Where were you

[bkraus]

Where were you 12 years ago at 7:46am?  How did you find out, and what was your immediate response?

I can tell you exactly where I was.  I was working for Budweiser stocking shelves of 24 pack Bud at Pick N Save on Green Bay and Brown Deer Rds.  I was angry at the last stocker in there for not rotating product and making my job "tougher" when my phone rang.  It was my dad telling me about it. I remember my response of "Oh I think I saw that movie."  I was less than a month off of active duty from the Navy, joined the reserve two weeks prior and had yet to do a reserve drill weekend.  Shortly there after my phone rang again and it was the Navy ordering me to the reserve center as I was one of only a handful in Milwaukee that had the security qualifications that our threat condition called for, and I was back on active duty, albeit in Milwaukee at first.  It has been 12 years, but I remember that day vividly.  I remember my bosses at Budweiser not being able to really comprehend me not being able to finish my route cuz I had a more important job to do.  It wasn't their fault, I was just the first reservist they ever had at their wholesaler.  They had never dealt with that before.  I've spent 5 of the last 12 years on active recalls for something or another pertaining to this day.  Looking back on it, I wouldn't change anything other than some divine intervention to stop those planes.  I am proud to be an American, especially through it all.

God bless the USA and all of you!

[Handles II]

Great Story, and thanks.

[bigG]

Walking to the office in the school I work at. Got my stuff after some light conversation, then on my way to my next class a sub comes out of her class and tells me the twin towers were bombed. I said "by whom". She said it just happened, and they didn't yet know. ust had that sinking feeling in my gut.

[TomM]

I was walking into the hallway at school.  Custodian (Dennis) asked me "Did you hear about the plane that ran into the World Trade Center?" ... I thought he was telling me a joke and there was some punch line.  I replied "No... what's the rest?" ... He said it was real...

[dad 2 5]

payroll day and I walked in the dining room at a tv and could not believe it. Was that a plane?! MY wife called and asked if I had the news on and if I knew people that worked there (had been in NYC and upstate NY some). By the time I got to my second building there was the second hit.

NEVER FORGET!

You would think this would drive us to prayer and to the LORD. Let remember to pray for the thousands of families that have lost loved ones in the attack and wars that have followed.

[woody53]

I was driving from Waunakee to Middleton when on the radio they came on and stated that a plane had struck one of the towers. From the description on the radio, my mind saw a small private jet. I thought that some one was flying low, and just site seeing, and really screwed up. Got back to the office to see the second plane hit. Knew that life had changed seeing that.

[bigoil]

I had arrived at a meeting in Milwaukee just after 7:46, it was a commuter plane at that time.

[Todd]

Getting the house ready for shift change after having just done an overnight at Pathfinders Teen Shelter.  All the youth were off to school and I turned on the news to NBC and saw the first tower smoking.  I didn't really know what to think except that it was a terrible accident that is until I watched the second plane hit in real time.  I was stunned and knew that this was not a terrible mistake and it was intentional.  I had to go to a staff meeting and then home.  Normally I would go to sleep as I would do a day day shift the next day and needed sleep. Not that day, I stayed up and watched coverage of the towers falling, people walking home from work, the city shutting down and air travel cut off. I ended up staying up until about 3am that night and then I slept. 

I woke up the next morning the the world was completely different.

[Todd]

Where were you 12 years ago at 7:46am?  How did you find out, and what was your immediate response?

I can tell you exactly where I was.  I was working for Budweiser stocking shelves of 24 pack Bud at Pick N Save on Green Bay and Brown Deer Rds.  I was angry at the last stocker in there for not rotating product and making my job "tougher" when my phone rang.  It was my dad telling me about it. I remember my response of "Oh I think I saw that movie."  I was less than a month off of active duty from the Navy, joined the reserve two weeks prior and had yet to do a reserve drill weekend.  Shortly there after my phone rang again and it was the Navy ordering me to the reserve center as I was one of only a handful in Milwaukee that had the security qualifications that our threat condition called for, and I was back on active duty, albeit in Milwaukee at first.  It has been 12 years, but I remember that day vividly.  I remember my bosses at Budweiser not being able to really comprehend me not being able to finish my route cuz I had a more important job to do.  It wasn't their fault, I was just the first reservist they ever had at their wholesaler.  They had never dealt with that before.  I've spent 5 of the last 12 years on active recalls for something or another pertaining to this day.  Looking back on it, I wouldn't change anything other than some divine intervention to stop those planes.  I am proud to be an American, especially through it all.

God bless the USA and all of you!

Thanks for sharing and thanks for your service.

[maggie]

I was in pleasant Prairie pouring a big floor, we were just about done pouring and my Laser screed operator who listens to a head set while screening, stop and said to me, wow, some idiot just hit the WTC in a plane, the events of that day just escalated from there and by the time we were done pouring, it was quit clear that we had been attacked, it wasn't until later  that afternoon that he and I stopped into a Watering hole on the way back home and seen for the first time, the devastation and commotion that it had created. at that time, they were still unsure as to what, who or why it really happen...it gave me as well as ever person I know a feeling of terrible, Terrable anger....that's what made it so easy for Pres. Bush to gain Americans support in the Iraq attack, for which I was so in favor of then. Many of you on here may very well have been to young to remember, but after a month after them attacks  and the time leading up to the attack on Iraq, people all over America were wearing Bomb Iraq shirts, shack and awe / 40 sec over Bagdad/ Americans don't run, NYFD apparel was a hot idem and stores could keep there shelf stocked with it....I was up at 2:00 this morning still watching clips from that day that was being replayed all day yesterday and that feeling still is with me today...if you have ever been to NY and have seen the Towers up close and have walked by them, you would have a better understand as to how unreal it really was...I still can't believe it really happen, it is mind boggling to say the least...... RIP Victims of 911/let us never forget

[Ghetto]

I was a computer lab teacher then. It was obviously the start of the school year.  For no reason at all I turned on a TV, which had no sound. I thought to myself as I watched the video of the second plane that it was odd that channel 6 was showing movies so early in the morning. It didn't occur to me at that point that what I saw was real.

I had to turn off my TV because I started teaching classes at 8:05. I didn't even realize what was going on. At an elementary school, telling kids what is happening can be more scary than informative, so no real information was getting passed around.

When I got to the lounge at lunch it started to hit me. Teachers were crying and people were truly scared for what would happen nationwide. We had a TV on in the lounge all day.

I flew to Las Vegas for my bachelor party one of the first days planes were allowed to fly again. It was absolutely scary. Flights out of Las Vegas were delayed coming back because the security check took so long. We were in line for four hours trying to get to our gate.

I watched that coverage for countless days afterwards.

[npope]

This past summer I was in NY for a conference and my hotel was literally right beside the World Trade Center site. They are, of course, building anew on the site and the place is a mess as one might expect when building skyscrapers in a congested area. However, the memorial portion of the site is already finished; two beautiful water features that, for lack of a better term, can be called waterfalls inhabit the footprints of the original two towers (see image below). The names of each person who perished in each of the buildings are engraved in granite surrounding the waterfalls of the building in which they respectively perished. The place is very solemn and tastefully executed. I also include an artist's rendering as to what the site will look like once the surrounding buildings are completed.

Another interesting note about the site is that the police and security presence in the area is incredible - literally cops on every corner.

[wrestling for fun]

Good pics! Thanks for sharing.

I was running a retail store in Milwaukee when it happened. 

I rec'd a call later in the day from my brother who said one of my boyhood friends, Bobby Rassmussen, was in the second tower and no one had heard from him ...

He was one of the 2700.

[imnofish]

After teaching a middle school science class, I was supervising hallway traffic, when a colleague informed me of the attack.  It seemed so surreal. 

[uncle Fester]

used the distraction to bust out of a small county jail and have eluded capture...