I was sleeping when the first one hit.  My wife who was at worked called me to tell me about the first plane.  I couldnt believe what she was telling me.  At first I thought it was a dream.  I asked her a couple times to tell me what happened again.  When I finally came to my senses I could tell my wife was starting to panic a little.  I told her I would be right over (she's a nanny).  I threw on some clothes, grabbed an AR, HK USP, whole lotta ammo, mags, flashlight, and my bug-out bag and hopped into the car.  I turned on the radio and heard of the second plane.  By that time I start getting a little freaked out.  On the way to my wifes job I passed the Air Guard base and noticed the gates were closed off with heavy equipment and there were armed guards all over the fence line.  I knew things were starting to get ugly.  I spent the rest of the day with my wife and on the phone talking to parents, brothers etc.  I had a hard time staying strong for my wife.  I wanted to sit down and cry.

I was lying on the couch about to watch some more non-stop coverage of Chandra Levy/Gary Condit when they announced the first plane had hit.  Sat there glued to the TV, wishing that is was just a bad dream.  But somehow I was surprised.  The Arabic/Islamic world and the West, especially the U.S. are non compatible. Not without one changing, and I think we all agree on who has to change.

TS [X]

Stop the hate my ass.

I was sleeping when it happened because I had been working the midnight shift at 911 that night. A buddy of mine called me up and told me. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the news. I cried. I was scared. I called my parents and let them know. I could not believe that someone would actually do something like that to our great nation.

I spent the rest of the day at the firehouse.

When I went down later, all I could smell was the smell of the broken stone. I think i will always relate the broken stone smell to the WTC.

God Bless Them All. FDNY NYPD PAPD. All the True Volunteers. All those on the doomed flights - YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

My wife called me from work and told me to turn the TV on.  I was in shock.  I didn't think anything would take those buildings down after the truck bomb in the basement didn't take them down a few years back.

I still remember back in second grade when one of the nuns came into the classroom and told us the president (Kennedy) had been shot.

I was walking on the beach down cape cod.When I headed back I found out and saw the tube.

I'd gotten off my shift at 3 a.m. that morning, my wife had woke me up saying an airplane had hit the WTC...I sat there watching TV, drinking coffee, trying to figure out WTF when the second airplane hit...

First, it being my mother's birthday I called her and wished her a happy, about 8AM.

Later, speaking with a client on the phone he said, "That's something about the WTC, isn't it?"  I said what about it and he told me about the first plane.  I logged onto WCPN (my all-day NPR station) over the 'Net on my laptop and listened to the early chaos.  I share an office suite with another small business and went to their side and asked if they knew, and they invited me in to their lunchroom where the TV was on.  The phones weren't ringing after about 9:30 AM and we all stayed glued to the tube; say the second plane hit the WTC and watched with a sick feeling as they fell.  Finally went back to my office just after noon and had to do some work to get my mind off it, but still had NPR on the laptop speakers (DSL is nice).  I called Mom again and asked her if this is what it felt like to her when the country found out about Pearl Harbor, and she said it was very much the same, but a little different in a way she could not articulate.  She said, "Even though I'm now 76 and not looking forward to my birthday, I will have a much more significant reason to dread it in the future."

When I got home I had the tube on for a couple hours but the constant replays of the towers getting hit by the second plane (the amateur vids of the first plane hitting the North Tower didn't find their way to the networks until a day ot two later) and collapsing finally got to me and I had to shut it off.  

During the past year, the focus trained on Lower Manhattan and stayed there, with an occasional report from Somerset County, PA.  Very little mention of the Pentagon, which made me a bit indignant several months ago but upon reflection I suppose there's good, pragmatic national security reasons to downplay the aftermath of that crash.

Noah

I was getting ready to go back to the hospital to be with my wife and new son who was born early that morning.

September 11th was a very hard day emotionally. It wasn't until much later in the day that I learned that I knew someone on the first plane.