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2 registered members (Ngaire, 1 invisible),
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 Where were you on 9/11?
#253663
09/11/20 04:06 PM
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,512
Ms Understood
OP
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OP
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,512 |
Never forget.
It’s been 19 years since that awful day. We were in Skagway Alaska on our very first cruise. We were not able to get home for several days because of the airport closures. Where were you?
———————
Helen
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253664
09/11/20 04:24 PM
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 6,352
Marc
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I was in McLean, VA about five miles from the Pentagon (as the crow flies). Didn't know anything had happened until Arlene was finally able to get through on my cell phone. Then watched it from the conference room in the office rest of day. At that time I was living in Orlando and flying to DC (National Airport) every week, up on Monday and back on Thursday. Wednesday morning getting onto Ft Belvoir was a zoo. Obviously my Thursday flight out of DCA was cancelled; however, I was able to get first flight out of Dulles Thursday evening so I didn't need to drive a rental car all the way back to Florida.
DCA was closed for three months so I used Dulles. After that, there were so many restrictions (such as all hand luggage being searched in ATL) on DCA flights that commuting became difficult. I moved from Ft Beloir to Navy Annex March 2002 so had a good perspective on Pentagon damage as it was repaired.
One good thing (for Arlene and me) that came out of 9/11 was that we realized that life was short and we needed to live it. June 2002 was our first European vacation and December 2002 was our first Radisson cruise; have not looked back since. This last six months has been very hard to endure.
Marc
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253665
09/11/20 05:32 PM
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,991
pwolftx
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I was working on a project at the University of Washington hospital in Seattle. My youngest son, who is a Navy officer, was stationed at the Pentagon on 9/11, so needless to say I was in a panic until I could find out he was OK.
Peggy
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253666
09/11/20 05:43 PM
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,217
RachelG
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,217 |
Never forget.
It’s been 19 years since that awful day. We were in Skagway Alaska on our very first cruise. We were not able to get home for several days because of the airport closures. Where were you?
———————
Helen I remember you and Jerry telling us about that experience. I was driving between the hospital and my old office when the first news came on that a "small" plane had hit the world trade center. I remember thinking what an idiot that pilot was. Fast forward 5 years to 9/11. My oldest son, who was supposed to leave for Marine bootcamp in November, called me as I was scrubbing out of surgery to tell me he had to leave in 5 hours. I cancelled the rest of the day, rushed home while calling everyone I could think of who would want to tell him goodbye before he left, baked his favorite blackberry cobbler, and sent him off to MCRD.
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253667
09/11/20 07:23 PM
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 8,923
Ngaire
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Joined: Mar 2004
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Ken and I had group booked in Europe on the Diamond leaving on in about 3 - 4 days. Some of our clients were already in Barcelona. Most cancelled but some tried to get there and we have had 20 I think that made it. We managed to fly out and it was weird the airport was empty. Had our passports checked multiple times including when we were on the plane before we took off. The pilot gunned the plane, then pulled back and then gunned it again. I think the order came down to close the airports again during our take off and the tower said GO. Only explanation we could think of as the airports did shut down right after that.
What struck me was how wonderful everyone in the European countries we visited were to Americans. Signs in the window "if you are an American you can call home from here on us" Several times people hugged us in compassion.
This day NEXT YEAR is the BOOTS PARTY.
I hated that it was September 11th but that was the ONLY POSSIBLE time we could do the function in 2021 based on the cruise plans of all the people who normally come and our staff schedules. As it was I had to cancel the hosting on the Voyager, September 13, 2021 Greek Island cruise. 365 days in the year and this was the date that worked.
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253668
09/11/20 10:25 PM
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 10,084
petlover
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Tom & I were up early planning to pack for our early morning flight the next day to Maui. I turned on the TODAY show and heard it first from Katie Couric.
Minutes later, my sister called sobbing. My nephew lived in NYC and worked on an upper floor in the World Trade Center. Three hours later my nephew called her. He had not gone to work that day. It was the first day he had ever missed work. He was in his NYC apartment and had slept in. We all cried knowing he was alive.
Tom & I flew to Maui early morning the day LAX reopened There were only 5 of us on the flight and we all got upgraded to 1st class. Once there we were glued to the TV like all Americans.
Marcie 
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253669
09/12/20 12:23 AM
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 256
S&K
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 256 |
Ken and I were sitting in our motor home in a pretty camp site in Surrey England eagerly anticipating a short holiday with our daughter who was flying from Australia to NY that day for a conference then onto England to meet up with us.
We received a call from her telling us the terrible news. All we wanted then was to get back to Australia and feel safe. Thankfully Singapore airlines changed our award flights with no problems and we left as soon as we could. The mood at LHR and on the flight was very sombre.
Sheila and Ken
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253670
09/12/20 02:01 AM
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,569
Mrs. Marc
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I was working in Orlando. A co worker heard the news On her way to work and came in sobbing. I called Marc In D C. I had hurt my ankle the day before and Had gotten a nine o’clock doctor appointment, so I was in the car when I heard the second one had hit the WTC. Got to the dr, and was in a room of course by myself and no radio or TV. Every time some one came in they would give me tidbits about what they were hearing. First about the Pentagon, the 15 min later about Pennsylvania. Then 20 min later they were evacuating the White House. It was the most bizarre thing to hear the news extraordinary things piecemeal with no TV or radio.
Arlene
Adventure before Dementia!
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253671
09/12/20 04:49 AM
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,512
Ms Understood
OP
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Posts: 1,512 |
We had the little cruise ship TV and periodic updates from the Captain. In the little towns we were in, people were all gathered around TVs in the shops and bars.
The area around the WTC was my neighborhood. Before I moved to California I had worked for years in the area around the towers. I was frantic to get in touch with people I knew or thought would have been in or near the towers.One of my sisters watched the towers come down from a bridge near her house and she would keep me updated
We were stranded in Vancouver for a couple of days but eventually got on an Air Canada flight and landed at a very eerily empty LAX
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Helen
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253672
09/12/20 11:31 AM
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,212
jbittle
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We had gotten off the Navigator in Lisbon 2 days before and were flying from Lisbon to LGA on Continental. About half way through the flight the pilot made an announcement that something had happened in the US, all airports were closed, all communications were shut down, including from the Airline's home office and that they had heard from some Canadian pilots that a plane had hit the WTC. Luckily we were flying a southern route and the pilot said "We'll head toward Bermuda and see if we can land." We did and were put up in one of the luxury hotels. It wasn't until about 5pm in the hotel that we found out what happened. On the 2nd morning we were suddenly told to gather our luggage and were taken to the airport. Before boarding the terminal was evacuated due to an explosion, but it was only a hydraulic line on a catering truck. Another run thru security with K-9 dogs and armed military all around and we finally took off. LGA was empty and we were put up in an airport hotel for 1 night and no idea where we could stay the next night. I started with "A" in the phone book and Alamo had a van we could rent so 4 of us drove to Ft Myers where our friends lived and we went on home to Naples. I had asked to stay in Bermuda at my expense but wasn't allowed. If the cruise had ended 3 days later we would have stayed on a mostly empty Navigator.
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253673
09/12/20 04:51 PM
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,033
lonestarlady
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I was at work. One of my nurses came running into my office and told me what had happened when the first plane crashed into the Tower – she had heard it on the radio. I had a tiny TV in my office with about an 8 inch by 8 inch screen. About 12 people huddled down in my small 10ft x 10ft office to watch that TV, sitting on the floor, leaning against the walls, sitting on the desk, you name it. We were all glued to the TV when the second plane hit. Needless to say we were all in shock and many of us were crying. I had several staff who were in travel status throughout the state, so we had to scramble to find other ways for those who were supposed to return by air to get home. I took a flight through DFW the second day after the airports opened. There were only 6 people on the plane, and not many more than that in the airport (and mostly those were airline employees). I remember the flight attendants handing us Prayer Cards when we boarded, and then the pilot lead us all in a prayer before we took off. I actually still have this prayer card that AA was handing out after 19 years! ![[Linked Image from filedn.com]](https://filedn.com/lmxMjRMc5PWmBamNb7R442L/Photos/AA%20Card%202001.jpg)
Cindy TravelingTexasDuo.com"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253674
09/12/20 04:59 PM
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 58
Worldrunner
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Joined: Oct 2011
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I was arriving at work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in LaCanada, CA as the news came in. As Dir. of H.R. and member of the Emergency Response Team, I headed for the Emergency Operations Center. We had been previously briefed that the 2 top terrorist targets in So. Cal. were Disneyland and JPL so we decided to evacuate the 5,000+ employees and contractors working on site. Spent the rest of the day glued to the tv & getting updates from NASA in Washington, DC with the team. Our CFO learned mid day that friends of his, who were producers on the Frazier show, were on the plane that crashed in PA. All of our worlds were changed forever. We will never forget!
Sue
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253675
09/13/20 06:36 PM
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 637
Tom G
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Posts: 637 |
I was home asleep. It was my day off. I felt the house shake when the plane hit the Pentagon, but I has no idea wht it was. By the end of the day I would be one the first people back inside the dark smoke filled corridors of the Pentagon to help broadcast Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's news conference to the world to show the terrorists they didn't shut the Pentagon down.
I remember driving to the Pentagon as thousands of fleeing bewildered employees clogged the streets trying to hitch rides home. I remember the people gathering on a hillside overlooking the Pentagon to sing "God Bless America." I had driven by the side of the Pentagon that was hit a thousand times prior on my way into DC. I never ever thought I would see what I saw that day.
Perhaps I can tell you more about it next yeat at BOOTS on the 20th anniversary.
Tom.
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253676
09/13/20 09:26 PM
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,512
Ms Understood
OP
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,512 |
Tom, I for one would be very interested in hearing of your experiences that day. Most of what I know is related to the events in NYC that day.
—————————
Helen
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Re: Where were you on 9/11?
[Re: Ms Understood]
#253678
09/14/20 07:10 PM
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Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 42
JimR
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Mary and I were on the Metro in Paris. A woman tapped me on the shoulder; asked if I was an American (Duh); and said that the .."World Trade Tower went kaboom". I told Mary not to worry about it as the WTC wasn't near any flight path - little did I know. We were stranded at the Hilton, then near Tour Effiel, for a week. The French were MAGNIFICENT - lasting memories, including Notre Dame lit by thousands of votive candles.
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