477 20 70359 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: This editorial first appeared, as is, on September 13, 2001 in The Virginian-Pilot. Will this horror make me grow up or make me cower? I just watched the World Trade Center collapse. It crumbled as if it was a structure made of sand, blown down by a whisper of breath. I saw footage of parts of the Pentagon go up in smoke, knowing my friends have relatives who work there. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, I left my science class to use the restroom. When I walked in, a girl told me that the World Trade Center had been bombed. I didn't believe her at first. When I got back to science, I told my teacher what I had heard, and we got online to see the news. We were shocked to read the report, which said the Pentagon had also been hit by a plane. I felt my insides shaking with disbelief. I watched my own teacher cry. Tears filled his eyes as he spoke to me of his concern for his sister-in-law, a World Trade Center employee. Teachers are leaders. Teachers are strong. And on Tuesday, I saw him as my emotional equal. I, too, cried for his sister-in-law. I watched the near hysteria in my English class. Students called their parents to check up on their family members. One boy mentioned that his father worked at the Pentagon. And then we got the news of the fourth plane. I watched the looks of shock take over my classmates' faces as we learned of the crash in Pennsylvania. It hadn't struck most of us that the previous attacks weren't isolated incidents. I looked around the room. Some students had white faces, some held their heads in their hands, and others dropped their jaws to their desks. We realized then that this was serious. Reality finally hit us all. After I got home from school, I watched a replay of the World Trade Center collapse. I had known for hours what had happened, but seeing it was completely different. It was hard to stop myself from vomiting on the spot. The image of the trade center crashing down will never leave my mind. Suddenly I realized that, although it's not official, we are involved in a war. I was alive during Desert Storm, but not old enough to remember anything. Now, for the rest of my life, I will be a person who remembers this tragedy, although that word cannot truly describe this. It may have appeared to crumble like sand blown down by a whisper of breath, but the Towers were crushed by the hand of evil and cold blood. I believe this to be a war. People often say that war makes a young boy a man, a young girl a woman. Somehow this day has made me feel more like a child than I have ever felt. I want my mom. I want my dad. I want this to be over. Stephanie Goehring is a 16-year-old senior at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1679.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-03 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 129.174.185.43 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: We were watching Good Morning America when the second plane hit the tower.I immediately calloed my husband who is a security guard at a Nuclear Plant,they had not heard about the planes.They got in touch with their officals and went on high alert.I had to go take my son to our local technical college.We listened to our radio.I was so scared and crying.I did not know if I should still take my son or not.But they did have classes.I met a friend of mine and she told me her church was having a prayer vigil,so like the song"I went to a church and held hands with some strangers".I got my cell phone and called my husband and finally got him,I was crying and told him how scared I was,and worried for him.Thank GOD he came home safe but for weeks after,he had to wear a bullet proof vest and he carried a M16.When I saw a picture a local business magazine had taken of him,THAT was really scary. I was so nervous I had to something with my hands,so I made braided Red,White and Blue strips.Some people used them as bible markers,some used them on their security badges,one guard wanted a belt.I even made some for President Bush and his wife.I took them to Richard Bakers office(our Senator)and his office mailed them to Washington.The President sent me a very nice Thank You letter.I even gave two New York firemen that our town had as guest,a couple of the braided stips.I sent them a note saying as the colors are entwined So are our Hearts with theirs. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story4215.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 68.11.171.208 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I am a member of the United States Army Reserve Officer Training Corps and I remember Sept. 11 very vividly. I was running late to class and I turned on the news and saw that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center tower. I thought it was a movie trailer at first and then I continued to watch as on live television the second plane hit. I was scared, my mother is a flight attendant and I did not know where she was. Thankfully she was safe in Seattle Washington. I just want everyone to know who reads this my deepest condolences go out to all of the victims families of this horrific tradgedy. May god bless every american. CDT Joseph L. Miller ARMY ROTC Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6845.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 138.86.12.1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was home that morning with the morning news on T.V. A special report interupted, around 8:45 a.m ,showing the first plane hitting one of the twin towers. Then the second plane hitting the other tower. I just sat there and watched this and I didn't know if this was an accident or if someone did this on purpose. Shortly afterwards it was anounced as a terriost attack. I called my best friend and told her to turn on her T.V. She didn't know what had been going on. It is just hard to imagine that some people would do this to others and at that take their own life. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1262.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.87.58.111 Annotation Annotations to this item. DOMESTIC Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: At 5:45 in the morning, pacific time, I, like many people who didn't have to work early, was still in bed. My dad had just left for work and my mother was watching the today show in the living room. I didn't hear her reaction to the news of the first plane, but, at what must have been 6:01 am, she came and told me that a plane had crashed into one of the WTC Towers. I couldn't believe it, I sat there for a long time with my mouth agape. As the horror of it began to register, I jumped out of bed screaming questions at my mom that I knew she probably couldn't have answered. What was it? Was it a cessna or a 727 type? Was it a Boeing? Please say it isn't a Boeing!!! Was it hijacked? Are there more? What about the people? Can they get out? What time is it in New York? I ran down the hall to the living room. As soon as I got there, there were pictures coming across of another plane. I remember thinking 'Why are they still letting planes..fly....'. It was at that point that the planes engines roared and the plane banked left, right into the other Tower. Even if they hadn't shown that scene a millions times since, that is a sight that I will never forget. Until that point I had never seen anyone die. I had seen corpses and had even seen my dog put to sleep, but not another human once living, then gone. I couldn't comprehend it. And they used a Boeing! They used one of My Planes, planes built by my friends and neighbors, to do their evil work. Those planes where the best, in great condition, and built to carry people from destination to destination safely. NOT TO BE USED AS MISSILES! After the smoke cleared from the strike, the cameras started panning over both buildings, showing people hanging out of their windows. They were showing dead people, there was no way that the firemen were going to make it up the stairs before the smoke got to those people. I can't remember the first speck I saw, these specks were standing out to me because they were falling faster than the paper and misc. materials in the air. After about 10 minutes of seeing these specks, it began to dawn on me. People were jumping. A strange mix of emotions came with that realization incl: anger, sadness, bewilderment, confusion, and a little bit of pride. It seems strange now, that I would feel pride that people were committing suicide, but really they weren't, they had resigned themselves to their fate. Instead of waiting for the inevitable, they,with what control they had left, took their destiny into their own hands. Being very interested in foreign affairs, it took me about a minute after I comprehended that this was an attack, to figure out who most likely was behind this, even before the news confirmed it. IT was the only living person I believed to have the capabilities and the pure anger to do this. By 6:40 am my mind was running at hyperspeed. Is Franz (my cousin) still working at the WTC Towers? No, he isn't he's home. Do I know anyone who might be in New York? What about Josh, Bobby, all my friends online? (all ok). I would run all these questions through my head, and more, and rerun them continuously almost. Then came another shock, a plane struck the Pentagon. Our most secure building, the center of our military actions, had a gaping fiery hole in it's side. My anger doubled in that moment. That SOB!! if all IT wanted to do was to start a war, IT didn't have to attack the WTC Towers. I know that the lives lost at the Pentagon were just as valuable and horrific as those lost in the WTC, but it was more understandable that they were soldiers, and soldiers die. Regular people, they don't die sitting behind there desk, they aren't trained for anything like that. The Pentagon victims died because they were soldiers, the WTC victims died because they showed up for work. And then WE got one. At 7:12 am the news started carrying pictures of a plane crash site in PA. It didn't hit anyone or anything important on the ground, according to reports, it lost altitude quickly and started pitching and shaking. Knowing a little about planes, and knowing the weather was perfect for flying, as they described it, it couldn't have been weather, or mechanical error that put that plane down. The news started releasing reports of cell phone and airphone calls made from that planes passengers to their families. All these reports indicated that some of the passengers had tried to overtake the pilot and captors. I knew it, WE, plain everyday Americans, got one. It was decided, live or die, that that plane was not going to reach its intended location. I was never prouder to be an American as on Sept. 11th. The final boons to my horror and anger came when one, than the other tower fell. Thousands of people had died right in front of me, many of them firefighters, police, and other people who were fighting to get up the stairs that everyone else was running down. I spent days hoping that rescuers would hit an air pocket and find some people, but the logical side of me should have known better, that was a billion tons of building that fell on those people. Reporters waited at hospitals, speaking to people whose loved ones were missing, and showing the empty gurnees that waited for anyone, JUST ONE!! to show up. Cantor Fitzgerald, and other companies, set up places for the families to wait and get the latest information. For companies located above the impact zone, it seems fruitless now for the families to have hoped for a better outcome, but what else did they have at that point. Everyone was in shock, even hours after it had happened, no one could believe that it could happen. I only started to cry after the towers fell. Before then there was a chance for more people to get out. Before then there was hope. After, there was nothing. Maybe a few air pockets, maybe an elevator, but not enough to save everyone possible. I cried hard for days on end. I was scared and confused in the days that followed, it didn't help that the military was flying patterns over my house, trying to protect the Boeing facility from attack, every half hour or so. It also wasn't easy that we moved 2 days after the attacks, but it gave me a chance to think of something else. I am not ashamed to admit that I went to a psychiatrist to help deal with my emotions over Sept. 11th, I am also not ashamed to admit that I still cry at even the thought of Sept. 11th. In many cultures around the world, grieving is given its course. Years are devoted to the process of grieving, in some cases family members are not allowed to work for months, years to aid in the healing. I am ok with seeking treatment and crying, because I now understand that it is ok to allow your heart as much time as is needed for it to heal. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1290.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-20 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.245.162.154 Annotation Annotations to this item. Somerset, PA Victims WTC, attack DOMESTIC Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was the principal of Anchor Bay Middle School. Anchor Bay is located in New Baltimore, Michigan. We are about located about 24 miles north of Detroit. We have one of the largest Military base housing units located in our School district and Selfridge Air National Guard Base is near by. I can remember walking into the main office of my school and one of the secretaries saying that they had heard that something terrible had happened to one of the trade towers in New York City. I immediately went to the library were we have a T.V. in an office to turn on the news. I went to this office and watched the T.V. because it was private and no one else would see it. What I saw and heard was a replay of the first plane hitting the trade center. As a principal responsible for 950 8th and 9th grade students and a staff of about 70 employees I had to think of how I was going to handle this situation. I had one of my office staff members continue to watch the private television set so she could update me on what was happening. I had a secretary call our central administration office to let them know what was going on. I and my security person went to every class room and told the teachers privately what we knew and to answer any questions that the students might have. I also told them not to watch the television set in their classrooms. I told the teachers that we had a room that was secure and that they could watch that television on their prep time or the could stay in their rooms and watch the news if they locked their door. My fear was that more terrorist activity might take place including another attack with a plane and I did not want to let the students see it at this time. I figured that it was best for their parents to help them through this. Each day many students come to school late from doctors or dentist appointments. Many of these students had listened to radio reports of what was happening. It did not take long for students getting to school late to tell their classmates what was happening. That is why I needed to keep my teaching staff and other adults up to date on what was going on. They could then answer the students questions and help them not to be afraid. I knew that I was going to have to make a P.A. announcement to all the staff and students before the end of the school day. I stressed to teachers to have as normal of day with the students as possible. I put the school in a lock down situation. That means that every entrance door to the school is locked. I posted my liason police officer at the main entrance. I expected many parents to come to school and either pick their child up or to see how they were doing. Many military parents came to school to pick up their children because they knew that if they didn't that base security was going to be very tight. We check everyones Identification at the door. Most people thank us for being so careful. Many parents talked to their child and they left them to be with their friend at school. I thought this day was never going to end. I went into a teachers room while she was on her prep time and she was almost crying. She pointed at the television moniter and said a second plane had just ran into the other trade tower and she had seen it live. She now understood why I had chosen not to allow students to watch the televisions in the classrooms. Our High School allowed the teachers to let students watch the television in the classrooms because they were older. Many students became very upset and they had a tough time at the building. Our elementaries kept this information from the students and our 6th and 7th grade building made an annoucement at the end of the day and asked the students not to turn on the television set until an adult was with them. I went on the school wide P.A. sytem just before lunch. I had scripted out what I was going to say. I knew that I had to be reassuring and to have a calm voice and demeanor. I did my best to reassure our staff and students that they were safe and that our country would respond to this terrorist action. Many of the parents that we incountererd that day were more stressed out than our students. At the end of the school day I came back on the P.A. system and announced that we were cancelling all after school activities. I had talked to our superintendent of schools and he told me that all after school activities were being cancelled. I again told them what had happenend and told them that no terrorist activities were happening in our area. I told them that they needed to pray or think positive thoughts of support to the people that had lost their lives or were injured. I also told them to do the same thing for the police, fireman and other rescue workers. I told them that many of the 6th and 7th grade students had very little information on what had happened and they should not try to scare these students. I heard the next day our students were excellent on the bus and helped the younger students out. During the day I answered the phone school phone whenever I could. Our secretaries told the same message of what we were doing over and over to parents that were concerned. Many just wanted to talk to us to make sure their kids were safe and being care for. At the end of the day and after all students had left the building the school staff met in one of our larger classrooms. I asked them what we could have done better. I was happy to hear that they thought we had done could have done anything better. They thanked me for being a strong leader and the compassion that I had for staff, students and parents. We have a number of teachers who have served in our military. I asked on what he thought the country would do. He said many of the things that President Bush would say later that day. He said that we would seek out who was responsible and take appropriate action. We then began to plan on what we were going to do the next school day. This was a day I will never forget. The day reaffirmed to me why I chose the profession that I am in. Jim Wencel Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story7024.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-13 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 198.109.188.131 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was watching the "TODAY"show on NBC, some piece of fluff and Matt and Katie were doing a promo before breaak..Matt put his hand up to his ear and listened..he and Katie got serious looks on their faces then one of them Katie? announced that they were just getting word that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I didn't think too much about it, finished getting ready for work and left the house. I always listen to the radio in my car and was about half way to work when the DJ announced that a 2nd plane had hit the WTC. At that moment I knew it was a terrorist attack but I had no clue as to the magnitude of the impacts. I work at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Md. I'm a program analyst and have been with the government 20 years. I've been through the Panama Invasion, Nicaragua, Hondurus and Desert storm while working at The Naval Weapons Station in Concord California, but nothing prepared me for seeing sailors with guns at the ready when I entered base. I walked into the office and they already had the conference TV on CNN,We watched the feed and then got a call saying the Pentagon had been hit. We really didn't believe until CNN started broadcasting and the everyone in the office started reacting. One lady broke down in tears. Her husband was supposed to be at the Pentagon that morning, she couldn't reach him. The cell phones were dead and all lines out had been cut by the base to clear them for emergency use. A female Commander left a message for her husband, put on her flight suit and went to her alert station, ready to fly Search and Rescue (SAR). We couldn't get away from the TV and cried as we watched the towers collapse and saw the people coming out of the Pentagon. It was such a helpless feeling. Here we make decisions on aircraft every day and someone had did this to America with a plane. We heard about Flight 73 missing, then crashing in the Pennsylvania field and wondered if we would be targeted because NAVAL Air Systems Command is at PAX. I remember walking outside to have a cigarette and hearing nothing. The sound of an aircraft engine is so commonplace here that after a while you don't even notice it. That day there was nothing, just complete chilling silence..like in graveyard. Then I heard the sound of aircraft again and saw that they had 2 planes up and armed sweeping the area like two hawks looking for prey. A helo passed. It too was armed. Then the deafening silence again. I went back inside and my Captain told us the base was closing and to go home. None of us wanted to leave.Everyone makes fun of civil servants but when it comes right down to it, we don't work for the Navy because of the money, we work for it because most of us are prior military ourselves and we love our country. Most people had to be ordered home. They were sweeping the base and didn't want any more of us civilians around than necessary. On the way out the gate they had placed make-shift bunkers along the streets and young faced sailors manned them with flak jackets,bands of ammo over their shoulders and guns in their hands pointed at the gates. The flags were at half mast. I couldn't help thinking of my 20 year old son and thanking God my family was safe. Everyone on the highway was polite and courteous. That never happens down here. They're always speeding and cutting you off but that didn't happen. The stores along the route home were emptying and one had caught on fire. It registered but not so much..almost like it was incedental. It was quiet everywhere. I went back home and turned on the tv and spent the next week watching and praying. I got mad when the Presidents courage was questioned because he didn't go right back to the White House. That would have been a stupid move. The base closed and there was nothing to do until they called us back to work. I remember feeling helpless and getting calls from family and friends from all over the country, even Haiti. )My mom is a missionary there. I hugged my kids a lot more and told them I loved them until they were sick of hearing it, then I told them again. Some of us went to the base chapel for a memorial service when the President called a National Day of Mourning. I went to Mass even though I'm not Catholic then walked outside to attend the Protestant service. The last song that we sang was the Navy Hymn. It was raining and we shared umbrellas. God was crying and so was I. Some of us went to the base Chapel for a service Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1527.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-28 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 206.246.70.80 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: 8 AM CST September 11, 2001 ... I had just gotten up and was getting ready for an English class at UW-Parkside. My grandfather was in the living room watching the morning news on MSNBC. "An airplane has just crashed into the North tower of the WTC"," reported the newswoman. I threw on some clothes and raced into the living room only to catch, "Another airplane has just slammed into the south tower of the WTC" several minutes later. From this moment onward, I was glued to the unfolding news of the terrorist attacks. I had an AM news radio station on as I was driving northward on I-94. I reached the Waukegan toll plaza when I heard the newsman announce that the FAA was grounding all flights. I had a lot going through my mind. My stomach knotted when I heard about the other 2 airplanes after class let out. That day is still fresh in my mind... I doubt I'll ever forget where I was and what I was doing when the terrorist attacks began. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story10179.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-11-02 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 12.249.141.210 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had began working only a few days before September 11, and did not know the people I worked with that well. On September 11, soon after I had arrived at work a gentleman came out of his office and exclaimed that a plane had hit the trade tower. My first reaction was to not believe, I thought it was a joke. He stated it was not and I just could not believe it. I immediately went back to his office and viewed the tower over the intetnet, still not believing what I was seeing. Everyone at the shop was glued to the radio and then we all heard that the second tower had been hit. Not long afterwards we heard that a third plane was headed towards the capital. Total disbelief, sorrow, and anguish for those involved consumed my thoughts. Horror of what was going on and what might happen next consumed my thoughts. I called my husband to see if he was aware of the tragedy happening and he said he was. He brought a TV to where I worked so that we all could see what was going on. We plugged in the TV and seen the first tower falling. I questioned the humanity of what was happening, who could do this to so many innocent people? I was praying and asking, questioning how could he let this happen? I was the only female among 33 men and tried so hard to withhold my emotions. It has been a year now and I still have a very difficult time accepting what has happened to so many innocent people and the families that live in the aftermath of this tragedy. It is so easy to question your faith; however, I have to believe that everything that happens has a purpose. I see the people of this country memorializing and ultimately growing strength from this tragedy and have to beleive that this is what was intended. We need to have faith in knowing that this was meant to put things in its true perspective and so that we could once again have compassion for our fellow human beings and to not take for granted any time that we share on this earth. My heart truly goes out to all the survivors, families, children of all that lost their lives for us on September 11, 2001--God bless you all! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story4308.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 65.134.23.215 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: When the tragedy of September 11th struck America, it came to me as a complete and total shock as I'm sure it did to every other American. I was sitting in homeroom just waiting to go to my next class, like any other regular day in school, and then my teacher gets a phone call on her room phone and all of a sudden she let's out this loud shriek and yells "OH MY GOD". My fellow classmates and I didn't think it could have been that big of a deal until she turned it on to the news and I saw the 1st building of the World Trade engulfed in flames. I had no idea of what to think at first. The last thing that crossed my mind was that it was an act of terrorism. I proceeded with my day, then I realized that this was really serious because in all of my classes teachers were just depressed and all we did was watch t.v. I knew it had to be serious because if it wasn't teachers wouldn't have put all their teaching aside just to inform us students about what was going on. All day long I had this blank stare on my face because I just could not believe what the televesion was showing. It wasn't really that i couldn't believe it, it was more that i DIDN'T want to believe it. School was pretty quiet for a while. It was almost as if students were to scared to make too much noise. Honestly I can't even remember what life was like post September 11th. Things are getting back to normal now but America and it's citizens will NEVER be able to forget what happened. If al-quaeda's goal was to have Americans live in fear for the rest of their lives I guess the accomplished it. That's the only goal they will EVER get to accomplish because we are still a better nation then them and they know that U.S. will continue to fight back and that we won't let this bring us down. That's why we're known as the UNITED States of America because through everything that we experience together as a nation, whether it be could or bad we will ALWAYS be united. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9242.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-04-27 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.74 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: By: Laura Gottschall Since September 11th 2001, America has not been quite the same. It was an unexpected event that took place on a normal day in America. On this tragic day, four hijacked planes crashed in America. Two crashed into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, New York. One crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC, Maryland. The last of these four planes crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. This event affected everyone in America in some way. At first, everyone was confused, angry, and shocked, and no one went about their normal business right away. ?It takes some time before you get over the shock, and start to understand what happened that tragic day,? says Mrs. Chripczuk, an 8th grade English teacher at Pennfield Middle School. How long does it take? For some, it takes just months, but for most of us, it will take years. Several people at Pennfield Middle School are still saddened about the events that took place that day. Some lost people they knew, but one year after the attacks, everyone is at a standstill and remembers and feels the same feelings of confusion, sadness, and anger. For me, I didn?t know anyone who died that day, but I feel sadness for those who have lost ones. If I had lost someone, I would be torn apart because I don?t handle death in my family very well. I wasn?t affected very much, and I don?t really know what happened because my mom wouldn?t let me watch the movies or the news right away. Now I think it was almost better for me not to watch because I probably would have been more upset longer than I was. Our generation was affected greatly. Our teachers said they wouldn?t know how to handle all the students who lost their parents on September 11, 2001. there will be about 15 years in which kids won?t have parents because they were lost on 9/11. September 11, 2001 is a day that our country will never forget. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story6552.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-12 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.103.166.40 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It was right about 9:00 am as I turned out of my apartment building and headed for work. My radio was tuned to the local talk radio channel and the news was reporting of a plan colliding with the World Trade Center. Since this station has news on the hour, I thought little of it until I realized ten minutes later they were still talking about the plane. Only now, they're reporting that two planes have impacted both towers of the World Trade Center. I didn't believe it. I thought they had their facts confused. I changed to another station in hopes of getting some music to put some pep into the start of my day. The local rock-jock was crying and trying depserately to reach is parents who live in New york. This is when I realized that this was as bad as it sounded. This is when I knew it wasn't an accident and started to get angry. I turned on the local AM News Station and drove the rest of the way into work. I heard about the Pentagon as I was pulling into a parking space at work at 9:45. I hit the brakes so hard that I locked them up and learned that you can skid a car at 10 miles per hour. As I got out of the car, I looked up. The sky was perfectly blue. The weather was nice. I was in short sleeves and would have not wanted to go to work if it were any other day. That day, I needed to be at work where I have friends and an internet connection. I looked up as I walked the 100 feet to the building and looked up when I heard the jet. The sound of jets isn't uncommon where I work. We're about 10 miles as the crow flies from CAK. I noticed that this plane wasn't right. It was lower than a plane landing at CAK normally is. It, also, didn't have its landing gear down. It startled me. I just figured that it was "one of those things" because things hadn't really sunk in yet. Things started to sink in when I hit the phone area I work in. I was instantly greeted by co-workers asking if I had heard anyhting new. Most of them worked the normal shift and had been in the office most of this. I couldn't tell them anything they hadn't already known. I didn't have any new information from the outside world. We managed to find three or four radios and put them in the phone support area. We managed to agree on one station so that we all heard the same thing and didn't have to fight to hear the news. We listend together like we were a single family and we talked with each other and were in disbelief together. Throughout the morning, I was emailing people I knew to check on their safety and to gather news. A friend of mine who worked in Cleveland told me that a plane was shot down in PA. She is convinced that that was the same plane that flew over my head earlier. Another email came to me telling me the my Dad was grounded in Texas. An email from my sister. An email from my girlfriend, panic'd and scared having just left to go to college 3 weeks earlier. All emails of new news that his anybody's desk were forwarded to two dozen people. We were depserate for news. At noon, my mom emailed me telling me that she would not be emailing me any longer but would call when she got home. The hospital where she works had decided to take their computer system out of the net. This scared me. This scared a lot of us. I called my sister and told her that mom was no longer available via email and that (mom never said this but I assumed it) had gone on alert. I also wanted to check on her husband who is a firefighter. I wanted to know if they knew anything. She told me that her neighbor, a man of some rank in the local guard, had called her a few minutes before the story broke telling her to turn on the TV and telling her that he was "called up." She was shaken by this because she knew something was happening before CNN started coverage. She also told me the that my brother-in-law was ok and was under orders to stay in Akron. She also told me that, unless I saw the pictures, I couldn't understand. At this point, the only pictures we had in our office were the thumbnails and realtime videos we could get from CNN or MSNBC. When it came to lunch, Tony and I decided that we would go where we knew there would be a TV and an ashtray. We went to the local mexican restaurant down the road. What a bizzare and surreal thing it was to watch the footage on a TV the size of a twin mattress of a plan crashing into the WTC. It made it more bizzare when we realized that all of the words and voiceovers were in spanish. By the time we returned to work, my mom was calling me. She was begging me not to go out that night. She was telling me not to buy smokes at the mini-mart down the street because it might get attacked. She was begging me not to do anything by go home and stay there. I told her that I would walk to the grocery and then go home. She told me to carry my baseball bat with me when I did. She was scared. I did not tell her that my church had already planned a prayer and drum ceremony for that evening and delayed the start so I could join. Later that night, after everyone had left work and it was me and another co-worker working the evening shift, I started to see news of high gas prices in some cities. By the time I left work at 9:00, the line at the local gas station were already 50 cars long. Some stations raised gas prices. Others kept them the same. I pass 4 stations on my way home from work. One had already run out of gas, two had lines, one had raised its prices and had very few customers. We prayed that night for peace and healing. We prayed that there were survivors that would be rescued. After the prayer meeting, Jamie and decided to go to the local all night restaurant for some dinner. On a normal night, it should have been packed with college kids studying and people just talking. On the 11th, there was one other customer in the restaurant and both TV's were tuned the CNN. The volume was up on them. This was unusual. On the way back home, I stopped to get gas. I thought it would be a good idea to top off my tank, "just in case". I pumped the station's last 10 cents worth of regular gas into my tank and filled the rest with premium. The price on the premium there was $1.00 less than the price for regular gas 200 yards down the street. The station with a higher price had a line around the block. That was my September 11, 2001. I did not cry on the 11th. I still have not fully cried about this. I am constantly finding stories from people that bring a tear to my eye over this. About a month ago, my father and brother in law visited ground zero. I needed to go to pay my respects. I didn't cry then. When we left the site the first night, we went down an ally searching for a bar. We all agreed that a drink was in order. We went to O'Hares. On the wall of the alley, in large spraypainted letters, was the work "Triage" with an arrow pointing down the street. That affected me. In battery park, the sculpture from between the two towers had been installed. It reomved all sense of perspective I thought i had about the size of the WTC towers. They had to be taller than I can imagine. We did the normal tourist things. We went to Time's Square and Little Italy. On the ferry back from Ellis Island, a school chior assembled and started to sing the Star Spangled Banner. I finally cried when I looked out and saw the Statue of Libery and where the WTC once stood. If anyone from the chior that visited Ellis Island on April 13 reads this, thank you. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story547.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-05-07 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 208.149.183.61 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I am a retired World War II and Korean War veteran. I had just returned from playing tennis with a group of fellow retired men when a neigbor called and asked if I had the TV on. I immediately turned it on. The devastation was unbelievable. I could not help but think of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and my hearing about that attack on the radio and wondering how it would change the world for us. The same thoughts repeated themselves. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story1422.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-08-23 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.185.83.57 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: The time was approximately 8:30 A.M.I was on my way to my church (I am an associate pastor) and had just turned my radio on to a news station. At first I thought they were reenacting an attack from a previous war thinking that a date in history was being remembered. As I continued to listen, I realized that this was no re-enactment. Anger, fear, frustration, sadness, all filled me at once along with so many questions that could not and would not be answered. I located my pastor at the local McDonald's with the group of men he meets with each day and informed them of what was going on. I went to my church and called my wife at the nursing home she worked at. I also serve as a chapter manager for the American Red Cross and knew that the rest of my day would be spent working with the Emergency Management Agency and at my local Red Cross chapter preparing others to leave on assignment to help in this disaster. I also prepared my family and church in case I was called on to serve, which I was. I worked in the O'Hare Airport for three days following 9/11 with those affected by the disaster. It was an experience I will never forget. I saw not only a nation come together, but nations as I worked in the International Terminal. The support from the outside world was tremendous and the work of every single person who responded to this crisis around the world will never be forgotten. We truly came together and functioned as a team! Triumph came out of tragedy on 09/11/01. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story949.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-07-30 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 209.109.228.203 Annotation Annotations to this item. Radio Coverage Rescue/clean-up workers/volunteers DOMESTIC Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It's been over a year, now, yet, I still remember it like it was yesterday. My boyfriend's mother came to pick me up around 7:30 a.m. and as I was getting into her car, she just had this blank look on her face and she said, "A bomb or something just hit the World Trade Center". I didn't think anything of it at the time and we went about our way. I got to work and people were just running around confused and shocked. I still didn't realize what had happened. I went to get something to drink in the cafe in my building and people were gathered around the T.V. there. I walked up just as the first tower went down. When I saw it there on the television set, that's when I realized that this was a serious thing. I got back up to my office and turned my radio on. Peter Jennings was speaking and he reported that the first tower was down and there was chaos. All I could do was cry. I couldn't see anything, yet I could picture it in my mind. I was 4 1/2 months pregnant at the time, all I could do was sit there; my body was numb, I started to cry. I was holding my stomach, crying, thinking to myself, "my God, what kind of evil is this? What kind of world am I bringing this baby into?" I cried all day. I was glued to the T.V. for days, every chance I got. I just kept crying, holding my 2 year old son tight and close to me, glad that we were together. At the end of the week, the mayor of our city held a memorial on the plaza, we all prayed, heard songs, cried. I cannot recall the date, but, one of the beams recovered from the WTC was brought to one of our churches here. I will never forget this day, never. I still see pictures and memorials of 9-11, I still cry. To the family and friends of those who were lost to this tragedy, I would like to say "I'm sorry, I am so sorry, I prayed and cried with you all. I still do. God Bless You All!" Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9071.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-02-19 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 160.230.252.112 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: At 8:30 a.m. we looked up from the ferry and saw smoke coming from the tower. Everyone immediately started using their cell phones to call their homes to find out what was going on. We disembarked at the south street terminal. Minutes later as we we're heading towards Battery Park, the second plane flew overhead and hit the second tower. As we we're running back to the terminal, the ferry was already leaving. For the next 45 minutes, the terminal filled with hundreds of people. Just before boarding, the first tower came down and the wall of smoke was heading towards us. We we're visiting N.Y. for our first time from Michigan. We arrived Saturday, Sept. 8th, visited the towers on Sunday, Sept. 9th and went up to the observation deck. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story8995.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-01-23 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 207.75.230.19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: My husband had just gotten out of the Air Force and was waiting to get a job from the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller. We were not working at the time, as we were just waiting for the call as to when and where he would start, and we were currently living with my parents. That morning, I was struggling to get out the door on time. I had an appointment at the WIC office, to get milk coupons for my daughter(as we had no income). I remember getting on the freeway, turning on the radio and hearing that two planes had crashed into the towers. I was not sure if it was a joke or not, but when I heard that they were in fear that Seattle may be a target as well and had shut down all of the ferry systems on the Puget Sound, I knew it was real and was in a kind of shocked and awe state. I feared for the safety of the people in the towers. I then began to wonder if my mother would be alright as she worked in downtown Seattle in one of the skyscrapers, and if so, how she would even get home(She rode the ferry everyday as we lived across the Sound.) I also worried that my husband was going to have to return to the Air Force immediately and deploy. When I returned home, I watched the news and could not believe what had happened. The devastation was really overwhelming. It really makes you thankful for what you have. My problems of my family being unemployed seemed so miniscule now, I was just overjoyed that we were together and safe! Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story9292.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-05-06 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 67.250.219.203 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I was already at work, starting to go through the emails that had come in from the day before and my one co-worker came out from his office and said that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. Two! I knew immediately it was terrorism, but I thought of small figher planes, never imagining full airline carriers. Everything stopped. My coworkers and I rushed to find a television that would work. Unsucessful we settled for a radio that we set up in a common area. I immediately called my mother to alert her and her office to what was happening. We've been in those towers, I thought. I didn't know what to do next. I just sat. Finally frustrated with the radio that was feeding the news from CBS, I decided to drive home to get my little portable black/white tv. I couldn't drive fast enough. Everything was a daze. It seemed that the world had gone quiet. All the other drivers around me were as stone faced with disbelief as I was. As I ran into my apartment - I clicked on the tv. I had to see it to believe it. There it was - the tower on fire with a big hole in it. I grabbed the tv and headed back to the office. As I drove back, I had the radio in the car set to NBC news. I can tell you exactly what spot on the road I was when NBC's Pentagon reporter said that there had been an explosion at the Pentagon but they weren't sure what it was. I said outloud "Dear God, please protect us." As I came back into the office, they had rigged the tv to pick up the news and everyone was gathered in a common area watching it. Across the bottom of the screen it read "America Under Attack." I couldn't believe my eyes. We all just stood in silence as we watched with disbelief as the towers collapsed and the Pentagon burned. We all were shaken by reports of a plane down in Pennsylvania. My mind rushed. Where? Near here? How many more planes are there? Living near Philadelphia and Willow Grove Naval Air Station, I immediately began to think of possible targets - the air station and it's weapons, Independence Hall, etc. They finally closed all of our U.S. offices as cities began to evacuate. I sat at home all afternoon and evening glued to the TV. It was like trying to make sense of the senseless. I didn't want to miss a word, a picture. I finally fell asleep around 1am. I awoke to the TV around 2am. At the change of the hour, they were playing doomsday music and headlining the events of the day. In my exhaustion, I had such a feeling of shear terror like I had never felt in my life. I got up and checked the windows and the locks on the doors. I left the light on and the tv on for the rest of the night. As I tried to sleep again, I repeated words I had said earlier in the day. Dear God, Please Protect Us. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story8760.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-12-16 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 206.105.126.199 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: I had moved here from Westchester County NY in July and really missed NY. I had not gone to sleep until 5am vegas time on the morning of sept. 11 and now here it was an hour later at 6 am and the phone was ringing. I barely got out an angry hell.. when it was my fiancee's best friend Kat screaming in to the phone" Brian turn on the TV, those fcking bastards got the world trade center again"! I was like what? Kat screamed they flew a plane in to the world trade center!!! I jumped for the tv and could not believe what I was seeing. I screamed for Laurie to wake up and come in to the living room. As we were watching a live picture of the towers we saw another plane come screaching in to the picture!!!I screamed "Holy Shit"! Now we were both freaking out. One of my best friends girlfriends worked in tower1. I hope Brenda is all right. I franticaly called Jimmy and he said he could not get in touch with Brenda. I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was very upset. I stood on my patio chain smoking cigarettes when Laurie started to say that the towers were gonna fall. I told her no they won't, there is no way they are gonna fall. Then a few minutes after saying that the tower erupted in a huge cloud and it was gone. My heart sank. All I could think about was the thousands of people who had just been murdered right before my eyes. Then she said the other one is gonna collapse. I thought no way, at least there is still one tower standing. And then boom again we saw the same sight as a little while before. The second tower had collapsed. I will never forget the feeling of emptiness I had at that moment being from NY and now stuck 2800 miles from my hometown. I wished I was in NY just to go down and volunteer and do something, anything. Now I was really frightened for Brenda. I got through to Jimmy a few hours after and he had gotten in touch with her. She was just about to walk in to the first tower when she heard and saw the first plane go crashing through her tower. She sat there in stunned shock as she saw people falling and jumping to their deaths. Then when she saw the second tower attacked she ran all the way up to the 59th st bridge to safety. Now one year later I still can not believe that those huge towers, that stood so mightily over the city are gone. I remember when we went down there to get half price tickets in the tixs booth in the WTC. We went there cause all the tourists used to crowd the booth in Times Square, but not that many people knew about the booth in the WTC. We were waiting in the car, parked in a no parking area right between the towers when I said to my friend, just look up, look at how high these towers are, they are huge. Now they are gone. All I have to say is thank you to all the real heroes on that horrible day and thank you to all the heroes who protect my freedom everyday. Oh and one more thing: OBL WE WILL GET YOU AND YOUR BASTARD TERRORIST FRIENDS. WATCH YOUR BACK YOU MOTHERF'ER! WERE COMING FOR YOU AND YOU WILL GET YOURS. THE TOWERS MIGHT BE DOWN BUT THEY WILL BE UP AGAIN ONE DAY, BUT YOU, YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE, ONCE YOUR DEAD YOU WILL BE DEAD FOREVER AND YOU WILL ROT IN HELL YOU M F'ER!! GOD BLESS AMERICA. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story8367.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-10-05 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 205.188.209.165 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource September 11 Digital Archive Stories Description An account of the resource This collection is the bulk of the archive, representing the reactions and experiences of thousands of individuals beginning in 2002. 911DA Story 911DA Story: Story Tell us about what you did, saw, or heard on September 11th. Feel free to write as much or as little as you like. Tell us your story: It was approxiamtely 9:30pm in Shanghai China. I joined my husband on a furniture buying trip. We were traveling with his business partner and his wife, and 3 other gentlemen from Florida who were doing their own furniture research. We all had a lovely dinner together, and decided to go to the lobby bar at our hotel, the Shanghai Hilton, for a nightcap. The men stayed in the bar, and I decided to go up to my room to get ready for bed. As I sat down on the bed with a furniture brochure, I turned on the television, just for news. There was not alot of entertainment on Chinese TV. Mostly, it consisted of news in various languages. I glanced up at the tv and noticed a "LIVE" message in the left hand corner of the picture. Just as I noticed it, I saw the plane hit the building. Initially the building did not look familiar to me, and I thought, "what kind of bad movie is this??" I really did not pay too much attention, because I did not believe it was for real. And then I saw the second plane hit another building. It caught my attention, but I still was not sure where this was happening. Just then,my husband walked into the room. He said, "Are you watching what is going on?" I said I saw it but I didn't think it was for real. We sat together and began to watch with terror as information began to filter into our thoughts. It was New York! Oh my God! My cousin lives in Manhattan and works somewhere in a tall building. My daughter's college roommate works for Bloomberg. Is she in that building?? Our hotel room turned icy cold, and I could not stop shaking. They were reporting that the Pentagon had just been hit and another plane may be hijacked. Where were my children? Was my 7 year old granddaughter watching this horror? How I yearned to put my arms around them right then. My brother.....he was to fly to Germany today with his partner. We just had dinner with his partner 2 days earlier in Shanghai. I know he was flying back to the states.....where was he meeting my brother?? I was shaking so badly I could not talk, I ached all over. I was crying uncontrollably. I MUST CALL THE U.S and talk to my family. First I called my aunt to see if she heard from my cousin. Yes, she said, he was safe. I called my brother, and he answered the phone...I felt so relieved when he said he had cancelled his trip. Of course, they had not yet grounded all aircraft. The I called my daughter in Arizona, and my son in California. They were stunned and worried. We will try to get back home as soon as possible, but my daughter said if anyone on the flight looks suspicious, just get off the plane. I assured her we would be fine. We called my in-laws to let them know we were alright and would keep them informed. I felt somewhat relieved after talking to everyone but like everyone else, did not know of what was yet to come. For the next few hours, we watched the horror on the screen in disbelief. We felt so isolated, and guilty for not being in the US when this was happening to our country. We didn't know if we were getting all the news. We tried to go to sleep at about 1am, which was 1pm New York time. We dozed for a few hours and at 4am, we both lay in the bed wondering what was happening back home. We turned on the tv and watched! That was all we could do. And prayed... The next morning we were to meet our buying agent at 8:30am. We got ready, and met her in the lobby. She expressed her condolences to us, and we proceeded to go to our business appointments. After 2 hours, we decided we could no longer keep our thoughts on business and asked her to return us to our hotel. The Hilton in Shanghai had televisons all over the lobby and restaurants for all of their guests to bond together in this tramatic moment. There were many American tour groups coming and going, and for their convenience and the convenience of the independent travelers, blackboards were posted in the lobby with pertinent flight information on it. The managers of the hotel made themselves readily available to all of the stranded guests for anything we might need, and told us we could stay as long as necessary. Throughout the day, the hotel delivered to our rooms no less than 5 english newspapers for us to read. We read every article, looked at every picture, and I brought every one of those newspapers home with me! For the next few days, we pretty much stayed in the hotel most of the time. We couldn't leave the television sets, and really did not feel comfortable walking around Shanghai at this time. The Chinese people were absolutely wonderful during this time, but the hotel was our comfort zone right now. I checked my e-mail every few hours, and of course updated our friends and family often. Like everyone else, we had no idea when we would get home. We were to fly home Saturday September 15th from Shanghai, thru Seoul and Los Angeles. On Friday we went to the Asiana city ticket office to get an idea on how we might get home and when. We were told they had not received clearance to fly yet, but would call us Saturday morning with an update. At this time though, with 4 days worth of passengers built up, they estimated we would get into Los Angeles maybe Wednesday, and possibly we could re-route to Seattle on Monday. Right now, we had to wait it out. Saturday morning we got called at 8:30 am to be told they still had no clearance to leave. During the conversation though, work came that they would fly later in the day. I thanked them and gathered my friends as we decided to chance our return. We arrived at Shanghai airport at 1pm. The ticket counters were masses of Chinese going about their business as usual. There was no line, just people. We finally got to the counter, gave them our tickets, and they checked our bags to Los Angeles. They didn't search our bags or ask us any questions. No security.....a bit scary. We boarded our flight to Seoul, and realized we had no boarding passes to the US. We would have to hope that the ticket counters in Seoul were not masses of people. Fortunately, they were not. We received our boarding passes and felt so relieved. We were going home! I ran up to the business class lounge to send one last e-mail....WE ARE COMING HOME TODAY! We boarded the half empty flight and felt so fortunate..... September 15th, 3:30pm we landed in Los Angeles. Security was very different from that of 6 months earlier, when we also returned from China. I believe our passports were checked no less than 5 times before we even left the Bradley International Terminal. We could not check our bags in for our connecting flight to Phoenix. We would have to take them to Terminal 1, America West. Everywhere we looked there were armed police officers with rifles, police dogs and police cars. There was no traffice driving thru LAX...how strange. The masses of people were not there. Only the few passengers who were lucky enough to get on the few flights that day. We walked our luggage carts all thru the passage to terminal 1, and proceeded to check into America West. The counter person told us that check-in was serious business and not to say anything that wasn't asked. We complied, and proceeded to go to the gates. Once again, we had to go thru security 2 more times, and finally we could go to the gate. At that time I bought my first American newspaper...USA Today. I read it cover to cover. How eery...this terminal is usually packed with people. Today it is deserted! Our flight was uneventful. We landed in Phoenix to find the airport also deserted, but happy to be home. For the next few days, I tried to catch up on what we missed. I don;t think that will ever happen. Each special show on television shows us events we had not yet seen. And I cry all over again!! My daughter told me how strange it was to not hear airplanes in the sky. I wanted to know what my granddaughter felt. To this day, I still feel badly that I was not at home for this national tragedy. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource story20642.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2006-09-11 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 70.176.14.140