lost their loved ones. Dealing with death is hard, and my condoleances to anybody who has lost someone on that tragic day.

"Hatred can be overcome only by love."
-Mahatma Ghandi


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## DAE_JA_VOO (Sep 11, 2009)

Bleh. I feel TERRIBLY sorry for everyone who was affected, but I can't wait for the day the truth comes out.


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## phases (Sep 11, 2009)

I was in the Army at the time (3-320 FO with 1-187 Inf, 101st Airborne Div), at a friends house after PT waiting for time to go back to work. We were watching it on the news, thought it was an accident, then the second plane came in. We said "holy crap."

Went into work and of course that was the topic of the day, had a couple briefings, and deployed.. I don't remember how soon after.. but pretty darn soon. I think November. Came home for a bit, deployed again to Iraq. Came home, and ETS'd out of the Army. It was just too hard on my wife. She still to this very day has regular - scary - panic attacks and huge anxiety issues that all started during my first deployment. And to be honest, the Army life just wasn't for me. (The deployments believe it or not - as crazy as they were - aren't really what bothered me (aside from how bad they were on my family life, of course). It was just the day to day Army-life back at home that I hated.)

No one in our immediate family even knew anyone that had lost someone (close) in the towers. However from those deployments a number of my coworkers (...), and a couple friends were either killed or seriously injured, and my wife's friend/coworker's husband was killed. We will be keeping their families in our thoughts today.

As the OP said, this isn't a thread for debate about the whole thing and I most certainly do NOT want to get into one (and won't) - but I will say this: I didn't know how I felt about OEF/OIF back then, and still don't today. You'd think I'd have a concrete feeling on the whole thing by now, wouldn't you? But, I don't. We never talk about it because of the mixed feelings we both have. Neither of us like to at all, and don't - other than the occasional forum post like this.

But, it's important to remember those who have died both in the Towers and in the aftermath, so thank you for making this thread.


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## Twofu2 (Sep 11, 2009)

Well, I was in 1st grade i think. I don't really remember anything, just people running away and smoke everywhere


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## SlaughterMelon (Sep 11, 2009)

I was in 4th grade when it happened, and my teachers (2 of them, taught 4,5,6, the best teachers I've ever had) kept the radio on all day. I didn't know about it until I got to school, because my mom taught at the school (K), and we had left early that day.


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## Edmund (Sep 11, 2009)

My school didn't tell us probably because they didn't want to upset 2nd graders (I think thats the great I was in). But I remember parents just randomly picking up their kids. I was wondering why do they get to leave. By the end of the day there were like 5 kids left in the class. We didn't have any work so I remember it being sort of fun (I know that seems evil but I didn't know what was happening and I was really young.) When I got home though my dad had came back from work early and my whole family was watching the news. Then I found out what had happened. 

Something thats pretty cool: My best friend's uncle was supposed to be on one of the planes but he overslept and couldn't make it.


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## FrankMorris (Sep 11, 2009)

I was at work early that morning and walked through the lobby where there was a tv. There were two guest watching and said "the tower just got hit by a plane", and I remember thinking to myself, " wow, what a crappy pilot". I walked back to my office, and then by the time I came back just a few minutes later, there were maybe 30 people crammed around the tv talking about how the next plane had hit and that it was a terrorist attack. I felt awful for my original thought, and then it hit me that my mom was traveling back in that area and we had no way of knowing if she was ok or not. 

Such a terrible tragedy, and my heart goes out to those who lost.


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## ben1996123 (Sep 11, 2009)

DAMN YOU OSAMA BIN LADEN!!!!!

No, seriously, I was in year 1 at the time, and they never said anything to us, because they probably didn't want anyone to know, and year 1's probably wouldn't fully understand what had happened.


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## rachmaninovian (Sep 11, 2009)

i was shocked at that time...

i remembered cursing osama and co in my journals...XD


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## LNZ (Sep 11, 2009)

Experts advise no children under 8 or so should see such distressing events without someone telling them in kid friendly terms what is happening. People 8 and under generally cannot tell the differece between fantasy and reality and ifte same thing is being repeated over and over again, such people think the event is happening over an over again. 

Back to me. The first tower was hit at 22:16 SA local time on 11/09/2001. The second tower was hit on 22:36 SA local time on 11/09/2001. I watched only about 5 hours of coverage in 3 days. It got really boring and repeatitive after just 1 hour.

Man is a two sided creature. Capable of great good (like man on the moon) and of great evil (holocaust, etc). We do not know in the very long term which side of man will prevail. It could go either way.

We all hope man's good side wins in the very long term, but given the state of the world right now, we can't even be sure of that........

At the very start of Episode 13 of Carl Sagan's Cosmos "Who Speaks For Earth" this appears:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed.

At the end of the same Episode 13 of Cosmos, but on DVD (relased in 2000), he says something like this:

We can use our technology and wisdom to send us to the stars or self destruct in madness and erase our presence in the Cosmos forever! That choice is up to you!


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## GermanCube (Sep 11, 2009)

I still remember how I got to know about this:

At that time I was 9 years old. My best friend was at my house and we were playing around and watching TV. We switched around and saw this plane hitting the first tower. We thought: "What a crappy action movie!" and went to the next channel, same picture. 
After a few moments we realised, something really terrible has happend.
Later that day my mom got home and my teacher called her (on the phone). She was very upset and kind of scared as I remember, like WW3 was going to come. It was a bit strange, but I probably wasn't old enough to understand.

Next day in school some kids were playing with model planes hitting model towers - I guess thats how young people try to deal with the situation . . .​


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## 04mucklowd (Sep 11, 2009)

I was in year 4 and my mom was driving me home from school and she said that a plaane has hit the WTC. I didnt know what that was.
And when I got home I remember that there was a huge collom of smoke coming out of the centre of new york.

Also it is my aunts birthday on the 11 september, I dont like her so it is a sad day for both reasons


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## shelley (Sep 11, 2009)

I was in 11th grade at the time and taking classes at the University of North Texas. On the way to the first class that morning, I heard rumors going around that the twin towers and the Pentagon had been hit by airplanes and that one of the towers had already collapsed. It seemed so far out that I thought it was a hoax at first. My calculus teacher had some more information though, and we talked about it a bit before he dismissed class early. All classes were cancelled for the rest of the day and we spent the time watching the news on the TVs in the dorm lounge. It was a very surreal, very somber day. I remember feeling for a few days afterward that after the events of that Tuesday, nothing else seemed to matter.


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## Kian (Sep 11, 2009)

I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember what I saw and how I felt as vividly as almost any day of my life.

I was in 10th grade at high school in New Jersey, about 30 miles from Ground Zero. I was waiting to get my picture taken for my school ID when I heard two girls discussing something about a plane hitting the twin towers. Thinking it was a small plane and, of course, an accident, I didn't react much, but I was anxious to find out what happened. 

Then there was an announcement that students who had family that worked in New York City (which would probably be almost half of the students in my school) to leave class immediately and come to the library where they would attempt to contact their parents.

Most stayed there til school closed because they were unable to contact them that day. Many of them never did again.

From there, our gym teacher made an announcement about what was going on, described President Bush's speech and what he had seen on news outlets.

The rest of the day was shrouded in mystery because I only saw glimpses of tv between class, as teachers were supposed to try to teach, but they couldn't. Nobody could think of anything, it was numb. It was the most surreal day of my life.

After school, I walked home. It was reflective, long walk, and when I got home I called my father to let him know I was home. We didn't say many words, all he said was, "it's just, it's just terrible." Then I just sat in my basement and watched CNN till bed. Homework could wait.

I've never seen anything like that day, and I hope never to see it again. I imagine my locale to NYC made it a little different than other places of the world. I felt like I had been attacked. 

And so, it was the saddest day in our nation's history. But the days, weeks and months following were probably the strongest. We were united in our support of the heroes who saved lives that day and our reflective, yet persevering spirit. The most awful day in American history brought out the best in our people.

Never, ever forget. May God bless them all. 

_Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: For thou art with me_


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## Ethan Rosen (Sep 11, 2009)

I was in 4th grade at the time. I live in a suburb of NYC, and a large percentage of the adults in my town work in NYC (including my dad and grandparents), many worked in the WTC.

I remember a few kids who were just randomly taken out of school, but at the time I thought nothing of it. My gym teachers randomly showed up in the classroom to give a "presentation." They told us in very vague terms what had happened, three airplanes (I don't think anyone know about Flight 93 yet) had crashed, two in the World Trade Center and one in the pentagon. At the time I was under the impression that three planes collided in the air, and had landed in the buildings. I don't think this was entirely due to me being naive, I do think it was because of the words that they used. A few people did seem to get it. One boy whose Dad worked in the WTC asked "is this something you tell the fourth graders every year?" Nobody truly seemed aware of what was happening. It wasn't until I saw TV coverage a bit later until I even started to understand the magnitude of what had happened. I remember thinking to myself that the Yankee game that night would probably be canceled, and it was right about then that I started to realize how serious this was. I personally didn't know anyone who died, but I know quite a few people who lost loved ones that day.

My dad was taking the train into work that day as always. He describes seeing smoke pouring out of the city as the train pulled in. Cell Phones were not very big back then, but the cellphones that people had weren't working due to what had happened to the the towers. There were rumors on the train that the buildings had fallen, and according to my dad, Grand Central that day was the single weirdest sight he had ever experienced. It was just people standing and wandering, nobody quite sure of where they were going, but nobody wanting to be there. I remember my dad didn't get home until very late that night because there was simply no way out of the city. 

RIP to the thousands who lost everything that day, and a special RIP to the firefighters and the members of the NYPD who gave everything trying to save whoever they could. RIP to the passengers of Flight 93 who saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives and the morale of this nation fighting back.


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## piemaster (Sep 11, 2009)

Well, at least the passengers on the fourth plane fought off the hijackers, it would have it the white house I think?


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## TEGTaylor (Sep 12, 2009)

well I remember vaguely, all my school said was that there was a terrible fire and that we were unsure, but they thought it was an accident, when I got home all I remember is like tv's on for like 3 days straight. One of the people in my class was in PA when it happened, and they had a lock-down, and went home early, they were less then 25 miles from where the fourth plane crashed, also i here stories at school about people who used to go to my school who died on that day. I think the fourth plane was headed for the capital but Im unsure, at least they saved lots of peoples lives, where ever they were, by fighting off the terrorists


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## imaghost (Sep 12, 2009)

I was about to leave for my grandfather's funeral... weird huh


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## jdouglasusn (Sep 12, 2009)

I was on board the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy (underway testing on the ship for deployment) I was working when my supervisor came flying in work center yelling, "Hey a commercial jet hit the world trade center"....."wtf?" I thought. I went to go see for myself. I was sitting there wondering how this accident happened (since I work on jets) .....then the 2nd jet collided on live TV. I remember being in shock...and just looked at my supervisor, and said "you know we are about to go through right?" He glanced and at me for a second, then had a "oh dear god" look. Deployment was really really hectic. My prayers to the family and loved ones lost. For everyone else never, ever forget this day. Today, 8 years ago, we were terrorized in our own BACKYARD, that is why we are over there now. Everyone have a good day 

AT2 (AW) Douglas, John W 
U.S. Navy


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## sub_zero1983 (Sep 12, 2009)

I was asleep when the first jet hit. My mom woke me up and told me what happened. When I looked at the T.V. the second jet had just hit. I made up my mind right then that I want to do my part against terrorism. So I enlisted in the military....and went to war.All I can say is if Bin Laden is still alive.....he can run but he can t hide...atleast not forever.


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## Twofu2 (Sep 12, 2009)

This is really sad. I was only so young so the full magnitude of the situatition didn't hit me. I think George W. Bush made a holiday or something to remember this events.


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## Feanaro (Sep 12, 2009)

What I saw on the TV that day was the only thing that really ever sickened me. There was a live shot of a person jumping out of one of the towers, and the camera followed him down until his body was obscured by a building. The people who were stuck at the top had two choices, burn alive, or jump. I just can't ever imagine what I would do in that position.


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## jdouglasusn (Sep 12, 2009)

sub_zero1983 said:


> I was asleep when the first jet hit. My mom woke me up and told me what happened. When I looked at the T.V. the second jet had just hit. I made up my mind right then that I want to do my part against terrorism. So I enlisted in the military....and went to war.All I can say is if Bin Laden is still alive.....he can run but he can t hide...atleast not forever.



What branch are you in?


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## sub_zero1983 (Sep 12, 2009)

jdouglasusn said:


> sub_zero1983 said:
> 
> 
> > I was asleep when the first jet hit. My mom woke me up and told me what happened. When I looked at the T.V. the second jet had just hit. I made up my mind right then that I want to do my part against terrorism. So I enlisted in the military....and went to war.All I can say is if Bin Laden is still alive.....he can run but he can t hide...atleast not forever.
> ...




Army


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## jdouglasusn (Sep 12, 2009)

sub_zero1983 said:


> jdouglasusn said:
> 
> 
> > sub_zero1983 said:
> ...



good to hear, I appreciate everything you guys (Army/Marines/Air Force/Navy) do out there, keep it up. That is what this country is all about


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