9/11/01

[ADfields]

This is a sight I found that is very mooving and worth a look even thow it has nothing to do with forestry.   It is a slow load but well worth the time!
THANKS
Andy :( >:(

http://home.attbi.com/~sept11/

[Tom]

A lot of effort went into that.

[whitepe]

I was thinking last night about starting a 9/11 thread
so I am glad to see Andy start one.
my thought was to have people say what they were doing
when they first heard about the attacks. I am sure
that everyone will remember what they were doing
at that time until the day they die.

As for myself,  I had flown to Albuquerque and I was
up on the San Juan River in NW New Mexico
fly fishing.  My friend, our guide and I were in the first
boat on the river that morning.  Soon other guides started
showing up with their clients and were telling our
guide what had happened. Since our guide was originally
from NY we thought they were teasing him.  We
have been there several times before and the guides
always tease each other.  All of the guides knew
that our guide's 75 year old father worked part time on
the 102nd floor of the WTC as a part time bond trader for
Cantor Fitzgerald.  Our guide left us on the river,
hiked back to the main highway and hitch-hiked to
his pickup since it had already been shuttled down river
4 miles to our take out area. About 90 minutes later, back
he came. He had contacted his father by phone and fortunately it was his father's day off.

My original plans called for me to fly home to Illinois
on 9/13 but I was stuck in ABQ.  Couldn't get a rental car
or train and was contemplating having someone from
Illinois drive out to get me.  Eventually, many Sandia
Labs folks who had been stuck in DC started arriving in ABQ by car and by Sat 9/15 I was able to get one as the rental car
companies were glad to get some of them going back east.
I was sure glad to get back home to see my wife and son.

In the late afternoon on 9/11 my then 12 year old son
was playing outside after school about 4:30-5:00 PM CST
and saw a large plane escorted by 4 fighter planes
fly right over Peoria. Had to be Pres. George W. Bush on his way to DC from Omaha. It is slightly ironic that I was
almost 12 years old when JFK was shot.

Whitepe

[Kevin_H.]

I have been a medic since 1986, On sept 11th my wife and I along with my EMS partner were on a cruise ship. We watched CNN, the only news channel on the ship. Each of the remaining nites at dinner the talk was always about what had happened.

We were able to catch the first flight allowed back to St. Louis, arrived at home, I have not flown since.

My EMS Partner has since moved on, Taking a medic job in Fla. He called tonite, from his rig, as we spoke about and remembered the events of last year, with ambulance radios blarring in the background, we agreed that if our jobs had been in NYC we would have worked as all the fantastic people did. But we would now be doing different jobs.
I'm sorry if this rambles.

[ADfields]

It was around 4:40 in the morning hear in Alaska and I was sitting in my living room waiting for the black gold to brew up and I turned on the Today show as I always did and they had a live shot of the WTC smoking.   Thay said an air liner had hit it and they did not know what was wrong with the plane that it would hit the WTC.   I called my wife in and said no way a jet hits that dead on like that if it's not trying to!   The wife said I think your right and just then the other jet hit the other tower, we watched it live!  

It was hell even way up hear in Alaska that day and I mean all day.   We had an Air China 747 inbound to Anchorage and they would not talk to anyone so the whole downtown was cleared out of about 60,000 people.   They put up F-14's with the intent to shoot it down and just before they dropped it in the water the pilot turned on the radio.   It was sent with the F-14's to Whitehorse Canada in the end.   Every time you turned around for a week it was something bad on the scene.

Now a year later I think the USA and most of all NYC is a far better place for it!   It was and is a huge price to pay and I wish it had not happened but it changed people for the better somehow I think.
Andy

[whitepe]

My brother-in-law (wife's brother) works for a bank on about the 40th floor of a building near midtown Manhattan.
His office was on the south side of the building so he saw
everything.  He was real shook up about it.  In May 2001
I was in India and airport security and Air India security
was real tight. Our check in luggage was hand searched
on the tarmack in our presence and our carry on luggage
was hand searched on the jetway. A gentlemen in line
next to me explained that in 2000 an Air India jet liner
scheduled from Nepal to Delhi was hijacked and taken
to Afghanistan.  The full meaning of that story didn't fully sink in until 9/11 and then I got really spooky.  My next time flying after 9/11 was March 2002 and yes I was very apprehensive.

Whitepe

[Corley5]

My partner and I were in the process of moving our equipment out of the CCC Fileds in the Pigeon River State Forest.  We had finished planting rye there the previous day and were on our way to an openings complex on the Fisherman Trail.  I had just set the Cultipacker on the trailer with the loader on hte tractor when on an AM talk station there was an anoucement that a plane had crashed in to the WTC and it was believed to have been a cargo plane.  I shut the tractor off and told Linnae what I had just heard and to turn on the radio in the truck.  We finished loading up, and bermed up the field access while listening to events unfolding.  I was about half way back to the Pigeon River HQ when it was annouced that a plane had struck the other Tower.  When we got back to HQ we watched TV for the next couple hours in the staff house where we saw live shots of the Towers collapsing.  The image that really sticks in my mind was the footage of this army of firefighters marching toward the WTC with all their gear.  A few minutes they were coming back past the camera covered in dust and ash after the collapse.  We watched and listened to the TV until about one when we went in to Vanderbilt for lunch.  The mood in the restaurant was one I'll never forget.  A combination of shock, sorrow, anger, and outrage.  There was even speculation of a nuclear strike on our part.  Paybacks are h&!!  I would agree that the country is better off.  The whole incident gave people back their sense of "country".  Everyone drew together to get through and deal with the crisis.        

[L. Wakefield]

   It was the last day of my vacation. I had been in NY (in the Catskills) but I misread my schedule and thought I was supposed to work the 11th- so I was at the hospital and had just come down from grand rounds. The TV was on in the lounge and the first tower had just been hit. Everyone was wondering  a LOT about what was happening- and then the second tower was hit. One of the doctors said he was getting a very bad feeling about being in the tallest building in town.

   I totally assumed from the fact that the flames weren't too prominent that the sprinkler system was taking care of it (wrong).

   When the first tower collapsed I was certain it had been from an explosion of some sort at the base (wrong again). Watching it fall was one of the worst things I can imagine.


   It wasn't until almost 2 months later that I saw a video at an EMS conference of the people jumping from the towers. I think that is one of the worst aspects- hell at your back, certain death in front, and choosing to jump. I don't know which way I would have gone, but I probably ultimately would have jumped- I can't imagine being burned alive- and I would have been screaming.

   God! No one- anywhere in the world, friend or foe- deserves that fate. We need peace. There are enough natural enemies without this type of insanity.        lw

[L. Wakefield]

   I just ran the 7Mb video clip. To think that that was just planes- a state-of-the-art nuke (and we are the foremost makers of state of the art nukes, aren't we?)- would have taken the entire city.

  On another newsgroup there was a poster wanting to turn Afghanistan into slag and glass using just such a weapon. What is the difference between their hate and our hate?

   Wishing death and destruction on anyone is wrong. There is nothing wrong with wanting to stop terrorists, but one would have hoped that we had learned the lessons of the Cold War- mutual assured destruction (MAD).

   But here we are and some people in this country are all too ready to deploy weapons of mass destruction against 'the enemy' (they are sure they have the 'right' enemy). We have the weapons- nuclear stockpiles, biological stockpiles. Oue anthrax is probably more state-of-the-art than anyone else's anthrax.

   It's OK when we do it, but not when they do it?

   It's not OK. Anyone who has had their heart torn by 9/11/01 should understand that it's not OK. It's not OK for Osama, it's not Ok for Palestine, it's not OK for Israel, it's not OK for India or Pakistan, and it's not OK for us.

   Christ's answer is the closest I can come to, and it's not considered a strategic weapon. Love your enemy. Love the sinner, but hate the sin.

   How that can be turned into a surgical method to remove the harm without doing worse harm- I don't know. But we'd best be finding the answer or hate, fear, and the thirst for revenge will destroy us.   lw

[Frank_Pender]

It was 5:45 AM that day.  I was on my way to Salem, Oregon on Hwy. 22, which is a main connection for my route to Salem.  I was headed for my monthly Education Service District board meeting.  ( It is an elected regional board of directors that I have been on for 25 + years,  that oversees a 3 county area of schools.  We provide services to schools at reduced costs spread over large areas.)  Anyway, as I was nearing the ourskirts of the bod city it camer over the radio in my truck.  As soon as I got to my destination and into the meeting room I asked for a tv to be brought into the board room so that we could watch the happenings.  By that time both planes had hit the towers and everyone in the room was in total shock.  We convened the meeting at the regular time of 7:00AM and just as quickly adjurned until Octobor's meeting.  I headed back to home outside of Dallas in a very somber state.  When home I found myself glued to the tv for most of the remainer of the day.   :'( :'( :'( :'(

[Jeff]

At Billsby Lumber Co. we start work at 5:30 AM and take our first break at 9:00. At 9:00 I left the sawbooth and decided to walk outside and around the end of our chip trailers rather then go through the building. As I cleared the end of the chip vans and looked over towards the main office I could see Jake, our forest tech coming from his truck walking urgently toward the office. I wondered what was up and walked over there. Jake had only heard a preliminary report on the radio about a fire at the World Trade Center.
 
We turned the T.V. on and heard the first reports of what had happened. Immediately we talked how this could be no accident. We stood there and watched as the second plane hit the other tower. It was almost surreal watching the events unfold. No one made a move to go back to work. We listened as the reports came in on the pentagon, waiting for what we were now sure would be more attacks. We did finally go back to work around 10:30 but I had my radio to keep up. I can remember feeling guilty for working. It seemed I should be doing something but what? At noon we were all glued to the T.V. again and heard how all air traffic in the U.S. had been grounded.  
 
Yes there was the talk at the mill on how we should remove who ever was responsible from the face of the earth. And I still believe that. If we don't, next time it will be worse. These people don't want peace. All they ever have known is war. How can we not want to protect our friends and Neighbors and Family and Countrymen from those that care nothing about human life?  These countries are the richest in the world thanks to us, but only a few have the wealth, the rest are lied to and taught to hate us.
 
On Paul Harvey there was an example of the disregard these people have not only for us but for even their own families. A father was informed that his 8 year old daughter may have been raped by his brother. In his eyes this was a disgrace to him, so he killed his daughter by stabbing her over and over to remove the source of his disgrace. As it turned out, the girl was examined and found to be intact. So the event never happened, but the father, under the law was entitled to protect his honor so no crime was committed. They say this is not uncommon and part of their culture.
 
I will never understand this sort of culture but I will never stand for it either. We are Americans and we know what hate is now by the actions taken against us. We are Americans and we will take action against those that attack us because unlike them, we also know what love is.

[Ron Wenrich]

Wow Jeff, you get a break!

On 9/11 I was sawing, as usual.  I got the news while listening to Howard Stern.  He did an excellent job of giving the news while it unfolded.

I had NY to my northeast, Washington, DC to my south, and Somerset, PA to my west.  Within 30 miles, there is Three Mile Island.  There were numerous reports that planes were targeting TMI.  They proved to be unfounded.

We never did stop working.  I figured that there wasn't much I could do about it, and they weren't coming after me.  I did listen quite a bit to the radio and when I went home I enjoyed looking at blue sky without contrails.

I lived through the TMI accident.  I got to see how the government works.  They will only give you what information they want.  The locals get the least amount of information.  I've remained distrustful of government ever since.  

[DanG]

I was on "standby" that week, and had spent most of the night beside the road under flashing amber lights. I had gotten home about 4am, and didn't have to report in till noon. My wife awoke me after the first plane hit, and I was listening to Peter Jennings interviewing some guy who witnessed the first strike. He was trying to ascertain if it was a large plane, or a small one, when the second one hit.  Jennings said, "THERE, was it like that?"  The guy said "Yes, it was exactly like that one."  I, along with the rest of the nation, concluded, at that moment, that we were under attack.
I'm pretty sure that I stood, not sat, in front of the TV in my skivvies until the second tower collapsed. I'm not quite sure what transpired after that, but I did eventually trickle in to work to face the inevitable onslaught of security directives, as the managers jumped through their collective a$$es.  We tested all the generators, fueled all the trucks, and went through a lot of motions, but, no one fixed the lock on the basement door, or posted a guard or barricade on the 10,000 gallon fuel tank beside the building. I am still a little insulted that they weld shut all the manhole covers every time we renegotiate our contract, lest the EVIL employees try to sabotage things, yet not the first spark was struck in the name of national security!
All in all, I'm proud of our nation for rallying in support of our heroes, and in defiance of our enemies. I am equally proud to have the Canadians as our friends, who did so much to aid our inbound travellers. I'm proud that our national leadership is continuing to act in a strong manner to bring terrorism to an end.  I am equally ashamed that our corporate leadership, as a whole, continues to behave with shameless greed, to the point of undermining the rebirth of our national soul.

[swampwhiteoak]

My boss and myself were doing tree planting survival checks about an hour and a half from the office.  We had just finished our second job of the morning and were hoping back in the truck to go to another job.  It was about 10am and I had Bob+Tom on the radio turned low.  I turned it up and listened for a while to try to figure out what they were talking about.  About the time I realized they were referring to a plane hitting the WTC my pager went off.  The governor decided to send all non-essential state employees home for the day.
I stared at the pager and listened to the radio not sure what to do or think.  I showed the pager message to my boss.  He stared at it for a while too, neither one of us knowing quite what to make of the whole thing.  We decided, even though we needed to get the work done, to head back to the office and call it a day.  On the ride home it began to sink in exactly what was happening and how it the country was going to change.

I went home that day and stayed glued to the TV which kept playing the second plane crash over and over.  It all felt very surreal.

A few days later I attended a local soil and water conservation district banquet.  The local VFW wanted to give everyone a flag.  At the time, though, there was a flag shortage.  So they decided to remove the small flags from the veterans gravesites and gave one to everyone in attendance.  The flag is still hanging from my porch.

[Bro. Noble]

I was just noticing all the skips in the new Alfalfa field in front of my house.  It must have been my falt because I did the drilling.  My son broadcast orchardgrass seed  while I drilled Alfalfa.  One new field was a complete failure because Tom seeded annual ryegrass instead of orchardgrass and it completely crowded out the alfalfa seedlings.

It didn't dawn on me until reading this thread and thinking about what I was doing on 9-11 last year.  Tom and I were seeding orchardgrass and alfalfa.  I guess our minds weren't on our business.

We had finished milking and were taking a break before starting the seeding when Tom called me and told me to turn on the TV.  We like others of you saw the second plane hit and realized the seriousness of the situation.

We would come to my house and catch the latest news when we changed fields or ran out of seed.

It still doesn't seem like that could happen.

My wife's brother lives in Boston and was to take that flight out.  He sent one of his employees in his place.  It has been really hard on him.  He attended that memorial service and 5 or 6 others of people he knew who were on the fatal flight out of Boston.

"Oh the Humanity"  many times over.

Noble