story10478.xml
Title
story10478.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2004-03-12
911DA Story: Story
Where were you on September 11, 2001 when you heard the news? (Please share your experience of learning of the events and what you did afterwards.)
I was in the military, preparing to go to work. I remember very vividly that I had my BDU bottoms on, the brown T-shirt, and only one black sock. A fellow soldier came in from next door in my barracks room and told me, "Come in here. Now." The sense of urgency in his voice was so dire
that I came into his room with one sock on to watch the impact on his television.
We stayed in that room until the very last moment, until we went to work, to find a colonel at the gate waving people away, telling us all to return to our rooms and get ready, because the Pentagon had come under attack and we might be next.
What is your strongest memory of that day?
I worked in a facility that we were not allowed to bring radios into. But a lot of us needed to know what was happening. My strongest memory is of people walking up to the building with radios in hand, wanting to know the most up to date information, then tossing them aside as they entered the building, because they couldn't take them inside. That little pile of handheld radios was very memorable..and very sad.
How do you perceive that the events of September 11, 2001 have affected this country and/or you personally?
It's a horrible event. A horrible event that has affected everyone. We can never do anything without someone raising the spectre of September 11th. The measures that will be taken in revenge, and the Patriot Act, George W. Bush trying to use it for politics...everything.
I think it also showed me how trivial are the decisions that save people's lives. Many of my friends worked in the World Trade Center, and my dad would have been taking the PATH train that went underneath it at the time of the collapse. But instead, for various reasons, they all decided not to go into work that day until later. And by that time, they were safe.
Except a woman that my father danced with at a wedding, that might have been his girlfriend. I can still see them dancing, sometimes, when I close my eyes and think about it. A beautiful woman, with fire and life and flashing black eyes. Dead.
I was in the military, preparing to go to work. I remember very vividly that I had my BDU bottoms on, the brown T-shirt, and only one black sock. A fellow soldier came in from next door in my barracks room and told me, "Come in here. Now." The sense of urgency in his voice was so dire
that I came into his room with one sock on to watch the impact on his television.
We stayed in that room until the very last moment, until we went to work, to find a colonel at the gate waving people away, telling us all to return to our rooms and get ready, because the Pentagon had come under attack and we might be next.
What is your strongest memory of that day?
I worked in a facility that we were not allowed to bring radios into. But a lot of us needed to know what was happening. My strongest memory is of people walking up to the building with radios in hand, wanting to know the most up to date information, then tossing them aside as they entered the building, because they couldn't take them inside. That little pile of handheld radios was very memorable..and very sad.
How do you perceive that the events of September 11, 2001 have affected this country and/or you personally?
It's a horrible event. A horrible event that has affected everyone. We can never do anything without someone raising the spectre of September 11th. The measures that will be taken in revenge, and the Patriot Act, George W. Bush trying to use it for politics...everything.
I think it also showed me how trivial are the decisions that save people's lives. Many of my friends worked in the World Trade Center, and my dad would have been taking the PATH train that went underneath it at the time of the collapse. But instead, for various reasons, they all decided not to go into work that day until later. And by that time, they were safe.
Except a woman that my father danced with at a wedding, that might have been his girlfriend. I can still see them dancing, sometimes, when I close my eyes and think about it. A beautiful woman, with fire and life and flashing black eyes. Dead.
Collection
Citation
“story10478.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 9, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/16074.