Was living in NJ from Sept 2000 till April 2001, went up the twin towers on quite a few ocassions (mainly to the bar...windows to/off the world). On 9/11 we were out walking in the countryside around Istead Rise near Gravesend....shocking news when we got back home (Eltham at the time).
I feel sure I had contributed to an earlier thread on this topic which I cannot find. At the risk of repeating the same story I will offer the following;
I was working in Dallas, Texas for a company who supplied key services to the airline industry which just 2 years earlier had been a part of an airline group. Many colleagues had started their working lives with the major US airline.
Arriving at work at around 08.00am (NY is 1hr ahead of Dallas) a colleague just threw a comment at me as I headed to my office - Did you hear some idiot has just flown his plane into one of the twin towers? I had visited one of the towers quite a few times when I was working for a UK bank. The assumption was it a small private plane whose pilot had got something horribly wrong. I went off to start working on my financial analysis for a 2nd meeting with a major card company who was based in Building 5 of the World Trade Center. Needless to say that meeting never took place.
Leaving my office door open, I sensed the noise in the general office starting to grow as more details filtered through. What had been a passing interest quickly transferred into a specific concern as it was identified the plane was a commercial airliner, worse still is was a scheduled flight of our former sister company. Several people started to make calls to internal contacts trying to clarify what they were hearing, while others headed to the staff restaurant to grab a coffee and watch the big screen televisions to learn more of what was becoming a "personal disaster".
Seemingly within minutes news of the 2nd plane hitting the towers had arrived. Work was done for the day.
After ringing my wife to a let her know what was happening I decided to join the growing numbers in the staff restaurant. As the numbers in the restaurant quickly grew the mood switched between stunned bewilderment, to a mixture of disbelieving horror and extreme distress, to expressions of blind fury quickly reverting to an almost visual trembling silence with most just unable to comprehend what was happening.
Those able to put together even a basic sentence seemed to plead almost unintelligibly Why us? What have we done to deserve this? Why do people hate us so much? Many realising their loved ones were sitting at home watching the same horror show unfold silently started to drift home.
As the numbers dwindled to just a few I decided to follow suit, but as the day unfolded and the personal horrors of those so tragically caught up in the events were so graphically there for all to see - it was clear from the outset the stumbling performance of Bush and the inadequate response of the federal & state authorities the consequences would be far reaching.
Indeed, though I stayed in the US for nearly a decade, 9/11 proved to be the turning point in terms of my employment stateside. During that time it was a privilege to see the warmth of the American people rushing to support each other. Two "local" aircraft were directly involved with many of the airlines employees' friends and neighbours in our local communities. Two of the airlines pilots lived on my street.
Subsequently experiencing the pathetic exploitation of the emerging financial situation by so much of Corporate America where thousands of committed talented professionals working in the US leisure industry were thrown on the scrapheap I saw the best and worst of America. In terms of the loss of the life of loved ones as a direct result of the terrorist acts it was a secondary impact but seemed all the more cynical for all that.
Time always heals to some degree and life is indeed a journey. September 11, 2001 is one stop on such journey I will not forget.
This was my first week in a new job as a Financial Adviser. I was calling customers, who all seemed very disinterested.
The 10th or so customer I called said, sorry we're busy watching the TV.
I replied, that I didn't wish to appear rude, but what were they watching at that time of day, as they weren't the first to say they were watching the TV.
Then, I went out and watched the horrifying event, down t'pub, before going home early.
It always seems so close to me. I left New York on the Sunday beforehand. I nearly stayed on for the week for a conference that I have attended several times in other years - I just couldn't quite justify it that year. How lucky I was. I have two good friends who were en route to the conference and got diverted to a Canadian military airfield. I was safely in a boring office in Orpington when the news broke.
I was driving and early for an appointment in Surrey. I walked into a pub to get a coffee, looked up at the big screen on the wall, and thought good grief which film is this ? I then sat transfixed as the second plane hit the tower, watching people jumping out of windows to their death. Yesterday I saw the new human species revealed which is over 1 million years old, could be a lot older. I pondered the wonderful things that man has produced building big heavy planes to fly through the air, and the fact that the human race cannot live in peace around the World. If there is a God, what on earth must he be thinking ?
Me and the missus had just treated ourselves to his n hers designer watches that were quite expensive (for us). We drove home and on the way I called in to one of my suppliers. The lad in there started telling me about a plane hitting the world trade centre, then added that another one then hit the other building, his description sounded way too unbelievable. He waited for my reaction and I just said well what's the punch line? I honestly thought he was telling me a joke. I jumped in the car and said to the wife we had better get home quick and put the tele on, we sat in shock watching the TV pictures especially as we had been on top of one of the towers just two days before. It was months later that I realised the time on my receipt for the watches was exactly the time the first plane hit.
Living in Ashford at the time, and was coming home with my wife from a shopping trip to Canterbury, heard it on the car radio. Did not seem so serious at the time, until I got home and saw it on the TV
Probably posted already what I was doing so wont repeat that, but 2 other things that stand out for me are:
A bloke I was working with at the time was not in the office as his wife was giving birth that day (to twins) and later he said that he had bought a paper that day to show them kids when they were older the events of the day. Obviously papers are a day behind so he went out the next day & bought a paper to show them what actually happened on THE day they were born & not just the date they were born.
My eldest was born exactly 2 years later (14 today) and I've only just realised that on his 18th it will be the 20 year anniversary, so whilst he will be out getting royally drunk & enjoying himself I imagine there will be very different goings-on over in the States.
It seems like yesterday, RIP to all those who never came home that day.
My current boss was in the twin towers on a 30 something floor. As he always did at the same time every day he popped out for a smoke, how lucky was he.......
I worked for an american insurance company called Marsh at the time. Guy Carpenter and Co. was a subsidiary of Marsh who in turn were a subsidiary of MMC - Marsh and McLennan Companies. We lost over almost staff that day as the plane went in on the floor our staff worked on - 98th floor of Tower One. Our servers were also in the tower. My boss was on a conference call waiting for the people who died to dial in and was getting the hump nobody had dialled in. Then we heard the news.
My wife and I lost a few people we knew and it was our equivalents in New York who were affected.
I heard so many stories from colleagues of reasons they were late in that day - and that's the only reason they are alive now. Unbelievably lucky people but they were massively traumatised by events.
Bizarrely my wife and I went to New York in February last year and we went to the memorial. Chilling place. All the 2500 people that died there are written on the memorial and as we walked up to the memorial the first name we saw was the guy we were working with on a daily basis on our project - William (Bill) Dimmling.
Well when I moved to Australia I joined the Navy there, I was teaching new kids about IFF transponders on Aircraft at the time and the Chief came into the class and told me what had happened, we went into lockdown being a miltary base.
A few weeks later I was posted to The Defence Security Authority in Canberra which calculated threat levels and then was sent to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War in 03
I'll keep it short because this I could, and many years ago when I was starting in journalism/writing did, write lengthy essays about.
I will never be able to separate 9/11 the day from what happened over the next few years. And that is everything from the war in Afghanistan to the curtailing of civil liberties with the PATRIOT act to the prevalent notion that anyone who opposed the President in any way was "unpatriotic" to the Iraq War to the widespread use of torture throughout the world to the huge war profiteering by companies like Hailburton, who got no bid contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan and whose board, coincidentally, Dick Cheney left to become Vice President, to rampant Islamaphobia, to the countless war crimes committed in the name of "defeating terrorism."
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veteran suicides have overtaken the number of combat deaths. We have a VA that desperately struggles to care for the hundreds of thousands who returned from 18 month-2 year deployments, who sometimes saw those deployments extended while they were deployed and there was nothing they could do about it. We sent kids over to fight in countries we didn't understand for reasons we either didn't know or that we lied about.
My memories are not fair to the people who lost their lives on that day, doing something they did every day and who had nothing to do with al-Qaeda's grievances with the US. And there were so many stories of heroism on that day. Google the story of Willy Rodriguez, the janitor who went up floor by floor unlocking doors for firefighters and helping people escape. Look at the stories of firefighters who went into those buildings knowing full well they might never come out. But all of that will, for me, be forever tarnished by the heinous acts committed in the name of 9/11 in the years since.
At home listening to talk sport waiting to go into work in the afternoon, they broke the conversation to go to their news presenter, when I tuned into the TV news channels, as I switched over the second plane ran into the tower. Terrible live scenes.
I actually know someone who was on a plane on the way to mexico and was grounded at boston. That is scary!
My engineer was on his way to New York at the time, they diverted him and his family to Canada, where he said they were treated magnificently for a few days, before being allowed to continue their journey.
Dayton, New Jersey. Just outside of New York, watching in the waiting room of a car dealership with some people who could have been there. Unforgettable, moment by moment.
In Southampton airport waiting to board a flight to Alderney. Got a call from the wife saying what had happened - thought it was a light aircraft crash and went to watch the TV.
Couldn't believe my eyes and thought of my brother (a UK firefighter) as I watched NY firefighters rush to their probable death.
Still shiver now when I watch the footage and hear the sound of those safety whistles that go off when a firefighter is down.
Love to Steve Buscemi the Holllywood actor who went back to his old job as a NY firefighter as they were so short of crew after the tragedy.
9/11 as it is written by my colleagues was surreal. We were working in a tall building in London now demolished to make place for the Shard.
We had no exposure to the terror or death that was a part of being in New York. We had big tv screens in the office and at the time could not believe or process what was happening.
Playing my regular tuesday night gig at the Minsky's Bar in Nedlands (Perth) in front of my usual crowd of 6 (Art...) when 3 of my bigest fans burst in straight past (what I like to call) my stage, turning the Tv opposite me becoming very animated in front of what looked like the latest computer game. Being the true pro that I sold myself so well as, I carried on with my emotional rendition of my biggest hit to date 'Roni Levi' to it's bombastic conclusion before sneeringly joining the others. It felt apocalyptic, it reminded me Charlton Heston cry on the final scene of the original 'Planet of the Apes' : "YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN YOU! GODDAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!" Tragic event, matched by tragically disastrous response by the US and it's British/Australian and a few others 'me too' allies. ..
I remember being in school, must have been about 8 years old when our lessons were cancelled to have a whole school assembly, whilst they tried to explain what was happening in New York to almost 250 kids.
Remember sitting in the car after school with my dad who had just picked my brother and myself up and we stayed in the car park for ages, just listening to the radio without going anywhere.
Its the only junior school memory which I still clearly remember.
I lost 16 colleagues that day. I worked for Risk Waters Group (in London). They had a congress on at 'Windows on the World', a venue on the top floors of the North Tower. I remember a colleague coming over to tell us that a plane had flown into WTC (I'd even designed the brochure for the event). One of our colleagues at the venue, had called and told one of the directors that they were being evacuated. They didn't make it out in time. For the next 3 days, it was uncertain if any of them had survived or not. It was not only horrible, it was also surreal. 8 of the colleagues were from the London office. These were not only people I saw every day in the office. They were also people I'd played football with after work and been drinking with in the pub.
I was early for an appointment, popped into a pub for a coffee, looked at the TV and wondered what the hell this film was ! Realising the truth I sat and watched the incredible scenes, people holding hands and jumping out of high windows etc.
Will the human race ever live in peace ? I despair at the damage we do often in the name of religion, and how these lunatics like the guy in North Korea become such a threat. Makes me happy to be in my eighties, but I fear for my new great grand-daughter who has brought us great joy.
Comments
:-)
I was working in Dallas, Texas for a company who supplied key services to the airline industry which just 2 years earlier had been a part of an airline group. Many colleagues had started their working lives with the major US airline.
Arriving at work at around 08.00am (NY is 1hr ahead of Dallas) a colleague just threw a comment at me as I headed to my office - Did you hear some idiot has just flown his plane into one of the twin towers? I had visited one of the towers quite a few times when I was working for a UK bank. The assumption was it a small private plane whose pilot had got something horribly wrong. I went off to start working on my financial analysis for a 2nd meeting with a major card company who was based in Building 5 of the World Trade Center. Needless to say that meeting never took place.
Leaving my office door open, I sensed the noise in the general office starting to grow as more details filtered through. What had been a passing interest quickly transferred into a specific concern as it was identified the plane was a commercial airliner, worse still is was a scheduled flight of our former sister company. Several people started to make calls to internal contacts trying to clarify what they were hearing, while others headed to the staff restaurant to grab a coffee and watch the big screen televisions to learn more of what was becoming a "personal disaster".
Seemingly within minutes news of the 2nd plane hitting the towers had arrived. Work was done for the day.
After ringing my wife to a let her know what was happening I decided to join the growing numbers in the staff restaurant. As the numbers in the restaurant quickly grew the mood switched between stunned bewilderment, to a mixture of disbelieving horror and extreme distress, to expressions of blind fury quickly reverting to an almost visual trembling silence with most just unable to comprehend what was happening.
Those able to put together even a basic sentence seemed to plead almost unintelligibly Why us? What have we done to deserve this? Why do people hate us so much? Many realising their loved ones were sitting at home watching the same horror show unfold silently started to drift home.
As the numbers dwindled to just a few I decided to follow suit, but as the day unfolded and the personal horrors of those so tragically caught up in the events were so graphically there for all to see - it was clear from the outset the stumbling performance of Bush and the inadequate response of the federal & state authorities the consequences would be far reaching.
Indeed, though I stayed in the US for nearly a decade, 9/11 proved to be the turning point in terms of my employment stateside. During that time it was a privilege to see the warmth of the American people rushing to support each other. Two "local" aircraft were directly involved with many of the airlines employees' friends and neighbours in our local communities. Two of the airlines pilots lived on my street.
Subsequently experiencing the pathetic exploitation of the emerging financial situation by so much of Corporate America where thousands of committed talented professionals working in the US leisure industry were thrown on the scrapheap I saw the best and worst of America. In terms of the loss of the life of loved ones as a direct result of the terrorist acts it was a secondary impact but seemed all the more cynical for all that.
Time always heals to some degree and life is indeed a journey. September 11, 2001 is one stop on such journey I will not forget.
The 10th or so customer I called said, sorry we're busy watching the TV.
I replied, that I didn't wish to appear rude, but what were they watching at that time of day, as they weren't the first to say they were watching the TV.
Then, I went out and watched the horrifying event, down t'pub, before going home early.
Yesterday I saw the new human species revealed which is over 1 million years old, could be a lot older. I pondered the wonderful things that man has produced building big heavy planes to fly through the air, and the fact that the human race cannot live in peace around the World. If there is a God, what on earth must he be thinking ?
Easily, one of the most significant days for all the wrong reasons in my early teenage years. I'll never forget those images rolling across the TV.
Thoughts go out to all those impacted and those who continue to feel the impact of the terrible events that day.
I still remember it like yesterday. RIP to the victims and my thoughts are with their families and friends today..
A bloke I was working with at the time was not in the office as his wife was giving birth that day (to twins) and later he said that he had bought a paper that day to show them kids when they were older the events of the day. Obviously papers are a day behind so he went out the next day & bought a paper to show them what actually happened on THE day they were born & not just the date they were born.
My eldest was born exactly 2 years later (14 today) and I've only just realised that on his 18th it will be the 20 year anniversary, so whilst he will be out getting royally drunk & enjoying himself I imagine there will be very different goings-on over in the States.
My current boss was in the twin towers on a 30 something floor. As he always did at the same time every day he popped out for a smoke, how lucky was he.......
My wife and I lost a few people we knew and it was our equivalents in New York who were affected.
I heard so many stories from colleagues of reasons they were late in that day - and that's the only reason they are alive now. Unbelievably lucky people but they were massively traumatised by events.
Bizarrely my wife and I went to New York in February last year and we went to the memorial. Chilling place. All the 2500 people that died there are written on the memorial and as we walked up to the memorial the first name we saw was the guy we were working with on a daily basis on our project - William (Bill) Dimmling.
RIP Bill - Semper Unitas
Something very suspect went on there.
A few weeks later I was posted to The Defence Security Authority in Canberra which calculated threat levels and then was sent to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War in 03
I will never be able to separate 9/11 the day from what happened over the next few years. And that is everything from the war in Afghanistan to the curtailing of civil liberties with the PATRIOT act to the prevalent notion that anyone who opposed the President in any way was "unpatriotic" to the Iraq War to the widespread use of torture throughout the world to the huge war profiteering by companies like Hailburton, who got no bid contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan and whose board, coincidentally, Dick Cheney left to become Vice President, to rampant Islamaphobia, to the countless war crimes committed in the name of "defeating terrorism."
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veteran suicides have overtaken the number of combat deaths. We have a VA that desperately struggles to care for the hundreds of thousands who returned from 18 month-2 year deployments, who sometimes saw those deployments extended while they were deployed and there was nothing they could do about it. We sent kids over to fight in countries we didn't understand for reasons we either didn't know or that we lied about.
My memories are not fair to the people who lost their lives on that day, doing something they did every day and who had nothing to do with al-Qaeda's grievances with the US. And there were so many stories of heroism on that day. Google the story of Willy Rodriguez, the janitor who went up floor by floor unlocking doors for firefighters and helping people escape. Look at the stories of firefighters who went into those buildings knowing full well they might never come out. But all of that will, for me, be forever tarnished by the heinous acts committed in the name of 9/11 in the years since.
Couldn't believe my eyes and thought of my brother (a UK firefighter) as I watched NY firefighters rush to their probable death.
Still shiver now when I watch the footage and hear the sound of those safety whistles that go off when a firefighter is down.
Love to Steve Buscemi the Holllywood actor who went back to his old job as a NY firefighter as they were so short of crew after the tragedy.
Please God, never again.
We had no exposure to the terror or death that was a part of being in New York. We had big tv screens in the office and at the time could not believe or process what was happening.
That attack has changed the world.
It felt apocalyptic, it reminded me Charlton Heston cry on the final scene of the original 'Planet of the Apes' : "YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN YOU! GODDAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"
Tragic event, matched by tragically disastrous response by the US and it's British/Australian and a few others 'me too' allies. ..
Remember sitting in the car after school with my dad who had just picked my brother and myself up and we stayed in the car park for ages, just listening to the radio without going anywhere.
Its the only junior school memory which I still clearly remember.
I worked for Risk Waters Group (in London). They had a congress on at 'Windows on the World', a venue on the top floors of the North Tower.
I remember a colleague coming over to tell us that a plane had flown into WTC (I'd even designed the brochure for the event).
One of our colleagues at the venue, had called and told one of the directors that they were being evacuated.
They didn't make it out in time. For the next 3 days, it was uncertain if any of them had survived or not.
It was not only horrible, it was also surreal. 8 of the colleagues were from the London office. These were not only people I saw every day in the office. They were also people I'd played football with after work and been drinking with in the pub.
Will the human race ever live in peace ? I despair at the damage we do often in the name of religion, and how these lunatics like the guy in North Korea become such a threat. Makes me happy to be in my eighties, but I fear for my new great grand-daughter who has brought us great joy.